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He has played just the lone first-class game at the Perth Stadium despite being from Western Australia

Alex Malcolm28-Nov-20220:42

Green: I’m trying to learn how to leave the ball again

This week is supposed to be a special homecoming for Cameron Green, with the allrounder set to play his first Test match in his hometown of Perth against West Indies starting Wednesday.Green, who debuted in Test cricket in December of 2020, has not missed any of Australia’s 14 Tests since, but bizarrely not yet played at home, as Perth has not hosted a Test match since 2019.His homecoming has been the centerpiece of the marketing and media campaign to attract some locals through the gates this week. But Green admits he’s not really feeling the comforts of home. Staggeringly, he has played more first-class matches at Galle International Stadium in Sri Lanka than he has at Perth Stadium.He has played just one Sheffield Shield match there in 2018, when he was playing as a bowler for Western Australia and batting at No. 8 behind Ashton Agar. The majority of his first-class cricket in Perth at the WACA. He has played in eight T20s at Perth Stadium, but only one since January 2020.Related

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Instead of being a fountain of local knowledge to his teammates as the only WA-based player in the playing XI, he is trying to extract as much information as he can from his interstate-based teammates who have more experience playing there than he does.”It definitely feels weird that you’re playing a home game and not at your home,” Green said. “Everyone expects you to do well and be used to the conditions but I kind of feel like maybe some of the other boys are more used to it than I am. It’ll be a challenge.”I’m asking questions of like Marnus [Labuschagne] who batted well there a few years ago about how he found it. It’s a bit weird when you’re asking guys what it’s like in your home conditions.”Green isn’t even staying in his own bed this week. He enjoyed a rare week at home in the lead-up to the Test matches after leaving Australia’s ODI series against England early to be managed ahead of the Test summer. But this week he has opted to stay at the team hotel, having stayed at home for his only international match to-date in Perth, a T20I against England in October where he felt he relaxed too much in the build-up.1:02

Warner on Green: Nineteen weeks straight in India will get you cooked

Green is quickly learning about life as a three-format player on the run, just as he learned about Test cricket on the run over the last two years.Ahead of his first home Test summer in 2020-21 against India Green played eight first-class matches, piling up three hundreds, and bowled in four of them.Before his second home summer in 2021-22, Green played five first-class matches for WA, making a century and three half-centuries, and took wickets in every game in preparation for the Ashes.Prior to a five-Test home summer against West Indies and South Africa in 2022-23, Green has not played a single red-ball game. His last first-class fixture was the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle in July. He has played six ODIs and seven T20Is since the end of August having become a permanent member of the ODI team, and a fringe member of the T20I side.He was preparing to play Shield cricket in mid-October and was literally facing red balls in the nets when he was told he was going to join the T20 World Cup squad following the freak injury to Josh Inglis, having left them only days earlier following the T20I series against England.Green is trying to come to terms with short lead-ins to Test matches. “That’s the unfortunate nature of playing three formats,” he said. “You don’t really get much preparation, which I’m not too used to. I’m used to like a good month or so leading into a Test series. It’s something that I’ll have to get used to and I’ve got a lot of added respect for the guys that do it.”Unlike David Warner, Steven Smith, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood, Green doesn’t have one discipline to prepare for, he has two.Green has played 14 Tests, but none at his hometown•Getty Images

