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“We’re just here to have some fun, enjoy this series completely, and take a lot of positives”

Varun Shetty06-Jul-2021The India players who are in Sri Lanka for the upcoming limited-overs series are paying no heed to conversations about them being a second-string team – as Arjuna Ranatunga called them – according to Suryakumar Yadav, who is focused on taking “a lot of positives” from the short tour.”Not really [thinking about being a squad of non-first-choice players]. Everyone is completely focused,” Yadav, 30 but still a newbie at the international level, said on Tuesday. “The way the practice sessions are going, the way the [intra-squad] game went yesterday, it’s going completely fine and we’re really excited about the challenge.”We’re just here to have some fun, enjoy this series completely, and take a lot of positives from here.”Related

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The squad, on tour even as the expanded Test squad gets ready for a five-match series in England after finishing the World Test Championship final, features as many as five players who have earned their maiden call-ups to the national team, and a string of others who are new at the international level – like Yadav. He made his international debut earlier this year at home in a T20I series against England, but, in many ways, is among the senior-most players in the touring party.”That [England] was a different series. This is a different series. But the challenge remains the same – I’ve to go out and perform the same way I did,” he said. “So pressure will be there because if there’s no pressure, there’s no fun. It’ll be a great challenge and I am really looking forward to it.”Every year I’ve learnt something different from all my team-mates [at the Mumbai Indians]. That tournament is a great learning every year. It really helps me wherever I am playing. If you sum up, it’s a great learning process and it has obviously helped me gain a lot of experience.”The bedrock of Yadav’s game as an attacking batter in the IPL has been his ability to be innovative on slow pitches just as well as he is on true batting surfaces. India are scheduled to play all their games at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, and tiring pitches are more than likely to be a feature as the series begins on July 13.”From a conditions perspective, we play in similar conditions in places like Mumbai and Chennai, where the humidity is high,” Yadav said. “Most importantly, we have come here 15-20 days before the series to acclimatise to these conditions. We are adjusting well. Talking about the pitches, the surface for the intra-squad game [on Monday] was really good, and I hope it stays the same. If there are slow pitches, you need to take time and apply yourself. It will be a good challenge and I am really looking forward to it.”

A similar rescheduling could be done for Group B, with the venue, Vadodara, yet to host a completed a match

Saurabh Somani27-Sep-2019Elite Group A league matches washed out by rain in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20 have been rescheduled, with similar changes expected for rain-affected Group B games.ESPNcricinfo has confirmed that the Group A league phase, played in Bengaluru, will now run until October 16. It was originally scheduled to end on October 13, with the knockouts – also in Bengaluru – starting from October 20.Overall, 17 of the 30 matches scheduled over the first three days ended with no result, with this year’s tournament being severely affected by rain, particularly in Bengaluru and Vadodara, the venues for Groups A and B. Under the new points system, the top five teams across both groups combined will qualify for the quarter-finals, leaving teams to feel the pinch of lost game time. Group C matches have been held as scheduled in Jaipur, where the weather has stayed clear. Plate Group matches in Dehradun have also had to deal with some rain and it is likely these, too, will be rescheduled.”We are working on the rescheduling and it should be done soon,” BCCI general manager Saba Karim told ESPNcricinfo. “We want to have as many matches as possible. Three of the groups were affected, A, B and D due to unseasonal rains, so we’re looking at how to accommodate those. The matches in Jaipur have gone on smoothly.”The new group A schedule, which ESPNcricinfo has seen, will have matches on October 2 and 8. These days had been previously designated as rest days, under the old schedule, with no games across the competition. This move has accounted for all six matches that were washed out without a ball being bowled: Mumbai v Saurashtra, Andhra v Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad v Karnataka, Mumbai v Jharkhand, Hyderabad v Goa and Kerala v Chhattisgarh.Matches in Group A will be held on 12 of the 19 days between September 28 and October 16, with room for further readjustments if needed. It is likely that a similar format will be followed for Group B, whose league games were also originally scheduled to end on October 13. The weather conditions and forecast in Vadodara are poorer than they are in Bengaluru though, so the possibility of some rain-affected results despite rescheduling remains.ESPNcricinfo understands there was a meeting between the team managers of Group A in Bengaluru with BCCI officials on Thursday evening, where the rescheduling was discussed, though all teams were not in favour of it. But, with the BCCI taking a decision, the new schedule was finalised by Friday mid-morning.The tournament began on September 24, and over the first three days, there wasn’t a single completed Group B match in Vadodara. All matches scheduled on September 24 and 26 were abandoned without a ball bowled, while three matches played on September 25 began but were later abandoned.In Bengaluru, six matches were washed out on the first two days. The first match of the group took place on September 26, when Karnataka took on Jharkhand. It was also the league’s first match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the sub-air drainage system makes it possible for the ground to withstand heavy rainfall and still get a full game in. The other two games in Bengaluru were also completed, though they were truncated.Dehradun has had one no-result each on both days that play had been scheduled.

