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Ratnayake will be assisted by former first-class batter Ruwin Peiris, who will be with the team as interim batting coach

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Jan-2022Former fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake has been appointed the Sri Lanka men’s national side’s interim coach for their three-ODI series against Zimbabwe, later this month. Sri Lanka have been without a head coach since Mickey Arthur’s contract ended on December 4. Ratnayake will be assisted by former first-class batter Ruwin Peiris, who will be with the team as interim batting coach.Ratnayake has taken on the role of interim coach before, usually when the team was in between permanent appointments. He has also repeatedly served as the side’s bowling coach. His current permanent role with SLC is as fast bowling coach at the high-performance centre. Peiris, meanwhile, is also presently a coach attached to the high performance centre.Mahela Jayawardene, who was recently appointed as consultant coach to all the national sides, is unlikely to be part of the men’s senior side’s backroom during the Zimbabwe series, as he will be with the Sri Lanka men’s Under-19 side, for their World Cup campaign in the Caribbean.Zimbabwe’s tour of Sri Lanka runs from January 16 to January 21. Sri Lanka’s next major assignments are the T20I tour of Australia, in mid-February, closely followed by a two-Test tour of India. The board is expected to have named a permanent head coach by then.

World Cup postponement offers fringe players chance to gain valuable experience

Andrew Miller27-Aug-2020Eoin Morgan says that the extra months of preparation ahead of next year’s postponed T20 World Cup could be crucial in getting the younger players in the England squad up to speed at international level.However, he also warned that it would be difficult for England to be considered among the favourites in Australia next year if they continue to take the field with a “half-strength” team.England’s white-ball squad was already lacking four key members of that World Cup squad in Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Jofra Archer, before the experience in their ranks was further eroded by the loss of Jason Roy to a side strain.And speaking on the eve of the first T20I at Emirates Old Trafford – England’s first outing since it was confirmed that the World Cup, originally scheduled for October and November, would be pushed back to 2021 – Morgan challenged the team’s fringe players to seize their chance in the absence of those more established names.”Given the circumstances surrounding Covid at the moment and the restrictions selection-wise, and having a priority on players’ wellbeing, this is another opportunity for guys who potentially would sit outside that 15, to try and present their best case, moving forward, for winter tours and the World Cup next year,” Morgan said.”I also think that opportunities like this don’t come around very often when we have our squad at full strength.”ALSO READ: Jason Roy out of series with side strainEngland’s triumph in last summer’s 50-over World Cup was made possible by a settled squad with clearly defined roles. However, Morgan recognised that this year’s unique circumstances – with England running concurrent Test and white-ball squads in a bid to fulfil their broadcast commitments after four months of lockdown – had left the development of their new-look team in a state of flux.”One of the challenges between now and the World Cup next year is going to be getting our strongest team on the park as often as we can to define those roles,” he said. “We will only know our strongest positions after we have guys achieving in those roles.”In the wake of a draining 2019 summer, England took an experimental T20 squad to New Zealand in November last year, where three of the current squad members, Tom Banton, Lewis Gregory and Saqib Mahmood, all made their debuts in a 3-2 series win, while a more experienced line-up came from behind in South Africa in February to win their three-match series 2-1.”It was a good exercise in the winter at different stages, particularly in South Africa, when we had the majority of people available – all bar Jofra, who was injured,” Morgan said. “But I don’t think we can have a scenario where we can play the majority of our games with a half-strength team and then expect to go into a World Cup as contenders.”Nevertheless, Morgan was torn as to whether the postponement of the T20 World Cup was actually an advantage to England, given that they would have been one of the only teams in the world to have had any meaningful match practice in the wake of the global sporting shutdown.”If the tournament went ahead, we would have been at an advantage over a lot of other nations given that we were already playing together,” he said. “But I think a lot of sides might have been up against it and it might have added a level of unpredictability to the World Cup.”Everybody’s favoured [by the postponement], simply because they haven’t been playing cricket. In a perfect-case scenario you lead into the World Cup playing good competitive cricket against sides in the conditions that you’re going to play, and the side has been together for a lot of the time.”Eoin Morgan and Jonny Bairstow head to the nets•Getty Images

