With emphasis on the World Cup in May 2019, Australia have revamped their contract list with five new players added to an initial group of 20

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Apr-2018With emphasis on the World Cup in May 2019, Australia have revamped their contract list with five new players added to an initial group of 20. Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were not part of that number after receiving bans of up to one year in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal from last month. All three men would have served out their suspensions by the time the first match of the global event begins on May 30.

Australia’s contract list

Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Matthew Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye.
In: Alex Carey, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye
Out: Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, James Pattinson, Steven Smith, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Tim Paine – who was not among the contracted players in 2017-18 when CA released the list last April – found a place this time, and is likely to be among the highest earners, given he is Australia’s new Test captain. The other first-timers on the list were allrounder Marcus Stoinis, wicketkeeper Alex Carey and the fast-bowling Richardsons – Kane and Jhye. Australia have also placed their trust in fingerspinners at a time when wristspin has taken limited-overs cricket by storm, with Nathan Lyon and Ashton Agar edging out Adam Zampa, the team’s top-seeded slow bowler on the ICC rankings for both ODIs and T20Is.Australia have a system by which players gain points based on appearances at international level: five for a Test, two for an ODI and one for a T20I. Those out of contract can earn one for themselves by collecting at least 12 points – a method that Paine, Stoinis, Shaun Marsh and Andrew Tye used over the course of the 2017-18 season to get retainers for themselves. Adam Zampa, Chris Lynn and D’Arcy Short might be targeting this option as Australia build towards the World Cup with limited-overs tours of England and Zimbabwe in June and July.The other notable absentees were Chadd Sayers, who made his Test debut in Johannesburg recently, and Jackson Bird, often the back-up for Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. Injury forced Nathan Coulter-Nile and James Pattinson out of reckoning, although the latter hopes to be fit in time for the next Ashes series in 2019.”There has been a bit of a focus in this contracting period on white-ball cricket, as we look ahead to trying to win back-to-back World Cups,” national selector Trevor Hohns said.As such, some of the brightest performers from the Big Bash League were rewarded with Australia contracts: Carey came into the fray after finishing as the second-highest run-scorer in the 2017-18 edition. So did Kane Richardson, who was among the top 10 wicket-takers. Jhye Richardson enjoyed the selectors’ favour again, two months after he was picked in the Test squad to tour South Africa even though, at the time, he had played only five first-class matches.”Alex (Carey) is the second wicket-keeper in this squad, alongside Tim Paine,” Hohns said. “He is a promising young player who has had a strong domestic summer and performed well in his international opportunities to date with bat and gloves.”Jhye (Richardson) is a young fast bowler who has been on the fringes of selection in all three forms of the game. He’s an exciting prospect who has played ODI and T20 cricket for Australia this summer, and was in the Test squad for the recent tour of South Africa.”

A win for RCB against Kolkata Knight Riders will leave both teams with three wins each, but a KKR win will create a clear gulf between the top and bottom half

The Preview by Nikhil Kalro28-Apr-20184:36

Agarkar: Southee inclusion a no-brainer for RCB

Form guide (most recent matches first)

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Lost to Chennai Super Kings by five wickets, beat Delhi Daredevils by six wickets, lost to Mumbai Indians by 46 runs.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Lost to Delhi Daredevils by 55 runs, lost to Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets, beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets

Big picture

Royal Challengers Bangalore retained Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, two of the best batsmen in T20s, ahead of the IPL auction. With batsmen to play around them, it was always going to be a case of RCB’s bowling unit needing additional resources. Out of six games, RCB have conceded more than 200 three times and lost all those games.An interesting second half of the season could be at stake in this game. If Royal Challengers beat Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, both teams will have three wins in seven games. If Knight Riders win, a clear gulf between the top and bottom half will start to form.Knight Riders endured their worst day of the season on Friday, losing by 55 runs to Delhi Daredevils after conceding the season’s biggest total. There were also several fielding lapses; match-winner Shreyas Iyer was dropped twice. Despite that, KKR’s depth in batting and bowling should provide a stern test for Royal Challengers, given the short dimensions of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.Umesh Yadav is thrilled after dismissing Sunil Narine•BCCI

In the news

Royal Challengers will likely look at ringing in a few changes on the bowling front after failing to defend a 200-plus total against Chennai Super Kings. Left-arm pacer Kulwant Khejroliya, who hasn’t played since their third match, against Rajasthan Royals, had an extended spell at practice.

The likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Mandeep Singh, 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Yuzvendra ChahalKolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Shubman Gill, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Shivam Mavi

Previous meeting

Knight Riders ran down 177 comfortably in the opening game for both these sides at Eden Gardens. That chase included a 17-ball fifty from Sunil Narine.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Strategy punt

Lynn and Narine are an efficient batting pair because of their varied preferences. Lynn relishes pace: he strikes at 178.8 per 100 balls, and hits a boundary every 3.4 balls in the IPL since 2015. Against spin, he has a strike rate of 127.3, with a boundary every seven balls. Narine, on the other hand, prefers spin: he has a strike-rate of 196.6 against these bowlers, with a boundary every three balls.Royal Challengers could use a spinner against Lynn and a fast bowler to Narine, with tight fields to prevent singles. That could force both batsmen to attempt tougher shots against a type of bowling they’re not comfortable with.

Stats that matter

• Royal Challengers are the worst bowling team at the death this season, conceding 13.29 runs an over in that period. They are also the second-most efficient batting team in that period, scoring 11.49 runs an over.
• In IPLs since 2015, de Villiers hasn’t had a strike-rate under 150 against any form of bowling. His worst strike-rate is against left-arm spin: 154.8.
• Andre Russell may have a slight weakness against right-arm legspinners. Since 2015 in the IPL, he has scored just 66 runs off 52 balls, and has been dismissed three times.

Fantasy pick

After their struggles against Super Kings, it’s a good time to bank on some untested death bowlers for Royal Challengers, such as Tim Southee, who joined the team late, after missing the first few games due to an illness. In T20s since 2015, Southee has taken 52 wickets, 18 of which have come in the death overs.

Ireland avoided a third-straight loss in the tournament after beating Scotland by 46 runs in Deventer

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jun-2018Andy Balbirnie goes for the sweep•Getty Images/Sportsfile

A trio of half-centuries from Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie and captain Gary Wilson propelled Ireland to a 46-run win over Scotland at Deventer, Ireland’s first win of the T20 tri-series after losing two straight to the Netherlands at Rotterdam.Ireland posted their joint third-highest total in T20Is in making 205 for 5 after choosing to bat first. Of the three totals that were equal or better than Saturday’s effort, a common thread has been the excellence of Stirling and Wilson. Both batsmen scored a half-century in 200+ scores made in separate matches against Afghanistan while both crossed 50 the last time they played Scotland as well when the Irish made 211 for 6 in the semi-final of the Desert T20 Challenge in January 2017 in Dubai.Behind Stirling’s hot start, Ireland raced to 76 for 2 in seven overs when he finally was caught off the bowling of Michael Leask. Ireland’s run rate never dipped below nine during the entire innings. Balbirnie entered the match with a career-best of 31 in 10 T20Is but more than doubled it against Scotland, combining for a pair of half-century stands – first with Stirling and later with Wilson, who fell in the final over just after helping Ireland past 200.Just like Scotland’s performance on Tuesday in the first T20I against Pakistan at the Grange, they kept the required run rate in check during the Powerplay behind a confident reply constructed by captain Kyle Coetzer and George Munsey. The pair added 65 but once Coetzer was dismissed by George Dockrell in the seventh over, the wheels fell off of the chase. Munsey was caught for a top score of 41 in Dockrell’s next over before spin continued to make inroads in the middle overs of the chase. Calum MacLeod fell to Stirling’s part-time offspin while Richie Berrington was caught by Dockrell off the spin of Simi Singh to make it 130 for 4, leaving the middle order 76 to get off 25 balls. Scotland never came close to threatening the target and eventually ended on 159 for 5.

