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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.

Pakistan legspinner Danish Kaneria has said he is “disgusted” by the ECB’s decision to uphold his lifetime ban from cricket for sopt-fixing

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2013Pakistan legspinner Danish Kaneria has said he is “disgusted” by the ECB’s decision to uphold his lifetime ban from cricket for spot-fixing and claims he has been victimised when there was no evidence to support the case.Kaneria has now been urged to publicly admit his role in spot-fixing, but he believes there has been double standards at work after Mervyn Westfield had his ban amended so that he is able to play club cricket from April 1, 2014.Kaneria was banned in June 2012 after being found guilty of corruption in the spot-fixing case involving Westfield, where he had been “cajoling and pressurising” his Essex team-mate into accepting money to concede a set number of runs in an over during a Pro40 match in 2009. He had been hoping to get the sanction reduced, having earlier lost another appeal against the convictions in April.”I am deeply disappointed and disgusted with the decision,” Kaneria said. “I have been victimised in this case and Westfield got his ban relaxed. Right from the outset there was no evidence against me and not even the Essex police charged me, but the ECB has been unjust towards me and it’s unacceptable.”I feel alone and at times I feel that because I am from a minority, people don’t support me. The PCB has not supported me in the case. I appeal to Pakistan President [Asif Ali] Zardari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to please take up my case with England. I want to play cricket and don’t want to be stopped because of this unjust ban.”Kaneria said the PCB had set a precedent by asking for the ICC to allow Mohammad Amir, who was also banned following the 2010 Lord’s Test, to use national training facilities. “If they can raise a voice for one player why can’t they contest my case with England?” Kaneria said.However, Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, said that Kaneria should now fully reveal his role in the events and use his experiences to help Pakistan’s anti-corruption processes. Last week the former Pakistan captain Salman Butt admitted for the first time his role in the 2010 spot-fixing at Lord’s, in an attempt to earn his career.Clarke said: “We note, with regret, that Mr Kaneria has neither made any admission of guilt nor expressed any remorse for his corrupt actions despite the weight of evidence against him and the fact that, after two lengthy hearings, his guilt has now been resoundingly established on two separate occasions by two separate independent panels.”It is high time that Mr Kaneria came clean about his involvement in these corrupt activities and stopped misleading the Pakistan cricket fans and wider public with his empty protestations of innocence.”We urge him to apologise publicly for his past actions and to start the process of redeeming himself by supporting the Pakistan Cricket Board’s anti-corruption initiatives and assisting the police and law enforcement bodies in the Asian subcontinent with the vital job of exposing and cutting off the primary source of cricket corruption, namely the illegal bookmakers such as those referred to in the Appeal Panel’s findings in this case.”

New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee, who took 3 for 53 on Saturday, has said the loss of wickets “at the wrong time” cost his side the match in St Kitts

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jul-2012New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee, who took 3 for 53 on Saturday, has said the loss of wickets “at the wrong time” cost his side the match in St Kitts, and that they needed to learn how to win the key moments in games. New Zealand fell 24 runs short of West Indies’ 264, despite a century by their captain Ross Taylor, and conceded the one-day series 3-1 with a match in hand.New Zealand’s chase, shaken by the loss of four wickets for 75 runs, was held together by Taylor’s 110. Taylor added 71 runs for the fifth wicket with middle-order batsman Tom Latham before Latham was dismissed by offspinner Marlon Samuels in the 34th over. New Zealand faltered in the final stages, the last four wickets falling for 21 runs as Taylor ran out of support.”We lost a couple of wickets early and then had to rebuild, and Tom Latham and Ross did a great job,” Southee said. “It was a shame to lose Tom [but] we did and it would have been nice to have that extra wicket going into those latter overs. Wickets at the wrong time hurt us, [so] we have to think of ways [of not losing] those key moments in games. [We lost] wickets in the middle there and towards the end. [The] back-end of five-six overs didn’t come out so well in the end.”Southee said Taylor’s performance was impressive because of the manner in which he structured his innings. He was slow at the start to settle in, and took 80 deliveries to get to his fifty, but later accelerated his scoring, getting his next fifty runs off 28 deliveries.”Ross paced his innings and ended run-a-ball; he’s one of those batsmen that can do that. No matter how slow a start, he has the ability to catch up, and he played extremely well. It’s just a shame that there wasn’t someone else who could stick with him and make it a lot easier in the end.”New Zealand could have been chasing less than 264 had their bowlers capitalised on their incisive start, having reduced West Indies to 105 for 5 in the 27th over. They faced resistance from Kieron Pollard, who made a half-century, and Devon Thomas. They scored 53 runs in five overs during the batting Powerplay between overs 36 and 40, and the following batsmen picked up from there.”We did well at the start to get them four-five down early but the Powerplay hurt us and [at] the death we bowled hit-and-miss,” Southee said.Southee had contributed to West Indies’ top order collapse by dismissing Gayle and Dwayne Smith. Gayle had led West Indies to one-sided wins in the two Twenty20s and the first two ODIs, with scores of 85 not out, 53, 63 not out and 125, but he hasn’t fired in his last two innings, making only 27 runs in total.”The first few games we didn’t bowl very well to him [Gayle] at the start and he got in and played some great innings,” Southee said. “So it’s important how we bowl to him in the first few overs.”The final ODI on July 16, also in St Kitts, will be a dead rubber because West Indies secured the series with this win. Southee, however, said winning that fixture would lift New Zealand ahead of the three-Test series, which begins on August 2.”It’s still a big game for us, obviously. It’s better losing 3-2 than 4-1 and hopefully we can gain some momentum going into the Tests for the Test side. [The loss] hurts but we’ll dust ourselves off and come again on Monday.”

