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The trip was approved by the CA board late last week, Australia’s first to the country in 24 years

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff07-Feb-2022The Australian Cricketers’ Association is bracing for a small number of players to pull out of the tour of Pakistan due to safety concerns, despite reassurances about the situation.Australia last toured Pakistan in 1998, but the 24-year wait will end on March 4 when the three-Test series begins in Rawalpindi. The long-awaited tour will also feature three ODIs and one T20I.Some players are still nervous about entering Pakistan due to safety fears. Despite the tour being given the all-clear, ACA chief executive Todd Greenberg says there are some who might pull out.”Clearly there’s some anxiety about touring, and that’s perfectly natural given an Australian cricket team hasn’t toured Pakistan for almost 25 years,” Greenberg told SEN. “I think we’ll have a very full squad that will go.Related

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• Cricket Australia clear men's team tour of Pakistan in March

“We may have one or two players that won’t be comfortable despite all of the advice and guidance that we provide, and that’s okay. “Along with Cricket Australia, we’ll need to respect those players and give them our full support if they decide not to make this tour.”Speaking last week, Test captain Pat Cummins said he would fully support anyone who opted not to travel.”There are a couple of players still keen to get a bit more information but everyone is really pumped and feeling relatively comfortable,” he said. “If anyone doesn’t make the tour it is absolutely okay, we will back them for sure.”The onset of war in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 attacks in the US and a 2009 gunfire attack on a Sri Lanka team bus, meant Australia deemed a tour of Pakistan too risky until now.Instead, Pakistan have been forced to host Australia in the United Arab Emirates several times over the past two decades.Cricket Australia sent a delegation of staff to Pakistan in December along with government officials to determine whether it was safe for Australia to tour. Greenberg said the tour of Pakistan was an important moment for international cricket.”The players completely understand our contribution to the global game,” he said. “We don’t have an expectation that we will sit here and expect teams to tour our country and not contribute ourselves.”There’s been an enormous amount of work on security detail and keeping players safe. That’s priority No.1. On top of that is all the Covid protocols and the biosecurity rules and regulations.”The tour squad is expected to be named on Tuesday.

Batsman might have been in line for Test debut in absence of Ben Stokes

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Aug-2020
Dan Lawrence has left the England bio-secure bubble due to a family bereavement, and will miss the chance to make his Test debut in Thursday’s second Test against Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl.Lawrence, 23, had been named as one of England’s reserve batsmen for the Test leg of England’s summer, and had been a possible inclusion for the second Test following Ben Stokes’ departure from the squad due to his own family reasons.Ollie Robinson, the fast bowler, was this week withdrawn from Sussex’s Bob Willis Trophy fixture against Kent to bolster England’s seam options ahead of the second Test. However, the management have chosen not to replace Lawrence in England’s 18-man party.That means that Zak Crawley is the likely beneficiary of Stokes’ absence, having been omitted to include an extra seamer in the last two Tests. The uncapped James Bracey and Ben Foakes, both wicketkeeper-batsmen, are the other two batting options at England’s disposal.One of the heroes of England’s victory on Saturday, Jos Buttler, produced his match-winning innings despite his father being taken into hospital during the match.Speaking about the team environment before Lawrence’s news was made public, James Anderson praised the efforts that the current management go to, in particular the captain Joe Root and head coach Chris Silverwood, to ensure the players’ mental wellbeing is taken into account.”I do think cricket is more empathetic now, yes,” Anderson said. “It has definitely changed for the better. We quite often take this game very seriously – I have done this week – and it is quite a big deal for some people.”But there is nothing more important than family. It is something that certainly Joe and Chris have brought in under their leadership: family comes first. And this group of players rally round each other and help if there is anything that needs help.”

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has rebranded itself after months of planning, and will now be known as Zimbabwe Cricket

Cricinfo staff22-Apr-2019

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has rebranded itself after months of planning, and will now be known simply as Zimbabwe Cricket. Peter Chingoka, the chairman, announced the strategic change at the Harare Sports Club, where he also unveiled the winning design for the board’s new logo.In a speech at the launch, Chingoka spoke of the challenges posed for the future of cricket in Zimbabwe. He said one of the broad aims would be “to continue with our development programme to spread cricket to all corners of the country and to all sectors of the community”.As part of this programme, he pledged that ZC would spend Zim$635million (around £60,000) to fund the development of 130 schoolboys who study in such places as Harare, Kadoma, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Marondera. One player to have already benefited from such funding is Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s current captain. Taibu, 21, was appointed after Heath Streak quit in April when the board refused to give him guarantees over selection.