Glamorgan look likely to stay rooted to the foot of Division Two after Northants dominated the third day in Cardiff

ECB Reporters Network27-Jun-20181:57

Kent go top of Division Two

ScorecardNorthants are well placed to win their second consecutive championship game and move off the bottom of the table after outplaying Glamorgan on the third day at Sophia Gardens.After the visitors had declared on 403 for 9, the home team were set the mammoth total of 434 to win. They closed on 121 for 4, and with Usman Khawaja already out, their chances of avoiding defeat are slim on a pitch where the odd ball is misbehaving for the seamers, and there was sufficient turn for Seekuge Prasanna to take two late wickets.When play resumed on another glorious morning, Ben Duckett and Luke Procter extended their opening partnership to 208, and surpass the previous record for that wicket against Glamorgan, established by Brian Reynolds and Mickey Norman at Northampton in 1962.Procter, who made an assured 70, was the first to go, when his inside edge off van Der Gugten was well caught by Cooke, and three overs later Duckett’s season best of 133 from154 balls which included 22 fours, ended when he mishit a short ball from Rory Smith to midwicket.The third wicket then fell for the addition then fell for only seven runs, when Alex Wakely sliced a drive to second slip, and the Glamorgan bowlers’ efforts were rewarded further when Richard Levi and Adam Rossington perished in quick succession.Any hopes Glamorgan might have had of a further collapse were dashed by Ricardo Vasconelos and Steven Crook who extended Northants’ lead to over 300, and shared a partnership of147 for the sixth wicket.Vascolenos, a 19yr old South African left hander, who qualifies by owning a Portuguese passport, again made an impression in his first year with the club, after scoring 56 in the first innings. Most of his runs came through the offside, but when Hogan dropped short he pulled him over square leg for six.After scoring 76, Crook was bowled, heaving at Smith, who then had Vasconelos caught at slip for 79. The tail surrendered in their quest for quick runs, before Wakely declared two overs before tea.
Glamorgan had 33 overs to face in the evening session, and after a promising start, were soon 54 for2 .Nick Selman gave cover point a simple catch from Procter’s second ball, then Jack Murphy, shortly after being struck on the helmet, guided one from Buck to third slip.Usman Kahwaja after his century in the first innings, began by striking four boundaries, and followed by taking two more fours from Buck’s third over. Owen Morgan was more circumspect, but played every ball on merit, and the third wicket pair soon shared a fifty- run stand.After scoring 38, Kahawaja was caught by Vasconelos at short leg, when the Australian struck the ball firmly off Prasanna, only to see the fielder the fielder juggle with it three times before eventually holding on. Prasanna then took his second wicket when Morgan’s push was deflected by first slip to second with Glamorgan almost dead and buried.

The players have been asked to play in the Super50, perform and push for a recall, following meetings between the board and the players’ agent in Trinidad

Colin Benjamin24-Jul-2018A return to the West Indies ODI team is a distinct possibility for the Bravo brothers, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard, following discussions between the players and Cricket West Indies (CWI). The development could potentially pave the way for the players to be involved in the 2019 World Cup.The development has been aided by a board decision to move their next domestic 50-over competition to October this year, instead of February 2019 – a switch that means there will be minimal clash between the Super50 and the various domestic Twenty20 leagues Caribbean stars are such an integral part of.The players have been asked to play in the Super50, perform and push for a recall.”The overall message to Pollard, the Bravo brothers and Narine was ‘come and play in the Super50 Cup’, so that Courtney [Browne, chairman of selectors] and his selection panel will have all the players in system playing,” Johnny Grave, board CEO, told ESPNcricinfo.”This will not only increase the standard and hopefully give the panel a headache but will help our selectors better gauge and assess our young players if they’re scoring runs against Dwayne Bravo or Sunil in the final overs or getting Darren [Bravo] and Pollard out.”Browne told ESPNcricinfo he was looking forward to seeing the players in action. “It’s a very important tournament for us in preparation for the World Cup. People that want to put their names in the hat for consideration would need to play Super50 and perform.”Although far from resolved, this would represent a distinct thaw in the relationship between the board and players in what has been a difficult year. It began with Narine, Pollard and Darren Bravo choosing the PSL over helping West Indies in their World Cup Qualifiers, a decision that left Grave and CWI “hugely disappointed”.Matters escalated in April when the Bravo brothers, Pollard and Narine claimed they were denied an opportunity to help the Caribbean after being ignored for a Hurricane Relief charity game between West Indies and a World XI side.Dwayne Bravo embraces Sunil Narine after the latter dismissed Kamran Akmal•Getty Images

