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Captain puts focus on enjoyment amid extraordinary circumstances of early England recall

George Dobell07-Jul-2021You didn’t think Ben Stokes would turn England down in their hour of need, did you?He is not, by any means, at full fitness. And he does not, by any means, have a full strength squad at his disposal. But when the cry for help came through, late on Monday night, he was happy to answer it. Not for the first time, Stokes was the man England turned to in a crisis.”I had to stand up,” Stokes said matter-of-factly from England’s team hotel in Cardiff. “It was like when I came back for Durham a bit earlier [than had been planned]: my job needed me to do something, so I had to stand up.”It’s the same with this. It’s earlier than planned from a medical and fitness point of view. But when a job comes and calls you, you need to stand up and make yourself available.”Stokes is, in many ways, the perfect temporary leader. He is an automatic pick, he has natural authority, he is calm under pressure and, as a man with no obvious captaincy ambitions, he will be very happy to pass the responsibility back in a week or two. It’s his second experience of England captaincy after he deputised for Joe Root, who was on paternity leave, for the first Test of last year’s series against West Indies. As he put it: “I’ve captained because Joe was having a baby and I’m captain now because of a Covid outbreak. So it’s a strange situation. But it’s a huge honour and I’m looking forward to it.”Ben Stokes hatches a plan in the field•Getty Images

It might be wise, though, not to expect too much from Stokes as a player. On the evidence of his recent outings with Durham, he is some distance from his best with the bat or the ball. Until the weekend, there was every chance the England management were going to leave him out of both this ODI series and the T20 series which follows to allow him time to build up both his form and fitness ahead of the Test series against India.”After the phone call from Chris Silverwood, my wife sent me a screenshot of an article saying England aren’t going to rush Ben Stokes back,” Stokes continued. “I tried to make light of the situation and sent the same thing to Ashley Giles as well. It’s one of these situations that’s an example of ‘if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’.”I felt 45 [years old] after bowling in the Championship game,” he added, after taking figures of 3 for 55 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on Monday. “But there’s no issues in terms of how many overs I have bowled going into a one-day game, so my role won’t change from the last four or five years.”While Stokes, talking ahead of training, was reluctant to confirm any plans, he did hint that Brydon Carse, whom he called “a seriously impressive cricketer”, would play. He also praised John Simpson, who could be preferred to Ben Duckett with the gloves.”He’s got that pace and X-factor that every team wishes they had,” Stokes said of Carse. “He’s known for his bowling but he is a genuinely good batsman as well. I see him in a similar role to Liam Plunkett in the England team.”I have played against Simpson a lot. He’s a very, very talented player and a very good gloveman as well. We know they are heading into an international for the first time but they have got a lot of experience if they get an opportunity to play.”Stokes also clarified he would return to the middle-order after a brief foray into the top three in India in March. He scored 99 in the second ODI of that series; it was one of the five times in his most recent eight ODI innings that he has passed 75.Related

• Ben Stokes to miss India series, takes an 'indefinite break from all cricket'

• England welcome Pakistan with a game of 'Guess Who?'

• Danny Briggs on surprise England recall: 'This time, I'll try to take it all in'

• Does it make sense for cricketers to be locked down in a country where the public at large is free?