The batsman marked his return from injury with a 22-ball fifty, while Shikhar Dhawan’s 49-ball 90 went in vain

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando at Premadasa06-Mar-2018
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:22

Dasgupta: It’s a new side, can’t read much into India’s loss

Sri Lanka rode a 22-ball fifty from Kusal Perera, and a proficient finish from Thisara Perera, to victory in the Nidahas Trophy opener against India, though the chase of 175 was not without its tense moments. With four overs remaining in the chase, Sri Lanka needed 35 and had two relatively new batsmen at the crease. Although India’s quicks were briefly ascendant, a six and a four down the ground from Thisara lurched Sri Lanka to the brink of victory. He would complete the win himself, with a swipe to the fine-leg boundary, with nine balls still left in the innings.Asked to bat first, India had lost two early wickets, but mustered a competitive total thanks largely to Shikhar Dhawan, who made 90 off 49 balls – his best score in the format. Dhawan’s 95-run stand with Manish Pandey was the centrepiece of India’s innings, though perhaps they will be disappointed to not have made at least 10 runs more, given the position Dhawan had left them in. Two spinners – Jeevan Mendis and Danushka Gunathilaka – had taken a wicket apiece and kept the scoring in check through the latter half of the innings.It was Kusal who had got Sri Lanka well ahead of the asking rate, and he had done it inside the Powerplay. He slog swept the second ball of his innings for six, and then really took flight in the next over – the third of the innings – bowled by Shardul Thakur. Kusal walloped the first ball nonchalantly over midwicket for four, the second he carved behind point, the third he drilled to the cover boundary, and the fourth – a slower delivery – was lifted over the long-on boundary. The bowler’s mind muddled now, he sent a chest-high full toss at Kusal, who had no issues thumping the no-ball to the cover fence. Another four, this one smoked down the ground, brought the total for the over to 27. Only with the last ball did Thakur gain some respite – a short delivery was merely bunted to fine leg. India, however, were now scrambling to contain Kusal. His partner Danushka Gunathilaka would soon hole out to mid-off, but even he had hit three boundaries. Though Sri Lanka had lost both their openers by the end of the fifth over, they had hit 70 runs.Associated Press

After the field restrictions were relaxed, Kusal hit only the occasional boundary, but the cushion of a fast start meant Sri Lanka’s middle order could afford a few stutters. Dinesh Chandimal made an awkward 14 off 11 balls before being bowled by a quicker Yuzvendra Chahal delivery. Upul Tharanga batted at less than a run-a-ball for his 17. And though Kusal himself was dismissed with Sri Lanka still requiring 48 runs, the hosts batted deep enough to haul themselves across the target. Thisara’s winning runs came in the company of Dasun Shanaka, who had more or less mis-hit his way to 15 off 18 balls.Earlier, Dhawan’s own innings had not been without good fortune. He mistimed three pull shots and saw each of those sail over fine leg for six – two coming in the same Nuwan Pradeep over. On 82, he edged a full delivery from Dushmantha Chameera behind, but wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal went at the ball with one glove instead of two, and grassed the chance.Dhawan took more risks than virtually all his partners, and usually got enough bat on ball to survive the mis-hits. The intentional big shots – the two slog sweeps off the spinners and the wallop down the ground off Chameera – were well planned and disdainful. There was no area of the ground that he particularly favoured. Generally, he stayed in his crease to prey off the bad-length deliveries, and rarely let a scoring opportunity pass him by. His fifty was off 30 deliveries, and when he perished, holing out to long-off he had hit 90 of India’s 153 runs.Sri Lanka’s victory against India – albeit against a weakened India side – was their first in eight attempts. Where they really set themselves apart was in the Powerplay. Sri Lanka were 75 for 2 after their first six overs. India had hit only 40 while losing two wickets – Chameera having been especially effective during that period.

