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Salary bands in the Hundred are set to be cut by up to 20% for men’s players when the competition launches in 2021.Players were due to earn between £30,000 and £125,000 in the competition this year before the Covid-19 pandemic forced its postponement. Details are still being ironed out, but the range could now be cut to £24,000-£100,000 as English cricket comes to terms with the financial implications of a significantly reduced season.”There’s been up to 20% cuts to county contracts across the last few months – 17% for April and May, 20% for June and July, so far. So some sort of cut across the Hundred would make sense, keeping money in the game to support counties and county players as well,” said Daryl Mitchell, chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA). “I don’t think there will be any issues across that.”The 16 players picked at the top price in October’s draft included Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith and David Warner – all of whom set their reserve price at £125,000 – and five domestic players: Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Dane Vilas. While there may be some concerns over whether top overseas players will still want to play in the competition on a lower wage, it is widely recognised that it would be wrong to freeze the salary pot for the Hundred at a time when so many young county players are concerned about their contract status.There is also a growing acceptance that some form of partial re-draft will be required for the competition. Contracts for the 2020 season were cancelled at the start of May after the tournament’s postponement, and since then regular discussions have taken place between the PCA and the ECB about how the squads will look next year.ALSO READ: Hundred coaches raise retention questions as player contracts cancelledUnder the Hundred’s initial retention rules, teams would have been able to retain up to ten players from their 2020 squad for the 2021 edition, at a salary band negotiated with the player. A mini-draft would then have followed to allow teams to fill the gaps in their squads. There appears to be little appetite for a total re-draft, but also a sense that completely freezing squads will be impossible.”It’s a pretty difficult one from a PCA perspective,” Mitchell said. “You’ve got 96 domestic players in the competition who had contracts for this year, and there’s obviously 300 or so that haven’t and would love to be a part of it.”Opinion seems to be split as to whether these rosters should be rolled over or not. I think it’s the right thing that there’s not going to be a complete re-draft from start to finish, but I think there’s going to be an element of retention from each of the teams from the squads they picked.”I think you need to see what sort of T20 competition is possible this year and how that pans out. Obviously England central contracts will be decided at the end of September or early October, and we don’t know what changes there might be from that. Then we need a little bit more clarity about the Future Tours Programme for next year, and also a little bit more clarity about the Kolpak situation for next year. There’s so many moving parts around it at the moment.”There are 10 players who won contracts to play as domestic players in the Hundred who are highly unlikely to be eligible to do so next year, Brexit permitting, with some less clear on their status having qualified through EU passports. Discussions are ongoing about that issue, including the possibility that their spots in the Hundred could be frozen for next year, but the legality of that move is unclear.”There’s been things discussed [about that],” Mitchell said. “Whether you can make exceptions for these guys, I don’t know. There’s legalities around this to consider as well, so I think again it’s something that’s still on the table.”We’ve done quite well with our county reps – I think there are six with Hundred contracts. We’ve also used our Personal Development Managers (PDMs) who are in contact with all the dressing rooms around the country to canvas opinion.”The salary cuts are unlikely to extend to the women’s competition, for which the initial salary bands ranged from £3,600 to £15,000 – significantly lower than the men’s. The ECB has announced that equal prize money will be on offer for men and women, but the scale of the disparity of pay between the two competitions raised eyebrows last year.”They need to be maintained, that’s my opinion,” Mitchell said. “They’re significantly less than the men’s salaries at the moment… I don’t think the cut across the men’s and the women’s would necessarily be the same.”Women’s cricketers have felt the squeeze from the financial implications of the pandemic harder than their male counterparts. The ECB was due to introduce 40 new contracts for female players this year, but those deals have been put on ice with 24 retainers introduced instead.Mitchell said that the situation for women’s players had been “incredibly tough” but that there was “light at the end of the tunnel” with full contracts for the new regional development centres set to be awarded before the end of the year.”Credit to the ECB – they’ve put 24 [players on] retainers to try and help those people out. There’s a little bit lacking for a lot of players financially, not playing in the Hundred as well, so it’s been tough for some of those players on the fringes who would have expected to become a full-time pro this year.”But I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel with those contracts being awarded at some point in the near future. As chairman, I’m looking forward to being able to welcome 40 women into the PCA as professional members.”

