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ESPNcricinfo previews the second semi-final between India and Sri Lanka

The Preview by Siddarth Ravindran19-Jun-2013

Match Facts

Thursday, June 20
Start time 1030 (0930 GMT)Ravindra Jadeja is having a sensational year•Associated Press

The Big Picture

Even as Clint McKay and Xavier Doherty were doing their darnedest to drive Australia to a sensational victory over Sri Lanka at The Oval, there were plenty of non-Australians cheering them on, just so that the cricket world will be spared yet another India-Sri Lanka ODI. In the last five years, the two sides have met a mind numbing 44 times in ODIs, and will face off again in a tri-series in the Caribbean starting next week. The teams are so familiar with each other and their strategies that MS Dhoni said: “You can also cut the extra 15 minutes of time in a team meeting and keep it simple.”At least unlike a majority of those previous encounters, Thursday’s clash is a high-stakes, high-profile game. Even that could be ruined, though, as the weather forecast is dire. Sri Lanka, whose cricket season at home is regularly blighted by rain, are the only team to have been fortunate to get three full group matches, but that run looks set to come to an end with plenty of showers expected in Cardiff.What’s worse for Sri Lanka is that, in case of a washout, India will go through on account of being winners of Group B. The Champions Trophy is marketed as a “short, sharp” tournament, but not having a reserve day for the knockout matches is stretching that concept a bit too far. The only other times these teams have met in the Champions Trophy was also in a big game, the final in 2002, which was washed out despite the reserve day.A week ago, midway through the league stage, Sri Lanka seemed headed for the exit as Ravi Bopara’s burst in the final over lifted England to 293. Sri Lanka, however, hunted down that total before reeling off an impressive victory over Australia to progress to the semi-finals, a stage they regularly reach in global tournaments. Despite that, they have precious little silverware to show so far, something the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara will be desperate to change.To achieve that, they have to get past the form team of the tournament. There had been a bit of trepidation over how a revamped India would cope with the loss of vastly experienced players like Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan. Their absence hasn’t been felt yet, as India’s new opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have been prolific, and Ravindra Jadeja’s miraculous season continues. A team traditionally filled with slow-coaches has now been transformed to one the normally cautious Dhoni calls “the best fielding side in the world”. In the crunch matches, though, will the inexperience show?

Form guide

(Most recent first, last five completed matches)
India WWWLW
Sri Lanka WWLLW

Watch out for…

Two of Sri Lanka’s batting giants, Sangakkara and Jayawardene, have already played match-winning innings in this tournament. The third, Tillakaratne Dilshan, hasn’t hit the same heights, though he has contributed with the ball, and took an athletic caught-and-bowled that confirmed Sri Lanka’s qualification. Dilshan has top scored in Sri Lanka’s two longest ODI tournaments in recent years, the World Cup and the CB series in 2011-12. Sri Lanka will be looking to him to lift his game when it counts once again.R Ashwin has firmly established himself as India’s lead spinner, and has grown so much in confidence that he even attempted a conventional legspinner in the Pakistan match. India’s bowling has yet to be strenuously tested in this tournament, and with a callow pace attack that is yet to prove itself under serious pressure, Ashwin’s role assumes even more importance.

Team news

India are unlikely to make any changes to the line-up that has served them so well in the league phase.India (probable) 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh YadavSri Lanka are also likely to retain the same XI. The one change they might consider is bringing in Thisara Perera for Shaminda Eranga.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Kusal Perera, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Dinesh Chandimal, 7 Lahiru Thirimanne, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Rangana Herath, 11 Shaminda Eranga/Thisara Perera

Pitch and conditions

Pitches in Cardiff have been of contrasting nature. More than 600 runs were scored in the opening match, and the next was a low-scoring thriller between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in which 19 wickets went down for 277 runs. The semi-final will be played on a fresh surface that hasn’t yet been used in the tournament.More than the pitch, though, the weather will be key – light to heavy rain is expected through the day, which will lead to a curtailed match or, at worst, a washout.

Stats and trivia

• In the last five years, India and Sri Lanka have played 54 matches against each other across formats, the most by any two teams in a five-year span
• Among active players, no batsman has more runs against one team than Kumar Sangakkara has against India – 2435.
• Of Rohit Sharma’s eight ducks, five have come against Sri Lanka.

