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Fallout from Warwickshire’s poor season in the County Championship has begun with news that at least two members of the backroom staff are to be axed.ESPNcricinfo understands that Alan Richardson, the club’s bowling coach, and Chris Armstrong, the club’s fitness and conditioning coach, are set to leave the club following a review of the player pathway and high performance squad undertaken by director of cricket, Ashley Giles.Warwickshire won just one Championship match in 2017 and were relegated to the second division. During that period, only one bowler – the overseas spinner, Jeetan Patel – claimed more than 26 Championship wickets and there were some fitness issues with the seamers, though arguably no more than at other clubs.Both departures are a surprise. Richardson, a former Warwickshire player, re-joined the club ahead of the 2014 season – he brought forward his retirement as a Worcestershire player to take up the role – and is a widely popular figure, while Armstrong has worked at the club since 2004 – all his working life – and was recently best man at Chris Woakes’ wedding. News of the departures, which is understood to have stunned the individuals involved, has not gone down well with several of the players.The episode sustains a more ruthless attitude that has been apparent at Warwickshire in recent times. Dougie Brown, who had served the club for more than two decades as a player and coach, was sacked as director of cricket 12 months ago just a few weeks after leading the side to the Royal London One Day Cup. Whether that marks an admirable determination not to accept mediocrity or a slide towards short-term thinking and a football mentality is debatable. It is noticeable, however, that across the county game – at Taunton, or Leicester or in Hove and Birmingham – there appears to be less patience afforded to coaches.Certainly this move underlines Giles’ determination to shake things up at Edgbaston. While he may have a reputation as a jovial character in the wider game, that exterior masks a steel that enabled him, as a player of modest natural ability, to represent England more than 100 times and play a key part in the 2005 Ashes success. This episode will also go some way to dispelling the suggestion that the Warwickshire coaching staff – containing, as it does, a host of former players of a similar vintage – is in any way overly cosy.There could well be knock-on effects at other clubs, too. With their ambition and spending power, Warwickshire will be looking for replacements to start as soon as possible. Graeme Welch, who enjoyed good success as bowling coach at Warwickshire before taking on the role of head coach at Derbyshire, is one obvious possibility as Richardson’s replacement. Welch is currently bowling coach at Leicestershire.Warwickshire declined to comment.

Samit Patel picked up three cheap wickets•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire remain on course for an immediate return to top flight cricket after defeating Northamptonshire by 163 runs on the final day of their Specsavers County Championship fixture at Trent Bridge.The Division Two leaders needed just over an hour to take the final five Northants wickets, with Adam Rossington unable to bat due to the thumb injury he sustained on the second day.Samit Patel closed out the contest, finishing with 3 for 17 and Jake Ball picked up 3 for 86.The outcome may have done irreparable damage to Northamptonshire’s promotion hopes. Having claimed just three bonus points, their tardy over-rate of minus five left them another couple of points in debit, ground they will hope to make back when they face in-form Sussex at Wantage Road next week.Nottinghamshire, gained another 20 points and remain unbeaten at the top of the Division Two table, ahead of next week’s clash at home to second-placed Worcestershire.David Ripley, Northants’ coach, recognised his injury-disrupted side had ultimately been outplayed, but reserved most of his irritation for losing points because of their slow overrate. “That’s not good,” he said. “We’ve just spoken about it as a group. We talk about it far too much and we need some actions. That’s going to hit us because we are going to lose points from this game and go back with minus points. In the past we’ve not been promoted out of this division by just one point, so every point is vital and we’ve just lobbed some away.”Resuming on 167 for 4, after they had added an unbroken 45 for the fifth wicket in the gloomy conditions of the previous evening, Alex Wakeley and Josh Cobb were parted in just the second over of the day.Wakeley, having advanced his score to 37, pushed firmly at Brett Hutton and nicked firmly through to Chris Read. The same combination accounted for Rory Kleinveldt four overs later, although the South African all-rounder, who made 12, was swishing vigorously towards extra cover.Read’s third catch of the morning saw off Cobb, for 38, with Ball adding to the two wickets he grabbed on the third day.Azharullah decided to make the most of a rare opportunity to throw the bat and hit five fours in making 23 but he then miscued Samit Patel high to Cheteshwar Pujara at cover.Ben Sanderson, batting with a hamstring injury and using Rob Keogh as his runner, made an enterprising 16 not out but the innings ended when Richard Gleeson, who scored 21, clubbed Patel into the safe hands of Riki Wessels at mid off.

