Andy and Grant Flower are still not interested in returning to theZimbabwe cricket team as long as the present administration remains. TheEssex pair spoke to Cricinfo on Monday while turning out for the World XIagainst a West Indies All Star team as part of the reopening of theKensington Oval on Saturday.”I walked away because of the state of affairs and not much haschanged,” said Andy Flower, the former Zimbabwe captain. “Since then it hasgone further downhill. I don’t believe things will change unless thegovernment changes, so that’s the stage we are at.”The brothers left the Zimbabwe team in 2003, disenchanted withgovernment policies and how the ZC cricket body led by Peter Chingokawas rife with financial mismanagement, bias and infighting. Dozens ofnational players have quit the side since, and Zimbabwe stopped playing Tests morethan a year ago because it wasn’t competitive enough.It has a conditional return to Test status in November, but considering thecountry has had no first-class competition for two years the talk of areturn to Test cricket may be premature.Chingoka was reportedly trying to attract former players for the Zimbabwe squadfor next month’s World Cup in the Caribbean to avoid embarrassment. Grant Flower, two years younger than Andy, called for a change of administration in the country. Otherwise, he said, the game would perish.”As Andy said, a lot needs to be done to save the game of cricket inZimbabwe. We would love to help, but we can’t work under the presentbosses,” said Grant. He also predicted a tough time for the team in the WorldCup.”Zimbabwe has been forced to field a team of kids and we have all seenthe results. It’s not the players’ fault but I don’t see them doing verywell in the World Cup out here.”
Ian Chappell believes Australia must start thinking of the Ashes by reinstating Michael Clarke instead of Brad Hodge for the three-Test tour of South Africa. Chappell, writing in his column for , said the selectors had to find a way for him to return after he was dropped for the third Test against West Indies in November.”Clarke is one of the six best batsmen in Australia – ahead of Brad Hodge – and his skill and flair will be an important ingredient if the Ashes are to be regained,” Chappell said. “Clarke is better equipped than Hodge to cope with the bounce and swing of a strong English attack and somehow the selectors have to have him back in the side before the first Test at the Gabba comes around.”The South Africa series and a two-match contest in Bangladesh in April are the only Tests Australia have before the Ashes starts at the Gabba on November 23. “Clarke is a player with a long-term future and also a potential Australian captain,” Chappell said. “He has had a kick in the backside and now is the right time to bring him back into the touring party.”The magazine also looks long term with Shane Warne predicting the South Australia slow-bowling duo of Cullen Bailey and Dan Cullen will go on to great things. Cullen, the offspinner who is currently recovering from a broken finger, was named the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year at the Allan Border Medal while Bailey, the legspinner, is his full-time replacement.”If you can have an offspinner and a legspinner bowling together it always tests the batsman with different sorts of techniques, good variation,” Warne said. “They are going to be hard work in South Australia, those guys, and, who knows, down the track they could form the Australian spin bowling combination.”
Sri Lanka have agreed to a last-minute ODI tour of India in April that will leave three English counties without one of their overseas professionals for at least the first three rounds of the Frizzell County Championship.Sri Lanka have agreed to play five one-dayers during the India tour and are expected to depart on April 19, just three days after the completion of the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington.The exact dates and venues for the tour have not been confirmed yet by the Indian board but Sri Lanka cricket officials expect the final itinerary to be completed very shortly, probably after the end of the ICC executive meeting that started in Delhi on Thursday.Chaminda Vaas (Worcestershire), Sanath Jayasuriya (Somerset) and Upul Chandana (Gloucestershire) will all be expected to tour and will probably not arrive in England until the first week of May. "The players have been warned that they will be needed," a cricket official told Cricinfo, "and we’ve agreed to an April 19 start so that the tour does not disrupt their plans too much."Sri Lanka’s board may have to consider financial compensation to the trio to cover lost earnings with their respective clubs. The players’ annual contracts with Sri Lanka Cricket expired at the end of February and they are yet to sign fresh agreements.Muttiah Muralitharan is also scheduled to play a third season with Lancashire, but he is not expected to be sufficiently fit for the ODIs after a second shoulder operation in February. He had planned to resume bowling on March 17 but has since been advised by his surgeon, Dr David Young, to rest it for a few more days and only resume net bowling at the end of next week when he returns to Sri Lanka after getting married in Chennai.Muralitharan may travel to Lancashire to participate in pre-season training and gradually step up the pace of his rehabilitation. Realistically, his best-case-scenario is to be available for Lancashire’s second game against Worcestershire on April 27.
