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Virat Kohli has hailed the professionalism not just of his team but of the cricket set-up after the sweet 4-0 series win against England

Sidharth Monga in Chennai20-Dec-2016Virat Kohli has hailed the professionalism not just of his team but of the cricket set-up after the sweet 4-0 series win against England. Constantly India had to chop and change in this series because of injuries, but the players coming in fitted in seamlessly. India started out with two of their three openers injured, lost one of them again, lost their pace spearhead and firefighting wicketkeeper in the middle of the series, but never missed any of them.”Whoever comes into the team he knows there is a certain benchmark for fitness in the team,” Kohli said. “Of performance. Of mindset. We want players to be match-ready when they join the India team. You shouldn’t be spending a year in international cricket just learning what to do now. You lose a lot of time in that. And many players can’t face that pressure. But if you are prepared, if you are professional, if you know you have to work hard, if you know how to prepare for a game, you have a better chance of performing.”Like KL Rahul. Like Karun Nair. You can see their performance for yourself. Especially Karun. Replacing a batsman like Ajinkya [Rahane], who has been performing consistently in the last two years in Test cricket. To walk in and score a triple-hundred, there couldn’t have been a bigger statement. It shows that the next generation will keep getting smarter looking at others, learning how it is done. What we need to do when we reach the Indian team. It is just evolution. It is sometimes surprising looking at these youngsters, how quickly they pick things up. They are very smart, and it shows on the field in how they play.”In this age of cricket throughout the year, it is near impossible for the national captain to keep track of all the talent in the country. So the support system around the India team has to be impeccable. Rahul Dravid, who was part of the eight straight away losses in India’s slump in 2011 and 2012, has played a not insignificant part in this series. Nair and Jayant Yadav were both groomed under him on A tours. Nair in particular left Kohli impressed.”Karun, I haven’t seen him play too much first-class cricket,” Kohli said. “I’ve seen him play in the IPL against world-class bowlers. And he’s someone who has always showed character. He could pull the ball well. He used his feet, drive the ball well. At No.3, when the ball is swinging. Spinners, he’s very lethal. I’ve not seen anyone currently in India sweep so well against spinners. He’s just the complete package.”It’s difficult to find guys like that, which have such character when they are batting and understand their game so well at such a young age. It’s important to back guys like Karun. We’ve always believed. He was always our No.1 choice as a middle-order back-up.”As part of backing Nair up, Kohli was happy to delay the declaration on the fourth evening. “This guy is close to 300 and it doesn’t happen every day. It’s not like he is taking 10 overs to do it. He was hitting sixes, he was hitting fours, he was getting us a bigger lead. So it was a perfect scenario where he got us to a stage where we couldn’t have batted again and at the same time, we had enough overs.”If the wicket was doing enough, then those overs were good enough. If we have five bowlers, we should be able to knock teams off in 90-plus overs. That’s exactly what we did. It’s all how you go about that particular situation. The good thing was Karun really stepped it up close to his milestone and he didn’t take too long to get there. So it gave us five overs yesterday.”The end might have come swiftly, but the series win has been hard work. Unlike the one against South Africa, this was played on traditional Indian pitches and India had to come back from four lost tosses and playing catch-up in the first Test. “It’s a complete performance,” Kohli said. “From the time we were put under pressure in the first game to coming back and winning the next four Test matches. And coming from behind, all four games, we lost four tosses including Rajkot…and winning three games out of that is very satisfying. As a captain, I feel it’s a complete series for us. Everyone contributed at different times. Especially the lower-order contribution is something that stands out for me in this series.”It’s been a complete year, except for a blip here or there, but Kohli said this was just a start. “As a team we have had a very good 2016 apart from two setbacks that I can point out,” Kohli said. “One would be the ODI series in Australia, and the second one the World T20. We won the Asia Cup, we won the one-day series against New Zealand in India, and we won all the Test series that we played. It’s been a memorable 2016 for the Indian cricket team, and that’s something I am really proud of.”To be part of such a good year and such a good season, especially with the team in transition, is something we can be really proud of. But this is just the foundation that’s been laid for us to carry on for many years. It’s just the beginning. It’s nothing [compared to what] we want to achieve. It’s not even a tiny bit of that. We understand where we want to go, and hopefully the guys can keep putting this kind of effort and take the team where it belongs.”

