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Chhattisgarh have named Sulakshan Kulkarni, the former Mumbai wicketkeeper, as their coach for the next three seasons

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jul-2016Chhattisgarh have named Sulakshan Kulkarni, the former Mumbai wicketkeeper, as their coach for the next three seasons. Kulkarni will begin work with a camp in Raipur, attended by 30 probables.”I’m happy to be back in the Ranji Trophy again as a coach. I will enjoy helping develop a team like Chhattisgarh, which would play in the Ranji Trophy for the first time,” Kulkarni told the .”We had received applications from many coaches, some of whom are former players,” Rajesh Dave, the Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh secretary, said. “Kulkarni has a good track record with Vidarbha and Mumbai, and our committee felt he would be the ideal man to coach our boys, who’re talented but need his guidance and polishing since they lack experience at the Ranji level. We want to do well in our maiden Ranji appearance.”The Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh, which was an associate member of the BCCI, was elevated to full-member status after a special general meeting in February this year, paving the way for their Ranji Trophy debut in the forthcoming season.Kulkarni previously coached Vidarbha between 2009 and 2011, before serving in the same capacity with the Mumbai team from 2011 to 2014. He was in charge when Mumbai lifted their 40th Ranji Trophy title in 2012-13.

Nick Compton is set to return to first-class cricket following his self-imposed break after the Sri Lanka Test series having been named in the Middlesex squad for the County Championship match against Surrey at Lord’s.

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Aug-2016Nick Compton is set to return to first-class cricket following his self-imposed break after the Sri Lanka Test series having been named in the Middlesex squad for the County Championship match against Surrey at Lord’s.Compton was facing the axe after the Sri Lanka series having made just 51 runs in five innings before taking the decision to have a full break from the game. As he prepared to make his return, he said that he had spent some time with family completely away from cricket before focusing again on training.”The first 10 days my dad was over so I went away with him, switched off my phone and stayed away from cricket,” he told . “Then when I came back I just tried to get back into good routines.”That was key, just to get healthy again and clear the mind and make sure that when I came back I was fit and healthy and ready to go. There’s no way you want to be making decisions when you’re feeling a bit low and emotional.”I’m still hungry to play cricket as competitively as I can. I’ve still got a number of years in the game. I’m looking forward to enjoying my cricket and playing positively.”Compton returned to the England side against South Africa, in Durban, last December where he made a key contribution of 85 and 49 to help earn a series lead. However, he did not pass fifty again during his time in the side.He has the chance to help Middlesex to their first County Championship since 1993. They are currently top of the table, 13 points ahead of Durham who have a game in hand.

Glamorgan would have been in deep trouble had Australian born Nick Selman not scored 101, almost half the team’s total, in an attacking innings

ECB Reporters Network06-Sep-2016
ScorecardMichael Hogan stood in as Glamorgan captain•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Glamorgan would have been in deep trouble had Australian born Nick Selman not scored 101, almost half the team’s total, in an attacking innings.Selman, who last month carried his bat for an undefeated hundred against Northants, looked as if would emulate that performance until he was bowled the delivery after reaching his century. He will hope that this innings will not start a run of poor form- following his first century he suffered a run of four ducks.After an uncontested toss, Mark Wallace – in the absence of Jacques Rudolph, who had a sore neck – opened the innings with Selman, but Wallace was out in the seventh over, leg before to David Payne, which prompted a spectator to shout behind the arm” that was a poor decision umpire”.Selman had started with a flurry of boundaries, and although Will Bragg and David Lloyd were both out cheaply, Glamorgan had reached 130 for 3 at lunch, with Selman and Aneurin Donald in full flow.The fourth wicket pair had put on 65, before Donald, who was only four runs short of his 1,000 first-class runs for the season, top-edged an intended pull to mid-on. Kieran Carlson, playing his second championship game, was out with scoring, and after Selman was dismissed, Craig Meschede was also dismissed by Matt Taylor.Graham Wagg, meanwhile, played a watchful innings on a pitch that was seamer friendly, and had to contend with some accurate bowling from the Gloucestershire seam quartet. Wagg and Timm Van Der Gugten added a useful 38 for the ninth wicket, enabling Glamorgan to gain a batting point, before they were both dismissed by Craig Miles who, with Taylor, took four wickets.Gloucestershire had to face 31 overs after tea, but soon lost Gareth Roderick who edged Van Der Gugten’s fifth ball to second slip. The Glamorgan seamers also bowled a tight line, but it was a short delivery that undid Chris Dent, who tamely guided the ball to square leg.Will Tavare, who had laboured 67 balls for his 18, was the next to go when he was lbw to Michael Hogan, who was leading Glamorgan in Rudolph’s absence. Hamish Marshall and George Hankin, who was the Player of the Tournament in the recent Under-19 series against Sri Lanka, guided Gloucestershire to the close at 62 for3, a deficit of 158.