Fast bowler gets through 19 overs on second day of Second XI fixture, and is set for Lord’s debut after Olly Stone’s injury

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Aug-2019Jofra Archer got through 19 overs for Sussex’s 2nd XI on Wednesday to further emphasise his readiness for a likely Test debut at Lord’s next week.With James Anderson already ruled out of that Test, Warwickshire confirmed today that Olly Stone would miss at least two weeks’ cricket with a back problem, leaving Archer and Sam Curran as the frontrunners to bolster the pace attack against Australia.Mark Wood (side and knee) and Lewis Gregory (foot) are also injured, meaning England’s seam bowling stocks are relatively bare.After a staggering first day, in which he took 6 for 29 in 12.1 overs before hitting a rapid hundred from number six, Archer had a quieter day at Woodmancote against a young Gloucestershire 2nd XI.ALSO READ: Jofra Archer takes six-for, scores century in quest for Test fitnessHe leaked a few runs in his first spell, as opener Tom Price hit three boundaries in the first four balls he bowled, before Greg Willows pulled a short ball for six over long leg.But Archer ended up with 19 overs under his belt, returning figures of 1 for 78. There was a brief scare after he dropped a difficult caught-and-bowled chance, as he stayed down for around a minute, but he picked himself back up and took the wicket of George Drissell, who fended a short ball that rose sharply off the pitch to gully.Archer is playing in the fixture to prove his fitness, after suffering a side strain during the World Cup, although Sussex coach Jason Gillespie told he was “surprised” he had missed out on the first Test and that Archer was “100 percent fit, ready to go”.Curran, meanwhile, is set to play in Surrey’s Vitality Blast fixtures on Thursday and Friday, though will be made unavailable for Sunday’s game at Glamorgan.While Archer has not made a first-class appearance in nearly 11 months, Curran has played four games for Surrey this Championship season – taking 18 wickets at 23.22 – as well as an England Lions game and the Test against Ireland two weeks ago. Curran took 3 for 28 in that game, but with coach Trevor Bayliss highlighting the need for “guys with a bit more pace”, Archer looks to be the front-runner.It is feasible that both seamers could play, with Joe Denly dropping out and Ben Stokes moving up to number four, though captain Joe Root stressed after the defeat at Edgbaston that England “don’t have to make any shotgun decisions in terms of selection.”We got plenty of time before the next game,” Root said. “It’s really important that we’re very clear on how we want to go about it.”Anderson, meanwhile, remains hopeful of playing some part in the rest of the series.”The thought of more time away from the game is driving me nuts,” he told . “I haven’t thought about giving up. My body feels great everywhere else, I’m as fit as I’ve ever been. It’s just this one muscle that is bugging me and not allowing me to do what I want to.”I’m pretty confident I can get over this, I want to keep going. The plan is to get back and play some part in The Ashes but, if that doesn’t work out, the winter is absolutely on my radar.”