It took less than an hour for Warwickshire to wrap-up victory on the final day of their Championship match against Somerset.

George Dobell at Edgbaston23-Jun-2011
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Boyd Rankin earned praise from both sides after his efforts against Somerset•Getty Images

It took less than an hour for Warwickshire to wrap-up victory on the final day of their Championship match against Somerset.When Nick Compton’s obdurate resistance was finally ended – Compton, with only the hapless Charl Willoughby for company, was caught on the long-on boundary just five short of his second Championship century of the season – it left Warwickshire requiring only 23 runs for victory. They raced to the 10-wicket win in just 20 deliveries.In truth, this game was defined on the first afternoon. An unusually hostile spell of fast bowling from Boyd Rankin ensured Somerset were unable to take advantage of winning the toss on a flat pitch. Generating sharp pace and gaining steep bounce from his towering six feet, seven inch frame, Rankin also found enough swing to claim three wickets for four runs at one stage. It was a point not lost on Somerset captain, Marcus Trescothick afterwards.”Rankin just blew us away,” Trescothick admitted. “It was a really good spell of hostile fast bowling – right up there with anything I’ve faced this year – and it was too good for us. He was easily the fastest bowler on either side.”It’s the best I’ve seen him bowl. He’s up there in terms of pace, but it’s his bounce that really causes the problems. And now he’s swinging the ball, too. He hit me four times – that doesn’t happen very often – and I just couldn’t pick him up. There was nothing wrong with the pitch – it was a bit slow, if anything – and the sight screens are fine. He’s just improved massively.”Trescothick is no stranger to fast bowling, of course. So to hear him talk in such terms of the 26-year-old Irishman is noteworthy. England have quite a pack of tall fast bowlers at present, but if Rankin keeps performing like this, he’ll force himself into contention.Trescothick also credited Rikki Clarke as being “a very clever bowler.” That may surprise a few but the four wickets Clarke claimed in Somerset’s second innings take his Championship tally this season to 30 at just 21 apiece. He’s quietly become a bowling all-rounder. And a very good one.It might be stretching a point to suggest that Warwickshire should now be considered genuine title contenders. The way that Durham and Lancashire blew them away undermines that theory. But Warwickshire have now won five games this season – as many as when they won the title in 2004 – and, at full strength, have a battery of seamers to rival any side. The one worry is the slightly disappointing form of Chris Woakes. By the very high standards he has set himself, Woakes has yet to find his best form this season.Ashley Giles, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, rated the performance as his side’s “best of the season” and had particular praise for Ian Westwood, who made the top score in the match in recording his first Championship century since September 2009.”Losing the toss could have ended with us facing a big deficit, but we were hugely disciplined throughout,” Giles said. “Westwood has had a tough time, so I’m overjoyed for him. From the outside, people don’t see the whole package a guy offers a team, but Ian is a pleasure to work with and really deserves his success.”Giles also had praise for Rankin. “He’s a big bastard,” Giles said, both simply and accurately. “And facing him upsets teams. He has a presence about him and you can see them talking, and worrying, about him.”We always knew he had the attributes: the height, the pace and the bounce. But now we’re seeing him become more consistent. That’s largely because he’s fitter now. In the past he was always in and out because of injuries.”Somerset’s season is now at something of a crossroads. Tipped by many as prospective champions at the start of the season, they’ve lost half of their first eight games and, on this form, look a side more likely to finish nearer the bottom than the top of the table. Their mis-firing middle-order, perhaps cosseted by the flat tracks of Taunton, is simply not performing in these post-heavy roller days.”We’re getting off to good starts, but then it’s clear to see where we’re going wrong,” Trescothick said, referring to his side’s middle-order woes. “We’re probably just lacking a bit of experience in the middle-order and losing Zander de Bruyn [to Surrey] is part of that. We can’t afford to keep losing.”Tellingly, Ashley Giles admitted he was “a little surprised” at how intimidated some of Somerset’s batsmen appeared to be by the pace of Rankin and Clarke.Meanwhile, the game marked the end of an era. By the time the next Championship game begins, in the best part of a month, Warwickshire hope to have moved into their new pavilion. The hand-over date – the day the club take possession of the new facility from the builders – is just one week away and there appears to be an enormous amount of work still to be completed. With 380 builders working at the ground today, however, the club are still confident that they are on track.