Amid much nostalgia for a bygone era of West Indies cricket, Australia are only thinking of making life difficult for the beleaguered tourists

Daniel Brettig06-Dec-2015Amid much hand-wringing and nostalgia for a bygone era of West Indies cricket, Australia’s players are not allowing themselves to think of anything other than doing their very best to make life as difficult as possible for Jason Holder’s beleaguered tourists.While Cricket Australia’s administrators deal with the dual issues of a poorly opponent and a problematic Hobart Test match likely to be watched by a disconcertingly small crowd, the players arrived in Hobart with their minds on matters of a more micro nature.Not for them the high-minded questions of how to improve Caribbean cricket or draw a big gate to Bellerive Oval; simply the task, as Peter Siddle stated, of keeping West Indies down after they were well beaten by a modest CA XI in Brisbane. Playing and winning matches is Siddle’s living, and the loss of his CA contract earlier this year – something he will now regain after resuming in the Test team – has left him very aware of what he must concentrate on.”They have some strong weapons with their bowling attack,” Siddle said on arrival in Hobart. “They can blast teams out when they bowl well. So I think that’s going to be the big part. We’re going to have to bat well against them I think. That’s going to be their key, their bowling. And then we try and exploit their batting which won’t be quite as strong.”I haven’t really taken too much notice [of the tour game]. The young Aussie side played a bloody good game up in Queensland, did well. You can’t look too much into a tour match there, it’s their first experience of getting on the shores and having a hit out. No doubt they’ll come down here a lot more switched on and a lot more competitive side in the Test-match arena.”Though the series victory over New Zealand was welcome, this remains a transitional Australian side under a new captain in Steven Smith, with a bowling attack now relying very much on reserve strength after the retirement of Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson plus a foot injury to Mitchell Starc. Siddle was recalled in Adelaide, and after shrugging off a jarred back during that match is still striving to make his place secure again.”I think at this stage, I’m still essentially playing for my place,” he said on arrival in Hobart. “I guess being out of the side for so long and having a couple of games here and there makes you feel like that. At the moment it’s just taking it game by game, which is what I was doing when I wasn’t playing. Just making sure I prepare well and be ready to go and get out on the field and perform well.”At the moment that’s all it’s about, just performing well this week in preparation, getting everything right, get the body right and be ready to go on game day. The West Indies are going to be a lot more competitive in the Test-match arena, so it’s about getting through this first game and seeing where we end up after this.”Australia prospered by building pressure on New Zealand’s batsmen in Adelaide, having struggled to do so earlier in the series in Siddle’s absence. There will likely be more of the same in Hobart, against West Indies batsmen well known for showing a lack of application when denied plentiful scoring opportunities. As Siddle observed, what was good enough for Glenn McGrath will certainly work for his Australian successors.”Glenn McGrath is probably the perfect example, I reckon,” Siddle said. “He has been our greatest fast bowler. So I think that’s a good example to go by and I’ve spoken to him a lot and tried building my game a little bit on him. How he was consistent, his patience and being able to work batsmen over.”I think that’s what I’ve shown over the last little bit, that’s what I can do. I think it was a good example in Adelaide how the team as a bowling unit did that against someone like Kane Williamson who they thought wouldn’t crack under the pressure of building pressure and patience. And we got him cheap both innings doing that and he’s one of the class players in the Test arena over the last little bit. I think it’ll work and it’s shown it can work.”

The effects of the arrest of three Rajasthan Royals players on allegations of spot-fixing have had their first off-field fallout, with one team sponsor reported to have withdrawn advertisements featuring Sreesanth

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2013The effects of the arrest of three Rajasthan Royals players on allegations of spot-fixing have had their first off-field fallout, with one team sponsor reported to have withdrawn advertisements featuring Sreesanth.Kent R-O Systems, a Delhi-based company that sells water purifiers, has withdrawn its campaigns featuring Sreesanth but has not yet taken a call on their association with the team. “We have taken down the ads with immediate effect since they feature Sreesanth in them. For now, we are just taking off air the ads with players whose names have come up,” Mahesh Gupta, chairman and managing director, Kent R-O Systems, told . “It is just three people who have been named. We have a very respected captain [Rahul Dravid], who also expressed his shock. At the moment nothing has been said about the management or the team as whole being involved, I don’t think team should suffer because of certain individuals.”Supertech Cement, another corporate sponsor, has decided not to review their sponsorship. In a statement, RK Arora, chairman of Supertech said, “It is only three players in individual capacity who have been caught in wrongdoing. The team still stands untouched and it is playing very well and in a professional manner. We have no intention at present to review our sponsorship and have full faith in the franchise. We will continue our support for Rajasthan Royals.”Corporate sponsors of the team, which include companies like Supertech Cement, Nissan and Tata Consultancy Services, are reportedly opting to wait until investigations into allegations are over, before taking a call on sponsorship.Sreesanth was also removed from the advertisement for Kerala Lottery, a state-run lottery, instructed to do so by the state minister for finance, KM Mani.