The Kanpur pitch, for the first Test between India and New Zealand, is cracked and somewhat dry, but is expected to hold up well, according to head groundsman Shiv Kumar

Sidharth Monga19-Sep-2016The Kanpur track is dry, has cracks, and it will assist the home side, as it should. But, if you listen to head groundsman Shiv Kumar, only as much as it should. There are early indications that the ball won’t turn as early or as alarmingly as it did in Nagpur and Mohali last season, when India won both Tests inside three days.There might be some concern at the sight of the cracks three days from the start of a Test, but Shiv said the soil has deceptively good binding qualities, and that erring on the side of caution could result in a repeat of the 2004-05 Test when Andrew Hall scored 163 in a boring draw. That was the debut Test for Shiv, an electrician by formal training who decided to try his hand as a groundsman because of unemployment. He says he has learnt a lot from that 2004-05 draw.The other extreme in Kanpur, though, appeared in 2008 when India, trailing 0-1 in the series, beat South Africa in three days on a vicious turner, which was later rated “poor” by the ICC. Shiv said that happened because of the April heat, and a repeat was not likely to happen this year. If the Test on crack was played in the heat of April, the one on valium was played in November when the weather cools down considerably. This one, in September, might be bang in the middle in terms of heat; September used to be pleasant before global warming turned the north Indian summer into a seemingly never-ending phenomenon.Shiv has three reasons to be confident this pitch won’t start turning alarmingly on day one. Firstly, the cracks might be visible, but they are not loose; in fact the surface is quite hard. A knuckle knock on the pitch creates a solid sound. Secondly, Shiva said the binding qualities of the Kanpur soil make it a difficult surface to break. Thirdly, the pitch is still getting watered, unlike Nagpur last year where the cracks had become loose by the time the toss happened. The pitch was kept under covers to shield it from the scorching sun during the day, and it was watered at 5pm. More rolling and watering is expected on the two days before the match.There are patches of grass on the pitch, but they are too dry and too far apart to provide any real encouragement for traditional fast bowling. However, if it rains – it rained on Sunday and some mild showers are expected during the Test – the heavy atmosphere and the high water table at Green Park could make traditional swing and seam a factor. Otherwise Shiv expects only about an hour’s help for the quicks on the first morning.A typical Green Park track, Shiv said, on the basis of first-class matches in the Ranji Trophy, is good for batting for the first two days, and then it starts to take turn. That is more a classic Test track in India: good for batting in the first half of the match and moving along at a rapid pace in the second. The turn is expected to be on the slower side.The dry track is ripe for reverse swing, which could seal Neil Wagner’s selection alongside Trent Boult for New Zealand, and might tempt India to play two quicks, three spinners, and thus, just the five batsmen.

Glenn Maxwell was a surprise omission from Victoria’s first match of the Sheffield Shield season, but the Bushrangers enjoyed a strong day on the field with new opener Marcus Harris scoring a century

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Oct-2016
ScorecardGlenn Maxwell started the Sheffield Shield season as 12th man•Getty Images