Instead, England may need their younger players to find their feet at the highest level as quickly as possible, particularly a player such as Banton, who has found himself playing out of his comfort zone in the middle order in ODI cricket, due to the wealth of top-order talent at England’s disposal.”The messaging from myself or the coach is to feel as comfortable in an England shirt as you do in a county shirt,” Morgan said, “and to actually feel free enough to play the expansive game that you would at your county within international cricket.”Our job is to get the best out of the guys who are in our squad. So, in order to achieve that, guys need to feel comfortable and free enough to take the risks that international T20 cricket demands.”Instead of the T20 World Cup, the main focus for many of England’s white-ball players will be the IPL, which will be held in Dubai during the same window after being postponed from the spring, and Morgan hoped that the lessons available in that tournament, as well as Australia’s Big Bash, will help to fast-track the development of players such as Banton, whom he will be playing alongside at Kolkata Knight Riders.”A lot of the guys we have in the squad at the moment are young guys coming through, and when you’re at that stage of development in your career, six to eight to 12 months is actually quite a considerable amount of time,” Morgan said.”I think the challenge for those guys is actually getting the opportunity to go away and play,” he added. “The IPL is going ahead, and we have a long tour to India which actually frees up guys to play a full Big Bash and then potentially put their case forward to be selected in an IPL in the new year.”So, trying to expose them to a lot more white-ball cricket can accelerate their development as opposed to just sitting at home, not playing anything and wondering about what next summer will look like for us.”

Archer claims two wickets, Morgan scores half-century as England win by seven wickets in Cardiff

The Report by Valkerie Baynes05-May-2019
Jofra Archer took another step towards making himself at home in the England line-up while captain Eoin Morgan steered his side in typically cool fashion to a seven-wicket win over Pakistan in their T20I in Cardiff.Having made his long-awaited ODI debut against Ireland on Friday, Archer was playing his first T20I and did not disappoint, claiming 2 for 29 off his four overs to be the pick of the England bowlers as well as completing a sharp run-out as the hosts restricted No. 1-ranked Pakistan to 173 for 6.Morgan scored an unbeaten half-century and was well supported by Joe Root and a neat cameo from Joe Denly in taking England past the target with four balls to spare.Ben Duckett also made his T20I debut, opening alongside James Vince, the pair added to the England squad in the wake of Alex Hales’ axing. Duckett got his chance after Dawid Malan injured his groin while batting against Ireland but, after a bright start, he was dismissed for just 9, smacking Shaheen Afridi to Imad Wasim at mid-off.Vince looked nonplussed when he was given out, caught behind off Imad, having added a fluent 36 off 27 balls. He called for a review and, while Ultra Edge showed a small amount of noise, it was nigh on impossible to determine whether it came from the bat brushing the ball or the ground and the decision was upheld.With England 66 for 2, Root and Morgan found some scintillating white-ball touch, having managed scores of just 7 and 0 respectively against Ireland. By the time Root was caught behind for 47 off 42 balls, trying to ramp Hasan Ali, England were neck-and-neck with Pakistan, needing 43 off 27.Morgan held course and shared a 44-run partnership off 24 balls with Denly, to guide his side home, having scored 57 off 29 balls. With England needing five runs off the last five deliveries, Morgan smashed a six to seal the resultEarlier, after Pakistan chose to bat, Tom Curran struck in his first over, dismissing Fakhar Zaman to a superb one-handed catch from Morgan, who leapt high at cover to pluck the ball from the air.David Willey avoided what could have been a serious mishap on the next ball when he put his foot through the cover of an underground storage box as he was running in to bowl. Fortunately he was not hurt and a replacement cover was found.Archer entered the attack in the fifth over with devastating effect, a sharp bouncer catching debutant Imam-ul-Haq by surprise and hitting the glove on the way through to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, also winning his first cap in T20Is.After a shaky start in which Pakistan fell to 31 for 2, Babar Azam and Haris Sohail provided just what their side needed, combining for a 103-run partnership to put a par score within sight.Archer had other ideas, however, accounting for both in a pivotal over. Having reached his half-century off 36 balls, Haris lofted Archer high towards deep midwicket where Willey was waiting to take a comfortable catch.Two balls later, Archer gathered off his own bowling to run out Babar. Having hit the ball on to his pad from where it dribbled into the on side, Babar called for a run only to see Archer deviate from his follow-through, collect the ball and turn to throw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end with the batsman trying in vain to make his ground.With England having taken the momentum back, Chris Jordan pounced. Jordan juggled what would have been a wonderful caught-and-bowled off Imad that popped out of his hand as he leapt high, but he turned and gathered off the ground to find Asif Ali backing up well out of his crease and hit the stumps directly.Jordan’s last over was a mixed bag containing the wicket of Faheem Ashraf, out to a regulation catch by Denly at deep cover but going for 16 runs as Pakistan closed on a better total than their start had indicated.

