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The Australia opener can see the rise in T20 leagues squeezing out 50-over cricket

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jul-20221:59

Ehantharajah – Stokes’ ODI retirement a seismic turn of events

Usman Khawaja believes ODI cricket is “dying a slow death” and he’s not surprised England’s Ben Stokes has quit the format.Stokes, 31, brought the demands of international cricket on players into sharp focus when he confirmed his 105th ODI appearance for England against South Africa would be his last.Stokes, who has taken over as England’s Test captain, said authorities can’t treat players like “cars” and there was “too much cricket rammed in” to realistically compete in all three formats – Test, T20Is and ODIs – at international level.Test opener Khawaja, who hasn’t played limited-overs cricket for Australia since 2019, said it’s clear to him something has to give on the international calendar – and it’s most likely to be 50-over matches.Related

• Future of ODI cricket: 'Just take out that little middle bit,' say Khawaja, Finch and Zampa

• We need a debate on cricket's future and we needed it yesterday

• South Africa's ODI World Cup hopes hang by a thread as Australia series cancelled

• Zampa returns, Cummins rested for ODIs against Zimbabwe, New Zealand

“My own personal opinion – I know a few of the guys are very similar – you’ve got Test cricket, which is the pinnacle, you’ve got T20 cricket, which obviously has leagues around the world, great entertainment, everyone loves it, and then there’s one-day cricket,” he said.”I feel like that’s probably the third-ranked out of all of them. I think personally one-day cricket is dying a slow death…there’s still the World Cup, which I think is really fun and it’s enjoyable to watch, but other than that, even myself personally, I’m probably not into one-day cricket as much either.”Khawaja’s thoughts were expressed as Cricket Australia released tickets for this summer’s international calendar on Friday. That schedule opens with ODIs against Zimbabwe and New Zealand, all to be played in Townsville and Cairns in September ahead of October’s Men’s T20 World Cup.It’s a far cry from the glory days of 50-over cricket in the 1980s and 1990s when an annual triangular series in Australia packed stadiums and turned into a television winner for Cricket Australia and the Nine Network.The future of ODI cricket was also brought into sharp focus when South Africa put their World Cup hopes in jeopardy by withdrawing from their series against Australia in January to prioritise their new T20 leagueKhawaja said while he didn’t think it was impossible to be a three-format player in the modern era, it wouldn’t be an easy life.”Not impossible, very tough,” Khawaja said. “So much travelling. If you’re playing all three forms of the game, you’re not at home at all really. And then the demands on your body, mentally, physically and a lot of the guys might be playing also the IPL”There’s a lot of cricket going on. Yes, you get to pick and choose, I guess, in certain respects what you want to play but look it can be very tough at the moment.”However, he retains a bright view on the future of Test cricket ahead of a summer where Australia will face West Indies and South Africa as they push for a place in next year’s World Test Championship final.”The majority of people I talk to still love Test cricket,” he said. “It’s my favourite format. Think Test cricket still has a very strong presence so don’t really see that going anywhere. Think both [Tests and T20] can be quite easily balanced, but then you ask yourself the question does one-day cricket give.”

He will be in the Test role temporarily, with a permanent appointee to be finalised in the coming months

