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Ben Stokes, the 18-year old allrounder, has signed a two-year professional contract with Durham, having recently been named in England’s squad for the Under-19 World Cup.

Cricinfo staff10-Dec-2009Ben Stokes, the 18-year old allrounder, has signed a two-year professional contract with Durham, having recently been named in England’s squad for the Under-19 World Cup.Stokes joined the Durham Academy in 2007 and made his Second XI debut in the same year, where he took a career-best 4-19 against Leicestershire. In 2009 he made his first appearance for the senior squad in the Friends Provident Trophy against Surrey at The Oval and went on to feature in the 40-over competition later in the season. He also played an Under-19 Test for England against Bangladesh at Derby in July, making 72 in the first innings and an unbeaten 17 in the second.Stokes said he is looking forward to learning from the senior players in a very successful club. “It’s been an exciting few weeks for me and I’m really happy to have signed my first professional contract. It’s great to be involved with such a successful club and it’s been a real benefit to have a varied group of players around me who I can go to for advice. I can’t wait for the 2010 season to start.”Geoff Cook, the Durham coach, said the Stokes had been rewarded for the hard work he put in this season. “We set Ben a number of challenging targets for the 2009 season and he worked incredibly hard to meet them. The transition from Academy to second XI and on to the first team can be a tough one but I have been impressed by the way he has performed. He’s a great young talent and I’m pleased that he’s going to be part of the squad for the foreseeable future.”

England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, believes that Friday’s third ODI at Cape Town could prove to be one of the team’s most instructive of recent times

Cricinfo staff26-Nov-2009England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, believes that Friday’s third ODI at Cape Town could prove to be one of the team’s most instructive of recent times, as they seek to build on the momentum generated by their impressive seven-wicket victory at Centurion last week, and end their frustrating habit of inconsistency.England’s returns in one-day cricket in the past 14 months have fluctuated like the stock market – a 4-0 victory at home to South Africa, a 5-0 defeat away to India, back-to-back series wins against West Indies, and a 6-1 hiding at home to Australia. In the recent Champions Trophy, England continued that trend with impressive wins against Sri Lanka and South Africa, only to collapse to a crushing defeat in the semi-final against Australia.”There is a long-term plan in improving our one-day cricket – and these sorts of games are the ones that can really take us forward,” Strauss told reporters at Newlands on the eve of the match. “We’ve said in the past we’ve always responded well to defeat, but we have not been quite so great on building on a good performance. We’re going to try to put ourselves under a bit of pressure this game to make sure we build on that.”England have never yet managed more than a single victory in any one of their three previous one-day tours of South Africa – and they were routed 4-1 on their last visit in 2004-05 – but victory at Newlands on Friday would ensure at least a share of the spoils this time around. Strauss, however, is not banking on South Africa making life easy for them – especially at a venue where they have won 24 of their 27 contests since 1992.”We’ve got ourselves in a nice position to really turn the screw in this one-day series, so now is not the time to let up,” said Strauss. “They are going to come back hard at us, there’s no doubt about that – they’re always competitive anyway but they wouldn’t have enjoyed losing that first game. We’re expecting them to come here all guns blazing.”England’s bid for victory will be aided by the expected return of Stuart Broad, who has recovered from a shoulder injury and is likely to come into the side in place of Sajid Mahmood. South Africa have been quick to focus on Broad’s perceived lack of match fitness, having not played since the opening game of the tour, but Strauss was sure he would rise above such mindgames.”I suppose it’s a little bit of a test of his character,” said Strauss. “Those sorts of comments have a good way of focusing your mind and motivating you – and he certainly looked in fine fettle yesterday when we had a middle practice. He’s confident and he’s been bowling pretty well for a long period of time.”Graeme Swann is another player who could feature on Friday, if England feel that his side strain has healed sufficiently, while Kevin Pietersen – who recently returned to action after recuperating from Achilles surgery in July – will be keen to improve on his current tour tally of 37 runs in three innings.”He’s been out for a while, so it’s always going to take a couple of games for him to be at 100%,” said Strauss. “But I never have any real worries about KP, a big score is always just around the corner. He’s fresh, motivated and really wants to contribute to the England side – and coming back to South Africa is another place he really wants to do well.”

