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Brendon McCullum dragged New Zealand back into the match with as much obstinacy as the wind that hauled a groundsman several metres

Brydon Coverdale at the Basin Reserve22-Mar-2010When Brendon McCullum’s batting and whirlwind are mentioned in the same sentence it’s usually evidence of a Twenty20 or one-day blitz. This time he braved the gale-force conditions and at stumps was on the verge of a determined century. Along with his captain, McCullum dragged New Zealand back into the match with as much obstinacy as the wind that hauled a groundsman several metres while he clung on to the blowing away covers.The conditions made it difficult for Australia’s bowlers but it wasn’t exactly easy for the batsmen either, other than hitting with the north-westerly to the Scoreboard End. There were distractions including occasional dust gusts, plastic bags blowing across the ground and the stop-start nature due to bad-light delays.McCullum took it all in his stride. At 5pm, when play resumed after an 80-minute break, he hooked the first ball from Mitchell Johnson off his eyebrows with perfect timing. Earlier, he had played the same shot and struck it so well that it left the ground and had to be sought on nearby Rugby Street.That sort of stroke is typical McCullum but it was his concentration that was most impressive on the fourth day in Wellington. He had thrown his wicket away in the first innings with a messy, top-edged pull when resilience was required and he was not about to make the same mistake twice in one game.He strode to the crease in the morning with Daniel Vettori, a 115-run deficit in their way, and proceeded to bat through the whole day. By the time the final bad-light reading came from the umpires, McCullum was on 94 and had given New Zealand a 67-run advantage and a realistic chance of salvaging the Test.Tim McIntosh, who made 83 on the third day, said McCullum did not appear nervous at going to bed in the nineties. “I don’t think he was actually, he’s just being himself and hoping to get out there,” McIntosh said. “It’s always frustrating when you’re on and off the park, with the light the way it was and all that, but I think he dealt with it pretty well. He’s playing a really mature innings and a good gutsy one at that.”We’ve given ourselves a good chance to save the Test and maybe even get into a position where we can put them under pressure to possibly even win the Test. There’s been a few [loose] dismissals in a similar sort of fashion, so we’ve got some work to do for the next Test. A bit of an example was shown and I think the way Dan and Baz [McCullum] batted is setting a good example for the rest of the innings.”McCullum played his shots when he had the chance and was especially strong on the cut, while also ticking the scoreboard over with good running. He had moments of fortune, like when Brad Haddin missed a sharp stumping chance when he was on 48, but never did his desire to attack overwhelm him.For much of his innings he had the benefit of batting with Vettori, whose fighting qualities are unquestionable. McCullum was until recently the vice-captain and the responsible way that he and Vettori led their team by example was notable.Their 126-run partnership shortened the odds of a draw and has even given New Zealand the faintest glimmer of hope for a victory. The Australians know McCullum can bat like a storm, as they saw in his Twenty20 hundred three weeks ago. Now they know he can also survive one.

“I understand the need to try and play in slightly inclement weather to try and get a result. But we overstepped that mark in this game.”

Danyal Rasool24-Oct-20222:47

Houghton: ‘I don’t think we should have bowled even one ball’

Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton was fiercely critical of the decision to carry on with his side’s game against South Africa even as the rain in Hobart grew heavier, saying he didn’t believe the “conditions were right to play”, and that Zimbabwe “shouldn’t have bowled a ball”.Related

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• As it happened – South Africa vs Zimbabwe in Hobart

