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Neither player entered tour bubble ahead of Sri Lanka series after two Covid positives detected

Firdose Moonda22-Dec-2020
Beuran Hendricks and Keegan Petersen have been withdrawn from South Africa’s Test squad to play Sri Lanka.Neither player entered the tour bubble when the playing group convened on Saturday, after two positive Covid-19 results were detected last week. CSA cannot, for reasons of doctor-patient confidentiality, name who the infected players are.The other 17 squad members have tested negative on all three occasions, thus making the environment bio-secure. South Africa will not add any players to the squad for the two-Test series which starts on Boxing Day.Having cleared three rounds of testing, South Africa can begin training as a full squad on Wednesday after having staggered sessions so far. They will also no longer be confined to their hotel rooms at the Irene Country Club and can use communal areas, with social distancing rules in place, but will not come into contact with Sri Lanka, who are housed at the same venue. In addition, they will not be permitted to leave the venue except to travel to SuperSport Park and the Wanderers for the duration of the series.Related

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Cricket South Africa have enforced stricter controls for this series than they did for the England tour – in which players were allowed to play golf at various courses around the Western Cape province – both at the behest of Sri Lanka Cricket and because the England tour was unsuccessful.Three South African players tested positive for Covid-19 – one before the tour, one after entering the bubble and one after the T20 series – as did two hotel staff, and the one-day series was postponed. Two members of England’s touring party also tested positive although, on verification, their results were confirmed as false positives. South Africa, who are also due to host Australia this summer, need the Sri Lanka series to take place without incident to get their international hosting back on track.For that reason, they pushed the final round of domestic first-class matches, which were due to start last Sunday, into next year following positive cases in two of the three matches that began on December 13. Hendricks, Petersen and eight other players in the national squad were part of two of those games.At SuperSport Park, the match between the Titans and the Dolphins was called off after the first day because a Dolphins’ players tested positive while in Bloemfontein, the game between the Knights and the Lions continued despite a Lions’ player testing positive on day three. Several more Dolphins and Lions players were also found to be infected.The impact has been felt by the national squad who have lost at least one certain starter for the Sri Lanka Tests. Hendricks, who has only played one Test, would most likely have been the third seamer in the absence of the injured Kagiso Rabada. Hendricks debuted at the Wanderers last summer and took six wickets in the match, including 5 for 64 in the second innings, and is familiar with conditions up-country, having made the Lions his domestic home. Instead, South Africa will rely on Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje for experience and could hand a debut to Glenton Stuurman, Migael Pretorius or Lutho Sipamla.Petersen was less likely to play than Hendricks but, after three summers averaging over 50 domestically, he made a strong case to be considered at No.3. He should also have been the next man in line after being a non-playing member of the squad last season but will have to make way for one of Sarel Erwee, Raynard van Tonder or Kyle Verreynne for now.Updated squad: Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortje, Glenton Stuurman, Sarel Erwee, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne, Migael Pretorius, Dwaine Pretorius, Lutho Sipamla, Raynard van Tonder

Seamer takes 3 for 4 before Pant and Virat Kohli hit half-centuries to steer the chase in third T20I

