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Relinquishes his Stars BBL role but will still work as head coach of the Stars’ WBBL team

Daniel Brettig04-Aug-2020Cricketing radical Trent Woodhill has quit as Melbourne Stars list manager to help Cricket Australia chart a way forward for the Big Bash League, in a mirror of his role advising the ECB on the launch of The Hundred.In a role assisting the head of the BBL, Alistair Dobson, with “global player acquisition” and the broader shape of the league, Woodhill will bring his outspokenness and livewire ideas to a competition that is desperately grasping to trend up again after losing crowds and broadcast ratings in the two seasons since it was expanded to a full home and away league in 2018.There are few projects considered more vital to Australian cricket than finding a way to get the BBL growing once more, after its extravagant build from modest origins in 2011 saw the tournament grow in value to be worth about half of CA’s A$1.18 billion broadcast rights deal with Foxtel and Seven a little over two years ago.Curiously, Woodhill has relinquished his Stars BBL role but will still work as head coach of the Stars’ WBBL team, with CA claiming that his new advisory position will deal exclusively with the men’s competition.”I’m grateful to the Melbourne Stars for their understanding in this decision and I’d like to thank Cricket Australia for giving me this great opportunity,” Woodhill said. “It’s clear that it would not be appropriate to hold a List Manager role while working more broadly on player acquisition with the league.”I will continue in my coaching role with the WBBL side, which is something I’m really looking forward to. With the recent signing of Australian captain Meg Lanning, we’re putting the pieces together to deliver a competitive squad for this year’s tournament.”The announcement of Woodhill’s BBL role followed a raft of redundancies across CA departments in late June, on the trail of more than 150 jobs being cut across the state associations.”Trent is a highly respected figure in both Australian cricket and across the world. We see him as an important contributor to the League’s ongoing focus on innovation in and around the game,” Dobson said. “Despite the uncertainties surrounding the current Covid-19 situation, we are committed to bringing the best available T20 players to Australia for BBL 10. Similarly, our commitment to innovation, a core part of the BBL DNA, has only been strengthened. We see Trent as a key driver of this fan-first agenda.”Woodhill’s views on the game and how it should evolve go a long way beyond the mooted changes to this season’s competition, including an overseas player draft and numerous in-game tweaks such as: bonus points available to teams for their progress at the 10-over point of an innings, substitutions also allowed within that same period, powerplay split between the first four overs of the innings and two overs floating elsewhere, free-hits for the bowling of wides, and the addition of extra breaks for advertisements and player strategy after every five overs.ALSO READ: Trent Woodhill’s brave new, data-driven worldHe has held a long list of roles in domestic, international and T20 cricket around the world, and had played a large part in helping the ECB formulate its plans for The Hundred, which has been pushed back by a year due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Woodhill’s position at the Melbourne Stars, over a period in which the club has contended consistently but never won the BBL, has increasingly seen his views being given an audience by CA, particularly after Dobson was poached from the AFL as the new head of the BBL last year.Two of Woodhill’s most enduring relationships as a coach have been with David Warner and Steven Smith, who have worked with him since they first crossed paths in New South Wales more than a decade ago.