Rain halted Monday’s game in Hobart on multiple occasions, before it was finally called off with South Africa on the verge of victory. South Africa needed a further 13 runs to win with all ten wickets in hand and 24 balls to go, but the innings hadn’t yet reached the five-over mark, the mandatory cut-off for a game to produce a result. During the chase, Zimbabwe’s bowlers and fielders complained several times about the wet outfield as the rain grew steadily heavier. Even when fast bowler Richard Ngarava slipped and had to be taken off injured, the umpires kept the players on.It was a decision that left Houghton furious. “He’s lying in the changing room with a bunch of ice strapped to his ankle,” Houghton said. “Obviously we’re not too happy about the fact he’s not in a great space for bowling at the moment. We’ll have to assess it in the next day or so.”I thought the rain had got so heavy it was ridiculous. Most of the evening or nighttime, it was misty. But it got to the stage where we could actually hear it thumping on the rooftop in the dugout. To me, that’s no longer drizzle; that’s time to get off the field. The field was wet when we started and when South Africa fielded. They were difficult conditions for both sides but it just got more and more wet as we bowled. When your keeper’s sliding trying to move down the leg side standing up to the spinners, it’s too wet. I don’t think the conditions were right to carry on playing.”Richard Ngarava had to leave the field after taking a tumble•AFP/Getty Images

ESPNcricinfo understands the entire Zimbabwe unit were unhappy at what they considered were dangerous conditions, and believed higher-profile teams wouldn’t have been put in that position. While Houghton declined to comment publicly on whether he thought the umpires would have made the same decision if the roles had been reversed, he was emphatic in his disagreement with the call.”I understand the need to try and get these games on for the public and for TV.” he said. “I understand the need to try and play in slightly inclement weather to try and get a result. But we overstepped that mark in this game. The umpires are the guys making those decisions in the middle and they seemed to think it was fit to play. I disagree with them. But there’s not much I can do off the field.”After Ngarava’s injury, Zimbabwe turned to spin rather than risk their premier pace bowlers, with Sikandar Raza bowling the third over. But when Sean Williams was handed the ball for the fourth over, Houghton revealed Williams thought enough was enough.”Craig [Ervine, Zimbabwe’s captain] and Raza had had a word with the umpires and asked “what do you constitute as rain because we’re getting quite wet here?” Eventually Sean Williams said just as he was about to start bowling he didn’t think he could bowl. It was too wet. And then they brought us off.”South Africa coach Mark Boucher, meanwhile, suggested that the situation of the game may have played a part in Zimbabwe’s reluctance to carry on. “If Zimbabwe were in our position they would have wanted to carry on playing,” he said. “We bowled with a ball that was quite wet as well. We were in a very good position. You walk away from this game thinking we were hard done by. We are not there to make the calls, that’s what officials do and officials made the call and we’ve got to live with their decisions.”The abandonment leaves South Africa and Zimbabwe with one point each, putting South Africa under early pressure in a group where, on paper, they’re expected to compete for two available semi-finals slots with India and Pakistan. On a frigid night in Hobart, there was plenty of heat from both coaches as an incensed Zimbabwe fumed at an injury to a key fast bowler while South Africa seethed at a win that, not for the first time at a World Cup, was denied to them by rain.

