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The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have scrapped two Tests from Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies next May and instead plan to play an ODI tri-series involving India

Andrew Fernando11-Sep-2012The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have scrapped two Tests from Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies next May and instead plan to play an ODI tri-series involving India. The decision also means that players from both teams will remain available during the IPL, which runs from April 3 to May 26 next year. The teams were scheduled to play two Tests, three ODIs and two Twenty20s as per the Future Tours Programme. It is unclear if the Twenty20s will remain part of the tour.SLC chief executive Ajit Jayasekara denied the motive for foregoing the Tests was to avoid a clash with the IPL, but failed to provide an alternate reason. He said the WICB had put forward the idea, and the SLC had agreed to the change in schedule after holding discussions. Jayasekara said scheduling an ODI series instead of following the FTP would end up being “more lucrative for the board”.WICB corporate communications manager Imran Khan said that all three boards had agreed in principle to the tri-series. Dates and details would be finalised following final sanction from the BCCI. Incidentally, national boards receive 10% of each player’s salary from the IPL.This will be the second time Sri Lanka have foregone a Test series which clashes with the IPL. In 2009, they declined to replace Zimbabwe in England, when Zimbabwe were unable to tour for political reasons. In 2011, several players, including Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, missed tour matches playing in the IPL ahead of a three-Test series in England, which Sri Lanka eventually lost 1-0.West Indies spin bowler Sunil Narine also missed two Tests against England due to his IPL commitments, though he did play in the third Test. Chris Gayle did not feature in that series due to a standoff with the board, which has since been resolved.The change in the tour programme is also a continuation of the SLC’s recent trend of culling Tests from Sri Lanka’s schedule. Two tests against India in July became five ODIs and a Twenty20 and the three Tests scheduled for England in March became a two-Test series as the IPL approached. With the schedule now adjusted, Sri Lanka will not play an away Test against a top-eight opposition between January and December.The BCCI did not confirm India’s involvement in any change of plans. “We have been told about this but the matter is being discussed. Nothing has been decided or finalised yet,” a senior BCCI official said. During its annual meeting in Malaysia, the ICC had decided not to create a window for the IPL, as they did not want to set a precedent of domestic tournaments taking priority over international cricket. “Once you provide a window for one particular member, you have to be conscious of the fact you may well have to do it for other members,” then ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said in June. “Hence why we have not been supportive of a window specifically for any one of those domestic leagues.”

Ireland Women recovered from their loss to Netherlands Women yesterday, to register a comprehensive 90-run win against Scotland Women in the Women’s European Championship at Kampong, Utrecht

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-2011
Scorecard
Kim Garth starred as Ireland bounced back from their loss to the Netherlands•ICC/CricketEurope

Ireland Women recovered from their loss to Netherlands Women yesterday, to register a comprehensive 90-run win against Scotland Women in the Women’s European Championship at Kampong, Utrecht. The win was fashioned by an all-round performance by Kim Garth and an aggressive 85 by captain Isobel Joyce.Ireland were in trouble after being asked to bat, losing their openers within the first four overs with only eight on the board. But Joyce – the sister of England and Ireland men’s player Ed Joyce – steadied the innings by stringing together partnerships with Laura Delany, Laura Boylan and Garth before being stumped for what is her best ODI score. Garth then guided the lower order, pushing Ireland to a competitive 241 for 6.None of the Scotland batsmen could really get going in the chase, as the target was reduced to 214 off 39 overs due to rain. Even Kari Anderson, who top-scored, could not move along quickly enough, her unbeaten 43 coming off 97 balls. The innings was wrecked by four run-outs, two of which involved Garth. Garth also picked up opener Catherine Smaill in a miserly spell in which she conceded 12 runs off seven overs.Scotland play Netherlands tomorrow at the same venue.