The BCCI’s plans to stage India’s first-ever day-night Test in October is mired in a power struggle between the two power centres that currently run the board

Nagraj Gollapudi23-Feb-2018The BCCI’s plans to stage India’s first-ever day-night Test in October is mired in a power struggle between the two power centres that currently run the board. A sharply worded mail from Vinod Rai, chief of the Committee of Administrators, to Amitabh Choudhury, the board’s acting secretary, placed the proposal on hold and criticised what Rai called the “cavalier way of taking policy decisions”.In his mail, Rai said that discussions on the issue needed to go beyond India coach Ravi Shastri, who had been consulted, and should include the players, the administration and the fans, “your greatest stakeholder”. It laid down several conditions that needed to be met before the plan could be discussed again.India is the only major cricket-playing country to have not hosted or played a day-night Test. This, despite apparent openness to the idea from India captain Virat Kohli, who had called the inaugural day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand in 2015 a “landmark” moment. The game’s administrators, including the ICC, have urged member countries to support day-night cricket as a means of boosting audience figures across the Test world.The issue had its origins last week, when Choudhury emailed Shastri, asking for his help in “finding remedies to the ever diminishing” interest of fans in Test cricket. In his email, dated February 17, Choudhury said that even popular venues like Kolkata could not reverse the “alarmingly poor figures of attendance”. He said that to counter such a challenge, the BCCI needed to apply “innovative” thinking, and the day-night Test – provided the dew factor was managed – was a “natural” option.In his response, Shastri said that another option to attract a big audience was to play Test matches against “tier 2” opponents “like West Indies” in tier-two cities. “As far as day-night cricket goes, it can be tried out as an experiment with a game starting at 12 and where the last session is played under lights. It will be interesting to see how much part dew will play.”Against a team like West Indies, it has to be played in a tier 2 city without a doubt. To get in the crowds it doesn’t matter if it’s a day game or day-night game. What’s important is a tier 2 city.”Choudhury then placed Shastri’s suggestions at a discussion table at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, in a meeting with the board’s management team led by Rahul Johri (the BCCI’s chief executive officer) and Saba Karim (general manager, operations), and the national selectors.The following day, February 21, Choudhury emailed details of that meeting, along with the discussions he had with Shastri, to the BCCI’s two other office bearers – CK Khanna (acting president) and Anirudh Chaudhry (treasurer). “Under the circumstances, we will go ahead with the proposal [of] choosing one of the two Windies Test matches for the first ever day-night game on Indian soil,” Choudhury said.The email was forwarded to Rai, whose reply leaves the plan in limbo. Rai told Choudhury that if he felt taking the views of “four persons sitting in cricket centre [the BCCI headquarters]” constituted “all stakeholders”, then it was a “very misplaced viewpoint”.According to Rai, the “greatest stakeholder” was the public, and they needed to be factored in too. “This issue is placed on hold,” Rai told Choudhury in an email, copying in the rest of the board’s office bearers along with Johri and Karim.He said the idea could not be taken forward till the specifics of the proposed day-night Test were worked out, including the venue, timings, security arrangements and costs to the BCCI. He also said the visiting team would have to be consulted to “factor in their viewpoints”.”Ravi may have been consulted, but I would like to consult the players whose body clock over five consecutive days [and] will have to get accustomed to a new timing,” Rai said.Once all these things were looked into, Rai said the BCCI would put forth the view in the media for a “consultative process”.Choudhury responded to Rai on February 23, saying “the effort was only to impede the fast disappearing spectator support for Test cricket.”