• Babar Azam says Pakistan players didn't think about calling off tour

England could do with such form now. His squad is talented, of course. But nine of them are uncapped and one or two others must have thought their international careers were over. It is asking a huge amount of them to deputise for World Cup winners.Their preparations since the call-ups have been far from ideal, too. Though the results of the squad’s PCR tests came back negative on Wednesday afternoon, thus avoiding throwing the series into even more chaos, the delay meant that training was not able to begin until 3pm. Until then, they were marooned in their rooms and limited to conversations over Zoom. They will have, therefore, just one training session ahead of the game.With that in mind, Stokes’ ambitions for the series sounded unsurprisingly modest. But he is not the sort of cricketer to accept a place among the also-rans. He is, quite clearly, in Cardiff to win. And as one of those characters who gives those around him confidence simply by his presence, England are in as safe hands as they could be in these odd circumstances.”I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself or the guys who will be playing because it is exceptional circumstances,” Stokes said. “We will just get through it. I just want to make sure everyone has a good time.”But I expect us to be very competitive. It doesn’t matter what names are on the back of an England shirt; we are walking out there as the No. 1 [ranked] team. That is an exciting thing to say you are a part of, whether you are an experienced player, a young player or someone coming into the group for the first time. You don’t get picked in an England team without being successful in county cricket.”Situations like these are so rare and such a fluster, I would say you have got a chance to represent your country so let’s do it with a smile on our face and just enjoy it as much as we can as a group.”The guys picked have put their hand up in county cricket and deserve to be in this situation, albeit through extreme circumstances. Everyone warrants their place in the squad.”It’s an amazing opportunity for guys on the fringes. It’s a really exciting time for them as individuals and for the public who follow the team. We’re going to look at it from a positive. We haven’t seen these guys in an England shirt because of how strong we have been.”I’m looking forward to leading out the next exciting cricketers coming through in England, who will no doubt be in an England shirt in the future. It just came quicker than we expected.”

She has been given the go-ahead to play her usual high-risk game by the team management

Andrew McGlashan19-Feb-2020Alyssa Healy will trust her instincts as she looks to put an end to the run of low scores that has brought two years of prolific returns to a juddering halt just before the T20 World Cup.Healy made scores of 9, 1, 0, 1, 4 in the tri-series against England and India – the first time she has made five single-digit scores in a row in T20Is – and followed that with 9 against South Africa in Australia’s final warm-up match before the tournament starts on Friday in Sydney when they face India.The ragged start to her 2020 comes after two outstanding years . In 2018, she averaged 41.28 with a strike rate of 145.95, during which Australia won the previous T20 World Cup, and in 2019, where her average was 53.14 with a strike rate of 173.02, including the world record 148 not out against Sri Lanka.Healy has been given the full backing to continue with a “high risk” style of play by coach Matthew Mott and captain Meg Lanning, who said she would be more worried if her opener started blocking, and Healy is confident the good times will return when it really matters.”My mindset hasn’t changed and the messaging I’m getting from Meg, the coaching staff and selectors is not to change and just go out there and enjoy my cricket,” Healy said as the Australians arrived in Sydney on Wednesday ahead of the tournament opener. “It will come off at some point, and not at others. The last two years have been an unbelievable ride and hopefully I can maintain that.”Honestly, I’ve been hitting the ball fine and haven’t been out there long enough to lose any form. From my point of view, it’s the fickle nature of cricket and especially the T20 format. I like to take the game on and sometimes you will get low scores. Hopefully come Friday I’ll get a little bit of luck, get a score on the board and put the team in a good position.”Her spirit is intact, as she jokes that she isn’t the type who likes to watch her successful innings when the going gets tough. “Personally I hate watching myself bat because all I ever wanted to bat like was Ricky Ponting and it doesn’t look like him one bit,” she said. “I won’t go back and watch any footage, but I will run through mentally what was working for me then and prepare as well as I can.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

