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Dhammika Prasad took four wickets while the spinners claimed the rest as Sri Lanka gained a lead of 37, which was built further by Kaushal Silva and Kusal Mendis

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu23-Oct-2015
Scorecard and ball-by ball details1:06

West Indies fail to take advantage

Dhammika Prasad bounded in, making the early incisions, allrounder Milinda Siriwardana struck either side of lunch, and offspinner Dilruwan Perera took care of the tail, as West Indies were bowled out for 163, giving Sri Lanka a 37-run lead by tea on the second day, at the P Sara Oval. The lead was built further by Kusal Mendis and Kaushal Silva, who added 54 together, the highest partnership of the Test so far.Mendis may have looked jittery in the first innings but he got going in the second dig with some wristy flicks. He began with three fours and sussed out the conditions better after Dimuth Karunaratne was dismissed first ball when he tamely chipped Jerome Taylor to square leg.The other opener – Kaushal Silva – also had jitters. He was given out lbw on 3 before a review rescued him, with the tracker confirming that the ball was sliding down leg.Mendis’ promising innings was cut short at 39 by Jomel Warrican, but Dinesh Chandimal, having survived a tighter lbw review on 4, and Silva saw their team through to stumps while pushing the lead past 100.Kraigg Braithwaite had earlier mounted some fight for West Indies with 47 off 101 balls, and it was extended through a 32-run seventh-wicket partnership between Denesh Ramdin and Jason Holder. Rangana Herath continued to be a wicket-taking threat, but had success only in his 17th over when Ramdin missed an agricultural swipe. Not that Sri Lanka complained.Prasad, who led the attack, explored shorter lengths to begin with, but soon settled into his groove and returned figures of 5-2-8-2 in an energetic first spell. Nuwan Pradeep exploited the uneven bounce well enough to complement Prasad. Devendra Bishoo, the nightwatchman, was the first to fall on the second day when he threw his bat outside off, nicking Prasad behind, for 14.Prasad then welcomed Darren Bravo with one that misbehaved, snaking away wide outside off and beat the outside edge with a full tempter. Prasad got the big eyes and the big smile going. What followed was a sequence of 19 dots with Sri Lanka burrowing into the middle order. A few balls spat from a length while others kept low, asking more questions of the batsmen.The pressure on Bravo eventually told, with the batsman offering an indecisive angled bat and chopping Prasad on for 2. Herath added to West Indies’ worries by employing teasing flight and ripped one viciously past the outside edge of Brathwaite. Prasad then got to bowl to Brathwaite for the first time on the second morning, 45 minutes after a delayed start due to a damp outfield caused by overnight rain, and had the opener scoop the first ball wide of short cover.Brathwaite had endured more dicey moments, but his innings ended when he was given out caught behind by umpire Rod Tucker. The noise may have come from the bat jamming the ground but there was not enough evidence to overturn the on-field decision. Marlon Samuel’s innings was far more painstaking – he survived two leg-before appeals on zero within his first five balls, and was left scoreless for another ten balls. He weathered two more leg-before appeals and was caught at slip, lazily pushing at a tossed-up ball from Siriwardana to leave his side at 76 for 4, eight balls before lunch.If it was any consolation, though, Samuels avoided his ninth single-digit score against Sri Lanka in 16 innings, nudging his average to double-figures.Jermaine Blackwood flickered briefly – he drilled Pradeep through mid-off after a slow start and launched Siriwardana for a straight six – before Prasad returned and struck with the first ball after lunch. Holder also showed intent when he jumped out of the crease and sent Dilruwan clattering towards the media box.However, Ramdin and Holder exited in a space of 19 balls and the tail did not wag, as the hosts gained what appeared to be a substantial lead on a pitch that already had puffs of dust exploding from the surface. This was only the first time since 2006 that Sri Lanka had managed a first-innings lead after making 200 or fewer when batting first.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar might have lost favour as a Test bowler, but India’s bowling coach B Arun is backing the pacer to turn things around

