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“Mushfiqur will not be playing as we want to see one of the youngsters in this game”

Mohammad Isam04-Mar-2020Mushfiqur Rahim, the only Bangladesh player to have opted against travelling to Pakistan, will not be considered for the third, and final, ODI against Zimbabwe on Friday as the team wants to prepare for the one-off ODI against Pakistan in Karachi early next month, chief selector Minhajul Abedin has said.”Mushfiqur will not be playing as we want to see one of the youngsters in this game, before they are picked for the Pakistan ODI next month. We don’t want to hand them a debut there,” Minhajul said, confirming that there wouldn’t be any changes to the existing squad for the last game of the series.The senior wicketkeeper-batsman, who didn’t make the journey for the first two legs of the three-part tour stressed last week that he would not change his mind on the matter despite BCB president Nazmul Hassan’s tough stance against him, where he said that Mushfiqur was “contract-bound” to tour with the rest of the team.Minhajul said that the BCB had met Mushfiqur over the weekend for discussions and that Mushfiqur hadn’t budged.”We saw in separate newspapers that he may go and then he may not go. So we asked him to tell us directly, and he has let us know,” Minhajul said.Hassan, who had stated before announcing the tour dates in January that every player had the right to choose whether he wanted to tour Pakistan or not, made a U-turn after Bangladesh’s win over Zimbabwe in the one-off Test match – where Mushfiqur scored an unbeaten 203 – expressing his dismay at Mushfiqur’s decision.”We are expecting that he would go. Not only him, but every contracted player should go,” he had said. “Players have to think about the country, and not just themselves. This is what I personally feel. The country comes before everything else.”Everyone should keep it in mind. We will remind them that the contracted players must play as they are told, when selected. It never occurred to me that one has to tell them this, too.”

ICC announces penalty half an hour after Shoaib Malik comes out to the toss for Pakistan in Johannesburg

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jan-2019Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed has been suspended for four matches after he admitted to making a racist comment at South Africa’s Andile Phehlukwayo during the Durban ODI.Sarfraz will be forced to miss the final two ODIs against South Africa, and then two of the three T20s that follow. The PCB said he will not play the third T20 either, but return home “immediately”. Shoaib Malik will captain in his absence.The ICC release said that Sarfraz will also have to attend “an education programme to promote the understanding and awareness of issues directly relevant to the offence that he has committed”.Remarkably that ICC release was made public half an hour after the world realised that Sarfraz wasn’t playing in the fourth ODI at the Wanderers because Malik turned up for the toss in his place.”We wanted him [Sarfraz], but the incident… we all know what has happened,” Malik said. “I don’t want to comment about it. But they’ve given me this opportunity, and I want to do my best.”Malik later said he only found out he would be captaining the team on the morning of the match. “When we got to the ground, that’s when I came to know I’m captaining the side. It’s a great honour to represent your country as a captain or a player, and whenever the opportunity comes to you should give your best shot. And that’s what I did.”It was actually South Africa captain Faf du Plessis who first indicated that Sarfraz had been handed a four-match ban. “We’ve heard that he’s out for four games,” he said during his toss interview.In Durban, during the second ODI, during Phehlukwayo’s innings, as he got South Africa’s wobbling chase back on track, Sarfraz was heard on the broadcast stump mics saying in Urdu: Translated literally that is: “Hey black guy, where’s your mother sitting today? What [prayer] have you got her to say for you today?”Since then, Sarfraz has apologised twice, the first an apology in the general direction of nobody, but then backed up by a personal one to Phehlukwayo. The day after the match, Sarfraz tweeted that his comments were “not directed towards anyone in particular”. Then, two days ago, Sarfraz tweeted a picture of himself shaking hands with Phehlukwayo, with this caption: “This morning I apologised to Andile Phehlukwayo and he was gracious enough to accept my apology and I hope the people of South Africa also accept my apology.”The punishment came five days after the incident, allowing Sarfraz to play the third ODI in Cape Town. Ahead of that game, du Plessis said his team had forgiven Sarfraz for the comments.ICC CEO David Richardson said Sarfraz’s apology was taken into account when deciding on his penalty. “The ICC has a zero-tolerance policy towards conduct of this nature,” he said. “Sarfraz has promptly admitted the offence, was regretful of his actions and has issued a public apology, so these factors were taken into account when determining an appropriate sanction.”Pakistan do not have a back-up wicketkeeper in their T20 squad, so Mohammad Rizwan, who took the gloves in Johannesburg, will stay on for the T20s.