Chris Gayle, Sandeep Lamichhane and Mohammad Shahzad had been due to feature in tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Mar-2020The Everest Premier League (EPL), Nepal’s foremost franchise T20 tournament, has been postponed following a government directive to refrain from mass gatherings amid fears about the transmission of COVID-19 (coronavirus).The tournament, initially scheduled to start on March 14, was set to feature Chris Gayle, Sandeep Lamichhane and Mohammad Shahzad. The tournament’s organisers said in a statement that it would be rescheduled for “the closest possible time whenever the situation is favourable”.The has only been one confirmed case of coronavirus in Nepal to date, but given the country’s proximity to China, the health ministry requested that the public suspend all major gatherings to reduce the risk of community spread.ALSO READ: Sickness concern means no handshakes for England in Sri LankaGrowing concerns about the spread of coronavirus has forced sporting events across the globe to review their position including the Tokyo Olympics. Cricket has not been immune, too. The EPL is the second tournament to fall victim to concerns over the outbreak, following a women’s quadrangular T20I series in Thailand that was scheduled to feature Netherlands, Ireland and Zimbabwe.The EPL postponement comes even as cricket is being played in Nepal’s neighbouring countries: India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. On Wednesday, the Sindh provincial government ruled out moving PSL games away from Karachi. The BCCI, too, is yet to issue a directive on the measures it is taking even as the IPL is scheduled to start on March 29.ALSO READ: PSL games to go ahead in Karachi as scheduled amid coronavirus fearsThe EPL organisers, though, have decided it is best to be proactive as cases of people being affected by coronavirus escalates rapidly across the globe. “We are naturally all sad at today’s announcement of having to temporarily postpone the 2020 EPL, but we simply have to put the health and wellbeing of all Nepalis and our overseas players before everything else,” Aamir Akhtar, the competition’s managing director, said.”It was crucial that we announced this decision now at the earliest possible juncture to ensure the minimum possible disruption to all of our stakeholders, who are integral parts of the ongoing success and growth of the league.”We would like to thank the government of Nepal for their support and counsel through this challenging period, and we support entirely the professional advice throughout. I would like to assure that as soon as we are able to go ahead with the 2020 season, we will be working to ensure that it will be the spectacular event the likes of which Nepal has never seen before.”

Club warns revenues set to fall “significantly”

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2020Gloucestershire have become the latest county to cancel the contracts of all their overseas signings, with Qais Ahmad and Andrew Tye’s deals terminated.Ahmad and Tye were due to play for the club during the T20 Blast, with the Afghanistan legspinner also set to appear in the County Championship.The club had previously confirmed that Cheteshwar Pujara’s contract to play the opening rounds of the Championship had been terminated, with all professional cricket in England and Wales currently suspending until July 1 at the earliest.”In order to protect our finances and the club as best we can we have had to sadly terminate our 2020 season contracts with our three overseas players Cheteshwar Pujara, Qais Ahmad and AJ Tye who was due to join the team later in the summer,” said chairman John Hollingdale and CEO Will Brown in a joint statement.ALSO READ: No English cricket until July 1 as season postponed“We know how excited we all were at the prospect of seeing both new and returning faces this year and we’re very sorry that this won’t be possible. The delay to the season, the postponement of the Hundred and the later start of the T20 Blast as well as the aforementioned financial pressures meant it just wasn’t feasible to bring them over in 2020. We would like to thank all three of them for their support and understanding.”In a letter to members and supporters, Hollingdale and Brown warned that the Hundred’s postponement meant the club’s revenue streams “will likely drop significantly well into 2021 before they return to normal”.”ECB monies related to broadcast rights will quite possibly suffer without the new tournament and whilst the ECB are doing all they can to support the game and it’s counties there is a chance this pain may come down to the county network and us as an individual club,” they wrote. “We do, however, remain in a robust position to weather this storm but with the playing and watching of cricket likely to be different from what we’re used to for some time to come.”Last month, the club said it was hopeful that even if no cricket is possible this summer, it expected to break even and “be ready to face the future in a strong financial position when the crisis has passed”. Most of the club’s staff, including players, remain on furlough leave.