But several logistical hurdles will need to be overcome for it to host matches

Peter Della Penna25-May-2022Oakland Coliseum, home of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics and formerly the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, has emerged as a potential venue for the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup, to be co-hosted by the USA and the West Indies. The ICC CEO Geoff Allardice and development head Will Glenwright met with USA Cricket officials in California recently where the idea – rumoured since last year – gained traction.Though the Oakland Coliseum, which opened in 1966, lacks many of the luxury amenities found in most outdoor American stadiums built since the turn of the millennium, it has two major features which appeal to cricket administrators. The location, in the East Bay of northern California just north of the Silicon Valley, is home to a burgeoning local grassroots cricket scene as well as a deep-pocketed expatriate cricket fan base that administrators are hoping to tap into.Another attraction is that the stadium could hold up to 53,000 fans, more than twice as many as any currently available purpose-built cricket venues in the USA. Those include venues in consideration for hosting T20 World Cup games, such as Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina, which is slated for an expansion to hold approximately 4,000 fans; as well as USA’s two ODI venues located in Lauderhill, Florida, and the Houston suburb of Pearland, Texas, both of which have 10,000 capacity (but which could expand to approximately 15,000-20,000 with temporary seating). Other venues which do not have ODI status but could be in consideration are Prairie View Cricket Complex – in suburban Houston – and AirHogs Stadium just outside of Dallas, which is yet to break ground on renovations since a lease was acquired in 2020.However, for the Oakland Coliseum to host matches several logistical hurdles will need to be overcome. Its location in the Pacific time zone means it would be unlikely to host an India-Pakistan match because an 8pm primetime start on TV in India would mean a 7.30 am start in California. But the venue could be an ideal choice for the late game in a double- or triple-header on a given day, which could possibly feature another heavyweight clash such as England-Australia to suit UK primetime.Another obstacle is the June slot currently scheduled for the event, which falls right in the middle of baseball season. It would mean that the Coliseum’s availability would be dependent on the Athletics and MLB agreeing to schedule a 10-14 day road trip for the Athletics around that time to allow cricket officials time to ready it for the T20 World Cup, including the installation of a drop-in pitch. That timeline would allow no more than two or three matches at the venue.This would not be the first time in recent years that a baseball stadium is utilised to host a high-profile cricket event. The Cricket All-Stars T20 exhibition tour headlined by Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne in 2015 was played using drop-in pitches at New York’s Citi Field (home of the New York Mets), Houston’s Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros) and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Those venues were chosen to lure fans to venues which had seating capacity that far exceeded those at cricket-specific venues such as Lauderhill. All three venues are purpose-built for baseball with limited foul area territory and seats located close to the field, which consequently meant some extremely short boundaries square of the pitch.However, Oakland Coliseum’s original design as a shared baseball and football facility means that for baseball purposes, it has by far the largest foul territory in MLB with the closest seats scaled back a considerable distance from the field. For cricket purposes, it means that square boundaries would be right on the borderline of satisfying the ICC’s minimum boundary dimensions of 55 meters. If a more thorough inspection determines that the boundaries wind up just short of the ICC minimum, officials may appeal for an ICC exemption in the same manner as Auckland’s Eden Park for what would be a one-of-a-kind opportunity to host an unprecedented number of fans for a match in America.To demonstrate the viability of Oakland Coliseum, local administrators are exploring the idea of potentially hosting exhibition matches before the end of 2023. If such an exhibition were to go ahead, it would most likely be held in the October-November window following the conclusion of the baseball season, though no firm plans have been made at this stage.

Mumbai Indians bowling coach wants his team to exploit KL Rahul’s middle-overs sluggishness