Before the TVS Cup began, Stephen Fleming had remarked about the difficulty of the task for New Zealand in this tournament, being pitted against the World Cup winners and the runners-up. Just four games into the tournament, New Zealand have already fallen behind, and must put in a much-improved performance against Australia at Pune to prevent this tournament from becoming a two-horse race.Another defeat will not bundle the New Zealanders out of the tournament – though Australia will be guaranteed a place in the final if they win tomorrow – but after their embarrassing rout at Faridabad, Fleming and his men urgently need a morale-booster. In the context of how the two teams have performed so far, just running the Australians close will be a significant achievement.New Zealand’s cause has not been helped by injuries to Chris Cairns and Paul Hitchcock. Cairns strained his hamstring in the first match of the tournament at Chennai, while Hitchcock suffered a side strain at Faridabad. Both are doubtful starters for Monday’s match: Lindsay Crocker, manager of the New Zealand side, indicated that a final decision on both players would only be made on the morning of the match.Australia have few worries on their plate; their biggest grouse might well be the itinerary, which forces them to play a day game just one day after finishing a day-night fixture.The Australian top order had been below par at Gwalior, but Damien Martyn’s classy century, and Andrew Symonds’s powerful strokeplay suggested that the batting line-up is slowly getting into groove. The most encouraging aspect, however, has been the outstanding display by their second-string pace attack.In the absence of their top three fast bowlers, the inexperienced line-up of Nathan Bracken, Brad Williams and Andy Bichel were expected to struggle in subcontinental conditions. In two of the three matches, though, they have given Australia the early initiative. The conditions at Faridabad were admittedly seamer-friendly, but even on the dry surface at Mumbai, Bracken and Williams extracted bounce and movement, and had Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman playing and missing on numerous occasions.The Nehru Stadium at Pune could well offer the seamers a fair amount of assistance as well. There was a decent sprinkling of grass on the pitch, while the downpours over the last couple of days – which forced the covers to remain on the wicket – could also work in favour of the fast bowlers. The outfield was in excellent shape, though, and with fair weather expected for Monday, a prompt 9am start was a near-certainty.Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Michael Bevan, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Michael Clarke, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Andy Bichel, 10 Brad Williams, 11 Nathan Bracken.New Zealand (probable) 1 Chris Nevin, 2 Stephen Fleming (capt), 3 Lou Vincent, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Craig McMillan, 6 Chris Cairns, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Chris Harris, 9 Brendon McCullum (wk), 10 Daniel Vettori, 11 Daryl Tufffey.
The State Shield final between Wellington and Canterbury at the Basin Reserve, won by Wellington by 53 runs, was a match of serpentine twists and turns, of dizzying swings of fortune.There were in the match, played in bitterly cold conditions before an ardent and dedicated crowd, the best catch most spectators will ever see at close quarters and two or three others that were of the very highest quality.There were, in total, five run outs which scrambled innings and gave impetus to the batting collapses of both teams.Their were single incidents, moments of magical intensity, which changed the course of the match. And there was evidence of a vast reservoir of determination within the Wellington team which helped them become holders of all three major national cricket titles simultaneously.Wellington plunged from 146/1 after a 117-run partnership between David Sales and Richard Jones who were the game’s leading scorers to 192/9 before levelling off and reached 200/9, setting Canterbury 201 to win.And Canterbury were 73/1 in the 21st over and moving steadily towards their winning target when they were overcome by the same unsteadiness and lost nine wickets for 74 runs to be all out for 147.When Wellington’s innings ended, the advantage in the match belonged unquestionably to Canterbury. Wellington had aimed to score 230 runs after batting first and winning the toss and when they were 125/1 in the 30th over they should have gone on to an even more substantial score – to 250 at least.But two brilliant catches by Darron Reekers, another by Shanan Stewart and the run outs of Mayu Pasupati, Mark Jefferson and Paul Hitchcock knocked the stuffing out of their innings.Canterbury thought 201 a gettable total on a wicket which had been glued together for this match and which held its pace much better than either captain had anticipated. But as they paced their run chase, led at first by Paul Wiseman who