Even then, however, Grave had spoken of meeting with the players after the IPL to discuss futures, meetings which have now taken place. This breakthrough of sorts continues Graves’ policy of building bridges with disaffected players. Last year’s amnesty resulted in Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels returning to the team, Andre Russell’s recent selection into a West Indies squad, improved player contracts and now this olive branch.”Jimmy Adams [director cricket operations] and I met with Dwayne, Darren, Pollard and Narine’s agent in Trinidad,” Grave said. “We met with them individually because they all have different circumstances. I would describe the meetings as positive, as everyone was looking to the future rather than the past.”We talked through our entire schedule, not just now and to the 2019 World Cup, but also through all the matches and tours scheduled up to the World T20 in Australia 2020.”We asked the players individually to take time to consider the requirements of Cricket West Indies, where we are going with the teams and how we are looking for prepare for international series.”We have asked them to send us in writing a summary of their reflections confirming their availability and commitment to play for the Windies in different formats of the game.”The scheduling switch of the Super50, Grave said, wasn’t aimed at getting the quartet to play but the result of a holistic reviw of the domestic system.”We changed the contractual year to start July 1st, so that the off-season would be April-June when we would do new contracts, appraisals and renewals, while players in the system can do their core conditioning work, as well as obviously have a break”, Grave explained.”So now we start contracts in July and go almost straight into CPL. Hence in the review it just made sense to continue with white-ball cricket by having the Super50 in November with October to prepare for the change in format.”Only because we are hosting the ICC Women’s World T20 in the Caribbean it meant moving the Super50 to October for this year.”That switch has coincided with the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) moving to January, instead of its November slot. Grave said CWI had discussions with BCB on the matter, as West Indies are due to tour Bangladesh in November.”It has transpired that the only league we will be clashing with this year is the Afghanistan League but you are always going to clash with some T20 league whenever you schedule it,” Grave said. “But it has potentially fallen at a good time as we used to clash with both the Big Bash and Pakistan Super League.”We had discussions with BCB [Bangladesh Cricket Board] around when the BPL would be as we are touring them in November. We were very clear to them our Super50 was in October and it would be less disruptive for us if the BPL was played in January.”That’s probably the only tactical thing we have done with our schedules to assist players in having this window available to play for us in the Super50.”

National selector clarifies reasons for dropping batsman who seemed to have found his game during tough Ashes tour

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2018Ed Smith, England’s national selector, has clarified his perceived criticism of Dawid Malan in the wake of the batsman’s axing for the second Test against India at Lord’s.Malan endured a difficult match in the opening Test of the series at Edgbaston last week, making scores of 8 and 20 in England’s two innings, as well as dropping three catches in the slips, including a crucial reprieve for Virat Kohli, India’s captain, early in his first-innings century.And Smith, who has made a number of big calls in his brief tenure, including recalls for two white-ball specialists in Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid, had suggested, in preferring the 20-year-old Surrey rookie, Ollie Pope for the Lord’s Test, that Malan’s game might be better suited to overseas conditions.Speaking at Lord’s during a washed-out first day, however, Smith explained in greater detail why he had dispensed with the services of a player who scored an excellent maiden Test hundred at Perth during the Ashes and seemed to have emerged from a disappointing 4-0 defeat as England’s middle-order discovery.”[Malan] has had a full calendar year of Test cricket and he knows where he is at,” Smith said. “He showed with that excellent Test hundred at Perth that he can play very well on the international stage.”Not that many people score hundreds at Perth … not that many Englishmen have looked as comfortable at the WACA as Dawid did.”Moving forward we talked about how his strengths could come into play, but in no way did I mean that line as an implicit criticism, he has scored over 10,000 first-class runs in England and the guy has shown he can play very well on different surfaces.”But in an England shirt, one of the things he has done distinctively is play very well in very alien conditions so I wanted to reaffirm to him that one of the things we are looking at is having the right players for the right conditions, which is not horses for courses.”I bridle at that sense because you wouldn’t play someone who can only play well at one ground. That is not going to happen. We are not interested in going back to picking one player for one Test.”Despite his promising winter, Malan’s average in England is a paltry 20.23 in eight Tests, with a top score of 65 against West Indies last summer – an innings that was carefully compiled but didn’t display the same fluency that he showed in making three half-centuries in Australia, including his 140 at Perth, as well as a further fifty in New Zealand.”With Dawid we talked it all through, the decision and his game – we played together [for Middlesex], I have seen him whack it out of the park in training – but it also is about constructive feedback to give them the best chance to come back into contention. And he remains in contention.”Out of it all, the most important thing is that anyone in the England side should feel very comfortable approaching me and James Taylor. We are a little bit closer in age than has sometimes been the case – it’s not everything – but we are around. I am aware of giving them space but if anyone wants to chat about selection, I will relish those conversations. And I have had those with selections that predate me too, guys who are looking to come back in.”The wash-out at Lord’s meant that Pope, Malan’s replacement, will have to wait until Friday morning to be confirmed as England’s latest Test cap. MCC will have to refund up to GBP2 million in tickets through its insurance after the first full day lost to weather at the ground since 2001.