Shashank Kishore30-Sep-2020Fast bowlers need to show adaptability – quickly – in the face of changing surfaces in the UAE as IPL 2020 progresses, according to Shane Bond, the Mumbai Indians bowling coach, who has been spending a lot of time with his bowling group as the team looks to rebound after two losses in their first three matches.”We have to adapt as quickly as we possibly can,” Bond said ahead of Thursday’s clash against Kings XI Punjab. “We have a simple theory: we try to bowl seven metres as a fast-bowling group, five metres as a spin-bowling group [from the batsman]. We practise those lengths consistently. Regardless of the pitch and conditions, if you are in those areas, you are in the right slots.”Bond insisted yorkers may not always be the most effective delivery in a given match situation. With the Mumbai Indians having played two games in Abu Dhabi, he feels short deliveries into the pitch, especially at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, which has bigger boundaries, could prove equally effective. In their previous game, Jasprit Bumrah went searching for yorkers at the death but missed his lengths and was dispatched for 14 runs off three balls by AB de Villiers. However, he was able to find the perfect length in the Super Over. When he later switched over to a short ball, de Villiers managed to find a top-edge that flew to the boundary to effectively seal the game. “It comes down to if you have to change your pace, go wide or straighter, depending on the pitch and conditions, the boundaries,” Bond explained. “So we talk about them. I think the yorker is one of the many balls fast bowlers have in their armory. Abu Dhabi has got big square boundaries and the pitches are on the slower side. So you could argue that a length ball or a slower bouncer is harder to hit for six rather than perhaps taking pitch out of play, miss your yorker and get hit back over your head.”It’s definitely not a ball that’s been just ruled out for us. I think you saw Bumrah bowl that at AB de Villiers but missed it and got hit for a couple of sixes. But he went back to it in the Super Over and executed it brilliantly. Look, it’s a tough ball to hit under pressure and also, if you miss that ball, the likelihood that it’s going get hit for a boundary back over your head goes higher.”Mumbai are big on match-ups. They meticulously look at past records, which batsman has fared well or has struggled against what kind of bowling. As he spoke of their plans for Thursday, Bond touched upon KL Rahul’s form and his past record – he scored 100 off 64 balls when the two sides met in Mumbai last year.”From our point of view, we have a whole range of different balls. We look at the batsmen and analyse where they score at the back of the game, what are their preferred zones,” Bond said. “And we try to make it as hard as we possibly can with an element of unpredictability, so that the batsman isn’t quite sure what length or line the bowler is bowling and has a field that gives the bowler options to bowl two or three different balls.”Bond stopped short of revealing Mumbai’s plans for their upcoming game, but identified shortcomings in the opposition line-up they could look to exploit. One such weakness is Rahul’s tendency to slow down against spin once he settles down.Among all the batsmen to have scored 100 or more runs against spin after the powerplay since IPL 2019, Rahul is the slowest to find the fence and has lowest boundary percentage of 35.30. In the record-breaking thriller between the Kings XI and the Rajasthan Royals, Rahul nearly batted through but his sluggishness against spin and in the middle overs was only covered up by Mayank Agarwal’s aggression as the latter brought up his maiden IPL century.”He has got runs against us in the last few games against us as well,” Bond acknowledged. “We know he’s a dynamic player who scores all around the ground. We also know that he takes his time generally through the middle overs, so that’s perhaps an opportunity if he gets that far to create that pressure on him and the batsmen around him. We will have specific ideas about how we’re going to get him out.”In the end, we can’t allow him to score in areas where he’s very strong. He scores well over extra cover, the pick-up over fine leg. We have a quality bowling unit, so we just have to put as much pressure on him and Mayank who have been the two key batters for Kings XI. If we can get those boys out early and put pressure on the middle order early, hopefully we can restrict them or stop them from scoring the runs we can get on the board.”

Offspinner’s 12-wicket haul sees Essex to an innings win and up to third in the table