Australia’s batsmen are putting great emphasis on their defensive game in the lead-up to the two Tests against Bangladesh, so much that even a batsman as aggressive as Glenn Maxwell wants to first make sure his block is in perfect order.The decision was made in the expectation that Bangladesh’s bowlers will attack by bowling a stump-to-stump line and, to counter it, Australia have begun batting in the nets without their front pad on. It is a tactic they had experimented with during Justin Langer’s tenure as batting coach in 2012.”I think the main thing is to basically use your bat,” Maxwell explained. “If you don’t have the safety of your front pad, it makes you get your leg out of the way and actually use your bat. I think it is more about refining your defence and making sure you trust the fact that you can hit the ball and not hoping that your pads are there just to save you.”It is more about guys who are hitting the stumps regularly and Bangladesh do that really well. They bowl stump to stump and put pressure on your defence so I suppose that’s one thing we will work on. I did a lot of it back home. A lot of my practice revolves around defence and expanding from there. I haven’t done so much of it since I have been here but I am sure I will get a chance before the game starts.”Maxwell said Australia will be wary of Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan. He had a chance to analyse Mustafizur at the Indian Premier League in 2016 and believes that despite the drop in pace, the young bowler remains one to watch.”Mustafizur is obviously the exceptional bowler we faced during the IPL during his breakthrough season. I suppose his pace dropped off as he played a bit more Test cricket. He is still an outstanding bowler who has the ability to swing it and has an unbelievable change-up slower ball.”He is not your conventional left-arm seamer. He is obviously got a very flexible wrist with which he can flick it in the last moment. It looks exactly the same either it is his bumper or his slower ball. It is a hard thing to pick up.”The same thing with Shakib; he is a really experienced player. He has been the No 1 allrounder in the world for a while. He is an excellent cricketer. We have to play these guys really well to negate their influence in the Test series and make sure we are staying on top of the game.”Against Bangladesh, Maxwell will look to follow the plans that helped him score his maiden Test century, against India in Ranchi, earlier this year.”I don’t think I will change too much from what I did in India. I thought I had really good plans during the Test series against them. I will employ probably something similar, basically backing my defense and trying to revolve my game around that.””It is basically going to be batting long periods of time and making sure that when we do bat those long periods of time we are making big hundreds,” he said.The first of two Tests in the series begins on Sunday in Mirpur.

Ben Stokes, England’s first-innings centurion at Headingley, said the team knew their performance was “not one of our best days with the bat” after they were dismissed for 258. Having won the toss, England slipped to 37 for 3 and 71 for 4 against an improved West Indies before a half-century from Joe Root and Stokes’ 100 from 124 balls took them to respectability.Both players were dropped early on, with the tourists still proving fallible in the field despite an improved bowling display. Root went on to equal AB de Villiers’ world record of 12 consecutive Tests with a fifty or better, while Stokes negotiated a watchful start before unfurling some trademark shots during the afternoon and evening, as England then claimed a late wicket before the close to ensure an even day.”Their seam-bowling unit bowled a lot better than they did at Edgbaston,” Stokes said. “They made it hard work for us. The conditions were more in the bowlers’ favour today, there was always a bit of seam movement, and every now and then the ball swung. They managed to expose that today.

Roach unfazed by ones that got away

Kemar Roach led the way with a four-wicket haul as West Indies came back strongly after being beaten by an innings at Edgbaston last week and he admitted the players had a “point to prove”.
“We had a very open discussion in our team meetings and the guys were totally honest – we weren’t good enough in the first Test,” he said. “We have a point to prove in this Test and we’re going to try our best to go out there and play the best cricket we can.”
Roach’s personal haul could have been even better, with two glaring drops off his bowling allowing Ben Stokes to escape on the way to a hundred, but he was not in the mood to point fingers.
“It can be frustrating, you’re working hard to set a batsman up and chance goes down but no one drops a catch on purpose. It’s just a mistake, keep your head up and come again.”