Sam Curran has tested negative for Covid-19, after being forced to withdraw from England’s intra-squad three-day warm-up match at the Ageas Bowl through illness.Curran, who made a brisk 15 on the first day but did not get a chance to press his case for a Test place with the ball, has been self-isolating in his room at the team hotel after coming down with ‘sickness and diarrhoea’ on the second day of the match.He underwent a Covid test during the lunch interval on Thursday, and would have been required to spend a further seven days in isolation had it turned out to be positive, with implications for the rest of the squad ahead of the first Test against West Indies on July 8.However, he will now return to training over the next 24-48 hours but will continue to be closely monitored by the team doctor, Mark Wotherspoon.Curran will receive a further Covid-19 test on Sunday, along with the rest of the playing and management group.The news comes as a relief for the ECB, who had last week reported a total of 703 negative Covid tests at the Ageas Bowl and Emirates Old Trafford, the West Indies base, in the lead-up to the Test series.There will be concerns, however, if another sickness bug is making its way through the England squad, after the team’s build-up to the first Test in South Africa in December was ravaged by illness.There were some concerns about the health of Dan Lawrence, one of the likelier candidates to stand in for Joe Root during the first Test, who did not come out to bat in the top six in Team Buttler’s second innings at the Ageas Bowl, after a fluent fifty on the first day.However, the likelihood of any transmission has been reduced by the social-distancing measures being taken within the team environment, and a team spokesman confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Lawrence was fine.

South Africa allrounder Nadine de Klerk, who impressed in the T20 World Cup semi-final against Australia, has signed for the Brisbane Heat ahead of this season’s WBBL with Cricket South Africa confirming their players will be allowed to travel to Australia for the tournament.De Klerk, who competed nationally as a javelin thrower before being selected for the 2017 World Cup as a 17-year-old, took 3 for 19 at the SCG in March but was unable to help South Africa into the T20 World Cup final as Australia won by five runs amid the drama of the rain. She will join New Zealand duo Amelia Kerr and Maddy Green as the Heat’s overseas contingent for the WBBL.”I’m pretty excited, it’s always been a dream and that’s what you work for,” de Klerk said. “It’s a really great opportunity and I’m really excited to play against some of my team-mates and alongside some legends.”Earlier this year was my first time in Australia but I loved every bit of it and there’s no better tournament than the WBBL. Hopefully I can perform well for the Heat.”Heat coach Ashley Noffke said: “Anyone who saw Nadine charge in and bowl without fear against the best team in the world would have been impressed. She’s got very good skills and is certainly a player who likes to lead by example. We’re very confident she will complement the squad we are assembling, and it will be exciting for our fans to see her in action when we get underway.”On Tuesday, CSA confirmed that individual athletes are able to get exemptions from the government to travel while South Africa’s borders are shut due to Covid-19. The national side had to cancel their tour to England in September due to the restictions.”National teams are restricted from travelling but individual players competing in events deemed as work are permitted to travel subject to them being COVID-19 compliant in the country they are travelling to and upon their return to South Africa,” the statement said.”This means that several Proteas will have opportunity to feature in this year’s Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) from 17 October until 29 November.”There are expected to be changes to the WBBL schedule due to various Covid-19 travel and border restrictions with the possibility that the tournament will be staged entirely in one state.”Everyone is quite eager to get out on the park, four months is a long time and we haven’t played any cricket,” de Klerk said. “It’s a great opportunity with the England tour being cancelled.”