Glenn Maxwell was a surprise omission from Victoria’s first match of the Sheffield Shield season, but the Bushrangers enjoyed a strong day on the field with new opener Marcus Harris scoring a century. The Victorians went to stumps on 4 for 351 on what was a tough day for the Tasmania attack, although Test hopeful Jackson Bird bowled tidily for 1 for 53 from 22 overs.But as much as the on-field action, attention was focused on Victoria’s pre-match decision to make Maxwell the 12th man. During the off-season, Maxwell had explored a switch to New South Wales, a move that was blocked by Victoria, who chose to enforce the terms of his Cricket Australia contract. However, they could find no room in the starting XI for him.”It’s just a matter of balance,” the new Victoria coach Andrew McDonald said on Tuesday. “There will be some unlucky players. We’ve got nearly the full list available and we’ve selected the team we think can beat Tasmania.”It has been an up-and-down year for Maxwell, who in January was named Australia’s ODI Cricketer of the Year at the Allan Border Medal ceremony, was dropped from the ODI squad for the series in Sri Lanka, then blasted an unbeaten 145 in the first T20 against Sri Lanka, and now has been cut from Victoria’s Sheffield Shield side. Maxwell averages 41.03 with the bat in first-class cricket.But the Victorians did not seem to suffer in his absence, as openers Harris and Travis Dean put on 76 to set the stage for a day full of runs. Dean was bowled by Cameron Boyce for 26 but Harris, playing his first Sheffield Shield match for Victoria after moving from Western Australia, turned his start into the fifth first-class century of his career.Harris ended up with 115, including 14 fours and two sixes, before he fell to the bowling of Beau Webster. But there were plenty more runs to come for Victoria as Peter Handscomb posted 78, Matthew Wade finished unbeaten on 56 and Cameron White went to stumps on 50. Aaron Finch was the one middle-order man who fell cheaply, caught behind off Bird for 17.Bird is effectively the incumbent third fast bowler in Australia’s Test line-up having played on the tour of New Zealand in February – in Sri Lanka the Australians played an extra spinner and only two frontline fast men. The MCG Shield clash had the potential to become a battle between Bird and Peter Siddle for a place in the Perth Test XI.Bird was typically hard to get away and sent down seven maidens in his 22 overs, while Siddle will have to wait until later in the match for his opportunity. Siddle is playing first-class cricket for the first time since the Test tour of New Zealand, after which he was diagnosed with stress fractures of the back.

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Oct-2016Defending champions Mumbai earned a thrilling first-innings lead against Baroda on the back of opener Akhil Herwadkar’s fifth first-class century on the second day of their Ranji Trophy game in Delhi.In response to Baroda’s first-innings score of 305, Mumbai were reduced to 172 for 6 before Herwadkar (106) and Balwinder Sandhu struck a 90-run stand. Sandhu’s unbeaten 56 and handy lower-order contributions from Shardul Tahkur (17) and Tushar Deshpande (11) ensured Mumbai got three points on first-innings lead. Mumbai ended the day at 313 for 8, eight runs ahead. Seamer Sagar Mangalorkar picked up three wickets, while Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan chipped in with a wicket each.Madhya Pradesh fast bowler Ishwar Pandey returned figures of 8 for 102 to spark a spectacular middle-order collapse that saw Punjab stumble from an overnight score of 347 for 3 to 378 all out. Pandey took six wickets on a 12-wicket second day in Lahli, including those of centurions Yuvraj Singh (177) and Gurkeerat Singh (103). Apart from Yuvraj, Gurkeerat and Jiwanjot Singh, all other Punjab batsmen were dismissed for single-digit scores.Pacer Manpreet Gony, though, disrupted Madhya Pradesh’s momentum with 4 for 25, all caught behind. Madhya Pradesh ended the day at 182 for 5 with Shubham Sharma (48) and wicketkeeper Ankit Dane (14) at the crease.Tamil Nadu‘s bowlers and captain Abhinav Mukund led the team’s resurrection on the second day of their Group A match against Railways in Bilaspur. Resuming on 87 for 3, just 34 behind Tamil Nadu’s first-inning score of 121, Railways were wrapped up for 173 in the first session. Left-arm seamer T Natarajan, playing his second first-class match, finished with career-best figures of 4 for 51.Openers Mukund and Washington Sundar nearly wiped out Tamil Nadu’s deficit of 52, before the latter was trapped in front by Manjeet Singh. Kaushik Gandhi proved to be an ably ally to Mukund as the pair added an unbeaten 124 to push Tamil Nadu 109 runs ahead. Mukund struck 10 fours in his 98, while Gandhi was more patient, consuming 146 balls for his 41.
Manoj Tiwary compiled a brisk 110 to help Bengal pile on Uttar Pradesh‘s misery on the second day in Jaipur. A lack of substantial support from the other end meant Tiwary did the bulk of scoring, adding 109 of Bengal’s 178 runs on the second day. He was last man out for a 150-ball 110 as Bengal were bowled out for 466. Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav polished the middle and lower order with 5 for 115, his second five-wicket haul in first-class matches.Uttar Pradesh were reduced to 49 for 3, before Umang Sharma and Sarfaraz Khan added an unbeaten 77-run stand to help the team to 126 for 3 at stumps.