Wriddhiman Saha top scores with 97 in a losing effort for Bengal

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Nov-2017Vidarbha continued to surge, beating Bengal by a bonus point to move to the top of the Group D standings in Kalyani. Bengal, who were made to follow-on, fared slightly better in the second dig to post 306 on the back of significant contributions from Wriddhiman Saha (97) and Sudip Chatterjee (82).Lalit Yadav, the Vidarbha fast bowler, picked up four wickets while Aditya Sarvate had three to hasten Bengal’s slide. Sanjay Ramaswamy and Faiz Fazal, who put up a record opening stand in the first innings, knocked off the 15-run target in 1.3 overs to pocket seven full points. Bengal, who have just one win in four games, are placed fourth and are clustered closely behind Punjab and Himachal.Goa captain Sagun Kamat made an unbeaten 57 but the side managed only 128 for 4 in 50 overs, chasing 184 against Services at the Palam ground in Delhi. The visitors, however, walked away with three points by virtue of gaining the first-innings lead.Resuming their second innings on 108 for 3, Services collapsed to 190 all out with only overnight batsman Ravi Chauhan (55) passing 30. Left-arm spinner Darshan Misal wreaked the innings with career-best returns of 7 for 68.Seamer Diwesh Pathania (3 for 37) then jolted Goa’s top order and Nitin Tanwar got rid of Misal for a duck, but Kamat and Amogh Sunil Desai, who had scored a fifty in Goa’s first innings, hung on to avert a collapse.

Rohit Sharma has laughed off the notion that he might have been under pressure coming into this Test after scoring 82 from the challenging 43 for 4 in India’s second innings