A half-century from Ben Dunk took Adelaide Strikers to victory over his old team Hobart Hurricanes and kept their hopes alive in the BBL

The report by Alex Malcolm06-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBen Dunk batted through the innings in a chase of 162•Getty Images

A serene Ben Dunk half-century helped Adelaide Strikers to a comprehensive win over Hobart Hurricanes and kept them in finals contention.Dunk barely got out of first gear during an effortless 79 not out from 49 balls in sweltering conditions to control a run chase of 162 that wobbled momentarily. Brad Hodge was once again sublime in the middle overs but his dismissal was quickly followed by both Kieron Pollard’s and Jono Dean’s before Chris Jordan helped Dunk see Strikers home with 10 balls to spare.The target would have been far fewer if it wasn’t for a brilliant salvage job from the unheralded Hurricanes duo of Beau Webster and Jonathan Wells. They were brought together at 5 for 30 and produced fine half-centuries each to raise the total to defendable levels. But the damage done early by Jordan, Billy Stanlake and Travis Head with the ball proved too difficult to overcome.Trade wins
The off-season trade of Ben Dunk and Hamish Kingston raised a number of eyebrows and Dunk’s performance against his old side only added to the intrigue. He made just 31 in his first meeting against Hobart last Monday and D’Arcy Short, recruited as Dunk’s replacement, dominated in the Hurricanes’ successful chase.Dunk enjoyed the re-match, becoming the second-leading run-scorer in the BBL while Kingston and Short managed just four runs between them, not to mention leaking a combined 1 for 50 from five overs. Dunk was player of the tournament in the 2013 BBL and said post-match that he was probably playing better now than he did three seasons ago, when he was subsequently picked to play for Australia in three T20 internationals.The Adelaide Strikers fans have taken to Ben Dunk quite quickly•Cricket Australia

Webster’s record
Beau Webster had never batted in a BBL match prior to this game. The 23-year-old Tasmanian has three first-class centuries but had played just one T20 game, also against the Strikers, earlier this week, when he did not bat. On Friday, he walked out to bat with half the side back in the pavilion and one ball short of 14 overs still left.Webster finished unbeaten on 67 off 43 balls, the highest score by a No. 7 in BBL history. He played second fiddle during an 89-run stand with Wells, who played exceptionally well for his 55. Webster accelerated after Wells’ exit reaching 50 in just 36 balls. He showed admirable fitness, running twos late in the innings despite suffering in the stifling heat.Stanlake’s statement
Billy Stanlake has only played seven T20s but his stocks have risen with every outing. He bowled magnificently again picking up the crucial wickets of Kumar Sangakkara and Dan Christian in consecutive balls to leave Hurricanes reeling. The 22-year-old now has six wickets for the tournament at an average of 17.83 and economy rate of 6.97. His height and pace have troubled batsmen consistently and his captain Brad Hodge has backed him to play for Australia at some stage soon.

Steven Smith will stay at No. 3 in the absence of Usman Khawaja, opening up a place in the middle order for the day-night match in Adelaide