Confirmation of Glamorgan’s £2.5m payout from ECB comes ahead of an emergency meeting of county chairmen on March 26

David Hopps22-Mar-2018Glamorgan have confirmed a compensation payment of £2.5m from the ECB in exchange for not applying to host Test matches for a five-year period between 2020 and 2024.Overall contributions from the ECB amounted to nearly £5.2m – a figure which also includes the annual share-out to county clubs from international proceeds, and an additional £1m payment from ECB reserves that all counties received in the past year. The total sum is thought to be a record ECB payout to a county.The revelation, shown in the county’s annual accounts, comes at a tense time for the first-class game with an emergency meeting of county chairmen scheduled for March 26.Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, is under scrutiny after it emerged that ‘compensation’ payments could be habitually paid to some Test-hosting clubs in the years they did not stage a match despite the policy having not been discussed at Board level.It remains to be seen whether other counties will also be identified as having been promised similar sums.Bob Warren, the Sussex chairman, has written to Graves, saying: “The ECB policies are, taking into account the way matches and money are being distributed, going to produce eight super-counties with dire effects for the rest of us.”Glamorgan said of their financial support: “Following discussions with the ECB the club decided not to apply to host Test matches during the 2020 to 2024 period in return for a compensation payment of £2.5m. The Club has agreed that if it wishes to host Test match cricket in the future, it will repay this sum on terms to be agreed with the ECB.”This formed part of the Club’s strategy to become the white-ball venue of choice which resulted in the successful allocation of international T20s and ODIs and the appointment of the SSE Swalec as a venue for the ECB’s new T20 tournament.”The appointment of Cardiff as one of the venues for the ECB’s speculative new T20 tournament was not without controversy as both Taunton and Bristol had ambitions to share the south-west venue and, in the case of Somerset, have expressed the belief that they were given reason by the ECB to expect this would be the case.Glamorgan, meanwhile, are nearly out of the financial woods. At their AGM on March 28, they will announce an EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxation, Depreciation and Amortisation) profit of £4.146m.The statement read: “Since 2012 the Club has made EBITDA profits of £4.0m, before debt write-offs and before this recent agreement with the ECB. These profits have been delivered through successful hosting of a number of high profile cricket events, including two Champions Trophies and an Ashes Test match, alongside very close control of costs.The debt burden, not so long ago a crippling £15.1m, which came close to driving Glasmorgan into bankruptcy until the chief executive, Hugh Morris, negotiated a way out of the mess, has been reduced to £2.5m.Glamorgan concluded: “The Club is very focused, alongside a close partnership with Cricket Wales, upon developing the game of Cricket in Wales, producing the highest quality players, and providing top quality entertainment for audiences within Cardiff and around Wales. The sporting, social and financial impact of these aspirations for Wales could be enormous.”Durham are another county who might look askance at the situation. They were relegated at the end of the 2016 season, and suffered other sanctions, in exchange for a £3.8m bale-out by ECB – another county that made the heady rush towards Test status and suffered financial hardship in the process.

Roelof van der Merwe, who last tasted international cricket five years ago, is attempting to resurrect his career by making a switch to Netherlands

Firdose Moonda30-Jun-2015Roelof van der Merwe, who last tasted international cricket five years ago, is attempting to resurrect his career – but not with South Africa. The allrounder secured a Dutch passport on Monday and made himself available for Netherlands immediately. He was included in their squad to play against Nepal for a T20I the day after confirming his documentation but was not named in the starting XI on Tuesday.Van der Merwe could play a part in the World T20 Qualifiers in July and, should Netherlands make it through, in the tournament itself, which he has said is his ultimate aim.His new passport also means he can play county cricket as a local player, because of the European Union connection, and that he will end his career in South Africa. Van der Merwe spent nine seasons with the Titans franchise and was an integral part of their set-up, but decided to move on in the hopes of playing at the highest level again and prolonging his career.”It has been a privilege and an amazing journey to be part of the Titans family for the past eight years. My cricket journey will continue, but I have decided on a different path that could be beneficial to my long-term career and family life,” van der Merwe said in a statement issued by Titans.”His indomitable spirit and defiance has endeared Roelof to the Titans fans and to a wider South African audience,” Titans coach Rob Walter said. “He had a never-say-die-attitude and was extremely motivated to make a difference and to win matches.”Those qualities did not put van der Merwe was on the South African selectors’ radar recently but earned him a call-up at the turn of the decade. He played 13 ODIs and the same number of T20Is between 2009 and 2010 and was part of the 2010 World T20 squad.In the seasons that followed, van der Merwe made key contributions for Titans. He bowled them to the one-day cup final in the 2013-14 season, with 15 wickets in a 12-match campaign and was their leading run-scorer in last summer’s first-class competition with 774 runs at an average of 55.28.He remained part of South African A squads and often seemed on the fringes of a comeback, especially as South Africa searched for an allrounder, but was not reselected. Van der Merwe made use of his Dutch ancestry to open doors to play for Netherlands. He is not the first South African to go Dutch. Ryan ten Doeschate and Stephen Myburgh are among the other South Africans who have played for Netherlands.