Tom Smith blasted an unbeaten 92 and claimed three wickets as Lancashire Lightning moved up to third in the Friends Provident t20 North Group with a convincing 46-run win over Worcestershire Royals at Old Trafford

Cricinfo staff05-Jul-2010
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Tom Smith cracked 92 and then picked up three wickets in a superb allround performance•Getty Images

Tom Smith blasted an unbeaten 92 and claimed three wickets as Lancashire Lightning moved up to third in the Friends Provident t20 North Group with a convincing 46-run win over Worcestershire Royals at Old Trafford. The allrounder smashed six sixes and shared half-century partnerships with Paul Horton and Mark Chilton as Lancashire made 170 for 5 at Old Trafford.He then took 3 for 12 as the visitors were bowled out for 124, having at one stage been 104 for 2 and in with a good chance of recording their third straight win.A blistering 54 off just 29 balls from Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya gave the Royals a great start, but Glen Chapple claimed three wickets in four balls and Stephen Parry took 3 for 19 as they lost seven wickets for just 20 runs.Having slumped to 22 for 5 in the five-wicket defeat by Derbyshire just 24 hours earlier, Lancashire fans feared the worst when Stephen Moore and Steven Croft both fell in the opening four balls from Jack Shantry without a run on the board. But Smith and Horton steadied the ship with a 69-run partnership before Horton was caught on the boundary by Phil Jaques off the bowling of James Cameron for 22.Chilton picked up the baton and raced to 34 off just 24 balls, while Smith went past fifty for the third time in the competition this season, following sixes off Moeen Ali and Jayasuriya with two more in successive overs off Daryl Mitchell and Cameron.The pair put on 80 in just 44 balls before Chilton was run out backing up after Smith’s straight drive was deflected onto the stumps by Shantry off his own bowling. But Smith went on to post his career best in Twenty20 cricket, with his 92 coming in 60 balls.Jayasuriya, who had a short spell at Old Trafford in 2007, hit four of the first 13 balls he faced for six and was dropped by Simon Kerrigan, who failed to hold onto an easy chance off Daren Powell’s bowling as Worcestershire started their reply well.At one point the Sri Lankan was 30 off ten balls but Kerrigan made amends in the ninth over as he claimed the catch to dismiss the opener off the bowling of Parry.The Royals were still ahead of the rate at the halfway stage, but then fell foul of some devastating Lightning bowling as Chapple – who accounted for Daryl Mitchell, Jack Manuel and Ben Cox in a four-ball spell – Smith and Parry blasted through the Worcestershire middle and lower order.Lancashire will look to continue their march to the last eight when they host Roses rivals Yorkshire on Friday night.

Hosting India in all three formats and another bumper SA20 serves as a boost to CSA coffers

Firdose Moonda12-Sep-2024Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced profits of R815 million (US$ 45.6 million) for the 2023-24 fiscal year after hosting India for two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is in the December-January period and benefitting from a bumper SA20. As the majority shareholder in the T20 tournament, CSA earned profits of R54 million (US$ 3.02 million) from the event, which boasted a double-digit growth.This comes after losses for the last three reporting periods – 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 which collectively amounted to R538 million (US$ 30.14 million). The turnaround was mostly due to the increased revenue derived from broadcast rights, which make up 54% of the CSA income.The coffers were also boosted by the successful hosting of the 2024 Under-19 men’s World Cup, which was moved to South Africa from Sri Lanka and generated revenue of R54 million (US$ 3.02 million). CSA’s total ICC disbursements for the period were R566 million, (US$ 31.63 million) up from R290 million (US$ 16.2 million) in the previous year.Related