Daniel Brettig at the WACA17-Nov-2015Australia captain Steven Smith will stay at No. 3 in the batting order in the absence of the injured Usman Khawaja, opening up a spot in the middle order for the day-night match in Adelaide.The squad for Adelaide will be named on Wednesday, and Smith’s pronouncement makes it likely that the selectors will opt for a middle-order option. While Shaun Marsh is favourite for the role, George Bailey is among the leading run-makers in the Sheffield Shield this summer and would add useful knowhow to a young team, while Glenn Maxwell is highly regarded if enigmatic, and made 98 and 38 in the Sheffield Shield match between Victoria and Western Australia at the MCG.”It depends who comes in but I think I’ll probably bump myself up to No. 3 with Usman being out,” Smith said. “I’ll keep that spot warm for him until he comes back.”Australia have other selection queries following the retirement of Mitchell Johnson, the indifferent form of Mitchell Marsh, and the heavy workloads endured by Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in Perth. James Pattinson, James Faulkner and Moises Henriques have all been mentioned as possible inclusions.Smith stated his dissatisfaction with the Kookaburra balls used in this match, with an extraordinary 11 replacement balls required across the Test outside the usual allocation. However he expressed optimism that the pink ball would hold up well in Adelaide under conditions carefully concocted to support it.”It’s just up to the powers above me to sort that out with Kookaburra,” Smith said of the red ball. “It was a little bit disappointing the way we had to change so many balls throughout this Test match. I think it wastes a lot of time and it’s always different as a batter or a bowler to change the ball continually, to get in a rhythm. So hopefully they can resolve those issues.”We played the Shield game with the pink ball in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago and the ball stayed together pretty well. I think there was eight millimetres of grass on that wicket and it’s likely to be a pretty similar wicket for the Test match next week. Hopefully saying that the ball stays in shape the same way it did a couple of weeks ago.”As for the WACA pitch, which hosted the fourth highest scoring Test ever played in Australia, Smith said he was disappointed by its lack of life, but equally had no intention of handing too straightforward a chase to New Zealand on the final afternoon. The final target of 321 in 48 overs was never realistic, even before rain arrived.”It would have been nice to get about 360 off about 65-70 overs,” he said. “It was obviously pretty hard, I thought they bowled really well. As we saw there at the back end, the wicket was still extremely good so I didn’t want to give them much of a sniff. The two guys out there at the end, we’ve struggled to get them out this Test match. Well, Kane in both Test matches.”Traditionally the wicket out here has had a lot more pace and bounce. Going into the game that’s what the groundsman indicated it was likely to be like. It didn’t turn out that way unfortunately. I was a bit disappointed with the way the wicket played. It was really tough to take wickets. So I don’t think there was much more we could do.”

This is a hard-fought game between two excellent sides. The prospect of a fourth day in glorious conditions at Hove should inspire excitement. If it does not, it is no reflection on the players.

Tim Wigmore at Hove03-May-2013
ScorecardLuke Wells fell just short of a century on a day where the match went nowhere•Getty Images

Warwickshire’s coach Dougie Brown has pinned the blame firmly on the Hove pitch for a hard-fought game which seems to be heading inexorably towards stalemate.”For people who maybe don’t quite understand the game, they’re probably wondering why we’re bleating on about the pitch and stuff but in fairness is that a first-class pitch?” Brpwn asked “I would doubt it to be honest. We always thought the pitch would at some stage deteriorate. That might be at some time next month.””It just killed the game completely. There’s nothing in there for anybody, batters included. Speaking to our batters it’s actually almost impossible to get the ball off the square. How you’re ever going to get a result on surfaces like this I just do not know, particularly when you use a heavy roller as well and deaden it even further.”I just feel sorry for the people who’ve come to watch two very, very strong sides playing. What’s happened is the conditions haven’t really allowed for entertaining cricket.”It’d be a bit like, in football terms, going out to watch some of the best teams playing and playing on grass that was a foot long. You can’t apply your skills like you could do on any normal occasion so that’s been disappointing. I don’t know about docking points or whatever, that’s not for me to say.”And it was hard to argue with Brown’s assessment at the end of another day that, despite the high calibre of players on display, seldom rose above the turgid. It was just as well that the beer festival brought over 20 different ales – more than the 17 wickets to fall so far – to enjoy.The only bowler to rise above the conditions was Boyd Rankin. While Chris Wright displayed perseverance, and Chris Woakes parsimony, Rankin was comfortably the most threatening of Warwickshire’s quick bowlers and deserved more than the three wickets he snared.During one over in the morning session, he might have had a hat-trick. Luke Wells was denied a century by a yorker that made a wreckage of the stumps he protects with such care; Matt Prior was beaten for pace and could have fallen lbw first ball; and Ed Joyce was dropped by Tim Ambrose from a legside bouncer.Rankin retired from Ireland duty last year and has declared his ambition to try and pursue a Test career with England. That must be considered very unlikely – he is nearly 29 and has a bad record with injuries (he was here returning from ten weeks out with a stress reaction in his foot) – but when he bowls with the hostility and searing bounce he showed here, it doesn’t seem inconceivable that England could show interest in Rankin as a reserve, tall impact quick bowler, behind Steven Finn and Chris Tremlett.Brown certainly thinks it is possible: “Obviously going out to Australia, the conditions out there would suit him immensely. He’s a big tall lad – 6ft 8in – he bowls very fast, he bowls aggressively and when he’s on form there’s very few bounce bowlers in world cricket better than him.”Rankin can do subtlety too, varying his angle by switching between over and around the wicket and using his yorker as an occasional weapon of destruction, as Wells could attest to.After his early morning spell, it fell to Matt Prior to awaken spectators from their happy slumbers in the deckchairs. Three crunching drives off four Wright deliveries oozed purpose, but Wright soon had Prior caught by his friend and onetime Sussex colleague Tim Ambrose to a ball that moved late. And, to judge by the quality with which Ben Brown cut the ball in his unbeaten 82, another Sussex wicket keeper could one day also interest the ECB.For now, their attentions are better turned to the merits of reinstating the heavy roller – a measure designed to mimic Test match conditions but one that risks undermining the pleasures of picturesque county grounds like Hove.