Andrew Strauss scored his first Test hundred since December 2010 as England took a firm grip on the match

The Report by David Hopps18-May-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentaryAndrew Strauss celebrates his first Test hundred since December 2010•Getty Images

One innings into England’s Test summer, Andrew Strauss’ authority has been emphatically re-established. That it should take place at Lord’s was entirely appropriate because there is something about Lord’s that encourages the best in him. He is attuned to its trim and orderly air and after an unrewarding winter that brought his right to the England captaincy into focus he has never valued it more.Strauss has struggled to establish an air of superiority at the crease over the past two years, and his delight at his fifth Test hundred at Lord’s suggested that beneath his placid exterior he had felt the tension. An undemonstrative man, he greeted his rasping square cut against Darren Sammy with a roar of satisfaction. It has never become a debate about his fitness to lead, more a growing concern about his batting state of health. That is no longer up for debate and England are better for it. Whatever else will we talk about?Lord’s is never happier than when imagining that it has sustained an England captain, especially a captain as courteous as Strauss, and the crowd’s fondness for him was apparent in their cheers. “Commendable stuff,” one could imagine the members muttering as he crashed a cut or stroked a straight drive, a greater than average number for him, proof enough that he was on his mettle.West Indies, diminished by IPL, were persistent but no better than that and none of their pace bowlers swung the ball despite the same overcast skies under which James Anderson, initially, and later Stuart Broad had been so impressive on the first day. Strauss’ edgiest time came as his century neared and Fidel Edwards and Darren Sammy baited him with a succession of wide deliveries. He flirted with a few and was dropped off a no-ball on 95 when Edwards overstepped and the ball went through the hands of Shivnarine Chanderpaul at first slip.Jonathan Trott, at his most unobtrusive, was a perfect ally for much of the day in a stand of 147 in 52 overs, but Trott departed for 58, surprised by one that seamed from Darren Sammy, when Strauss was 96. That left Kevin Pietersen to introduce a brief celebratory mood, once the hundred was achieved, until he was out cutting at Marlon Samuels. Two deliveries with the second new ball were enough for the umpires – and probably enough for Edwards who had a calf strain – and even though the floodlights were on they called a halt ten minutes early.Alastair Cook was the only other batsman to fall, dragging Kemar Roach on to his leg stump before lunch as he cut at a ball that was close to him. Roach is West Indies’ primary source of top-order wickets and was initially all jingle-jangle as he dashed in with earrings shining and heavy gold necklace swaying, touching 88mph at times, but for much of the day he lacked the dash that had brought him 19 wickets in three Tests against Australia.England also had to contend with a Test debutant, Shannon Gabriel, an athletic Trinidadian with a strong action. Rarely for England these days, they had no footage of him, leaving Strauss to learn on the hoof. It was a bit like playing for England in days of yore – or sometimes like playing for the West Indies even now. Technically bereft, England coped rather well, which is a relief to know at a time when the financial markets are in such turmoil that everybody in the country might soon have to trade in their iPads and return to subsistence farming.When he plays at Lord’s, Strauss does not just dominate an attack; it is as if he outranks them. He strolls jauntily down the steps with the Lord’s pavilion behind him as if leaving an office in the City for a morning meeting. He was beginning an England summer in the customary manner, with a Test at Lord’s and it felt fitting. It was strange to recall that had Glamorgan not hit financial difficulties this Test would have taken place in Cardiff.He is so comfortable in his surroundings that he began his innings as if embarking upon a series of pleasantries. “Good morning, Mr Roach, my name is Strauss. How do you do?” He got off the mark with a thick edge against Fidel Edwards through gully, but an orderly cover drive in Edwards’ next over was the first boundary of 19 filed in the out tray. He likes the ball coming on to him and, even though this Lord’s pitch was a slow one, the West Indies attack suited him. He was in his element again and, with no spin bowler other than Samuels’ occasionals in the West Indies ranks, he knew that the rhythms of the day were not about to change.Time to reflect upon his unbeaten 31 over lunch was probably not what Strauss needed, given his habit of getting out when set over his fallow two-year period. He made only a single in the first 35 minutes after lunch as the hum of Lord’s provided a soundtrack to a somnolent afternoon. Then suddenly his half-century was secured with three boundaries off Sammy: a clip off his pads, a straight drive that left two fielders sprawling and finally a present outside leg stump which he flicked to the long-leg boundary.Trott was also not about to be rushed. He might have been out twice on 17. West Indies were confident enough about Sammy’s lbw appeal to engage in a bout of hand-slapping only for umpire Aleem Dar’s decision to be upheld on review. Then, in Sammy’s next over, Trott feathered one. Hot Spot and Snicko both showed contact but West Indies’ appeal was half-hearted and Trott got away with it.Stuart Broad, England’s darling of the first day, had needed only one ball on the second morning to round up the West Indies innings, so finishing with Test-best figures of 7 for 72. Gabriel had received his first Test cap in a little ceremony before start of play and pushed respectfully forward to his first ball only to nick it to Graeme Swann at second slip.That left Shivnarine Chanderpaul unbeaten on 87, 13 runs short of what would have been his 26th Test century. Once again he was the stalwart of West Indies innings, batting in a middle-order position where statistics insist he is most productive. He did not face another ball after taking a single from the first ball of the last over on the first day and watched West Indies’ last two wickets fall from the non-striker’s end. He is unlikely to learn from the experience; he plays in his bubble and at his time of life, if any new thoughts strayed into it, it would burst at the shock.