Ten Test contracts and 13 white-ball deals announced by England for the 2018-19 season

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Sep-2018Adil Rashid’s renaissance as a red-ball cricketer has been rubber-stamped by the ECB, after he was named in England’s list of centrally contracted Test players for the 2018-19 season.Rashid, who was lured back to the Test fold by the new England selector Ed Smith, played an important, if bit-part, role in the 4-1 victory over India this summer, claiming 10 wickets at 30.90, including a series of key breakthroughs at Edgbaston and The Oval in particular. He will travel to Sri Lanka on Sunday as his country’s first-choice specialist spinner in both Tests and limited-overs cricket.He is one of three new names in the ECB’s ten-man list, with Surrey’s Sam Curran earning recognition for his Player-of-the-Series performance against India, and Jos Buttler – like Rashid, a surprise pick as a previously white-ball specialist – rewarded for his telling contributions since making a Test comeback against Pakistan in May.Rashid’s inclusion follows last week’s news that he and Yorkshire have patched up the differences that led to his signing of a white-ball-only contract earlier this year. His new one-year county deal covers all forms of cricket, and thus meets the ECB stipulation that, from next season onwards, players would not be considered for Test selection unless they were playing first-class cricket.Not that Yorkshire will now have to honour the monetary side of that deal, however. Test specialists and those playing in all forms of the game will have their salaries paid in full by the ECB, while those on white-ball contracts will receive a supplement on top of their county salary.With Alastair Cook dropping off the Test list in the wake of his international retirement last month, there are no other omissions from the eight names who were centrally contracted for the 2017-18 season. That number includes Ben Stokes, who faces a Cricket Disciplinary Committee (CDC) hearing in December in the wake of his arrest in Bristol in September 2017.The white-ball list is also largely unchanged from last year – a reflection of the stability of England’s ODI squad going into next season’s World Cup on home soil.Jake Ball is the only player to slip off what is now a 13-man list (Alex Hales, like Stokes, is included irrespective of his CDC hearing) while Surrey’s Tom Curran – who impressed on the tours of Australia and New Zealand but missed this summer’s ODIs with a side strain – is the only recipient of an incremental contract.Under the current structure, players in both formats will receive a ‘ranking’ based on their performances on the pitch, as well as a number of other factors, including off-field contribution, fielding and fitness. Those rankings will then correlate with the level of remuneration.

Among 42 recommendations outlined by the review are the desire for Australian cricket to establish an ethics commission to oversee the ethical health of the game in Australia

Daniel Brettig29-Oct-2018In its race to corporatise, centralise and improve team performance over the past seven years, Cricket Australia’s leadership lost sight of the fact that sport is not a business, and that cricket in particular is judged by the way in which its participants abide by the spirit of cricket as much as by how often they win or lose.These are among the key findings of the Ethics Centre’s independent review of CA, released on Monday. Composed by Dr Simon Longstaff in conjunction with a player review conducted by the former Test batsman Rick McCosker, it has exposed the governing body as “arrogant” and “controlling”, while casting back to the introduction of more outwardly corporate structures and goals by the 2011 Argus review as a key point on the road towards the Newlands ball tampering scandal.Equally, the review has outlined clear divisions between CA’s Board and executive, its state association owners, and the players represented by the Australian Cricketers Association. Critically, CA’s overarching strategy for 2017-2022 is shown to be missing strong links to the spirit of cricket that underpins behaviour within the game, with the review also identifying a consistency between the corporate behaviours of CA in dealing with stakeholders and sponsors and the moral decay of the national team leading to the choice of David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, with Steven Smith’s tacit support, to use sandpaper to try to gain reverse swing in Cape Town.