Daniel Brettig at Kensington Oval10-Apr-2012Surprise rippled around the Kensington Oval when the West Indies captain Darren Sammy, not Fidel Edwards, took the ball alongside Kemar Roach to begin the third morning. That surprise turned to admiration in the space of 10 overs of the shrewdest fast medium from Sammy, which returned the figures of 2 for 14 and set the hosts on the path to a commanding position with two days remaining.Not the fastest bowler, nor the most prominent exponent of swing, Sammy instead relies on unrelenting accuracy and subtle use of angles at the crease for his wickets. Ed Cowan was asked to play at only one of his first eight deliveries, but the ninth was delivered from closer to the stumps and on a line the opener could only nibble at for an edge behind. David Warner fell in similar fashion, pushing firmly at a ball of precise line and “in between” length and offering a catch to Darren Bravo in the slips. Shane Watson, also, could easily have been given out lbw to Sammy, who said his team had planned well.”I think the batsmen really underestimate me,” Sammy said. “They get through the quick men and see me and say ‘ah he’s not so quick’. But what I rely on is accuracy: frustrate them, frustrate them, take the ball away from them, then get a little closer, just in that little channel to play or leave. That’s what I did today and what I’ve been doing throughout my career, just putting the ball on one spot.”Warner is new to Test cricket. So is Cowan, and Watto [Watson] has just come back after not playing Test cricket for the last Australian summer. We all knew what to expect from [Michael] Hussey as we saw today, they call him Mr Cricket, he always gets Australia out from crucial positions. We stuck to our plans.”We noticed [Michael] Clarke and [Ricky] Ponting love the ball closer to them … we had our plans for bowling to them. Last night we didn’t execute properly but the plan to Warner and Cowan was to be a little fuller with the ball slanting across, and once we did that we got the results. So we did plan well for their batsmen and bowlers – we were prepared for this series.”Sammy’s decision to take the ball straight away on the third morning was also driven by the pragmatism that has characterised his captaincy. By keeping the runs tight at one end, he allowed Edwards or Roach to attack from the other, while also leaving them fresher if the visitors did not lose early wickets.”We had the two quick men, and it could have been a longer day,” Sammy said. “We don’t want both of them going at full steam, then we’ve got to make a change to myself and then the spinner, so the plan was to rotate the two early in the morning and see how it goes, and it worked well for us. [Economy] was considered as well, because they were going at four plus an over and you needed someone to pull it back.”I understand my job in the team and I just go out there and do it. Everyone will have their opinions but as a unit going forward, I know I’m a crucial member in this bowling unit. If you look at Fidel and Roach they go at around four an over in Test cricket, Bishoo goes at three and I go at two. So my contribution is crucial in the team set-up and I go out and try to do that every day.”Having top scored for his side on a third consecutive day of struggle, Clarke admitted his batsmen would need to learn to adjust their attitude and expectations to adapt to Caribbean conditions, which are slower and more awkward than they seem to have catered for. As in the tour match at the Three Ws Oval, the tourists found batting a struggle.”I think we, as a batting group, need to accept it’s going to take a long time to score runs,” Clarke said. “It’s a lot different to Australia where you can go out there and cream the ball and hit plenty of boundaries. As we’ve seen today, once the wicket does get a little bit up and down you have to be willing to bat for long periods.”Though Watson’s involvement in run-outs has become an unhappy pattern, Clarke denied it was a matter that the vice-captain needed to address as a matter of urgency, saying the run-out of Ponting was unfortunate. “It’s something we’d prefer not to talk about,” Clarke said. “It is a part of the game and it is unfortunate, you never mean to run anybody out. It was a big wicket, losing Ricky, but it’s no one’s fault. It’s a part of the game, you’ve just got to try your best not to have it in any form of the game. It’s hard enough for all the batters, especially chasing a total like that.”Every player’s different, everybody runs at different speeds and sees the game in a different light. I don’t think [Watson needs to look at it], it’s just unfortunate it happened today and that it was a good player in Punter [Ponting] who’s had a really good summer and is in pretty good nick. His runs would’ve been handy out there in the first innings but what it means is, he’s going to get a second chance.”

