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Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim is determined to keep Pakistan winless until the end of their tour

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur05-May-2015Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim is determined to keep Pakistan winless until the end of their tour. Misbah-ul-Haq’s side has only the second and final Test in Mirpur to try and win something on this trip after losing the practice match, three ODIs, the T20 and then drawing the Khulna Test.To achieve that goal, taking 20 wickets is top priority for Mushfiqur. With Rubel Hossain out with a side strain – Abul Hasan, with three wickets at 123.66, is the replacement in the squad – Bangladesh have less experience in their bowling group. The pair from Narayanganj, Shahadat Hossain and Mohammad Shahid, could form the two-man pace attack and Mushfiqur said they will pick a specialist spinner if that was the case.”I will hope to begin this Test confidently with all those positives from the previous Test and the rest of the tour,” Mushfiqur said. “There is certainly just one goal. This is the final Test of the series and we will do whatever we need to do to win the match. Everyone is working hard towards it. We will try to keep them winless on this tour. We will want to finish it on a high so that the next series we play, we have the momentum for that.”Obviously they will also try to take our 20 wickets and will form their XI that way. In Khulna the wicket was of course batting friendly, still our bowlers tried. We have two options in our bowling attack. We have Abul Hasan and Shahadat Hossain, but we haven’t decided yet. We are hoping the wicket will help the bowlers. We could use two or a three-man pace attack. If we have two pace bowlers, then we will pick an extra spinner.”A higher-ranked team touring Bangladesh to play all three formats has never left without at least one victory. Kenya, Zimbabwe and Scotland (2006), Ireland (2008) and New Zealand (2010) were winless in ODIs. Last year Zimbabwe lost the Tests 3-0 and ODIs 5-0. In 2013, New Zealand drew both Tests and lost the ODI series 3-0, but finished the tour with a win in the T20. In 2009, Bangladesh beat West Indies 2-0 in Tests, 3-0 in ODIs but lost the T20.Mushfiqur said that far from being an upset, if his team won the second Test it would emphasise that this was Bangladesh’s best bilateral series. “I don’t think it will be an upset, if you see the way the boys have been playing in the last two or three months. There was a lot of talk that we have been playing in ODIs and not in Tests, but we have shown that we are capable of doing well in Tests too. Still I will say that it is a different pitch and ground so we have to be prepared for more fight. I think the boys are ready to fight for five days and after that hopefully we will grab a win and win the series.”So far the way we have performed, I don’t think we have done so in the past. We had three different teams in three different formats, so the challenge was no less. Also in our home ground there was expectation that we will retain our performance of the World Cup. Then there were expectations about the Test series.”Mushfiqur expressed concern over Shakib Al Hasan’s bowling form but backed him to succeed after poor returns in the Khulna Test. “Yes it’s a concern. Because he is the best bowler of the team, we always expect he will take five or six wickets, so when he gets one or two wickets it seems not that good by his own standards,” Mushfiqur said. “He is aware of that and he has a very good record in Mirpur against all the teams. So what he did right in the past I think if he can do that … I am really looking forward to it.”

Richmond Mutumbami played the anchor role in Zimbabwe’s six-wicket win, with a career-best 74, against Afghanistan in the third ODI to give his team a 2-1 lead

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Oct-2015Richmond Mutumbami played the anchor role in Zimbabwe’s six-wicket win, with a career-best 74, against Afghanistan in the third ODI for a 2-1 lead. The fifty and the win didn’t come easy for Zimbabwe. Mutumbami was dropped twice – on 36 and 68 – and the hosts’ middle order stuttered fleetingly before captain Elton Chigumbura steered them home in the last over.”Maybe they can say it was my day, it was my lucky day,” Mutumbami said cheerfully about the drops. “I just kept telling myself that I should keep going on and see where I get to. Every win is important for the team, I actually feel great about it.”

