Dolphins allrounder Robbie Frylinck has been suspended pending a disciplinary process related to alleged assault on a fellow player

Firdose Moonda30-Jan-2016Dolphins allrounder Robbie Frylinck has been suspended pending a disciplinary process related to an alleged assault on a fellow player. The franchise clarified the reason for Frylinck’s suspension on Saturday evening after providing no details of the sanction when it was made public on Thursday. Frylinck will face a formal disciplinary hearing next week.In a press release, the Dolphins said the incident took place last Sunday, January 24, after the Kwa-Zulu Natal team returned from their fixtures against Boland in Paarl. “It is alleged that an argument developed in the car which was transporting the players to the airport after the provincial match they played in ended a day before it’s scheduled finish,” the statement read.Frylinck has been suspended until the outcome of the hearing. He was due to rejoin Dolphins for the resumption of the one-day cup, but did not travel with the team to Cape Town.Dolphins CEO Pete de Wet appealed for speculation to be doused until the conclusion of the disciplinary process. “De Wet stressed that it was imperative for the dignity of all the players involved to allow the disciplinary process to be completed, and warned against unsubstantiated rumours and jumping to conclusions until the outcome of the hearing is made public,” the statement said.

The ECB is under pressure to confirm whether it intends to put forward Giles Clarke, the board president, as its nominee for the forthcoming election for ICC chairman in June

Andrew Miller01-Mar-20162:46

Protesters outside The Oval call to ‘change cricket’ (Archive footage)

The ECB is under pressure to confirm whether it intends to put forward Giles Clarke, the board president, as its nominee for the forthcoming election for ICC chairman in June, in spite of his prominent role in the ICC structural reforms of 2014 that were widely discredited in last month’s board meeting in Dubai.With Clarke facing an appearance before the Department of Culture Media and Sport Select Committee later in the year, where his role in the so-called “Big Three” takeover will be scrutinised by MPs, Damian Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe who sits on the committee, has called on the ECB to answer six questions pertaining to Clarke’s ongoing role and the board’s overall commitment to good governance that he believes “the cricketing public deserve to know”.

Six questions for the ECB

• What is the ECB’s vision for how the International Cricket Council should be run?
  Does the ECB feel that Transparency International (and Lord Woolf before them) has been fair in its criticism of the International Cricket Council for failing to adhere to recognised governance standards, including increased accountability and transparency? And if so, as an influential board at ICC are the ECB prepared to publicly commit to tackling these problems?
  Will the ECB be putting forward Giles Clarke as their nominee for ICC Chairman? And if so, does the ECB think it is appropriate to be endorsing someone who played such a prominent role in reforms that have been widely condemned as bullying, inequitable and ignoring the need for those basic governance standards detailed above?
  Would Giles Clarke be required to step down as President of ECB before putting himself forward for consideration as Chairman of ICC?
  Can the ECB give full disclosure as to the terms of Giles Clarke’s Presidency of the organisation?
  What do Giles Clarke’s duties as President of ECB entail? Are they limited to representing the board at ICC?