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Bangalore15-Nov-2015Just over a year ago, Bhuvneshwar Kumar looked like a certainty in India’s Test XI. On a tour of England where he had looked India’s best cricketer, he had picked up 19 wickets at an average of 26.63 while impressing with the bat as well, scoring three half-centuries including one that contributed to a win at Lord’s.Since that tour, though, he has only played one Test match. He hasn’t looked the same bowler since his return from an ankle injury, and experts have wondered if he has lost some of his sting while searching for the balance between striving for extra pace and safeguarding his natural ability to swing the ball.In Sri Lanka, where India wanted to play a medium-pace-bowling allrounder in conditions that suited seam and swing, they called up Stuart Binny from outside their original squad rather than play Bhuvneshwar, who was in it. In the Bangalore Test against South Africa, which began on Saturday, they selected Binny over Bhuvneshwar again, when they wanted a seam-bowling allrounder in place of a spinner.One reason for this, of course, is that Binny is viewed as a batting allrounder and Bhuvneshwar as a bowling allrounder, but Bhuvneshwar’s lack of form must surely be another. And so, twice in two Test matches, Bhuvneshwar has been released from the India squad to play for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy.But B Arun, India’s bowling coach, is not worried about Bhuvneshwar’s seemingly stalled progress. In the first place, he does not think Bhuvneshwar would necessarily have to sacrifice swing to bowl quicker.”Pertaining to Bhuvneshwar, there are people who bowl 140+ [kmph] and still swing the ball,” Arun said, after rain washed out the second day’s play. “Bhuvi’s USP was swing. He has now definitely put more yards in his pace. But it’s only matter of time [before he returns]. It’s not like he’s not swinging the ball. He needs to be consistent. With work, he will definitely come back.”In the first Test in Mohali, India’s two fast bowlers – Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav – only sent down 20 overs between them across the two innings, in conditions where the spinners did the bulk of the work. With Ishant Sharma, India’s most experienced fast bowler, coming back into the team for Bangalore, Umesh missed out on selection. Both Aaron and Umesh have had stop-start careers so far, with neither getting too many opportunities to play three or even two Tests in a row.With India playing most of their Tests at home over the next year or so, this situation is likely to continue for a while. How does a bowling coach help these bowlers through such a situation?”It’s a challenge for the team management as a whole,” Arun said. “We have to look at the conditions which would suit the combination that we have. Not often that it would give them a great run. But if not I guess the bottom line is to keep them motivated and make them feel that they have a major role to play when the opportunity arises.”Pressed further about Umesh and Aaron, and the difficulties of getting sporadic chances and only bowling short spells when those chances arrive, Arun said it was part of the struggle of being a fast bowler in Indian conditions.”If you look at Varun and Umesh, I thought they bowled pretty well in the previous match. Though they were not among the wicket-takers, I thought they bowled exceptionally well. They went under 2.5 runs per over. Also, Varun and Umesh bowled a three-over spell where they were reversing the ball. Then, I thought the spinners had a major role to play. It was unfortunate [that they could not play a bigger role] but you have to fight your way up.”Arun hailed the reliability of Ravindra Jadeja, who has made a successful comeback after spending time out of the Indian side in all three formats, calling him one of India’s “banker bowlers”.”I guess he had some time to reflect [on what was going wrong] when he was out of the team,” Arun said. “He had time to think about where to improve. His performance in the Ranji Trophy should have given him loads of confidence. Moreover, Jadaja is one of your banker bowlers no matter what – whether Test or one-dayers. He’s using that strength to his advantage now.”Despite the second day being washed out entirely, Arun felt India still had the time to build on their strong position (80 for no loss in response to South Africa’s 214) and push for a win.”I guess there is a long way to go in this Test match. What we would like to focus on is – take it session by session in our batting and look to put up a very good score and then take it forward from there. We would look to put up a very good total to be in the driver’s seat.”

A round-up of the Sunfoil Series matches that ended on December 30, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Dec-2015
ScorecardHardus Viljoen picked up his second straight ten-wicket match haul•Getty Images

Hardus Viljoen picked up his second straight ten-wicket match haul and Stephen Cook struck an unbeaten third-innings 168 as Lions wrapped up a 203-run win over Warriors at the Wanderers.Sent in to bat, Lions made a poor start, with three of their top four falling for single-digit scores, before half-centuries from Qaasim Adams and Nicky van den Bergh steered them to 291. Viljoen led Lions’ defence of that total, claiming figures of 6 for 44 in helping bowl Warriors out for 163. Left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso was the other major wicket-taker, with figures of 3 for 36.Lions now led by 128, and Cook made sure they would swell it considerably in their second innings. He made an unbeaten 168 off 256 balls, scoring over 57% of their runs before they declared on 294 for 4, setting Warriors a target of 423.Apart from the opener Colin Ackermann, who made a 189-ball 89, Warriors’ top order didn’t prove up to the task, with the other four batsmen in their top order falling for single-digit scores. From 39 for 4, Ackermann and Clyde Fortuin (39) steadied Warriors’ innings with a fifth-wicket stand of 78, but there was little resistance thereafter. Fortuin fell in the eighth over of the fourth morning, and the rest of the Warriors line-up only lasted a further 23.3 overs. Viljoen picked up four second-innings wickets to finish with match figures of 10 for 123.

