Clare Connor has described the decision to drop her old friend Charlotte Edwards as “the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my working life”

George Dobell at Lord's11-May-20162:02

Connor praises ‘selfless decision’ from Edwards

Clare Connor has described the decision to drop her old friend Charlotte Edwards as “the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my working life”.Connor, Head of Women’s Cricket at the ECB, played for England U19s with Edwards from the age of 15 – Edwards was just 12 – before they went on to represent the senior team together.But, with recent results disappointing, and the new head coach of the women’s team, Mark Robinson, indicating that he wanted a new direction, it was Connor’s duty to bring down the curtain on a remarkable 20-year international career.”We go back a long way,” Connor said. “We are close and she is very special to me and to the game, so it was immensely difficult.”It was instigated by Mark Robinson. He felt a fresh vision was what the team needed in terms of leadership. She has captained the team for ten years and environments do need to be refreshed. You sometimes need a new voice, almost a disturbance to the dynamics to kick-start a different style of play or culture.”Lottie could see the team is the most important thing.”Connor admitted there had been some concern from the ECB management about recent results, but insisted that the introduction of the Super League and the advent of the professional era will bring improvement.”I was at the ECB AGM yesterday and Colin Graves did mention it has not been as successful a period as people would have liked,” Connor said. “I think everyone recognises we are in a period of change.”I have no doubt Mark will have a huge impact. We will have some wobbles along the way but we do need to disturb the norm. He is perceptive. He has a lovely balance of kindness but also trying to get players to understand the brutality of professional sport.”The challenge is how you harness that passion and innocence and genuine love for the game and keep everything that is special in a new professional era.”If some of those 1.3 million girls who have started to play through Chance to Shine convert into cricketers we will have a more athletic talent pool. Cricket is going to be a viable option and just as normal as picking up a netball or tennis racquet. The professionalism of the game helps us achieve that, but it will not happen immediately.”

Although Bangladesh have made marked steps forwards in the way they play Tests, in the shorter form of the game there remains a massive gulf between them and the rest

Wisden Cricinfo staff27-May-2016As the dust settles on what was a surprisingly closely fought Test series between England and Bangladesh, attention quickly turns to the three-match one-day series which starts in five days time. There’s no time for reflection and relaxation in modern international cricket.Although Bangladesh have made marked steps forwards in the way they play Tests – even though they sometimes revert to type, as was the case with their batting on the final day of the series – in the shorter form of the game there remains a massive gulf between them and the rest (with the possible exception of the declining Zimbabweans).The stats tell a sorry tale. Bangladesh have played 79 full ODIs and won three – with only one success against another Tests-playing country. And their one victory – against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup – is one of the games most scrutinised by those looking at match-fixing. It’s best to leave the stats to tell their own story. Pakistan bowled 28 wides – they gave away 40 extras in all – and also three of their players were run out in what was regarded at the time as a very poor performance. Even if this result is taken at face value, Bangladesh are way out of their league in the cutthroat world of one-day cricket.Their performances should be compared with those of Kenya, the country nipping at their heels as the next candidate for full Test status. The pair have met seven times and Bangladesh have managed only one win. They have not only lost the other six, but lost them almost every time by comprehensive margins, the most recent in the 2003 World Cup; Kenya reached the semi-finals, Bangladesh slinked home winless having even lost to Canada.Bangladesh’s recent Tests in Australia and Pakistan have shown that they are learning to adapt, but both have been followed by one-sided one-day series. At least against England they have home advantage, but the outcome is unlikely to be any different.

Abahani Limited’s DPL clash against Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club was called off after an on-field incident forced the umpires to walk-off citing “illness.”

Mohammad Isam12-Jun-2016The Dhaka Premier League match between Abahani Limited and Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club was called off after the umpires walked off the BKSP-3 stadium. The match was not played on the reserve day as the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis, the BCB standing committee that runs the league, had not announced its decision.* The umpires had reportedly walked out citing “illness”.The incident that triggered them leaving the field occurred in the 16th over of Prime Doleshwar’s chase when Raqibul Hasan was given not out by umpire Tanvir Ahmed off a stumping appeal from left-arm spinner Saqlain Sajib. The Abahani players protested and their fans began to hurl abuse at the umpires, at which point they left the field after consulting with match referee Montu Datta.Eventually, Prime Doleshwar were asked to chase a revised target according to the D/L method, but they refused saying the weather wasn’t a factor and the interruption wasn’t their fault.”Why should we go by the Duckworth/Lewis method? Our club officials are not going to abide by it today. The match didn’t stop because of us. What happened was quite unfortunate,” Prime Doleshwar coach Mizanur Rahman Babul said.Khaled Mahmud, the Abahani coach, thought it was a case of the umpires overreacting. “There was no threat or any situation created that the umpires had to leave the field,” he said. “They could have handled the situation much better. It is quite natural that [Prime] Doleshwar didn’t want to play according to the D/L method when the situation didn’t demand of such a thing.”* 0515am, June 13, 2016. The news article was updated with the information that the match was not played on the reserve day