Collins confirmed that the questions, which were last week emailed to Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, in advance of Monday night’s special parliamentary screening of the award-winning documentary Death of a Gentleman, remain unanswered, raising the possibility that Clarke might already be ICC chairman by the time he is questioned in parliament.”We did get a statement back from the ECB but they weren’t able to answer any of those questions,” Collins told ESPNcricinfo. “In particular there has been no response to the issue of Giles Clarke’s suitability to stand as ICC chairman.”Although Clarke’s candidacy received a blow earlier this year, when it emerged that neither South Africa nor Australia would be willing to back his bid to become chairman, the requirement that all nominees must be either a past or present ICC Board director – as agreed in Dubai last month – may yet limit the number of viable alternatives for the role.Clarke, who was ECB chairman at the time of the ICC reforms, was handed the specially created role of ECB president in 2015 when his eight-year tenure came to an end. The ECB’s reluctance to clarify the details of his new relationship with the board appears at odds with the general move among sporting bodies towards transparent and accountable governance, in the wake of scandals that have gripped football, athletics and tennis in recent times.”This is a crucial moment for cricket,” Collins said. “We have put six key questions to the ECB, because the cricketing public deserve to know how their game is being run.”England, along with India and Australia, are the most influential boards at the ICC. In August I accused them of orchestrating a back-room power grab that saw these three countries taking over the game at the expense of the other 102.”We welcome the news from the recent ICC board meeting that the ICC is considering governance reform but we want to know what the ECB thinks that reform should look like.”It is hugely important that cricket does not miss this opportunity to embrace meaningful reform, and that the ECB are at the forefront of ensuring that the international game gets the independent, transparent and accountable governance it deserves. And if the ECB disagrees, we need to know why.”An ECB spokesman would not be drawn on the subject of Collins’ questions, but reiterated the board’s previous statement, that it welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the Select Committee’s ongoing enquiry into sports governance. To date, hearings have been with Greg Dyke, the FA chairman, over Fifa corruption; Sebastian Coe, the IAAF president, over doping in athletics; and Chris Kermode of the ATP over match-fixing in tennis.

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.

Partly driven by financial constraints, Kings XI Punjab have embraced an ethos of developing young talent, rather than splurging on superstars

Arun Venugopal14-Apr-2016Kings XI Punjab went into the auction ahead of IPL 2016 with a purse of Rs 23 crore. On their priority list were fast bowlers and a legspinner. By the time they had finished shopping, they had added eight players to their roster – two fast bowlers, three spinners, two batting allrounders and an uncapped Indian batsman – and they still had Rs 12 crore left in the purse. With only 22 players, Kings XI have the joint-smallest squad in the IPL.Much like Rajasthan Royals, King XI have always been known to run a tight ship and are loath to splurge on big stars. That they have only seven overseas players in their squad tells the story. “I am guided by the same principles that you use in selecting a national squad – pick only about 15 or 16 players,” one of the franchise’s officials told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the auction. “In an ideal world – and I understand it’s a long tournament – I want the starting XI to play all the 14 matches. It makes sense to have four [foreign] players and have back-ups if anybody is injured.”Ahead of IPL 2014, Kings XI similarly preferred functionality to reputation while appointing their coaching staff, opting for the then recently-retired Sanjay Bangar, known only for his mentoring skills with the India A and Railways sides, over accomplished names. Under Bangar, the first Indian coach in the IPL, Kings XI made the final. The captain, George Bailey, was thoroughly impressed with Bangar and said, “Everything you see and like about Kings XI starts with Sanjay Bangar. His knowledge of the game is wonderful.”Two seasons on, Bangar has strived to ensure that the team doesn’t deviate from its primary ethos. “Our strategy has always been based around getting good domestic players, catching them young and providing them the platform. You have seen our platform has helped players like Axar Patel, Sandeep Shama, Gurkeerat Singh, Anureet Singh and Rishi Dhawan,” Bangar said. “Players have played here as unknown quantities, and have progressed and gone on to play the next level. That has been the vision of our franchise as well. In that parlance, if you see, we always went for Marcus Stoinis who is one of the emerging allrounders from the Australian cricket circuit.”Bangar admitted that their player-acquisition strategy was dictated by small budgets, and said he didn’t see the need to dismantle the unit despite having won only three games and finished last on the points table last year. “All our strategy is based around a particular budget that the directors give us. From that perspective we have to optimise the selection strategies taking into account the budgetary constraints,” he said.”The players have been included with an eye on the future. We believe in giving continuity. We believe in their strengths, we believe in their ability to bounce back and turn the corner for the team. That is why we opted for continuity in the core group of players that we have in our team.”Bangar also suggested that the team was built bottom up, with the captain, David Miller, being chosen from among the players rather than the other way around. This, however, was not entirely by design, but dictated more by the constraints Kings XI faced. “Number one, there were very few options outside which were available. Most of the captaincy candidates who we were looking for who were coming out from the two teams [Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings] – Ajinkya Rahane or Suresh Raina or Steven Smith – were absorbed by the two new teams.”Taking that into account we wanted to have a captain who has played for the team quite a bit. The association with Kings XI was quite important among the available players, and we needed somebody who is young and who is dynamic, and we chose David.”Bangar was pleased with newly appointed mentor Virender Sehwag’s “hands-on” role in devising strategy and sharing pointers with the team’s youngsters. “He interacts with the boys a lot and the boys are going to benefit immensely from his inputs,” Bangar said. “As far as Sehwag goes, it is a continuation of our association we had with him as opening batsmen. We have opened together for India, in the last two-three years we have been player-coach, now we are coach and mentor on the same side of the management.”He is making some good contributions to the team in relation to the strategy, also most of the things we did at the auction were in consultation with him. He is quite hands-on and is involved in a lot of activities.”The Kings XI experience, Bangar said, had helped immensely in his evolution as coach. He also served as India’s batting coach for a while until his contract came to an end after the World T20. “It has been an enormous experience for me, in terms of running or managing the team in a set up like the IPL, wherein players from various age-groups and various levels of achievement are playing together. How do we integrate them, how do we handle them, how do we create a conducive atmosphere, and then again work with them to ensure that the team achieves the goal it wants. It has been quite a learning experience and I have benefited immensely from it.”

Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke, the newly elected BCCI president and secretary, have said they see the implementation of the Lodha Committee report as an “opportunity” rather than a challenge

Nagraj Gollapudi22-May-2016Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke, the newly elected BCCI president and secretary, have said they see the implementation of the Lodha Committee report as an “opportunity” rather than a challenge. They said the BCCI was in favour of reforms – “a continuing process” – even though it did not agree entirely with all the recommendations, as elaborated by Thakur’s predecessor Shashank Manohar on Saturday.”Where there is a challenge, there is opportunity,” Thakur said in his first news briefing as board president on Sunday. “It depends on how you look at the scenario – you may see it as a challenge, I see it as an opportunity that this is the time to deliver.”On Saturday Manohar had reiterated that the main reason he stepped down as BCCI president was that he could not have implemented the Lodha Committee recommendations in full. According to Manohar, the BCCI was happy with 75% of the recommendations, but had strong reservations against a handful.Thakur echoed the same sentiments. “We are not waiting for the judgement to come and then implement something. Whatever is possible and practical and required we are implementing it from time to time. And I said it is a continuous process and reforms will carry on.”Shirke, who was previously a BCCI treasurer, had stridently opposed the recommendations once they were made public on January 4. Now he said reforms did not equate to a complete structural overhaul. “Improvement in anything is a perennial process, but often improvement does not require reinventing the wheel. Minor course corrections are necessary and they will be taken as and when necessary.”In the last two months the BCCI legal counsel KK Venugopal and the lawyers representing various state associations had argued strongly against some of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations in front of the two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising TS Thakur, the chief justice of India, and Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah. In response the court had played hardball and told the BCCI it could not function like an exclusive club any more, and that it was mandatory to implement the recommendations.Thakur said the BCCI was not “running away”, but maintained it was not “practical” to implement all the recommendations. “The world knows how successfully, transparently and in an effective manner we have run the board in the last so many years,” Thakur said. “If there was any shortcoming, we have overcome that, we have tried to mend our ways. There is always a way or an area to improve and we are not running away from anything.”Manohar had said the recommendation limiting advertisement breaks only to drinks, lunch, tea and innings breaks would destroy the BCCI and bring down its revenues from an estimated INR 2000-odd crore to INR 400 crore. Thakur did not talk numbers, but stuck to a similar line of argument.”If you look at the reports the fastest growing league in the world is IPL which is a great achievement of the BCCI,” Thakur said. “They have worked well, the franchises have contributed. If you look at the other side of it, where do you get the major revenues from? It is from the home series. And your revenue comes from where? It is from the advertisements.”And you then pay to the state associations, the team members. The state associations then create infrastructure from the money they receive from the BCCI. World over, the infrastructure is created by the government but in India the sports infrastructure for other games are created by the government [while] only for cricket the infrastructure is created by the BCCI. We don’t get even a single penny from the state governments or the central government.”