Madhya Pradesh have dropped Rameez Khan from their Ranji Trophy squad after the allrounder was arrested for allegedly killing a black buck in the state’s Sagar district

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2016Madhya Pradesh have dropped Rameez Khan from their Ranji Trophy squad after the allrounder was arrested for allegedly killing a black buck in the state’s Sagar district.Rameez was named in Madhya Pradesh’s squad to play Bengal in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal in Mumbai on February 3.
“We have not selected Rameez for the Ranji squad as he is not available because he is jail in connection with the alleged killing of a black buck,” said Milind Kanmadikar, Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association’s secretary.Rameez, his father Mehmood Khan, and two other associates were arrested under the Wildlife Protection Act on January 10. Remains of the animal, a rifle, few live cartridges and a knife were found in their possession. Mehmood is currently a member of the MPCA’s Under-23 selection committee, and has also played first-class cricket for Madhya Pradesh.Sagar district’s Divisional Forest Officer, Dr Shivprasad Tiwari told that the four associates were under judicial custody and their bail pleas were rejected by the court. He also said that he had written a letter to MPCA about the case but the association has not yet taken any action against the father or son.

Jason Holder declined an offer to make a game of the rain-ruined third Test against Australia in Sydney because he did not think his side was ready to try to go for the win

Daniel Brettig at the SCG07-Jan-20161:12

West Indies weren’t up for the challenge – Smith

The West Indies captain Jason Holder declined an offer to make a game of the rain-ruined third Test against Australia in Sydney because he did not think his side was ready to try to go for the win.In a scenario that the Caribbean side would have struggled to create over a full five-day match against Australia, the hosts’ captain Steven Smith offered Holder the chance to defend 370 runs off 70 overs on the final day, with Australia declaring their first innings at 0 for 0 then offering scoring opportunities to the visitors. Smith’s disappointment at the offer being refused was plain.”We want to try and win every game we play and today was a perfect opportunity to set the game up for a good chase and for the fans that stayed out this afternoon,” Smith said. “For us that would have potentially been me bowling with three slips and two gullies and leaving every man up for them to try and hit as many as they can to try and make sure they left 370 off 70 as promised to them.”Whatever you have to do to get that on the board was going to happen. No-one really wants to see a draw, they want to see a good, exciting cricket and teams winning. We were willing to give them 70 overs on a day-five wicket and we were going to go after the runs. 370 off 70 overs is quite a lot of runs, I think that is fair game for both teams, as I said it was just disappointing that they weren’t willing to come to the party.”A crowd of 6865 took advantage of free admission to come to the SCG on the final day, and Smith’s intention overnight had been to give them a spectacle. The game is more cynical about contrived results after the days of the former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje, who once made a similar offer to the England captain Nasser Hussain on the final day of a Test at Centurion in 1999-2000 on behalf of bookmakers. However, Smith said the coach Darren Lehmann had checked the ICC playing conditions and code of conduct before making the offer.”I spoke to a few of the senior guys, but that was the number I was looking at over night and this morning if the sun was going to come out and we could play,” Smith said of the 370 target. “I spoke to Boof who read through the rules, which said you’re allowed to do that kind of thing. That was on our cards today and as I said unfortunately they didn’t come to the party.”For Holder’s part, his team has made subtle improvements this summer, but their bowling has been a major weakness throughout, as evidenced by how David Warner rattled to a century from only 82 balls on the final afternoon. Like Allan Border leading a similarly weakened Australia in the mid-1980s, Holder felt that his team must learn how better to avoid defeat before victory can be pursued.”He [Smith] came to us and made an offer, I just went back to the team and we thought at this stage of our development it wasn’t the best thing for us,” Holder said. “We had [Denesh] Ramdin who was scoring well and looking well, so just give him the encouragement to go out there and build an innings and build some confidence.”We set out at the beginning of the series to bat 90 overs each time we batted and get past the 300 mark. That was one of the things that we wanted to achieve today and we achieved that. It was a team vote, team decision. At that stage of our development and the phase we’re at we thought it was the best thing for the team.”We started in Hobart and we didn’t play well at all there, we showed improvement in Melbourne and we just had to come here to improve as well. I think we just need to take it step by step, it’s not a case where you can just jump from losing Test matches to winning in one transition, especially against good opposition like Australia.”The West Indies tour ended on a note of personal loss for opening batsman Rajendra Chandrika, whose father Baljit died suddenly overnight in the Caribbean. Both sides wore black armbands out of respect.