Sidharth Monga at Eden Gardens02-Oct-2016Rohit Sharma has laughed off the notion that he might have been under pressure coming into this Test after scoring 82 from the challenging 43 for 4 in India’s second innings. His highest Test score since his two centuries in his first two Tests, against West Indies, all but batted New Zealand out of the Kolkata Test, taking India’s lead to an imposing 339 at the end of the third day. To ensure Rohit’s latest comeback into the Test XI, Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped. After that Test, India have started playing with four bowlers in the side, opting for both Pujara and Rohit.”As far as I’m concerned, there’s no pressure,” Rohit said. “Every time I play it only comes from the media that I’m under pressure. But as far as I am concerned I was never under pressure. You may have seen me on the field. I’m going to ask you this, do I look under pressure when I was playing? Even in the first Test or the second Test.”In India press conferences there is hardly any follow-up so this proved to be a rhetoric question from Rohit’s side, but when he walked out to bat India sure were under pressure, after another top-order failure. They were one wicket away from needing the lower order’s rescue operations once again. As a No. 6, Rohit has to be that bridge between the top and the lower order, which he did perfectly in this innings.”It’s not a typical Calcutta wicket,” Rohit said of the challenges of batting there. “They have relaid the surface and you may seen uneven bounce occasionally. Every now and then there was uneven bounce. At no point the batsmen could relax and take it for granted. Every ball you played, you had to make sure give more than 100% for that ball.”So me and Saha, when we were batting, we only decided we had to play each ball on its merit, not to think too far ahead, not to think what was coming next, focus on the present, which was every ball thrown at us. So we were focussed on that. We lost a few wickets initially and it was all about rebuilding the partnership. We have seen over the years in Test match cricket there have been quick wickets, and it takes only one or two batsmen to make sure that you get the team out of trouble. Saha and myself, that 100-run partnership was crucial according to the team’s perspective.”Once Rohit was in, he vindicated Virat Kohli’s support in his aggressive batting. Switching gears he made sure New Zealand couldn’t control the game. “Once we got in, we played our shots as well and we wanted to put the pressure back on New Zealand,” Rohit said. “Because it’s a wicket and a ground where, if you play your shots, you will get value for your shots as the outfield is fast. It’s just the matter of playing those initial few balls and getting your eye in. Because then you can accelerate. So that’s what we did. We have got two important days coming up and almost 340 ahead. We all know Saha and Bhuvi can bat as well. So try to get as much as we can tomorrow morning.”Before he came into bat, Rohit would have seen Shikhar Dhawan take blows on his body through excessive spongy bounce. While batting Rohit would have also seen the shooter that got Kohli. Rohit said because of the uneven bounce it was important to not commit to either foot or a shot early. “It’s a situation where you can’t go too forward also, you can’t play on your back foot as well,” Rohit said. “The ball which Shikhar got hit, it pitched right in front and it just kicked off from there. So that made sure we can’t go too ahead also, you can’t go on the front foot completely. You have to make sure you are balanced in the middle and try and play as late as possible. It was something which I looking to do. Even in the nets, I made sure that I batted as late as possible.”Rohit has seen his lower order rescue his side often, and he paid them a fitting tribute. “We don’t have tailenders,” Rohit said. “They are proper lower-order batsmen. Ashwin has got Test hundreds, Saha has got a hundred, Bhuvi occasionally has scored a fifty – he has scored fifties in England, Jadeja has scored runs. You never know Shami might get a fifty tomorrow.”If Rohit hasn’t yet pushed the matter past New Zealand, that occurrence certainly will.

Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik has been given a category A contract by the PCB for the period between July 2015 and June 2016

Umar Farooq05-Sep-2015Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik has been given a category A contract by the PCB for the period between July 2015 and June 2016, while offspinner Saeed Ajmal and fast bowler Junaid Khan were demoted to category B.

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In 12 months, 17-year-old quick Holly Ferling has gone from playing club cricket with her younger brother to impressing on the biggest stage in the women’s game

