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The allrounder was reported after Uganda’s opening match against Denmark at Division Three, during which he took 1 for 25 in nine overs

Peter Della Penna in Oman13-Nov-2018Uganda allrounder Irfan Afridi has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect after his bowling action was found illegal following video analysis taken at ICC WCL Division Three in Oman.An ICC press release announced the news about an hour before Uganda’s third match against Kenya on Tuesday at Division Three, and Afridi was replaced in the starting XI by offspinner Frank Nsubuga. Afridi was reported after Uganda’s opening match against Denmark at Division Three, during which he took 1 for 25 in nine overs.”Per Article 3.5 of the ICC Regulations for the Review of Bowlers Reported with Suspected Illegal Bowling Actions, video footage of Irfan’s bowling spells were provided to the Expert Panel of Mark King and Andrea Cutti, who are members of the ICC Panel of Human Movement Specialists, for their analysis and assessment,” the ICC release read. “The assessment revealed that the amount of elbow extension in Irfan’s bowling action was above the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations.”Uganda’s second match against USA was embroiled in controversy after umpires told Uganda captain Roger Mukasa that they would no-ball Afridi on the field if he continued to bowl. Till then, Afridi had bowled only one over in the game. With Afridi kept out of the attack, USA posted a total of 252 which was easily defended.Afridi’s suspension from bowling will remain until he submits to a further assessment of his bowling action by an Expert Panel or at an ICC approved Testing Centre and the assessment finds his bowling action legal.

Sri Lanka batsman Niroshan Dickwella has been suspended for two limited-overs matches after a Code of Conduct breach during Sunday’s Twenty20 win over Australia in Geelong

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2017Sri Lanka batsman Niroshan Dickwella has been suspended for two limited-overs matches after a Code of Conduct breach during Sunday’s Twenty20 win over Australia in Geelong. Dickwella will therefore miss Wednesday’s final match in the T20 series at Adelaide Oval, having been found guilty of showing dissent at an umpire’s decision.Umpire Simon Fry gave Dickwella out caught-behind when the batsman tried to scoop a delivery from James Faulkner over the wicketkeeper during the third over of Sri Lanka’s chase. Replays showed the ball had struck Dickwella’s shoulder rather than his bat.The ICC said in a statement that after he was given out, Dickwella “paused to view the replay, kicked the turf and looked at his shoulder for a prolonged period of time.”The punishment for his Code of Conduct breach was a fine of 30% of his match fee and two demerit points, but those demerit points were enough to bring a suspension.During the fourth ODI against South Africa in Cape Town earlier this month, Dickwella had accrued three demerit points following an incident in which he and Kagiso Rabada made contact on the field, and his five demerit points have thus been converted into a suspension for two limited-overs games.Australia’s wicketkeeper, Tim Paine, has also been fined 15% of his match fee over a related Code of Conduct breach, for what the ICC described as using “inappropriate words” after Dickwella was given out.

The KSL has done its job, and the new competition can only make the women’s game stronger, feels Katherine Brunt

Annesha Ghosh in Mumbai28-Feb-20190:33

‘Exciting time for English cricket’ – Taylor

Sarah Taylor and Katherine Brunt, two of England’s most experienced women’s players, have given the thumbs-up to the ECB’s new 100-ball tournament, saying it will only help improve the health of women’s cricket in the country, the scrapping of the Kia Super League (KSL) from 2020 notwithstanding.”I am happy to play any tournament whatsoever,” Taylor told ESPNcricinfo in Mumbai during England’s ODI series against India. “I am not too fussed either way. I think The Hundred’s going to be a brilliant tournament. The amount of work and effort the ECB have put into The Hundred, I think it will be an absolute success.”It will be a lot of fun for us as well. We’ve had some warm-up games played around with it, and we all love it. We think it’s brilliant. We just think it’s going to be an exciting time for English cricket, and we get to have a little bit of fun as well.”Fast bowler Brunt – at 33, the oldest player in the England squad and second only to Taylor in terms of ODI caps – echoed her team-mate’s views on The Hundred. Brunt also emphasised that the format itself would be a good opportunity for female cricketers to hone their skills further after the platform offered by the KSL, where the domestic players rub shoulders with some of the top-drawer internationals.”The KSL has done its job,” Brunt said. “It’s set the platform for T20 cricket in England. It’s had a lot of good exposure. It’s gotten better, year on year. The overseas [players] take it more seriously now. It’s taken as a really good competition to be part of in terms of their development but also learning from the best in the world and playing cricket has been really good.”The Hundred will be a whole new ball game, obviously keeping some of the same traditions. But sounds like I’m going to be pretty tired bowling ten balls! But that’s exciting too.Katherine Brunt celebrates with her team-mates after a wicket•AFP