Big picture

All-new IPL season. All-new venues. Same-old Mumbai Indians. Same-old Royal Challengers Bangalore. Rohit Sharma’s side brushed off their opening-day defeat against the Chennai Super Kings, and despite the boundaries in Abu Dhabi being bigger than the ones in Mumbai, they piled up 195 against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Jasprit Bumrah, James Pattinson, and Trent Boult then executed their best-laid plans to sound out a warning to the other sides.Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers, aided by Sunrisers Hyderabad’s flaky middle order, pulled off a great escape in their opener in Dubai, but were then overpowered by Kings XI Punjab at the same venue. They will now run into the defending champions for their third game in Dubai. Two matches into IPL 2020, their issues over death-bowling and lower-middle order batting have resurfaced.The Royal Challengers’ team director Mike Hesson told the host broadcaster Star that he was averse to making too many changes this early in the season, and their premier bowler Yuzvendra Chahal played down their death-bowling woes after Kings XI pillaged 74 off their last four overs. However, with all of Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, and Umesh Yadav leaking runs, the team management may have to veer away from their original plan and yank Mohammed Siraj and Chris Morris (if he’s fit) from the bench. Sri Lankan seam-bowling allrounder Isuru Udana, who had bowled Paarl Rocks to the MSL title in 2019, is the other death-bowling option for the Royal Challengers.

In the news

• Morris was unavailable for the Royal Challengers’ first two games because of a side strain. It remains to be seen if he has regained full fitness.
• Similarly, the injured Nathan Coulter-Nile missed Mumbai’s first two matches, but he has resumed training now. It’s understood that he isn’t 100% fit yet.
• Mumbai are cautious about Hardik Pandya’s workload, opting against rushing him into bowling. He made cameos against Chennai Super Kings and Knight Riders, and even pulled off a stunning catch at the boundary to remove Nitish Rana, but he hasn’t bowled in top-flight cricket since September last year after undergoing back surgery.

Likely XIs

Mumbai Indians (probable): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma (capt), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Saurabh Tiwary, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 James Pattinson/Nathan Coulter-Nile, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit BumrahRoyal Challengers Bangalore (probable) 1 Aaron Finch, 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Josh Philippe (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Dale Steyn/Chris Morris/Isuru Udana, 9 Umesh Yadav/Mohammed Siraj, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Navdeep Saini

Strategy punts

• de Villiers has been vulnerable to legspinners and left-arm fingerspinners in the IPL. The Kings XI matched up legspinner M Ashwin with de Villiers and had him holing out. Mumbai have Rahul Chahar in their ranks who has kept him to 14 off 13 balls. However, Krunal Pandya v de Villiers is a bigger match-up. The left-armer has got de Villiers four times in six innings while giving up just 43 runs off 43 balls. So, there’s a strong case for Mumbai to reserve their two spinners for de Villers.
• Much like de Villiers, Kieron Pollard seems to have a weakness against legspin. The Royals Challengers have a gun legspinner in Chahal, who has had the wood over Pollard in the IPL, taking him out four times in eight innings while conceding 49 off 37 balls. Hardik, too, hasn’t been able to get on top of Chahal, managing only 19 off 17 balls while being dismissed once. So, given RCB’s troubles in the end overs, where both Pollard and Hardik are set to bat, it may not be a bad idea to hold back an over of Chahal for this pair. Plus, Chahal has conceded only 7.6 runs an over at the death (16-20) since IPL 2019. All their seamers have conceded over nine an over in this phase from 2019, with Steyn going at 16.7 and Yadav at 13.4.

Stats that matter

• The Royal Challengers could consider giving Moeen Ali a go in the middle order in place of either Aaron Finch or Josh Phillipe. Since IPL 2019, Ali has a balls per boundary percentage of 4.8 in the middle overs (7-15) as opposed to Kohli’s 12.2. De Villiers has fared better than Kohli in this phase, having a balls per boundary percentage of 7.5.
• Saini has 13 IPL wickets in 15 IPL matches, of which 10 have come at the death. He also goes at over nine an over (9.2) in the slog overs, but he does seem to have more control and variations right now than either of Steyn, Dube or Umesh.
• In four games played at this venue this season, teams have opted to chase and have lost on all four occasions. In 55 T20s at the Dubai international stadium since 2018, the side batting first has won 29 matches.
• Nobody has scored more runs than Quinton de Kock’s 353 in the powerplay since IPL 2019. He also has a fine record against the Royal Challengers, hitting 306 runs in six innings at an average of 51 and strike rate of 157.73.
• Since IPL 2018, the Royal Challengers have lost most wickets against legspin (42).
• This will be Kohli’s 150th T20 match as captain. He has so far captained the Royal Challengers 112 times, and the Indian team 37 times.