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CSA is expected to enjoy another strong financial year in 2024-2025, largely due to hosting India for four T20Is in November. The revenue from those games is expected to be upwards of R150 million (US$ 8.38 million) per match. These figures again underline India’s monetary importance and the incentive other countries have to host them as often as possible. CSA is starting to move slightly away from total dependence on the Indian national team, thanks to the SA20, but it is important to note that all six franchises are IPL affiliates.The biggest beneficiary of CSA’s financial turnaround is the women’s game, which underwent professionalisation at the domestic level last season. CSA has spent R32 million on women’s cricket (US$ 1.78 million). The cost of running professional cricket – the eight division 1, seven division 2 domestic men’s teams and six provincial women’s teams – remains CSA’s biggest expense. They shelled out R633 million (US$ 35.3 million) on these costs, which also underlines one of the major problems in South African cricket: how reliant the domestic system is on CSA. The cost of the national teams amounted to R172.8 million (US$ 9.66 million) or almost a quarter of the domestic expenses.Overall, CSA reported strong performance, in everything from the national teams – the men reached the semi-final of the 2023 ODI World Cup while the women beat Australia in an ODI and a T20I for the first time in the period under consideration – to grassroots cricket. The KFC mini-cricket programme, which targets children between the ages of six and 12 and has produced the likes of Wayne Parnell and Ayabonga Khaka, reported a 20% increase in participation, with over 100,000 children from more than 2000 schools participating. The rate of progression of those players to provincial and national teams is 15%.CSA’s AGM also marked the end of Lawson Naidoo’s three-year tenure as CSA chair. A new chair will be elected at a special general meeting this month. The new chair will be chosen from the independent directors, in other words, not from presidents of provincial unions.

Results of extensive investigation by Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket to be published on Tuesday

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jun-2023English cricket is bracing for the publication of an extensive report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) on Tuesday, the day before England Men’s second Ashes Test against Australia at Lord’s.The commission was instigated more than two-and-a-half years ago in response to the murder of George Floyd in police custody and the Black Lives Matter movement, which prompted numerous claims of institutional racism within English cricket.Cindy Butts, the ICEC’s chair, said last October that the commission had “captured the lived experiences” of more than 4000 people involved in cricket, met with “over 70 individuals and organisations” and collected “over 550 documents from cricketing bodies and experts”.Butts added: “As a commission we have been humbled by the level of courage demonstrated by so many who want to help the game to be equitable, diverse and inclusive.”The report’s publication takes place on the same day as Yorkshire’s sanctions hearing at the International Arbitration Centre, after the club admitted four breaches of ECB Directive 3.3 – which relates to bringing “the game of cricket… into disrepute”.Ollie Pope, England’s vice-captain, said that the team were conscious of trying to make the game as inclusive as possible. “The next guys, doing what we’re doing now in 20 years, we want to have the whole country to choose from, not just a certain group of people,” Pope said. “That’s something we talk about as a team and are aware of.”I think it is [an inclusive sport] but I think there is a lot more we can keep doing as players as well. As an England team, we’re in a great position where we have got all eyes on us. It is definitely something we’re aware of and definitely something we can keep driving forward especially.”We have seen that over the last year or so. Hopefully as a team we can keep doing what we can over the next year or two to keep promoting that, because it is a sport for everyone and I think it definitely, 100 percent, should be.”The report will be published in full on the ICEC’s website on Tuesday.

