Anil Kumble has been ruled out of the opening match of the Indian Premier League, Rahul Dravid, the captain of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, has confirmed. Kumble’s absence is the latest blow to a side still uncertain about the availability of some of its international stars.Kumble, who missed the third Test against South Africa in Kanpur, is yet to recover from a groin injury. “He will miss the first game definitely but we’ll see how it goes as we go along,” Dravid said in Bangalore. “Anil is keen to play and we hope in about 4-5 days he should be able to play. The physio at the National Cricket Academy – Paul Close – and the franchise physio are both in discussion and we’ll take a decision on that.”There has been some uncertainty over players’ availability for the Bangalore franchise. Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher were expected to leave for the South African domestic Twenty20 competition but will now stay back. Dale Steyn, though, won’t be available for the early stages and both Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan batsman, and Abdur Razzaq, the Bangladesh left-arm spinner, will miss the opening clash because of the ongoing series in Pakistan.”There’s been a lot of uncertainty over who is available,” said Dravid. “We were waiting to see whether the South African players will stay back, Anil and [Nathan] Bracken miss out because of injury – Anil hopefully only for a game, Bracken maybe till May. We have [Ashley] Noffke and Ross Taylor till end of the month. And now we have Kallis and Boucher for more. Steyn’s arrival will depend on how his franchise does in their Twenty20 competition back home. As for Misbah and Razzaq – a series is on. So they can join only after that.”The franchise wasted little time in getting a replacement for Bracken, the Australian left-arm seamer, who was ruled out for at least four weeks. “Bracken was unavailable till his injury situation, maybe the first week of May. Opportunity came up to sign up Noffke, only for the first four games, after which he goes back to Australia. We looked at him as a good allrounder potential. He’s had a good season with Queensland.”The good news, though, comes in the form of another left-arm seamer, Zaheer Khan, recovering from injury. “Zaheer is coming on really well,” Venkatesh Prasad, the coach said. “He was not really 100% before the start of the series which we played [against South Africa] but now he’s coming along quite well. He’s been bowling 90-95% in the net sessions. We’re playing a practice game and it will give us a good indication.”Bangalore kick off the tournament with a home game against Kolkata on April 18.
Jesse Ryder’s manager believes the batsman is a genuine chance to receive a New Zealand Cricket (NZC) contract and a place in the ODI squad to tour England despite his off-field problems earlier this year. The selectors are meeting in Christchurch this week to decide on the touring parties as well as the group of contracted players for next season.Missing from last year’s list will be Stephen Fleming, Craig McMillan, Shane Bond and Lou Vincent. Based purely on form, Ryder would appear likely to make the cut as he made his ODI debut in the home series against England and averaged 49 from five games.However, it is unclear whether the incident where Ryder punched a window in a local bar, leaving him with a severely injured hand, will be held against him. Ryder’s manager Aaron Klee said the batsman had used his enforced time away from cricket to lose five kilograms in a bid to show the selectors he was improving his attitude.”NZC have to weigh everything up – fitness, behaviour and injury rehab – and I’m sure they’ll weigh risks up along with the opportunity,” Klee told the . “He’s in with a shot. I think they are pretty pleased with Jesse but they’ve given me no indication whether he’s in line for a contract or might get picked for the one-day team.”Klee was confident Ryder would be fit for the one-day portion of the England tour if selected, although his hand will not have recovered in time for the Tests. However, he said while Ryder’s behaviour was improving giving up alcohol was not part of the equation at the moment.”He is 23. You are not going to change Jesse 100%, but if he can learn to make some smarter decision he will get over the line,” Klee said. “Going to a 23-year-old and saying you can’t drink any more is a big call.”He is still wearing a protective splint but he’s pretty much got complete movement back in his thumb and his index finger has three-quarter movement in it, so the medical specialists are pretty happy with it. We think he will be ready for the one-dayers if they want him, then we just need to find a club or a county second XI that he can get some cricket with beforehand.”New Zealand’s general manager Lindsay Crocker said the team management had not yet made a decision on Ryder’s immediate future. “We’ve got a very open mind on the subject, so yes, it will be a point of discussion for the selectors,” Crocker said. If Ryder does receive a contract from NZC he will be on a minimum of NZ$74,000 a year, with the top-ranked player to be paid $174,000.The contract list will be decided before the England trip although the new deals will not officially start until June 1. “Generally speaking, all the players on the tour of England will have got contracts,” Crocker said. “But often their relative rankings are a topic of much discussion among the players so we want to get them out of the way a bit earlier.”