Fast bowler roared in celebration after pegging back England captain’s off stump

Firdose Moonda in Port Elizabeth17-Jan-2020Kagiso Rabada will miss the Johannesburg Test after being sanctioned for his celebration following the dismissal of Joe Root on the first day of the Port Elizabeth Test.Rabada was found guilty of a level one offence. He was fined 15 percent of his match fee and earned one demerit point, taking his total number of active points to four. He has accumulated eight in the course of his career, but four of those have now elapsed.Rabada was found to have breached article 2.5 of the ICC code of conduct for “using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his/her dismissal during an International Match”.Rabada admitted the offence after the day’s play and accepted the sanction proposed by Andy Pycroft, the match referee. As such, there was no need for a formal hearing.Rabada was particularly animated when he beat Root for pace and bowled him in the evening session on day one. In his follow-through, Rabada advanced close to Root, who was walking off, and screamed at him and the stumps. Rabada was quickly swamped by team-mates Rassie van der Dussen and Pieter Malan before the rest of the team surrounded him.After play, South Africa’s bowling coach Charl Langeveldt said he had asked Rabada to “control your aggression”, because he is “always looking for a scrap”.The charge was levelled by on-field umpires Rod Tucker and Bruce Oxenford and third umpire Joel Wilson, as well as fourth umpire Allahudien Paleker. Level 1 breaches carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand, a maximum penalty of 50 per cent of a player’s match fee, and one or two demerit points.All three of the incidents which contributed to Rabada’s ban took place at St George’s Park. In February 2018, he was sanctioned for using provocative language in sending off Shikhar Dhawan in an ODI and a month later, had two incidents in the same Test against Australia which almost saw him banned for the rest of the series. He screamed into David Warner’s face and then brushed shoulders with Steve Smith, an act which was initially deemed a Level 2 offence.South Africa hired a top advocate, Dali Mpofu, to appeal that sanction and were successful. The Smith incident was downgraded to Level 1 which put Rabada on the brink of a ban but allowed him to keep playing. At the time, Rabada said he recognised that his aggressive behaviour “needs to stop,” because he was “letting the team down.”In a later interview with ESPNcricinfo, Rabada explained that his “outbursts of emotion” are just part of the DNA of a bowler and sometimes can’t be helped. “Unfortunately we are playing in an era where those things are being looked at now and you have to watch yourself. You have to think a bit more about what you do.”However, it appears Rabada is still struggling to keep his feelings in check and it has come at a hefty cost. Rabada is the leading wicket-taker in the series and his non-availability for the Wanderers puts South Africa in a quandary ahead of what will be a decisive fixture.Not only will they be missing their premier strike bowler – for whom there is no easy replacement – but they will also be without the only black African player in the current XI, which will set them further back from their transformation target.South Africa are required to field a minimum of six players of colour, of which at least two must be black African, on average over the course of a season, which means they do not have to meet the target in every match. However, they have failed to meet the requirement in all of the three Tests they’ve played so far, with only four players of colour at both Centurion and Newlands and five at St George’s Park. Rabada has been the only black African player in all three Tests.That may remain the case at the Wanderers, where Temba Bavuma, who scored a career-best 180 for his domestic franchise this week, has made a strong case for a recall.However, Bavuma will have to come in as a replacement for a batsman, or as an addition to the line-up and South Africa will still need another bowler to carry Rabada’s load.They have three options in the 16-man squad: allrounders Dwaine Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo and left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks, who could make his debut. The only other candidate who comes to mind is Lungi Ngidi, who has not played since the Mzansi Super League in December, where he picked up a hamstring injury.Ngidi is currently at the High Performance Centre attending a strength and conditioning camp for players who were identified to have fitness concerns, and includes those who are likely to be part of the limited-overs’ squads such as Jon-Jon Smuts, Sisanda Magala and Tabraiz Shamsi.The Johannesburg Test will also be Vernon Philander’s final match, after he announced his retirement at the start of the series.

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh captain, blamed his misfiring batting line-up for his side’s latest setback in Zimbabwe as they slumped to a 0-2 scoreline in the five-match ODI series