Shadow Values and Principles of Cricket Australia

COMMAND AND CONTROL

The best decisions are top down
Give the ‘right’ person all the power to make the big calls
Experts know best
Leave it to management
ONLY RESULTS MATTER
Sport is a business – so get over it
Always be winning and ignore the costs
Only do it if it helps us to win
Good blokes get the win
HIGH PERFORMANCE IS WHAT WE ARE HERE FOR
The men’s team get paid enough to suffer
That’s all we expect of our ‘boys’
Numbers matter most
AUSTRALIA NEEDS US TO WIN
The psychological well-being of the nation depends on us
POPULARITY MATTERS
The best = most popular
Be a good bloke
INDIVIDUAL FIRST
Act in your self-interest
Individual performance matters most
Don’t share if you don’t have to
Collaboration is for losers
Focus on your own patch
COMBATIVENESS AND AGGRESSION IS GOOD
Bow to the Alpha male
Aggression wins the day
Compete for everything
Power gets things done
Don’t get caught
UNLEASH THE BEAST
Be a tactical, technical or strong-arm leader
Be sly and tough
Only those ‘tough enough’ can handle the truth
De-humanise your opponent
KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN
Don’t stick your head up
Don’t challenge or let yourself be challenged
WE’RE GREAT ON DIVERSITY
Diversity is women’s cricket
Diversity is good for the bottom line

Among 42 recommendations outlined by the review are the desire for Australian cricket to establish an ethics commission to oversee the ethical health of the game in Australia, and also the formation of the Australian Cricket Council to create a forum for frank discussion among the chairs of CA, the state associations, the ACA and the Cricket Umpires Association. Tellingly, the CA Board has already declined a recommendation to publicise the Minutes of its regular meetings, with commercial-in-confidence information removed.Among many key findings is the identification of a set of “shadow values and principles” that outline the way CA actually operates, as opposed to the ideals expressed in the governing body’s many codes and strategy documents. These include attitudes such as “command and control”, “only results matter”, “high performance is what we are here for”, “Australia needs us to win”, “individual first”, and “combativeness and aggression is good”.”Australian cricket has lost its balance … and has stumbled badly. The reputation of the game of cricket, as played by men, has been tainted. Women’s cricket remains unaffected,” the review states in its executive summary. “The leadership of CA should also accept responsibility for its inadvertent [but foreseeable] failure to create and support a culture in which the will-to-win was balanced by an equal commitment to moral courage and ethical restraint.”While good intentions might reduce culpability – they do not lesson [sic] responsibility … especially not for those who voluntarily take on the mantle of leadership. In our opinion, CA’s fault is not that it established a culture of ‘win at all costs’,” the review states. “Rather, it made the fateful mistake of enacting a program that would lead to ‘winning without counting the costs’.”It is this approach that has led, inadvertently, to the situation in which cricket finds itself today – for good and for ill. It has also given rise to a series of ‘shadow values and principles’ – a set of implicit norms that are often driving conduct that is at odds with the requirements of CA’s formal Ethical Framework, How We Play, and The Spirit of Cricket.”Deep divisions in Australian cricket, as epitomised by the 2017 MoU dispute and ongoing squabbles between the state associations and CA, are emphasised by the fact that the most positive responses to the review came from board directors and senior management, while the most negative emanated from the ACA, the players and the states and territories.”With the exception of CA’s own Board and its senior executives, the broad consensus among stakeholders is that CA does not consistently ‘live’ its values and principles,” the review states. “CA is perceived to say one thing and do another. The most common description of CA is as ‘arrogant’ and ‘controlling’. The core complaint is that the organisation does not respect anyone other than its own.”Players feel they are treated as commodities. There is a feeling amongst some State and Territory Associations that they are patronised while sponsors believe their value is defined solely in transactional terms. The group most critical of CA is the Australian Cricketers Association. The ACA’s negative assessment of CA is extreme, matched only by the positive assessment offered by the CA Board.”Particular focus is placed upon the fact that in neither the “How We Play” element of the most recent Australian Cricket Strategy, nor the former coach Darren Lehman”s blueprint “The Australian Way”, is any reference made to the spirit of cricket or to respect for opponents and umpires. Similarly, the code of ethics for Board directors is deemed “problematic” in that it does not link closely enough to CA’s broader ethical framework or its code of conduct – the instrument by which Warner, Bancroft and Smith were suspended.A loss of recognition of the spirit of cricket is also demonstrated at the corporate level, as underlined by the use of the term “smashing the boundaries” in the “How We Play” element of the strategy. “The incidence of verbal abuse extends beyond player behaviour,” the review states. “It is also said to be evident in other stakeholder relationships and extends to turning a blind eye to behaviour that would normally be described as bullying.”Some respondents recognise that one person’s ‘bullying’ may be another’s ‘tough negotiations’. However, most of the respondents who mention bullying do so with a sense of dismay – seeing it at work on the field [abusive sledging], internally at CA and in the tactics employed when negotiating commercial outcomes. Respondents say that the focus on outcomes does not extend to a critical examination of the means by which those outcomes are achieved. That is, relentlessly playing to win seems to ‘justify’ strategies that blur the accepted boundaries of fair play.”While the report states that the changes brought about in 2011 by the Argus review of team performance and the Crawford/Carter review of governance have resulted in considerable success for CA, both in terms of on-field results and also the growth of the game via the Big Bash League, the WBBL and successive record broadcast deals, there was a lack of balance provided in terms of accounting for the side-effects of a more aggressive corporate outlook.In the words of the review, CA failed to “anticipate and correct for a potential lack of balance – and ethical restraint – in the application of the Argus ‘blueprint’.” There are no fewer than 38 instances of text of the review being redacted from public view, largely to remove references to individuals for legal reasons.