Abhishek Purohit in Mumbai18-Feb-2013A couple of hours after Australia had won their sixth Women’s World Cup, three of their players walked onto the outfield of Brabourne Stadium and lay down in the sea of confetti that covered the ground following their celebrations. Seeing that, an excited Holly Ferling raced towards them from the dressing room, her speed matching that of her run-up. She poured still more confetti on a team-mate, clicked photographs and then leaped onto the back of another team-mate who carried her all the way to the dressing room.Seventeen-year-old Ferling, the “baby of the team” in her own words, had been in tears before the start of the final when informed by her idol, Ellyse Perry, who’d missed the Super Sixes stage with injury, that she was replacing her for the big game. Overcoming her disappointment, Ferling had hustled drinks to the middle with all the enthusiasm of the teenager she is, feeling “more nervous” than the batters themselves. She’d hesitated to walk across the TV cameras stationed just outside the boundary rope, stopping to gingerly ask for permission from the cameramen. She’d heard people calling out her name, posed for pictures, and signed autographs, all the while “pinching” herself to confirm all this wasn’t the dream of a “star-struck” girl.A day earlier, Ferling couldn’t stop laughing while speaking. She was sharing space with women such as Perry, Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Lisa Sthalekar. It had been an “unreal” 12 months for Ferling, in which she’d gone from playing club cricket with her younger brother to delighting audiences on the biggest stage with her pace, her bounce, her vivacity and her joyous celebrations.Ferling’s goal this year was to make her state debut for Queensland. Little did she know what was in store. “I will never forget this,” Ferling said with sparkling eyes and a permanent grin on her face. “I was playing age-group stuff. I was playing my grand final for my A-grade team [in club cricket]. I was Queensland Junior Cricketer of the Year [the first woman to win the award]. I went to Sri Lanka [with the World Twenty20 squad], made the Shooting Stars group [the junior national side]. It is an absolute honour … so hard to put into words. This is something you only dream about, to grow from making my state debut to making my international debut in months.”I am really very star-struck to be honest. It was the time I went to Sri Lanka, I had seen some of these girls on television, I hadn’t actually played with any of them. I didn’t know what to expect. I was like, ‘I am training alongside my heroes, sharing a room with them.'”Ferling said all she had been told to do in the tournament was to run in and bowl fast, and credited her use of the bouncer to growing up playing alongside men, especially her brother. “I do love my bouncer. I worked on it playing against the men, having a variation when they are coming at me. I definitely wanted to have it against my brother if he ever annoyed me. He is over six foot now and he is learning to bowl them back at me. It fires me up.”He plays for the same club as me. I was an opening bowler and he was an opening batter. It worked out well until he started getting stronger and older and started hitting me. Now he is bowling even quicker. I have had to improve my batting otherwise I am going to get hit. He likes the short one as well.”Ferling obviously shares a close relationship with her brother, who told people at the pub he works in to go home and watch his sister play for Australia in the World Cup. In the team, Ferling’s guide was the captain Jodie Fields. “She is my club captain and my state captain as well, someone I know really well and trust.”At 17, Ferling had the chance to witness how “fanatical” people are about the game in India. She found it “incredible” they knew her name and wanted her autograph. Fielding in the deep, she would struggle to hear her captain’s instructions amid the crowd’s cries in Cuttack.She relates all this without pausing for breath, with the infectious zest of a teenager who’s having the experience of her life and can’t wait to tell it all to whoever is willing to listen. Holly Ferling, 17, World Cup winner. “Incredible” indeed.

The Sri Lankan first-class season will begin on January 20, a Sri Lanka Cricket official has said

Tariq Engineer09-Jan-2012The Sri Lankan first-class season will begin on January 20, a Sri Lanka Cricket official has said. The first-class Premier Tier A and B league matches had been postponed indefinitely last month, in part because of a lack of funds to run the tournament. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) then had to wait until a new committee was in place, following the elections on January 3, to resolve the situation.”Most of the tournaments had been stopped because the elections were on and the committee was changing,” K Mathivanan, the newly elected vice-president, told ESPNcricinfo. “From January 20 we are starting the Premier League tournament. Funding is there. That assurance we will give the clubs.”Mathivanan said that getting the first-class season off the ground was the first priority for the new president, Upali Dharmadasa. The decision is expected to be ratified by the executive committee today.One casualty of the delay is the provincial four-day tournament – an irregularly scheduled tournament to begin with, it will not be held this season. However, the one-day and Twenty20 tournaments will go ahead in light of Sri Lanka hosting the ICC World Twenty20 in September 2012, Mathivanan said.SLC are facing a financial crisis in the aftermath of building two new stadiums for the 2011 World Cup and renovating a third. The shortage of funds has affected their operations across the board, with the players still owed roughly half their dues since the World Cup final in April. Dharmadasa has said that it will take the board four or five years to get back to a sound financial footing.The SLC pays 2.7 million Sri Lankan rupees to each of the 11 Tier A clubs and 2.3 million to each of the 10 Tier B clubs per season. The clubs utilise this money to pay the players, ground fees, fund practice sessions and food, among other things. The clubs were paid 30% of their dues for the Premier limited-overs tournament that concluded in December 2011, and had said that unless at least 60% of the balance is paid, they would find it difficult to play the first-class matches.