And when Ash Gardner explained that her No. 3 role was largely tactical depending on who got out first but that she has enjoyed her extended run in the position, Healy interjected: “I’m maxmising Ash’s deliveries at the minute, so you’re all welcome.”Still, Healy’s poor run has been part of an Australia batting line-up that hasn’t really clicked in the build-up to the tournament. Beth Mooney has carried them at the top of the order – scoring 208 runs at 52.00 in the tri-series – with Gardner at No. 3 but they have needed a number of lower-order contributions. They stumbled to two defeats in the tri-series (one by a Super Over against England) before digging deep against India to take the final but there isn’t much room for error in the T20 World Cup. A mis-step in the opening match could leave them needing three wins from three matches to progress.”It’s probably great that a lot of the sides are getting hits leading into the tournament,” Healy said. “The beauty of T20 is you only need one batter at a time to potentially win a game and it’s been a different person in each game over the last couple of weeks.”Not that they mind the scrutiny of their form. In fact they are pleased with it. “We remarked on this on the bus on the way over, the amount of interest in how the squad is tracking from a form point of view is almost a bit unprecedented,” Ellyse Perry said. “I’ve been quite vocal about this, about pushing people to take more interest in how the team is playing and be more critical, analyse the game, because that shows they are interested and people care.”I guess it’s Midge’s [Healy’s] turn in the spotlight a little at the moment but she’s been playing some really good cricket in the last 22 months and that just doesn’t flip on its head in a couple of weeks.One advantage for Healy is that she has a second role in the team and her glovework has been sharp over the last few weeks.”Seems to be everyone outside the group is panicking more than us. Handling all that, I think it’s fantastic that people are talking about us and the tournament. It means people care and want to see Australia do well. Of course, I’d like to make a few more runs but if I’m just contributing with the gloves then so be it.”

Pakistan’s captain said the responsibility to turn things around rested with everyone, including the coaching staff, for a problem that’s been recurring for the past two years

Danyal Rasool in Centurion28-Dec-2018Less than three full sessions before the match ended with a commanding South African victory, Pakistan found themselves in relative control. They had a lead of 59 runs and still had nine wickets in hand to influence the result of the Centurion Test. But then Duanne Olivier and Kagiso Rabada went on a wicket-taking spree and that was that. Looking back on the three-day defeat, Sarfraz Ahmed pointed to that period of play with great regret.”We had an opportunity yesterday after tea. If we played one more hour, we had the opportunity to put runs on the board,” Sarfraz said. “But we didn’t capitalise on that, lost too many wickets and so lost the match.”It has become a pattern to such an extent, it almost approaches ritual status: the end of a Test match Pakistan could have been on the right side of, undone by the briefest of phases where the fall of one batsman has foreshadowed two, three, or in cases like yesterday, nine. While at times almost appearing at a loss to explain why these capitulations had become such a regular feature, Sarfraz said no one could be completely absolved from responsibility.”We are struggling in the second innings. We get a good start but whenever one wicket falls, we are not able to take control of the match. This has been happening for over two years, since Hamilton 2016. It has been so long we now need to realise where we’ve made mistakes. It is everyone’s responsibility, including the coaching staff’s.”We had the opportunity after tea yesterday again, but we failed to capitalise. We lost too many wickets by playing loose shots. We get under pressure too quickly and it becomes mentally challenging in the second and fourth innings.”More than once, he termed the SuperSport Park surface a “bowling paradise”, but refrained from offering any criticism of a pitch that saw no batsman from either unit look particularly comfortable for an extended period, and the match end well inside three days. Sarfraz, instead, said his side were better served focusing on their bowlers, who, along with a few of the younger batsmen, he termed “positives”.”I think a couple of positives in this match, the way Babar (Azam) played in the first innings and Imam-ul-Haq and Shan Masood in the second played, they showed great character. Another positive is our bowling. If we have runs on the board, we have the ability to bowl them out for any target.”I don’t want to say too much about the pitch. If you see it’s two and a half days, it’s not an easy pitch to bat on. Every batsman is struggling. The first 30-40 balls are not easy. If you see in the second innings, even Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar struggled early on. Early on, all batsmen are struggling. It is not an easy Test pitch, batting is very difficult. It is a bowling paradise kind of pitch.”Another positive for Pakistan will be the renewed availability of Haris Sohail and Mohammad Abbas, both of whom Sarfraz said would be fit for the Newlands Test, which begins on January 3. Asked if his side planned to spend the extra couple of days working on certain aspects of their cricket or resting, a world-weary Sarfraz finally allowed himself a smile.”I think rest is best.”