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Aug-2011Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh captain, blamed his misfiring batting line-up for his side’s latest setback in Zimbabwe as they slumped to their second straight defeat in the five-match ODI series. Left-arm seamer Brian Vitori bagged his second five-for in as many ODIs as Bangladesh crumbled to a sub-par 188, thought it was a recovery of sorts from 58 for 6. Zimbabwe reached the target in under 45 overs, losing just three wickets in a chase that was mostly a stroll.”We didn’t perform well at all, especially our top five batsmen,” Shakib said after the game. “Nobody scored runs. When you’re playing an ODI game and the top five are not scoring any runs, it is hard for the team to come back and put a good total on the board.”The top-order collapse was a worryingly recurrent theme for the visitors, having slumped to 43 for 5 in the previous game. Shakib believed it was a mental issue, as opposed to a question of talent. “We have to ask everyone separately what’s going through their mind,” he said. “It has nothing to do with their technique, but their mindset.””They are bowling well there’s no doubt. But we are capable of handling this bowling … It will show how tough we are, if we can bounce back; Otherwise we are not tough enough. We are not too soft to give up so easily.”That Bangladesh reached 188 was down to a strong rearguard from debutant Nasir Hossain, who made 63 batting at No. 8 – an effort that his captain appreciated. “He played very well, given it was his first game,” Shakib said. “Normally there’s pressure in that situation … when he got to bat we were 58 for 6. He played a good innings from that position. I hope he contributes [consistently], it was a special innings.”Zimbabwe have been the better team by far throughout the tour, starting with the one-off Test that they won in impressive fashion, despite Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal writing off their attack and terming the impressive Vitori “ordinary”.”I think you should ask the person who made this comment,” Shakib said when asked for his take on the “ordinary” verdict. “I think they’re well prepared and they’re better than us in all three departments.”Vitori has been Bangladesh’s bugbear since the first innings of the Test, even before Tamim made his comment, following up an impressive Test debut with an unprecedented brace of five-fors in his first two ODIs. No bowler had taken more than eight wickets in his first two ODIs before Vitori’s feat, and his captain Brendan Taylor was effusive in praise.”It is an amazing start,” Taylor said after the game. “He is a new world-record holder. He is a great guy to work with, a very hungry cricketer.”I am slightly surprised [by Bangladesh’s collapses]. They bat to No. 7 but credit must go to the bowlers. We didn’t give them many opportunities to score. Bowlers stuck to their guns after they got hit for boundaries.”Despite his side’s dominance in the first two games, Taylor refused to take things lightly. “I remember in 2005 we were 2-0 up and then lost 3-2,” he said. “We’re not expecting a series win straight away. We know they will try to bounce back but we have to be a step ahead.”Tuesday’s a massive game. If we lose there it is 2-1 and Bangladesh have a chance to get back in the series. We’ll go away tomorrow and regroup in a team meeting. There are not too many things we’re concerned about. We will stay humble and when it comes game time, we want to be 100% up for it.”

Mark Boucher, the new head coach, had earlier said he was open to asking de Villiers to come out of retirement

Firdose Moonda17-Dec-2019AB de Villiers is already talking to key figures in South African cricket to explore the possibility of coming out of retirement for next year’s T20 World Cup, captain Faf du Plessis has confirmed. Two days after new head coach Mark Boucher said he would be open to asking de Villiers to play in the event, du Plessis said that conversations on the subject have been ongoing for several months.”People want AB to play and I am no different,” du Plessis said after his Paarl Rocks team beat the Tshwane Spartans – coached by Boucher with de Villiers in the line-up – in the Mzansi Super League final on Monday night. “Those conversations have been happening for two or three months already: what does it look like, how does it look over the next year, and that’s where it starts.”De Villiers retired from international cricket in May last year citing exhaustion from the workload that he had often complained about. He attempted a U-turn ahead of the 2019 World Cup and made himself available for selection on the eve of the tournament, but South Africa’s selectors felt he had left it too late. Now, plans are afoot to put a proper process in place that will see de Villiers play some T20I cricket, culminating at the World Cup in Australia in October-November 2020.”T20 cricket is a different beast, it’s not a lot of time away from home. If you are a full campaigner, you have to really get stuck in and spend a lot of time on the road,” du Plessis said. “Test cricket now is the most important thing but also the T20 World Cup is not too far away and there isn’t a lot – I reckon 20 T20s over the season – which won’t be that hard on one to do that. Those conversations have already taken place and will continue to before the next T20 series starts.”South Africa’s T20I schedule includes three matches against England and three against Australia in February next year. They then tour the West Indies in the winter and there is also talk of a white-ball series in Sri Lanka. De Villiers may not be expected to play in all those matches, especially as he will also be involved in the IPL. The idea will be to make sure de Villiers gets enough game time to be considered for the World Cup. Form might not be a worry: de Villiers was the third-highest scorer at the MSL with 325 runs in nine matches at 46.42 and scored four half-centuries, more than anyone else.The tournament has also given du Plessis a deeper look at the talent around the country, especially in his team. The Rocks were made up of “no superstars”, but the likes of Ferisco Adams and Kerwin Mungroo made names for themselves as the competition progressed.”I’ve really enjoyed this campaign. I’ve really enjoyed working with young guys, getting their heads in the right space and getting them to understand their games better,” du Plessis said. “It’s great that experienced those guys can talk and help younger players because it does fast track their careers.”Faf du Plessis wants to continue leading South Africa•BCCI