Jason Roy lit up a gloomy evening in South London with a stunning matchwinning 162 – the second highest ODI score ever made by an England batsman

The Report by Andrew Miller29-Jun-2016 England 309 for 4 (Roy 162, Root 65) beat Sri Lanka 305 for 5 (Mendis 77, Mathews 67*, Chandimal 63, Gunathilaka 62) by six wickets

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jason Roy lit up a gloomy evening in South London with a stunning matchwinning 162 – the second highest ODI score ever made by an England batsman – as Sri Lanka’s best batting performance of the series was handed an inferiority complex by a relentless display of hard, clean hitting, allied to the sort of sharp running between the wickets that their own players couldn’t come close to emulating.Chasing a stiff Duckworth-Lewis-adjusted target of 308 in 42 overs, following a two-and-a-half hour break for rain that had robbed Sri Lanka’s own innings of vital momentum, Roy crashed 13 fours and three sixes in the course of a 118-ball onslaught to put the result beyond any doubt.Roy’s first hundred came up from 74 balls, his 150 from 109, and though he eventually fell with 27 runs still needed, bowled by a Nuwan Pradeep slower ball with Robin Smith’s 23-year England record of 167 not out at his mercy, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler were on hand to seal victory with a cool 11 balls and six wickets to spare. There was even time, before the fun was concluded, for Farveez Maharoof to revive the Buttler mankading saga from the same series two years ago, as he stopped in his run-up to serve England’s non-striker a pointed warning for backing up too far.The extent of England’s dominance evoked memories of a similar run-chase that Sri Lanka themselves pulled off at Headingley exactly ten years ago this week, and which Sky Sports presciently chose to replay during the long rain delay. The footage revealed a bygone era in which England’s cricketers were a white-ball joke and Upul Tharanga, Sri Lanka’s puzzlingly used No.8 batsman, was a thrusting No.1 who claimed a share in matchwinning 286-run opening stand.But in spite of that long and tedious hiatus – there had been enough precipitation in and around London to cause the final day of Middlesex’s Championship match at Lord’s to be a complete wash-out – it seemed the rain-gods south of the river were happy in the end to kick back and watch a masterclass from a batsman who had scored 279 runs from 220 balls since Sri Lanka last managed to prise him from the crease, in the tied first match of the series at Trent Bridge.Following the early loss of Moeen Ali, who was promoted to open after Alex Hales suffered a back spasm while fielding, Roy added 149 for the second wicket with Joe Root, whose 65 from from 54 balls was a timely reminder – after a string of single-figure scores – that failing to spend much time at the crease isn’t always the same thing as being out of form.Jason Roy fell five runs short of England’s ODI record•Getty Images