Shreyas Iyer made a sparking century to put Mumbai in the lead against Saurashtra, despite late strikes, on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final in Pune

The Report by Shashank Kishore in Pune25-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShreyas Iyer continued his excellent form and made his sixth first-class century•John Michel

There are those who take the pitch out of the equation when they bat. Then there are others whose presence makes the pitch look its lively best. On the second day, Saurashtra witnessed both as 40-time champions Mumbai lost a clutch of wickets after Shreyas Iyer’s sparkling century, leaving the Ranji Trophy final delicately poised in Pune.For an hour in the morning, Mumbai were rattled and perhaps even caught off guard by Jaydev Unadkat’s late onslaught, a 26-ball 31 that lifted Saurashtra from their overnight 192 for 8 to 235. Then, his twin blows accounted for the Mumbai openers – Akhil Herwadkar (0) and Bhavin Thakkar (6). Iyer, who walked out in a pressure situation, countered with a fine blend of timing and power.His sixth first-class century, with 15 fours and two sixes, made him the highest run-getter in a season for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy history. It helped them wipe out the deficit before a lower-order collapse left Mumbai at 262 for 8, with a lead of 27, when stumps were drawn.Saurashtra, who could have been buried if not for Iyer’s loose dismissal, would need to ensure they dismantle the tail cheaply and blunt the bowling on the third morning, when the surface is usually at its menacing best.Time will tell whether Arpit Vasavada’s dropped catch of Iyer could become the Indian version of Steve Waugh’s famous line: ‘you just dropped the cup, mate.’ But there was no denying the fact that it had a big bearing on the turn of events. Mumbai were 0 for 1 when Iyer came out playing positively and were soon reduced to 23 for 2; he raced to 37 before nicking to second slip, where Vasavada grabbed at the ball, only to see it bobble out.A third wicket just before lunch would have handed the advantage to Saurashtra but that missed opportunity punctured them. Over the next two hours and a bit, Mumbai showed why they bossed the domestic circuit. The surface did ease out as the day progressed, but not to the extent that Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav, who put together 152 for the third wicket, made it look.While Mumbai’s bowling attack had benefited from the persistence of Balwinder Sandhu and Abhishek Nayar, who played the holding role superbly to complement Dhawal Kulkarni, Saurashtra’s attack started and ended with Unadkat during the course of the bludgeoning stand.When Unadkat had the new ball in hand, it looked like the game was played on a different surface. He made deliveries hold their line to trouble batsmen. With the back-up bowlers Hardik Rathod, Deepak Punia, Chirag Jani and Prerak Mankad offering drivable deliveries at a friendly pace, it was a batting feast for Iyer, with Suryakumar providing able assistance.But the ease with which Iyer was scoring runs, perhaps brought out one big hit too many and an attempted loft over the infield resulted in a miscue to mid-off, shortly before tea. Saurashtra’s reaction – relief, and not elation at having dislodged the key batsman – summed up the state of the game. After the dismissal, however, Aditya Tare and Suryakumar, looked to sustain the healthy scoring rate, but a change of ball brought about a change of luck for Saurashtra.Tare was consumed by late swing as the bat came down at an angle, leading to a nick to the cordon. Suryakumar continued the trend of edging behind as he poked away from the body to give Punia his first wicket. Nayar then made a streaky 19, surviving another dropped chance by Vasavada, before playing down the wrong line to a full ball. A wobble turned into a proper crisis when Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur were dismissed off consecutive deliveries from a fired-up Rathod.The extent to which Saurashtra made up for lost ground became evident as Mumbai’s batsmen started playing for time and light as the end of the day drew near.

Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has cleared the national men’s and women’s teams to travel to India for the World T20

Umar Farooq and Nagraj Gollapudi11-Mar-2016Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has cleared the national men’s and women’s teams to travel to India for the World T20. The decision came after the government received letters from the West Bengal state government and Kolkata’s police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, assuring special security measures for Pakistan’s men’s team while in Kolkata, where their match against India will be played on March 19. The teams are expected to arrive in India on Saturday.*Najam Sethi, the chairman of the PCB’s executive committee, met Pakistan’s interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Khan on Friday and later informed the media that the government had received “solid assurances” from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs.”We have got the assurances we had wanted from India [the federal home ministry and the West Bengal government] about the security around the Pakistan teams and the good news for the fans is that Chaudhry Nisar has said the teams can travel to India,” Sethi said. “Chaudhry Nisar said that the government has received solid assurances from the Indian home ministry so we can send our teams to India. The team will be leaving either tonight or tomorrow morning.”Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly had submitted the letters from Kumar and West Bengal’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee to the ICC on Thursday afternoon. According to two senior CAB officials, the content in both letters, which were addressed to CAB, was brief: both Banerjee and Kumar stated they will take responsibility for the Pakistan team’s security for the duration of their stay in Kolkata for the match against India.On Thursday, India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, had said: “Anyone coming to India will be provided security, there is no doubt about it.” Kuldip Singh Dhatwalia, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs, reiterated the home minister’s statement. “Home Minister has already said it on record that government of India will provide all the due and proper security. It is not only for the Pakistani team, but for any other team also, the government of India is committed to provide the security,” Dhatwalia told ESPNcricinfo.The match was shifted to Kolkata from Dharamsala due to concerns over security of the Pakistan team. It is understood that the ICC had specifically asked the Cricket Association of Bengal, the host association for the match, to obtain the assurances.Both teams were scheduled to depart for India earlier this week, but the departure was put on hold due to the controversy over security assurances. The Pakistan men’s team is currently in Lahore, while the women’s team is in Karachi. The players were briefed by PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan on Thursday about the security situation in India.The ICC moved the match from Dharamsala to Kolkata, after Pakistan asked for a change in venue. The request was based on the report of a three-member delegation from Pakistan that visited India to assess security arrangements in Dharamsala, and stated that ‘security is not assured’ at the venue.The Pakistan government had initially cleared the team to play in India, but the board decided to put the visit on hold until they were guaranteed foolproof security. The PCB’s move was prompted after the Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh had expressed concerns over providing security for the match in Dharamsala. 1203 GMT, March 11, 2016. The news piece was updated after the Pakistan government cleared the teams to travel to India

International cricket’s future can only be secured by making it the financial pinnacle for players currently torn between Tests and domestic Twenty20 leagues, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has declared

Daniel Brettig26-Apr-20165:23

Need for greater financial remuneration in Test cricket?

International cricket’s future can only be secured by making it the financial pinnacle for players currently torn between Tests and domestic Twenty20 leagues, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has declared.Having returned from a round of ICC meetings he considered as constructive as any he had witnessed in 15 years as CA’s CEO, Sutherland argued that any changes to the schedule or additions of championships or league formats had to run parallel with extensive work to ensure that the financial rewards for Tests outstripped the cash on offer in T20.Outside of Australia and England, most players can currently earn far more for a few weeks’ work in the IPL or BBL than their contract retainers or match fees to play international matches. This trend was underlined last summer in Australia when the payments for New Zealand and West Indies were lined up against those of the home side. Sutherland said players should not feel they are being shortchanged by putting international cricket first, meaning new ways must be found to pay them more generously for Tests in particular.”I’m genuinely excited about the progress that’s been made and the collective will that appears to be in the room among Full Members to improve the context around international cricket and the quality of international cricket,” he said. “Some of the key things there are about trying to make way to ensure the best players play international cricket, that they’re available and they don’t feel under pressure to go and chase money in T20 leagues.”Part of that is elevating the primacy of all forms of international cricket but particularly Test cricket, and looking to build context. Whether that’s through leagues or championships or whatever it might be, it’s too early to say, but I can honestly say that in terms of ICC meetings I’ve attended and we’ve discussed these sort of matters, these were as a good a meetings as I’ve ever been to.”Another option raised in recent weeks has been the establishment of ironclad windows in the calendar for domestic T20 events, which Sutherland is opposed to. CA have managed to engineer a home summer where the BBL runs parallel to Test matches, and Sutherland said any move towards domestic T20 windows – apart from the unofficial gap that has grown around the IPL – would serve mainly to diminish the international game.”It’s for others to state their position, but my view is that international cricket comes first,” he said. “International cricket must be protected and it should be the form of the game that is the priority for players. I don’t support creating exclusive windows for T20 domestic competitions; there may be an exception for IPL which almost seems to have created its own exclusive window, but to that end irrespective I still maintain the position that international cricket must come first, and there shouldn’t be any exclusive windows for domestic T20 competitions.”Among Sutherland’s priorities while in Dubai was to further prosecute his case for a day-night Test against South Africa in Adelaide next summer. He said discussions with CSA and the South African players’ association had revolved around ensuring South Africa’s players had the maximum possible opportunities to get used to playing with a pink ball under lights before they arrive in Adelaide. The former captain Shaun Pollock has raised the possibility of a day-night Test at home against New Zealand in August, before the Australian tour begins.”I maintain my position that I continue to be optimistic about the Adelaide Test match being played as a day-night Test match,” Sutherland said. “In a timing sense we probably won’t have any firm decisions on that until after the IPL’s over, when their [South Africa’s] players get back home, but certainly constructive discussions and I think things are heading in the right direction.”As we know from last year we’ll see an enormous attendance at a day-night match in Adelaide. It’ll be a bigger crowd than the South African players have ever seen before. To some extent that can add a little bit of extra trepidation when they haven’t played under lights before; hopefully as part of the plan here we’ll provide as much opportunity for them to prepare with pink balls and under lights both back at home and leading into the Test match. It’s a lot about making sure they have a comfortable preparation to get themselves ready for that game.”