Our aim was to score 250 – Noor Ali

Afghanistan opener Noor Ali Zadran, who top-scored with 56 and gave his team a steady start, rued the loss of quick wickets in the middler order and said they were looking to score much more than their score of 223 for 8.
“[Our] target was to score 250 on this wicket and get them out,” he said. “[In] our first session we were 124 for 1, after second wicket fell we lost five wickets for only 17 runs (25 runs). We didn’t achieve the target [we wanted to set].
However, Noor Ali was not completely disheartened about trailing 2-1 in the series and said they were known to bounce back.
“We are very good in bouncing back because first match we lost, after that we bounced back. we will bounce back and win the series 3-2.”

Mutumbami came back to the Zimbabwe squad only recently, in place of Regis Chakabva, after he was dropped for the home series against New Zealand in August. A poor run of scores from Chakabva helped him back into the side, and Mutumbami started the series with scores of 30 and 35, before bringing up his third ODI fifty today.When asked if one could expect more match-winning performances from him, Mutumbami said: “Yes, I’m sure they are coming. I’m sure more such performances are on their way.”We had to bounce back and today the guys showed good character and I thought we played good cricket. The guys were calm out there and they executed their skills better than the last game, so hopefully we can do the same thing on Thursday. There’s one or two things that we can improve as well like in any game there’s always one or two mistakes that you do.”When Mutumbami was dismissed in the 29th over, Zimbabwe were still 107 runs away from their target. Chigumbura took them over the line with an unbeaten 49, and he was not unhappy about not reaching a fifty.”Obviously the team comes first,” Chigumbura said. “It’s good to have a win under our belt, at the end of the day that’s what you’d be looking for. Obviously, personal achievements can come after [that].”The way the foundation was set by Richmond and Sean [Williams] out there, it was good. Hopefully we can carry on with the good things that were done today and do the same thing on Thursday.”Chigumbura has not won a toss even once in the series and said he would rather focus on the things he can control, such as his team’s performance on the field.”I’m not really worried about the toss, it’s about how we go out there and execute our skills,” he said. “Obviously it’s one game at a time, it’s going to be important to win the series on Thursday and obviously finish well.”

Shaun Marsh, who will make his fifth comeback into the Australian team in five years at the Day/Night Test in Adelaide, has worked with Chris Rogers to sort out his technical issues

