All posts by csb10.top

Varun Aaron, the Jharkhand fast bowler who has replaced Ishant Sharma in India’s ODI squad for the England series, said he will not cut back on his pace as his career progresses because he loves bowling fast. Indian fast bowlers have a history of dropping their pace dramatically as their careers take off – Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and to some extent Ishant Sharma – but Aaron, who regularly clocks over 140kph and impressed for India Emerging Players during the recent tournament in Australia, said he will not go down that road.”It’s an individual thing, I guess. I don’t know why they decided to give up on their pace. I love bowling fast, and it is my strength. I will never compromise on my pace,” he told the . “And it’s a lot of fun to hit people on the head.”Aaron, who played for Delhi Daredevils in this year’s IPL, does know the value of accuracy too. “Speed is okay; you have to bowl quick. But it troubles international batsmen only to a certain extent. After that, they adjust pretty easily,” he told . “You have got to have a few tricks up your sleeve and you have got to bowl a good line and length consistently to get wickets. Even genuine fast bowlers have to have the right line and length.”With India struggling in the pace department in England, there were calls for Aaron, who is just 21, to be drafted into the national team, and when Ishant sustained an ankle injury, Aaron was called up to the one-day squad. He, however, said he would not be bogged down by the pressure of expectation. “It’s tough to ignore the expectations that people have. But I don’t want to think about that and I’m concentrating on bowling as fast and as well as I can.”One thing that could work in Aaron’s favour is that the assistant coach at Delhi Daredevils is Eric Simons, who is also India’s bowling coach. “Working with Eric was great,” Aaron said. “Generally, he just tells you to do the most basic of things perfectly or a small little change here or there which somehow you fail to notice. But I am always open to advice.”Aaron took 13 wickets for Jharkhand during last year’s Ranji season, followed by another nine in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, during which he reportedly bowled a 153-kph ball. He took 10 wickets in three games in the three-day leg of the Emerging Players Tournament , including 4 for 40 in the first innings against Australia Institute of Sport.

Sri Lanka 249 for 4 (Chandimal 105*, Jayawardene 79) beat England 246 for 7 (Cook 119, Pietersen 41) by six wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDinesh Chandimal sealed the match for Sri Lanka, but caused a few nerves on the visitors’ balcony•Getty Images