South Africa batsman Stiaan van Zyl has stated that he would like to return to the middle order of the Test side

Vishal Dikshit20-May-20161:51

Cullinan: Knee-jerk reaction by van Zyl

South Africa batsman Stiaan van Zyl has stated that he would like to return to the middle order of the Test side, and not as an opening batsman. Van Zyl opened the batting in Tests against India and England last season, but was dropped from the side in both series after poor results. He went back to the domestic circuit for his franchise, Cape Cobras, and batted at more familiar positions – Nos. 3 and 4 – regaining some of his form.”I don’t think I’ll give opening a go again. If opening is the only place then I’ll give it a go, but if I have a choice then I’ll go in the middle order,” van Zyl told ESPNcricinfo in Mumbai, where he is participating in a week-long spin camp held by Cricket South Africa. “I’m normally a No. 3 batter but the only opportunity was for me to open when Alviro [Petersen] retired. So I’m a No. 3 and I gave it a go. It didn’t work so well, there’s not a lot of difference between opening and No. 3. But I’ll put the opening aside now and try to focus to get into the middle order. If they pick me then I’d like to bat in the middle order.”No. 6 is a good spot, somewhere there, if there’s a gap. But we’ll see what happens because there are still good players there in the Test side. Maybe there’s some players that don’t want to play Test cricket anymore so that could open things. So I’m looking to bat in the middle order if I get an opportunity.”Van Zyl will not find it easy to slot into South Africa’s current middle order. The openers are followed by Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, and there are two takers for the No. 6 slot in Temba Bavuma and JP Duminy. Bavuma, incidentally, had replaced van Zyl as an opener on the India tour last year, after the latter failed in the first three Tests of the four-match series. Van Zyl managed a total of 56 runs at an average of 11.20, and was dismissed by offspinner R Ashwin in all five innings.”It was quite a testing series in India, we played on spinning wickets,” he said. “We weren’t quite used to it. Maybe if I had this camp earlier, it would have been better. The spinners didn’t give us a lot of freebies so that made it quite difficult for us to score. What they did well was they kept you on one side, and then one ball would have your number.”He returned as an opener for the home Tests against England in December and January but started with a duck in the first Test Durban and scored 69 runs in the next four innings. He was dropped for the final Test in Centurion and replaced by Stephen Cook, who scored a century on debut. While it was spin that troubled van Zyl in India, against England, it was primarily his off-stump judgement.”Coming from India, my confidence was low,” van Zyl said. “England have a good attack and the first game in Durban I got a duck and 35 or something. They’re known for their seamers and Stuart Broad was on song. I didn’t have a great series and I’ve got to knuckle down again…like with the A side, probably go to Australia. If I get picked there, then maybe get a few runs and maybe have my name back again for the national side.”Once dropped, van Zyl played List A and first-class matches for Cape Cobras before heading to the Netherlands during the South African winter. He averaged 47.75 in five List A matches in the Momentum One Day Cup, but his returns in the five first-class matches in the Sunfoil Series were much lower. In nine innings, he scored 158 with a high score of 54 and an average of under 20.Now in India for the spin camp, van Zyl said he had been working on a few technical aspects to tackle spin better, especially in the subcontinent.”I think I’ve managed to pick two key points, I’ve tried them and I’m very pleased with that,” he said. “I need to take them further in my batting and [need] to knuckle my basics down and make it a habit.”I tend to be very upright in my stance. I need to keep my knees more bent, stay closer to the ground, and have quick feet to get into good positions quicker. That allows you to have more options while playing spin. [The second thing is] what guard to take when the ball is spinning, what guard when the ball is new and not spinning. Small stuff like that. It’s mostly to believe that you can play spin and in India.”Staying slightly lower against seamers, you get room to hit the ball. If the ball pops up then, you’ve got room to adjust but if you’re just upright there’s no room. When you’re a bit lower, you can pick the lengths slightly quicker.Van Zyl will head back to the Netherlands from India to continue representing the Dosti Cricket Club in Amsterdam.