Daniel Brettig18-Nov-20151:41

Marsh happy to bat anywhere in line-up

When Shaun Marsh returns to the Australian team in Adelaide next week, it will be the fifth time in as many years he has resumed his Test career after being dropped or absent injured from the XI. As an increasingly patient selection panel and increasingly impatient public sit down to watch, each will have the same question. ?Empirical evidence that he does is slim. In three Sheffield Shield matches this summer, Marsh has tallied scores of 15, 1, 2, 92, 64 and 33, a total of 207 runs at 34.50. That leaves 17 Australian batsmen ahead of him on the seasons’ first-class aggregates, plus two New Zealanders.In his most recent Test appearance, Marsh failed twice on a seaming pitch at Trent Bridge. His two firm feet and rigid bat edges symbolised the utter failure of the touring batsmen to cope with English conditions. Never mind that he was nervously called up on match morning, or that conditions have been described as uniquely difficult after rain moistened the surface in the 10 minutes before play began – Marsh was the unacceptable face of Australian batting.”To be honest I’ve tried to get it out of my mind,” he said. “It wasn’t a very good Test match – personally and for the team. Getting no runs and losing the Ashes. It couldn’t get any worse than it did. I guess you learn from lessons like that, hopefully I’ve learned some valuable lessons I can take into this next Test match and try and do the best I can for the boys.”The lesson was that Marsh had to change, and fast. There was the anguish of losing the Ashes to England in the most humiliating manner possible. Then he was dropped from the next Test at the Oval. In need of guidance, Marsh sought out Chris Rogers.Now here was a contrast. Marsh is viewed by most who watch him bat as a talent, and for years, Rogers fought the perception he was an ugly player. Marsh has had a surfeit of opportunities without yet taking them, whereas Rogers got one Test in 2008 then waited six years for his next one. Marsh had just endured one of the worst matches of his life, Rogers was in the middle of his most successful series.In Northampton, ahead of a county match made near enough to irrelevant by events in Nottingham, Marsh asked Rogers for advice on how to deal with the moving ball in England. More generally, he wanted to know why he always seemed to edge into the slips and Rogers so seldom did. It was a conversation Rogers had been waiting to have.Taking the younger man to the nets at Wantage Road, Rogers grabbed a bunch of tennis balls and worked on changing the angle of Marsh’s defensive blade. For years, Marsh’s firm and straight bat had won the admiration of selectors, but its angle from side-on had been a source of great hope for bowlers.By offering an almost vertical bat to the bowler, Marsh would offer edges great and small, invariably carrying to catchers. Rogers countered that by angling his bat further down, and playing the ball later, under his eyes, Marsh would greatly reduce his chance of offering catchable nicks. He would also likely prosper from edges running along the ground to third man – a tendency often cited as lucky but turned into something like an art form by Rogers and Justin Langer.Marsh walked away from these Northants sessions feeling like he had unlocked a secret to the game that had eluded him for most of the past decade. It is one shared by numerous top-level batsmen, not least Kane Williamson, he of the near mythical lack of slips catches. Like any change, this one is taking time to bed down, and may explain Marsh’s indifferent statistics so far this summer. But he still has Rogers’ advice very much in mind.”Definitely Bucky [Rogers] was really good, over probably the last few months,” Marsh said. “During the Ashes, I went away with Buck and just worked on a few little things on my game. He was fantastic to talk to – his record speaks for itself. He’s scored so many runs, so if I could learn as much as I could in that last little period in the Ashes I thought it was going to help my game.”I’m just trying to hit the ball a little bit later. I’ve worked on a few little bits and pieces. I’ve felt really good over the past month in Shield cricket and feel like I’ve got a better game now to hopefully be successful at Test cricket. I’ve been a little bit inconsistent with my Test career so far, so hopefully I can really take this opportunity now and build some consistent scores. I’m looking forward to that challenge.”When Marsh bats against Trent Boult and Tim Southee under the Adelaide Oval lights, with the pink ball potentially swinging around, there are likely to be edges and lots of them. If they scurry along the ground or fall short of slips, many spectators will throw their heads back and mutter about Marsh’s good fortune.But in the ABC commentary box at the top of the Southern Stand, Rogers will see that as a vindication of their work together, and a sign that Marsh has, at last, begun to make his own luck. Square of the wicket, the selection chairman Rod Marsh and coach Darren Lehmann may notice Marsh’s angled bat, and share a look of recognition. !

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy to be played between October 11 and December 2

06-Sep-2022The BCCI has awarded both Saurashtra and Madhya Pradesh an opportunity to compete in the Irani Cup during the 2022-23 season.Saurashtra will play the season-opener against Rest of India from October 1-5 at Rajkot, their home ground, while Madhya Pradesh, winners of the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy, will play their corresponding fixture from March 1-5 in Indore.The board issued a circular to all state associations, with the calendar along with venues for the 2022-23 season. There had been some miscommunication earlier when it was assumed MP would play the season-opening Irani Cup.The squad had also begun their pre-season training, with special emphasis on red-ball cricket, on the assumption that they would be playing this fixture.Saurashtra were belatedly awarded the game they were denied in 2020, when they beat Bengal to clinch their maiden Ranji Trophy crown. They were slated to host the Irani Cup the following week, but the game was postponed indefinitely owing to the onset of the covid-19 pandemic that led to a nationwide lockdown in India.Meanwhile, Kolkata and Ahmedabad will host the knockout stages of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT), respectively. SMAT, the domestic T20 event, will take place from October 11 to November 5, while the VHT one-day competition will run from November 12 to December 2.Lucknow, Indore, Rajkot, Punjab and Jaipur will host the league-stage matches of the SMAT, while Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata and Ranchi will stage the VHT league fixtures.The BCCI is conducting a full-fledged domestic season in 2022-23 after truncated versions in 2020-21 and 2021-22 because of the pandemic.The season will begin with the Duleep Trophy, from September 8 to 25 across three venues – Coimbatore, Pondicherry and Chennai, while the Ranji Trophy – back in the home-and-away format, will be played from December 12 and February 20.