No back-to-back Blast games for Middlesex as Morgan targets T20 World Cup in Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff25-May-2022Eoin Morgan, England’s white-ball captain, says he will need to take it “week by week” if he hopes to lead his side out for this winter’s T20 World Cup in Australia, but is prepared to own up to feeling “cooked” at any stage in this year’s busy itinerary.Morgan, 36, has not played any competitive cricket since missing the final three matches of England’s T20I tour of the Caribbean in January with a quadriceps strain. He is due to play in Middlesex’s opening fixture of the Vitality Blast on Thursday, against Gloucestershire at Radlett, but will sit out the following day’s fixture against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl, having passed the team captaincy over to Stevie Eskinazi.”There’s nothing specific [injury-wise],” Morgan told London’s Evening Standard. “I’m just old, I think! It takes longer to recover. I did play the two back-to-back games in Barbados, then I got injured. You shouldn’t get injured warming up as a batsman, but I pulled my quad warming up, which means my body just didn’t recover at all.”This surfeit of caution means that England will be obliged to have “contingency plans”, as Morgan put it, when their international season gets underway. Assuming they are fit and available, Jos Buttler or Moeen Ali are the likely captaincy stand-ins for England’s three ODIs in the Netherlands next month, including two in three days on June 17 and 19.From there, England take on India and South Africa in 12 matches across two formats in July, before Morgan’s second season of the Hundred with London Spirit gets underway in August. His winter schedule is scarcely less busy, with England now due to play seven T20Is in a fortnight in Pakistan before heading to Australia to prepare for the World Cup in mid-October.”There are back-to-back games in the international fixtures, so just getting to them and seeing how I am, will be a decision made then,” Morgan added. “There is more solace looking towards the World Cup, because there aren’t fixtures within a few days. Everywhere else we play, they see time and just want to have games.”England are set to embark on a new era across formats, following the appointment of Brendon McCullum and Matthew Mott as the new red- and white-ball head coaches, and despite expressing his excitement at working with the two new arrivals, Morgan is realistic enough to recognise that his own involvement could yet end abruptly.Related

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“Particularly with getting injured recently on the West Indies tour, I need to be as honest as I can with Keysy [England managing director Rob Key] and everyone else to make sure we are in the right position come Australia in October,” he said. “I have always said that if I am on the way to a ground and feel done or cooked, or lacking the drive for it as a leader, I will communicate ASAP to Rob.”But I think it’s important that I play it week by week to start with, and aim for the T20 World Cup.”With England’s initial focus on the revival of their Test fortunes, starting at Lord’s against New Zealand next week, Morgan said that he did not expect to see many of England’s multi-format players – most particularly Ben Stokes but Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root too – until the Pakistan tour gets underway in October.This means that England’s tour party for the Netherlands in particular could have an experimental feel – and potentially a controversial selection too, with Nottinghamshire’s Joe Clarke among those likely to feature in the selection debate, three years after his involvement in a sexist WhatsApp group that ultimately led to the rape conviction of his former Worcestershire team-mate Alex Hepburn.Key recently opened the door to a Clarke call-up by remarking that “you can’t penalise people forever”, and in an interview with The Telegraph this week, Clarke – who was sanctioned by the ECB but was not charged or accused of any crime – admitted his enduring sense of “embarrassment and shame” at his actions.”This is not about playing for England. This is about owning what I did, that I made a mistake and what I did was wrong,” Clarke said. “If there is a message in there for the victim, and if she were to read this, she will see that I know I let her down. Hopefully she will read that and she would not feel anything towards me in a bad way.”

Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali return to squad for two-Test series in January