Alastair Cook produced a performance of limitless concentration and increasing authority to post his tenth Test century in his 50th appearance

The Bulletin by Andrew Miller28-Dec-2009Close England 386 for 5 (Cook 118, Collingwood 91) lead South Africa 343 (Kallis 75, Smith 75) by 43 runs

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAlastair Cook dug in for England to build a promising position•Associated Press

Alastair Cook produced a performance of immense concentration to post his tenth Test century in his 50th appearance, while Paul Collingwood built on his matchsaving heroics at Centurion with a five-hour 91, as England’s batsmen hauled their side into a position of authority on the third day of the Boxing Day Test at Kingsmead. By the close, Ian Bell had cashed in on the platform laid by his team-mates with an important 84-ball 55, an innings that may have lacked the pressure of the performances that preceded it, but nevertheless was invaluable in securing a healthy 43-run lead with two days of the Test to come.The mainstay of England’s performance, however, was Cook, who turned 25 on Christmas Day and celebrated with a timely performance in more ways than one. He resumed on 31 not out overnight, knowing that his performance was in the spotlight after a tally of two hundreds in the past two calendar years, but he gritted his teeth and bedded in for the long haul, grafting 11 fours in all from 263 balls, in a six-and-a-half-hour 118. He made light of the second-over dismissal of his overnight partner, Jonathan Trott, and ground out a solitary run from his first 37 deliveries of the day, a statistic that set the tone for an innings that was never pretty, but was never intended to be either.Only once did Cook come close to being dislodged, when – on 64 – he successfully overturned an appeal for a catch at short leg off the part-time spin of JP Duminy. Replays suggested, not entirely conclusively, that the deflection had come straight off the pad, but the speed and conviction with which Cook called for the second opinion suggested that justice had been served. Either side of that alarm he was discipline personified – not least against Makhaya Ntini, another player with a point to prove, with whom he played a day-long game of cat-and-mouse, leaving the ball religiously on line as Ntini’s natural angle carried all but a handful of deliveries straight across the off stump.In the final half-hour before lunch, Cook began to open his shoulders and go for his shots, cracking Paul Harris out of the attack with a brace of fours through the off-side, before rocking back in his stance to pull Morne Morkel through square leg. And later, on 88, he latched gleefully onto a wide long-hop from the increasingly lacklustre Harris to surge into the nineties for the first time since the Lord’s Test in July. Those moments aside, he dealt exclusively in pushes and deflections – including the nudge through midwicket that brought him three figures from 218 balls – as he relied on his mental strength to carry him and his team into a position from which England can still pile on the pressure in South Africa’s second innings.Cook’s partner for 45 overs, including the entire second session, was Collingwood, who came to the middle at 155 for 3 following the departure of Kevin Pietersen for 31, at a stage when England were still nearly 200 runs adrift of South Africa’s 343. But his calm accumulation staved off any immediate threat of a meltdown. Though neither batsman was especially easy on the eye, the rate at which they scored, at a shade over three an over, was perfectly respectable given that the halfway-mark of the match had only just been reached. Collingwood’s half-century came up with a trademark nurdle off the pads in the final over before the second new ball was due, but having negotiated that with minimum fuss, he nevertheless fell short of a well-deserved century. With half-an-hour of the day still remaining, he under-edged a cut off Duminy, and was caught behind for 91.Cook by this stage had finally been persuaded to have a rare dart outside off, as the hugely impressive Morkel came round the wicket to the left-hander, and cramped him for room as a low edge zipped through to Jacques Kallis at second slip. It was Morkel’s third scalp of the innings, having already dispatched Trott to a third-ball lifter in the second over of the day, as he located a Harmison-esque combination of height, pace and bounce, and allied that to an impeccable line and length. And while Cook departed to a well-deserved ovation, he knew deep down that he had once again failed to pay heed to the mantra of his mentor Graham Gooch. “Make it a daddy,” was Gooch’s advice to any young batsman who gets set, but of Cook’s 10 Test hundreds, only once has he exceeded 140.Kevin Pietersen has rarely had the same problem upon reaching three figures, but today he was guilty of an even worse crime, of getting out in the thirties. He had arrived at the crease to an unexpectedly polite reception from his former home crowd, and was his usual bristling self as he sought to dominate from the word go. But, having pummelled Kallis for a pair of cover-drives, he was once again unsettled by the humble spin of Harris. On 20, he received a massive let-off when Harris slid his third ball through at a sharper pace, only for Kallis at slip to drop a sitter as the ball skewed off a hasty defensive edge. But 11 runs later, he was nailed lbw while sizing up a sweep, and the wicket-to-wicket line and the lack of appreciable spin on the delivery meant that even he realised a referral would be futile.The final session of the day belonged to Bell, who shed the introspection that had wrecked his performance at Centurion, and responded to England’s requirements with a vital injection of urgency as they closed in on that first-innings lead. It could be argued that Bell was destined to be condemned either way – he has never yet made a Test century without another batsman doing likewise, and the ease of Cook and Collingwood’s performance showed that the pitch was true and that runs were there to be snaffled.Nevertheless, they still needed to be scored, and by racing along to 65-ball half-century, he showcased the full range of strokes that have made the purists purr since he was a 16-year-old prodigy. He deposited Harris over long-on for England’s only six of the day, and cashed in with five further fours, including a sweet cover-drive off Kallis. Only once was he properly troubled, right at the start of his innings, when Morkel worked up a frightening head of steam to push him back into the crease with a whistling bouncer, before rapping his pads with a full-length follow-up that was just sneaking over the stumps.But, in perhaps the most curious captaincy decision of the day, Smith instantly hauled Morkel out of the attack after that over, and instead threw the ball to the struggling Ntini, perhaps in the belief that Bell was already ripe for the plucking. It proved to be a bad move. Bell crashed Ntini’s first delivery through midwicket for four, and by the end of a chastising day, his figures were a troubling 0 for 79 off 20 overs. Come what may for the rest of this match, South Africa’s selectors already know they have a dilemma awaiting come the New Year Test at Newlands.

