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With a depleted Australian side, and dwindling crowds at ODI matches in the country, the upcoming series may further struggle to bring in the crowds

Brydon Coverdale10-Jan-2013Once upon a time, the one-day international tri-series was a highlight of Australia’s cricket summer. You need only catch a World Series Classics replay on Fox Sports to be reminded that the stands were usually heaving with scantily-clad men and women, kids holding home-made banners, and if it’s a match from the early 1980s, terry-towelling hats. Tony Greig and Bill Lawry would be calling the action with such fervour that you’d think each game had the World Cup riding on it.How times change. The triangular series is gone, although it was resurrected last summer with India and Sri Lanka in the country, and the crowds don’t flock to 50-over cricket in anything like the numbers they used to. Twenty20 internationals and the Big Bash League have been brought in with the aim of attracting the younger fans, Test cricket remains the premier format, and one-day internationals are left searching for relevance.It is into this environment that an Australian outfit led by George Bailey and lacking drawcards like David Warner and Shane Watson will venture on Friday, taking on Sri Lanka in a series that two years from the next World Cup, has little riding on it. The broadcasters, Channel Nine, have voiced their displeasure at the lack of big names in Australia’s side, although they might change their tune if Aaron Finch tees off on debut.”I can probably understand it coming from Channel Nine,” Bailey said in Melbourne on Thursday. “I think they’re about to go into negotiations for the TV rights. I think that was a pretty tactical move to try to talk down one-day cricket and what the Australian team’s putting out. But it’s still called the Australian cricket team.”On Friday, the Channel Nine cameramen will do their best to focus on the most densely populated stands at the MCG, but there will be huge numbers of empty seats as well. When Australia and Sri Lanka met at the MCG in a one-day game earlier this year the crowd was approximately 29,000, while only 19,000 turned up when they played at the same venue the summer before. By contrast, the BBL Melbourne derby attracted 46,000 fans last weekend.”I might have a bit of a left-field view but I think the way sport is shown on TV now is so good and you get so much information thrown at you that the better it gets delivered to your couch, the less reasons there are to leave and watch it at a ground,” Bailey said. “Big Bash is popular because it goes for three hours and it fits in nicely. There’s no doubt one-day cricket takes a bit longer, and I think Test matches are becoming a real event in themselves.”It’s as much about the spectacle as the event itself and the cricket. One-day cricket, as far as crowds go, will be challenged at different times. But I still think the actual cricket itself is very good. There is always going to be a huge element of luck in T20 and I think Test cricket will always be the ultimate test, and I think one-day cricket certainly sits nicely in the middle of those two.”If the last couple of ODIs between the sides at the MCG are any indication, the Melbourne crowd will feature plenty of Sri Lankan supporters from the city’s large ex-pat population. Despite the format’s battling status in Australia, 50-over cricket remains immensely popular in Sri Lanka, and the team’s captain Mahela Jayawardene said he was confident that if the series started well, it would find an audience.”There’s been a lot of cricket played in the summer, and West Indies are coming, there is the Big Bash,” Jayawardene said. “But I think there’s certainly a lot of interest in world cricket for the 50-over game. For players it will still be exciting, trying to push yourself, but once you play a few good games [the fans] will get into it. I think it’s all about how the series is going to start and how exciting it is going to be.”We’ve got a really big appetite for 50-over cricket [in Sri Lanka]. I think that’s something that drives the national team a lot. They [the Sri Lankan public] enjoy their one-day cricket and T20 cricket a lot more than Test cricket. We don’t get big crowds for our Test matches … but in one-day cricket they definitely get behind the team, they have a good time and enjoy their one-day cricket.”These five matches will also be the first in Australia to be held under new ICC rules that, among other things, prevent captains from placing any more than four fieldsmen outside the circle at any time. The rules aren’t quite as radical as the split-innings experiment Australia trialed in the Ryobi Cup last summer but the game’s governing bodies hope they will lead to more exciting ODIs as the cricket world builds towards the 2015 World Cup.”The rule changes are going to be interesting. We’ve had them for a couple of years at the domestic level,” Bailey said. “My only concern with those is not to continue to make them too batter friendly. I don’t necessarily think higher-scoring games become better games of cricket. An even contest between bat and ball still provides the best games of cricket. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the international players adapt.”I think four [fielders] out has challenged the spinners at a domestic level, but I’ve also seen the best spinners adapt pretty well and still find ways to dominate the game or contribute really well in games. I like the fact that bowlers do get a second bouncer. I like the fact that that leaves a bit more uncertainty in the over. I think they’re interesting rule changes. Anything that provides a little bit of uncertainty, even to make captains or teams think a little bit more on their feet, are good changes for the game.”