Australia’s World Cup squad will get on a plane on Wednesday with injuries a concern, but the coach Tim Nielsen hopes the selectors don’t risk sending too many unfit men to defend the title

Brydon Coverdale07-Feb-2011Australia’s World Cup squad will get on a plane on Wednesday with injuries a concern, but the coach Tim Nielsen hopes the selectors don’t risk sending too many unfit men to defend the title. Ricky Ponting (finger), Michael Hussey (hamstring) and Nathan Hauritz (shoulder) have all been racing to prove their fitness for the tournament, while some of their potential replacements are also struggling, including Xavier Doherty (back) and Shaun Marsh (hamstring).The squad heads to India this week and their first practice match is on Sunday against India in Bangalore, eight days before their opening game of the tournament proper, against Zimbabwe. Hussey said on the weekend that he would find it difficult to be fully fit for the first couple of outings, while Hauritz, who dislocated his shoulder during the recent ODIs against England, was bowling in the nets last week and said he had no doubt he would be fit for the World Cup.But while Australia might be able to carry one injured player at the start of the tournament, it’s risky to allow too many men to board the plane at less than 100% fitness. Nielsen said he believed the squad could not take such a chance with the World Cup on the line.”I can’t afford to have two, three or four guys that we’re uncertain about,” Nielsen said. “It means we’ve only got 11 fit ready to go at the start. That’s the quandary we face. What is the role the players who are injured play? Do we have back-up for that position? If we have an injury to somebody in the team at the moment is the injured person the next cab off the rank or the only possible replacement or do we have other options? All those things will be thrown into the mix.”One positive is the progress being made by Ponting, who missed the Sydney Test after aggravating his broken finger during the Boxing Day Test. Ponting had surgery on the little finger on his left hand after the Melbourne game, and by the time the World Cup opener arrives it will have had nearly seven weeks of recovery time. He hasn’t returned to fielding yet, but believes he could play if the Australians had an important match tomorrow.”I’m a lot better now than I was last week,” Ponting said on Monday night at the Allan Border Medal ceremony in Melbourne. “I’ve been back in the nets this week, I’ve had three good hits and a bit of time out there. It’s probably a bit more advanced than I thought it would be.”The spin position shapes up as one of the more serious issues, with Steven Smith also battling a hip muscle injury, along with the problems that are troubling Hauritz and Doherty. Smith’s injury shouldn’t be a major concern, though the more serious situation with Hauritz, added to the likelihood that Hussey won’t be fit for the start of the World Cup, leaves the selectors with some headaches.”We’ve got our fingers crossed for both those guys,” Ponting said. “Their injuries couldn’t have come at a worse time for us, looking forward to the World Cup. They’re both very senior members of our side. We’ve got our fingers crossed for both those guys and I know the physios and doctors have been doing a lot of talking today about those two. Hopefully they come up.”The coach Nielsen said it was a delicate balancing act: “If we’re going to replace them we’re going to have to rule them out of the tournament full stop. That’s the first question we’re going to have to answer. Are they going to take any part in the tournament in a timeframe that’s going to work for us?”Once we make that decision then it’s, okay, if we are going to replace them, is the replacement ready to go straight away or are we better off taking the named player and they might be ready at the same time? All those different things that come into the equation.”Australia have two warm-up games before the World Cup begins in earnest, and they have six pool matches before finding out if they have progressed to the next round. Australia are in a group with Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya.

The Pakistan allrounder believes Pakistan have a far better chance of succeeding in the limited-overs matches because their players are better suited to the format

Cricinfo staff16-Jan-2010Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi has said Pakistan have a far better chance of succeeding in the limited-overs matches in Australia because their players are better suited to the shorter format of the game. Pakistan have underperformed in the three-Test series so far, losing the first game, throwing away the second after maintaining a firm grip, and are struggling to snatch a consolation in the ongoing Hobart game, let alone saving it.”The problem is that in this [Test] team, most of them are one-day players,” Afridi told the . “There is no doubt in my mind that we are a very good one-day team.”I’m confident that we will do much better in the ODIs and the Twenty20 game. I won’t say that we are going to win the one-day series but our team definitely has the potential to do that. We will definitely be playing good cricket in the series.”Afridi is currently in Australia as an overseas player for South Australia for the Twenty20 Big Bash tournament. He is not in the frame for the Test side but is an integral part of the limited-overs side. He captains the Twenty20 side and deputises under Mohammad Yousuf for the ODIs.He agreed with Yousuf that senior players will have to be persisted with and not dropped at the expense of younger players. “We are the ones who have to lead by example. It’s always important for the senior players to perform their roles but against top teams like Australia, it’s just vital,” Afridi said. “You can’t beat them without the senior players doing their job.”Afridi will join the team on January 19, ahead of the first ODI at the Gabba three days later. He will take part in South Australia’s preliminary final against New South Wales on Sunday but will miss the tournament final on January 23.