David Hopps at Chelmsford17-Jun-2019The debate over whether Simon Harmer is the finest spin bowler in Essex’s history has sounded premature for a player contesting only his third Championship season, but the evidence is growing at a rapid rate. Twelve more wickets, at a cost of only 61 runs, dispensed of Hampshire before tea on the second day at Chelmsford. Harmer was irrepressible, but in considerable part that was because Hampshire were dire.No county can host a result within five sessions and feel entirely comfortable about the outcome and a post-match conversation between the Essex groundstaff and the ECB’s cricket liaison officer, Stuart Cummings, a former Rugby League referee, was inevitable, but there was no sense whatsoever that they saw anything too untoward about a surface that had also been used for a women’s ODI between England and the West Indies last Thursday.During that match, a West Indies player was reportedly sick on the pitch. Presumably on a length. For a spin bowler operating from the River End.Hampshire’s two innings spanned only 63.5 overs as Harmer rushed Essex towards victory as inexorably as a river flows to the sea. He is now the leading Championship wicket-taker with 42 and the Chelmsford pitches do encourage him, as did the rough created by Hampshire’s left-arm seamer Keith Barker.But as well as he bowled, Hampshire’s supposed Championship challenge – they began the round in second place – should surely be categorised under Fake News. They met Harmer with an air of defeatism disguised as counterattack. Even Harmer felt obliged to politely chastise them, saying: “There was turn and bounce with the new ball. They needed to be more patient before taking me on. When it flattened out it would have been easier.”Joe Weatherley, showing the circumspection Harmer advocated, batted through the second innings for 29 from 80 balls. The India international Ajinkya Rahane made a pair and lasted only three balls in the match, twice edging Jamie Porter to the wicketkeeper; decisive breakthroughs because he might have had the wherewithal to play Harmer with aplomb. As for Rilee Rossouw, he succumbed to two of the wildest slogs imaginable.Adi Birrell, Hampshire’s coach, summed things up fairly enough. “Harmer bowled fairly well but the ball wasn’t turning square, it wasn’t impossible to bat,” he said. “Joe Weatherley batted through. He applied himself and needed someone to bat through with him.”It is a painful and hurtful result. Hopefully it is a defeat in isolation. We can’t afford to let this affect us. It was a very bad two days.”Essex had begun the day on 147 for 3 but were themselves bowled out before lunch, as they lost seven wickets for 67 runs, seven to lbw decisions with Kyle Abbott the main recipient as he jagged the ball back sharply.Observe Harmer from behind the arm and he flows into the crease. Watch him from side-on, however, and he is a more unprepossessing sight. Dare it be suggested, his run is little more than a gentle waddle, but the snap of his fingers fills his action with energy.He was on by the fourth over, initially because pace bowler Sam Cook had limped from the field. In the time needed to sneak off for a cheap haircut close to the ground, Hampshire’s second innings had been snipped back. When Harmer is bowling, do not attempt this if you have a luxuriant head of hair.Facing a first-innings deficit of 96, Hampshire lost seven wickets for 32 in only 13.5 overs before finally coming to grief 15 minutes before tea. They were in danger of registering their lowest score against Essex – they made 54 at Southampton in 1931 – but at least that ignominy was avoided.Harmer began by having Sam Northeast stumped; advancing down the pitch he contrived to let the ball squeeze between bat and pad and his ponderous efforts to regain his ground allowed Adam Wheater enough time to stretch to his right to gather and complete the stumping.In the same over, Rossouw paddled his first ball for four then tried to slog over long-on and edged a simple catch into the off side. Aneurin Donald slog-swept a non-turning delivery to midwicket before Harmer took two wickets in his seventh over, having James Fuller lbw, leaving a ball that turned out of the footholds, and finding gentle turn as Barker, reaching forward, edged to first slip.Harmer rounded off the victory as Mason Crane was caught in circus-trick style with the edge running down Adam Wheater’s chest at which point he expertly volleyed it, left-footed, to forward short leg. Never criticise all those pre-match football kickabouts ever again.This was Harmer’s third 10-wicket haul for the county, and fourth of his first-class career. He has taken four five-wicket hauls in his six innings bowling at Chelmsford this year. Essex, who have comfortably won all three of their Specsavers County Championship at home, have moved within seven points of Hampshire, and boast a game in hand.If they beat the leaders Somerset at Chelmsford next week, they will begin to believe a repeat of their title triumph of 2017 is not beyond them. When Harmer has the ball in his hand, anything is possible, but surely Somerset will play him better than this.

Jofra Archer set to win a chance in England’s next ODI engagements as coach admits some are playing for their places in the World Cup squad