The Report by Saurabh Somani06-Aug-20195:16

Dasgupta: The unbeaten 65 could change Pant’s career

West Indies put up an improved performance in the final T20I, with their batsmen having their best day collectively, but it wasn’t enough to deny India a 3-0 sweep, with terrific bowling upfront by Deepak Chahar complemented by a match-winning partnership. Kieron Pollard’s first T20I half-century in more than seven years took West Indies to a competitive 146 for 6, but half-centuries by Virat Kohli (59) and Rishabh Pant (65*) and their century stand for the third wicket meant India hunted down the target in 19.1 overs.The Chahar effect
Deepak Chahar reduced West Indies to 14 for 3 inside four overs, taking out the top three and getting the ball to hoop around corners and jag both ways. It was a magnificent exhibition of swing bowling, yanking batsmen out of position, hands following the ball, feet not in sync. Chahar bowled three overs on the trot, and had figures of 3 for 4 at the end. He wouldn’t complete his quota, but his strangulation at the top meant India could come out of the Powerplay with hardly much against them. On a pitch that offered turn to the spinners and held up a bit, and with short boundaries, that was crucial.Rahul Chahar – Deepak’s double first cousin – was making his international debut and fulfilling a childhood dream of the two playing for India together, but the leggie had to cede the limelight to the seamer.In his first over, with Sunil Narine facing up with the specific mandate of going after the bowling, Deepak kept his lines tight at the start. Then he threw one a bit wider, but it was still nibbling in the air. With leaden feet, Narine could only toe-end a flat-bat hit to Navdeep Saini at mid-on. Both Evin Lewis and Shimron Hetmyer fell in Chahar’s next over, done in by balls that most left-hand batsmen would have fallen to. Both times, Chahar slanted the ball across them, and got it to swerve back into the batsman like a Formula 1 car taking a hard left. Pads were rapped, appeals were belted out, and fingers were raised. Lewis even burned a review for his team, though to be fair to him, he might have thought the ball was missing leg – it wasn’t, because the initial angle had dragged him far enough across.Deepak Chahar removed West Indies’ openers•Associated Press

The Pollard-led revival
The start was rocky, but the depth and power in West Indies’ batting meant they could kick on nonetheless and still end up with an adequate total. Pollard, at No. 4, showed off his power with several clean hits down the ground. He hit six sixes, which meant that even though there were periods of dot balls building up, getting the run rate back into healthy territory was only a hit or two away. Pollard fell to a Saini slower ball, but Rovman Powell – fresh off a power-packed half-century in the second T20I – showed he wasn’t a one-hit wonder with a rollicking finish that took West Indies past 140, and might have also taken him into the wishlists of several IPL franchise owners.The Kohli-Pant stand
With Kohli taking control of the chase and Pant showing his full repertoire, India’s innings never fell in choppy waters. Two shots each by both batsmen stood out. Pant twice drove Keemo Paul inside-out over extra-cover, the ball pinging off the bat and flying over the boundary. The execution of the shot was stunning enough both times, but the fact that Pant could conceive of the shot was extraordinary in itself. Pant would hit his trademark unorthodox shots too, including a reverse-sweep and an audacious flick, but those drives were shots associated more with pitches where the ball comes on nicely and 200 is par.Kohli too had his wow moments. A ball after he had seen a leading edge off Carlos Brathwaite fall in no-man’s land but hang in the air long enough to steal two, he unleashed a cover drive that landed millimetres inside the cover boundary. Two balls later, facing Paul now, Kohli sent the ball whirring to the deep-midwicket fence, whipping through the line with wrists of steel and timing of silk.The two had come together at 27 for 2 in the fifth over, both under a bit of a cloud. Pant had fallen cheaply in the first two T20Is, and while Kohli had managed to stick around longer than Pant, he hadn’t looked fluent. In this game too, they played within themselves at the start, getting used to the pace of the pitch, and then began opening up. They ended up adding 106 in just 12.5 overs, with the last five overs of the stand yielding 55 runs. It was a partnership that finished the match off as a contest, but Pant ensured there was a flourish at the end, driving Brathwaite straight back over his head and into the sightscreen for the winning hit.