Keep up to date with all the movements around the counties as preparations are made for the 2021 seasonDerbyshireIN: Brooke Guest (Lancashire), George Scrimshaw (Worcestershire)
OUT: Tony Palladino (released), Ravi Rampaul (Kolpak)
OVERSEAS: Billy Stanlake, Dustin Melton, Ben McDermott (T20/RLC)DurhamIN: Sean Dickson (Kent), Scott Borthwick (Surrey), Alex Thomson (Warwickshire, loan)
OUT: Scott Steel (Leicestershire), Josh Coughlin, Sol Bell, Ben Whitehead, James Weighell, Nathan Rimmington (all released)
OVERSEAS: Farhaan Behardien, Cameron Bancroft, Will Young (CC)EssexIN:
OUT: Rishi Patel (Leicestershire)
OVERSEAS: Simon Harmer, Peter Siddle, Jimmy Neesham (T20)ALSO READ: Counties allowed two overseas players in 2021, ECB confirmsGlamorganIN:
OUT: Graham Wagg, Kieran Bull, Connor Brown, Owen Morgan (all released), Craig Meschede (retired), Marchant de Lange (Somerset)
OVERSEAS: Colin Ingram (T20), Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser (CC/RLC), Andy Balbirnie (CC)GloucestershireIN: Tom Lace (Middlesex), Jared Warner (Yorkshire)
OUT: Gareth Roderick (Worcestershire), George Drissell (released), Stuart Whittingham (retired)
OVERSEAS: Daniel Worrall, Kraigg Brathwaite (CC)HampshireIN:
OUT: Harry Came, Oli Soames (both released)
OVERSEAS: Kyle Abbott, Mohammad Abbas (CC)KentIN: Nathan Gilchrist (Somerset), Tawanda Muyeye (schoolboy)
OUT: Sean Dickson (Durham), Calum Haggett, Ivan Thomas (both released), Adam Rouse (retired)
OVERSEAS: Heino Kuhn, Miguel Cummins (CC)LancashireIN: Jack Blatherwick (Nottinghamshire), Luke Wells (Sussex)
OUT: Graham Onions (retired), Stephen Parry, Toby Lester (both released), Brooke Guest (Derbyshire)
OVERSEAS: Dane Vilas, Jackson Bird (CC), Finn Allen (T20), Shreyas Iyer (RLC)ALSO READ: ECB confirms Kolpak registration cancellationsLeicestershireIN: Scott Steel (Durham), Rishi Patel (Essex), Edward Barnes (Yorkshire)
OUT: Tom Taylor (Northamptonshire), Paul Horton (retired), Mark Cosgrove (released)
OVERSEAS: Naveen-ul-Haq (T20), Marcus Harris (CC/RLC), Josh Inglis (T20)MiddlesexIN:
OUT: Tom Lace (Gloucestershire), Dan Lincoln (released)
OVERSEAS: Peter Handscomb, Mujeeb Ur Rahman (T20), Mitchell Marsh (T20)NorthamptonshireIN: Tom Taylor (Leicestershire)
OUT: Brett Hutton (Nottinghamshire), Rob Newton, Blessing Muzarabani, Tom Sole (all released)
OVERSEAS: Mohammad Nabi (T20), Wayne ParnellNottinghamshireIN: Brett Hutton (Northamptonshire), Lyndon James (academy), Toby Pettman (Oxford MCCU), Dane Schadendorf
OUT: Chris Nash (released), Jack Blatherwick (Lancashire)
OVERSEAS: Dane Paterson, Dan Christian (T20)SomersetIN:
OUT: Jamie Overton (Surrey), Dom Bess (Yorkshire), Nathan Gilchrist (Kent)
OVERSEAS: Marchant de LangeSurreyIN: Laurie Evans (Sussex), Jamie Overton (Somerset)
OUT: Scott Borthwick (Durham), Morne Morkel (Kolpak)
OVERSEAS: Hashim Amla, Kemar Roach (CC)SussexIN:
OUT: Laurie Evans (Surrey), Danny Briggs (Warwickshire), Luke Wells (Lancashire), Harry Finch, Will Sheffield (both released)
OVERSEAS: Travis Head, Stiaan van Zyl, Rashid Khan (T20), David Wiese (T20)WarwickshireIN: Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Danny Briggs (Sussex), Jake Lintott
OUT: Ian Bell, Tim Ambrose, Jeetan Patel (all retired), Liam Banks (released)
OVERSEAS: Carlos Brathwaite (T20), Pieter Malan (CC)WorcestershireIN: Gareth Roderick (Gloucestershire)
OUT: Ben Twohig, Olly Westbury (both released), Wayne Parnell (Kolpak), George Scrimshaw (Derbyshire)
OVERSEAS: Ben Dwarshuis (T20), Alzarri Joseph (CC)YorkshireIN: Dom Bess (Somerset)
OUT: Tim Bresnan (Warwickshire), James Logan (released), Jared Warner (Gloucestershire), Edward Barnes (Leicestershire)
OVERSEAS: Duanne Olivier, Lockie Ferguson (T20)