made 42, they were knocked back on their heels by two moments of brilliance from the Wellington field.The most crucial was the run out of captain Gary Stead for 12 by Sales when Canterbury were 101. But the most spectacular was the catch taken by Pasupati near the backward square leg boundary which removed Aaron Redmond for six and left Canterbury 104/6.Spectators will never see, from one year’s end till the next, a catch as athletic, as dramatic or as influential as Pasupati’s. He made the catch diving full length above the ground and snatching the ball out of the air with one large, outstretched hands.That moment by itself knocked the stuffing from Canterbury, dented their confidence but at the same time led Wellington to believe deeply and unanimously that they were fated to win.Pasupati returned to the bowling crease to claim in a single over the wickets of Reekers, who had begun to mount a threatening rearguard action and was out for 24, and of Carl Anderson. Canterbury went on to dismissal at 147 and to comprehensive defeat.Wellington, in victory, were left in possession of all three of New Zealand’s major domestic cricket titles – the State Max title which they won last year for the third year in succession, the Shell Trophy and the State Shield.Of these the one-day championship was most satisfying. It has been 11 years since Wellington last won a national one-day title but the championship has eluded them, narrowly and in frustrating circumstances, several times in the interim.”When I took over as coach in Wellington they were very keen to get the one-day game right,” Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson said. “I felt in my first couple of years as coach I hadn’t done that.”That made this title especially pleasing.”Wellington captain Matthew Bell saw the completion of Wellington’s grand slam – a Tiger slam as it was hailed in a festive dressing room – as similarly significant.”To have come so close in the past and failed to win was disappointing,” Bell said.”You can say we have a different set up now and different players. The players involved in that period since we last one the one-day title have moved on but their history remains with us.”People had been talking all week about Wellington choking but we didn’t listen to that and more than anything we’re aware that we’ve now firmly laid that chokers tag to rest.”We’ve built something new here and we’ve won all three titles at one time to christen a new era for Wellington.”Stead, Canterbury’s diehard captain whose own dismissal had turned the game, was hard-pressed to determine how the game, that had once appeared so winnable, had eluded his team.”We were happy to have restricted them to 200,” he said. “They should have scored 240 or 250 with the start they got, 200 on that wicket we should have got.”But that’s the pressure of a big game. It was a strange game with five or six run outs, with all sorts of strange things, with all sorts of swings of fortune and they came through better than we did.”There are critical moments in any game and both sides experienced two or three throughout this game. Ultimately the partnership between Jones and Sales was the clinching factor if you look back at it.”The 117-run partnership between Sales and Jones was certainly the most productive of the match, as were their individual innings.Sales, opening the innings for the second time, made 62 in 129 minutes – hard graft – and Jones 71 in 122 minutes. Sales hit only six fours and Jones four. There were 12 fours in total in Wellington’s innings.But after Sales’ dismissal Wellington lost nine wickets for 46 runs in fewer than 14 overs – 6-33 in the last 10 overs during which not a single boundary was hit.But for the partnership between Sales and Jones, Wellington’s total would have been indefensible.Great credit was conferred during the Wellington innings on those two batsmen but also on the Canterbury bowlers and fielders.Redmond, who should have taken only a token role in bowling attack, ended up bowling 10 overs into a stiff and bitterly southerly breeze and took 2-46, including the wickets of Jones and Andrew Penn. Cleighten Cornelius bowled 10 overs and took 2-28.And Reekers’ catches helped propel Wellington down that headlong slope, from comfort at 146/1 to an eventual and dismal total which Canterbury might easily have surpassed.During Canterbury’s innings, Sales’ run out of Stead was crucial. He dived to stop the ball as the players comitted themselves to a single, then, in one motion, returned the ball to bowler Matthew Walker who whipped off the bails. The run out of Peter Fulton, a youngster who made a composed 29, was also crucial.”I suppose if you look at the game, we set ourselves up to get 250 and we were on target after 36 overs,” Johnson said.”We lost a couple of crucial wickets – Sales’ dismissal was crucial – and then a lot of wickets fell very quickly.”Canterbury put pressure on us and they held us to 200. We wanted more but we had to make that enough. Again the character in the side came through.”