Quotes

“There’s no room for revenge in sport, but yes, if we can beat the Indians, I think it’ll be a great achievement for the whole team because, you know, there are thoughts about the World Cup final, and the recent history against them is not very good for Sri Lanka.”

“We are used to [Lasith] Malinga. We play him so many times in IPL. He reverses the ball and remains dangerous.”

Ben Cutting, the Queensland fast bowler, has become the third paceman to withdraw from Australia A’s tour of England due to injury

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jul-2012Ben Cutting, the Queensland fast bowler, has become the third paceman to withdraw from Australia A’s tour of England due to injury, flying home following the conclusion of the tourists’ opening match against Derbyshire.Cutting, 25, had not been selected in the XI for the match, and was diagnosed with a back problem that necessitated his return home.In departing early from the tour, Cutting joined Pat Cummins and James Pattinson as fast bowlers unable to gain valuable experience in English climes on the tour due to injury.Cummins did not make the start of the tour, picking up a side strain during the preceding ODI tour by the senior team and heading home to Sydney.Pattinson played in the final two matches of that series before complaining of an abdominal strain and being sent home as Australia A prepared for their tour with a training camp in Southampton.Alister McDermott and Nathan Coulter-Nile were called into the squad in place of Cummins and Pattinson, and Cutting’s injury has enhanced their chances of taking part in the next match of the tour, against Durham from Wednesday.

Karnataka’s annual state-level Twenty20 tournament, the Karnataka Premier League, has hit a roadblock

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jun-2011Karnataka’s annual state-level Twenty20 tournament, the Karnataka Premier League, has hit a roadblock. According to reports, six of the eight franchises have asked for this year’s event – scheduled to be held from September 1 to 15 – to be postponed and have also complained about lack of assistance from the host Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) during previous editions.The franchises told the KSCA in a letter that rains could mar the tournament in September and there was hardly any time for doing promotional activities. The owners also expressed concerns over losing key Karnataka players as the KPL clashes with the BCCI’s corporate limited-overs tournament. They have requested that the tournament be held in February 2012.In another letter, the owners along with the title sponsors have said that the KSCA has not done enough to promote the tournament, especially during its second edition. The tournament was launched in 2009 under the SN Wadiyar-Brijesh Patel-led administration.Former India fast bowler Javagal Srinath, who is the secretary of the Anil Kumble-led KSCA administration which took over in November last year, said the matter would be resolved shortly. “We thought that September would be ideal and had also finalised July 27 as the player-auction date,” Srinath told the . “The owners have now sought a change in dates and we will look into it but we have to look at the BCCI calendar too and at the moment we are not sure about the international games we will get.”If there is a suitable window later we can have the tournament then. Even if Bangalore is not in a position to host some of the games, we will take the tournament to the rural centres. These are all operational issues and I am sure we can find a way and work around it.”

At least two boards are said to have given assurances to David Morgan, the outgoing ICC president in the last week, that they would support Howard only to change their minds eventually