George Dobell in St Lucia03-Mar-2019You might think, after four years as England coach, that Trevor Bayliss might be inured to England’s occasional – and, perhaps, not so occasional – propensity for a batting collapse.But, seeing him at the team hotel on the morning after the night – okay, the early afternoon – before is to see a man clearly struggling to come to terms with events. He uses words such as “embarrassed” and admits he “can’t get my head around” the disparity in quality between England’s performances. For them to suffer the largest defeat, in terms of how long it took West Indies to knock off the target, in their ODI history on Bayliss’ watch clearly hurts.It wasn’t just the extent of the defeat, though. It was the fact that it came in the final ODI before England were obliged to select their World Cup squad. Despite all the tours and training and faith in the players, it seems the England team retain a propensity, when confronted by conditions outside their comfort zone, to collapse in spectacular fashion. A difficulty in adapting to conditions is clearly a recurring problem.And while Bayliss admitted the performance – perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the lack of performance? – could be the “wake-up call” his side required, he also said that some of the current players have had every opportunity to nail down their places and failed to do so. As a consequence, Jofra Archer be given an opportunity to show what he can do during the ODIs against Ireland and Pakistan despite having just 14 List A appearances to his name. He would appear to have every chance of winning a World Cup spot.ALSO READ: ‘It’s been an honour to wear the crest’ – Gayle bows out“Was it the worst yet?” Bayliss said of defeat in St Lucia. “I think it was. To lose in such a fashion… I think they [the players] were embarrassed.”We talk all the time about playing smart cricket but, quite simply, we didn’t play smart cricket. We kept making the same mistakes.”Whether it’s a bit of overconfidence – have we gone into the match with, not a blasé attitude, but an overconfident attitude where they go out and play their natural games and think it’ll just happen? Batting can’t be easy and free flowing all the time. And it’s happened a few times.”Bayliss hopes the game will prove to be something of a watershed moment. Straight afterwards, the team held a long meeting in the dressing room where they reflected on their failings and, he believes, understood where they went wrong.”I didn’t have to say very much,” he said. “Eoin Morgan started the conversation and three or four of the most experienced players in the team led it. They were on the money.”They were talking about getting to 220-230 on that pitch. That conversation was going on out in the middle and in the dressing room. But we didn’t put it into play.”You’re not going to score 400 on a wicket like that but you make high 200s, 300, 350 and it’s enough to win games on those wickets. Yesterday we just didn’t. Two hundred and we would have been right in the game.”If it doesn’t sink in after this one – so close to the World Cup – then there’s something wrong. I’d like to think that, after their chat yesterday in the changing room, it will sink in.”While the batting was the focus of most reports, Bayliss was also underwhelmed by some aspects of the bowling during the series. There had, for example, been talk ahead of games about bowling yorkers at Chris Gayle. But very few were delivered and Gayle was able to hit 39 sixes in four innings; one every 8.10 balls.”We just bowled a lot of balls in his strike zone,” Bayliss said. “We just didn’t get the ball in the right area enough. Yorkers were spoken about a lot. Sometimes the bowlers go out to try and do it and just can’t.”Partly as a result, Bayliss confirmed that Archer – who is now just a few days from qualifying as eligible for England – is almost certain to made his debut in the ODIs to be played in May ahead of the World Cup. While England are obliged to name their 15-man World Cup squad by April 23 (they are expected to name it a week or so early), they can make as many changes as they like until May 22. After that date, they need ICC approval for any change and they will only be allowed in the event of injury or exceptional circumstances.”Jofra Archer’s name keeps cropping up and I think, at some stage, we will give him an opportunity,” Bayliss said. “Those matches against Pakistan and Ireland, I think he will get an opportunity to show us what he can do. He’s said publicly that he’s keen.”He’s a bowler you don’t get many of: someone who is able to bowl in all three phases of the game. He can take the new ball, he can bowl through the middle and he can bowl at the end which is a good skillset to have.”There was a little bit of contact made during the Australian summer and there was talk a month or two ago about when the date was that he qualified. At the time, it was around 31 days that he needed to be back in the UK.”Are the players he’s competing with aware of the situation? I don’t know, you’d have to ask them. There is plenty of speculation all the time in the papers and I’m sure they read that.Ben Stokes was dismissed by Carlos Brathwaite•AFP

“The guys in the team, they’ve got hold of those positions and in a way it’s theirs to lose. If they keep performing and doing well it’s difficult to bring people in.”The implication? That they been performing. Several fringe members of the squad now face an anxious wait.England resume training on Monday ahead of the first of three T20Is against West Indies in St Lucia on Tuesday. They will be without Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali, who have all been given time off before they depart for the IPL, while Jason Roy will shortly go home to be present at the birth of his first child. Mark Wood is also likely to be rested for one or two of the T20 games.The likes of Sam Billings, Dawid Malan, Chris Jordan and Sam Curran – who have all been brought in for the T20I series – are likely to win opportunities in the coming days, as is Joe Denly who has been a non-playing member of the ODI squad.