There are a couple of ways of looking at Shane Watson’s opening partnership with Simon Katich

Peter English24-Aug-2010There are a couple of ways to look at Shane Watson’s opening partnership with Simon Katich. The straight numbers way, or through the increasingly friendly displays of two content men who form the most stable sector of the country’s batting.In statistical terms they own the second-best average for Australian openers in 20 Tests or more, with their 54.95 an innings putting them behind Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson. They currently have 1099 runs together and will never reach the mark of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer (5655), mainly due to Katich’s age of 35. They are also unlikely to match the man love of their cuddle-happy predecessors, but are giving it a go.”We probably aren’t as emotional as those two were, with our public shows of affection,” Watson said. “But we’ve got a really strong inner bond. You’re never going to see as much hugging as what you did with Matt Hayden and Justin Langer, so we won’t be raising too many eyebrows in that regard.”They enjoy socialising away from the game, although Katich doesn’t use his celebrity cooking skills to fill Watson’s stomach. “We’ve had a good friendship, even before we ended up opening the batting together,” Watson said. “We know that deep down there’s such a tight inner bond because of what we’re doing, and trying to do. He’s an integral part of who we are.”Like any lasting relationship there have been bouts of silent treatment, the main one coming when they pretended to be strangers when stuck at the same end of the MCG in December. Watson was the one run-out, seven short of his first Test century, but they were soon speaking and scoring heavily again.The strength of their partnership has surprised Watson, and the odd couple has become one of the selection panel’s most successful gambles. Watson is the free-flowing, muscular, stylish striker who is made for the middle order, giving him time to recover from his bowling. The almost scrawny Katich is happy to scrape and scrap, focusing not on style, but the end-of-innings total.”It has been a really good combination of what we both do to set up a platform for the team,” he said. “I never really fully understood when the guys who opened the batting continued to talk about how important the relationship is for openers, and how important it is to be really close.”Watson likes where is so much, having scored 990 runs at 47.14 since replacing Phillip Hughes at Edgbaston last year, that his argument of not wanting to drop down the order is now convincing. At the start of his time at the top he wasn’t so sure, despite being desperate to talk up his suitability.Cold shoulder: Watson and Katich wait for the run-out decision at the MCG in December•Getty Images

“I love where I’m batting now,” he said. “It does really suit my personality in the game, which I never thought it would until I had the opportunity.”And in an order in which Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Marcus North have been battling, the opening combination takes on extreme importance. Katich has talked about turning stands of 80 into 180 and Watson wants to transform his record for entertaining half-centuries into a reputation for big hundreds. “It’s something I will be continuing to develop and improve on,” he said. “It’s a part that needs to get better.”Of course, Watson is not just a recently married metrosexual who expresses his feelings and has found the perfect hair gel. He can also turn into a fast bowler of the 1970s, without the moustache, but with the loud mouth.He has tipped Steven Finn, the 21-year-old fast bowler, and Jimmy Anderson to struggle during the 2010-11 Ashes. Finn didn’t play the one-dayers when Australia were in England earlier in the year and Watson believes his lack of big matches can be exposed.”He is someone we can really try and make the most of his inexperience,” he said. “By them resting him during the [English] summer and us not seeing him during the one-dayers – no doubt he will feel the pressure. It is so foreign, he doesn’t know what to expect.”Watson highlighted Anderson’s poor record on the 2006-07 tour, when he took five wickets at 82.60. “If he doesn’t start out the way he wants to,” he said, “those wounds can open up straight away.”However, he does rate Stuart Broad after being dismissed twice by him in last year’s Ashes. “He will be the hardest bowler we’ll have to face in the English attack,” he said. “Because of how skilful he is on wickets that aren’t doing anything. He’s able to change his pace, seam movement, angles on the crease, he’s a really intelligent bowler. England are going to be reliant on him.”Australia will be looking to Watson and Katich to blunt Broad and take control of the innings. In the end it is only the numbers that matter.

The T20I series ends 1-1 with Glenn Phillips also playing an important role

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Nov-2024Roughly 20 days after the women’s team won the T20 World Cup, and about a week after the men’s Test team completed a whitewash of India at home, New Zealand’s cricketers continue to do the near-impossible.On this occasion they defended 108 all out on a tricky – but far from unplayable – Dambulla surface. Lockie Ferguson bowled only two overs before having to leave the field because of a calf injury, but he claimed a hat-trick to rip out Sri Lanka’s top order, as he collected figures of 3 for 7.As has often been the case on this long South Asian sojourn, Glenn Phillips was vital to New Zealand’s victory too. He’d been out for 4 off 9, but took three wickets in the final over – which he had only had to bowl because of Ferguson’s absence. The most prized of those wickets was that of Pathum Nissanka, who had been Sri Lanka’s backbone, making 52 off 50, until he tried to smash Phillips over long-on, but could not clear the fielder.He was the last recognised batter to be dismissed, however. Zakary Foulkes, Mitchell Santner, and Michael Bracewell had all been effective in keeping Sri Lanka on a leash, as they squeezed wickets out of the batters’ frustrations. New Zealand have never defended a lower total in T20Is. Only twice have Full Members failed to finish off a chase of such modest proportions. (Zim vs Nam in 2023 and WI vs Zim in 2010)Sri Lanka would have thought themselves almost certain to win, when they earlier had the opposition 52 for 6 in the 11th over. But New Zealand cobbled together what looked an unimpressive total between Will Young’s 30, Santner’s 19, and Josh Clarkson’s 24. All of those innings came at less than a run-a-ball.This result ties the series 1-1, Sri Lanka having eased to victory on Saturday.