Despite having suspended the USA Cricket Association last year, the ICC has taken another step to provide more opportunities to players in the country

Peter Della Penna12-Nov-2016In another step to provide more opportunities to players in the USA, the ICC has given the country’s women’s team a wildcard entry into next year’s ICC Europe Women’s T20 Qualifier, despite having suspended the USA Cricket Association in June, 2015.In an email sent on Thursday to the players announcing the move, which was obtained by ESPNcricinfo, ICC Americas Cricket Manager Tom Evans said the decision was taken following a recent meeting of the ICC Women’s Committee to extend the invite to USA “due to an increase in domestic women’s cricket activity”.USA has not had an opportunity to compete for qualifying berths in ICC tournaments since 2012 when they finished second to Canada in the ICC Americas Women’s Twenty20 championship held in the Cayman Islands. However, the ICC cancelled the regional tournament in 2014, stating at the time that the money for the tournament would be better spent on grassroots development. It eliminated any chance for a representative from the region to compete for a spot in the 2016 Women’s World T20 and the 2017 Women’s World Cup.At the time, the USA had an estimated 100 female players nationwide, but the women’s programme had stagnated in part due to the USACA not having organised a women’s national tournament since 2011. Earlier this year, the ICC Americas office organised a series of scouting combines in eight cities, encouraging women to try out. Approximately 45 women attended, from which a 22-player squad was invited to a national camp in Philadelphia in September, which included matches against an MCC Women’s touring side featuring Claire Taylor and Charlotte Edwards.As part of the preparation plans to get the national squad ready for competition next year, ICC officials have said they intend to schedule several camps and recruitment initiatives beginning in March, ahead of the ICC Europe Qualifier scheduled for August. USA will take on Scotland and Netherlands in the Europe qualifier for a spot in the global qualifier for the 2018 Women’s World T20 in the West Indies.Among the recruitment initiatives tentatively planned to grow the women’s playing base and strengthen the competition pool for the national team are two pilot programs. One is aimed at organising modified and/or co-ed intramural club cricket games on college campuses, while another is expected to target current or former, recent NCAA athletes who have played field hockey, golf, lacrosse and softball to gauge their interest in attempting a transition to cricket.