Sachin Tendulkar’s son, a left-arm quick, is set to play two four-day matches in Sri Lanka next month

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jun-20181:15

Archive: Tendulkar’s son bowls at England in the nets

Arjun Tendulkar, the son of Sachin Tendulkar, has been picked in the India Under-19 squad for two four-day matches in Sri Lanka in July.A left-arm quick, Arjun, had been picked in the Mumbai Under-19 one-day side for the JY Lele invitational tournament in September last year. He also bowled in the nets in the lead-up to the Lord’s Test between England and South Africa in 2017, sending Jonny Bairstow off with an injury scare when he struck him on the toe with a yorker. Arjun also bowled in the India nets during the home series against New Zealand last year.However, he did not find a place in the one-day squad that will play five games against Sri Lanka. The four-day squad will be captained by 18-year-old Delhi wicketkeeper-batsman Anuj Rawat, who had scored two half-centuries, including one on debut, in as many matches for Delhi during the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy.”We are happy on Arjun being selected in Indian under-19 team. It is an important milestone in his cricketing life. Anjali and I will always support Arjun in his choices and pray for his success,” Sachin told The one-day squad will be led by 16-year-old Uttar Pradesh wicketkeeper-batsman Aryan Juyal, who had played two matches in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier this year and was part of the Under-19 World Cup winning team in January.Seventeen-year old left-arm spinner from Gujarat Siddharth Desai was picked in both squads. He also made his first-class debut in the 2017-18 season and was named the Man of the Match in his first two matches, taking nine and eight wickets against Kerala and Haryana respectively. He currently has 29 wickets from five first-class matches and three scalps from as many one-day matches.Atharwa Taide, also picked in both squads, was the captain of the Vidarbha Under-19 team that won the Cooch Behar Trophy earlier this year. He led them to their maiden title with a marathon knock of 320 off 483 balls in the final against Madhya Pradesh.

The Delhi Daredevils batsmen did not recognise the troubles a slow pitch in Mohali would pose and were bowled out for 67

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Apr-2017The Delhi Daredevils batsmen were at a loss for ideas out on the field in Mohali and their mentor Rahul Dravid was at a loss for words in the press conference. His team was bowled out for 67 – their lowest total in IPL – and Kings XI Punjab beat them with 10 wickets and 73 balls to spare.”Really disappointing… I don’t know… there’s not much to say,” Dravid said amid long pauses, perhaps recalling how his team struggled endlessly on a pitch that was slower than normal. “We were really poor and we didn’t bat particularly intelligently on that kind of wicket. We didn’t assess the conditions well enough and we didn’t give ourselves a chance.Sandeep Sharma, on the other hand, did realise the opportunity that lay underfoot. He concentrated on bowling a tight line and hitting a good length, demanding the batsmen play on the up. Those shots had been so very easy in the Mohali of two days ago, when the match took place under lights. But now a dry surface, baking under the afternoon sun, the ball kept stopping on the batsman.”Normally you see Sandeep swings the ball a lot but I think he quickly figured the wicket was slightly on the slower side and so he bowled wicket to wicket and hit the right lengths,” Dravid said. “I think the key for him really was the length. That sort of forced our batsmen to play some shots and we hit the ball in the air a lot which was not a wise thing to do so much on a slow wicket.”Daredevils came to Mohali with a four-match losing streak and desperately wanted to break it. “It was going to be a defining week for us,” Dravid said. “It hasn’t started particularly well. Hopefully we can go to Delhi and turn it around.”To do so, they might need to sort out the kinks in their batting line-up. Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair and Rishabh Pant make up the top five and they have only ten international caps between them.Dravid, however, had a counter to that criticism. “But they’ve been playing the IPL for a while now,” he said. “Most of them have shown glimpses of good performances in this tournament and in the past as well. So really its going to be up to us and then themselves to lift ourselves up after this and really go out and try and play good cricket and not think too far ahead, try and focus on the next game and put in, definitely, a much better performance.”The other talking point was the out-of-form Karun Nair assuming captaincy of the team with Zaheer Khan injured.”Obviously last year’s vice-captain JP [Duminy] isn’t here and Quinton [de Kock] isn’t here as well, so we had decided that Karun would be the person who would take over the captaincy and we stuck with that,” Dravid said. “There are times when people are going to run out of form. Whether you’re the captain or vice-captain sometimes you run out of form. It happens. That’s not a reflection on his captaincy. Still he’s led junior teams and he’s led quite well. Nothing much he can do when you don’t put enough runs on the board.”