“Like anything, a lot of it is about taking it head-on, do the best we can and learn from that. I feel it can only improve your cricket: the better you can be in the shorter [format]. It takes a lot of skills to be good at that. And you can take that forward into longer competitions. I’m loving it. I can’t wait for it to start and see what happens with it.”Taylor and Brunt’s views come at a time when the ECB has been firming up plans to implement a new women’s domestic structure from 2020. This would mean that the women would have a 20-over league and a 50-over tournament, in addition to The Hundred.The new competition has been held partly responsible for the extra money set to come into the English game, through the £1.1 billion broadcast deal announced in 2017, and that is likely to be reflected in a much increased pool of professional women. The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) has been involved in negotiating with the ECB and David Leatherdale, the PCA chief executive, said England’s senior women players were supportive of efforts to spread the wealth.”We’ll obviously see salaries in women’s cricket grow substantially, but they’ve been very open to say it’s not just about them, and if we don’t have a domestic structure that develops who is the next Charlotte Edwards, Heather Knight, etc – they’ve been totally understanding that the structure is key,” he said.While several observers have criticised the ECB’s move to scrap the KSL, which has only recently gained full momentum after coming into existence in 2016-17, Taylor and Brunt’s views align them squarely with that of ECB chief executive Tom Harrison. Last week, he told BBC TMS that the 100-ball tournament, “an optimised short-form cricket”, is a “success already” given the purported interest it has generated among those outside the “traditional cricket bubble”.As with Brunt, who said the biggest contribution of the KSL had been “the exposure it gave our youngsters”, Anya Shrubsole, the England vice-captain, emphasised the KSL’s legacy would be the pool of young talent it created.According to Shrubsole, not only did it improve the health of domestic cricket in the country but it also benefited the national side, as was evident through the influx of players like Sophia Dunkley, the batting allrounder, and left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon in the World T20 side last November, via the KSL route.”Kirstie came in and performed really well,” Shrubsole said. “She, like many others, will go on to play many games for England. That’s the most important part of the [KSL’s] legacy.”Yes, it will change slightly with the Hundred, but it’s about slowly professionalising the women’s game – not just at the international level but also in England. The KSL started to do that, and I’m sure that’ll be carried forward into the Hundred.”England captain Heather Knight added that The Hundred would ring in “an exciting time” for the women’s game in the country, especially for up-and-coming women’s cricketers aspiring to make it to the England side.”The opportunity for the women’s game is to be put alongside the men’s game and be marketed at the same,” Knight said, “and hopefully it’s going to put the women’s game out there and give it an opportunity to shine.”

Lindsay Tuckett, the former South Africa fast bowler who was the world’s oldest surviving Test cricketer, has died aged 97 in Bloemfontein

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2016Lindsay Tuckett, the former South Africa fast bowler who was the world’s oldest surviving Test cricketer, has died aged 97 in Bloemfontein. Tuckett played nine Tests for South Africa between June 1947 and March 1949.Tuckett made his first-class debut for Orange Free State in March 1935, shortly after his 16th birthday. When cricket resumed after the Second World War, Tuckett became one of South Africa’s leading bowlers and was picked for the tour of England in 1947, where he made his debut in the first Test at Trent Bridge.Tuckett began his Test career with a five-for, but was hampered by a groin injury on the tour and finished with 15 wickets in five matches at an average of 44.26. His next international appearance came during England’s [Marylebone Cricket Club] tour of South Africa in 1948-49. Tuckett bowled the last over of the dramatic Durban Test, which ended with a two-wicket victory for England, secured off the final ball. Tuckett’s returns in the series were four wickets for 316 runs, and he played his last Test match in that series. His tally of 19 international wickets included two five-fors.Tuckett took 225 wickets from 61 matches in a first-class between 1934-35 and 1954-55. This included a haul of 32 wickets in the 1951-52 season at an average of 17.59.Tuckett’s father was former South Africa Test cricketer Len, and his uncle, medium-pacer Joe Cox, was also a former Test cricketer.Former South Africa allrounder John Watkins is now the oldest living Test cricketer in the world, aged 93.

At the start of a big home season, with conditions to their liking, with the required ammunition in their bag, and with batsmen world over struggling to play quality spin, Virat Kohli sounded like a captain who felt his team’s time has come