Kent have signed Malinga Bandara, the Sri Lankan legspinner, as their overseas player for the second half of next season

Cricinfo staff28-Jan-2010Kent have signed Malinga Bandara, the Sri Lankan legspinner, as their overseas player for the second half of next season.Bandara, 30, has played eight Tests, 31 one-dayers and four Twenty20 Internationals for Sri Lanka, and worked with Paul Farbrace, the Kent coach, when Farbrace was assistant coach of Sri Lanka. Bandara will arrive in May in time for the first Twenty20 match of the season. He will share overseas duties with Australian Stuart Clark, who is with Kent for the first half of the 2010 season.Farbrace said he is looking forward to teaming James Tredwell, who was selected for England’s Test tour to Bangladesh, with Bandara next season. “I’m absolutely delighted that such a high quality cricketer has chosen to join Kent. I’m thrilled at the prospect of him teaming up with James Tredwell and creating a high quality spin attack. Malinga is an experienced cricketer and will add great knowledge to our team; both on and off the field.”Bandara has taken 391 first-class wickets at an average of 24.96 and has a handy record as a lower-order batsman, with a first-class average of 19.97. He joins a Kent side looking to continue their good progress after they won Division Two of the Championship last season.

South Africa’s were never in the hunt and eventually slumped to a 153-run defeat, after Sachin Tendulkar rewrote history in the first innings in Gwalior, making the first ever 200 in ODIs

The Bulletin by Kanishkaa Balachandran24-Feb-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

HawkeyeMS Dhoni and the other batsmen were relegated to bit roles on a day when Sachin Tendulkar lorded over all he purveyed, bringing up the first ever ODI 200•Associated Press