“We said as a team in the changing rooms that it’s probably not one of our best days with the bat. But we never know if it’s a good score until the West Indies innings has finished. It’s 260 more than we had this morning, it’s all up to how we respond tomorrow, how we bowl and hopefully we can create a few chances.”Stokes might have edged Kemar Roach behind on 9, though technology was inconclusive, and then survived a straightforward chance without having added to his score when Kraigg Brathwaite could not hold on at second slip. He was rarely fluent and could also have been dismissed on 98, when Shannon Gabriel dropped a sitter at mid-on, but went on to his sixth Test hundred from the very next ball.”It’s always nice to [capitalise on a drop],” he said. “I guess you get some luck every now and again and to do well you need some luck on your side. On another day, they hold it and you’re walking off.”I found it quite hard to start with, it took me a while to get off the mark and I thought I had to change my normal approach to when I’m first in. I walked down the wicket and went deep in my crease … I got a couple away and thought it was a tennis-bally slow wicket, so if I’m to play my attacking shots it’s going to have to be at 100 percent rather than half-hearted.”Of the words he and Gabriel appeared to exchange after he was eventually caught behind a few balls later, he said: “It’s not the first time. It’s just part of the game, he was probably still annoyed at himself for dropping me on 98. There’s nothing to it, he’s got me out. It’s international sport, we’re all trying to do well so emotions can come out.”He also had high praise for Root, who might have been caught at slip on 8 but otherwise looked in excellent form in progressing to a landmark half-century in front of his home crowd before edging an attempted paddle sweep off Devendra Bishoo.”He’s a hell of a player, he has been for a long time now,” Stokes said. “The captaincy hasn’t affected his run-scoring ability whatsoever – if anything it’s made him into a better player, if that was possible. There’s guys around the world who are known as the best players in the world and we’ve got one of them, if not the best. The records that he’s managed to break, the runs he’s scoring, is showing why he is.”

West Indies have named an unchanged 13-man squad for the first two ODIs of a five-match series against India, opting for continuity after the 1-1 result against Afghanistan earlier in June.Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel was unavailable as he continues his rehabilitation from an injury that kept him out of the series against Afghanistan, meaning the hosts will be without their premier fast bowler for their most important series this season. The reasons for its importance are not just pragmatic – India brings the most lucrative TV revenues – but also cricketing. West Indies are ranked ninth in the ICC ODI table, with only the top eight guaranteed qualification for the World Cup in 2019. The drawn series against Afghanistan did not help, and this series could represent their last realistic chance to avoid playing a potentially awkward qualifying tournament, where the top two teams will go through to the tournament in England.India arrive in the Caribbean off the back of a Champions Trophy run to the final, where they finished runners-up to Pakistan. The first ODI is on Friday (June 23) at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago.West Indies squad: Jason Holder (capt), Devendra Bishoo, Jonathan Carter, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shai Hope (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammad, Ashley Nurse, Kieran Powell, Rovman Powell, Kesrick Williams

It says much about Bangladesh’s improvement in ODI cricket that, for the first time, they go into a global event trying to play down expectations.Generally, in the past, the talk has been about the possibility of causing a shock. It has been, after all, 11 years since they last featured in the ICC Champions Trophy.But times have changed.Bangladesh are now ahead of three former world champions – Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies – in the ODI rankings. They’ve won series against India, South Africa and Pakistan since the 2015 World Cup – where they defeated England and reached the knock-out stages for the first time – and they warmed up for the ICC Champion Trophy with a maiden win away from home against New Zealand on Wednesday.They’re no longer plucky outsiders who could cause the odd embarrassment. They’re a dangerous side who will fear no one and have the weapons to go all the way. And they probably go into Saturday’s warm-up game against Pakistan – a side they defeated 3-0 the last time they met in ODI cricket just after the World Cup – as favourites.They present dangerous opposition for England in their opening game, too. England may be the bookies’ favourites for the event, but Bangladesh have won have won four of their most recent seven ODIs against England – including one in Bristol – and know that all the pressure will be on their hosts when the sides meet at The Oval.But Mashrafe Mortaza is no fool. He knows that anything he says now will be rendered largely irrelevant in a few days and, rather than ramping up the pressure and expectation upon his side, he spent the media session ahead of Saturday’s game dampening expectations and reiterating the size of the challenge facing his side, who have little track record in English conditions.”This tournament is going to be hard for us,” Mashrafe said. “The group we’ve got is very hard: Australia, England and New Zealand. It’s not going to be easy. And the conditions as well.”While he may be pleasantly surprised by conditions – there is no indication that the surfaces in the Champions Trophy will offer any great assistance to the sort of seam or swing bowlers that have created difficulties for Bangladesh on previous visits to England – he knows his side’s fielding will have to be better than it was on Wednesday if they are to reach the knock-out stages. Bangladesh failed to take four chances in the field as they defeated New Zealand. The likes of Steve Smith or Joe Root are likely to make them pay for such profligacy.”Yes, we dropped four catches,” Mashrafe admitted. “It can’t happen on that bigger stage. You have to be concerned with everything. I hope that our fielding will be all right.”Pakistan is a very good side that can destroy any team. It has a big chance in the competition. But whenever we have played them, Pakistan has been the bigger side and in this sort of tournament, the bigger side is under pressure.”Beneath the modesty, however, you sense confidence in Mashrafe. He knows that he has, in Mustafizur Rahman, one of the most exciting bowlers in the tournament. He knows that, in Sabbir Rahman, he has a batsman who relishes the big moment and could be on the verge of launching himself as a global star. He knows they can go a long way in this competition; he just doesn’t feel the need to say it right now. Actions speak louder than words and all that.”On our day, we can do anything,” he said. “And we have some quality players who can change the game. And we’ll have to play as a team as we’ve been doing so far and hopefully we’ll do something here.”There are expectations. But we just want to play the way we have played over the past two years and execute our skills well.”We’re ranked no. 6. And that is a pleasure for us. We are very happy with that. But we want to move on from here. We want to go as far as we can.”