As South Africa’s former coach, Mickey Arthur, once put it: “Mother cricket has a funny habit of biting you in the bum if you mess with it”. Sri Lanka’s 21-year-old matchwinner, Dinesh Chandimal, was clearly oblivious to those words of wisdom, as he and his fifth-wicket partner, Angelo Mathews, gave England a brief glimmer of an unexpected reprieve, before completing a crushing victory in the third ODI at Lord’s.In the end, victory was sealed with six wickets and ten balls to spare, but Chandimal’s quest for a maiden Lord’s century – which he sealed with a cathartic six over long-on in the 48th over, after Mathews had played out a maiden at the other end – left more than a few anxious faces up on the dressing-room balcony.Mathews and Chandimal seemed oblivious to all the gesticulations from on high, and perhaps they had a point – despite the artificial drama, this was one-day cricket at its most one-sided. After choosing to bat first, England’s 246 for 7 always seemed at least 40 runs below par, despite a determined 119 from 143 balls from England’s captain, Alastair Cook, a player whose one-day credentials remain under severe scrutiny – not least from his No. 1 critic, Mike Atherton, whose post-match interview for Sky was noticeably terse after his recent denunciation of Cook as a “plodder”.Being a realist, Cook will himself know he still has plenty to prove. His guts and determination were not in question in this performance, but aside from another broken promise of an innings from Kevin Pietersen, no-one in the England team batted at anything like the tempo expected in modern-day one-day cricket. It is a moot point whether Cook was a factor in that failure or the only saving grace, but as Jayawardene and Chandimal later demonstrated, there’s an art to unobtrusive run-making, and it’s one that England’s captain still has to master.Jayawardene’s preferred method is to caress rather than bludgeon, and that trait was on display once again as he took the lead in the first Powerplay, hoisting Sri Lanka to 61 for 1 in ten overs, compared to England’s sluggish mark of 32 for 2 at the same stage. At the other end, Chandimal played the supporting role to perfection, before growing into his responsibility to see the game to its conclusion after each of the four current and former captains in Sri Lanka’s line-up had departed the scene before him.Despite an apparent susceptibility to the short ball, which England set about exploiting at regular opportunities, Chandimal announced his presence with two flashing boundaries in his first eight deliveries, then followed up by driving Bresnan on the up through extra cover for another four. He brought up his fifty from a steady 73 balls, then raised his aggression levels as the victory drew nigh, and that tantalising prospect of a century closed in.With seven overs of the innings remaining, Chandimal had 87 to his name, and Sri Lanka needed only 17 for victory. Mathews’ response was to block his way to one run from 21 balls, to give his colleague as much of a chance as possible. A Dernbach maiden in the 47th over briefly ended up with both batsmen at the same end, but two balls later – and after several gloves and replacement bats from an increasingly irate dressing-room – Chandimal cleared his front leg to Bresnan, and smacked him high over mid-on for the most joyful hit of his young life.England’s only other moment of real pressure had been of a less-contrived variety – between overs 24 and 34, when James Anderson and Dernbach located some handy swing to keep Sri Lanka’s ambitions in check. By that stage, however, they were already some 40 runs ahead of the required rate, thanks to Jayawardene’s effortless rush of runs in the Powerplay. As soon as the mandatory ball-change had taken place, the lateral movement vanished, and with it the threat.After the failure of their pursuit of 310 at Leeds, England had resisted the temptation to tinker with their line-up, but the early overs of their innings set an unfortunate precedent. Cook had one major let-off when Jayawardene dropped him at slip on 15, but he did his best to prevent the run-rate from stalling with five boundaries in the first Powerplay, all square of the wicket. However, his first two partners, Craig Kieswetter and Jonathan Trott, managed five singles from 26 balls between them to reduce the tempo to a crawl.It needed the arrival of Pietersen to transform England’s intent. In one over from Lakmal he pounded three fours in a row, but the introduction of Sri Lanka’s spinners stemmed the boundary flow and induced the error, as Pietersen climbed into a slog-sweep but top-edged his stroke to deep midwicket. It was the third time in three innings that he had fallen to Mendis, and two overs later, the legspinner had doubled his tally, when Morgan missed a quicker, straighter delivery, and was rapped on the pad in front of middle and leg.At 88 for 4 after 22 overs, England had neither runs on the board nor wickets in hand, and though Cook did keep the home fires burning with a 127-ball century, his subsequent attempts to clear the boundary betrayed the shortcomings in his one-day game. He was badly dropped at point by Thilina Kandamby off Malinga on 103, and regularly lost his shape while winding up for the big shot, even though he finally connected with two fours through midwicket in the 49th over to give the run-rate a belated jolt.Graeme Swann swiped ten runs from the last two balls of the innings, including England’s only six, over midwicket, but even at that stage, Sri Lanka were confident of victory. Just how confident became clear when Chandimal and Mathews started toying with the game in the closing stages. When your opponents start taking the mickey mid-match, you know your strategies are in trouble.