Pakistan’s tour of West Indies is an opportunity for youngsters in the squad to establish their career, team manager Intikhab Alam has said

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Apr-2011Pakistan’s tour of West Indies is an opportunity for youngsters in the squad to establish their careers, team manager Intikhab Alam has said. While Pakistan have it in them to be successful on the tour, discipline, he said, will be key.”We’ve brought some youngsters with us and I think it’s a golden opportunity for them to make a name for themselves, to make a career in the sport,” Alam said. “Umar Akmal has special talent. The people of the Caribbean will like the way he plays because he’s so entertaining and hits the ball exceptionally.”Now [after the semi-final finish at the World Cup] the expectations are even higher for this tour, because we have never won a series out here before. Overall all the boys need to put in the hard work, commitment and discipline for us to leave the Caribbean happy.”It was a long journey from Pakistan but we travelled well and the boys are well,” said Alam, who played the last of his 47 Tests at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad in 1977. “We enjoy touring the Caribbean. I personally have spent a lot of time here and cherish the friendship of greats like Sir Garfield Sobers, Clive Lloyd and others.”Pakistan, who arrived in the West Indies on Friday, had their first training session in St Lucia on Saturday and will play their first tour game there on Monday, against Vice Chancellor’s XI led by Combined Campuses & Colleges captain, Omar Philips. The first ODI is on April 23 in St Lucia.Vice Chancellor’s XI squad: Omar Phillips (capt.), Miles Bascombe, Nkrumah Bonner, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Kyle Corbin, Keron Cottoy, Fidel Edwards, Kevin McClean, Gilford Moore, Kjorn Ottley, Shervon Penco, Raymon Reifer, Chadwick WaltonPakistan squad: Shahid Afridi (capt.), Misbah-ul-Haq (vice-captain), Abdur Rehman, Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Hammad Azman, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Salman, Sadaf Hussain, Saeed Ajmal, Tanveer Ahmed, Taufeeq Umar, Umar Akmal, Usman Salahuddin, Wahab Riaz

Graham Manou has been sacked as South Australia’s captain and they will look to the batsman Michael Klinger to lead the revival

Cricinfo staff30-Apr-2010Graham Manou has been sacked as South Australia’s captain and they will look to the batsman Michael Klinger to lead the revival. In 2009-10 the Redbacks made the final of the Twenty20 competition, which qualified them for the Champions League, but finished last in the Sheffield Shield and FR Cup to signal an off-season of change.The wicketkeeper Manou’s two-summer reign is over following a mix of poor form, tactical mistakes and a nagging knee injury. The state’s overhaul has also involved cutting Mark Cosgrove and Dan Cullen from the squad, while they have signed the fringe Victorian pair of Aiden Blizzard and Rob Cassell.Klinger’s appointment is a surprise considering he was not part of the Twenty20 outfit last season and the Champions League will be the immediate priority. A cautious batsman, Klinger has been outstanding in the past two summers and has won back-to-back state player of the year awards. He scored 886 runs at 63.28 in 2009-10 to follow his 1203 first-class runs in 2008-09.Callum Ferguson, who has appeared in 25 ODIs, has been appointed vice-captain and is currently recovering from a knee reconstruction. “We have expressed the need for change within our culture,” Jamie Cox, South Australia’s director of cricket, said. “These two men are both enormously respected throughout the cricket community for the way they prepare and play the game and I know they will develop into a very strong leadership team.”