Australia and India were culpable in collusion “contrary to the spirit of cricket” in the 2008 Sydney Test “racism” incident, according to ICC appeals commissioner John Hansen, who heard the case in January 2008

Daniel Brettig07-Apr-2011Australia and India were culpable in collusion “contrary to the spirit of cricket” in the 2008 Sydney Test “racism” incident, according to ICC appeals commissioner and New Zealand justice John Hansen, who heard the case at Adelaide’s Federal Court building in January 2008. Hansen has been quoted by former ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed in his memoirs describing what he called “behind the scenes” discussions by the two boards in the incident that involved Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds and Indian offspinner Harbhajan Singh.Speed gives the affair his own legal-minded reading in , released in Australia this week, including private correspondence sent to him by Hansen in the aftermath.Hansen went as far as to say that both boards contravened the spirit of the game, in eerie echo of Indian captain Anil Kumble’s comments after the final day of the Sydney Test that started it all.”Although both boards would deny it, BCCI and CA were having discussions behind the scenes to resolve matters,” Hansen wrote. “Indeed, they presented me with an agreed statement of facts and a consent order that they expected me to rubber-stamp. In my view the consequences of such a course of action would have been disastrous for cricket.”In any event, their actions undermined the independence of the Code of Conduct Commissioner, were unbecoming, and in my view, contrary to the spirit of cricket … Given [that] the procedure arises from a voluntary code with input and agreement of all member associations, I consider the behaviour was improper … having agreed to it, they ought to have confidence in it and respect it.”When contacted, a CA official said: “We are not about to trawl over old ground or make any further comment on the matter other than to say that CA did not at any stage agree to any lesser charge and, on the contrary, ensured that the agreed set of facts was noted in order to ensure the judge could independently assess that matter in accordance with appropriate judicial procedures.”The BCCI said that the contents of Speed’s books had no bearing on the board. “In any case he has been a critic of the Indian board in the past, too,” an official said.Harbhajan was found guilty of racist abuse of Symonds – now his Mumbai Indians team-mate in the IPL – during the Sydney Test and handed a three-Test ban by match referee Mike Procter. The charge was leveled by the on-field umpires, Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson, on a complaint from Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain that Harbhajan had called Symonds a monkey. Harbhajan’s appeal was heard three weeks later by Hansen, who found the racism charge to be not proven. Harbhajan was instead charged with a Level 2.8 offence – abuse and insult not amounting to racism – to which he pleaded guilty and was fined 50 per cent of his match fees.Reiterating his mortification that Harbhajan escaped a ban due to a colossal bungle by ICC legal counsel, who failed to lodge all the Indian spinner’s past offences with Hansen, Speed nonetheless cites the meddling of CA and the BCCI as a highly unsavoury element of the saga.”The process had been put in place precisely to manage the conduct of players and officials but the Australia and India Boards seemed happy enough to try to ignore it when it suited their ends,” Speed wrote.”Cricket Australia had faced a difficult decision. A major plank of their business was at risk. India exerted enormous pressure. CA sought a solution that would preserve their relationship with India and ultimately achieved it, protecting the ongoing tour as well.”Hansen’s rebuke also hits hard at the BCCI. It was a graphic example of the power of India over the modern game and the willingness of its administrators to use their financial muscle when national pride is at stake.”Speed also insists that the decision to remove Bucknor from umpiring duties for the remainder of the series, following his poor match in Sydney, had been made independently of any Indian pressure.”Much has since been written about this decision, and the general consensus is that I reacted to pressure from India to remove Bucknor. To that I can say one word: No,” he wrote.”My rationale was simple pragmatism. In the days after the Test, I received one call from India, from former BCCI president Inderjit Singh Bindra, who asked me to stand down Bucknor in the interests of the game and relations between the two countries and the ICC.”It was quite a short discussion and a very well-reasoned argument. There were no threats, no histrionics, no drama and no pressure. I assured Bindra that I would think about it. I then spoke to James Sutherland and asked for CA’s view. He advised that CA did not have a view either way: if I thought it was necessary to stand him down, they could live with that. Conversely, if he umpired in Perth, they would raise no objection.”If Benson had been scheduled to umpire in Perth, he would have been stood down too.”In Speed’s eyes, the whole episode might have played out differently had Procter, the match referee, pursued a harder line when he had the chance during the first Test of the series in Melbourne, when Yuvraj Singh was charged with dissent after lingering at the crease.”I was at that match and was shocked by Procter’s finding,” Speed wrote. “I met him in Melbourne and pointed out the provisions of the Code, specifically drafted by (ICC general manager Dave) Richardson to aid referees that stated it was an offence to hang around after being dismissed, whether as a show of dissent or disappointment. Procter had forgotten about this part of the Code.”This incident had been a chance to draw a line in the sand in the first match of what was almost certain to be a tense series, and to show the players of both sides that dissent would not be tolerated.”The chance had been missed, the line of what was acceptable and what was not had been blurred, and with high stakes on offer, as is inevitable in a series between two leading and well-matched sides, it was hardly what was needed at that point in time.”