On the brief occasions that the sun shone at Supersport Park on Sunday, it cast its rays on the shoulders of Gerhardus Liebenberg.A century from the Free State man lifted some of the gloom on yet another rain-interrupted day of the Supersport Series clash between the Eagles and the Northerns Titans.After several interruptions due to rain and bad light, the rain eventually won the battle with the Eagles finishing a wet third day 67 runs behind Northerns and on 224 for five.When the covers were pulled on, Liebenberg was on 109 not out, coming off 283 balls and including 18 fours. A useful 64 from Andrew Gait helped set the platform for an impressive total from the Free State considering all the weather delays they have had to contend with over the past two days.After being able to add only nine runs to their score before play was abandoned on Saturday, Free State resumed on 63 for no loss. Liebenberg began the day with 29 runs to his name, and Gait on 27.The duo continued to dominate against the Titans’ bowling attack, with Liebenberg doing the most damage.Northerns fast bowler Greg Smith, although liberal with the extras considering his 11 no-balls bowled, ended Gait’s innings when he had the batsman caught behind by Kruger van Wyk.The rest of the Eagles’ batting line-up had little to offer. After losing their first wicket on 147, the Eagles slumped to their second loss 11 runs later, and put on a total of 63 runs in losing all five wickets before stumps.
Everton have a number of long term contracts coming to an end, with six permanent deals and two loan stays ending in June 2022.
Therefore, Frank Lampard will need to work with Farhad Moshiri to consider whether any of the players are worth keeping hold of this summer.
The club is currently in a vulnerable position in the Premier League and every decision counts towards their unstable future, with over half a billion pounds wasted already on making signings and getting nowhere by doing so, Moshiri is running out of room for error, as the side currently one point outside of the relegation zone.
One player that has taken the expiry of his contract seriously is Jonjoe Kenny, and despite his inconsistencies has shown he can be relied upon when the opportunity has presented itself for him to step up this season.
The right-back has been taking up the chances to play on the opposite side in the left-back position for Everton this season, with club legend Leighton Baines and recently appointed legendary left-back Ashley Cole in the coaching team, helping him to develop his game in the position and it has been paying off in his most recent performances.
Lampard is clearly becoming a fan of Kenny, after giving him as many appearances over the last month as Rafa Benitez gave him during his entire six months reign, and it’s no wonder when you look at his output in the FA Cup clash against Boreham Wood last week.
According to SofaScore, Kenny earned himself the highest rating on the pitch (8.3) which is no surprise with an assist on the opening goal of the victory in the second half. He also won seven out of nine duels, made a whopping 110 touches, three tackles, an interception, a clearance, and successfully completed 83 out of 93 of his passes.
The Toffees boss was full of praise for the £15k-per-week who has been previously hailed a “horror show” by podcasters at ASCOM, with Lampard giving his verdict on the defender before his outstanding performance in the FA Cup last week.
“He will give you everything, positionally he was great, in terms of holding his position, then jumping out and making tackles at the right time.” Lampard told Everton TV.
“Jonjoe is perfect for any game – but especially when we needed discipline and effort and toughness, and he showed those things. I was really pleased with him.”
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With ACSOM’s quote in mind, it has been quite the turnaround for Kenny and him making it at Everton now is somewhat of a surprise.
Though, judging by his displays, it would now be no shock if Lampard doesn’t encourage the club to give the defender a new contract ahead of his expiry in June, as he clearly values the defender’s versatility and potential to grow into the team. The way that Kenny has responded to the former Chelsea boss’s coaching and revitalised himself speaks volumes and surely won’t go unrewarded.
In other news: Cenk Tosun offered a three year contract at Besiktas
Wasim Jaffer’s bat sparkled brightest on a day of total dominance for India’s batsmen, as they ground Pakistan into the Kolkata dust on the opening day of the second Test at Eden Gardens. Jaffer was undefeated on 192 when bad light ended play six overs early, but his fifth hundred was his most joyous yet. With support from Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, he took India to 352 for 3.For an ailing Pakistan, without their injured captain Shoaib Malik and hampered by a seriously unwell Shoaib Akhtar, it was, by some distance, one of their most dispiriting days in recent memory. Kamran Akmal led the way in the field with an untidy, fumble-ridden performance that included another dropped catch as their chances of winning this series ebbed away under a barrage of boundaries.But their woes should not take away from a day that was lit up by the beauty of Jaffer. He is compact even on his worse days, and has real grace in his shots, but rarely has he put it all together at such pace. His back-foot punches through covers, the pulls and clips are well-appreciated, but rarely have they come in such quick succession, in such sustained bursts of boundary-hitting. If ever a batsman was in the zone, it was Jaffer at Eden Gardens on Friday.He was gold from the very start, the early loss of his opening partner as much an inconvenience as a fly is to an elephant. No particular area of the ground was favoured over others and no particular shot over another: pulls, drives, punches, cut and clips were all played with that seductive upright elegance, elbows high, bat straight.But if he favoured one bowler over another, it was probably Sohail Tanvir, to whom he showed no mercy. Having driven him arrow-straight early in the piece, he struck him for four fours in an over a little before lunch. Later in the afternoon, as India raced to their 200, he hit him for a hat-trick of fours. As the day neared its end, Jaffer continued doing so, mostly through the leg side as Tanvir’s inexperience came out of the closet.He was no less imposing, or elegant, against the legspin of Danish Kaneria, never more so than in the day’s 49th over. In it, he reached his hundred with a push through the covers, before celebrating by clipping him twice in a row through midwicket for four.So commanding did the shy-looking Jaffer become that his support – Dravid and Tendulkar – were mostly overshadowed in stands of 134 and 175 respectively. Dravid was more than willing to go unnoticed, putting together a studied fifty. He was brisk enough to begin, particularly against Kaneria, as he got caught in Jaffer’s slipstream. But just as he was bedding himself in post-lunch, Billy Doctrove sent him back for a phantom edge: replays couldn’t tell whether Akmal’s take was worse or Doctrove’s decision.