It took nearly 40 years of waiting and it was well worth it. Sachin Tendulkar chose one of the better bowling attacks doing the rounds, to eclipse the record for the highest score, before bringing up the first double-hundred in ODI history. The spectators at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium became the envy of cricket fans as they witnessed one of the country’s favourite sporting heroes play a breathtaking innings which not only set up a 153-run annihilation but also the series victory. He may have been run-out cheaply in the previous match, but nothing could deny him today – be it bowlers, fielders, mix-ups or cramps. Dinesh Karthik, Yusuf Pathan and MS Dhoni stood by and admired as the master unfurled all the shots in his repertoire.At 36, Tendulkar hasn’t shown signs of ageing, and his sparkling touch in both forms of the game has ruled out all possibilities of him checking out anytime soon. Fatigue, cramps and paucity of time have stood in the way of batsmen going that extra mile to get to the 200-mark. Tendulkar did cramp up after crossing 150, but he didn’t opt for a runner. His experience of 20 years at the international level came into play in this historic innings, staying at the crease from the first ball to the last, never once losing focus. There were no chances offered, no dropped catches, making his innings absolutely flawless.A swirl of emotions must have run through his mind as he approached one record after another but he ensured he was never lost in the moment. His running between the wickets remained just as swift as it had been at the start of the innings. The humidity in Gwalior was bound to test him but he stood above it all and played like he owned the game, toying with the bowling with a mix of nonchalance and brute power.In the 46th over, with a flick for two past short fine-leg, Tendulkar broke the record for the highest ODI score, going past the 194 made by Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry and Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar, and to say that he acknowledged his feat modestly would be an understatement. His muted celebration on going past 194, true to style, made his innings all the more endearing. He didn’t raise his bat, merely shook hands with Mark Boucher and simply carried on batting amid the din. Coming from a man who is not known to showing too much emotion with the bat in hand, it wasn’t surprising. He reserved his celebrations for the magic figure of 200, which he reached in the final over with a squirt off Charl Langeveldt past backward point. He raised his bat, took off his helmet and looked up at the skies and it was only fitting that one-day cricket’s highest run-getter reached the landmark.Tendulkar’s innings featured strokes of the highest quality, but his true genius was exemplified by one particular shot which rendered even the best bowler in the world helpless. In the first over of the batting Powerplay – taken in the 35th over – Dale Steyn fired it in the block-hole for three deliveries outside off to keep him quiet. Tendulkar, feeling the need to improvise, walked right across his stumps and nonchalantly flicked him across the line, hopping in his crease on one leg to bisect the gap at midwicket. A helpless Steyn watched the ball speed away and merely shrugged his shoulders. There was no use searching for excuses or venting frustrations at the temerity of that shot. It was just kind of afternoon for the bowlers.It wasn’t all just about the cheekiness of his shots. His timing and placement were the hallmarks at the start of his innings. On a road of a pitch which offered margin of error for the bowlers, he squeezed out full deliveries past the covers and off his pads. With no seam movement on offer, Jacques Kallis took the slips off and placed them in catching positions within the 15-yard circle, hoping to induce a mistake. But Tendulkar outplayed all of them, making room to manoeuver it past a number of green shirts. There were a minimum of two runs on offer each time the ball was placed wide of them and the quick outfield did the rest.Once he got his eye in, the short boundaries and the flat pitch were too inviting. Virender Sehwag’s dismissal for 11, caught at third man, was just an aberration as Karthik, Pathan and Dhoni traded cricket bats for golf clubs. Driving and lofting through the line had never been this easy. Tendulkar could have driven them inside out in his sleep.The two century stands, with Karthik and then with Dhoni, may well get lost in the scorecard but they were vital building blocks. Karthik rotated the strike well in their stand of 194, struck three clean sixes and helped himself to his career-best performance. That partnership sent out ominous signs to the South Africans that they were in for something massive. Add Dhoni’s bludgeoning hits and scoops and you had a score in excess of 400.Tendulkar reached his fifty off 37 balls and his century off 90. Ironically, he struck his first six – over long-on – when on 111. Pathan bashed it around at the other end, clubbing full tosses and short deliveries in his 23-ball 36, as India amassed 63 runs in the batting Powerplay. The South African seamers made the mistake of trying to bowl too fast and as a result, sent down too many full tosses and full deliveries. The unplayable yorkers remained elusive and Tendulkar, who was seeing it like a beach ball, picked the gaps, made room and improvised.He reached his 150 by making room to Parnell and chipping him over midwicket with a simple bat twirl at the point of contact. The heartbreak of Hyderabad, when his scintillating 175 all but won India the match against Australia last year, must have lingered in his mind as he approached that score again. A towering six over long-on later, he not only eclipsed Kapil Dev’s 175 but also looked set to wipe out his own record. He started clutching his thighs, indicating that cramps had set in, but even that could not stop him today.He equalled his highest score of 186 by pulling a lollipop of a full toss off Kallis and broke his own and India’s record with a single to square leg. Fortunately, he didn’t have to do much running and played the spectator’s role for a change as Dhoni bulldozed his way to a 35-ball 68, muscling four sixes. The Dhoni bottom-hand is the strongest in the business these days and the exhausted spectators had enough energy left in their vocal chords to cheer him on as well.The record of 200, however, was yet to be attained and the crowd were desperate for Tendulkar to get the strike. Dhoni tore into Steyn for 17 off the 49th over and retained the strike for the 50th. After hammering the first ball of the 50th for six, he shoveled a full toss to deep midwicket where Hashim Amla made a brilliant save. Tendulkar settled for a single and the crowd were on their feet as they watched him make history. It was all the more fitting for another reason because it was on this very day, back in 1988, that he and Vinod Kambli added a mammoth 664 – then a world record – in a school match.There was to be no repeat of the 434-chase at the Wanderers, when South Africa took guard, perhaps mentally and physically shaken after the assault, and with a partisan crowd to contend with. AB de Villiers’ attacking ton got completely lost in the chase as South Africa merely went through the motions. It was all a question of how quickly India could wrap it up.Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, Roelof van der Merwe and Jacques Kallis all got out cheaply within the first 15 overs. de Villiers motored along at more than a run-a-ball, and collected 13 fours and two sixes. South Africa had to rely on the services of nine men to muster 200 – for India one man sufficed.Tendulkar’s knock drew parallels with Brendon McCullum’s frenetic 158 in the IPL opener in Bangalore two years ago. The match was all about individual brilliance but a contest. While such games are good in small doses, for one-day cricket to survive on the whole, it needs more contests between bat and ball.