Brendon McCullum, the former New Zealand captain who gave match-fixing evidence at Southwark Crown Court against his former team-mate Chris Cairns, has used the MCC Spirit of Cricket lecture to criticise the ICC’s anti-corruption unit

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jun-20162:58

Bal: ICC’s biggest challenge is creating an environment of trust

Brendon McCullum, the former New Zealand captain who gave match-fixing evidence at Southwark Crown Court last year against his former team-mate and one-time hero Chris Cairns, has used the MCC Spirit of Cricket lecture to criticise the approach of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit.Cairns was effectively cleared of any involvement in match-fixing at the end of a nine-week trial in November, but complained that his reputation in cricket had been “scorched” despite being found not guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice.The first count, that of perjury, would have carried a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment and related to his successful 2012 libel action against Lalit Modi, the founder of the IPL, at the High Court in London.In the course of the libel trial, Cairns stated that he had “never” cheated at cricket, and nor would he contemplate doing so, a statement that attracted the interests of the Crown Prosecution Service in the wake of leaked testimony given by his former team-mates, Lou Vincent and McCullum, to the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU).McCullum told MCC members at Lord’s that he stood by the evidence he gave at the trial but condemned his first interview with a member of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit as “casual”.He said of the official: “[He] took notes – he did not record our conversation. He said he would get what I said down on paper and that it would probably end up at the bottom of the file with nothing eventuating.”Looking back on this, I am very surprised by what I perceive to be a very casual approach to gathering evidence. I was reporting two approaches by a former international star of the game. I was not asked to elaborate on anything I said and I signed a statement that was essentially nothing more than a skeleton outline.”McCullum made three statements in all, offering progressive detail, and said of his third statement to the Metropolitan Police: “Suffice to say, they were streets ahead in terms of professionalism. They asked me so many questions, testing my memory, and took a much more comprehensive brief.”McCullum went on: “I don’t think either of us could ever have foreseen that my first statement would be used in a perjury trial in London four years after it was made. But the point I wish to make is that it must have been feasible that I would have to give evidence somewhere, sometime. I think players deserve better from the ICC and that, in the future, the evidence gathering exercise has to be much more thorough, more professional.”In my opinion a person taking a statement should ensure that the witness is advised about what may occur – that if evidence were to be given in the future and the witness did not put everything in that initial statement or changed what they said in any way, then this would likely impact on their credibility.”When I made my first statement to the ICC, my impression was that it would be put in the bottom draw and never see the light of day again. No attempt was made to elicit a full and comprehensive statement from me on that occasion.”Referring to his “moral obligation” to give evidence, McCullum said: “I do wish that the ICC had handled my initial approach more professionally.”McCullum also complained that his evidence was leaked to the . “No witness who has provided evidence to the ICC should ever have to go through such a scenario again. The leak has never been explained to me; to my knowledge no one has been held accountable and, in those circumstances, it is difficult to have confidence in the ICC,” he said.”To report an approach and to give evidence requires considerable courage – players deserve much better. How can the game’s governing body expect players to co-operate with it when it is then responsible for leaking confidential statements to the media?”It goes without saying that if players do not have confidence in the organisation, they will be reluctant to report approaches and the game is worse off. If we are to get rid of the scourge of match-fixing, a robust governing body is essential.”