The MSL has served one more purpose: it confirmed du Plessis’ ability to lead in the shortest format, something which appeared up for debate when he was left out of the South Africa squad to play in India. The last few months have seen talk of a succession plan that has looked to the likes of Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock to take over from du Plessis in different formats, but for now, he wants to keep going.”I’m still very motivated to captain in all three formats and that hasn’t changed,” du Plessis said, while recognising that the leadership needs to be shared as the end of his career looms. “It is also important to use other captains in this process over the next year when there is an opportunity to use guys. There will be a time that someone else will need to take over and it is a great opportunity to start doing it in small series, it might be one-day cricket, it might be T20 cricket just to expose younger guys to learning.”Fifty-over cricket may be the format for experimentation over the next year, with Test cricket still du Plessis’ domain and South Africa expected put a lot of emphasis on the T20 World Cup.After a tumultuous few months, South Africa have a confirmed coaching staff and the first bricks of a structure under director of cricket Graeme Smith and the new-found clarity has du Plessis optimistic about the future.”A lot can change in a week. We’ve seen that first-hand. It was the dark ages last week and there’s a little bit of light this week and that’s very good,” he said. “It’s very important, it will help the dressing room and even the supporters supporting the team. Everyone wants the team to do well, everyone wants to make sure we get the right people in the right positions. It’s good that there is a bit of positivity around in and there’s excitement in the air, myself included. I am very excited with the start of this new journey.”

Umar Gul has said that he will try and dislodge India’s top order in Pakistan’s World Cup semi-final in Mohali on Wednesday