Cricket Australia is confident the WBBL structure can react to a changing Covid-19 landscape as the start of the tournament which will be played entirely in a Sydney hub draws closer.The competition will begin on October 25 and run until the end of November, played at a variety of venues around the city with players based in a ‘village’ at the Sydney Olympic Park. As it stands, crowds will be able to attend at varying levels across the different grounds based on capacity restrictions.After a period of 12 days without community transmission of Covid-19 in New South Wales, cases have returned over the last week but the way the competition has been set-up provides various contingencies should they be required.ALSO READ: From Suzie Bates to Laura Wolvaardt – all the WBBL overseas players“One of the focus areas for building the competition has been the village which is a really self-contained facility to create a safe environment where we can scale up and down the level security and overlay that’s required,” Alistair Dobson, the head of the Big Bash, said.”Crowds will be something we work really closely with the New South Wales government on around capacity – different venues will have different requirements. The hill at North Sydney Oval will be different to the big stands at the [Sydney] Showgrounds.”We have a really scalable model which will allow us to pull different levers if the situation changes. We haven’t talked specific [Covid] numbers but it’s something we monitor and talk about daily.”There are 23 overseas players signed up for the tournament with those from England, West Indies and South Africa currently undergoing two weeks quarantine in various cities before all the teams join up in Sydney next week. Those who live in Sydney will also be required to stay within the village, which will allow players some degree of freedom around the hotels but with strict protocols still in place to restrict any wider movement.”It’s an enormous sacrifice and it goes without saying that there isn’t a part of the game that hasn’t had to make really big sacrifices to get the WBBL season over the line and the same will apply for all the different formats this year,” Dobson said. “There’s an element of freedom within the village because we are able to create such a secure environment around it.”Part of what we’ve tried to set up is that players who are essentially leaving home for five or six weeks, from a mental health and wellbeing point of view, have an experience which is positive and not the hard bubble some other competitions have gone through. There are restrictions outside the village in terms of going into restaurants nearby or those sorts of things, [and] there’s an element of being able to flex that up and down.”On Thursday, it was announced that 12 additional WBBL matches would be live on Fox Cricket meaning more than half the tournament will be televised with the other games available via streaming.

All members of West Indies’ touring party in New Zealand have cleared the first of their three Covid-19 tests. Following this test, which was conducted three days after their arrival on October 30, the West Indies contingent will undergo two more – on days 6 and 12 of their two-week quarantine at the New Zealand high-performance centre at Lincoln University in Christchurch.Having returned negative results in their first test, the players and staff will no longer be required to stay in isolation in their respective rooms. They will be allowed to train, gym and socialise within three bubbles comprising a maximum of 15 members each from days 4 to 7. From days 8 to 14 of their quarantine, the West Indies camp can split into two bubbles comprising a maximum of 20 members each.Seven members of West Indies’ 35-strong playing contingent – T20I captain Kieron Pollard, Test captain Jason Holder, Fabian Allen, Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul, Nicholas Pooran and Oshane Thomas – will only arrive in New Zealand after the conclusion of the IPL, which ends on November 10 in the UAE.These seven players – of whom six are part of the T20I squad – will only end their quarantine on the eve of the first T20I in Auckland, which is to take place on November 27. West Indies will play three T20Is in all, followed by two Test matches in Hamilton (December 3-7) and Wellington (December 11-15).West Indies are the only international team to have embarked on two overseas tours since the worldwide pause in global cricket brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Before this tour of New Zealand, they played three Tests in England in July.