Eoin Morgan, by contrast, proved the wisdom of an alternative adage – one pertaining to Sod’s Law – when, having ground his way to 22 from 27 balls including a trademark lofted six to hint at a restorative innings, he was sawn off by the most stunning catch of the summer so far, a one-handed swallow dive from Danushka Gamuthilaka at backward point to intercept a Suranga Lakmal long-hop.Roy, however, needed no such luck, good or bad. The power and placement of his strokeplay was in evidence from his third delivery, when he latched onto a nugget of width from Lakmal to drill the first of his fours through the covers. This was his second hundred in as many completed matches and his first on his home ground at the Kia Oval, and that combination of peak form and utter familiarity with his surroundings meant that Sri Lanka’s attack never had a prayer.Striking the ball with high hands that enable him to impart power and speed into even the merest of blocks, and with fast feet that rarely fail to provide him a stable base from which to climb into his strokes, Roy turned the heat on a diet of toiling bowlers whose lengths were consistently too short for a pitch so true. Each of Roy’s three sixes were emphatic stamps of class – full-blooded golf swings into the stands at long-on – as the series was sealed with a game, at Cardiff on Saturday, to spare.The back of the run-chase was broken by Roy’s second-wicket stand with Root, whose ability to think on his feet was evident in a subtle change of strategy, particularly against the medium-pace of Angelo Mathews. Having been bowled by a Mathews inducker for 2 in his only previous dismissal of the series, Root resolved to hang back in his crease and play the ball strictly under his eyeline, and reaped the rewards with a typically stealthy knock, packed with cheeky boundaries behind square as he reached his fifty from a brisk but never hurried 37 balls.The ease of England’s victory arguably did a disservice to the combative efforts of Sri Lanka’s own batsman, particularly Kusal Mendis and Gunathilaka, whose 128-run stand for the second wicket was Sri Lanka’s highest partnership of the series.Mendis, who has been Sri Lanka’s most promising young batsman of a tough campaign, top-scored with 77 from 64 balls, his fourth and highest half-century of the tour and his most fluent yet. His application could, and probably should, have been even more handsomely rewarded, however, had it not been for the onset of rain, after one ball of the 19th over, which robbed his innings of all momentum.Five balls after the resumption, his attempt to take on Rashid’s wiles resulted in an open-faced miscue to a diving Liam Plunkett in the covers, and soon afterwards, Gunathilaka was gone as well. Displaying the skills he picked up at the Big Bash and honed during England’s World T20 campaign, Rashid used his googly to fine effect in the damp weather, and appeared to sucker his prey with the one that went the other way, as Gunathilaka made room for a lofted drive over the covers, but instead chipped a cramped drive to Moeen at wide mid-off.England were a more focused unit in the second half of their bowling effort, although they struggled once again to separate Sri Lanka’s old guard of Mathews and, in particular, Dinesh Chandimal, who followed his 62 from 77 balls at Bristol with a sparkier innings of 63 from 51.Mathews, passed fit despite his ongoing hamstring issues but never looking fully mobile, had been the silent partner for much of the second half of Sri Lanka’s innings, but nevertheless finished the innings in style, bringing up his fifty from 47 balls with an arrow-straight drive off a near-perfect Plunkett yorker, then celebrating with two more fours in consecutive balls. His efforts carried his side past the 300-barrier, but any thoughts of psychology coming into play were quickly scotched when Roy got into his stride. He is in a rare vein of form, and England are a team going places on his watch.

Former Pakistan fast bowler Aaqib Javed will arrive in Dhaka on Friday for a short coaching stint at the BCB’s High Performance Unit

Mohammad Isam28-Jul-2016Former Pakistan fast bowler Aaqib Javed will arrive in Dhaka on Friday for a short coaching stint at the BCB’s High Performance Unit. The programme will be held for around a week, according to the board’s CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury.Last week, the BCB had announced an extended high performance squad to take part in a specialised camp. Javed will be the first of the specialist coaches at the camp and will work with the fast bowlers.”He will be arriving tomorrow, and stay for seven-ten days,” Chowdhury told ESPNcricinfo. “He will be coaching fast bowlers from the high performance as well as the national team.”In June, Javed, the former UAE head coach, had turned down the BCB’s offer for the post of Bangladesh’s bowling coach, citing his commitment to Pakistan Super League franchise Lahore Qalandars. The BCB is still seeking a bowling coach for the national side.

Bangladesh’s limited-overs captain Mashrafe Mortaza reached out to the England players with whom, he said, a deeper bond can be developed if the October tour goes ahead