The fast bowler Brett Geeves, who played three matches for Australia during 2008 and 2009, has retired from first-class cricket due to an ongoing back injury. Geeves, 29, has not given up on being part of the new Big Bash League, but he said his body was no longer up to the rigours of the longer formats.The back problem has signalled a disappointing end for Geeves, who made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in Darwin in 2008 and played another one-day international and a Twenty20 on the tour of South Africa the following year. He has not played first-class cricket since January 2010, and his sole appearance for Tasmania last summer was in a Ryobi Cup game in October.”My back’s about as stable as the Egyptian government at the moment, it’s time for me to part ways with cricket,” Geeves told ABC Radio on Monday. “After 17 months of rehab, I’m spent. Time to move forward.”Geeves will end his career with 140 wickets at 33.10 in 41 first-class appearances, along with 103 victims at 29.20 in one-day cricket. He will also be remembered for twice being stranded on 99 not out during the 2008-09 season, both times when the No.11 Tim Macdonald was dismissed, and Geeves ended his career without a century.He played in two one-day final victories with the Tigers, firstly in 2004-05 and then in 2007-08, when he earned the Man of the Match title in the decider for his 3 for 28 against Victoria. Geeves didn’t play in either of Tasmania’s Pura Cup/Sheffield Shield final victories, but he twice won the Ricky Ponting Medal as the state’s best player of the summer.”Cricket has been kind to me over the past decade, with a couple of premierships with Tasmania and opportunities to head overseas to play the game just to name a few,” he said. “I’m disappointed that injury has forced me to retire, however with the injury not looking to improve I had to make some decisions. My body has taken a real beating over the years and unfortunately it has ultimately brought an end to my first-class career.”Geeves could yet be picked up by one of the eight Big Bash League teams, but his future in any form of cricket will depend on whether his back allows him to play. He has already established himself in the media, on the ABC, as a columnist for Hobart’s newspaper, and in his entertaining blogs.

Almost three months since he blasted his way to the fastest-ever World Cup hundred, Kevin O’Brien returns to international action as Ireland take on Pakistan in a two-match ODI series. Though looking back at Ireland’s impressive World Cup campaign, during which they upset England, still puts a smile on his face, his focus now is helping Ireland rise up the ODI rankings starting with the Pakistan series.”These games are massive; with the one-day international status comes the ranking points,” O’Brien said on Irish radio show . “If we get a couple of wins here, we hopefully can climb up that table, and get as close as we can to ninth place.”Ireland are still some way off ninth-placed Bangladesh in the rankings, and even two wins would still leave them several points behind. But it would put some distance between them and Zimbabwe.O’Brien said the World Cup had been wonderful for the Ireland team, but they now had to start again against a strong Pakistan outfit. “The World Cup was a fantastic experience for all the players and the management. But we’ve got to put that to the back of our mind and start again on Saturday with a big game against Pakistan.”They’ve got some experienced players and they’ve got some young guys who are coming in looking to show what they can do at international level. So it’s going to be two very tight games, and hopefully we can perform well, to our abilities, and get a win or two.”Phil Simmons, the Ireland coach, said a big change in the mentality of the Ireland side was that they now thought about winning rather than just survival or putting up a fight. O’Brien said he doesn’t think about the result of a game and concentrates on the basics. “We’ve got to go in with a positive mentality and hopefully we can hit our areas with the ball and bat well. We can’t really look too much at the result before the game; we’ve just got to go in and do our basics well.”Ireland will be missing two key players for the series: O’Brien’s brother Niall O’Brien and left-arm spinner George Dockrell, who are both injured. Kevin O’Brien said his brother would be a big miss because of his form in the English domestic season for Northamptonshire, but it would give someone else a chance to perform on a big stage.”Niall has started the season over in England fantastically well. He has scored a couple of hundreds and five fifties, so he is in great nick. I suppose it gives another guy a chance to come in and show what they can do, and hopefully we can all pull together, the 14 guys out here, and hopefully play well.”Kevin O’Brien has also been playing in England, in limited overs-matches for Gloucestershire.