Learning how to manage his time and prioritise his practice sessions is all part of his education. Green would prefer to put his time exclusively into his batting. He was the last man left out in the middle of the WACA at Australia’s compulsory three-hour centre-wicket session on Monday. He was only outlasted by Smith who was still in the nets when Green pulled his pads off as he tried to get used to the rhythms of Test-match batting after three months of white-ball bashing.”It’s basically trying to learn how to leave the ball again,” Green said. “I think in white-ball cricket, you’re trying to hit the ball and your contact point is well in front of your eyes, basically trying and get a full swing at it. So I think it’s learning to rein it back to be able to defend under your eyes. Because it feels like a different game at times.”But he also needs to work on his bowling. Three months of white-ball cricket has meant he has not got his bowling loads to the optimal level ahead of five back-to-back Test matches, although he has edged closer in the past week.His history of stress-related back injuries remains at the forefront of Australia’s minds, but his overs and his bowling skill remain vitally important to the balance of Australia’s attack. He no longer has the technical counsel of Matt Mason, the former WA bowling coach who has since joined England’s women’s team after leaving Perth last summer. But Green continues to use his technical advice as he tries to remain fit and healthy throughout another big summer campaign.”Matt Mason left me in a really good place,” Green said. “I think he had two really simple focuses that I have towards my bowling, basically jumping straight and not trying to jump too much. Trying to keep as balanced as I can at the crease. A couple of really nice clear checkpoints to kind of check in every so often and I’ve had two or three good sessions with them this week.”Green will have to continue to manage himself through an unrelenting schedule over the next 12 months, which will only be exacerbated if he adds the IPL to tours of India, England and the World Cup in 2023.Perth itself may become as foreign to him by the end of it as Perth Stadium is this week.

Singaporean batter uses Dutch second division as springboard into two-match county stint

Matt Roller08-Jul-2021Tim David, the Singaporean middle-order batter, has signed a short-term deal to play the final two games of the Vitality Blast group stage for Surrey thanks to a brief stint in Dutch second-division cricket which meant he was on hand during the club’s availability crisis.David, who is a regular for Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL and starred in the final stages of the PSL for Lahore Qalandars after signing as a replacement, played his first game for Quick Den Haag in the Dutch Hoofdklasse last weekend but has arrived in the UK in time to take part in Friday night’s game against Kent at The Oval. The Netherlands is on the UK’s ‘amber’ list, but David has not had to quarantine due to an exemption for elite sport and has taken multiple negative Covid tests.Surrey’s first-team squad has been decimated by injuries and illness in recent weeks, with Sam and Tom Curran and Jason Roy among the England white-ball players self-isolating following an outbreak in the camp, and Will Jacks drafted in as a late replacement. Kyle Jamieson injured his glute during the County Championship match against Hampshire, ruling him out of the final two games of his time at the club, while Ollie Pope is unavailable with a thigh injury and Hashim Amla took several blows on his gloves during his final-day rearguard at the Ageas Bowl.Related

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“After finishing the PSL in the UAE recently, I decided to play some league cricket in Holland instead of flying back to Australia to quarantine and I am really excited that an opportunity has come up,” David said. “Hopefully I can have an impact for Surrey in their final few T20 Blast games.”I’m stoked with the chance to play for a county as big as Surrey and to get my first experience of playing in the Vitality Blast. It has been a busy few days since I got a call with the potential opportunity and I can’t wait to play at the Kia Oval tomorrow night, hopefully in front of a big crowd.”Alec Stewart, Surrey’s director of cricket, said: “With the loss of Kyle Jamieson to injury and Will Jacks to international duty, as well as the unavailability of Ollie Pope and Hashim Amla we wanted to try and cover off a middle-order ball-striker and fortunately we were able to secure the services of Tim David at very, very late notice.”Elsewhere, Essex have extended Jimmy Neesham’s deal with the club, which will see him play in next week’s County Championship game against Derbyshire and in the second half of the Royal London Cup group stages following his three games with Welsh Fire in the Hundred.Essex were missing a middle-order batter following Dan Lawrence’s last-minute ODI call-up and had a vacant overseas spot following Peter Siddle’s return to Australia.