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) has sent a reminder to the ICC seeking a response to its request last month for official recognition of their unsanctioned venture.”We have received an acknowledgement of our letter from the ICC. We have been waiting for a response and have sent them a reminder, too,” Himanshu Mody, the business head of ICL, told Cricinfo.Malcolm Speed, the ICC CEO, told reporters in Mumbai last month that the issue had been referred to the ICC’s lawyers. Though Speed has since proceeded on leave an ICC spokesperson confirmed that the matter was “still under consideration”. “There is no time frame and all we can say is that we will deal with this as soon as it’s possible for us,” the spokesperson said.The ICL, meanwhile, considers the ECB decision to let their players appear for county cricket as a major victory, especially since the matter was settled before the issue could reach the courts in England. “Earlier, about 10-15 ICL players were blocked from playing in England but that issue has been resolved without the league taking the legal route,” an ICL official said.The ICL, which kicked off as a twenty20 event in 2007, has also nearly finalized its calendar of dates and events for the coming season with officials yet undecided on starting four-day games. The calendar is expected to be formalized within the next 10 days, the official said.
Cricket South Africa’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU) has charged an “intermediary” under its anti-corruption code for “contriving to fix, or otherwise improperly influence aspects” of the recently completed domestic T20 tournament, the Ram Slam Challenge.CSA has provisionally suspended the unnamed individual under Article 4.7.1 of the Code. The ACSU has also charged them with “failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate with an investigation carried out by CSA’s Designated Anti-Corruption Official”, the board said in a release on Tuesday.The intermediary will now be required to respond to the charges via the ACSU.”The provisional suspension means that the intermediary may not be involved in any capacity in any match or any other kind of function, event or activity (other than authorised anti-corruption education or rehabilitation programmes) that is authorized, organised, sanctioned, recognised or supported in any way by CSA, the ICC, a National Cricket Federation or any member of a National Cricket Federation,” CSA said.Haroon Lorgat, CSA’s chief executive, added: “Our attitude to corruption will always be one of zero tolerance and we are confident that we have the necessary structures in place to effectively deal with any corrupt activity. We will relentlessly pursue under our code and the law of the land any persons we believe to be involved in corrupting the game and, with assistance from the police, we will also seek criminal prosecution.”The Ram Slam T20 Challenge 2015-16 was played between November 1 and December 12, with Titans winning the final against Dolphins on Saturday.