South Africa moved a step closer to a series whitewash with a six-wicket victory at Stellenbosch but their run chase was given a generous donation by the Duckworth-Lewis method.

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Feb-2013
ScorecardSouth Africa moved a step closer to a series whitewash with a six-wicket victory at Stellenbosch but their run chase was given a generous donation by the Duckworth-Lewis method.The game’s second interruption for rain came as South Africa required 84 to win in 90 balls with seven wickets remaining. They were on course for victory, if needing to raise their run-rate by a significant margin. But the revised target made the task very straightforward as they resumed with 33 to win from 30 balls – a target that proved no issue as they won with eight balls to spare.Victory may have come anyway as Clyde Fortuin was marshalling the innings well. He and Jason Smith added 56 as the chase made good progress. But had Fortuin been dismissed with plenty of work left to do – as would have been the case without rain – England could have got home.As it was their middle-order blow out cost them. Having elected to bat they would have wanted to set a more challenging score. Callum Jackson and Kishen Velani put together a stand of 133 but progress was slow and, as new batsman tried to accelerate in the last 10 overs, wickets tumbled six wickets fell in as many overs and only Gavin Griffiths at No. 10 made another double figure score.Nqazibini Sigwili’s left-arm seamers did the damage with 4 for 34 as South Africa went on to knock off the target, aided by the Duckworth-Lewis system.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach Wasim Akram will not be available this IPL season because he wants to spend more time with his family

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Feb-2013Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach Wasim Akram will not be available this IPL season because he wants to spend more time with his family. Akram has been with Knight Riders, the IPL champions, for the last three seasons, forming the coaching unit along with chief coach Trevor Bayliss.”Wasim Akram will be badly missed,” Knight Riders’ chief executive Venky Mysore said. “He is a legend and a great motivator to have around the team. However, we fully appreciate the reason why he will be unavailable. We hope to work with him in future.”Knight Riders appointed Trevor Penney as their fielding coach. Penny is presently fielding coach of the Indian team and also worked with Deccan Chargers, a former IPL franchise.The sixth season of the IPL begins on April 3.

Jesse Ryder is out of his induced coma and has begun talking again as he embarks upon the road towards a full recovery from his assault in Christchurch

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2013Jesse Ryder is out of his induced coma and has begun talking again as he embarks upon the long and arduous road towards a full recovery from his assault in Christchurch on Wednesday night.Ryder’s manager Aaron Klee said the New Zealand batsman was also now breathing without the assistance of a ventilator, though he is still battling the effects of his coma and the drugs used to aid his fight against serious head and lung injuries.”Jesse’s condition has improved to the extent that he is now out of the induced coma and off the ventilator,” Klee said in Christchurch. “Jesse is awake and talking to us, but he is obviously still working through the immediate effects from being in the coma and the drugs the medical team have been using.”Naturally we are thrilled with this progress. This is only the start of the recovery process for Jesse and there is still a big battle ahead to full health, but the progress is positive. Again the family wishes to extend their sincere thanks to everyone for their messages of support and love. They mean a lot and will help Jesse no end in his journey ahead.”Klee said that Ryder had no recollection of the events that left him in hospital, his last memory of the day being his dismissal for a duck during the Wellington Firebirds’ season ending loss to Canterbury in the afternoon.”It’s not like it is in the movies where they wake up peacefully and they give everyone a big hug. It takes a while, there’s a lot of confusion and he’s dazed,” Klee said. ”[But] he knows where he is, he knows what’s happened and he knows I’m here now talking to you. It’s leaps and bounds from 24 hours ago.”He’s still got quite serious lung injuries and they’re keeping an eye on that because there’s a lot that potentially can go wrong with the lungs, so monitoring that very closely but at this stage they don’t need to support his breathing, which is a great milestone.”It was great to have him order us around again.”Ryder had gone with teammates to Aikmans Bar in Merivale where around 12.30am, while making his way to join other Wellingston players at a nearby McDonalds, he had been attacked twice in the space of a few minutes, suffering heavy blows to the head and chest that left him with a skull fracture and a collapsed lung.Police have arrested two men in connection with the assaults, a 20-year-old Christchurch resident and a 37-year-old relative who was visiting the city. They have been bailed to appear in the Christchurch District Court court on Thursday, April 4.

Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka allrounder, will lead Pune Warriors in IPL 2013. Mathews takes over Warriors’ captaincy from Sourav Ganguly, who will not play in this year’s IPL

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Mar-2013Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka allrounder, will lead Pune Warriors in IPL 2013. Mathews takes over Warriors’ captaincy from Sourav Ganguly, who will not play in this year’s IPL.The decision to appoint Mathews would mean Warriors will be without their regular captain when playing their away game against Chennai Super Kings, following the IPL governing council’s decision to exclude Sri Lankan players from matches in Chennai.He wasn’t the first choice captain for Warriors. However, once Australia captain Michael Clarke, their preferred choice, was ruled out of this edition of the tournament due to a back injury – one that also forced him to miss the last Test in India – it was clear that Sri Lanka’s Test and ODI leader would take over.Mathews thus becomes the fourth captain to lead Warriors, who open their third IPL campaign with an away game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 5. While Yuvraj Singh led the team in their inaugural season in 2011, Sourav Ganguly and Steven Smith shared the responsibility in Yuvraj’s absence last year due to illness. This year, despite Yuvraj having recovered from his rare germ cell cancer, it was known even before the auction on February 3 that the possibility of him leading the team was remote. “Both him and the owners were reluctant to have him as the skipper since Yuvi the allrounder is so much more important to the balance of the team than Yuvi the captain,” an insider said.Mathews, in all likelihood, will be one of three Sri Lankans to captain IPL teams this year, with Mahela Jayawardene leading Delhi Daredevils and Kumar Sangakkara in charge of Sunrisers Hyderabad. The franchises have already shown concern over the decision to keep the Sri Lankan players away from the Chennai games due to political tensions, saying that Super Kings may subsequently have an added advantage in their home games.Former South Africa quick Allan Donald, who was initially appointed Warriors’ bowling coach last season, has been named the franchise’s head coach. Former India batsman, Pravin Amre, will continue in the role of assistant coach. Trainer Rob Walters, who had previously worked with South Africa and Delhi Daredevils, has been signed as fielding coach and fitness trainer.

Suresh Raina brought up his maiden IPL hundred on Thursday, one which helped Chennai Super Kings beat Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs at Chepauk

ESPNcricinfo staff03-May-2013Suresh Raina brought up his maiden IPL hundred on Thursday, one which helped Chennai Super Kings beat Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs at Chepauk. That meant Super Kings have won seven games in a row, an IPL record they now share with Royal Challengers Bangalore, and have all but sealed their place in the playoffs. The reason for the team doing so well, Raina said after the match, was the excellent dressing-room atmosphere this season.”Right now our dressing room is one of the best since IPL was introduced. We have been enjoying the moment,” Raina was quoted as saying by . “Michael Hussey has been my role model in IPL. When you have positive attitude in the dressing room, you tend to learn a lot of good things from the senior players. It is all about attitude and hard work.”There has been a lot of emphasis on getting to know team-mates off the field, Raina said. “We have a team room and we spend a lot of time together. We play table tennis and pool games and listen to music. We get to know a player as a person off the field. I think that has made us very close. Still, lot of matches are coming up and if we work hard on our fitness we can get through.”In T20, Raina said, mental fitness is as important as cricket skills. “It is all about attitude and hard work. Twenty20 is all about how you play your shots and at the same time, you need to work really hard on your mind.”Raina said Super Kings’ bowlers played an important role in the win against Kings XI. Defending 186, Albie Morkel and Mohit Sharma had taken the new ball and kept the scoring rate in check, Mohit accounting for both openers. Then Dwayne Bravo struck three times in a well-directed final, effectively halting Kings XI’s spirited final charge. “Albie and Mohit Sharma bowled really well today with the new ball. But still the fear was in our mind. Not fear, but we are facing lot of challenges [with the bowling] and we really need to bowl well. But Bravo bowled really well too. We are in a good frame of mind right now and we are focused.”