Buttler called on players to be “braver’ after ‘timid’ defeats in opening two games

Matt Roller11-Jul-2022Jos Buttler implored his England team to be “braver” after “timid” performances with the bat in their first two T20 internationals against India, Matthew Mott has revealed.England were bowled out for 148 and 121 in Buttler’s first two matches as their full-time limited-overs captain on Thursday and Saturday, losing by 50 and 49 runs respectively. Mott, their new white-ball coach, admitted they had been taken aback by the “ferocity” of India’s new attacking gameplan.Buttler addressed his squad after the second defeat in Birmingham on Saturday night and told them they should be “prepared to make some mistakes” rather than batting too cautiously. The response was a total of 215 for 7 batting first at Trent Bridge on Sunday, their highest T20I score since February 2020 and one which they defended by a margin of 17 runs despite Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant 117.”We learned a lot of lessons in the first two games,” Mott said. “India obviously came out with a really attacking mindset and put us under pressure a lot. We expected that, but the ferocity of it took us by surprise a little bit.”After the second loss and the series loss, I thought he [Buttler] spoke exceptionally well in the group about these being the times where you learn about character. It’s easy when you’re dominating teams but we’re going to learn more about ourselves playing great teams like India and South Africa leading into a World Cup – we’re going to learn more about what we need in Australia when we’re put under pressure.”We talked about just being a bit braver. If anything, we could have been accused of being a bit timid with the bat. [On Sunday] we just went out there and thought, ‘it’s a great wicket, let’s put a score out there and hang on.’ We don’t like losing but I think there is plenty that we’ve taken out of this series already and it sets us up well for the summer.”England were without several first-choice players throughout the series including Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, who have been pencilled in at No. 3 and 4 respectively for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year. But, if he is available, Stokes could alternatively be used lower down in a finishing role, with Dawid Malan’s 77 off 39 balls on Sunday serving a reminder of his credentials after an early reprieve when Harshal Patel dropped a caught-and-bowled chance.Malan’s innings was his first T20I half-century in a year and came after a scratchy innings of 19 off 25 on Saturday. His attacking intent early in his innings was a notable departure from his usual template: “Malan was unbelievable,” Mott said. “In the last game he wasn’t that happy with the way he got going and he worked really hard this morning. He played a special innings.”Mott expects to have something approaching a full-strength squad available for the three T20Is against South Africa from July 27-31. They will be the final games England play before naming their T20 World Cup squad in mid-September, immediately before they travel to Pakistan for a seven-match series – though some multi-format players will be rested for that tour.Related

• Buttler's challenge is to find his own voice, and continue England's evolution

• Suryakumar Yadav's pyrotechnics leave Trent Bridge in awe, solidify spot for T20 World Cup

• Reece Topley's hard yards overcome Trent Bridge's bowlers' graveyard

• Virat Kohli's nine-ball buy-in shows India's new way is here to stay

• Attacking mantra, Bhuvneshwar's form and Suryakumar's consistency bode well for India