The pair add 252 to keep Bengal at bay; Chhattisgarh shoot Himachal out for 175 while Services dig in against Goa

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2017Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal (142) and Sanjay Ramaswamy (117*) put on the highest opening stand in the team’s history, powering the side to 285 for 1 at stumps against Bengal in Kalyani. Sent in to bat, Fazal and Ramaswamy put on 259 for the opening wicket before Ashok Dinda had Fazal lbw in the 73rd over. Before that, Fazal brought up his 14th first-class hundred, his third in as many games, in a 232-ball effort that included 22 fours. Ramaswamy, meanwhile, continued his impressive sequence of scores – he has thus far made 161, 7, 55 and 42 this season – and completed his third first-class century which included 14 fours. Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary employed six bowlers on what was a long day for his team.Chhattisgarh‘s bowlers restricted Himachal Pradesh to 175 after electing to bowl first in Dharamsala. In reply, Chhattisgarh were steady on 91 for 1, with opener Rishabh Tiwari (46*) and Ashutosh Singh (40*) raising an unbroken 79-run stand after the early loss of Siddharth Chandrakar. In the morning, Himachal lost early wickets slumping to 25 for 2, 60 for 3 and then 92 for 6. Seamers Pankaj Rao (3-52) and Shahnawaz Hussain (2-60) did the bulk of the damage. There were handy contributions from Nikhil Gangta (26), Rishi Dhawan (35) and Pankaj Jaiswal (25), but those were ultimately not enough to push Himachal past 200. Left-arm spinner Sumit Ruikar cleaned up the lower order with a three-wicket haul.Debutant seamer Heramb Parab’s three-wicket spell meant Goa kept Services down to 228 for 8 at the Palam ground in Delhi. After being put into bat, Services lost opener Vikash Mohan in the third ball off the match as Parab had him caught behind by Keenan Vaz. At the other end, Felix Alemao bowled Ravi Chauhan for a duck and Services were reeling on 1 for 2. Services slipped to 18 for 3 after offspinner Amogh Desai had Shamsher Yadav edging behind. Captain Nakul Verma (64) then restored calm with a 77-run stand in the company of Navneet Singh (27).However, the Parab-Vaz combine struck again to remove the latter. Parab was then on a hat-trick after he trapped G Rahul Singh in front with his next delivery. With Verma also being dismissed, Services turned to Vikas Yadav (61*) and Nitin Tanwar (43). Yadav first put on 67 runs with Tanwar for the seventh wicket before adding 38 runs with Diwesh Pathania. Alemao finished with two wickets.

South Africa are a happy team again. Not just because they beat New Zealand but because they’ve rediscovered their reason