The Lodha committee is expected to come down severely on the glaring loopholes and absence of any mechanism in the BCCI to deal with and remove the conflict of interest issues both within the board and the state associations. The conflict of interest point is likely to be strongly highlighted when the committee unveils its recommendations on the governance of and structural reforms for the BCCI, a task delegated to the three-member panel by the Supreme Court last July.In the interviews conducted by the panel with BCCI officials, it is understood that the first question posed by the chairman of the committee, RM Lodha, former chief justice of India, was on conflicts. In his interactions with a number of current and past BCCI officials, Lodha made it clear that conflict had to be eradicated completely if the BCCI wanted to bring in a professional structure.In their defence, a number of representations were apparently made by senior BCCI officials to the panel expressing the inevitability of former cricketers needing to hold multiple positions to make a decent living after retirement. This was placed in the context of the existing BCCI structure, where many posts are honorary and part-time in nature. It was represented that while this is far from an inconvenience to those in politics or business, for retired cricketers their residual sources of income would naturally be from allegedly conflicting activities such as coaching, commentary and media work.Any intention to stop the former cricketers from holding multiple roles, the panel was told, could perversely drive former cricketers out of leadership positions in the sport’s administration. While sympathetic to these concerns, it is understood that the Lodha committee’s desire is for cricket administration to move towards a culture and a structure where conflict of interest is not seen as a given or a fait accompli. The committee is likely to be of the view that reforms must be wholesome and, when combined with a BCCI structure with paid professionals in key posts, there ought to be no room or apology for conflict of interest.Incidentally, the committee discussed all this with Shashank Manohar immediately after he was elected as the BCCI president in October. Since then the BCCI has announced a slew of measures that have pointed to a board that wants to be transparent and professional. Manohar issued a three-page directive to BCCI and state association members, employees along with players, coaches and selectors, listing out guidelines to avoid conflicts of interest. The BCCI also appointed an independent auditor in PriceWatherhouseCoopers to check the books of all the state associations to ascertain that the various subsidies that were granted by the board have been utilised appropriately.However legal experts, who have knowledge of the workings of the BCCI, remain cynical. They feel in the absence of other reforms, this standalone conflict of interest policy is a “band-aid” measure and could further entrench existing powerful administrators who have no playing history. Experts believe that it would be incomplete to stop just at conflict issues, and that the Lodha Committee is likely to dig deeper and will also look at other forms of impropriety, whether these relate to favours, allocation of match-hosting rights, ticketing, tendering and contracting practices, etc. “As we have seen with FIFA, there is a broader ethics challenge that needs to be met head on when it comes to sports administration,” one legal expert said.
The prospect of a full-strength West Indies squad boycotting the World Twenty20 due to a contracts impasse appears less likely after the team captain, Darren Sammy, informed the West Indies Cricket Board that the team wants to play the tournament, which starts in India from March 8.
‘You cannot continue to be unfair, unreasonable’
Dear Sir, As captain of the WT20 team, I wish that we can settle this matter and focus on preparations for the tournament. I want to state on behalf of the players that we want to play and will represent the West Indies to the best of our abilities. The embarrassment and fiasco of the Indian Tour which was called off by the Board must not be allowed to happen. However, it is the arrogance and high-handedness of the Board which cause these problems. You cannot continue [to] force players to be represented by a body that they are not members of and do not want to represent them. You cannot continue to be unfair and unreasonable. Issues like this will continue to plague West Indies cricket unless you have an MOU and arrangements for non-WIPA players are fair and just. We are aware that, win or lose, this may well be the last tournament for most of us as reprisals will set in but we will speak out for what is fair. We are players and we know that unless radical changes take place, players will always have the grievance of which we complain.
In an email sent to the board over the last 24 hours, Sammy, however, reiterated his original demand asking the WICB to double the match fees, and share 50% of the sponsorship revenue and 100% prize money with the players. Sammy also asked the board if they would be ready for a mediation to settle the matter in case of a disagreement. Sammy’s latest communiqué comes after the WICB had set February 14 as the deadline for the players to agree to the terms of the contract, failing which it would be assumed they had refused selection for the World T20.”As captain of the WT20 team, I wish that we can settle this matter and focus on preparations for the tournament,” Sammy said in his third e-mail this week to WICB CEO Michael Muirhead. “I want to state on behalf of the players that we want to play and will represent the West Indies to the best of our abilities.”All through this week Sammy, who is playing for the Peshawar Zalmi franchise in the Pakistan Super League, has been involved in a dialogue with the WICB through a series of e-mail exchanges with Muirhead. In his previous two e-mails to Muirhead, Sammy said the WICB needed to double the players’ remuneration for the World T20 and stated they did not recognise the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) as their representative. Muirhead told Sammy that WIPA was the “exclusive collective bargaining agent for West Indian players.”Muirhead also let Sammy know that the WICB did not agree with the “old hierarchical system” of payment to players for ICC events under which senior players received “grossly disproportionate” amounts solely based on the number of international matches played.Sammy said that he would not be happy to repeat the “embarrassment and fiasco” of West Indies’ pull-out from the India tour in 2014 but pointed out that the WICB could not continue with its “high-handedness”, the main reason behind the frequent run-ins between both parties.”You cannot continue [to] force players to be represented by a body that they are not members of and do not want to represent them,” Sammy said referring to the WIPA. “You cannot continue to be unfair and unreasonable. Issues like this will continue to plague West Indies cricket unless you have an MOU and arrangements for non-WIPA players are fair and just.”Sammy said he was aware, yet unafraid, of the “reprisals”, and stated that “unless radical changes take place, players will always have the grievance of which we complain.”For the third time this week, he also asked the WICB to double the match fee of $6,900 on offer in addition to sharing 50% of sponsorship fees and 100% of the prize money with the players. “If you don’t agree to the above, would you consider that this matter goes to mediation for a settlement,” Sammy asked.