Osman Samiuddin01-Jul-2010Support for John Howard’s appointment to the vice-presidency of the ICC fell away “significantly” in the last week with at least a couple of the boards, which eventually opposed the move, changing their stance in that time. What brought about the change, however, is not yet clear.Howard’s appointment was rejected on Wednesday by six of the ICC’s ten Full Members, thought to consist of the subcontinent boards of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well as South Africa and the West Indies. Zimbabwe is said to have provided the most vocal opposition privately and led the movement and, though they didn’t sign the letter that brought matters to such a head, they are believed to have played a prominent part in the decision.At least two boards are said to have given assurances to David Morgan, the outgoing ICC president in the last week, that they would support Howard only to change their minds eventually. “There had been a significant shift downwards in the level of support – that is a shift of support away from John Howard in the last week,” Morgan told Cricinfo, though he didn’t identify where the support fell away, or why it did.Ehsan Mani, the former ICC head who remains close to senior figures within the ICC, said the PCB and BCB – who had said they would seek government advice over the issue – had assured Morgan recently of their support, but backed down. “Both Bangladesh and Pakistan had assured David Morgan recently that they would support John Howard and I find it strange that they eventually opposed the move,” Mani told Cricinfo. “Were their arms twisted over the course of the last week? What made them change their stance?”None of the opposing members or the ICC has spoken publicly about the objections and under ICC rules they are not required to. Sri Lanka’s concern arose from Howard being a figure from outside cricket’s administrative fraternity. Others such as Zimbabwe and South Africa are believed to have based their disapproval on Howard’s past political leanings, particularly with the government of the former.The anger within the Australia and New Zealand boards, however, stems from not being given any concrete objections privately either. “There’s been no clear indication of what objections there were and that is disappointing in many ways to Australia and New Zealand,” said Morgan, who stepped down from his post on Thursday.”They went through a rigorous process to choose between two excellent candidates and I am disappointed that I was unable to push that nomination through. The new president [Sharad Pawar] and I had supported the nomination [the ICC press release of the time had expressed support to the rather than the nomination] but unfortunately I was unable to see it through,” Morgan said.The issue doesn’t show signs of being resolved any time soon. CA, it is understood, will continue backing Howard, though the ICC again urged the two boards to reconsider their nomination by August 31. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, refused to be drawn into speculating what would happen if Howard’s name was put up again. “I think that’s speculative and we must wait for August 31 and see what comes forward,” he said at a press conference in Singapore.Morgan believes one casualty of this conflict may be the system of putting forward a candidate for the post, which has already been through a number of guises since the mid 1990s. Currently nominations are put forward by a pair of regionally-aligned countries on a rotational basis: Howard was Australia and New Zealand’s choice. Pakistan and Bangladesh are next in line to put forward a nomination; one candidate will emerge from India and Sri Lanka; England and West Indies, and South Africa and Zimbabwe are the remaining regional pairings. In the past more general systems have been used, as well as variants of a regional policy.”The rotational system was used for the first time this time,” Morgan said. “There is a commitment to retain it but I have my doubts that it will stand.”There are broader concerns from yesterday’s development, in particular the apparent realigning of loyalties along lines that were thought to have mattered less in the last decade, those of race. The power of the Asian bloc was said to have weakened as the BCCI and CA drew closer in recent years to benefit from a profitable and exciting rivalry.But CA chairman Jack Clarke said yesterday that his board would be “cautious” in their dealings with the BCCI in future. “I think the lessons to be learnt for CA would be big ones after this incident,” Mani said. “Australia threw all their eggs into one basket over the last few years and it’s come back to bite them because they lost support from other boards while pursuing the BCCI.”But I think it is important for cricket to do some serious soul-searching and for the administration to draw a line somewhere about how one board can effectively have so much strength to be able to run the entire game. There needs to be a counter-balance.”

Smith, Maxwell and Head lead the charge for Washington, who lost just one game in MLC 2024

Andrew McGlashan29-Jul-2024Steven Smith led Washington Freedom to the Major League Cricket (MLC) 2024 title as they romped to an overwhelming 96-run victory against San Francisco Unicorns in Dallas. Smith and Australia team-mate Glenn Maxwell dominated with the bat then Unicorns’ chase disintegrated with Marco Jansen claiming both openers among his three wickets.The result cemented Freedom’s standing as the team of the season having secured five wins in the group stage before progressing direct to the final with victory over Unicorns in the Qualifier. This contest turned their way through a stand of 83 off 39 balls between Smith and Maxwell as Freedom added 121 in the second half of their innings.Smith, who was overlooked for Australia’s T20 World Cup squad earlier this year, overcame a sluggish start in the powerplay to make 88 off 52 balls including six sixes. Having been 10 off 12 balls in the sixth over he sped to a 34-ball fifty and ended the season as the joint second-leading run-scorer, alongside Travis Head, with 336 at a strike-rate of 148.67.Head, who has struck at over 170 during the tournament, fell early to Pat Cummins when he edged to slip, where Finn Allen held on at the second attempt, having been given a life in the opening over. But Andries Gous gave Freedom’s innings impetus as Smith found his feet although when Haris Rauf removed Rachin Ravindra after the midway mark, it was an even contest at 86 for 3.Glenn Maxwell found form towards the end of the tournament•MLC

Then Smith and Maxwell, the latter having found form in the closing stages of the tournament, took charge included 28 coming off the 13th over from Juanoy Drysdale. Smith produced an outrageous scoop for six off Rauf and was in sight of a century when he got a top edge off Cummins.It appears likely that Smith’s T20I career is over following his World Cup omission and absence from the squad to face Scotland and England in September as the selectors look to the future, but it has been a profitable few weeks for him in the US.Though Maxwell also fell in the next over, superbly caught by Josh Inglis, Freedom were still able to cross 200.Unicorns’ chase never got off the ground. Jake Fraser-McGurk’s low-key tournament ended when he edged into the stumps against Jansen to leave him with 81 runs at 11.57 then both Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Allen also fell inside the powerplay to leave a daunting task. Sherfane Rutherford was superbly caught at deep backward square by Ian Holland the ball after being dropped and the rest of the batting fell away amid a huge asking rate.Freedom’s victory gave Ricky Ponting a title as coach a couple of weeks after leaving his role with Delhi Capitals.