Sarah Glenn and Sophie Ecclestone share five wickets as England take step towards knockouts

The Report by Matt Roller28-Feb-2020England took a stride towards qualification from Group B of the Women’s T20 World Cup by thrashing Pakistan in Canberra.After surprisingly being inserted by Pakistan’s skipper Bismah Maroof, England overcame an early stutter thanks primarily to captain Heather Knight, who continued her fine form in this tournament and at Manuka Oval with a fluent, 47-ball 62, with Nat Sciver and Fran Wilson keeping things ticking over.Pakistan were slipshod in the field, dropping several chances, and struggled to get going in reply, with Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt providing early breakthroughs before young spinners Sarah Glenn and Sophie Ecclestone strangled the chase in the middle overs.Defeat leaves Pakistan needing to win their last two group games to stand a realistic chance of qualification, while England know that victory against West Indies in their final fixture should be enough for them to get through.England’s opening muddleDanni Wyatt and Amy Jones are under pressure at the top of the order, having made a combined 25 runs against South Africa and then both registering ducks against Thailand on Wednesday.Both players were successful in the series between these teams in Malaysia at the end of last year, with Jones finishing as top run-scorer with 179 in three games, but they failed to rekindle that form in Canberra. Jones fell in the game’s first over, trapped on the pad as Diana Baig found a hint of seam movement with the new ball, and a review confirmed that the ball would have clipped the bails.Wyatt, meanwhile, enjoyed an early reprieve, spooning a chance up to Baig at point, who lost the ball in the low sun, but there was no mistake when she offered a similar opportunity to Muneeba Ali in that position at the start of the sixth over. While England’s long batting line-up has bailed them out in their last two games, the openers’ struggles will be a cause for concern.Knight’s Canberra love affairKnight’s imperious hundred against Thailand on this ground made her the first English player – male or female – to score make a century in all three formats, and continued her incredible streak with the bat on this ground. Coming into this game, she had 304 runs in her last four T20I innings at Manuka Oval, and that run continued against Pakistan.Coming in at the end of the powerplay, Knight regularly found the boundary, using her feet well and adapting better than any batter on either side to a slow, used surface. She dumped Nida Dar – playing her 100th T20I – over long-on for England’s only six of the innings, and while she holed out at the end of the 19th looking to repeat the trick, the damage had been done.Pakistan were left to rue their poor performance in the outfield: Umaima Sohail had a straightforward chance underneath a high ball from Knight on 32, but it bursts through her hands for a one-bounce four after she misjudged the distance on it, striding in off the rope before backpedalling.Stunning SidraWhile Pakistan outfielding left plenty to be desire, their wicketkeeper Sidra Nawaz was superb behind the stumps.At the start of the 12th over, she pulled off perhaps the stumping of the tournament, as Aliya Riaz strayed down the leg side to Sciver. Standing up to the medium-pacer, and mis-sighted as Sciver looked to whip into the leg side, Nawaz took the ball brilliantly down the leg side, held the ball momentarily as Sciver weight-transfer forward took her back leg out of the crease, and whipped off the bails to complete the dismissal.There was more sharp work in the final over, as her quick hands accounted for Katherine Brunt dancing down the pitch, and despite dropping a tricky chance off Fran Wilson, Nawaz’s performance behind the stumps stood out, in particular her ability to prevent England from using their feet against medium pace by standing up to the seamers.Spinners starEngland derailed Pakistan’s run chase early on with Shrubsole and Brunt both striking in the powerplay, but it was their spinners who turned a strong position into a dominant one. Operating primarily through the middle overs, Ecclestone and Glenn turned the screw, offering very little width as they targeted the stumps.Glenn got the key wicket of Javeria Khan with her third ball, responding to an inside-out cover drive by holding her nerve with a similarly straight one, which the batter played all around.The pair then turned the screw in the middle, keeping things simple with tight stump-to-stump plans, and finished with a combined 5 for 27 across their eight overs. Not bad, for a pair of 20-year-olds.Shrubsole’s landmarkWhile the game was dead as a contest by the time Shrubsole returned for her final over in the 19th, but there was still plenty to play for in terms of personal milestones.A back-of-a-length slower ball off her penultimate ball left the seamer a wicket away from the 100-wicket milestone in T20Is, and when she induced a tame chip back down the pitch from Baig, Shrubsole clung onto the chance to become only the third woman to reach the landmark, following West Indies’ Anisa Mohammed and Australian Ellyse Perry.