Ben Stokes said that his England team would take pride in ending their 15-year wait for an Ashes victory on Australian soil, but acknowledged that the circumstances were “not ideal” for his side, on a surface heavily favoured towards the bowlers, and with the series already surrendered after three straight losses across the opening 11 days of action.Stokes and his predecessor as captain, Joe Root, were both part of the 2013-14 squad that arrived in Australia off the back of three straight Ashes series wins, only to suffer a 5-0 whitewash that set in motion a run of 16 defeats and two draws down under that culminated in last week’s 82-run loss in Adelaide.Now, however, they have helped to oversee victory in just two days at the MCG, on a spicy surface in which no player on either side made a half-century. England were required to chase 175, the highest score of the match, after being bowled out for 110 in the first innings to concede a 42-run deficit, but did so at a familiarly brisk rate, requiring just 32.2 overs to end their long wait, thanks to key contributions from Jacob Bethell (40), Zak Crawley (37) and Ben Duckett (34).”Yeah, we’ve got the win, but honestly, it’s not what you want, really,” Stokes told TNT after the match. “The conditions were heavily sided to one skill of the game, which is not ideal, and the game lasts less than two days.”But when you take all that away, you are confronted with conditions, and what you’ve then got to do is decide on what’s the best mode of operation to be able to give you the most chance of success. Chasing 170 was always going to be difficult, but I thought the way that we took the game on from the outset was the exact way that we needed to do that.”Related
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Despite the fact that the series has already been lost, both senior players took pride in the resilience that the team had showed after a torrid build-up to the Test. In the fall-out from the Adelaide defeat, focus had fallen on the team’s mid-series trip to the beach resort of Noosa – in particular a viral video of Ben Duckett looking worse for wear after a night out. But the squad managed to put the furore to one side to deliver a long overdue win.”It’s disappointing that it’s not to affect the series,” Root admitted. “But I think it’s really important, after everything that’s been thrown at the group over the last little while, for us to respond in that fashion, and to find a way on that wicket. It showed good cricket smarts, and great bravery, to read that situation and play with that conviction. So I’m very proud of the boys, and hopefully we can build on it and use the momentum into the next game.”Speaking before the match, Stokes had vowed to rally round his embattled players, not least Duckett, and attempt to provide them with the support they needed to play with the freedom that their team ethos has long espoused. He was proud that his message had fallen on receptive ears.”In the few days building up to this, you front up to a few things,” he said. “The big thing for me, walking out on day one, was obviously understanding that there’s going to be 94,000 people here at the MCG, it’s going to be loud, so just it’s about making sure everyone was on top of the way in which they held themselves, in terms of body language and intensity in the field.”He also thanked the England fans who had made the long trip to Australia for the series.”We’re very lucky that we get to be involved in a sporting occasion like this on Boxing Day,” he said. “We obviously get it here, and every now and again in South Africa, but playing on Boxing Day in front of 95,000 at the MCG, is something pretty special.”But the noise difference was no different to the first couple of games, and that shows we’ve got an unbelievable fan base. They are with us through thick and thin. They’ve been absolutely awesome, and they’ve spent a lot of hours in the sun over there today, so I’m hoping [expecting] that few of them wake up with a sore head.”We’re over the moon. We’re excited that we’ve managed to get on the right side of the result. But, before this game started, we knew what the goal was. We’ve got two games left, and we want to leave here with two results. So, our focus isn’t going to change when we go to Sydney. We’re still going to go out there with the exact same mindset and intensity towards beating Australia. There’s no such thing as a dead rubber when you represent your country.”