The India-Pakistan World T20 match on March 19 has been moved to Eden Gardens in Kolkata, because of security concerns over the original venue Dharamsala

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Mar-20161:35

The Ind-Pak decision wasn’t taken lightly – David Richardson

The India-Pakistan World T20 match on March 19 has been moved to Eden Gardens in Kolkata, because of security concerns over the original venue Dharamsala. The ICC chief executive David Richardson made the announcement in Delhi on Wednesday, ending weeks of uncertainty over the fixture, which began with the Himachal Pradesh chief minister saying his government would not be able to provide adequate security for the match.The PCB, however, has continued to delay the departure of the Pakistan men’s and women’s teams to India pending assurance from the BCCI or the Indian government. “The PCB has also today conveyed to ICC and BCCI that our government is expecting an assurance to Pakistan against specific threats to the Pakistan team from various political parties and groups during the tour,” the board said in a release. “Pending this assurance and in accordance with the recommendation by the security delegation, the PCB has decided to defer the departure of Pakistan men and women teams to India.””The decision to relocate the match has been made for security reasons,” Richardson said in Delhi. “The concerns initially arose following alleged public comments recently reported by the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, warning of demonstration and attempts to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the match. Our concerns relate both to uncertainty as to the level of those threats as well as the level of commitment to implement any security plan developed to mitigate such treats.”The decision was not taken lightly. The ICC and the BCCI understand the disappointment that is likely to be felt by many over the decision to move the match. But the safety and security of the event is of paramount importance to the ICC and we have taken into consideration the concerns shared with us by our security advisors as well as Pakistan Cricket Board.”As far as those who have purchased tickets online for the match, they will be offered the choice of a full refund or the opportunity to exchange their tickets for ones for the Kolkata match.”Finally, I would like to confirm that the ICC has been assured by all relevant state authorities that all adequate security measure are in place and will be implemented to ensure that the event is staged in a safe and secure environment for all stakeholders.”Though the PCB had always expressed reservations about playing in Dharamsala once the issue began, the BCCI and the ICC remained confident the game would go ahead as planned. However, the problems came to a head this week after a three-man security delegation from Pakistan inspected the venue and was unhappy with the preparations. Their report to the PCB on Tuesday recommended that Pakistan not play at the venue, and the ICC announced the change in venue the next day.

Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins is set to miss much of the 2013-14 domestic season after a recurrence of his lower back stress injury

Brydon Coverdale19-Aug-2013Fast bowler Pat Cummins is set to miss a third consecutive home summer with a recurrence of his lower back stress injury. Cummins, 20, made his long-awaited return to first-class cricket on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa over the past month but after taking five wickets in two first-class games, and none in a 50-over match, he was sent home early with back trouble that has proven serious.”Pat returned home early from the Australia A tour of South Africa with some side/back soreness and scans have shown a partial recurrence of his lower back bone stress injury suffered in October last year when he returned home from Champions League,” CA chief medical officer, Justin Paoloni, said. “He will be closely monitored to determine his return to the playing field, but expect that he will miss most of the 2013-14 domestic cricket season.”Cummins has been plagued by injuries, particularly back and foot problems, since he was Man of the Match on his Test debut in Johannesburg, where he claimed seven wickets in Australia’s memorable victory in November 2011. The injuries have been so persistent that Cummins had been unable to add to his first-class tally of four matches until the recent A series in Africa, and he has not played a Sheffield Shield match since March 2011.The management of Cummins has become a major issue for Cricket Australia’s management and medical staff, who seem uncertain as to whether more bowling or less is the answer to strengthening his developing body. He returned home from his maiden Test tour in 2011 with a foot injury and a back stress fracture ruling him out of the 2012-13 home summer, and his only cricket of note in the past couple of years has been in the shorter formats.Last June, Cummins was part of Australia’s one-day international campaign in England but was sent home with a side strain, and he returned in September for T20s against Pakistan in the UAE and the World Twenty20 that followed. However, Cummins went straight on to the Champions League T20 in South Africa in October last year and returned home with the back problem that ended his home summer before it began.Cummins travelled with the Australia A squad to England in May this year as a non-playing member of the group as Australia’s management aimed to reintegrate him back into the mix. At the time, Cummins said that he had worked with a running coach in an effort to fix the mechanics of his action and straighten out the alignment of his body, hoping to place less stress on his back.”It’s going against everything I’ve done for the last 20 years and trying to do something totally different,” Cummins told ESPNcricinfo at the time. “It’s certainly been a little bit foreign, but at the same time I want to nail it down because I know it’s going to turn me into a better bowler.”