The BCB announced the allrounder had sufficiently recovered from his finger injury and is expected to arrive in Colombo on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Mar-2018Shakib Al Hasan will join the Bangladesh squad on Thursday, ahead of the final league match against Sri Lanka, the winner of which will progress to the final of the Nidahas Trophy. The BCB announced Shakib had recovered sufficiently from his little finger injury, and is expected to arrive in Colombo on Thursday afternoon.Shakib’s return will bolster the Bangladesh line-up, particularly the bowling attack which has looked threadbare in all three games. He will also take over the captaincy from Mahmudullah, who was filling in as T20I captain during the tournament.Shakib had hurt his finger during the January 27 tri-series final against Sri Lanka, after which he missed the Tests and ODIs against them at home. He also missed the Pakistan Super League, as well as the first three games in the Nidahas Trophy.During this time, he saw specialists in Thailand and Australia, before taking up gym and training sessions in Dhaka earlier this week.

This is the first instance of the India team getting a full-time, professional manager

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-2017Former Tamil Nadu captain Sunil Subramaniam has been named India’s administrative manager on a one-year contract. This is the first instance of the India team getting a full-time, professional manager, marking a departure from the system of ad-hoc appointments made by the BCCI on a tour-to-tour basis. Subramaniam will join the team before the second Test that begins on August 3 in Colombo.Subramaniam, 50, was picked by a committee comprising BCCI acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, CEO Rahul Johri and Committee of Administrators (CoA) member Diana Edulji, in accordance with the Lodha Committee’s recommendation approved by the Supreme Court. The committee, according to reports, had shortlisted more than 10 candidates before interviewing them. Subramanian said he would meet with Johri on Monday when he would be apprised of his duties. “It feels good to be a part of the team,” Subramaniam told ESPNcricinfo.During his playing days, Subramaniam, a left-arm spinner, picked up 285 wickets from 74 first-class matches. An NCA-certified coach, Subramaniam has acquired renown for having worked extensively with India offspinner R Ashwin in the past. Over the years, he has also coached teams in the Duleep Trophy and has been associated with the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Academy.On his appointment, a BCCI press release said: “He has a rich vein of experience when it comes to management and administrative capabilities, having served both public and private sector organisations for over 16 years.”

The visibility of the pink ball when catching was a concern in the Plunket Shield, but Eden Park, the proposed venue for the day-night Test against England next year, was given a positive review

Andrew McGlashan09-Mar-2017The visibility of the pink ball when catching was one concern cited during the round of Plunket Shield matches played under lights in New Zealand this week but Eden Park, the proposed venue for the day-night Test against England next year, was given a positive review.The round of matches was designed to test the pink ball in New Zealand conditions ahead of rubber-stamping a floodlit Test against England next March. The weather had a significant impact with two days getting washed out in Auckland. Hamilton was also severely disrupted and only the match in Wellington had more than two innings.Legspinner Ish Sodhi, who claimed 7 for 107 against Central Districts at Seddon Park, said it was tricky judging distance in the field. “Catching under lights was very tough, the perception of the ball is different. I personally found it hard to figure out how far it was from my face whenever the ball was coming towards me. You think it’s a little bit further away than what it is and it gets to you a little bit quicker.”In that match Central Districts declared nine down during the night session on the opening day and then seamer Seth Rance ripped through Northern Districts under the lights. He had 4 for 6 by the close and finished with 6 for 31 in the rain-ruined contest. Henry Cooper, who faced Rance during that night-time spell, said that the visibility of the ball was fine but swing caused the problems.”It did swing around quite a bit,” Cooper said. “The pink ball wasn’t too tough to pick up; it was just the sort of swing that went on late last night. It was tricky to deal with and obviously we didn’t deal with it as good as we could have.”It did move around for our seamers at the start of the day as well. I think it was the night factor made it feel like it was maybe doing a little more than it possibly was.”Donovan Grobbelaar, the Auckland pace bowler who played in the Eden Park match, had no concerns about the conditions. “I had no problems [with visibility],” he said. “We found it pretty easy viewing. At Eden Park it’s got pretty exceptional lighting so it helps.”Michael Papps, the Wellington opener, scored New Zealand’s first pink ball century – beating Andrew Ellis to the mark by a few minutes – and said that while adjusting to conditions between the middle and last session was demanding, the ball itself behaved well.”The first two sessions were quite similar but the third session certainly did feel quite different, before went off for dinner there was still a lot of natural light but coming back out the lights had definitely kicked in and it took quite a bit of adjusting to the artificial lights. There might have been a bit of uncertainty with the pink ball but to be fair it’s played pretty well and hasn’t done out of ordinary.”Kane Williamson, the New Zealand captain, who played in the inaugural day-night Test in Australia recently said he was a supporter of innovation in the game but cautioned about there being to vast a difference between the conditions for day-night and traditional Tests.Eden Park and Seddon Park are the two likeliest venues for day-night Test cricket in New Zealand in the future although the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, which hosted its first first-class match in this round, and McLean Park in Napier could be options.”We believe this time of the year is the best time of the year,” David White, the NZC CEO, told ESPNcricinfo. “We are just going through that trial now to make sure. We’ll know more after this round but the most obvious thing is to see how the ball performs in New Zealand conditions and from a visibility point of view how it reacts. We played the first day-night Test in Australia so are very comfortable with the prospect but are just going through our due diligence.”The ground in Napier is currently undergoing extensive remedial work on the outfield after the abandoned ODI against Australia, which led to them losing the South Africa fixture, but White said there would not be a black mark against them in the future.”We’ve worked very close with the local authorities and they will invest a lot in the facilities. It is very important for us to have cricket throughout the country.”