South African fast bowler Monde Zondeki has decided to retire from all forms of cricket following persistent back-injury problems

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2013South African fast bowler Monde Zondeki has decided to retire from all forms of cricket following persistent back-injury problems. He was advised that even a major back surgery wouldn’t be enough to help him get back to play competitive cricket. Zondeki, who is one of the five black cricketers to have represented South Africa in Tests, played six Tests, 13 ODIs and one T20I.”The prognosis by his doctors is that Monde has multiple level degenerative changes in his lumbar spine and that it is highly unlikely that his back would stand up to sustained fast bowling,” Andre Odendaal, the chief executive of Cobras, said.Zondeki last played an international match in 2008 and has remained out of action since October 2012. “It’s been a good innings for me, though at times frustrating because of the injuries, and I look forward to remaining involved and giving back to the game in future,” Zondeki said. “I owe the different provinces I have played for and my team mates over the years a special word of thanks.”

Edgbaston and Old Trafford have been awarded extra fixtures by the ECB after a T20 and an ODI handed back by Durham were reallocated

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jul-2013Edgbaston and Old Trafford have been awarded extra fixtures by the ECB after a T20 and an ODI handed back by Durham were reallocated. Edgbaston will host India for a T20 international next year while Old Trafford was awarded a second Australia ODI during the Ashes summer of 2015.Both matches were initially part of Chester-le-Street’s package when the allocations were made in 2011. However, in May, Durham decided to return two of the four fixtures they were due to host in 2014 and 2015, with chief executive David Harker saying they had decided “to be cautious over what we could expect to sell to the public”. The ECB then re-initiated the tender process.Edgbaston will now host India for an ODI and a T20 in 2014, as well as a Sri Lanka ODI and the domestic T20 Finals Day. Old Trafford, which will this summer host its first Test since 2010, has been awarded two Australia ODIs for 2015, as well as T20 featuring New Zealand.The ECB’s chief executive, David Collier, said: “We congratulate the two venues on being awarded these fixtures which will form part of a very exciting programme of international cricket both next summer and in 2015.”

With India barely breaking a sweat while cruising to a 5-0 win over Zimbabwe, Virat Kohli was particularly pleased with the way some untested and fringe players in his squad proved themselves