Barbados and Combined Colleges and Campuses kicked off their 2017 WCIB Regional Super50 campaigns with victories on day one of the tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2017Kraigg Brathwaite’s 101 off 146 balls helped hosts Barbados off to a winning start in the 2017 WICB Regional Super50 as they trounced Guyana by 145 runs at Kensington Oval. Brathwaite’s maiden List A hundred in his 31st match anchored the Barbados innings as they eventually finished on 302 for 7.The bulk of the runs came during a 122-run third-wicket stand between Brathwaite and Jonathan Carter, who dominated their partnership while making a brisk 75 off 63 balls. Jason Holder took two wickets with the new ball to make early inroads in Guyana’s chase before the twin spin tandem of Ashley Nurse and Sulieman Benn did the rest of the damage. Offspinner Nurse claimed 4 for 42 while left-arm spinner Benn finished with 4 for 35 as Guyana were bowled out for 157 in just 32 overs.Combined Campuses and Colleges caused a stir at Three Ws Oval earlier in the day as they upset Jamaica by 75 runs. Amir Jangoo top-scored with 64 off 114 balls in CCC’s battling total of 215 for 8, which turned out to be more than enough in the end.Keon Harding wiped out Jamaica’s top three inside the first seven overs before Mark Deyal took three more to wreck the Jamaica middle order. Jamaica were still in with a reasonable chance of chasing down the total at 103 for 5 after 24 overs with Brandon King on 48, but left-arm spinner Larry Edwards struck with the first ball of the 25th to remove King, sparking a collapse of 4 for 20 over the next six overs and Jamaica ultimately subsided for 140 in 35 overs.

Sabbir Rahman and Shahriar Nafees batted out of their skin to take Barisal Bulls to the BPL final, where they will face Comilla Victorians

The Report by Mohammad Isam13-Dec-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLendl Simmons’ 73 was in vain•BCB