Firdose Moonda11-Dec-2020Quinton de Kock has been named South Africa’s Test captain for the 2020/21 season. de Kock, who already leads the ODI and T20I squads, will only be in the role temporarily, with a permanent appointee to be finalised in the coming months.de Kock’s elevation to the leadership was announced on Friday, and comes eight months after Graeme Smith, South Africa’s director of cricket, said de Kock would not be made the Test captain so that he could “remain fresh”, given his already large basket of responsibilities. However, given the relatively lighter Test schedule in store for South Africa, the selection committee felt de Kock could handle the role for this summer.South Africa are due to play seven Tests, two against Sri Lanka, two in Pakistan and three against Australia. They have no Test cricket scheduled between March and December, by which time they hope to have chosen their long-term Test leader. For now, de Kock has shown willingness to take on the red-ball captaincy and the selectors believe he is the right choice.”Quinton is happy to continue in the role for the next season and is comfortable with the balance of the workload and we back him fully as a captain,” Victor Mptisang, convenor of selectors, said. “We are also pleased with the leadership group in the team and are cultivating a strong individual leadership culture at the same time, so that the team produces a sustainable stream of potential captains for the future.”Ultimately, the decision to appoint de Kock may have come, not because of “time constraints,” as Mptisang suggested but because South Africa do not have a stand-out candidate for the job. Ten months have passed since Faf du Plessis stepped down in February, and in that time, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma all made their interest in the position known, but there are question marks around each of them as long-term choices.Elgar was considered the most obvious choice, given his seniority. He has played 63 Tests and has been part of the set-up for as long as du Plessis. Elgar has even done the job once before, against England at Lord’s when du Plessis went on paternity leave in 2017. At the time, he indicated he did not want the job permanently but has since changed his mind. However, South Africa are likely to want to him concentrate leading with the bat. Elgar has 12 Test hundreds to his name but they tend to come at a rate of one or two a season and South Africa might be hoping for a few more.Markram, who is most likely going to partner Elgar at the top, has only just returned to the Test squad after spending most of last summer out of international cricket with a broken finger. He has three hundreds from this last three first-class innings, which bodes well, but had a lean patch in Test cricket before he was injured. Markram needs to show consistency at the highest level but, as a former under-19 captain, chances are if he has a productive season, he could be the named Test captain.The same can be said of Bavuma, who led the Lions franchise to the first-class trophy last summer. Bavuma was dropped last season, prompting a race-based furore, but has not scored a Test hundred since 2016. That has to change before he can be considered for the captaincy. If it does and the runs flow, it will be a tough call between him and Markram.And Maharaj, well-intentioned as his leadership goals may be, has the disadvantage of a being a left-arm spinner in a country of quicks. Although he is first-choice in his department and will play every Test on the subcontinent, he is often not guaranteed a spot in the XI when South Africa play at home, which would make it difficult to make him captain.Rassie van der Dussen’s name has also done the rounds as a possible leader after his impressive showing at the 2019 World Cup (where he was South Africa’s second-leading run-scorer in an otherwise dismal campaign) and scored two half-centuries in his first three Test innings. But van der Dussen’s Test career is only four matches old and he need a little more time in the Test team before he can be promoted to its captain.Van der Dussen also threw his weight behind de Kock during the recent T20I series against England, when questions were asked about whether de Kock was having a tough time handling the pressures of captaining, opening the batting, keeping wicket, balancing a side that had no allrounders available and dealing with changing transformation targets. “I don’t think it’s getting tricky for Quinton de Kock,” van der Dussen had said. “I don’t know why you would come with that angle. Quinny’s a brilliant captain. On the field his cricket mind is absolutely brilliant, in the change-room he’s really good, and he’s one of the best players in the world, as we know.”Luckily, de Kock won’t have quite that many things to think about in Tests. He will bat in the lower middle-order, most likely at No.6 or 7, and the responsibility of laying the foundation will lie with senior batsmen like Elgar, van der Dussen and du Plessis. With Kyle Verreynne in the squad, de Kock may also be relieved of the wicketkeeping gloves, if needs be.The Test squad for Sri Lanka has one allrounder in it, in Wiaan Mulder, and Dwaine Pretorius could join if he recovers from a hamstring injury in time, making team balance a little less complicated. And CSA’s interim board have confirmed that the transformation targets will revert to what they were last season, rather than increase, as was originally planned. That means South Africa need to field, on average over the course of a season, six players of colour of which a minimum of two must be black African. Call it politics or call it necessity, that is what every South African must learn to work with, and de Kock is no different. Welcome to it.

CoA chairman Vinod Rai has stated he did not have the “foggiest idea” about the total breakdown in talks between Indian captain Virat Kohli and former India coach Anil Kumble