Liam Brickhill in Bulawayo03-Aug-2013Job done for Virat Kohli. India were always likely to beat Zimbabwe, but any errors or slip-ups could have blotted the apprentice-captain’s copybook. With India barely breaking a sweat while cruising to a 5-0 win, Kohli was particularly pleased with the way some untested and fringe players in his squad proved themselves.”The guys who got a chance for the first time showed a lot of character, especially someone like Mohit Sharma and [Jaydev] Unadkat,” Kohli said. “Ajinkya Rahane coming back into the team, scoring some runs. So it was pretty good to see all the guys performing and playing their roles. Amit Mishra sat out for two months on the road regularly and then came out with 18 wickets in this series, so there were a lot of great performances by individuals and some good team efforts as well.”Kohli also won four tosses out of five, but that only served to widen a gap that would probably not have been bridged even if India had had to bat first each morning. Zimbabwe’s bad luck with the toss and their worse form with the bat meant that, apart from in the second match, India’s batsmen were never really put under pressure in testing conditions. As Kohli explained, though, that wasn’t really the point of this trip. India know what Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma offer, but a seaming wicket and helpful conditions allowed a greenhorn set of bowlers to build up valuable confidence. At no point was there any chance that Kohli would have sent his batsmen in first.”The thing is that we analysed and considered the fact that our bowling line-up is pretty new so we wanted to give them more confidence rather than the batting, because the batting has been doing well for about three months,” Kohli said. “There’s no point in going out there and trying to prove something to ourselves because all these individuals have performed at international level. It’s about giving people the right kind of confidence in games, and the new-ball bowlers got a lot of confidence from bowling in the first innings and that was the plan. The batsmen have all scored runs in this series, so it was all about making sure the bowlers go back as more confident individuals.”Perhaps the only point one might call Kohli out on was his failure to give an opportunity to Parvez Rasool. The Kashmiri offspinning allrounder was the only member of the squad to have sat out the entire series when he could have been brought in as a like-for-like replacement for Ravindra Jadeja.”It’s very hard to leave someone like Jadeja out because he’s the kind of bowler who can get you wickets at any point in time,” Kohli said. “We didn’t want to take any game lightly and I didn’t want to change too much in the bowling department. Mishra has been sitting out for a while so we wanted to give him four or five games. Parvez is going to South Africa now for the India A tour and he’s going to play a lot of games there and pick up more experience. He could have been given a chance but I just didn’t want to take a chance with the bowling line-up, leaving someone like Jadeja out.”I’m not really bothered about what’s being said about people getting chances, because a lot of people who have played these five games have been sitting on the bench for two months or so. Parvez realises we had a set bowling combination and we didn’t want to make any changes to that. It was unfortunate he didn’t get a game, but it just didn’t go according to our plans. Maybe in future when he plays more series he’ll get a few games to test his skills out.”India took just about as much as they could out of this whistle-stop tour. Five wins, a truckload of runs and wickets and a good dose of confidence. They move on to far tougher assignments in the months to come, with some of the group heading to South Africa for an A tour before India – with MS Dhoni back at the helm – take on Australia in seven ODIs at home and then travel to South Africa. By then, Zimbabwe will be a distant memory but, perhaps, a happy one.

The ECB have acted to repair relations with the PCB following reports in a British newspaper suggesting the ECB had suspicions about a recent game between Pakistan and West Indies.

George Dobell30-Jul-2013The ECB has acted to repair relations with the PCB following reports in a British newspaper suggesting the ECB had suspicions about a recent game between Pakistan and West Indies.The PCB was concerned that comments attributed to an ECB official in the article suggested the third match of the ODI series between Pakistan and West Indies in St Lucia on July 19 – a game which ended in a tie – might have been subject of spot or even match-fixing.The ECB has now formally assured the PCB that it has voiced no such suspicions. They told the PCB the comments were a “misrepresentation” and that it had not recommended to the ICC that the series should be investigated.The Pakistan board, suitably placated, issued a statement saying: “The PCB has received assurance from the ECB, that the ECB has not passed any judgment on Pakistan Cricket and that the ECB has not suggested that there was anything to be concerned about during the Pakistan v West Indies series.”PCB maintains a zero tolerance approach towards corruption but also feels it to be its obligation to protect Pakistan cricket from baseless allegations.”The statement was received in response to PCB’s query on a statement attributed to an ECB official which appeared in a British newspaper regarding allegations of fixing in the recently concluded Pakistan v West Indies series. The ECB confirmed that the official has not stated that the series should be investigated and also approached the newspaper to seek a suitable clarification.ESPNcricinfo understands that the ECB official involved advised that, if the newspaper had any information, it should be directed towards the ICC as the ECB had no jurisdiction in a game not involving England and not in the UK.The story provoked anger in Pakistan with former captain, Rashid Latif, making a series of counter-allegations, all so far entirely unsubstantiated, and suggesting that he will sue the newspaper. “If the newspaper fails to provide evidence then the PCB must take them to court,” Latif said. “And if they don’t, I will.”Latif, one of the whisteblowers at the time of the Qayyum inquiry between 1998-2000 has used his Twitter account to raise doubts about the probity of England matches in the recent Champions Trophy and chastise the ECB for banning Danish Kaneria.”Right from the onset the ECB did not have a strong case against Kaneria,” Latif told AFP. “It seemed that it was just to show the world that their county cricket was clean from fixing.”Latif pinpointed Sri Lanka’s victory over England at The Oval as a suspicious game but the ECB and ICC have denied any truth in the allegations and ESPNcricinfo understands that no ACSU investigation into it is planned.