Sharda Ugra in Mohali28-Mar-2011Umar Gul is the man who operates in the shadows of his more colourful companions of the Pakistani bowling pack. Behind his captain Shahid Afridi among Pakistan’s leading wicket-takers at this World Cup – 14 wickets to Afridi’s 21 – Gul has emerged as the searing inquisitor with the new ball en route to Pakistan’s arrival into the semi-final.It will all come to a head in Mohali on Wednesday when Gul opens the bowling against the strongest batting contingent of the event. It is his first spell that could dictate how the rest of his team’s overs go, but Gul has identified what he needs to do. “The first three wickets in the top-order are very crucial for us. They are depending on the top three. I am looking for these three batsmen.” Now these are words tailor-made for screaming headlines, (“Gul targets top three”, “Gul wants to rip through India top order”) but Gul delivered them as if he were saying something routine. Like telling the physio about his ankles or ordering room service.Were Gul to run into India’s top three in their hotel corridor between now and Wednesday afternoon, there would be handshakes, smiles and pleasant chit-chat. It is a fact that most of the fans on both sides find hard to to digest, particularly two days before the World Cup semi-final that once again sets up one of the most over-heated rivalries in sport.Gul said that given the strength of the Indian batting, the World Cup had taken his bowling to the rhythm it needed at the right time. “Our bowling is very good. Afridi is the leading wicket-taker. I am happy with my performance and form. We have a bit of an advantage with our bowling but I am happy with the way the batsmen played in the quarter-final.” He said that the ideal combination for Wednesday would be the Pakistani bowlers being on top of their game on a friendly wicket, and the batting giving the start like it had against the West Indies.The advantages of working with coach Waqar Younis and assistant coach Aaqib Javed, both fast bowlers of skill and nous, had found strong echoes at the World Cup, according to Gul. “I’ve only fully understood in this World Cup how much help I have got from them.” On the tour to New Zealand, Waqar had informed Gul that he would be bowling with the new ball in the World Cup. “For the last one-and-a-half-years, I wasn’t able to deliver with the new ball because of which I lost my form.” In the last two-three months, however, working with both Waqar and Aaqib, had brought it all back, rhythm, confidence and success. “It’s been like I was bowling in the past, I’ve got my new-ball skills back, which is good for the team.”One of the biggest dilemmas facing Pakistan is whether to play Shoaib Akhtar in what could be one of his last matches. Shoaib was dropped following Pakistan’s defeat to New Zealand but Gul dismissed the talk that he had been omitted because of issues within the team about Shoaib’s conduct. “He was rested after the New Zealand match so that he can focus on his fitness. The way he has been practicing for three days, I hope he will do well.”Shoaib’s partnership with medium-pacer Abdul Razzaq and also the spin option of Mohammed Hafeez at the start has worked well enough, but Gul welcomed the idea of sharing the new ball with Shoaib. Asked whether he personally would like to partner Shoaib against India, Gul said, “Of course. He is our most experienced bowler and he has done very well in the past, especially against India. A little bit of pressure will be lifted off me too if he plays because in the last couple of matches, when Shoaib wasn’t there, all the pressure was on me.”Gul was asked whether he agreed with what MS Dhoni had said about the match actually being bigger than a final. He said, “See, I don’t think Dhoni was talking for himself, he was speaking about the expectations of the Indian people. As a player, no one would say this (a semi-final) is bigger than the final, but every cricketer feels the pressure of their people. We also feel the same pressure – our people also feel that we must beat India in each match. You can say that, if we were speaking not for ourselves, but for Pakistan’s people, then yeah, it’s a final and we will try to win.”A semi-final can’t be bigger than a final but it’s a big match, a high-pressure match.” Whether it is a knockout game or a league game, “any match against India is a big match always,” Gul said, and then, for the first time in the press conference, he smiled.The match was “crucial” for the teams but then Gul moved beyond the cricket. “It brings both countries closer, it’s very good not only for the players but also for both countries.” The prime ministers of both nations seem to agree with the fast bowler. “People from both countries want us to play each other often. Both fans enjoy the cricket because the more we play each other, it’s better. I hope it will be a good match and both countries play well.”He also understood what the consequences would be for the losing semi-finalists. “Always, whether you are the Indian or the Pakistani team, there is pressure. The supporters of both teams absolutely cannot bear a defeat. But we’ve done well in the World Cup, we’ve won six of our seven games. The kind of support we have got from Pakistan, we are very happy. Whether we win or lose is not in our hands, we will try and play good cricket.”The team had not heard of Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik’s comments about how they would be monitored closely following the spot-fixing controversy. “I am not aware of this until now … We don’t focus on the media; we are focussing only on our cricket. The kind of pressure we have had over the last several months and the way we have handled it, this (the Malik statement) is no pressure at all.”Before he walked off to be with his mates and in the shadows again Gul faced a question about whether he sought stardom of the kind enjoyed by Afridi and Shoaib. He could have given the safe answer but chose not to. He spoke like a young man doing the hard yards in a punishing profession. “It is only natural, every player hopes he will get the kind of fame that Sachin (Tendulkar) or Afridi has. It doesn’t work that way though. Players like that are idols, so Afridi and Shoaib, whether they perform or don’t perform, are idols for the people of Pakistan. They will always remain that way. Sometimes in the heart, yes I do wish that I have the same kind of fans that Afridi and Shoaib have, the same fan following.”Then the fast bowler in him returned and he said, “But even then, I am satisfied with the following I have but I am never satisfied with my performance. If I do well in one game I want to perform better in the next … I always want to try to perform better than the previous time.”No better time to perform than in a World Cup semi-final.Which is why in the evening, like Gul had earlier promised, the Pakistanis turned out for a fielding session under lights, spending an hour. It was meant to assess the dew factor in Mohali and to give their skills one final polish. Pakistan are not practicising tomorrow and this session under lights would be their last hour on the field before they walk out into the sun on Wednesday afternoon.

The former Australia wicketkeeper, who now works as a broadcaster, doesn’t think the technology will slow the game down

Srinath Sripath06-Nov-2019How would the addition of another umpire exclusively for making no-ball calls affect the game? If it helps “arrive at the right decision”, the former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist is “all for it.”Front-foot no-ball calls have been a contentious issue in cricket for a while, with replays on TV broadcasts often showing on-field umpires missing a number of no-ball calls, and only checking with the third umpire if batsmen have been dismissed.”It is pretty challenging for the on-field umpire to look down there, look up there, have everything else going on,” Gilchrist said at an event organised by Tourism Western Australia in Mumbai. “Surely there was a replay last year that showed it was a no-ball [in the game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in Bengaluru].”As revealed by ESPNcricinfo in August, the ICC is conducting trials to put TV umpires in charge of these calls, which the IPL looks set to emulate in the coming months.One of the main concerns over involving TV umpires has been over whether it would slow the game down, but Gilchrist, who works as a broadcaster in Australia with , said it wouldn’t be a major issue given the technology available in the game.”No, no [I don’t think it’ll slow things down], because they can do it in an instant. I know, I work in broadcast, you can have a replay within five seconds. In football, VAR seems to be slowing it down a little bit,” Gilchrist said, referring to the Video Assistant Referee, which has been a contentious topic in recent months in football. “I think, if it’s a line decision [in cricket], you can have a replay like that [in a matter of seconds].”The modalities, though, will be for the ICC and the IPL governing council to decide. Should the third umpire monitor no-ball calls? Or is there enough justification to bring another umpire in? Gilchrist is firmly in the former camp. “Why can’t the third umpire just look at the replay and just go not out? That should be allowed. Whether you need a fourth umpire, maybe not”.