Cricket South Africa has appointed auditing firm KPMG to conduct an investigation into their financial affairs. The inquiry comes after the CSA board agreed it would not challenge a court order to reinstate president Mtutuzeli Nyoka, who insisted on a full, forensic audit, at a meeting in Johannesburg on May 4.Ishmael Semenya, a lawyer on CSA’s legal and governance committee, was tasked with appointing the external auditors at that meeting. He took almost three weeks to decide on which of the country’s four big auditing companies would have the responsibility of conducting the investigation. It is understood that disagreements between board members led to the delay in appointing KPMG.The firm’s mandate will be “to investigate and report on the payment of bonuses, travel expenses, related expenditure and fringe benefits paid to CSA staff members in connection with the IPL and Champions Trophy hosted in 2009,” Semenya told ESPNcricinfo. The investigation will start immediately and Semenya is hopeful the findings will be ready in four weeks.The audit is the culmination of a long battle between Nyoka and chief executive Gerald Majola, which has centered around finances. CSA awarded R4.7 million (US$671,428) in bonuses to 40 staff members in 2009, which were not declared through the body’s remunerations committee (REMCO). Insiders said this was keeping with precedents set during the hosting of the 2003 World Cup and the 2007 World Twenty20. Nyoka wanted these payments and details of how CSA spent money in an account to the value of R84.6 million (US$12,085,714) scrutinised by external auditors.CSA instead held an internal inquiry, chaired by vice-president AK Khan, because it believed it had not exhausted its own procedure. The investigation cleared Majola of any wrongdoing, saying he had made “an error of judgement” in not declaring the payments through REMCO and ordered him to pay back an amount of R28,168 (US$4024) which was used for travel for his children.Following the inquiry, in February this year, the board passed a vote of no confidence against Nyoka, removing him as their president. Nyoka challenged the decision in the South Gauteng High Court, where it was found that his removal was unlawful and that he should be reinstated and his demands for an external audit met. On the same day as the judgement, CSA issued a release stating its intention to appeal the decision.They backtracked on that statement on May 4 at a board meeting in which Majola and Nyoka reconciled “with the best interests of cricket in mind.” At the time, it appeared that the South African Sports and Olympic Committee would conduct the external inquiry, but it has since been decided that KPMG will be tasked with the investigation.

Scorecard
Sussex’s 20-year-old left-hander Luke Wells rode his luck to complete hismaiden century before his team suffered some late jitters on the way to a thrillingtwo-wicket win against Durham at Chester-le-Street.A fifth-wicket stand of 128 between Wells and Ben Brown had taken Sussex towithin 32 of victory. But they then lost four wickets for 17 runs, all to Ruel Brathwaite, Durham’s England-qualified West Indian paceman, who finished with 5 for 58.Brathwaite almost had a sixth with 15 runs still needed, when Amjad Khan edged him lowto third slip’s right, where Scott Borthwick’s dive could only parry the ball for four. Wells, dropped before he had added to his overnight 74, was constantly troubledby Mitch Claydon but reached 103 before he was sixth out with 21 needed.Wells edged or sliced the Australian paceman for three fours through the slipcordon but remained totally unruffled before finally driving him through extracover for his 17th four to complete his century off 241 balls.Sussex needed 72 to complete the turnaround when they resumed on 237 for 4and 22-year-old Brown, out first ball in the first innings, was the dominantpartner this morning.He played some fine shots to reach 61 before edging an attempted pull offBrathwaite to wicketkeeper Michael Richardson.Brathwaite took the next wickets either side of firing a ball well down the legside for four wides. Wells was squared up by a ball which pitched on leg stump and left him to take the shoulder of the bat on the way to point. Then Rana Naved-ul-Hasan danced down the pitch and went for a big drive, onlyto edge to Richardson.James Anyon survived an impassioned lbw appeal two balls later and somethingsimilar off the next delivery brought a raised finger. But Khan’s edge proved to be the final scare as Sussex jubilantly completed a win which had looked unlikely when they trailed by 98 on first innings.They also looked doomed when Durham began the third day 265 runs in front withfive wickets standing. When those five wickets went down for 44 they lost Richardson to the first ballof the day.But when they had the chance to take a wicket in the first over this morningsubstitute fielder Gareth Breese was unable to hang on when diving to his rightat second slip. He was on for Michael Di Venuto, who had also been off the field yesterdayfollowing a back spasm.Wells was the beneficiary of the dropped catch as Claydon troubled him withballs leaving him from an off stump line, as he had in the first innings.He continued to ride his luck and it was his century which proved decisive inthe match as Sussex got home to win.