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has emphasised the need for his batsmen to give his bowlers a chance on the tour of South Africa by getting runs in tough conditions

Sa'adi Thawfeeq10-Dec-2016Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has emphasised the need for his batsmen to give his bowlers a chance on the tour of South Africa by getting runs in tough conditions. Mathews said the team had been batting on granite to try and get used to extra bounce ahead of the three-Test series beginning on December 26.”With Dushmantha Chameera coming back into the team and young Vikum Sanjaya earning his spot, we have got a fairly decent pace attack which can put them under pressure, but we need to score runs as a batting unit,” Mathews said ahead of the team’s departure for South Africa. “It’s going to be our main challenge; the boys have worked extremely hard in the past few weeks.”Part of that hard work was facing deliveries coming off granite surfaces to try and mimic the conditions in South Africa. “The pace the boys are used to, it’s just the the bounce and the conditions that we need to get used to,” Mathews said. “We used a lot of granite stuff, especially the batters. When you use a piece of granite, the ball is coming on to you quicker. The granite is laid down on the pitch and you can throw the ball on it so that it comes on quicker.”We’ve done everything possible to try and counterattack the South African fast bowlers and get used to their conditions. We have about 12 days before we play our first Test on Boxing Day. We’ll try and use those days to the maximum so that we get things right.”Mathews was aiming to break the predominant trend in modern-day cricket, where teams struggle to win away from home. Sri Lanka won a Test series 2-0 in Zimbabwe in October and November but South Africa, who won 2-1 in Australia recently, are significantly tougher opponents. When Sri Lanka last toured South Africa, in 2011-12, they lost the three-Test series 1-2.”Most of the teams do well and win at home but struggle overseas. It happens to any team but we want to try and achieve some wins overseas and turn the tables,” Mathews said. “I am confident that my team can do it. We got a good combination where we have five fast bowlers, two experienced spinners and a solid batting order.”Sri Lanka’s batting was boosted by the return of Mathews, who recovered from a leg injury, and Dinesh Chandimal, whose broken hand had healed. They will slot into the middle order along with Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva. Mathews hoped that his side would have stability, which he said was a reason for South Africa’s success.”Except for one or two changes, they are pretty much a settled team for the past four-five years,” Mathews said of South Africa. “They have been going with the same sort of players, maximum 20. They have managed a set combination and now the results are showing. The settled combination is the one that has led to their success today.”We are now doing the same, we talked about it a lot. The solution is not to chop and change but be patient with the players.”Sri Lanka have a three-day warm-up game in Potchefstroom before the first Test in Port Elizabeth from December 26. The second Test is in Cape Town from January 2 and the third in Johannesburg from January 12, after which the teams play three T20Is and five ODIs.