Sidharth Monga in Kanpur21-Sep-20161:41

Need to be smart about our combination – Kohli

Virat Kohli’s performances in the last two years have been seen as a case of his recognising his time had come. He worked hard on his game for the conditions he was likely to get, eliminating every small weakness as he went along. He became obsessed with his fitness so his body became strong enough to match his ambition. At the start of a big home season, with conditions to their liking, with the required ammunition in their bag, and with batsmen world over struggling to play quality spin, Kohli sounded like a captain who felt his team’s time has come as well.”We believe we certainly have what it takes to be the best team in the world,” he said. “We definitely believe that. One area we have tapped into is belief. It’s something that a lot of young players can lack coming into international cricket. There can be a lot of insecurities: ‘Whether I’ll play in the next game or whether my position is secure or not.’ It’s all about getting them rid of that feeling. When you step on to the pitch, you need to tell yourself, ‘I own this position for the next eight-ten years in Test cricket for India.'”That’s the only way you can go out there, be confident and express yourself. Express how good you are, and that’s what this team has done. That’s why we’ve been able to win seven-odd Test matches in the last 13 or 14 that we played. [It’s] because we wanted to go out there and play bold cricket and take some risks. More often than not if you’re fearless, the results will fall your way because you’re willing to take that extra risk in the course of the game. I certainly feel that this team has what it takes to be the best.”Just like he has done with his batting, Kohli said he wanted his team to become obsessed with preparation so that at crunch time their strength and skill don’t desert them.”What it requires is sustained concentration, attention to detail, practising the same way every day… You know, doing boring things,” he said. “At this level you need to be boring if you want to be successful. As simple as that. Your training, your practice, the way you prepare for games should not change. Whoever can do that for a sustained period of time will obviously be a very good side, and this team has the potential to do that.”In the last season, when India beat South Africa 3-0, the frontline batsmen didn’t finish the job; India struggled against spin themselves and had to be bailed out by the lower order on more than the odd occasion. On Wednesday, Kohli said work has been done to overcome that.”I think what’s really important is to find the balance between being positive and being solid at the same time,” he said. “If someone is bowling a good spell you want to pay respect to the bowler, but not so much that you get under pressure. You don’t want to defend too much and eventually feel like, ‘I could have attacked more,’ when you get out. So it’s a right balance of putting the bowler under pressure and at the same time respecting the good balls that he bowls.”And that requires a lot of concentration. We have to be more watchful and more focussed throughout the day. There is no room for complacency; you cannot relax at any stage. In Test cricket, half an hour of bad decision-making can cost you the whole Test. So that’s one thing that we have worked on.”That’s why we work on our fitness levels so that the body can support what we want to do. To bat through the whole day, or two days, you need a fit physique and that’s what the boys have been working on and it’s been going really good. That has certainly improved our focus levels and we have been able to play out difficult situations in the best way possible. So it’s a combination of a lot of things, but I think the key is to maintain that balance between being positive and at the same time, being solid and playing through a difficult situation for the team.”To prepare for the 2013-14 season, when the bulk of India’s Tests were to be played overseas, the players had concentrated on how to play fast bowling as best as they could and in doing so they “sort of didn’t pay that much attention to spin.” Kohli admitted as much, but went on to say the same mistake would not be made now.”We have lost a Test match in Sri Lanka because we could not play spin as well as we wanted to,” he said. “But we rectified that. The team wants to improve in that aspect of the game. It is something that we surely need to get stronger at. What has happened is that there was so much being built up about us not being able to play well away from home that we kept focusing on playing fast bowling, and we got really good at it. We countered conditions really well in England, in bursts, in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.”We sort of didn’t pay that much attention to spin. That was one area we could have worked more on. Now we are putting in more effort, to face the spinners longer in nets and practising small little things by ourselves – someone might sweep, someone might play off the back foot, someone might step out – whatever it is. We are trying to improve that part of our game slowly. If you want to be a champion side, you don’t want to give the opposition any window to get into the game. The good thing is we are playing a lot of Test cricket so on the sidelines we can keep working on that every day and surely that improvement will happen.”As Kohli spoke at his press conference before the first Test of the Indian season, the ICC presented Pakistan the mace for being the No. 1 ranked side in Lahore. Kohli knows if his side can replicate what he did when he realised his time had come, that mace is likely to be in India before the season is done.

The Beausejour Cricket Ground in St Lucia will be renamed as the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, following West Indies’ dramatic World Twenty20 title win in India

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Apr-2016The Beausejour Cricket Ground in St Lucia will be renamed as the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, following West Indies’ dramatic World Twenty20 title win in India.The announcement was made in St Lucia at a welcome reception organised by the prime minister Kenny D Anthony to honour locals Darren Sammy and Johnson Charles. In addition to the stadium’s name change, one of the stands will be renamed in honour of Charles, who is also due to a receive a plot of land.”I am truly honoured, I am humbled and blessed,” Sammy, who became the only captain to win the World T20 twice, said. “Thank you, we always know St. Lucians love their own and the love and respect and admiration I have just received at the airport, oh my God, thank you very much”.The Beausejour Stadium, situated on the outskirts of the tourist resort area of Rodney Bay, has hosted international matches since 2002. In 2006, the stadium became the first ground in the West Indies to stage a floodlight ODI when Zimbabwe were the visitors. The stadium has a seating capacity of 15,000 including 18 hospitality suites and a modern pavilion that offers each team its own gym, lounge, balcony and conference room. It last hosted an international game in September 2014 – the second Test between West Indies and Bangladesh.”Both are fitting tributes to the hard work and dedication of the players who just completed an exciting victory to win the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 Men’s title. The honour is fitting, and we salute the players,” the WICB said in a statement.