“This is a good time to play England, they have been on the road a long time, in order to stay on in India they have to win,” West Indies captain Darren Sammy said on Wednesday, before joking, “Maybe some of them want to go home to their families, you never know.”Much has been made of the England team having spent only four days at home since late October when they departed to Australia for a dominant Ashes campaign. The continuous crush of high-profile cricket combined with the heat and humidity of the subcontinent seems to have taken its toll on the squad, with a string of players picking up fitness problems.The fast bowler Ajmal Shahzad is the latest casualty, missing Wednesday’s practice session at the MA Chidambaram Stadium after falling ill. It is still unclear whether he will recover in time for the must-win match against West Indies on Thursday. “We are not sure at this stage whether that will affect Shahzad’s chances of being selected for tomorrow,” England captain Andrew Strauss said. Shahzad had taken three wickets in the match against Bangladesh in Chittagong on Friday, and his possible absence increases the chances of James Anderson retaining his place in the XI.There was better news for England regarding two other key players who were struggling with their fitness, with Strauss and offspinner Graeme Swann both recovering from the stomach bug that preventing them from training on Tuesday. “I’m feeling very well, I was a bit laid low day before night and yesterday morning,” Strauss said. “Swann is also recovering well, should be practising today, don’t know if he is quite as buoyant as I am, very confident that he’ll be fine for tomorrow.”Chris Tremlett could join Tim Bresnan in the England side if Ajmal Shahzad’s illness doesn’t clear•Getty Images

Their most consistent batsman of the tournament, Jonathan Trott, had also been a member of their sick list earlier this week before recovering from a fever. These concerns are in addition to losing influential players Stuart Broad and Kevin Pietersen to injuries. Pietersen’s tweet outlining the bright side to his injury added to the claims of homesickness. “Well, as frustrated as I am to be missing the rest of the World Cup & IPL, I’ll be at home with my family & friends, I haven’t been home properly since 29 Oct.,” he had written after being ruled out of the tournament.Strauss, though, was adamant the time way from home and the amount of cricket England have played over the past six months were not affecting their performance. “We have been on the road for a long time, but fatigue is the last thing on our mind,” he said. “Potentially we have got four more games to play before a nice, long break.”The illnesses were common for teams touring the subcontinent, he said. “It’s happened to a lot of the sides in this tournament, that guys go down. It’s par for the course in this part of the world, we try and take all the precautions, but these things can strike at any stage.”He said the motivation of keeping the campaign for a first World Cup alive was motivation enough for his side. “We know what the prize there is. We are determined to make the most of the opportunity and take that prize,” he said. “Fatigue is not an issue for us at the moment, and it won’t be until right at the end of the tournament.”The end of the tournament could come as early as Thursday, giving Strauss’ team two extra weeks of rest at home, unless they round off their league phase with a win against West Indies and results out of their control go their way.

Ireland captain William Porterfield is confident his side can repeat the 2007 heroics and progress from the group stages of the World Cup.England, South Africa, co-hosts India and the West Indies are favourites to qualify from Group B but captain Porterfield backs his side to spring a surprise.”I think we have a great chance of getting out of our group,” he said.”We’ll be pretty well prepared come our first match group match (against Bangladesh) on 25 February.”Ireland faced a similarly unlikely task in their maiden World Cup four years ago before recording a memorable win on St Patrick’s Day over Pakistan to reach the Super Eights.Porterfield was part of that side and, on the eve of his team’s first warm-up game, against New Zealand in Nagpur, believes his team can do it again.”The top four out of seven get there [to the quarter-finals] and then there is the knockout stage where anything can happen. Obviously, we’ll be looking to get used to the conditions, but we were out in India before Christmas and we’ve already been together a couple of weeks.”Porterfield, who recently signed for Warwickshire after playing County cricket with Gloucestershire, ranks the current squad as better than the one which delivered the shock success in 2007.Jeremy Bray and Dave Langford-Smith have retired, while star-batsman Eoin Morgan transferred his allegiance to England, but the 2011 squad includes young talents such as Paul Stirling and George Dockrell and is boosted by the return of Ed Joyce, who played for England in the 2007 tournament.13 of the 15-man squad are professional players, significantly more than the largely amateur squad of 2007. Seven have county deals and while six more are contracted by Cricket Ireland, meaning only Nigel Jones and Andrew White hold day jobs.”That has been a big strength of the last couple of years,” added Porterfield.”We have been able to improve our games by playing day in, day out. The professional set-up is where we’ve really moved on. We have got players who can fit any occasion we come up against and I think we have a well-balanced squad going into this tournament.”