The pace bowler joins New South Wales while McDermott returns to Queensland

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2023Jackson Bird and Ben McDermott will both return to their home states in significant off-season departures from Tasmania.Bird, the 36-year-old pace bowler who played nine Tests for Australia, has joined New South Wales on a two-year deal while top-order batter McDermott heads back to Queensland where he made his first-class and one-day debuts in 2014.Bird, who was born in Sydney but has played his entire Australian first-class career with Tasmania, joins a NSW side looking rebuild after a horror season which saw them finish bottom of the Sheffield Shield. He brings with him a first-class record of 455 wickets at 24.89. During the 2020-21 campaign, Bird took his career-best 7 for 18 against New South Wales as they were skittled for 32.Related

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Bird is the most prolific active bowler in the Sheffield Shieldwith 350 competition wickets having overtaken the now-retired Trent Copeland during last season.”I played all my junior cricket in NSW and like any other aspiring professional in the state I wanted to pull on a Baggy Blue,” he said. “My career took a different path and I am very grateful to Cricket Tasmania and everyone that I have played with and worked with down there for what has been an amazing experience, both professionally and personally.”Now it’s a fresh start in a place I am familiar with, and I am looking forward to being able to contribute on the field and also around the playing group. The Blues have some very talented young bowlers and I hope I can offer them some guidance if they need it.”Meanwhile, McDermott returns to the state where the family name is part of cricket folklore after the career of his father, Craig.Ben McDermott struggled last season after a promising tour of Pakistan•AFP/Getty Images

He will be looking to rebound from a poor 2022-23 season where he lost his place in the Shield side having averaged 18.30 and managed two fifties at 25.14 in the Marsh Cup.Those numbers have stymied his international ambitions after a promising series against Pakistan in early 2022 which brought a maiden ODI hundred. Overall he has played five ODIs and 23 T20Is.”We’re very keen to work with Ben to help him realise his playing goals and no doubt his experience and skills will be welcomed by the playing group,” Bennett King, Queensland Cricket’s general manager of high performance, said. “He’s a seasoned player who has performed in all formats for Tasmania and Australia, and so it will be exciting to see him progress in the future.”McDermott joins what is a strong Queensland top-order when at full-strength although they are often hit by international call-ups. With the ODI World Cup in October and November they are unlikely to see much of Marnus Labuschagne although should get good service from Usman Khawaja and Matt Renshaw who are not in Australia’s white-ball set-up.

Former coach cites reported lack of support but writes of pride in what he has achieved

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2022Justin Langer has apologised if he came across as “too intense” in an emotional letter of resignation to the Cricket Australia board but said he hoped he had left the men’s team in a better position than when he arrived.The letter was published in the newspaper on Sunday, just over 24 hours after Langer had tendered his resignation as Australia men’s head coach, declining a short-term six-month contract extension that was offered to him on Friday.In the letter, Langer addressed the media speculation about his coaching style and said he accepted that the team wanted to head in a different direction.”There has been a great deal of media speculation on my future as the Australian men’s cricket coach over the last 12 months and this has taken an enormous toll on my family. I hope through this time, and throughout my tenure, I have held myself with integrity and dignity,” Langer wrote in the email to CEO Nick Hockley.”Last night I was offered a short-term contract until the end of the T20 World Cup in Australia, with the sentiment of ‘going out on a high’. After careful consideration I have decided not to accept this contract renewal, and as a result I believe it is in everyone’s best interests for the Australian cricket team to begin the next chapter immediately.”If media reports are correct, several senior players and a couple of support staff don’t support me moving forward, and it is now apparent the CA board, and you Nick, are also keen to see the team move in another direction. I respect that decision.””My life has been built on values of honesty, respect, trust, truth, and performance and if that comes across as ‘too intense’ at times, I apologise.”Related