Tendulkar was more energetic and before he was bowled – by his own shot rather than Kaneria’s googly – a hundred seemed a done deal. Alongside Jaffer, he took the wheels right off Pakistan in the afternoon. The pair scored at nearly five an over, Tendulkar by turn cheeky and impulsive, but never in less than total control. The one blot came in the first over after tea, an edge off Mohammad Sami, though Akmal was obliging enough to drop.Pakistan had a day you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, and compounded it with a comically poor performance in the field. They were effectively a three-man attack for much of it, the decision to play an ill and weak Shoaib always loaded with risk. He could only manage nine overs, and though the early ones had pace, by the end, he should have been running in with an IV drip.Kaneria was inconsistent, mixing some ordinary overs with brighter ones and Mohammad Sami, also unwell, remained committed but without luck. Perhaps their plight was best captured by the sight of Tanvir, the new hot young thing on Pakistan’s pace block, switching to left-arm spin halfway through the afternoon. It was an admission that poor fortune – in their catastrophic run-in to this Test – and a sublime Jaffer had emphatically won the day.
Nathan Hauritz has been recalled to the New South Wales Pura Cup squad to take on Tasmania as a late replacement for Beau Casson. Casson, the left-arm wrist-spinner, failed to recover after injuring his shoulder in last week’s loss to Victoria and was left out of the 12-man squad for the match to start on Saturday at Sydney.Hauritz has been in excellent limited-overs form but did not take a wicket in his only Pura Cup game this season. Since moving from Queensland he has found it hard to break into a New South Wales side already boasting Stuart MacGill and Casson.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Greg Mail, Simon Katich (capt), Dominic Thornely, Brad Haddin (wk), Grant Lambert, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Doug Bollinger, Stuart MacGill, Mark Cameron.
Michael Vaughan has conceded that England are major underdogs ahead of their tour to India next month. Vaughan, who is continuing his recovery from knee surgery, says the conditions will be a huge challenge for his young team.”People have to be realistic,” he said during an exclusive webchat with SunOnline. “Miracles don’t happen and we’re still a very young side. We beat Australia by playing great cricket on our home soil. You put us against anyone in the world in English conditions and I expect us to win.”But going to Pakistan or India, with different conditions, and it’s very tough for a team. Only Australia have won in India over the last decade. So even if Pakistan didn’t go well and India doesn’t go well, we will still be a good team going to Australia.”So I’m hoping we can go to India and put up a good fight and maybe surprise them because they’ll be big favourites.”England last won a Test series in India on 1984-85 tour, under the leadership of David Gower, and have subsequently lost 3-0 in 1992-93 and 1-0 when Nasser Hussain was captain in 2001-02.However, Vaughan is confident that he will be part of the team that departs for India, on February 12, with his recovery progressing well. He missed the one-day series against Pakistan so that he could have his long-standing knee problem operated on, and still give him enough time to return to full fitness for India.Although he has yet to test the knee in the middle – the only way to replicate the true strains it will endure during a match – Vaughan is pleased with how he is feeling. “The knee is good and it’s gone quite well since the operation four weeks ago.”I’m doing everything bar being on the cricket pitch twisting and turning. I’m doing a bit of running indoors and unless I have some real bad luck I expect to be on the plane in a few weeks’ time.”It was the cartilage that was the problem but I’ve had a bit of a tidy-up, a bit of a trim, and touch wood it seems to have done the trick.”