Tom Latham struck 12 fours and a six during his 86 on the opening day of the first Test against West Indies but the leave was probably the shot that defined his innings.After winning the toss on a greener-than-usual Hamilton pitch, West Indies got debutant Will Young out early, but Latham and Kane Williamson added 154 for the second wicket to put New Zealand in front. They finished the day on 243 for 2. During the course of his knock, Latham not only left balls on line but also on length, with the West Indies fast bowlers often erring on the shorter side. Of 176 balls he faced from the pacers, Latham left 69 (39.2%).

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“There was probably a little bit more grass on this Hamilton wicket than we have traditionally seen in the past,” Latham told the host broadcaster after the day’s play. “Probably had a little bit more pace as well than we are used to seeing here.”I think initially it [the pitch] was probably a little bit slower. Sometimes when it’s a little bit softer, it tends to hold in the wicket a little bit more. But it did dry up a little bit and quickened up but I think West Indies bowled a little bit short, which allowed us to leave a lot of balls on length early on to get ourselves in.”Since the start of 2018, Latham has scored 1517 Test runs, the most by any opener in that period. His average of 52.31 is also the best among openers with at least 1000 runs in that time. He has done this while playing most of his cricket on seamer-friendly New Zealand tracks. So, how did he prepare himself for this particular Test?”You always hope the coin toss goes your way but you have to be prepared to bat first on a wicket like that. Try not to deliberate too much the day before. On a wicket like that, you probably want to limit driving the ball. Ideally, wait for something a little bit straighter or something a little bit shorter, so that was sort of the plan.”The danger for me was driving the ball on the up and bring the slips into play. They obviously bowled well in periods and bowled a lot of dots to me and Kane but it was nice to try and overcome those periods and seek some little rewards after that.”Latham had a moment of luck as well. When on 43, he went to cut a short and wide delivery from Holder only to nick it to the wicketkeeper. But apart from Darren Bravo at first slip, hardly anyone else appealed and Latham survived.”You sometimes need that,” Latham said. “So you’ve got to make most of those things when you get the chance.”While New Zealand have the upper hand, Latham thinks both their batsmen and bowlers would have to adapt a little bit as the pitch is expected to quicken up as the game progresses.”Hopefully it will quicken up a little bit as we see here in New Zealand, it tends to quicken up a bit on day two. So the lengths we bowl may change a little bit but that’s about adapting to the surface each day. Hopefully, firstly we can do that with the bat and then when we get our chance with the ball, we can do that too.”

West Indies coach Phil Simmons is clear that he doesn’t want West Indies to go through the qualifier route for the 2023 World Cup, like they had to the last time, and wants to start strongly in Bangladesh to avoid that eventuality.”It is mighty important [to get a good start] because you have to catch up in the series,” Simmons said of the fallout of starting poorly in Dhaka on Sunday. “We don’t want to get into the playoffs anymore. To catch up in the series is going to be really hard, so we need to start well.”West Indies had to play the World Cup qualifier in 2018 after failing to secure direct entry into the tournament, and then went through along with Afghanistan after they finished in the top two – with Afghanistan winning the qualifiers – in Zimbabwe.The three-ODI series in Dhaka from later in the week will be the first engagement for either side in the ICC Super League. Where the participating teams finish in the league will determine who qualifies directly for the 2023 World Cup – the top seven teams and hosts India would be certain participants – and who must go through the playoffs, to be held in Zimbabwe again.Related