“I don’t think [the World Cup squad] is all locked in yet,” Mott said. “This far out, you’ve got so many things that could happen – whether it’s injuries or form, or whatever. We’ve got a fair idea of what we think the right make-up is, but you want players to come in and perform and really warrant that spot. It’s still open for a lot of players and that’s why we are having looks at different combinations and trying to learn.”Mott also took positives from England’s death bowling, which has been a problem area over the last two years. “It was an unbelievable experience for some of those bowlers,” he said. “[Reece] Topley was magnificent and [Richard] Gleeson has been a real find for us. All the intel that I’ve had is that it’s definitely been an area that we’re looking to improve, so to be under that sort of pressure and hold our nerve gives us a lot of confidence.”England will welcome Stokes, Bairstow, Joe Root and Craig Overton into their squad for this week’s ODI series against India, which starts on Tuesday at the Kia Oval. “They’re obviously world-class players,” Mott said. “As a coach, it’s a great opportunity to learn from probably some of the best players in this format of all-time.”They’ll bring some energy into the group and they’re really excited to be there. I don’t think they’ll have to change a hell of a lot from the way they’ve been playing but it’s a slightly different format. They come in pretty hot and we’re straight into it: that’s the modern game. We’ll see how everyone pulls up.”

Shashank Manohar is set to be elected BCCI president unopposed on Sunday, replacing Jagmohan Dalmiya who died in Kolkata on September 20.

Nagraj Gollapudi and Amol Karhadkar03-Oct-20154:48

Ugra: BCCI’s legal wrangles the challenge for Manohar

Shashank Manohar is set to be elected BCCI president unopposed on Sunday, replacing Jagmohan Dalmiya who died in Kolkata on September 20. At 3 pm on Saturday, the deadline to file nominations, only Manohar’s name was filed as a candidate for the election that will be held during the special general meeting in Mumbai on Sunday afternoon.Manohar received backing from all the six members from East Zone – Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), National Cricket Club, Odisha Cricket Association, Jharkhand Cricket Association, Assam Cricket Association and Tripura Cricket Association. It is understood all six East Zone members nominated him, as it is the zone’s turn to nominate the president for the period till 2017. Soon after Dalmiya’s death, there was talk of the East camp wanting one of its own to stand for the elections, but there was no consensus, thus paving the way for Manohar.Confirming the East zone’s stand, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, representing the CAB, told the media at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai: “A lot of important people have led BCCI in the past and Manohar has also done it quite well. I am sure he will do a good job.”Dalmiya was the first BCCI president to die while in office, thus necessitating the unprecedented action of the board choosing a replacement at a special general meeting. This will be Manohar’s second stint as BCCI chief – he served as president between October 2008 and September 2011. He had first emerged as the consensus candidate when the ruling political party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, backed him and opposed Sharad Pawar’s candidature.