George Bell and Josh Bohannon’s hundreds not enough for struggling Lancashire

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay20-Aug-2025Captain Ollie Robinson and in-form allrounder Will Rhodes hit composed, match-clinching half-centuries as Durham maintained their Metro Bank One-Day Cup knockout hopes by beating struggling Lancashire by four wickets at Liverpool.Wicketkeeper-batter Robinson and Rhodes, in pursuit of 321, came together at 168 for 3 in the 30th over and calmly secured a third win from six in Group B. They shared 127, Robinson with 80 not out off 59 balls and Rhodes 75 off 68. Durham won with nine balls remaining.With two games remaining, they are eyeing a top-three finish. Lancashire, however, lost their fourth game in six and are way off the pace. Their wicketkeeper-opener George Bell’s excellent 104 off 115 balls represented his maiden first-team century.The Red Rose’s 320 all out saw Bell – aged 22 – star and Josh Bohannon became the county’s first batter to score back-to-back List A centuries since Liverpudlian Paul Horton in 2009. He top-scored with 106 off 102 balls having done similar at Kent on Sunday. Durham seamer Ben Raine excelled with 4 for 34 from 9.5 overs.This was Rhodes’ third fifty added to a century in this campaign, and Robinson is leading the side in place of club captain Alex Lees in order to build his leadership experience.Inserted, Lancashire raced to 50 without loss in four overs but were hurt by losing their last eight wickets for 65 inside the final eight overs of the innings. Michael Jones fell for a brisk 30 against his former county when he miscued a pull at Codi Yusuf’s seam to Emilio Gay running in from deep square leg.Will Rhodes plays forward•Getty Images

In excellent batting conditions, Bell and Bohannon shared 175 inside 29 overs. Bell was 35 when Bohannon came in, but the latter reached his hundred first, off 96 balls. His second fifty came in only 29. And when Bell reached his ton shortly afterwards, off 113 balls, the Red Rose were 251 for 2 after 41 overs.Bell and Bohannon were then both caught at deep midwicket slog-sweeping against the seam of Rhodes and Colin Ackermann’s spin as the Red Rose slipped from 255 for 2 in the 42nd over. Raine claimed the last three as Durham crucially came back well, with the the suspicion of Lancashire being light on runs.Lees and Gay made a steady start, with an 84-run partnership inside 15 overs broken when the latter miscued a pull at Tom Aspinwall’s seam out to Jones running in from deep square leg. While Aspinwall had been released by the Manchester Originals, Lancashire left-arm spinner Charlie Barnard couldn’t bowl having dislocated his right little finger diving to stop a boundary.Durham’s serene progress was checked when Lees, who went beyond 3,000 List A career runs during his 64, chipped to cover off Arav Shetty’s spin. And further so when Colin Ackermann on 39 flicked Aspinwall to midwicket with the score on 168 eight overs later.Robinson and Rhodes took Harry Singh’s off-spin to task as 22 came off the 35th over, including four boundaries, with Durham moving to 213 for 3. Singh was covering for Barnard’s absence, and this felt like a crucial moment. From there, Rhodes and Robinson cruised against a depleted but spirited attack.Rhodes reached his fifty off 48 balls, and when Robinson followed him there off 39 balls, the visitors were 258 for three in the 41st over. Their progress could not be halted even with Rhodes and then Raine falling late on in a Tom Bailey over.