Veteran seamer acknowledges T20 version is unlikely goal as she focuses on 2025 campaign

Andrew Miller28-May-2024Kate Cross, England’s veteran seamer, says she hasn’t given up hope of competing for a berth in England’s T20 World Cup squad in Bangladesh this winter, but admits her more realistic goal is the 50-over version in 2025, as she prepares to lead the line once more in the third ODI against Pakistan at Chelmsford.Cross, 32, claimed two wickets in England’s 37-run victory in the series opener at Derby on Thursday, and with a total of 85 at 25.35 in 64 ODIs to date, is by a distance the most experienced seamer in England’s white-ball ranks.In the T20I format, however, she has played just three matches in the last four years, and by her own admission, she missed her chance to impress when recalled for England’s shock series loss to Sri Lanka in September last year. The second of those three matches also took place at Chelmsford, where Cross returned figures of 0 for 33 in 2.2 overs as Chamari Athapaththu inspired her side to victory.As such, while the squad’s main focus is on building towards Bangladesh in October, Cross acknowledges that this final ODI is a big chance for her to hone the skills that have kept her at the forefront of England’s 50-over plans for the past five years – and to help raise the team’s standards after an “untidy” display, studded with 31 wides, in last week’s win in the series opener.Related

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“I think how we played in Derby probably wasn’t how we would like to play the game,” Cross said. “We were a little bit untidy with the ball, probably not at our best in the field. And we probably didn’t put as much pressure on the Pakistan bowling attack as we would like.”We actually haven’t lost an ODI series under Jon Lewis [since November 2022] so it goes to show we’re doing a lot of really good things, but how do we keep that mindset positive all the time? We were probably disappointed with ourselves in Derby, that we could have been a little bit more ruthless in some of those moments.”We know on our best day we can beat any team, we saw that in the Ashes last year when we were able to put Australia under pressure in real key moments. But what we sometimes forget is that we’re asking some really young, inexperienced players to be perfect. The group is trying to learn and improve whilst we play international cricket and that’s a really difficult place to be.”We’ve not got these windows now where you’ve got eight weeks at your region or at Loughborough training, and purposely just working on one thing. Because you’re in an England shirt, you’re expected to be absolutely perfect all the time, but that’s something we have to measure ourselves on correctly. As much as we don’t want to be bowling 40 wides in a game, we obviously don’t do that on purpose.”With bad weather in Chelmsford on Tuesday, England’s practice was limited to some indoor sessions for the batters, but as Cross admitted, the team’s mental preparation is the key factor given the intensity of their current workloads across formats and tournaments – which includes the white-ball series against New Zealand in June and July, followed by the next edition of the Hundred, which culminates in August.”There’s always something around the corner,” she said. “We’ve got South Africa this winter, we’ve got an Ashes just after in January, and then we’ve got the 50-over World Cup next year as well. So you always feel like you’re constantly building for something. And underlying all of that are the basic skills that we’re trying to top up all the time.”So the priority is T20 cricket at the moment for us, but for me, I’m probably thinking more about the 50-over stuff and prepping for that World Cup in 18 months’ time. That might be different for Alice Capsey and Lauren Bell, so it’s exciting that we’ve got all this stuff on in the calendar and so much to look forward to. But in terms of this series, it’s really important to be able to practice with the mindset that we want to take into that [50-over] World Cup.”As for the T20 World Cup, Cross insists she can still be involved, and plans to use both the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Northern Superchargers’ Hundred campaign to push her case for a squad berth. But, given Bell’s pre-eminence as England’s frontline seamer, and her own failure to seize the moment last year, she accepts her place in the pecking order.”I was in the squad for about four years without getting an opportunity, but I hold my hand up, in the Sri Lanka series I didn’t execute anything that I wanted to,” Cross said. “I know that I’ve probably lost my opportunity there. I’ve had a chat with Lewey [Jon Lewis] a few times and he just needs to see me be successful in T20 cricket. But the way the team is balanced at the moment, we’ve got one out-and-out seamer in Lauren Bell who’s been exceptional in that format, so you’ve basically got to be knocking her out of the team.”What Belly does brilliantly is swing the new ball and then come back and take wickets at the death to close games out. So it’s quite a nice blueprint to be able to follow and aspire to.”But it’s just about knowing yourself as well,” she added. “Obviously, as a 32-year-old, I probably know my limitations a little bit more than some of the younger girls, but you still want to take those opportunities if you do get them. It’s a real fine balancing act. But our priority is wearing this shirt and doing the best that we can for England.”