Comfortable five-wicket win as Northamptonshire take control at Wantage Road

ECB Reporters Network07-Jun-2022 Northamptonshire 155 for 5 (cobb 70) beat Derbyshire 151 for 9 (Taylor 4-27) by five wickets Northamptonshire Steelbacks captain Josh Cobb struck 70 from just 44 balls, his highest score of this Vitality Blast season to help his side chase down 152 and earn a five-wicket victory over Derbyshire Falcons with 11 balls to spare.Cobb, deprived of opportunities this season by Chris Lynn’s power-hitting, picked up the mantle after the Australian fell to a rare first-ball duck. Playing a belligerent innings, he struck six fours and three maximums before Rob Keogh took the Steelbacks over the line.Earlier Tom Taylor took three wickets in an over as the Steelbacks’ bowlers restricted Derbyshire Falcons to a modest total. Wayne Masden was the only batter to offer any real resistance with 37.The Falcons were kept to 40 for two at the end of the powerplay. Luis Reece swung one high over deep midwicket in the first over but Taylor and Ben Sanderson applied the brakes, backed up well by some sharp Steelbacks fielding.Reece attempted to up the scoring rate but miscued a big shot against Taylor and offered a steepler of a catch to Neesham at midwicket. Shan Masood fell shortly afterwards to an astonishing running catch by Keogh on the boundary at backward square off Sanderson.Hayden Kerr (29 off 22 balls), promoted to number three, looked assured and put on 39 for the third wicket with Leus du Plooy (19). Any hope of building a big total fell away though when the Falcons lost three wickets for 16 runs in as many balls to stutter to 80 for five at the end of the twelfth over.First du Plooy hit Freddie Heldreich straight to Taylor on the long-off boundary before Kerr holed out at deep midwicket off Jimmy Neesham. Brooke Guest then gave Heldreich his second scalp caught at point.The Falcons went four overs before scoring another boundary as Madsen and Alex Hughes rebuilt. Hughes finally cleared the square leg boundary dispatching the ball into the gardens of the neighbouring terraced houses.Masden survived two dropped catches off Sanderson but Taylor struck back in the next over. First he removed both set batsmen who both fell to catches by Cobb at cover before knocking back Mattie McKiernan’s stumps. With a run-out off the last ball, the Falcons finished on 151 for nine.An expectant Wantage Road crowd were momentarily hushed when Lynn, fresh from his heroics in the previous two Steelbacks home games, edged behind off the first ball of the chase bowled by Kerr.Cobb though started aggressively, clubbing Kerr over mid off and then cutting him for consecutive boundaries.He slog swept George Scrimshaw over deep midwicket for six and hit Watt down the ground for another to take the Steelbacks to 53 for one at the end of the powerplay.He rode his luck at times, offering two sharp chances which the Falcons failed to hold. Later he was caught on the ropes only for the fielder’s boot to touch the rope in the process.He had put on 55 with Ben Curran before his partner fell to a catch behind square off Scrimshaw when Conners took a well-judged catch sliding on his knees to get to the ball. Saif Zaib made only six before he offered a catch behind off an attempted pull shot.Cobb meanwhile advanced to his half century reaching the landmark off 31 balls. He continued in belligerent fashion crunching the ball through the covers and playing some deft cut shots before finally falling off a thick edge to Conners at deep point off Scrimshaw to leave the Steelbacks on 102 for four in the 13th over.Neesham hit 20 before he fell to a catch at long-on but Keogh held his nerve, finishing with an undefeated 28 off 24 deliveries.

Another dominant bowling performance followed by another effortless chase led Kolkata Knight Riders to their third win of the season, a six-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab that took them top of the table

The Report by Nikhil Kalro19-Apr-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRobin Uthappa’s first fifty of the season helped Kolkata Knight Riders to their third win•BCCI

Another dominant bowling performance followed by another effortless chase led Kolkata Knight Riders to their third win of the season, a six-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab that took them top of the table. Knight Riders’ bowling depth proved telling as their spinners ripped through Kings XI, who put in a sub-par batting performance, to keep them to 138 for 8. In the chase, Robin Uthappa’s quickfire fifty effectively sealed the game. It was the 12th win by a chasing team in 13 games this season.Put in to bat, Kings XI lost Manan Vohra early when he flicked Morne Morkel to deep square leg but M Vijay looked in rhythm, scything drives and cuts before failing to pick a googly from Piyush Chawla. A slow start was made slower when Wriddhiman Saha, promoted to No. 4, struggled in a 14-ball 8. Shaun Marsh, though, held one end up despite not being at his most fluent.The stage was set for either David Miller or Glenn Maxwell to fire their side back, but Knight Riders’ experienced bowling attack strangled Kings XI’s middle order. With two left-handers batting – Marsh and Miller – Gautam Gambhir turned to Yusuf Pathan for the first time this season. The move reaped rewards when Miller edged Yusuf’s first ball and Uthappa took a sharp catch. Maxwell tried a switch-hit off Sunil Narine soon after walking in, and Kings XI’s season was summed up when he picked out extra cover. Narine’s remodeled action returned two wickets in a frugal spell in which he only conceded 5.50 an over. From 94 for 5 in the 15th over, there was little Kings XI could do but rebuild.Marsh used swift footwork and was particularly effective square of the wicket on both sides. He got to his fifty in the last over with a sweetly-timed lofted drive over long-on. Along with Kyle Abbott, he took Andre Russell’s first over – the last of the innings – for 18 to lift Kings XI to 138.With that total, Kings XI needed early wickets to have any hope, but Uthappa and Gambhir denied them by hitting nine boundaries in a 65-run Powerplay, the most productive this season.The seamers, Sandeep Sharma and Abbott, were inconsistent, but even when they found their lengths, Uthappa cleared the infield with lofted strokes on the up on a pitch offering even bounce.Uthappa eased himself to his first fifty of the season, getting to the landmark in just 24 balls, before getting out to a premeditated sweep, playing around a full delivery from Pardeep Sahu. Gambhir looked set for another fifty before a leading edge was acrobatically taken by Glenn Maxwell, running in from deep midwicket.Axar Patel removed Manish Pandey and Shakib Al Hasan, but Knight Riders were too close to their target by then, and Suryakumar Yadav and Yusuf took them home with 17 balls to spare.