The Hampshire batsman James Vince and Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball have been handed their maiden Test call-ups

Andrew McGlashan12-May-2016The Hampshire batsman James Vince and Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball have been handed their maiden Test call-ups for England’s opening match of the season against Sri Lanka at Headingley.Nick Compton has been retained at No. 3 despite a slow start to the season for Middlesex while Alex Hales will remain Alastair Cook’s opening partner.Vince is set to slot in at No. 5 following James Taylor’s enforced retirement with a heart condition. He had been widely tipped for a place in the squad, with the debate between whether it would be at first-wicket down or in the middle order.

England’s squad for Headingley Test

Alastair Cook (capt), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Stuart Broad, Nick Compton, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Vince

“It’s something I’ve been aiming for since I was a little kid really,” Vince said. “Definitely when I was growing up, playing for England in a Test was still the number one. “I’ve had the experience of the T20s in Dubai against Pakistan, when it was a good feeling being able to contribute to the team. Being in the World T20 squad was a great experience as well although obviously I would have liked to have played more of a part.”Since then I’ve turned my attention to Hampshire and trying to have a good start to the season. It’s only the last week when I started to notice stuff in the press. But to get the call, it took a while to sink in.”He has started the season solidly for Hampshire with 275 runs at 39.28 including a century against a strong Yorkshire attack at Headingley which was watched by national selector James Whitaker. But he has also impressed the England management when around the one-day and T20 squads. He was Man of the Series in the T20s against Pakistan late last year.Ball, meanwhile, has yet to be capped at any level by England and has been rewarded for being the stand-out pace bowler in early season with 19 wickets at 21.15. He will provide the extra pace-bowling option and while unlikely to make the final XI may yet have a chance of forcing his way past Steven Finn, who missed the final Test in South Africa due to injury, into the team.He has enjoyed a rapid rise after a solid 2015 season and strong Lions programme in the winter. He pushes out Chris Woakes, who played in England’s previous Test at Centurion, while injuries to Mark Wood and Mark Footitt have also opened up the opportunity.Most debate around the squad centred on who would join Cook in the top three. In the end, it will be the same names who played in South Africa. Both Hales and Compton, however, will need strong series against Sri Lanka to be assured of retaining their places when Pakistan arrive.Hales has been the more convincing of the duo this season following his extended break, having spent useful time in the middle against Yorkshire and Middlesex. Compton has managed just 100 runs at 20.00 in four matches but it was only four Tests ago, in Durban, that he enjoyed an excellent outing to help set-up England’s victory.Of Compton’s 13 Tests only two have so far come at home, both against New Zealand in 2013, and it was his performance in the Headingley match of that series which persuaded the selectors to make a change for the Ashes that followed.”Both Jake Ball and James Vince thoroughly deserve their opportunity having performed well with the England Lions and starting the season in good form with their respective counties,” Whitaker said.”Building on his success with the Lions in the winter, Jake has impressed with the ball and shown excellent control and skill in the opening matches of the County Championship. If selected, we are confident he will perform very well at international level.”James has been a consistent performer for Hampshire and England Lions over the past few years. He is already well regarded by the England coaches in the short format and now has the opportunity to showcase his skills at Test level.”

David Saker has been named as Australia’s new full-time assistant coach, taking over the role vacated by Craig McDermott earlier this year