Sussex launched the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition with a five-wicket victory
over Worcestershire in a successful return to New Road where they won the old
Pro40 League at the end of last season

25-Apr-2010
ScorecardSussex launched the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition with a five-wicket victory
over Worcestershire in a successful return to New Road where they won the old
Pro40 League at the end of last season.James Kirtley removed three top-order batsmen in an over as the home side
struggled to make 144 for 9 and Sussex edged home by five wickets despite a
similar burst by Chris Whelan.The Worcestershire paceman dismissed Matt Prior, Joe Gatting and Murray Goodwin
in the space of five balls but the in-form Robin Martin-Jenkins, unbeaten with
35, and Andy Hood (16 not out) finished the job with 16.5 overs to spare.New Road revisited actually delivered a better scoreline than last September
when Sussex lost by 49 runs and had to wait 35 minutes before they were declared
40-over champions following Somerset’s defeat by Durham. Two much-changed teams re-convened for the first weekend of county cricket’s newest sponsorship.With Michael Yardy and Luke Wright away with England, preparing for the ICC
World T20 in the Caribbean, acting captain Goodwin made the right call by giving
his seamers the chance to take control in helpful early-season conditions.It took a brilliant catch by Joe Gatting, low to his left at short mid-wicket,
to remove Vikram Solanki in Chad Keegan’s fourth over after Worcestershire’s
captain had hit three fours in a confident start.The real breakthrough for Sussex came with the more contentious of two
leg-before decisions by umpire Mark Benson. Television replays suggested that
Phil Jaques inside edged the ball on to his pad but the Australian was given out
for 22. One wicket for Kirtley led to two more in the next five balls. Alexei Kervezee
was trapped on the crease and Ben Smith carved a catch to Martin-Jenkins at
third man.From this point it was mostly toil for Worcestershire. Moeen Ali reined back
after hitting an early six off Martin-Jenkins and was badly dropped by Keegan at
mid-off in batting through 26 overs for 38. Ben Scott, with 22, was the main contributor as the tail scrambled what runs they could against Kirtley, who finished with four for 30, and Rana Naved. The entire innings included only 13 fours and a six.Sussex had 13 boundaries on the board in 14 overs but they were made to pay a
price. Having taken three fours in Jack Shantry’s opening over, Chris Nash (33)
eventually nicked the left-arm seamer to slip and Michael Thornely holed out to
mid-wicket off the Zimbabwean-born James Cameron.Prior (37) hit two sixes before a loose shot to mid-off set up Whelan’s clutch
of wickets, with Goodwin taken at backward point and Gatting at second slip.