Ferguson takes out 3, 4, and 5

Although Ferguson only bowled half his overs (he’d only just recovered from a right hamstring complaint to make it into this XI), he essentially broke the game open in overs six and eight. Having allowed only three singles off his first five balls, he delivered a spectacular, swinging almost-yorker just on off stump, to take Kusal Perera’s outside edge, nicely caught by a diving Mitchell Hay.Next over, he nailed Kamindu Mendis in front of the stumps with a rapid yorker the batter was way to late on, and for his hat-trick wicket got a little luck. He pushed the ball – another attempted yorker – to Charith Asalanka a little far down leg. But Asalanka, in good form, got a little edge to that ball, which Hay received, low to the ground.Sri Lanka, suddenly were 34 for 4.Wanindu Hasaranga picked up four wickets while playing through an injury•AFP/Getty Images

Phillips puts in a death-bowling shift

With Ferguson unavailable through the back end of the innings, and Santner choosing to keep the pressure on Sri Lanka by bowling his frontliners relatively early, it fell to Phillips to bowl the big-pressure final over.Sri Lanka needed eight from it, which is not a huge amount when you have a top-order player batting on a half-century at the crease. Phillips found a way.When Nissanka got on strike for the second ball, he went down low and tried to slog-sweep it, only to find the long-on fielder. Next ball, Phillips slid a ball past the outside edge of Matheesha Pathirana, who stumbled forward, and was duly stumped.Sri Lanka could have still won – or at least tied – the game going into the final two deliveries. Maheesh Theekshana, who can occasionally produce boundaries, was on strike. But Phillips bowled bravely, slowing up a big offbreak outside off, with a little extra top spin. Theekshana swung, and only got a top edge, that Hay tracked down with his gloves to spark New Zealand jubilation.

Hasaranga bosses the first innings on one leg

It was clear there was big turn on this track from the outset. On top of which, Wanindu Hasaranga was in especially devastating touch. First ball, he bowled Phillips attempting what may have been a pre-meditated reverse slap. It was the googly that did that damage. Later in the over, he ripped a big legbreak, bowled slow through the air, beat Bracewell’s outside edge and took the top of his offstump – a classical legspinner’s dismissal.Hay was dismissed similarly next over, before getting Young overbalanced attempting a sweep, with Kusal Mendis collecting the ball down the leg side and flinging down the stumps while Young was out of the crease – an especially sharp piece of wicketkeeping after Mendis had been struck on the knee the previous over.That Wanindu did all this with a leg injury he’d picked up early in the game, made it even more impressive. He was hobbling through many of his deliveries.

Jack Leach, Mark Wood surprised at allocation for Australia’s next visit, with Headingley and Old Trafford omitted

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2023England players have expressed their surprise and disappointment at the omission of both main northern venues from the schedule for the 2027 men’s Ashes.Headingley and Old Trafford, the venues for the third and fourth Tests in the ongoing series, have been overlooked in the allocation for England’s next home Ashes in four years’ time. The Ageas Bowl, near Southampton, will instead host its first Ashes Test, while Trent Bridge will be the northernmost ground used in the series.While both Headingley and Old Trafford will stage men’s Ashes Tests in 2031, the allocation for 2027 has been widely criticised. Scyld Berry, the ‘s chief cricket writer, described it as “an outrage”, while Mark Wood and Jack Leach have both expressed their regret at the lack of a northern Test in interviews this week.”As a lad from the north, obviously I love playing in the north,” Wood told talkSPORT. “Headingley has had some [amazing] games: obviously in the last series with Ben Stokes and this one was another great game. Old Trafford’s an iconic place to play. Durham as well… to see Test-match cricket up in the north at Durham is always special.”I understand some of the reasons why but [I am] surprised there isn’t at least one game up here, because I think we get great support and I think they’re iconic places to play. [I’m] a little bit disappointed, just being from the north, that there isn’t one up here where you feel like you’ve got that extra backing and you can relate with people up here.”Related