Kevin Pietersen’s fractured relationship with the England team will take years rather than weeks to repair if it can be mended at all, Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur has said

Daniel Brettig22-Aug-2012Kevin Pietersen’s fractured relationship with the England team will take years rather than weeks to repair if it can be mended at all, Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur has said.The breach of trust inherent in text messages Pietersen is alleged to have sent to his South African opponents during the recently completed Test series, among a myriad of other issues, forced the batsman’s removal from the England dressing room. Arthur, a former coach of South Africa, told ESPNcricinfo that in the circumstances England’s selectors had no other choice but to drop Pietersen.”It takes time to mend,” Arthur said of the rift between player and team. “They say trust and reputation takes a year to two years to really build, and you can lose it in two minutes. I think that’s where they’ve got to with KP now.”England have dealt with it in the best possible way. The way they’ve handled it has been clinical, its been ruthless, it’s been very good. It did obviously upset their team a bit, but little Jonny Bairstow came in and got 95 and 54 at Lord’s and played really well, another guy steps up to the plate and does the job.”There’s no one guy that’s bigger than the team and England must’ve thought that KP had got to that point. It was tough for them, it was pretty unsettling, but I think they’ve handled it very well.”Arthur was a bleary-eyed spectator for the Test matches in England, watching the matches on television in his Perth home. He was not surprised by the success of South Africa’s bowlers in tucking up Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook from around the wicket, but also lauded Vernon Philander for his adroit use of new-ball swing.”I know from our last meetings with Cook and Strauss in 2008, we certainly came around the wicket to them,” Arthur said. “Morne Morkel has been the one who has created a lot of problems from around the wicket, and that is certainly a line we’d explore to attack [against England]. What Philander did was he swung it, and anybody who swings the ball is going to be a handful.”You want to try to play with the batsmen’s feet, that’s why you need to use your bouncer well, use it intelligently, that type of stuff. South Africa definitely did it very well.”Arthur’s team are scheduled to be South Africa’s next Test opponents in three home matches at the outset of the Australian summer, a prospect now rich with meaning since the winner of the series will be able to lay claim to top spot on the ICC’s Test rankings.”It looks like being another Test championship series and it is a mouth-watering prospect, certainly one I’m really looking forward to,” Arthur said. “Our Test side’s a really settled unit, to beat South Africa now you’ve got to play really disciplined cricket for a long period of time and hopefully we can have the preparation and be ready for that when the time comes.”I know from our time together that the South African guys are a resilient bunch, they enjoy touring together, they’re a really good team, a good team ethos going, they’re well-led, and very well coached. I think they all believe in their ability now, they believe in their ability to win the big games, and I can’t wait for that Test series [in Australia].”In the meantime Australia have 50-over and Twenty20 assignments in the UAE and Sri Lanka, with Arthur leaving the ODI leg of the tour to his assistant Steve Rixon. Rather than marshal the team against Afghanistan and Pakistan, Arthur will be tuning his plans with George Bailey for the World T20, particularly the nuances of the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo where the Australians will be based for the group phase.”I’m just clearing my head and getting a good idea in terms of the roles we want to use for players,” Arthur said. “There will be a bit of opposition analysis in that, and just getting a real clear head around the way we want to tackle this, have a look at how successful teams have played at Premadasa, study that ground a little bit. I’m suspecting towards that back end of the tournament that the wickets will turn, so I’m just getting all the attention to detail right.”