Shaji Ul Mulk, the league’s chairman, is currently in talks with ‘a few’ national boards; picks out USA, England and South Africa as potential markets

Barny Read27-Nov-2018The T10 League is eyeing international expansion, with Shaji Ul Mulk, the league’s chairman, in discussions with ‘a few’ international boards over taking the tournament abroad in 2019.The ICC-sanctioned event currently operates in conjunction and with the approval of the Emirates Cricket Board at its UAE home. Ul Mulk is adamant that the format will only exist in commercially viable markets, where it is held with both the blessing and collaboration of the respective national board.”Boards are coming to us and it’s all about how we fit in commercially. We will probably have one more T10 in 2019; that’s our ambition,” Ul Mulk told . We are talking to a few boards, but it depends on how it goes. One thing is very clear: we only want to work with boards.”While he stopped short of mentioning the boards he is currently engaged in dialogue with, Ul Mulk spoke favourably of the USA, England and South Africa as potential markets. The USA, in particular, Ul Mulk felt, can benefit from the infiltration of the league, which can help in the growth of the sport in the country. According to the T10 head, Cricket Australia is not one of those involved in discussions, but is nevertheless another corner of the world where he sees opportunity.”Australia would be very interesting for us, but we’ve not started talking to them yet. They’re not one of the three boards that I’ve mentioned. But that would surely be a great market and there a lot of great markets for us.”The US market is great, the UK market is excellent for cricket, and South Africa, too, for that matter. With T10 the way it is, with 90 minutes [of] cricket, [it] actually opens up new markets that cricket doesn’t have now.”For us, the US is one of those big markets where we feel that we can reconnect cricket there. Cricket can have a strong place in the US, which it doesn’t have at the moment.”There have also been rumblings of more franchises in the offing to diversify the league’s ownership group. Ul Mulk, however, denied it, saying that any new investment is – at least for the time being – not aiming to bring new teams into the league.”It’s possible [to have new franchises], but for the immediate future, in 2019 and 2020, I’m not looking to increase the number of teams. The whole idea is that the existing franchises have to become more commercially successful.”Ul Mulk hoped that the teams can do just that by increasing the shared revenue pot that each franchise contributes to and the league pays out of. He is, however, welcoming investment from prospective partnerships, and said that an ongoing evaluation in the league will be reviewed at the end of the season that includes potential commercial growth.”Diversifying or liquidating your ownership – there is nothing wrong with that. Major international companies and media houses are talking to us, but we are taking our time and doing the evaluation,” he said. “Once we finish the evaluation, we could be looking at liquidating some shares, but as strategic partners.”What I’m looking for is a strategic partner that adds value to the league rather than just money. As things stand, the T10 League isn’t like the IPL or PSL that are massive leagues, we are a small league. So money is not really required for running the league.”