Chasing 135, Brisbane Heat could manage only 129 against the variations of Stoinis and Bravo

The Report by Andrew McGlashan27-Jan-2019Melbourne Stars set themselves for a push into the BBL semi-finals with a superb bowling display which defended the lowest score successfully protected at the MCG and in turn left Brisbane Heat on the verge of being eliminated.The Heat played a significant hand in their own downfall with some poor shot selection but appeared to be on course at 4 for 111, needing 24 off 20 balls. However, Matt Renshaw was caught behind off the in-form Marcus Stoinis, who produced an outstanding all-round display, as he and Dwayne Bravo closed out the innings with skill.The Stars are now one of three teams on 12 points behind the runaway leaders Hobart Hurricanes and have a good chance of securing a home semi-final. The Heat started the night with five games to play but this defeat means they probably now need to win all four to progress.Stars slideThe Stars had a star-stubbed middle order but they couldn’t make the most of solid base provided the by the opening stand of 63 between Stoinis and Ben Dunk. After Stoinis was trapped lbw by Ben Cutting, Peter Handscomb picked out mid-off and Glenn Maxwell found fine leg. There were only six fours in the innings alongside three sixes as Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mitch Swepson proved hard to score off.Only one way to play?Although the target was modest, it was clear from the first innings that there would need to be some shrewd batting. That, though, is not always what you associate with the Heat who pack their top order with hitters and play the same way regardless. Max Bryant, who has been one of the breakout stars of this tournament, was threatening to make a mockery of conditions as he hit five boundaries in an 18-ball stay which should have given the Heat plenty of breathing space.But when he was caught at deep midwicket, Chris Lynn was lbw playing across the line to Adam Zampa and then Brendon McCullum found long-on when the required rate was still well within the realms of knocking the ball around. Worse followed when Alex Ross slapped a long-hop from Bravo straight to point and the Heat were 4 for 54 in the ninth over.Changing placesIt had been a contrasting 24 hours, or more, for Stoinis and Renshaw with the pair swapping places in Australia’s Test squad. Renshaw’s comeback lasted one squad in which he quickly moved down the pecking order. It was, therefore, to his credit that he produced a skilful and calm innings to put his team’s chase back on track. It was rarely pretty, but he worked the ball around effectively forming a steady partnership with Jimmy Peirson.Victory was there for the taking for the Heat, but Stoinis would have the final say. Trying to ramp a short delivery, Renshaw edged to the wicketkeeper and in Stoinis’ next over Peirson was taken by Maxwell at long-on. Against the variations of Stoinis and Bravo, the lower order could barely connect and only a penultimate ball boundary for Swepson got the margin as close as it was.

After a lean start to the 2017-18 season, the India batsman hit back with a record-breaking double-century and says he is in a good frame of mind ahead of the Sri Lanka series