Overcast conditions and a sporting pitch gave the bowlers the edge in
Canterbury, where 15 wickets fell on the opening day of Kent’s County
Championship Division Two clash with neighbours Essex

31-Aug-2011
Scorecard
Overcast conditions and a sporting pitch gave the bowlers the edge in
Canterbury, where 15 wickets fell on the opening day of Kent’s County
Championship Division Two clash with neighbours Essex.Having rolled over the visitors for 144, Kent limped to 160 for 5 for a
meagre lead of 16 on a wicket that might yet catch the eye of ECB pitch liaison
officers come day two. Responding to Essex’s modest first-innings total, Kent – who were without
injured captain and opening batsman Rob Key – posted 51 for the first wicket
before Daniel Bell-Drummond was stumped by James Foster off former Kent seamer
David Masters.In-form Joe Denly coasted to a 48-ball 50 and appeared in little until another
one from Masters kept a little low to snare the right-hander leg before and make
it 79 for 2. Sam Northeast fenced at one from Masters that climbed off the pitch to steer a
catch to first slip, then Darren Stevens paid the price for an ambitious drive
against Ryan ten Doeschate that rattled middle and off stumps.Martin van Jaarsveld limped to 17 before he too went leg before, although he
appeared to get a slight inside edge on the delivery from ten Doeschate, but
James Tredwell (15 not out) and acting skipper Geraint Jones (16no) took Kent
into the lead in surviving through to the close.Visitors Essex lost five wickets during an overcast first session after winning
the toss and electing to bat first. After an accurate new-ball stint from Matt Coles and Stevens, it took the sixth ball of the day from on-loan David Balcombe to fashion Kent’s first breakthrough
after 14 overs.Billy Godleman’s late decision to shoulder arms proved costly when the ball
jagged back in to trim the left-hander’s off stump and make it 25 for 1. Owais Shah lasted five deliveries before he pushed down the wrong line of a swinging delivery to go leg before to Stevens.And, with 31 against his name, Tom Westley drove airily at a Steven’s away
swinger only to snick to second slip. Balcombe, in the second month of his temporary move from Hampshire, impressed again by having Adam Wheater caught at backward point after the diminutive right-hander had seemingly checked and sliced an attempted cover drive.In the over before lunch Jaik Mickleburgh, in trying to withdraw his bat, only
succeeded in gloving the ball onto his stump to give Balcombe a third wicket.
The batsman then spent much of the afternoon having his hand X-rayed.The Essex innings simply unravelled after the break as they lost their last
five wickets for 69 runs to be dismissed just after 3pm. Captain James Foster top-scored with a watchful 38 from 75 balls before skying a slower ball to extra cover as Balcombe marched towards career-best figures of 6 for 51.It was Balcombe’s third haul of five wickets or more in an innings in his four
championship starts for Kent, and took his championship wickets tally to 20.

Cricket Australia could be sorely disappointed if it hopes its new split-innings format will eliminate the slow-moving middle overs from one-dayers