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Hockley confirmed on Saturday that the six-month offer, unanimously endorsed by the board on Friday, would have been the end to Langer’s tenure with the view that it was time to transition to a new coaching era in the men’s team sighting unity as one of the key factors of the decision.Hockley also acknowledged that player relationships with Langer, which had come to a head last August before high-level talks patched the situation up to the extent that the World Cup and Ashes were won, were a factor in the board’s decision. Senior assistant Andrew McDonald has been appointed interim coach.Langer flew to Perth on Saturday having not been home in five months due to Western Australia’s border restrictions and began 14 days home quarantine.”It is said that in any venture, if you leave things in a better place than when you started then you have done your job,” he wrote.”Whilst it is not up to me to judge, I hope Australians respect what has been achieved over the last four years in Australian cricket. From day one I believed it was possible to both win and play the game in the spirit that is now expected from our supporters.”For the last four years it has been proven this can be achieved and I am very proud of the team for their efforts on and off the cricket field. I hope we have made Australians proud and earned respect from countries around the world.”In terms of ‘going out on a high’, I am blessed to have been a part of a T20 World Cup-winning squad, an Ashes winning squad, watched the Test team rise to #1 ranked team in the world today, been selected as the Wisden Coach of the Year and been elevated to the Australian cricket Hall of Fame; all this in the last five months.”I am grateful that today, I am going out on a high.”

Allrounder points to throwaway comments on skin colour and a lack of cultural training for professional cricketers

Daniel Brettig08-Sep-2020Casual racism within Australian cricket has been allowed to fester through a lack of adequate cultural awareness education for players, support staff and officialdom over the past two decades, leaving many to consider their past behaviour through the prism of the Black Lives Matter movement.This is one of many uncomfortable conclusions to be drawn from Cricket Australia’s first attempt to reckon with its past and present mistakes in dealing with Indigenous players and issues of race more generally. It takes the form of a series of discussion panels under the banner of Cricket Connecting Country that will air on the governing body’s digital platforms on Wednesday night, hosted by the CA board director Mel Jones.In a discussion featuring two noted experts on race and culture in Nyadol Nyuon, a commercial litigator with the Melbourne law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, and Janine Mohamed, chief executive of the Lowitja Institute dedicated to Aboriginal health, the Indigenous Australian cricketer Dan Christian catalogued the extent of casual racism he had experienced, largely around ignorant critiques of his Aboriginality based on his appearance.”I think it is an issue in Australian cricket, I don’t think it’s as ‘in your face’ as you might see around the world or even elsewhere in Australian culture,” Christian told the panel. “I think it’s definitely there, it’s more of a casual racism, just little throwaway lines here and there, made to be jokes and a lot of that for me personally has been around the colour of my skin and the fact that I don’t look Aboriginal or whatever that means. That’s the most noticeable thing for me.”It’s just something that comes with a lack of education and an ignorance. I don’t think a lot of people say it with any kind of malice, it’s just that they don’t understand and don’t know. When all the BLM stuff came out in the last couple of months, one of the things I related to the most was Meyne Wyatt’s monologue on QandA, which I thought was absolutely brilliant. There’s one little section of that where he talks about being asked that question and his comment back to whoever asked it was ‘well what part am I, is it my foot, is it my arm, is it my leg’. I’ve had those kinds of questions a lot and it was a pretty good way to look at it.”However I’ve received a lot of messages over the past few months from people I’ve played with and against that have said ‘sorry if I’ve ever said anything to you that you’ve been offended by, please help, I’d love to know more about your personal story, your family story, things that I can do in the community to try and help out’ and so from that perspective I think it’s been a wonderful thing to have happened to be able to have that conversation and for people to want to make change.”Christian noted, somewhat ruefully, that he had received more education about cultural awareness and understanding of the many and varied racial backgrounds in Australian life during a brief stint in a public service job prior to his professional cricket career, than in any of the many seasons since.”Before I started playing cricket I was working for the government in the Indigenous employment branch in the department of employment and workplace relations in the early 2000s, and one of the first things I did when I had that job, and the whole department had to go through it, was cross-cultural awareness training,” he said. “So you learned all sorts of things about our own culture and other cultures and how to integrate, and all that stuff.”It was all really interesting, fantastic, relevant stuff. That was in the early 2000s. I’ve been playing cricket ever since, and not once have I ever been through any kind of training or heard about any kind of training like that throughout cricket. So that’s one thing we could at least do to raise some awareness and to educate people within our sport. I just don’t think that’s something we’ve ever looked at in the past, and I think, particularly now is a great chance to do something like that.”Australia’s cricketers are still on their own journey to a better understanding of the game’s rich Aboriginal history, including the 1868 tour of England by an Indigenous team that was the first ever overseas visit by any representative sporting team from this country. In many ways the women’s team has been able to progress more fully on the path towards proper understanding and connection than their male equivalents.Dan Christian in his follow-through•Getty Images