New Zealand will adopt a temporary change during their tour of Africa, playing under the name Aotearoa for the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare on August 2

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jul-2015New Zealand will adopt a temporary change during their tour of Africa, playing under the name Aotearoa for the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare on August 2. The one-off move will help celebrate Maori Language Week; Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand, and will be emblazoned on the front of the team’s playing shirts during the match.”New Zealand Cricket want to extend cricket’s reach and make it more welcoming to communities not always closely aligned with the game,” NZC chief executive David White said. “It’s something we haven’t done particularly well in the past.”We’ve been too one dimensional in our approach and especially in regard to addressing under-representation in certain communities. But we have to start somewhere.”White said NZC would also soon be launching a range of new cricket-playing programmes aimed at helping spread the game in various communities.”Cricket is a wonderful game that anyone can play, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or culture,” he said. “We just need to make sure everyone feels it’s accessible and welcoming – which is part of the reason for reaching out this week.”

Fast bowler Rusty Theron has retired from South African domestic cricket following continual knee problems, but he remains available to play in T20 leagues

Firdose Moonda08-Oct-2015Fast bowler Rusty Theron has retired from South African domestic cricket following continual knee problems, but he remains available to play in T20 leagues.* Theron played four ODIs and nine T20s for South Africa between October 2010 and March 2012 and was a senior member of the Warriors franchise. He played his last game for them in February.”After the CPL this year and a bothersome knee, I decided to focus on my studies for now. I will still be looking to forward to the CPL, IPL and some cricket in the UK as of next year when I have had some time to work on and settle the niggles that have bugged me for the last while,” Theron told ESPNcricinfo.Theron’s hand was forced during the Caribbean Premier League this year when he suffered a knee injury from which he did not think he would recover in time to honour his deal with the Warriors. Theron was only due to turn our for them in the twenty-over competition but withdrew to concentrate on his studied in the USA and allow his knee to settle.Theron had a reputation for being a skillful death bowler, and earned a national contract before he even played a game for South Africa. He was contracted in February 2010, after a season in which he played a major role in the Warriors winning their first, and to date, only trophies in the franchise era. They lifted both the forty-over and twenty-over cups and Theron was their leading wicket-taker in both competitions. In the forty-over tournament, he was the leading bowler overall with 21 wickets from nine matches at 18.80 and in the twenty-over event, he was third overall with 11 wickets from eight matches at 19.27.Theron took 12 wickets in 50-over cricket at 14.41 and 12 again in T20 cricket at an average of 21.75, which included series against India and Australia. However, he struggled to establish a regular place for himself in a career that was plagued by injury.A stress fracture kept him out of cricket for almost a full season in the 2012-13 summer. Trouble with his knee meant he did not play any first-class cricket last season too. Theron has relocated to the USA where he is studying English and hopes to go into teaching on his return home.Theron’s retirement has left the Warriors without an international seamer after Wayne Parnell moved to the Cobras over the winter. They have some experience in the form of Basheeru-Deen Walters and will bank on the likes of Simon Harmer, who is part of South Africa’s Test squad, to mentor a young attack.*14.00GMT, October 8: This article was updated after Rusty Theron spoke to ESPNcricinfo.