Brydon Coverdale14-Jul-2016David Saker has been named as Australia’s new full-time assistant coach, taking over the role vacated by Craig McDermott earlier this year. Saker, who served as England’s bowling coach from 2010 to 2015, is also expected to step in as Australia’s acting head coach at some point next year to give Darren Lehmann a break, as occurred when Justin Langer stood in during the recent tri-series in the Caribbean.Saker’s appointment means Victoria will now be searching for a new head coach, after he took Victoria to the Sheffield Shield title in 2015-16, his only season in the role. South African great Allan Donald is acting as Australia’s bowling coach during the tour of Sri Lanka, which has just begun, and Saker will take over in time for the one-day tour of South Africa in September-October.”David’s experience working around the world with international teams will be invaluable, especially as we work toward the upcoming Indian Test series and the Ashes,” Lehmann said. “His technical expertise in all facets of the game is a real bonus and very important when working with the young group we have.”We spoke with a lot of people about this role and really took our time deciding what direction we wanted to go. David’s appointment gives us good clarity in our senior coaching group. What impressed me most about David was his vision of where he is heading as a coach and also where he wants to take our young group of bowlers and players.”He and I have always had robust discussions about the good of Australian cricket, he is passionate and I appreciate that. I love his attitude and he will bring great energy to our group.”Those “robust discussions” might have taken place behind closed doors, but spilled into the public arena on a couple of occasions last year. In October, Saker said he believed Victoria fast bowler James Pattinson was not yet ready for a return to Test cricket, which prompted Lehmann to suggest that: “David Saker should concentrate on coaching Victoria and leave us to pick the side for Australia”.Later in the summer, Saker said during a radio interview that it was “ridiculous” that the selectors had chosen Nathan Coulter-Nile in the squad for the Hobart Test against West Indies, when he had not played a first-class match since the previous season. But now, Saker will find himself working within the Australian camp.”David has had proven success with Victoria in the short time he has held the role, as well as success on the international stage, and that was a key part of the recruitment process,” Pat Howard, the Cricket Australia general manager of team performance, said.”It’s a testament to the success of our coaching pathway program in Australia, that Justin Langer and David have been elevated from within the system to senior roles in the Australian cricket team. The fact that David has been a head coach previously, also gives us an option should Darren be absent or need a break from touring. We anticipate he will lead the Australian team at some stage during 2017.”Saker, 50, played 72 first-class matches for Tasmania and Victoria during the 1990s and 2000s, taking 247 wickets at 30.10. As England’s bowling coach, he was part of one of the country’s most successful eras, during which they won their first Ashes series in Australia for 24 years, and collected the World T20 trophy in 2010.”The opportunity to work with Australia’s best cricketers and coaches is one that I simply couldn’t pass up and I am incredibly excited,” Saker said. “With two day-night Tests against South Africa and Pakistan this summer, it’s a great time to enter the Australian set-up.”Having reflected on the role and spoken to my family, I feel that it is the next logical career step for me and that I can add more value at the national level, particularly next year with the ICC Champions Trophy in the UK and when England tour for the 2017-18 Ashes.”I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the past year with the Bushrangers and will miss the squad, especially as we managed to retain the Sheffield Shield. I have no doubt I’ll still be regular contact with many of the players I’ve coached when they play at the national level.”

Virat Kohli scored a century that looked inevitable to take India to a position from where they could dominate the Test

The Report by Sidharth Monga21-Jul-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
2:07

Manjrekar: ‘WI attack one of the weakest you’ll see’