Andrew Miller11-Dec-2020Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes are the notable omissions from England’s Test tour to Sri Lanka next month, with both men being rested from the 23-man touring party, ahead of the multi-format tour of India which gets underway in February.Rory Burns also misses the trip, as his wife Victoria is expecting their first child in the second week of January, while Burns’ Surrey team-mate Ollie Pope will join the squad as a non-playing member, with a view to being fit in time for the four Tests in India as he continues his rehab from the shoulder injury that he sustained against Pakistan in August.With England facing a busy schedule on all fronts in the coming 12 months, with the Ashes in Australia following hot on the heels of away and home series against India and the T20 World Cup, the absences of Archer and Stokes come as part of a commitment from England’s selectors to provide blocks of rest for all their multi-format players at various points this winter.ALSO READ: Buttler could miss two India Tests as England rest playersSpeaking to the media after the announcement, Ed Smith, England’s national selector, indicated that Stokes, Archer and Burns would fly directly to India on or around January 22-23 to acclimatise ahead of the first Test of that series, at Chennai on February 5, with further changes to England’s squad also likely ahead of the third and fourth Tests of the India tour at Ahmedabad.”The way to think about this winter is in three blocks of two Tests: Sri Lanka, India 1 and 2, India 3 and 4,” Smith said. “We think that’s the only way to make sure we balance having the right number of resources in each position, and also getting rest into those multi-format players like Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, and also Sam Curran, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, etc.”In the absence of Pope, Stokes and Burns – three players who would have been automatic picks for England’s top five – Essex’s Dan Lawrence could be in line to earn his first Test cap, after being named in the senior squad for the first time, a year on from his starring role on the England Lions tour of Australia in 2019-20.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“This is a great opportunity for Dan Lawrence,” Smith said. “He’s a really talented cricketer, a confident player in good form, and he is absolutely delighted about being selected in the full squad.”He’s an unusual player, but he’s got that real quality about him,” Smith added. “He has his own style, and a real confidence and presence at the crease. He’s inventive, he’s versatile. He’s also a good short-format player, and he really impressed on the England Lions just under a year ago.”Jonny Bairstow is the other player likely to challenge for a middle-order berth. He has been recalled to the Test set-up for the first time since featuring in the first Test against South Africa at Centurion 12 months ago, with Smith indicating that he was back in contention as a batsman only – the role he performed when making a century from No.3 in England’s most-recent Test in Sri Lanka two years ago.Ben Foakes, who scored a century on debut and was named Player of the Series on that same tour, is the designated back-up to the current incumbent, Jos Buttler, with Smith suggesting he will be in line for a recall when Buttler is given his break from action during the India series. “Jonny has a really great opportunity here to get back into the Test mix as a batter, and that’s a really exciting possibility for him,” Smith said.With spin playing a central role in England’s 3-0 series win in 2018-19, Moeen Ali is back in the squad after opting out of last winter’s tours of New Zealand and South Africa, and is in line to play his first Test since the opening match of the 2019 Ashes.Jack Leach, who along with Moeen was England’s leading wicket-taker on that last Sri Lanka trip with 18 scalps, is also included, and is set to link up once again with his former Somerset team-mate and current first-choice England spinner, Dom Bess. However, there is no return for the third spinner of the 2018-19 triumvirate, legspinner Adil Rashid, who had been an outside bet for a recall given his importance to England’s white-ball plans ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup. He has been left out as he continues to manage a shoulder problem and is likely also to miss the subsequent tour of India.”Adil has had a long-running shoulder injury, and though he has made really good strides, he does have concerns about that shoulder in the strain of five-day cricket,” Smith said. “Obviously he’s got to weigh up his one-day and T20 form, which is outstanding. He is among the most irreplaceable players in a very, very strong white-ball set-up, and that’s where he stands at the moment.”England have, however, named three spinners among their seven-man list of reserves – legspinners Matt Parkinson and Mason Crane, whose one-off Test came at Sydney in the 2017-18 Ashes, and the Surrey offspinner, Amar Virdi.All the reserves will travel and train with the main squad, with the series once again being played behind closed doors and in biosecure environments, initially at Hambantota and then in Galle for the two Test matches, commencing January 14 and 22 respectively.Despite playing limited roles on the 2018-19 tour, England have named both of their veteran fast bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad in their main touring party, alongside Chris Woakes and two 90mph options in Mark Wood and Olly Stone, who made his international debut in the ODI leg of England’s last tour of Sri Lanka.Archer’s omission from the squad had been telegraphed in South Africa last week, after he had spent most of the preceding five months in biosecure environments, while Stokes’ absence comes in the wake of the death of his father Ged from brain cancer. He also missed the final two Tests of last summer’s Pakistan series, as well as the subsequent one-day series, to travel to New Zealand to spend time with his family.”It is a very difficult time for Ben and all our thoughts and with him and his family,” Smith said. “[In the circumstances], it made sense for Ben to take his rest for the Sri Lankan tour, and to get ready for India.”England men’s Test squad: Joe Root (capt), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dom Sibley, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.Reserves: James Bracey, Mason Crane, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Matt Parkinson, Ollie Robinson, Amar Virdi.

Navdeep Saini’s five-wicket haul broke West Indies A’s back in the chase

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jul-2019A 151-run first-wicket stand between Ruturaj Gaikwad (85) and Shubman Gill (62) set up India’s first-innings total of 255, after which pacer Navdeep Saini ran through West Indies A with a five-wicket haul to give India A a 2-0 lead in the series.Between them, Gaikwad and Gill struck nine fours and three sixes and batted nearly 31 overs, but a solid comeback from Romario Shepherd (4-36) in the death overs restricted India A from posting an even bigger total. The captain Manish Pandey, Ishan Kishan and Hanuma Vihari were all dismissed in their twenties.West Indies A began their chase poorly, losing John Campbell in the second over to Khaleel Ahmed. When Saini came to bowl, in as second-change, he dismantled the backbone of West Indies A, removing Sunil Ambris, Roston Chase and Jonathan Carter.From 77 for 5, West Indies A clawed their way to a respectable 190 courtesy Raymon Reifer’s fighting 71, but with no support from the other end, West Indies fell 65 runs short with nearly six overs still to play. Shepherd capped off a solid all-round day for himself by staying not out for 34.