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Nov-2017Cheteshwar Pujara’s ability to bat hours on end, scoring massive amounts of runs, has become his signature. He has played the longest innings by an Indian in Tests, and his tally of 1611 runs last season is a national record in first-class cricket. So when he goes through a lean patch, questions are raised.In August, after the end of a productive series against Sri Lanka, Pujara went to play domestic cricket in England. He returned home with a top score of 34 in seven innings, and wasn’t his usual self in the Ranji Trophy either, where his first two innings yielded 35 and 13.”Sometimes, people expect a lot out of me because I have the habit of scoring big runs.” Pujara told . “The expectation is that I should score a hundred every second or third innings. It is difficult to always fulfil that.”Pre-season runs are a vital part of Pujara’s success. Upon his return from a difficult tour of the West Indies in 2016, when he was dropped from the XI, he struck 166 and 256 not out in two Duleep Trophy matches. They were vital innings, he felt, and paved the way to his becoming the highest run-getter in the world in 2016-17.Now, with two weeks to go for the home Tests against Sri Lanka, Pujara made his 12th double-hundred, another national record. He followed up with an innings of 182.”The moment I start scoring big runs, as a batsman, my rhythm comes back and my concentration improves,” Pujara said. “Everything looks good. So, it is a perfect start before I head into the Sri Lanka series.”Cheteshwar Pujara recorded his 12th first-class double-century•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Pujara said that his low scores prior to his back-to-back hundreds weren’t due to a lack of form. “I was playing on some tough pitches in England. All the matches were on challenging pitches and most of the games were low-scoring ones. I accepted my failures and I did learn so many things out of it.”It wasn’t that I was going through a bad phase or that I wasn’t timing the ball well,” Pujara said. “It was just a time where I had to stay patient. I was playing on tough pitches and if I get a good ball, just accept it and learn new things, what are the things I can still improve on and then start scoring runs again.”When I came back to India, in the first game, I had a little bit of jet lag but I was batting well and got good start and got out playing a bad shot for 35 [against Haryana]. Even in the next game [against Jammu & Kashmir], I looked in good touch but I made a mistake and got out [for 13]. So, overall I knew I was batting well.”The gap between the end of the Sri Lanka series and the start of the tour of South Africa is short. India play their last match at home on December 24 and the Cape Town Test begins on January 5. Pujara, however, is usually picked only for Test cricket and the last Test against Sri Lanka ends on December 6. So he will have more time to prepare for South Africa”When you travel abroad, you have to alter a few things,” Pujara said. “Obviously, the basic things remain the same. You have to have different preparations depending on the country you are visiting. If you are going to South Africa, there are certain things that I know that I need to do to perform well there, and I will work on them. I have played enough cricket in England that when we go there [in July-August 2018], I know the things I need to do there.”

The Lodha Committee has suggested a “panel of administrators” take charge of the BCCI to oversee the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Lodha report

Nagraj Gollapudi28-Sep-20164:26

‘BCCI’s conduct indicates that it must have a plan’