England and Australia will play each other in ten consecutive Tests across two series home and away in 2013-14, after it was confirmed by Cricket Australia that the dates of the next Ashes series Down Under have been brought forward by a year

Andrew Miller28-Jan-2011England and Australia will play each other in ten consecutive Tests across two series home and away in 2013-14, and that could be followed by a further five-match series in 2015, after it was confirmed that the dates of the next Ashes series Down Under have been brought forward by a year.The situation, which last occurred in 1974-75, has been forced upon the two boards by the competing demands of the 2015 World Cup, which is also scheduled to be held in Australia and which, had the 2014-15 Ashes gone ahead as planned, would have required England’s cricketers to remain in the country for five months.A proposal to bring England’s next home series, in 2013, forward by a year was thwarted by the competing demands of the London Olympics. England’s subsequent home Ashes summer is now expected to take place in 2015, a year earlier than the 2016 date originally proposed, with the traditional four-year home-and-away rotation expected to kick in from then on.”It’s always been our aim to break that cycle of two huge events in the same winter,” Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s marketing director, told ESPNcricinfo. “To ensure that the teams have better preparation time for the World Cup, this is the only solution, but I also think it’s absolutely manageable. I believe the brand is strong enough, as we’ve seen this year. The home series is critical from our perspective to make sure our grounds are full, but when England head Down Under, they will be trying to replicate the performance that they’ve just produced.”Although the new dates have yet to be included into the Future Tours Programme, the proposed shift of England’s home series to 2015 is potentially significant, as it takes the series away from the competing interests of football’s Euro 2016 tournament, which would overshadow the build-up in June and July. Instead, the only other major sporting event in 2015 is the Rugby World Cup, set to take place in England at the end of the cricket season in October.A major consideration for CA was the prospect of a new round of TV rights negotiations, as the current deal is set to expire in May 2013. With India due to tour in 2011-12, followed by South Africa, England and the World Cup, the board is anticipating four consecutive seasons of high-quality international cricket.”The Ashes have an x-factor element that excites the Australian public,” CA’s spokesman Peter Young told The Sydney Morning Herald. “The Ashes make turnstiles spin and they drive the ratings up. In terms of the next media contract, it’s an ideal starting point because it’s a lucrative blue chip series and all the networks would give their eye teeth to get hold of it.”

Liverpool are threatening to chuck away their hopes of winning a first Premier League title, with a succession of dropped points ensuring the nerves will be kicking in at Anfield.

The Reds though do still hold the aces, and a win this weekend and in their game in hand on Man City would still see them top of the pile for the time being at least.

However, there are cracks appearing in the squad, and especially in the first XI, and we here in the Tavern feel the club might have missed a trick in January by not going out to add someone with real quality to the ranks.

We feel the summer then will be a big period for the Reds, and we feel they should be looking to make a move for Lyon and France midfielder, Tanguy Ndombele.

The young midfielder has been in fine form for Lyon this past 12 months, and has made himself a regular fixture in the national squad.

However, a move to England is always going to appeal to those playing in the French league, and with Liverpool looking light in the middle of the park, Ndombele might be the perfect tonic to rectify that such problem.

Powerful, quick, and full of energy, Ndombele would give the Reds a new dynamic in the middle of the park, and with the midfielder only being 22-years-old, Liverpool could well have their central midfield presence for the next decade.

Liverpool fans, what do you think? Good signing? Let us know in the comments!