This was underlined by how, after the men’s limited-overs team captain Aaron Finch stated that the team would not be “taking a knee” in recognition of the BLM movement before their first T20I in England last week, the Australian women’s team vice-captain Rachael Haynes stated that a deeper understanding of Indigenous culture and its connection to cricket had made numerous observances, both last year and in planning for the season to come, so much more meaningful.”The great thing about being involved with it was that it wasn’t a superficial event,” Haynes said of the team donning Indigenous-inspired uniforms for the Reconcilitation match played against England last summer. “Quite often when we do things on the field, you walk out as a player and you’re just part of that one moment and then you move on and you play the game. One of the things I really enjoyed about being involved in it was it started perhaps six months before that moment.”CA came and presented to us on the whole concept and then spoke about the jersey that was going to get produced and we did some activities leading into it as well to get an appreciation of indigenous culture and for me as a player that was much more valuable than just stepping out onto the field and going through the ceremony and not perhaps understanding different moments you were part of.”I think that’s something sport has a responsibility to do, is just because the lights and cameras are out and flashing, that’s not just the moment you’re looking to capture. If you want to be impactful long-term, you’ve actually got to take the opportunity leading in to educate the players on what they’re doing and why they’re doing it and what the opportunity is as well. Rather than just getting them to step out onto the field and be part of a ceremony which is really symbolic and great to be part of, but that shouldn’t be where it stops and starts.”Nevertheless, Haynes acknowledged the fact that instances of racist language and behaviour were still far more frequent in Australian cricket than anyone should condone, citing a recent example she had witnessed personally.”When I did hear it I was really taken aback in the moment and the situation, because it came from a place where it didn’t come from a teammate or the team environment, it came from a place surrounding that, and in a moment where I didn’t envisage that would happen,” Haynes said. “I did say something to call it out, but it really hit home to me that much of the points that are being raised around casual racism, even how its ingrained in some younger children, not even really knowing that’s what they’re being taught.”There’s lots of things we need to do to overcome that, how we talk in the media, how we call out behaviour. I think there’s a huge role for sport to play in that. We’ve started to see that as well even with other codes, people are really starting to call out poor behaviour, we’ve seen that a lot on social media. So sport has a huge role to play in trying to make people accountable for some of the things they’re saying.”Nyuon and Mohamed concluded their own many insights by noting that any “allies” to the cause of Black and Aboriginal justice needed to be well stocked with resilience and willingness to struggle. This first episode of Cricket Connecting Country, to be followed by two others, helps CA to enter into the many difficult conversations that will entail.

Sean Dickson, Heino Kuhn shine with the bat as task proves too great for Surrey’s bowlers