The Lodha Committee has significantly raised the pressure on the BCCI by asking the Supreme Court to “supersede” the board’s top brass with “immediate effect” because its officials have not complied with various timelines set by the Committee to implement its recommendations.The Committee suggested that a “panel of administrators” take charge of the BCCI to oversee the implementation of the Lodha report’s recommendations that were ratified by the Supreme Court on July 18.In the status report submitted to the court on Wednesday, September 28, Lodha elaborated on the BCCI’s transgressions.”While the Office Bearers of the BCCI gave assurances to the SC Committee on August 9, August 25 and September 20, 2016 that they would cooperate with the Committee towards fulfilling the directions of this Hon’ble Court (subject to any modification or review), the events over the past weeks have shown that this is not the case,” Lodha said in the status report. “Directions of this Hon’ble Court have been ignored, actions have been taken to present a fait accompli to the Committee, the directives of the Committee have been breached, and member associations have not been duly intimated about the directions of the Committee and the timelines fixed by it.”With as many as seven of the timelines to be complied with by September 30, 2016, it is now clear that the BCCI is in no position to ensure that the timelines mandated to be laid down by this Hon’ble Court are complied with. The conduct of the office bearers of the BCCI in not following the direction of the SC Committee has created serious impediments in the implementation of the directions of this Hon’ble Court.”According to the Lodha Committee, the decisions taken by the BCCI at its AGM on September 21 were “contrary” to the court order issued on July 18 by TS Thakur, the Chief Justice of India, and Supreme Court judge Ibrahim Kallifulla.”In view of all the above, the Committee seeks the following directions from this Hon’ble Court: Supersede the present Office Bearers of the BCCI with immediate effect; and appoint in their place a Panel of Administrators of the BCCI to ensure the smooth transition from the old to the new system recommended by the Committee,” Lodha said in the status report.”Direct that all decisions of the BCCI taken after July 18, 2016, which are contrary to the judgment dated July 18, 2016, of this Hon’ble Court and/or the directives of the SC Committee for implementing the same are  and ineffective; and any other direction as may be deemed fit for the implementation of the judgement dated 18.7.2016.”Drawing up a timeline of events since the Supreme Court’s order on July 18, Lodha said the BCCI had remained unresponsive when reminded about various issues.The Committee said it had received the agenda for the BCCI AGM on September 17, four days before the meeting, through other sources and not from the board. Upon perusal it had found that “almost all items” on the agenda were violations of the directions given by the Committee to BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri in an email on August 31.The Committee had reminded Johri “to limit” the AGM’s agenda to routine business for the year 2015-16. “The purpose of this direction was to ensure that the recommendations which had to be implemented are not circumvented by delaying the formal adoption of the MoA and Rules & Regulations by the BCCI by creating fait accompli,” Lodha said.Providing an example of the BCCI not following instructions at the AGM, Lodha said Ajay Shirke, the lone nominee for the secretary’s post, had failed to mention whether he was eligible for the post. “The Nomination Form for the Secretary’s post requires an undertaking to be given by the candidate that he possesses the requisite eligibility for continuing till 2017.”The BCCI elected Shirke as the secretary at the AGM, appointed five-member selection panels for the men, women and junior teams, appointed its president Anurag Thakur and former president Sharad Pawar as representatives to ICC Board meetings, and Shirke for the ICC’s chief executives’ meeting, and also approved the budget for 2016-17.The Lodha Committee has still not been provided with the minutes of the AGM by the BCCI.The Committee also took exception to the BCCI announcing a special general meeting (SGM) on September 30. The BCCI, Lodha said, was supposed to hold an executive general body meeting (EGM) by September 28, when it would adopt the new Memorandum of Association and Rules (MoA), the first step needed to adopt the recommendations of the Lodha Committee. Instead Shirke had written to the Committee on September 22 stating the BCCI would “consider” the amendments suggested at the SGM.The Lodha Committee – comprising Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran – was formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for some of the officials involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and also to propose changes to streamline the BCCI, reform its functioning, prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest.

New Zealand’s domestic first-class competition – the Plunket Shield – will take place without match referees in the upcoming season, as a result of budgetary cuts

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Sep-2015New Zealand’s domestic first-class competition – the Plunket Shield – will take place without match referees in the upcoming season because of budget cuts. The removal of the three match referees is one among a number of programmes to be cut by New Zealand Cricket, who are expected to face a multi-million dollar loss this year.The match referees were tasked with assessing umpire performance, playing standards of the grounds and on-field incidents, all of which will now be handled by the officiating umpires with assistance from regional associations to ensure quality playing conditions.”It wasn’t a cheap programme given we had to pay them, travel them round and pay for accommodation,” NZC head of cricket Lindsay Crocker told . “It was really disappointing but it was a programme we are simply unable to afford.”If we had more income then we would be able to do all the programmes we wanted, it’s just the nature of running a business and trying to compete on world terms with a budget smaller than our competitors. Now we’ll be asking the people who host the matches, the major associations, to step up and take responsibility for quality again.”Crocker said the money generated from co-hosting the 2015 World Cup would be used as a safeguard for the future and other areas of investment. “The World Cup was a one-off, it isn’t a matter of making a nest egg and then expending it. We’ve got to be prudent about that, it gives us an opportunity to sit out any future rainy days and there is also some investment we need to do around facilities.”The Cricket World Cup money and the legacy we attach from there is really around capital projects rather than operational ones.”As was the process before the concept of match referees came into force, umpires will receive feedback through reports from captains and from NZC umpire Tony Hill, who will travel to select matches.