Firdose Moonda in Centurion30-Aug-20162:47

‘Happy with the way we batted’ – Du Plessis

South Africa are a happy team again. Not just because they beat New Zealand but because they’ve rediscovered their reason.”We’ve found our passion again and why we want to win games,” Faf du Plessis said. “The team space is good and that reflects directly on our performances.”The reason did not get lost in the retirements of great players like Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher. It did not get lost in the complex off-field affairs that dominate every sphere of life in a country still coming to terms with its past as it lurches into the future. It did not get lost in the five Tests they lost last summer across two series. It got lost before that, at the 2015 World Cup.”After the World Cup, we just stopped,” Dale Steyn admitted.Literally. On the night of the semi-final, the core of the South African squad was on the floor. Steyn, du Plessis and Morne Morkel were among those that had to be helped up. Something broke that night and, as we are now discovering, it was the South African spirit. “We didn’t know why we wanted to win games. We needed something to happen,” Steyn said.The something was the season of discontent that followed and the honest discussion that took place after that about exactly what was needed to heal, in all formats. “We felt we needed to improve again. We couldn’t rest on our laurels as the previous Test team did because with this team we are not good enough to do that yet,” du Plessis said.The previous team – the one of Smith, Kallis and Boucher – had become so good that they managed to win, or not lose, pretty much everywhere. The current team lost to India and England and in so doing, slipped from the No. 1 they had worked so hard to earn, to No. 7. “It was very disappointing. I can’t say what it was like because I wasn’t part of the teams that lost but it is disappointing to go from 1 to 7,” Steyn, who missed six of eight Tests last season through injury, said.The current team also knew that unless they changed their attitudes, they would not be able to change their ranking. “We had some really good discussions between ourselves. The guys took it on board. They were real mature,” du Plessis said.They decided to work harder and work smarter. They also knew they would have their two biggest weapons back. Steyn and Philander spent the rest of last summer recovering and the winter getting ready to show they still have it.”It will be tough for us to be at the top without the two of them,” he said. “It’s amazing to throw them the ball and know the run rate’s going to be under three and they are going to be taking wickets as well. To control the game of Test cricket, you need bowlers like them.”But you also need back-up and South Africa have the best they could ask for in Kagiso Rabada. You also need batsmen and with du Plessis and JP Duminy returning to form, South Africa need them as well. With AB de Villiers now out injured, the line-up has proved to themselves, they can be good enough again.”We’ve got the capabilities of transforming our team into a good team again,” du Plessis said. “We don’t rely completely on those guys – AB and Morne.”Du Plessis knows that any more progress will be difficult without de Villiers, who should return from an elbow injury in time for the Australia ODIs at home and Tests away, and Morkel, who is nursing a back niggle and will also be back soon. “We would need them to be No. 1. If they are not there, it’s going to be a challenge,” he said.He is even happy to hand the captaincy reins back to de Villiers, despite thriving in the role. “AB is the Test captain and I will support him fully and we can’t wait to have him back. He is a massive leader in our team. We have missed him this series,” du Plessis said.What South Africa have not missed is the chance to start rebuilding. Even though they were weary of a one-off Test to decide the series and unsure what to expect from a winter wicket, they accepted their challenges and more importantly, they overcame them. “We almost played the perfect Test. If I could write a script to write it the way I would like, that’s the way I would have scripted it,” du Plessis said.A first-innings total over 400, a century from one batsman, and bowlers who consistently applied pressure created what du Plessis called “a proper Test” on a pitch that kept interested. It also gave South Africa a proper restart to what they hope will be a successful few summers. “What a wonderful story it will be in two years’ time when we go to No. 1 again,” Steyn said.If you were wondering what the reason was, that’s it.

Kyle Coetzer’s 38-ball 63 and Safyaan Sharif’s 3 for 27 wrapped up a 23-run win for Scotland over Oman in their World T20 Qualifier Group B game in Edinburgh

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jul-2015
ScorecardKyle Coetzer struck nine fours and a six for his 63•ICC/Donald MacLeod

Scotland have booked their place in the World T20 in India after beating Oman by 23 runs in their last Group B game in Edinburgh. With all matches having being played in Group B, Netherlands, Afghanistan and Oman, who are second, third and fourth respectively will play in the playoffs next week. Netherlands finished second, falling just short of the top spot in spite of beating Kenya by four wickets – they needed to score the target of 98 within eight overs but reached it in the ninth. Opening batsman Kyle Coetzer’s 38-ball 63 and pacer Safyaan Sharif’s 3 for 27 helped wrap up the win for Scotland. The win helped them finish at the top of the Group B table with four wins in six matches, while Afghanistan also finished on eight points with three wins in six games and two abandoned matches.Coetzer, who had initially been omitted from Scotland’s squad for the Qualifier, gave the team a brisk start, 60 in 6.1 overs with Calum MacLeod, before the latter was dismissed by seamer Mohammad Nadeem for 20. Scotland appeared to build on the aggressive start with a promising 35-run stand between Coetzer and Matthew Cross but left-arm spinner Zeeshan Maqsood brought Oman back by dismissing Cross and George Munsey in a space of 10 deliveries to leave Scotland on 101 for 3. By then, Coetzer had brought up his fifty and made his way to 63 – taking his tally for the tournament to 173, the highest for Scotland – before Maqsood had him edge one to the keeper off the final ball of the 14th over. Richie Berrington (26) and Preston Mommsen (32*) helped Scotland add 54 runs off the last six overs to finish on 173 for 5.Oman’s start was not ideal as Sharif claimed openers Zeeshan Maqsood and Zeeshan Ahmed within the first four overs of the innings. Jatinder Singh and Aamir Kaleem added 44 for the third wicket, but Alasdair Evans’ strikes off successive deliveries in the 11th over – to account for Jatinder and Mehran Khan – left Oman reeling at 68 for 4. Kaleem’s 40-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Amir Ali looked to revive the chase but after that stand was broken in the 15th over, Oman found it difficult to keep up with the required rate. Shareef was eventually dismissed for 59 off 47 deliveries in the 18th over and with 39 required off 12 deliveries, the match slipped away from Oman.