Dav Whatmore has signed a six-month deal as head coach of Kerala. The formal announcement was made by the Kerala Cricket Association in Kochi last week. He will start mid-September and will likely see out the entire 2017-18 domestic season. Apart from coaching the senior team, Whatmore will also be involved in KCA’s junior cricket programmes and work closely with coaches in charge of the Under-23 team.”It’s important to build a system which can then help extend growth within the game across the state. That is what I’m looking forward to doing,” Whatmore told ESPNcricinfo. “That said, it’s also important to bring in results along with development of these young players. It takes time and I’m confident this association will last more than just the six months we’ve agreed upon. But for now this is a good start.”Whatmore, whose coaching stint with Zimbabwe ended in May 2016, is currently based in India. He is on a three-year deal as a consultant with the Chennai-based Sri Ramachandra University, which has collaborated with his cricket academy – Whatmore Centre of Cricket. He will be assisted there by a team of coaches with whom he hopes to streamline talent across age-groups.”I’m focused on the development side of the game, but it so happened that I could combine that along with coaching an upcoming state side, which I found challenging. That explains my association with Kerala,” Whatmore said. “I’ll be working six months with SRU to help set up a system, and it so worked out that the domestic season in India starts only after that.”June to August is not a good time for cricket in Kerala with the monsoons. With this arrangement, we can also have the senior and junior Kerala teams train in Chennai at the SRU facility. That would also allow an opportunity to work not just with Kerala in the pre-season but also complete my initial commitment as far as setting up of a system in Chennai goes.”Kerala had a poor 2016-17 Ranji Trophy campaign in which they managed just one win in nine matches. Halfway through their campaign, the association sacked P Balachandran as head coach, citing “non-performance”, and replaced him with Tinu Yohannan, the former India fast bowler. Their poor form extended across formats – they finished fourth in the South Zone Inter-State T20s and failed to advance to the knockout stage of the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy.”It’s a completely different challenge because I don’t know much about the side, but what I do know is they’ve been struggling to make the step up as far as first-class cricket is concerned. Helping them graduate to the next level is a challenge that excited me,” Whatmore said. “There is plenty of potential within the state. Taking the lead in five out of the eight games says they’re doing something right. If you can do it in the first innings, surely there is potential, but players are getting lost somewhere. That is why the off-season is crucial.”Whatmore has previously coached four international sides, Zimbabwe most recently. He was in charge of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan prior to that. In India, he has been involved with the National Cricket Academy and the Under-19 team apart from coaching Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched its own investigation into the corruption allegations emanating from the 2017 PSL. The country’s interior ministry also put four players provisionally suspended by the PCB in relation to the case – Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan and Shahzaib Hasan – on an exit control list, preventing them from leaving Pakistan.Nasir Jamshed, the fifth provisionally suspended player, is based in England and his lawyer informed the PCB of Jamshed’s inability to travel to Lahore. Jamshed had been arrested in the UK as part of the PSL corruption case but was released on bail. The FIA has no treaty with England that allows it to bring Jamshed back to Pakistan for investigation.Latif and Irfan had appeared at the Lahore office of the FIA on Monday in response to a summons from the agency, which said a “enquiry has been registered on the complaint of Subhan Ahmed, Chief Operating Officer PCB” and their presence was required.The PCB, however, distanced themselves from the FIA’s inquiry and ESPNcricinfo understands the board had only written to the FIA requesting assistance in obtaining forensic information from mobile phones in connection to the PSL case.”No complaint has been made by PCB to FIA to launch an investigation into players’ conduct”, Ahmed told ESPNcricinfo. “We have simply asked FIA to certify the authenticity of the data in players’ mobile phones in PCB’s possession for submission to anti-corruption tribunal as evidence”.The PCB had formed a three-member tribunal headed by justice Asghar Haider (retired), and including former PCB chairman Tauqir Zia and former wicketkeeper Wasim Bari to hear the cases of Sharjeel and Latif, who had contested some of the charges against them. The hearing was set for March 24. Irfan and Shahzaib had not yet responded to the charge sheet.

Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Perera said that a renewed determination to bat through the innings enabled him return to form with a match-winning 77 from 53 balls in his side’s six-wicket win over Bangladesh on Tuesday at Khettarama.Having suffered a lean run of scores on the tour of Zimbabwe last year, and then having failed somewhat spectacularly in the Boxing Day Test in Port Elizabeth, Kusal was dropped from all of Sri Lanka’s squads. Kusal had also managed only 30 runs from six first-class innings upon his return to Sri Lanka.He found his feet again in the Sri Lanka A team, playing unofficial one-dayers against the touring England Lions. In that series he hit 59 and an unbeaten 70, scoring at well below a run-a-ball in both instances. His 77 at Khettarama was also as notable for his restraint as it was for his hitting. He took four overs to work himself into the innings, and at first, attacked only the deliveries in his strongest hitting zones.”I failed in the four-day matches after I came back, and I wasn’t prepared for them also,” Kusal said. “Sometimes you have to be prepared to fail. I realised I got a lot of starts but wasn’t finishing things off. Getting those 20s and 30s are of no use either to me, or the team. So I strove to bat till the end. When the loose ball comes I am anyway waiting to hit it, but recently I tried to bat long, and that’s what’s helped me.”An injury to Niroshan Dickwella, and Dinesh Chandimal’s continued absence in the T20 squads had meant that Kusal was virtually guaranteed to play this match. However, he did have to beat out competition for the opening position – there are four career openers in this squad. As it turned out, Kusal opened the batting with Upul Tharanga, but said a stable place in the XI was not among his motivations during this innings.”I don’t want to think about holding on to my place while I play,” Kusal said. “Any player can be dropped at any time, and that’s part of the game. If you’re constantly thinking about that possibility, you won’t be able to get far. What’s important is making the most of the opportunity you get, to do something for the team.”

New Zealand’s bruised top order will welcome back Martin Guptill for their must-win fourth ODI in Hamilton and are set to hand Luke Ronchi the wicketkeeping duties ahead of Tom Latham.The coach Mike Hesson did not confirm whether Latham would retain a spot as a batsman, but the hints were that he could be dropped after a run of six single-figure scores in a row including three ducks. Dean Brownlie, who was Guptill’s replacement, has retained his place in the squad which is just for the Hamilton match.”We talked at the start of the series about giving both keepers an opportunity. Tom has had the first three, so Luke is likely to have an opportunity there,” Hesson said. “We are delighted to have Martin back and that allows us to do that a lot easier.”Hesson indicated that a decision over Latham would not purely be taken with the thought of giving him a short break before the Test series even though he is a key plank of that top order.

New Zealand squad for fourth ODI

Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Neil Broom, Dean Brownlie, Lockie Ferguson , Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, James Neesham, Jeetan Patel, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor

“I don’t think anything is more important than anything else, the ODI series is huge for us,” he said in reference to whether the Tests were a priority. “Tom has struggled the last little while, he came off a great series in India, and has come home and hasn’t quite reached those heights yet.”Guptill has recovered from his dual hamstring injuries and his is a timely return after New Zealand were skittled for 112 in Wellington. Hesson called the performance “out of the box” and said the team had to readjust quickly to stay in the series.Guptill averages 42.52 from 141 ODIs and though he hasn’t batted in the middle for almost a month, he has been able to net regularly during his recovery.”He’s been batting all the way through, it was more about strength in the hamstring when running at top speed,” Hesson said. “Sure, you haven’t played in the middle so it will be challenging but he’s a world-class player and pleased to have him back.”A return for Ronchi will mean juggling elsewhere with him needing to fit into the middle order which could make Neil Broom vulnerable unless New Zealand ditch one of their allrounders.The offspinner Jeetan Patel has also been added to the squad after the considerable assistance that was on offer in the opening game of the series. Kane Williamson expects a different surface this time, with better weather in the build-up but Patel, who played his first ODI in seven years against Bangladesh in Nelson on New Years Eve, provides a specialist bowler who can spin the ball away from the left handers.However, it could be that Williamson is entrusted with a greater bowler role in the fourth ODI. “With Kane bowling, depending on conditions, he’s very much a sixth option and Hamilton is probably those conditions,” Hesson said. “Whether we go with the two allrounders, or slot Luke in a little higher we have options.”Hesson termed the challenge of winning back-to-back games against the world’s No. 1 team “exciting, really exciting” as they look to maintain an unbeaten home record in ODI series which dates back eight bilateral contests to January 2015. The last side to beat them on their own patch was South Africa in late 2014.