ScorecardCharlie Hemphrey struck a brisk 79, featuring eight fours and a six•Getty Images
Charlie Hemphrey’s sensible half century guided Queensland to a comfortable victory over Tasmania on the fourth day-night of the Sheffield Shield match at the Gabba.Queensland had restricted Tasmania to 233 in their second innings through an even bowling effort, most notable for the wicketkeeper Chris Hartley’s 500th catch.That left the hosts with a last-day chase of 158, and after Marnus Labuschagne was out early, Hemphrey and Matt Renshaw combined for a stand that soothed any nerves in Queensland’s viewing area and condemned the visitors to defeat.While Renshaw fell one run short of 50, Hemphrey endured, pushing along at a good rate to take Queensland home with plenty of wickets and time to spare.
The managerial practice of raiding one’s former club looks set to strike again at Upton Park, as new West Ham United manager Avram Grant prepares to make a move for French forward Frederic Piquionne. Piquionne, who played under Grant on loan at Portsmouth last season, is thought to be close to a move to East London. The New Caledonia-born forward, who is currently contracted to French side Lyon, impressed during his time on the south coast last season and caught the attention of a string of English clubs. The Hammers are rumoured to have fought off strong interest from both Fulham and newly-promoted West Brom, but is he a good signing for the Upton Park side?
The departures of Guillermo Franco and Ilan, coupled with the patchy form of Carlton Cole, Alessandro Diamanti and Benni McCarthy, clearly highlight West Ham’s need for more firepower. Frederic Piquionne may help to alleviate this concern. The 31-year-old managed to rack up a respectable 11 goals for relegated Portsmouth last season, a credible feat for someone playing in such a weak, struggling side. This tally included strikes against Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, thus demonstrating his ability to competently perform at Premier League level.
In addition to this, Piquionne frequently demonstrated his power and pace at Fratton Park last season, virtues that one would not associate with some of West Ham’s current forwards. The tall forward is also left-footed, and would help to provide balance up front with first-choice striker Carlton Cole. Piquionne alternated between featuring as a lone-striker and as part of a strike partnership last season, and will help to bolster West Ham’s range of attacking options.
Whilst Piquionne may not be the glamorous, ambitious signing that the club’s fans crave, he may prove to be a shrewd acquisition for the side. Having spent the best part of a year working with him, Avram Grant will be fully aware of Piquionne’s abilities and attitude, and should be able to coax the best out of the 31-year-old. Although Piquionne’s record in France is less than prolific, he has clearly shown his talent within the Premier League. With a fee for the forward mooted to be just over €1million, Piquionne could turn out to be the bargain of the summer.
Are you excited by the prospect of Piquionne teaming up with Carlton Cole?
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Click on image below to see the ITALIAN babes at the World Cup
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Wigan Athletic defender Titus Bramble is hopeful that he will make a quicker than expected return from injury and be ready for the start of the new season.
The 28-year-old missed the final games of last season due to a stress fracture of the foot, but the centre-back believes that he is on track to return to the fold ahead of the expected 14-week recovery period.
He told the Wigan Observer:"The foot feels good.
"I've been in and out of the club over the summer and it's just a case of getting the strength back now.
"I think I'm doing as well as I could be at this stage and fingers crossed it stays that way.
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"The initial estimate was 14 weeks out, but I'm hoping that was worst-case scenario. I'm definitely aiming to beat that and I think I can."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email