Sabbir Rahman and Shahriar Nafees batted out of their skins to take Barisal Bulls to the BPL final, where they will face Comilla Victorians. The five-wicket win over Rangpur Riders came with three balls to spare, and it was sweeter as they won without the big-hitting Chris Gayle.The match was going smoothly in Barisal’s favour when Sabbir and Nafees were adding their 124-run, third-wicket stand, but it started to swing and turn in the last three overs. Sabbir was dropped on 77 in the 18th over by Darren Sammy at long-on off Thisara Perera’s bowling. Two balls later, however, when the batsman tried to hoick over midwicket again, Sammy managed to balance himself on his left foot for about three seconds, nearly leaning into the rope but hanging on brilliantly.One more run came from that over, leaving Barisal to score 19 from the last two overs. The first three balls of the 19th over went for five runs before Mahmudullah skied Sammy’s slower ball straight to long-off where Perera took an easy catch. Rayad Emrit calmly slog-swept the next ball, also a slower one, for a six over deep midwicket before he was beaten off the last ball.Barisal needed eight off the last over when Shakib handed the ball to Perera. He gifted a full-toss down the leg side first ball and Cooper’s thin touch beat the diving wicketkeeper for four. Cooper squeezed one almost to the boundary next ball, but had to settle for two before he hammered a four off another full-toss to seal the win. The players and officials poured out of the Barisal dressing-room, rejoicing a tough climb to the final.Barisal’s start to the chase had been disastrous as they slipped to 10 for 2 in the third over. From such a tough position, with a place in the final on the line, Sabbir and Nafees put together the sixth hundred-plus stand in this year’s competition. The third-wicket partnership started with a charge off Shakib, who gave away three fours in the fifth over. Mohammad Nabi was struck for a four and six through the leg side, before Nafees’ thick outside edge took the ball past the wicketkeeper off Sammy.Sabbir brought out the sweep in the eighth over, going for a fast four, before Nafees swung a boundary away off Abu Jayed in the tenth over. The pair picked up two fours off both Perera and Sammy in the next two overs.Sabbir brought up his first half-century of this season’s BPL in the 14th over, before sweeping past the deep midwicket and backward square leg fielders, again off Nabi. He didn’t get to the pitch of a Saqlain Sajib delivery but the ball sailed over long-off, taking the partnership past the 100-run mark. With Barisal needing 43 off the remaining 30 balls, Nafees blasted Arafat Sunny through midwicket before Sabbir struck his third six, over midwicket. Nafees was run out in the next over, which was also Shakib’s last, for 44 off 40 balls with six fours.When Rangpur chose to bat, there were expectations from Lendl Simmons, who had only scored a single fifty in the tournament. He struck the first boundary for the side in the third over, tucking Mohammad Sami past short fine leg. His new opening partner, Abdullah Al Mamun, making his BPL debut, lofted Al-Amin Hossain over midwicket for a six, before Simmons, too, got his first six with a pull off Taijul Islam over midwicket.The left-arm spinner was struck for two more fours in the same over before Seekkuge Prasanna clean-bowled Mamun for 20; the opening pair had added 52 in 8.3 overs. Soumya Sarkar continued his lean run, falling for only 6, though Sami took a good catch at long-off in the 11th over.Simmons and Shakib added a quickfire 44 for the third wicket, though it was the Rangpur opener who took Al-Amin for a six over long-off, and hit fours down the leg side and past point off Emrit and Prasanna. Simmons was bowled by Sami for 73 off 57 balls, with nine fours and two sixes. He had laid enough of a platform for Rangpur’s allrounders to go for broke in the last few overs.Rangpur lost four wickets in the helter-skelter last over – two of them run-outs, while Cooper took the other two to complete his second four-for in the competition. Rangpur’s good score of 160, however, was eclipsed by a valiant Barisal effort.

County cricket could be played overseas as the ECB seek to ease fixture congestion during the English season.

George Dobell03-Jun-2013County cricket could be played overseas as the ECB seek a radical solution to ease fixture congestion during the English season.ESPNcricinfo understands that, among a raft of proposals under consideration, the ECB has floated the idea of playing the first two rounds of the County Championship overseas, possibly as early as March, in a move that is designed to ease fixture congestion and avoid some of the early-season issues with the weather. This season started on painfully slow pitches and in uncomfortably cold conditions that did little for players or spectators.The Caribbean is one potential venue. Six teams travelled to Barbados this March for pre-season training and warm-up games and it is understood that several Caribbean nations would be delighted to host the counties and their travelling supporters. The UAE, where the MCC Champion County match has taken place for the last four seasons, and South Africa are other potential destinations.While the initial signs are that several counties are supportive of the idea, others are concerned about open rebellion from their members. It is probable that the value of a county membership would be reduced if counties offered fewer matches as part of the package. While subsidised travel to the overseas games may placate a few, for many it may prove too expensive. Whether the idea of better scheduling in more comfortable weather for the rest of the domestic season is adequate mitigation remains to be seen.

Reaction

• “Is it April 1? I would be very concerned about who was going to pay for it all.”

• “The club have invested heavily in the facilities at Headingley and we’re well supported in Yorkshire, so to take matches elsewhere would deny the Yorkshire public.”

• “I did the Champion County match in Abu Dhabi and they were great conditions that allowed for good cricket.”

• “There could be fan mutiny. The British weather sees to it that cricket is already limited.”