Gary Ballance enhanced his international credentials with a stylish century against the Australians on a rain-affected first day in Northampton, where Nathan Lyon was the pick of a weakened attack.

Brydon Coverdale at Wantage Road16-Aug-2013
ScorecardGary Ballance was in good touch and made a third century in five innings•Getty Images

Gary Ballance enhanced his international credentials with a stylish century against the Australians on a rain-affected first day in Northampton, where Nathan Lyon was the pick of a weakened attack.Lyon enjoyed working against an England Lions order stacked with left-handers and collected 3 for 80, but he was unable to curb the influence of Ballance, who was out late in the day for 104.The first session was lost to drizzle but a clear and sunny afternoon meant that 77 overs were still possible and Ballance used them to show that Yorkshire’s production line of young batsmen extends beyond Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. Ballance had scored two centuries already this month, 112 against Warwickshire in the County Championship and 139 against Unicorns in the Yorkshire Bank 40, and here he looked the most accomplished of the England Lions batsmen.Whereas the rest of the left-handers struggled against the away spin of Lyon, Ballance was less inclined to drive early and worked his way into form while waiting for the bad balls. He was strong when driving off the back foot – one such punch to the boundary brought up his half-century off Mitchell Starc – and drove down the ground against Ashton Agar, raising his hundred with his only six, a slog over midwicket from Steven Smith from his 153rd delivery.But next ball Ballance fell in a not dissimilar style to Chris Rogers in the Lord’s Test, missing a Smith full toss that the umpire adjudged would have gone on and hit the stumps. It was the second wicket Smith claimed with a rank full toss, after Jos Buttler on 7 sent one down the throat of Lyon at deep midwicket. Smith finished with 2 for 8 from two overs but his figures were far more attractive than his bowling, which was only used late in the day.The presence of Starc and James Faulkner as the only seamers in Australia’s attack meant that spin was the main order of the day and Lyon was used the most. After David Warner was brought on as first change, sending down some ordinary slow-medium seam-up offerings, the stand-in captain Shane Watson turned to Lyon and he was immediately effective, finding an edge from Alex Lees that was put down by Watson at first slip.Lees was on 16 at the time but the miss wasn’t too costly; on 33 he again edged Lyon and this one was taken by Watson, the first of three catches at slip that he claimed off Lyon’s bowling. Lyon, who drifted the ball in from around the wicket and extracted some turn and bounce, was also unlucky not to have Moeen Ali caught at point on 15 when an edgy drive appeared to fall just short of Warner.Lyon picked up his second wicket when Eoin Morgan launched a loose drive outside off and edged to Watson on 5, but that brought together Moeen and Ballance, who added 70 for the fourth wicket. Moeen looked nervous early against the ball turning away but was happier when Ashton Agar came on, lofting him over long-on for six before boosting his confidence further with a classy sweep for six off Lyon.Moeen brought up his half-century with a flick through the leg side off Agar, who struggled to find the right line, bowling to a leg-side heavy field against the left-handers, and did little to enhance his chances of a return for the fifth Test at The Oval. In the end it was pace that accounted for Moeen, who on 61 edged Starc to second slip just after tea, providing the second wicket for the seamers after opener Luke Wells had earlier prodded tamely and edged Faulkner behind for 10.Moeen’s departure brought Ben Stokes to the crease to join Ballance and Stokes played a couple of impressive strokes, including a back-foot drive for four off Faulkner, but he did not give himself a chance of going on when Lyon returned to the attack. The first ball that Stokes faced from Lyon he tried an expansive drive through the off side and edged to Watson at first slip for 19.Lyon finished with three wickets and had a couple of other close calls, including when a diving Smith at midwicket couldn’t grasp a very tough chance off Buttler. On a greenish-tinged pitch that offered a little sideways movement but not much pace, Starc and Faulkner provided few seriously challenging deliveries to the England Lions’ batsmen, which might encourage the Australian batting order ahead of the second day’s play.