The India captain believes his side played good cricket in England, but made ‘extreme mistakes’ that cost them the Test matches

Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai15-Nov-20182:09

Made extreme mistakes in South Africa and England – Kohli

Virat Kohli, the India captain, expects individuals to step up and “show more character” during the Australia tour. He has laid special emphasis on the need for batsmen to bat together and the lower order to be “fearless.””We understand within the group what we need to work on. It’s upto the individuals to take ownership of that responsibility and the things that are explained, that are laid out as expectations from team culture point of view,” Kohli said in Mumbai, on the eve of the team’s departure. “That can only be achieved when individuals go and work on those things.”There were a lot of things we sat down and discussed after England, [about] what went wrong. To be honest, we all felt there was not much that went wrong. Whatever was not right was very extreme also. We played good cricket, but the mistakes were also very extreme, that’s why we lost that many number of games rather than wining those moments and winning the games.”Individuals need to take more responsibility, show more character in such situations and assess it, and then find a solution rather than thinking that the solution will appear from somewhere. Those are the things we are really keen on, going now in our next venture and especially in Test cricket.”While Kohli was satisfied with the bowling attack at his disposal, he hoped the batsmen would step up too. “We’re all feeling good about the fact that we have a great bowling attack now,” he said. “But the batsmen need to step up as well, which we have spoken [about] as a team again after England. And everyone is really keen to correct those things and put [in a] complete performance.”So we put in a complete performance for a game, which we want to last for a series, and for that to happen, again, people have to take more ownership every Test match that we play. Our focus more will be on how the batsmen bat well together on this tour because bowlers are in a great space and they know exactly what they want to do. After a long time, we feel like we can take 20 wickets every game. That is a great feeling to have but the whole combination has to come together for us to win the series, not just one Test match and be happy about it.”Ravi Shastri, the head coach, felt “getting tough mentally” would be crucial for the team to do well in Australian conditions, an aspect they had lacked in in England. “Playing for a win, 100% [will be our plan again],” he said. “Nothing will change, it is just seizing those moments, getting tough mentally, when the going gets tough. That’s where we have erred, we have learnt our lessons. If we are tough mentally, we will do better.”Kohli also hoped India could “tighten up” their lower order game, an aspect that England were miles ahead of India during the summer. “We still understand that at the top it can get difficult, where guys are bowling a good spell and it’s really tough,” Kohli explained. “[It’s] relatively easier for the middle order. But again, the lower-order contributions are crucial. As we saw in England, their lower-order contributions were much better than ours and that was the difference in the series.”That’s where we want guys to be fearless. Actually, that’s the best place to bat where an allrounder, who can bowl as well, has literally no pressure. If they get going, they can change the whole course of the game or the series.”That’s something we need to tighten up, especially after England. It’s something we are looking forward to, as a whole batting unit from top to bottom. To bat well together, not necessarily look for individual performances but bat well together to achieve a certain total every game.”Getty Images

Kohli also hoped his team-mates would continue to do the right things over a period of time, rather than just in short burst. “We need to get more consistent as a team, and for that each individual needs to sit down and remember what they did – whether we lost or whether we won,” Kohli said. “Only then you can implement those things or you can stop yourself from making those same mistakes. The vision will be provided, but decision-making is a very individual thing which everyone needs to improve.”Speaking on his batsmen’s showing in England, Kohli stated how some poor performances could “really dent you mentally”, but said the key was to overcome those quickly, “refresh” and look ahead to the future instead of letting problems “pile on”.”The challenge is how to get up from that because when we play away from home, those things are going to happen,” he said. “Any side that is playing in their conditions won’t let you dominate the game. So we have to understand firstly how to control that situation better. It’s not so radical that we can’t get our heads ahead from that.”Secondly, if that happens, we have to understand how to refresh and focus on the next match as a new game, rather than letting it build on or pile on. That has happened to me in the past, that can be a massive factor where people start thinking about the last innings or the innings before that or thinking of that as three innings in a tour rather than just focusing on a new innings which is for the team.”That’s something again we’ve discussed with the whole batting group – how to focus on staying in the present and that is something that has personally worked for me. To be able to stay in that particular minute and not think of anything else, like where I’m playing, what are the expectations, what are people going to write, or what are they going to say.”To implement that, the talent is there, we have no doubts on it, everyone will agree. There’s little things that we need to solidify, and make sure that when the situation is against us, we know how to block it or we know how to get over that quicker.”