A round-up of the Super Smash matches held on December 18, 2016

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2016Colin de Grandhomme hit an unbeaten 72 off 35 balls to take Auckland to victory against Canterbury, after they had lost half their side within the 12th over of their chase at Eden Park.Auckland were reduced to 75 for 5 after medium-pacer Ed Nuttall ran through their top order with a career-best 3 for 17. What followed was an unbroken partnership of 81 between de Grandhomme and SM Solia (29 off 21), that came off just 42 balls, and took Auckland past their target of 151 with ten balls to spare. 21-year-old left-arm spinner Jeremy Benton was taken for 30 runs in his solitary over during the course of Auckland’s chase.Earlier, Cam Fletcher’s 37 and a 16-ball 35 by Andrew Ellis were the only significant contributions for Canterbury as they folded for 150 after electing to bat. Canterbury lost regular wickets, with legspinner Tarun Nethula returning career-best figures of 4 for 18, while pacers Donovan Grobbelaar and Tymal Mills took three wickets each in an innings where only five batsmen got into double figures.The win – their fourth in as many games – kept Auckland at the top of the table.Tom Bruce continued his fine domestic form with an aggressive 74 off 41 to lead Central Districts to a nine-run win against Wellington in Nelson. Central Districts scored a competitive 181 for 5 before Wellington fell short despite a quick half-century by captain and opener Hamish Marshall.Wellington’s chase saw a strong opening stand of 55 in the Powerplay, between Marshall and Michael Papps before they lost three wickets in the next four overs. Marshall went on to score his 15th T20 fifty, off 35 balls, but the rising asking rate led to his wicket, for 52 off 37, after Luke Ronchi and Grant Elliott fell for low scores. Wellington needed 69 in the last six overs and brought it down to 29 off 12 but Michael Pollard was bowled for 22 and they fell short despite an unbeaten 26 off 17 from Luke Woodcock. Left-arm spinner George Worker finished with a frugal 2 for 25 from four overs.Put in to bat, Central Districts lost Mahela Jayawardene for 5 in the second over before Worker, the other opener, and captain Will Young fell within the space of four balls at the score of 46. However, Bruce and Dane Cleaver revived them with a stand of 61, as Bruce did the bulk of scoring to take them past 100. Cleaver scored 15 and Bruce’s belligerent knock, with eight fours and three sixes, powered them till the last over that helped them go past 180. Elliott took two wickets but almost all bowlers leaked too many runs.Neil Broom celebrated his call-up to the ODI squad against Bangladesh with an unbeaten 54 off 41 balls as Otago registered a thumping eight-wicket win against a Northern Districts side that featured as many as six international players at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui.Northern Districts put on 157 after electing to bat, through contributions from Tim Seifert (41) and Corey Anderson (39). The pair brought impetus to the innings that was otherwise kept in check by tight bowling from Anaru Kitchen, Neil Wagner, and Warren Barnes, who took 5 for 46 in the ten overs among them.Otago’s innings wasn’t of the same brand, with openers Kitchen and Hamish Rutherford (39) racing off to a 51-run stand that took just 4.3 overs. Their separation brought a brief halt in momentum, but an unbroken stand of 91 for the third wicket between Broom and Michael Bracewell (41 off 27) took Otago to victory with 15 balls to spare.

Senior banker Vikram Limaye will join acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhury and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry as the board’s representatives for the quarterly ICC meetings

Nagraj Gollapudi30-Jan-2017Senior banker Vikram Limaye will join acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhury and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry as the board’s representatives for the quarterly round of ICC meetings, which take place in Dubai between February 2-5. The appointments were finalised on Monday at a Supreme Court hearing in Delhi, in which the Court also approved a committee of administrators to run the BCCI.The Court’s decision on who represents the BCCI at the ICC will be of particular interest to cricket administrators around the world as they gather for a significant round of meetings later this week. A number of the big decisions world cricket has been discussing and debating over the last year could be pushed through at the meeting. There is expected to be some progress on the vast governance changes ICC board members have been working on, changes that undo much of the administration and revenue distribution measures that were put forth by the Big Three in 2014.There will also be a continuation of discussions on the shape and format of international cricket in the future. As well as being impacted by these decisions, in ordinary circumstances the BCCI would have been a key influence on the decision-making itself; any reduction, for instance, of their share in a new revenue distribution model – as mooted in the past by ICC chairman Shashank Manohar – would likely have been opposed. It still may, of course, but the impermanence of the BCCI administration currently might have an effect on how the meetings develop.Limaye was one of four people appointed by the Court to be on the committee of administrators, and he was chosen to travel to Dubai due to his vast experience in the finance sector. The Court made it clear that the committee is the final authority on all matters until the BCCI conducts fresh elections having amended its constitution as per the Lodha Committee recommendations. Effectively that means Limaye would need to sign off on any BCCI decision taken at the ICC meetings later this week.At the hearing on Monday, the Court had initially suggested that acting board secretary Choudhury accompany Limaye for the ICC meetings. But BCCI’s legal counsel Arvind Datar pointed out that as a treasurer Chaudhry had better knowledge of the finances in cricket and hence should also be part of the BCCI team. Gopal Subramanium, the amicus curiae in the case, raised reservations against BCCI office bearers’ attending the the ICC meetings.The Court, however, made it clear that it was approving both Choudhury and Chaudhry to attend “so that there will be objectivity and transparency”. It made it clear it was treating their appointment as an exception and allowing them to attend mainly because they had prior knowledge of the BCCI’s stand on ICC matters as they had been part of the previous administration. Justice Dipak Misra, part of the three-judge bench, pointed out that it was not giving a “stamp of approval” on their eligibility as office bearers.This will be the first ICC meeting for not just Limaye but also Choudhury and Chaudhry. The BCCI CEO Rahul Johri was present at the big ICC meetings last year – the annual conference in Edinburgh in June and the quarterly meetings in Cape Town. In Edinburgh, the former BCCI president Anurag Thakur and former secretary Ajay Shirke were also present, while Thakur was in Cape Town as well.In practice, somebody like Limaye, with no previous experience of cricket administration and with only an interim role at the BCCI, does not pose any problems as far as the ICC board taking decisions is concerned. Each member nominates its representatives to the ICC board and the chief executives’ committee, so whether an official is interim or permanent doesn’t matter, and they vote – if a vote is required – as normal. In theory, if any resolutions pass at this meeting that a future, permanent administration of the BCCI is not happy with, they can raise the point on the agenda at a future meeting.