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Leach, who is from the south-west, suggested that England’s players perform better in front of the louder crowds that attend Tests in the north. “You want to make the most of home advantage don’t you? And those grounds, you definitely feel like you’ve got potentially that,” Leach told the podcast.”I think about going to Australia and the amount of stick I got or we all got there and maybe, with those grounds [Old Trafford and Headingley], you feel like the opposition gets it a little bit. You get it when you go to that place. And I think that actually can make a big difference.”They talk about the crowd being like a 12th man and I think in those places, it definitely is. So yeah, I think that’s a shame… playing up north, those grounds seem to be good for us and the crowd is just epic up in those places.”Both Old Trafford and Headingley will host Tests against India – England’s second-most prestigious home series – in 2025, while Headingley is due to host the women’s Ashes Test in 2027.

Four wickets after top-scoring with bat ensures Leicestershire fall well short

ECB Reporters Network26-May-2022Durham 184 for 8 (Coughlin 42, Ahmed 2-22) beat Leicestershire 130 (Patel 40, Coughlin 4-15) by 54 runsPaul Coughlin shone with bat and ball as Durham shrugged off the loss of three of their squad on England duty to beat Leicestershire Foxes by 54 runs in their opening North Group match in the Vitality Blast.The 29-year-old allrounder made 42 from 30 balls to help Durham post 184 for 8 from their 20 overs after being asked to bat first, before taking 4 for 15 as the home side were bowled out for 130.Rehan Ahmed, the 17-year-old legspinner who is exciting Leicestershire and England after taking 12 wickets in the Under-19 World Cup, bowled beautifully for his 2 for 22, taking a wicket with his first ball. But the youngster’s Blast debut – he also hit two sixes in his 18 – was one of few plusses for Leicestershire, for whom New Zealand’s Hamish Rutherford was out for a first-ball duck.Three fours by Graham Clark off Roman Walker in the second of the innings set the tone for a brisk start by Durham but the Foxes hit back to claim two wickets in the powerplay, which ended with Durham 47 for 2.Michael Jones, making his debut in this format, hoisted Callum Parkinson for six but was bowled by the left-arm spinner’s next delivery and Walker came back after his expensive first over to bring an early end to Ollie Robinson’s debut for Durham on loan, the Kent man slicing to backward point.Ahmed introduced himself to Blast audiences in sensational fashion, taking a return catch with his first ball after inducing a leading edge from David Bedingham.The youngster should have Ashton Turner as his second big scalp in his second over but Arron Lilley dropped what should have been a straightforward catch at deep midwicket when the Australian was on 17.From 82 for 3 at the halfway point, Durham slipped to 109 for 5 in the 12th. Clark clubbed Lilley for his first six but was yorked by the next ball and Turner, threatening to inflict some major punishment for that dropped catch, walloped Ben Mike for his third maximum only to lose his middle stump to the next ball.But Coughlin and Ned Eckersley, whose 20 off nine included two sixes in an expensive last over that went for 19 as Walker finished with 2 for 52, helped Durham set a challenging target. Ahmed picked up his second wicket when Brydon Carse found the fielder at long-on.Leicestershire made a horrible start to their reply. Rutherford – a late replacement as overseas batter after Rahmanullah Gurbaz became unavailable – lost his middle stump first ball to an inswinger by Coughlin, who had Lewis Hill caught at third man in the same over before Lilley holed out to deep midwicket in his second.At 36 for 3 after the powerplay, Leicestershire’s required run rate was already at almost 10 and the loss of skipper Colin Ackermann, caught at deep backward square off Turner’s offspin in the ninth over, set them back further. Even after Patel found the boundary three times off Carse the Foxes were well off the pace at 70 for 4 after 10.Ahmed, seemingly nerveless, twice hit Liam Trevaskis over the top for six, but Leicestershire’s already diminishing hopes all but disappeared when Patel was stumped off Trevaskis, who inflicted another blow by bowling Mike for 24 after Ahmed had been caught at mid-on off Coughlin.