Daniel Norcross at Beckenham23-May-2019By the end of this fluctuating, frequently fascinating match, 22 players and a couple of physios will quite definitely have earned their sleep. Whether Surrey’s bowlers, who threw everything they had at a Kent side that showed exceptional character to survive a turbulent fourth day and force a draw, will be able to achieve the sanctuary of somnolence, is an altogether different matter.Kent began the day needing an additional, and highly improbable 380 runs to pull off victory with nine wickets in hand. Had they succeeded it would have been the 12th-highest successful run chase in County Championship history. The fact that scribes were rushing around, consulting scorers and
archivists in search of this arcane statistic tells you how well Kent’s middle order negotiated the bulk of a terrific day.Adam Riley, the nightwatchman, survived what in retrospect was a crucial 35 minutes before Sam Curran uprooted his leg stump with a yorker speared in from round the wicket. But in what proved perhaps the pivotal moment of the match shortly after, Curran was forced from the field, clutching
his hamstring. Surrey have had wretched luck with injuries this season, and being a bowler down on an unresponsive track under glorious blue skies put an ultimately impossible burden on the pace bowling trio of Morne Morkel, Rikki Clarke and Conor McKerr. Throughout this match the new ball has been a disproportionately powerful weapon. To be deprived of their chief exponent of swing was a cruel blow so early in the day.What followed was the day’s first flashpoint. Clarke, twice in two balls was convinced he had Daniel Bell-Drummond. The first was a superb piece of umpiring by Graham Lloyd who adjudged that the noise everyone heard was in fact the ball brushing the back of the batsman’s leg. The second decision was perhaps a little tighter. Bell-Drummond looked to be trapped bang in front on the knee roll. He might just about have jammed the ball into his pad. If he hadn’t, he was stone dead.Clarke took the latter view and expressed his displeasure. The umpires convened. Words were spoken. We will find out soon enough if there are ramifications. Surrey have been reprimanded before, and rather too often for their comfort. They really don’t need an appearance before the Cricket
Disciplinary Commission. The sound and fury was soon forgotten as Bell-Drummond was adjudged lbw in Clarke’s next over.Three down at lunch and the game was still very much Surrey’s for the winning. By tea, thoughts had flipped to an improbable and spectacular Kent run chase as Surrey’s bowlers laboured with the older ball. Once again Sean Dickson defied the attack with a compact and organised display. He fell nine runs short of what would have been his second century of the match, edging Clarke behind.Between now and late July many eyes will be on potential England openers for the Ashes. Dickson might just be one to keep an eye on. His wicket was the only one to fall in that middle session and Kent went to tea requiring a further 193 to win from 35 overs with six wickets in hand. Six and a half really given Riley’s nightwatchman status.Morkel inevitably was entrusted with the new ball as soon as it became available. Immediately he picked up Ollie Robinson, caught at midwicket to end a stand of 70 with Kent’s captain Heino Kuhn, who was threatening to reach the parts that other diminutive South African-born middle-order batsmen can’t reach.Robinson’s departure was followed soon after, though, by Kuhn, who was at the very least dismayed, incandescent with fury perhaps, when Lloyd decided that a ball that leaped from Morkel and seemed to take his shoulder was judged to have grazed his bat en route.At 263 for 6 and with another 26 overs to be bowled, fleeting thoughts of Kent’s highest fourth-innings run chase were abandoned. It was all about the draw now. Had Clarke, who bowled magnificently throughout this game, not overstepped when enticing an edge from Wiaan Mulder (again umpire Lloyd the adjudicator) into the momentarily gleeful hands of Dean Elgar at slip, that draw would most likely never have come. Instead Mulder hung on to the end to register an unbeaten half-century on his Kent debut to go with his five wickets.Alex Blake and Darren Stevens negotiated 70 balls between them and Harry Podmore managed to see out the last four overs to bring home ten points for the home side.Promoted teams often struggle in Division One. This year only one side will be relegated. In the last ten years, an average of eight points per match has been enough every year but one to guarantee finishing above the bottom club. Kent have so far managed 43 points in four matches. More importantly, they have stood toe to toe with the champions and despite a poor session at the end of day two, have come out with honours even.Their fans needn’t fear relegation. After a performance like this, they can entertain loftier ambitions.

Cricket Australia has made a written complaint to Cricket South Africa about taunts largely directed at the partners and families of Steven Smith’s team