Fawad Ahmed could make his Sheffield Shield debut this week after being named in Victoria’s squad for their match against South Australia at Adelaide Oval starting on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jan-2013Fawad Ahmed could make his Sheffield Shield debut this week after being named in Victoria’s squad for their match against South Australia at Adelaide Oval starting on Thursday. Ahmed, the Pakistani legspinner who went from asylum seeker to BBL player with the Melbourne Renegades this summer, has been included alongside another uncapped legspinner, James Muirhead, in a 12-man squad that also includes the fast bowler James Pattinson, who is making his return from a rib injury.Pattinson’s comeback is a positive sign for Australia’s selectors as they prepare to name a squad for the upcoming Test tour of India. Pattinson suffered the injury during the second Test against South Africa in Adelaide in November and missed the rest of the Test summer, but if he comes through the Shield match unscathed he is expected to be back in the squad for the Indian trip.The inclusion of Ahmed continues his remarkable rise and is reward for a strong season with Melbourne University in the grade cricket competition. Ahmed has collected 26 wickets at 16.50 for his club this summer and is one of four legspinners in the top 11 wicket takers in the competition, along with Bryce McGain, Brenton McDonald and Muirhead.Muirhead, 19, has also played in the BBL, turning out for two matches for the Adelaide Strikers last season. Victoria’s coach Greg Shipperd said it was yet to be decided which of the legspinners would play, or if both would be included.”It’s great for Fawad to be named in the squad; it’s no doubt a very exciting time for him,” Shipperd said. “We’ll assess the conditions before we decide on the final make-up of the team…but from a national selection perspective, we’re selected two leg-spinners who may come into calculations in the future.”Victoria squad Chris Rogers, Rob Quiney, Michael Hill, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Peter Handscomb (wk), John Hastings, Will Sheridan, James Pattinson, Scott Boland, James Muirhead, Fawad Ahmed.

Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Sri Lanka’s sports minister, has said the Sri Lanka cricketers, who have not received their salaries since the World Cup, will be paid, at least in part, by next week

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-2011Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Sri Lanka’s sports minister, has said the Sri Lanka cricketers who have not received their salaries since the World Cup will be paid, at least in part, by next week. Sri Lanka have played three series since the end of the World Cup, and the players are still awaiting payment, including match fees and contract payments.”There has always been a delay of four to five months in paying their salaries,” Aluthgamage told . “We admit that the players are to be paid 347 million Sri Lankan rupees for the last seven months, until September.” He said that he expected half of the outstanding salaries to be paid initially.Sri Lanka Cricket has been in debt to the tune of US$23 million since co-hosting the World Cup and the board had to ask the Sri Lanka government for a grant. The financial crisis centres around the construction of new stadiums in Hambantota and Pallekele, and the renovation of the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo for the World Cup. SLC has been expecting payments from the ICC amounting to $4.3million for co-hosting the World Cup, but has had to wait until the completion of the governing body’s World Cup audit.The payment of salaries is now possible as the ICC is set to release part of that money to the SLC, according to Aluthgamage. “Yes there has been a delay,” he said. “But now the accounts have been submitted.”Aluthgamage also confirmed that the government had refused the grant of one billion Sri Lankan rupees that was requested by the SLC, but had sanctioned a grant for 50 million rupees.