In the lead-up to this series, India’s captain Virat Kohli arranged a meeting with Viv Richards to take his blessings, in the words of Richards. On the first day of the series, at a ground named after Richards, Kohli showed all the intent that was a hallmark of Richards. He picked five bowlers, going for specialists ahead of those who can bat; he went with Shikhar Dhawan, who brings the possibility of quicker runs than KL Rahul; and he chose to bat when the first session on this pitch was the only one expected to offer bowlers any assistance on the first three days.Most importantly, with India in a spot of bother at 74 for 2 and struggling to score freely, Kohli batted with similar intent, albeit against a limited attack that must have been close to tiring out. He scored an unbeaten 143, his 12th Test century and his first against West Indies, to put India in a position to dominate, a goal they seemed to have set themselves at the start of the series. To make it better for Kohli, his selection of Dhawan paid off. Some considered Dhawan lucky to be playing this Test, he enjoyed some luck against testing bowling at the start of the innings, but he helped India keep a disciplined West Indies attack at bay with his first half-century in eight innings. The two added 105 in 27.1 overs; the previous 74 runs had taken 27.4 overs.India would have expected to work hard for their runs on a slow pitch surrounded by a slow outfield in North Sound, but hands in front of helmets as protective action wouldn’t have been on the agenda. In their first Test under new bowling coach Roddy Estwick, the West Indies attack, thin on numbers but displaying tenacity, tested the Indian top order in the first session. Shannon Gabriel, making a Test comeback after good returns in the ODI triangular series earlier this season, rattled the openers with his pace, accounting for M Vijay with a bouncer, but Dhawan was prepared to fight before capitalising on the second string, an older ball and falling intensity.Play began along expected lines. As opposed to India’s intent, West Indies took the safer route given their limited resources: they picked the extra batsman, debutant Roston Chase, and chose Jason Holder, who on many sheets was marked as an allrounder, to share the new ball. India were expected to look for runs, and relatively quick runs, while West Indies were expected to frustrate India. On the field, it was going to be a test of execution and endurance for West Indies.The execution was near perfect before lunch. In his first spell of 4-2-6-1, Gabriel roughed up both Dhawan and Vijay. Dhawan had the worse of the exchanges, top-edging Holder before fending hopelessly four times in a row against Gabriel. Vijay edged the second bouncer he faced for Kraigg Brathwaite to juggle a catch at second slip. Holder – first spell of 5-2-10-0 – played his part in making Gabriel effective, and Carlos Brathwaite followed it up with a spell of six overs for six runs.Virat Kohli ended the first day in Antigua unbeaten on 143•Getty Images

Dhawan might have had a problem against the short ball, but his discipline outside off and his will to make the bowlers get his wicket stood out. He refused to fall for the sucker delivery after the short ones, shelving his cover drive – playing only seven of them – and indulging only in the late cut off the part-timer Chase, who bowled economical overs of offspin in the first session. Unlike Cheteshwar Pujara, who got stuck and fell for 16 off 67 after a 60-run second-wicket partnership, Dhawan kept finding a way to score. While it was the late cut at the start – 14 runs off five attempts – he began to use his feet towards the end of the first session. He went into lunch with 29 off his last 26 balls, and would come back to get himself in before opening up again.Pujara, though, fell immediately after lunch, getting a leading edge off a short legbreak from the returning Devendra Bishoo. The wicket changed the complexion of the day’s play. With Kohli came the intent to score runs. The flat and slow pitch didn’t call for a watertight technique, so Kohli could take a few liberties, but his attitude of looking to score first before falling back on other options exposed the limited West Indies attack.Until then, West Indies had kept India quiet by bowling well outside off, but Kohli began driving, a shot that can be dangerous early in the innings in some conditions, but not in Antigua. There was no seam, no unfriendly bounce, and the ball was too old to swing. As if a sign of how the West Indies concentration was being tested, Kohli’s first boundary came through a misfield, from Marlon Samuels.Dhawan began to find more authority in his cuts. He upper-cut Gabriel for a six, swept Bishoo and stopped missing chances for singles. All through, Kohli kept driving imperiously. In the 34th over, the run rate reached three for the first time since the third over. The two kept picking ones and twos effortlessly. At one point Kohli pinched a single to Gabriel at mid-off, and told his partner, “He is very tired.” Before you realised it, Kohli had followed Dhawan to a half-century, bringing it up off the 75th ball he faced. Bishoo, though, came back just before tea to trap Dhawan lbw on the sweep.Kohli added 57 with an enterprising Ajinkya Rahane, who like Pujara, saw a short legbreak, shaped to pull but didn’t manage to adjust as the ball stopped and bounced at him. In another sign of intent, India had R Ashwin batting at No. 6, ahead of Wriddhiman Saha. West Indies continued with their conservative approach, happy to slow India down, not taking the new ball and getting in some quiet overs before stumps as Kohli and Ashwin added an unbeaten 66 runs.Kohli brought up what had looked like an inevitable century. Only once was there alarm during his innings. After a mini quiet period, he drove at a wide Brathwaite delivery. The edge flew wide of gully. On this pitch, such a drive to prevent the bowlers from bowling quiet overs wide outside off was a risk worth taking. As was playing five bowlers. Kohli was prepared to take both.

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.