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Jul-2017If there is one thing Vinod Rai, the chairman of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), has learned from the chaotic episode that led to the appointment of Ravi Shastri as India coach, it is to not take “anyone at face value” in the BCCI. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Rai said the CoA did not have the “foggiest idea” about the total breakdown in talks between Indian captain Virat Kohli and former India coach Anil Kumble, which eventually forced the latter to step down; statements that reveal the extent of the lack of communication and trust between the various power centers running Indian cricket.According to Rai, the CoA was not informed originally about Kumble’s contract being valid for a year. And by the time they were told, it was “late” and they were left with just one choice: to put in place a process to pick a new coach. “The only thing it has taught me is that I shouldn’t have taken anyone on face value,” Rai said about the way the BCCI works. “I did not know about the conditions of Kumble’s contract that it was one year. I did not have the foggiest idea of whether there was any dissonance between the coach and the team in the dressing room. At the late time that we got to know it was only fair that we follow a process to bring about either a change or extend Kumble. It was quite evident that there was disharmony in the dressing room and that the team could not continue with it.”The BCCI advertised twice for a new coach, first on May 25 and then when Kumble stepped down immediately after the Champions Trophy in June. Shastri didn’t apply the first time, thinking that Kumble’s reappointment was a done deal. In fact, Kumble had applied for the job as soon as the first advertisement came out despite the BCCI telling him that he was a “direct entry” into the shortlist. But as soon as he realised his relationship with Kohli had become “untenable” Kumble stepped down.Shastri was one of five candidates the three-man Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) interviewed on July 10. Initially, the CAC – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman – sought time to deliberate on their final choice. However, Rai intervened and asked the BCCI to announce the new coach immediately. Shastri, who the CAC felt was the “best choice”, was promptly unveiled by the BCCI as the new coach till the 2019 World Cup.The saga did not end there though. The BCCI media release to formalise Shastri’s appointment added that Zaheer Khan would be the side’s bowling consultant while Rahul Dravid would be the batting consultant on overseas Test tours. The two were finalised by the CAC, acting on the belief that it had been given a carte blanche by the BCCI and CoA in appointing the coaching staff.But Rai clarified their ambit did not stretch to support staff appointments. “The CAC was not created by us, it was already in existence,” he said. “And I had total faith in all the CAC members. They were supposed to choose the coach, which they did. Fair enough. They had full authority to choose the coach. But after choosing the coach they have given us two more consultants, which is not the normal pattern.”A CAC member told ESPNcricinfo last week that Shastri, Kohli and the BCCI were all kept in the loop over the appointments of the consultants. But Rai stressed that the CAC could only recommend and that the final authority to appoint remained with the CoA.To that end, the CoA formed a four-member committee to finalise Shastri’s coaching staff. The committee met Shastri in Mumbai on Tuesday and retained the existing pair of Sanjay Bangar (assistant coach), R Sridhar (fielding coach) and brought back Bharat Arun as the bowling coach. These three, Shastri said, would be his “core” set of coaches. Shastri also said he had spoken both to Dravid and Zaheer and welcomed them to provide “inputs” as and when they wanted. In doing so, Rai argued that neither the CoA nor the BCCI had u-turned.When asked whether the CoA actually needed to be involved in the coach appointment process, Rai said there was nobody else the Supreme Court had given authority to. “Otherwise who would do it? The CEO? But we supervise the CEO. Left to myself, I don’t want to be involved in any of these issues, but if it lands in our lap what do we do? The Supreme Court order says the CoA will supervise the administration of the BCCI through the CEO. It also mentions that on the CoA taking charge, the existing office bearers shall also function subject to the supervision and control of the CoA. Hence, we do have to assume the responsibility.”For the rest of the CoA’s tenure, Rai has decided to conduct all meetings in future in the presence of three BCCI office bearers. “Henceforth, I have said all CoA meetings will also be attended by the BCCI office bearers. I did that because I take them along and also not give an opportunity to say that we took a decision behind their back and all that. As it is we have been transparent by putting out the minutes of our meetings on the BCCI website. I don’t need to hide anything from them while I take the benefit of their presence to help us sort out matters.”

Rangpur Riders bowled Chittagong Vikings out for 124, setting up their nine-wicket win on the back of Mohammad Shahzad’s unbeaten 80

The Report by Mohammad Isam09-Nov-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Mohammad Shahzad struck 11 fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 80•International Cricket Council

Mohammad Shahzad marked his BPL debut with a blistering unbeaten 80, which helped Rangpur Riders thrash Chittagong Vikings by nine wickets at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday evening. Shahzad’s 52-ball innings contained 11 fours and three sixes. Rangpur’s win, though, was set up by a clinical bowling display that saw them bowl out Chittagong for 124 in the last over.Soumya Sarkar kicked off Rangpur’s chase with an upper-cut six and a square cut for four off Tymal Mills. Shahzad found his rhythm with crisp drives and cuts off Dwayne Smith’s medium pace. The openers sped to 43 for 0 in the Powerplay, although Mills dropped a skier off Shahzad’s top-edged slog on 18. Soon, Shahzad struck his first six off Mohammad Nabi before slapping a Taskin Ahmed delivery over mid-off for his seventh boundary.Mills bowled a beamer at Soumya in the tenth over but dismisssed him with a short delivery off the next ball. Soumya contributed 23 to the 77-run opening stand.With a pulled heave off Taskin, Shahzad reached his fifty off 41 balls. His slog over midwicket off Taskin was arguably his most memorable shot of the innings, and he hit another four and six through the same region in the over. The winning run came off an inside edge of an attempted helicopter shot, as Rangpur finished the chase with five overs to spare.Earlier Chittagong slipped to 21 for after they were put into bat. A 48-run third-wicket stand between Shoaib Malik and Anamul Haque resurrected the innings. But when Anamul was run-out, for the second match in a row, via a ricochet off Liam Dawson’s hand, Rangpur didn’t let go of their stranglehold.Arafat Sunny removed Jahurul Islam and Malik, who top-scored with 30, while Rubel Hossain had Mohammad Nabi caught at cover. Zakir Hasan’s attempted scoop was caught at short fine leg before Richard Gleeson struck twice in the 19th over to hasten Chittagong’s fall.