The MCC World Cricket Committee has made several proposals to help overcome match-fixing, including the use of lie detector tests and the legalisation of betting markets in India

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2010The MCC World Cricket Committee has recommended that the laws of the game be amended in a bid to rid the sport of corruption, and has called for the use of lie detector tests to reinforce the need for transparency in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal that erupted during Pakistan’s tour of England in August.Following a two-day meeting in Perth ahead of the third Ashes Test, the club’s working party, including two former Ashes-winning captains in Steve Waugh and Mike Brearley, issued a statement containing a wide range of proposals including “the legalising and regulating of betting markets in India as proposed by the Delhi Court; the length of bans; non-selection of tainted players; the possible use of lie detector tests; the provision of integrity officers; and the inclusion of anti-corruption clauses in all professional playing contracts in all countries.””The greatest issue facing the game right now is match-fixing,” said Waugh. “How can we make players more accountable for their actions? Personally, I think if you’ve not done anything wrong, why wouldn’t you want to have a lie detector test? You can’t make it compulsory but like I said, if you’ve got nothing to hide, why wouldn’t you take it? If we sit back and don’t do anything about corruption, it’s going to get worse.”In its statement, the committee also complimented the ICC and its Anti-Corruption & Security Unit (ACSU) for its work to clean up the sport, but urged the game’s governing body to commit more resources – and increased powers – to tackle the single biggest menace to the integrity of cricket.”The education of players should not be a meaningless formality; the message should be pressed home with regularity by figures known and respected by the players,” the statement read. “Furthermore, the committee believes that team captains – as enshrined in the Laws and Spirit of Cricket – should accept greater responsibility for the conduct of their players.”Speaking on the eve of the Perth Test, England’s captain, Andrew Strauss gave a cautious welcome to the notion of introducing lie detectors to the game. “That’s hard for me to answer at this stage,” he said. “I don’t know about the accuracy of lie detector tests. But what I do know, and is probably more important, is that we don’t want the whiff of anything suspicious going on in the game.”We’ve seen how disruptive and detrimental to the game of cricket it is,” added Strauss. “The devil of all these things is in the detail. If we have to take extreme measures in order to be 100% confident the game is being played in the right spirit, then I’d certainly be happy to do that.”I’d have to think about the arguments [for lie detector tests] one side and another first. But the principle, of having 22 guys on the pitch that the supporters are absolutely 100% certain are playing the game for the right reasons, is a good thing.”

The Zimbabwe Under-19 team rounded off its preparations for the World Cup with a two-wicket win against Titans in Paarl.

Cricinfo staff08-Jan-2010The Zimbabwe Under-19 team rounded off its preparations for the World Cup with a two-wicket win against Titans in Paarl. After electing to field first, Zimbabwe’s opening bowlers Calum Price and Tendai Chitara hit their straps immediately to have the hosts reeling at three wickets down with less than 30 on the board. A middle-order recovery overcame a fine fielding performance to take the score to 183 runs.Zimbabwe’s response followed a similar theme of early wickets followed by a resurgence. The chase was initially was stunted by a fine opening salvo from the Titans’ seamers who had the visitors in a shambles at 28 for 4. The rebuilding phase was masterminded by Tinotenda Mutombodzi and Andrew Lindsay, who added 70 runs to bring their side back into the game. Titans’ spinners restored parity by dismissing both batsmen with fifty runs still required for victory. However, Nathan Waller put paid to the hosts’ hopes of a back-door victory with a belligerent 40 that took Zimbabwe home with an over to spare. The squad will be buoyed by this win as they head to New Zealand for the Under-19 World Cup.