• Jason Mohammed: 'We have to give ourselves a little bit more time' in the middle overs

• All eyes on Shakib Al Hasan's return as Bangladesh, West Indies begin ODI Super League campaign

• Simmons calls on 'hunger and enthusiasm' to trump Bangladesh

• Lloyd: 'Opportunity to prove you're not second-class cricketers'

• Jason Mohammed eyes long-term West Indies berth

West Indies have already missed playing ODI series against New Zealand and Netherlands because of the Covid-19 pandemic, making the ODIs in Bangladesh vitally important. Their first match in Bangladesh is on Monday, when they play an intra-squad one-day game in Savar, near Dhaka.”[I want to see] the guys to put in place what we have been practicing – how we score runs, how we set fields and how we bowl to those fields,” Simmons said of his expectations. “These are the little things we will try to implement in the main game. So we will try to do them tomorrow too.”We are close enough [to finalising the XI], but the practice game will be the best indicator. It will give us the notice that we need, [and] give us the idea what the players bring to the table in a game situation. So tomorrow is the final straw.”Having reached Dhaka only last Sunday, Simmons, however, emphasised that the team could have done with more training, like they had on their tour of New Zealand last November. “It is never enough for me,” he said. “I think that I would have liked the sort of time we had in New Zealand – but this is what we have, and we try to fit in as much as we can in that period.”

Australia Test opener Will Pucovski may require surgery on his troublesome shoulder, which could rule him out of the remainder of the Australian domestic season.Pucovski injured his right shoulder while fielding on his Test debut against India in Sydney in early January. He was subsequently ruled out of the fourth Test in Brisbane and has not played since.The 23-year-old Pucovski had been selected to go to South Africa for Australia’s Test tour, but following the postponement of that tour, he returned to training with the Victoria squad ahead of the recommencement of the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup.Related

• Victoria cleared to travel to NSW for domestic fixtures despite Melbourne lockdown

• NSW and Victoria aiming to still play Marsh Cup opener despite latest lockdown in Victoria

• Smith: Langer seeking improvement just as I am

• Australia in Tests – Captain, No. 5 and Starc in the spotlight

• Pucovski ruled out of final Test, Harris recalled

But Pucovski did not appear comfortable after batting in the nets on Thursday, and Victoria coach Chris Rogers said the youngster would continue to seek medical advice as to whether he should play again this season.”He had a net session yesterday, it looked quite sore,” Rogers said. “It’s definitely his decision, what he wants to do. It’s his career, we’ve got to support that. And that’s in conjunction with the Australia side as well so we’ll support whatever he thinks. He will be getting a lot of advice from different people, so I think that will probably become a little bit clearer over the next week or two.”It’s hard when I think you’re playing not at 100%. You start to think that’s how you are going to play for the rest of your career. Particularly as the shoulder hasn’t responded to rehab as well he would have liked it to have, so he is probably really considering that option of surgery. He will go and talk to the relevant people and we should hear what he has to say. That will include our medical staff as well.”James Pattinson is ready to return to first-class action after being out of action with a rib injury.•Getty Images

There is some positive news for Victoria and Australian cricket with James Pattinson ready to return to first-class action after he was withdrawn from Australia’s Test squad for the final two Tests against India because of a rib injury.Pattinson was also selected for the postponed South Africa tour. He has played three consecutive 50-over club matches for Dandenong in Victoria Premier Cricket and is fully fit. But given Victoria’s heavy upcoming schedule of Shield and Marsh Cup matches, he is unlikely to play every game.”He wants to get out there, he is a natural competitor. He wants to be on the park as much as he can,” Rogers said. “But if we look at the schedule and project the amount of overs they might bowl on average, I think we’ll have to manage him and the other bowlers as well.”We’ll look to see when we can use him the best, but I wouldn’t expect him to play every game. But we’ve got to try and find the right times. The good thing for us is he is ready to go. He probably just needs a bit more bowling under his belt, but we expect to get that pretty shortly.”What was pleasing was there were reports that he actually did dial it up in the game on the weekend for Dandenong. He bowled with good pace and he was really happy with the way it came out.”