Mohammad Isam24-Aug-2016Bangladesh’s limited-overs captain Mashrafe Mortaza reached out to the England players with whom, he said, a deeper bond can be developed if the October tour goes ahead. The three-member ECB delegation, which recently completed a security assessment ahead of England’s tour to Bangladesh and India, are due to brief the one-day team on Thursday. England are scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on September 30 for two Tests and three ODIs.”I would tell all the players to come to Bangladesh,” Mashrafe said. “I can assure you that you can play cricket here wholeheartedly. You don’t have to think of anything else. It will be a competitive series. Our friendship will get deeper if we play in this series. It is not just about the game. There are a lot of things connected to this series. We are hoping that they would come here to play. From what I have heard, our security forces are giving it the highest attention. I have confidence in them since we have hosted many big tournaments in the recent past.”As a player I would urge for cricket to continue. These incidents are happening all over the world and if we postpone playing now, there will be a time when we would have to stop the game. We all have to keep our faith on the ECB team that visited recently as well as the two boards.”Last month, after the ECB said it would follow government advice on touring Bangladesh following the terror attack in Dhaka on July 1, Mashrafe had said he was hopeful of the tour going ahead. He didn’t rule out communication initiated by Bangladeshi cricketers to urge their English counterparts. He also said that England’s participation in this year’s Under-19 World Cup gave them confidence that the tour will go ahead.”If some of the players have a friendly relationship, they may knock each other. But these things are mainly dealt by the boards, on whom we have to depend upon,” he said. “I believe that the ECB is taking it very seriously, and they will be satisfied with our security plan.”England has been with us from day one and I believe they will be with us now as well. They sent their team to the U19 World Cup.”Mashrafe also said that the Bangladesh players’ body, the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), could still play a role in discussing player safety with their counterpart, the Professional Cricketers’ Association.”I think steps can be taken through our players association, because it does have an impact. Maybe our players’ body isn’t the strongest but I still feel that if there’s an opportunity, we can venture into that avenue too. A lot is at stake here.”

Zimbabwe’s Harare-based players have refused to train in protest over unpaid match fees, which date back to July last year, and have insisted on a meeting with ZC MD Wilfred Mukondiwa

Firdose Moonda14-Sep-2016Zimbabwe’s Harare-based players have refused to train in protest over unpaid match fees, which date back to July last year. The players were due to begin preparations for a series against Pakistan A, which starts at the end of the month, followed by fixtures against Sri Lanka, but have instead insisted on a meeting with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) managing director Wilfred Mukondiwa to discuss “their worsening situation”.Several sources told ESPNcricinfo that apart from the outstanding player bill, ZC has also neglected to bring players from outside Harare to the training camp because of a lack of funds, or to ensure there are sufficient balls for training or nets for practice.”We are just fed up at the moment. It is crisis after crisis over here,” a player said while detailing the cloud of uncertainty hanging over them. Also, players said, since the end of July, when player contracts expired, there has been no indication on when new ones will be issued at either national or domestic level.Nationally-contracted players were given a month’s extension on their deals which covered the New Zealand series in July-August, but the situation at domestic level remains unclear after ZC announced it would move from a franchise to a provincial system this summer. No fixtures have been released yet.When contacted for a comment, ZC spokesperson Darlington Majonga said: “The players have asked ZC for an update on new contracts and their delayed match fees, but to equate their honest request for an engagement on the important issues to an ultimatum of some sort would be kind of making a mountain out of a molehill. What is important is that their contracts are ready following an all-inclusive negotiation process that involved representatives of the players. On the other issue, ZC has been paying the match fees in tranches and will settle the outstanding amounts soon.”*Other insiders confirmed Mukondiwa would address the players on Thursday, the day after the board’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).Meanwhile, there has been no announcement on Zimbabwe’s schedule for the rest of the international season. They are scheduled to play two Tests against Sri Lanka, but there was initially speculation of that series being altered into a triangular fifty-over competition also involving West Indies. More recently, there has been word that both the Tests and the tri-series will take place.The players are preparing with the latter in mind under the watch of interim coach Makhaya Ntini and fitness trainer Sean Bell, while ZC deliberates over the vacant head coach post. Heath Streak, currently the bowling coach for IPL franchise Gujarat Lions, is believed to be the favourite to take over.*15.55GMT, September 14: The article was updated with ZC’s response.

West Indies women drew level in their five-match one-day series against England, thanks to a dramatic fightback in another low-scoring contest at Trelawny Stadium

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Oct-2016West Indies 148 (Taylor 56, Hartley 4-31) beat England 110 (Dottin 4-19) by 38 runs

ScorecardDeandra Dottin sealed victory for West Indies•WICB Media/Athelstan Bellamy

West Indies women drew level in their five-match one-day series against England, thanks to a dramatic fightback in another low-scoring contest at Trelawny Stadium in Jamaica.After batting first, West Indies made 148 all out from 50 overs – one run fewer than England’s winning score at the opening fixture on the series on Saturday.England’s slow left-armer, Alex Hartley, took 4 for 31 in 10 overs to give England the upper hand, with Stafanie Taylor top-scoring with 56. In reply, England’s captain Heather Knight made 26 and Natalie Sciver 27, as England reached 107 for 4 in the 37th over.However, they then imploded in spectacular fashion, losing six wickets for three runs to collapse to 110 all out with sevenovers left unused. Deandra Dottin claimed the last four wickets for figures of 4 for 19.”Dottin came on and had a magnificent spell,” England’s Laura Marsh told the BBC. “It’s unfortunate really. We played really well for the first half but credit goes to Dottin because she’s won the game for them. We put ourselves in a brilliant position, the bowlers did a great job. We fancied chasing that score so we’re pretty disappointed.The teams now relocate to Kingston for the final three matches of the series, starting on Friday at Sabina Park.

Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz has said that bowling with the pink ball in the final session, with the dew coming into play, has been a challenge for the side in the ongoing Dubai Test against West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Oct-20161:31

No conventional or reverse swing with soft pink ball – Wahab

Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz said that dew in the final session of the second day in the Dubai Test against West Indies had a significant impact on the pink ball, making it difficult for bowlers to find conventional or reverse swing well into the third day’s play on Saturday.Wahab, who took two late wickets on the third day, said that the seam and the ball lost its shape due to moisture and the bowlers found it easier once the old ball was changed 55 overs into West Indies’ innings. West Indies finished the day at 315 for 6 in response to Pakistan’s mammoth total of 579 for 3.”It is difficult and we are having problems with it, specially under the lights,” Wahab said. “The first two sessions are fine but in the third session there is a lot of dew and the ball gets wet, the seam gets swollen too. When we bowled with the same ball the next day, the ball was very soft and it doesn’t do anything off the pitch. We neither got conventional swing nor reverse swing.”After 55 overs it lost its shape because it got wet and we got another ball to bowl with which was a bit harder and that was going through nicely. The way Sohail Khan bowled to Samuels and we got that wicket because of the ball, which was harder and it was skidding on.”Pakistan broke the 113-run, third-wicket partnership between Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels after Sohail Khan dismissed Bravo for 76, more than 10 overs after the ball had been changed. After the dinner break, Wahab dismissed Jermaine Blackwood and Roston Chase in successive overs to firm up Pakistan’s advantage.Samuels who had played an attacking 76, with 13 fours in his innings, attributed his dismissal to his failure to pick the ball off Sohail’s high-arm action.”This is my first game with the pink ball. Apart from the long day, you see the ball better the longer you play, you will always find a bowler who is going to give you problems,” Samuels said. “For me, the bowler who got me out had a high-arm action and I wasn’t picking out the ball as well as possible. A couple of times in the outfield you react late to the ball. So I guess we scored 300 runs so it’s very good for the game. But with the pink ball, we have to play more games to get used to it.”West Indies’ total of 315 for 6 was only the sixth time the team had scored 300 or more runs in 29 Test innings [16 matches] since January 2015. Samuels said the team had played according to the demands of the format and hoped this response would become a template for them to replicate in later Tests. He also hoped that the overnight pair of Shane Dowrich and Jason Holder could thwart Pakistan’s bowlers with a strong partnership on the fourth day.”We played Test cricket today,” Samuels said. “We were patient put away the bad balls and picked up singles here and there so this is Test cricket and this is the way it should be played. We should use (how we played) today as a team and try and be more consistent in what we do.”Shane Dowrich is in good touch, you could see that. Hopefully he can go on and get a big one. Jason Holder has a Test hundred so we still have enough batting there. Hopefully we can get a big enough partnership from these two guys.”

Tasmania cruised to a nine-wicket win against Western Australia on the final day in Perth

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Nov-2016
ScorecardJordan Silk made an unbeaten 77 in Tasmania’s win•Getty Images

Jordan Silk, Ben Dunk and George Bailey delivered a nine-wicket win for Tasmania on the final day at the WACA, where they chased down the target of 206 with relative ease.Silk’s first year as a Sheffield Shield cricketer, in 2013, was highly productive and he was even talked about as a Test opener of the future, but he has endured a lean first-class run since then. His unbeaten 77 was his best first-class score for more than two years.Dunk made 58 and was the only man to lose his wicket in the chase, while Bailey finished unbeaten on 58 as Tasmania cruised to 1 for 209.The day had started with Western Australia on 5 for 275, and they added 70 for the loss of their final four wickets – captain Adam Voges was unable to bat due to the concussion he suffered in the first innings.Jonathan Wells reached 120 before he fell to the bowling of Hamish Kingston, and debutant D’Arcy Short was lbw to Jackson Bird for 40. Bird, on the day he was named in Australia’s squad for the Adelaide Test, finished with 3 for 69 and match figures of 5 for 129.