Cost is an issue for the counties, too. But it is understood that the trips could be subsidised by sponsorship and possibly even host tourist boards.Apart from allowing more time for rest, recovery and practice, the longer county season might also bring other benefits. It might, for example, also allow counties to participate in the Champions League – no counties are appearing in the 2013 competition as it clashes with the end of the county season – and it might create room for a second T20 competition, played in a small window in mid-season.The ECB are keen to encourage radical debate on the future of the county game as they seek to improve the standard of cricketers emerging through the system and help the counties gain more financial independence. While many of the proposals are not likely to progress beyond conversation stage, this one – while in an embryonic phase at present – appears viable.

Tino Best, the Barbados fast bowler, has been called up to the West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2012Tino Best, the Barbados fast bowler, has been recalled to the West Indies squad in England after Shannon Gabriel, who made his Test debut at Lord’s, was ruled out of the remainder of the tour with a stress reaction in his back. Best is due to arrive in England on Wednesday.Gabriel only bowled five overs in England’s chase, during which he removed Kevin Pietersen, and subsequent investigation showed he would not be available for the second Test at Trent Bridge which starts on May 25. The management have decided to send him back to the Caribbean to recover. Kemar Roach (ankle) also struggled towards the end of the first Test while Ravi Rampaul missed the match with a neck problem.”Shannon made the complaint late in the first Test against England and scans conducted following the match showed a stress reaction in the lower spine,” CJ Clark, the West Indies physiotherapist, said.”He was subsequently ruled out of the second Test and, after further consultation, we feel that to prevent this injury developing any further, it is in Shannon’s best interest for him to return to Trinidad & Tobago for rest and rehabilitation to ensure he is fully fit when selected for West Indies in the future.”Best, 30, played the last of his 14 Tests in 2009 against Bangladesh in Grenada when West Indies were hit with a mass player walkout. However, he was recently named in the one-day squad for the series against Australia although, he did not make the XI for any of the five matches.He has taken 28 Test wickets at 48.67 with a best of 4 for 46, although his record against England is better with 13 wickets at 32.37 from five matches. One of those games came in 2004 at Lord’s which is where the well-known sledge “Mind the windows, Tino” came from Andrew Flintoff when Best was trying to slog Ashley Giles in the stands towards the end of the match.Best has forced his way back into contention with consistent performances in the regional four-day competition in the Caribbean where he picked up 17 wickets at 20.64 during the 2011-12 season.

Chris Taylor hit an unbeaten century to guide Gloucestershire to a 24-run Clydesdale Bank 40 victory over the Unicorns at blustery Bristol

02-May-2011
ScorecardChris Taylor hit an unbeaten century to guide Gloucestershire to a 24-run Clydesdale Bank 40 victory over the Unicorns at blustery Bristol.The county managed 195 for 6 from their 40 overs after winning the toss, Taylor contributing 100 not out off 98 balls, with nine fours and a six. New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson made 41 on debut while Unicorns bowler Dan Wheeldon took 3 for 31 from eight overs.In reply, the Unicorns never recovered from a spell of three for six off five overs from left-arm seamer David Payne (4 for 23), which reduced them to 43 for three on the way to 171 for nine. Skipper Keith Parsons hit a valiant 62 not out, off 77 balls, with three fours and a six, but the visitors never looked likely to reach their target on a tricky pitch of variable bounce.Payne was the pick of the home attack, but Will Gidman took a key wicket in Mike Thornely (31) on his way to figures of two for 29 from eight overs, while James Fuller claimed two for 27 from his eight. Parsons came in at the fall of the third wicket and battled hard without being able to raise the run-rate to the required level.Earlier, Wheeldon, who is playing minor counties cricket for Lincolnshire this season, had taken two wickets in the space of four balls to leave Gloucestershire seven for two. Skipper Alex Gidman was caught behind down the leg side, while Hamish Marshall was plum lbw to a ball that kept low.It was 26 for 3 when Ian Cockbain became Wheeldon’s third victim to another leg-before decision and Williamson found himself walking out to bat for the first time as a Gloucestershire player facing something of a crisis.He and Taylor steadied the ship without being able to take chances and their stand of 103 occupied 20 overs. The New Zealander was content to accumulate and had faced 69 balls, hitting only one boundary, when caught behind by Josh Knappett looking to pull Glen Querl.Will Gidman made 16 in a stand of 44 with Taylor, whose only six was lifted over square-leg off Neil Saker. But Gloucestershire were never able to cut loose and Taylor completed his ton in the final over, having held the innings together.Jonathan Miles conceded only 32 runs from his eight overs, while Neil Saker and Chris Peploe went for 38 apiece in a tidy Unicorns bowling display.

Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s head of communication and marketing, has outlined the lengths that English cricket has gone to in order to ensure that its competitions are not tainted by scandal and corruption

Liam Brickhill at Hove01-Jun-2010As England’s domestic Twenty20 tournament bursts into life with the first round of matches already underway, Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s head of communication and marketing, has outlined the lengths to which English cricket has gone in order to ensure that its competitions are not tainted by scandal and corruption, as the spectre of ‘spot-fixing’ hangs over the county game.”We’ve specifically asked the ACSU [The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit] to enhance their monitoring of the tournament, so we’re working with them closely,” Elworthy told reporters shortly before the first game of the Friends Provident t20 tournament, between Sussex, the reigning champions, and Somerset, last year’s runners-up, at Hove .”The Professional Cricketers Association are also working with the ACSU in terms of the education of the players,” he added. “I’ve seen all the text, all the content that’s been sent to them in terms of their education and how they can report, where they report anonymously and the number of different areas and ways they can do it.”The ICC has gone to great lengths to clean up international cricket after the extent of potential corruption became clear in the wake of the Hansie Cronje scandal in 2000, but as the outgoing chief of the ACSU, Lord Condon, reiterated at Lord’s last week, there is still no room for complacency despite all the effort that has been put in.The ease of access to matches for bookmakers, through satellite TV and the internet, means cricket is still vulnerable, and especially so in domestic tournaments that do not attract the same amount of attention as international fixtures, and tend to have more meaningless matches that increase the potential for temptation.”Obviously, we need to eradicate it [match-fixing] out of the sport so we’re working pro-actively with the ACSU, so that if any approaches are made it’s something that’s reported and dealt with correctly,” Elworthy stressed. “It’s something that’s very closely monitored, specifically from my point of view, but also from a PCA education of the players’ point of view, they work with them very closely.”The Friends Provident t20 is extensively covered by Sky Sports, and any county game that is shown on television in the UK is also available in India and Pakistan through a reciprocal agreement.
That opens the way for the illegal market of betting, which is still believed to be rife on the subcontinent despite extensive attempts to clean up the game, but Elworthy believes that better policing of the problem of illegal betting, rather than tampering with television rights, is the way forward.”As far as not televising the matches in India and places like that, I don’t think you can do that. It’s a vital market in terms of television revenue, so I would hate to see that. It’s just the policing of it [that’s important].”The players are given people to phone about any approaches, so that mechanism is in place and they can do that anonymously. It’s the way to do it and it’s the only way that we can try and stamp this out.”But the problem remains a serious one. Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh’s captain, recently revealed that he was approached by a man whom he believed wanted him to manipulate the outcome of an ODI against Ireland in 2008, and Cricinfo understands that two of his team-mates were approached ahead of the same fixture. Meanwhile bookmakers also attempted to make contact with two Australian players during the World Twenty20 in England last June.That the rot may well have spread to domestic cricket is evidenced by the fact that two Essex players are currently under investigation for spot fixing, while questions still surround certain games in the now defunct ICL. While Condon stated that he had no reason to believe that IPL3 was tainted in any way, given the heavy involvement of the ACSU, the necessary infrastructure had not been in place for the first two editions of the tournament.As Twenty20 cricket continues to expand through competitions such the ECB’s latest version, it is vital that measures are in place to preserve their integrity and Elworthy believes the groundwork is being done to ensure that this is the case.”What we’ve tried to do is put the building blocks in place of a tournament that has integrity,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of years to build this tournament up into something, and from our point of view we’ve got those building blocks in place.”