The West Indies Cricket Board has moved to strengthen the roots of the game in the region with a historic US$360,000 grant programme which is aimed at supporting club cricket across the Caribbean.The Grassroots Cricket Support Facility will make available US$90,000 to clubs in four periods between March 2011 and December 2012. Clubs and local cricket organisations can apply to the WICB for a grant of up to US$5,000 each. The grants will be issued to clubs to aid in one of three areas, namely: infrastructure development, strengthening training programmes and procurement of gear and equipment.”This is one of the most important initiatives the WICB will undertake to help strengthen cricket at the grassroots level,” said WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire. “We are focussing on the clubs throughout the region who have expressed how difficult it is to organize and sustain cricket and we are lending a hand in a tangible way. West Indies cricket needs club cricket to be strong and we need to assist and give meaningful support.”Veteran cricket administrator and writer Tony Becca has been prominent in lamenting for years that club cricket is in dire need of a shoulder to lean on and this programme is one way in which we believe we can help to build and strengthen West Indies cricket from the ground up.”We want to have partnerships with clubs all across the region because these are where West Indies players come from and we have to not only recognise that but demonstrate to the clubs that the WICB is serious about assisting them as they execute their programmes and activities which benefit all of West Indies cricket.”

Tom Maynard, who walked away from Glamorgan – citing the treatment of his father, Matthew, as the reason – in December, will continue his career with Surrey after signing a three-year contract with them.Maynard has made clear his anger at events at the county last year, and though new captain and South Africa batsman Alviro Petersen contacted him and the two held “a positive discussion” about his future, he has moved ahead with his decision to pursue a new employer.Maynard had feared that Glamorgan would attempt to fight his decision to leave in the courts – he signed a three-year contract with them in September last year before the county’s troubles came to a head – and in December told the : “I have to follow due process in all these events and do things by the book. I have to make sure I am clear with Glamorgan before I can move on and weigh up options from other counties but time is against me with only two months to go until pre-season.”It now appears his “continual” requests to be released and allowed to talk to other counties have been heeded, and his presence at Surrey will undoubtedly strengthen a youthful batting line-up – particularly in limited-overs cricket. Aside from the costs associated to his three year deal, Maynard’s signing comes at no extra expense to Surrey.”Once we received permission from Glamorgan to speak to Tom, it became clear that Surrey was his preferred destination,” said Surrey’s Professional Cricket Manager, Chris Adams. “He has been attracted here by a number of factors including the wicket at the Kia Oval and the fantastic history of the Club but most of all he had a sense of wanting to be at Surrey through what will be a very exciting time here.”We were painfully on the receiving end of what he is capable of last season and although this was not a signing we had planned for, it was an opportunity that was too good not to take and I am delighted that Tom is adding further depth to what is looking like a very strong squad.””I’m absolutely delighted to be joining Surrey County Cricket Club at such an exciting time and am looking forward to playing with some highly regarded young talent as well as soaking up as much as I can from the richly experienced and successful coaching staff,” added Maynard.”Tom is one of the best One Day cricketers going around and exactly the sort of player we have been hoping to attract to the Club,” said Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown. “It’s hugely exciting to have him at the Kia Oval and I know he will make an impact both on the field and in the dressing room.”