A round-up of the Group D matches of the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare trophy held on February 26, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2017A century from MS Dhoni and his 151-run stand for the seventh wicket with Shahbaz Nadeem helped Jharkhand overcome a collapse to beat Chhattisgarh by 78 runs at the Eden Gardens. His 107-ball 129 came after Chhattisgarh had reduced Jharkhand to 57 for 6 in the 20th over. Opening bowlers Pankaj Rao (3-27) and Kant Singh (4-33) shared the first six wickets. But Dhoni, coming in at No. 6, combined with Nadeem (53 off 90) to steady their innings with a stand that lasted 27.4 overs, helping Jharkhand to 243 for 9. Dhoni fell off the last ball of the innings after hitting ten fours and six sixes. In response, Chhattisgarh failed to put on substantial partnerships before folding for 165 in an innings where only three batsmen got past 20 – Kant top-scored with 24, to add to a memorable List A debut. Fast bowler Varun Aaron (3-26) and Nadeem (3-36) were the top performers for Jharkhand with the ball.Akshath Reddy’s third List A century powered Hyderabad to 312 before Chama Milind’s four-wicket haul restricted Saurasthra to 199, for a 113-run victory in Kalyani. Reddy lost opening partner Tanmay Agarwal in the fifth over but added 191 with Kolla Sumanth, who retired hurt on 91. Reddy put up a career-best 154 off 132 balls before being run-out in a 48th over that accounted for three wickets. Medium-pacer Kushang Patel (3-54) took three wickets in four balls in that over. In reply, Saurashtra lost their openers within the fourth over. A third-wicket stand of 46 steadied the innings briefly before a collapse saw them fall from 57 for 2 to 96 for 7. All of Hyderabad’s bowlers chipped in with wickets, but Milind and Mehdi Hasan (2-44) were at the forefront. Prerak Mankad, the lone resistance for Saurashtra, hit his maiden century – 104 off 88 balls – before falling to Ravi Kiran (2-46).Pavan Deshpande’s maiden fifty anchored Karnataka‘s chase against Services, helping them to a four-wicket win at the Jadavpur University ground in Kolkata. After Services were put in, they lost quick wickets on either side of a third-wicket stand of 54 to slump to 114 for 6. Suraj Yadav (44*) and Diwesh Pathania (49) added 82 before for the seventh wicket, before Poonam Poonia’s unbeaten 13-ball 20 lifted Services to 231 for 7. Medium-pacer Prasidh Krishna (3-39) and offspinner Aniruddha Joshi (2-32) led the charge for Karnataka. Robin Uthappa, who effected three catches and a stumping behind the wickets, hit 51 off 43 after Karnataka were reduced to 3 for 2. His fifty came in a 76-run partnership with Manish Pandey (23) before the pair fell off consecutive overs to leave Karnataka at 81 for 4 in the 18th over. Deshpande’s 73 brought them to within 44 runs of victory, before Joshi (50* off 37) and J Suchith (24* off 18) sealed the win.