Brydon Coverdale13-Aug-2010Cricket Australia could be sorely disappointed if it hopes its new split-innings format will eliminate the slow-moving middle overs from one-dayers. The concept was trialled in England’s county second XI competition this year and it often resulted in a cautious brand of “handbrake” batting at the end of the first innings and the start of the second.Cricket Australia’s format will give teams only 10 wickets across the entire match, so the first innings could be a grind as the top order builds a platform without losing too many batsmen. The Victoria legspinner Bryce McGain has been playing with Essex this month and said the feedback he received from the men involved in the county trial was that momentum was difficult to generate.”The tactics that they used here – and I spoke to quite a number of guys who experienced it – was that they really wound back those last four or five overs because they didn’t want to lose a wicket,” McGain told Cricinfo. “Then when you went back in, the batsmen had to get back in so it took four or five overs to get things started again.”The experience that the English players had was that when you’re building momentum it actually put a handbrake on. It will be interesting to see how it pans out. Maybe the Australians will do it tactically a little bit different, but it will certainly make it interesting.”The Australian board is adamant that moving to a split-innings 45-over format was prompted by feedback from the public, but the players remain unconvinced about the changes. The Australian Cricketers’ Association said 78% of its surveyed members were against the idea, and there have been mixed responses in the Twitter-sphere.Graham Manou, who took part in a split-innings practice match this week, wrote on his Twitter page: “Well I’m certainly going to need some convincing that the split 40 over games are good cricket and more importantly spectators.”One of Australia’s most successful one-day bowlers in recent history, Nathan Bracken, tweeted: “Not a massive fan of it. Could make some games very boring if a team gets a bad start.”But it was not all negative reaction from the players. Aaron Finch, the young Victorian batsman who established himself as a strong limited-overs cricketer last summer, wrote that the format was “Something new and exciting for both fans and players! Can’t wait”.One of the major sticking points for Australia’s ODI players is the decision to implement the new format a few months before a 50-over World Cup. Australia’s World Cup squad will be announced in December, before the seven-match one-day series against England, meaning that fringe players have virtually no chance to press their claims in the regular format.During the planning stages, Michael Hussey was a vocal critic of the move and last month he questioned Cricket Australia’s timing. After the Lord’s Test against Pakistan, the Australian squad was briefed by James Sutherland on some of the possible changes, which were at that stage unconfirmed.”We’ve got to be a little bit careful,” Hussey said in July after the briefing. “We’ve got to make sure we try and get as many players prepared for the 50-over World Cup as we can. I’m not sure the timing is great. There’s a lot of young guys out there that would see themselves as a chance of making the World Cup squad and they probably need as much exposure to 50-over cricket as possible.”

The New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter will be available for the entire BBL

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Aug-2024Melbourne Renegades have signed New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert on two-year deal as a pre-draft BBL signing.Seifert, 29, will have full availability across those two seasons as Renegades look to improve on last season’s seventh place finish. His BBL deal means he will miss at least part of the Super Smash, New Zealand’s domestic T20 tournament, and won’t be in contention for the white-ball series against Pakistan over Christmas and New Year. Last month he turned down a domestic contract with Northern Districts in order to open up freelance T20 opportunities.Related

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Seifert has played three ODIs and 61 T20Is for New Zealand while has also been part of T20 leagues around the world. Overall in the format he averages 27.43 with a strike-rate of 130.12 including three centuries. Last month he finished as the leading run-scorer in the Lanka Premier League with 400 at 57.14 and a strike-rate of 135.13.It appears likely he will form a power-packed top three for Renegades alongside Josh Brown, who joined from Brisbane Heat, and Jake Fraser-McGurk while he also shapes as a frontrunner to take the keeping gloves after overseas signings Quinton de Kock and Jordan Cox shared the role last season.”I’m thrilled to be here for the next two seasons, I’ll be able to enjoy the environment and get to know the club on that deeper level which doesn’t often happen in franchise cricket so I’m excited to call myself a Gade for the next couple of seasons at least,” Seifert said.”That top three spot would be outstanding and if Cam [White] feels like I’m the man to take the gloves I’ll be ready for that too. At the same time, I’m ready to fit in and play whatever role Whitey and the Renegades need me to play.”Renegades general manager James Rosengarten added: “Tim gives us a double threat; we get a powerful and skilled batter plus an established international keeper and regular member of the Blackcaps program, so we’re excited to welcome into the club.”The beauty is Tim has full availability which is extremely valuable for topline overseas players this BBL season and its fantastic for our club to lock in Tim and still retain our prized Platinum pick.”The BBL draft will take place on September 1. Renegades have pick numbers 2, 10, 23 and 26.