Daniel Brettig in Cape Town23-Mar-2018Personal abuse directed by Newlands spectators at the Australian side during the third Test has been labelled “disgraceful” by the coach Darren Lehmann, as Cricket South Africa responded to a written complaint from Cricket Australia following taunts about the partners and families of Steven Smith’s team.David Warner’s post-dismissal exchange with a spectator on day two was the visible tip of an iceberg’s worth of abuse over the first two days of the match, with nine spectators ejected on day two, after three had been blocked from entry on day one for wearing offensive t-shirts on the opening day. None of the ejected spectators have been banned from returning later in the match.Lehmann said the abuse, typically directed at the nearest Australian fielder to the boundary when the South African side was batting on days one and two, was the worst his team had witnessed anywhere in the world. “We accept it all around the world, but as soon as they cross the line and they talk about players’ families the whole time and getting abused like that, it’s just not on,” Lehmann said. “There’s been various incidents throughout the Test series but this one has taken the cake.”I think it’s been disgraceful. You’re talking about abuse of various players and their families and personal abuse, it’s not on at a cricket ground anywhere around the world, not just here, it shouldn’t happen. You can have the banter, that’s fine, banter is good-natured, fun by crowds but they’ve gone too far here. We’ve written to Cricket South Africa, Cricket Australia have done that, we’ll see their response, but it’s been poor. We’ll see what happens, hopefully something.”In response, South Africa’s acting chief executive, Thabang Moroe, said fans on both sides needed to behave. “Cricket South Africa and the players appreciate the fans’ passionate support displayed at all our games,” he said. “However the events that transpired today were not tolerable and something that we don’t want to see at any of our Test matches.”We have since taken it upon ourselves to beef up our security personnel to ensure that players from both sides don’t have to endure such unfortunate behavior. Both CSA and the players encourage supporters to continue rooting for their teams and also to behave in a decorous manner that will allow this Test series to be played in true spirit of the game.”Australian touring teams have long acknowledged that they receive some of their harshest treatment from spectators in South Africa, although up to this point Warner’s tour had involved more exchanges with opponents than fans. In Durban he was captured on CCTV cameras exchanging words with Quinton de Kock, then responding angrily to the response from the South African wicketkeeper and needing to be physically restrained by team-mates as he climbed the stairwell at Kingsmead.That incident saw Warner fined and handed three demerit points under the ICC code of conduct, meaning he is one further disciplinary infraction away from a ban. De Kock was also fined over the episode, albeit on a lesser charge. Warner had alleged that his aggression was sparked by de Kock making personal remarks about his wife Candice.Between Test matches, offensive masks were distributed by fans in reference to her brief bathroom encounter with the rugby league player Sonny Bill Williams years before she and Warner became a couple. Two Cricket South Africa officials, Clive Eksteen and Altaaf Kazi, were suspended by the home board after allowing fans wearing the masks to be admitted to St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth and then posing with them for a photograph. In Cape Town, the t-shirt fans were barred from wearing into the ground stated “Warner where’s your wife? She’s just gone to the toilet for a minute”, while abuse of other players and their partners ramped up.”Yep it was personal and it was poor and he wasn’t the only one,” Lehmann said of the taunts at Warner. “There’s always going to be banter, as long as it doesn’t get personal, but it has gone too far with the crowd here and they’ve got to be better than that when they’re coming to international arenas to watch a game of two quality sides playing against each other. They go hard on the ground, there’s no doubt about that, but off the ground you don’t expect that when you’re leaving the ground or you’re having a go at someone’s family. It’s just disgraceful.”David Warner’s stump goes cartwheeling•AFP

Morne Morkel, who took his 300th Test wicket on day two, stopped short of criticising the Newlands crowd, and stated he had been on the receiving end of abuse from crowds in Australia.”We can’t control that. Unfortunately, there is a bit of alcohol and there’s hot sun and we expect that,” Morkel said. “When we play in Australia, I have played in Melbourne, I have copped the same sort of abuse. It’s part of the game but there is a line and its important not to cross that.”The crowd here is always amazing. They come out and support us all the time. Tomorrow is going to be even louder being a Saturday. It’s always special playing here at Newlands. It’s the marquee event and the way they get behind the boys and lift us up when we are out in the field is special.”South African teams playing in Australia have a history of facing verbal abuse or worse, dating back to the spin bowler Pat Symcox having a cooked chicken thrown at him on the SCG outfield during a limited-overs match in 1997. On more recent tours, other members of the South African side, including Hashim Amla, have been subjected to racial taunts. In 2005-06, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Ashwell Prince, Garnett Kruger and Shaun Pollock were among players racially abused.”None of the team minds any form of abuse because it happens in any country, the home side really gets behind it,” South Africa’s then coach Mickey Arthur said at the time. “But we feel once it becomes a racist taunt then the boundaries are being overstepped and the South African team categorically deplores that type of behaviour. I don’t think we can do too much more other than just make our point that we categorically deplore it and we do feel that boundaries are being crossed when that sort of thing transpires out there.”The events of that summer brought a fiercer focus from CA on crowd behaviour at grounds, including a “zero tolerance” policy for racial abuse, which could attract a life ban from venues. Advertising campaigns were also devised to educate spectators as to what was appropriate and what was not.Asked about crowd behaviour in Australia, Lehmann said improvement was needed across the board. “That’s not good enough from an Australian crowd point of view either,” he said. “We’ve just got to get better at watching the game of cricket, actually supporting both teams generally, and that’s something that both boards have got to get around.”