Michael Clarke and Marcus North have both been under pressure this week for different reasons

Brydon Coverdale in Wellington18-Mar-2010Michael Clarke and Marcus North have both been under pressure this week for different reasons, but both men could be thrust into the spotlight on field early on Friday. Daniel Vettori said the seam-friendly conditions at the Basin Reserve might encourage him to send Australia in if he wins the toss, while Ricky Ponting will, as always, be keen to put runs on the board.By the time Australia are two down, there will be plenty of attention on the next two men padded up. Ponting was confident that the No. 5, Clarke, would have felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders after facing up to the media on Wednesday, significantly easing much of the intrusion into his personal life. Clarke has looked upbeat at training and Ponting had no doubt he was ready for Test cricket.”I only had to ask him a simple question, are you right to go?” Ponting said. “The fact he was back here when he was said to me straight away that he was ready to play cricket again. There’s no doubt it’s been a tough week or couple of weeks for him but I know Michael well enough to know if he wasn’t ready to come back and play he wouldn’t have come. When he first arrived we sat down in my room and had a chat about a few things and he assured me then that he was ready to go and focussed on playing.”The challenge for the No. 6, North, is a different one. He finds himself on the verge of a potential Test axing, after what was for the majority a positive first year of Test cricket. His poor form after the first Test of the Australian summer has left him needing runs in Wellington to fend off the allrounder Steven Smith, and Ponting felt certain that North could regain the form that made him a key player on the tours of South Africa and England.”I’ve done a lot of work with him actually, one-on-one stuff the last couple of days and spoken a lot to him,” Ponting said. “There’s no doubt that he’s probably feeling a bit of the pressure, that probably explains why his form in the last half of the Shield season probably hasn’t been as strong as he would have liked. I’ve made it clear all the way through last summer with him he didn’t have a lot of great opportunities.”From the moment he came into this side, his debut hundred at the Wanderers, his shot selection and everything that was on display just looked like he’d been around for five years. You don’t lose that, just sometimes you get a bit confused and second guess yourself a little bit. He has just got to get back into that clear thinking state of mind when he is out in the middle and I am confident he can do that over the next couple of weeks.”Vettori knows how important it will be to maintain the pressure on Australia’s batsmen. His own top order is inexperienced and in their past five first-innings at the Basin Reserve, New Zealand have failed to post 200 four times and once didn’t even reach 100. All the more reason to look to the bowlers for direction.”Clarke’s record speaks for itself as of late so I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Vettori said. “North is a guy we probably haven’t seen a lot of, just video footage and seeing the Test match series against West Indies and Pakistan. The goal for us is to keep North under pressure because that’s what you need to do. There’s going to be key moments in the game but if we can keep that pressure on then we have a chance of winning.”New Zealand always enter a Test series against Australia as the underdogs and this is no exception. Victory would be a landmark achievement for Vettori’s men, given that they haven’t beaten Australia since 1993, but even holding Australia to draws would be a positive result and the captain said a strong series would make their 2009-10 a success.”It’s been a pretty good season up till now,” he said. “If we could have won the Chappell-Hadlee then it would have been a really good season but if we look back from the Champions Trophy through to now there’s been some really good cricket and to finish it off in the Test match form would be the key for us because that’s one that we have struggled with.”

Brett Lee is gearing up for the IPL which starts on March 12 and regards the tournament as the first step towards making the Australian team for the World Twenty20 and the ODI World Cup in 2011

Cricinfo staff02-Mar-2010Brett Lee, who retired from Test cricket last month, is gearing up for the IPL which starts on March 12 and regards the tournament as the first step towards making the Australian team for the World Twenty20 and the ODI World Cup in 2011. Lee had missed the entire Australian summer due to an elbow injury, but is confident of returning to full fitness during the course of the IPL.”I’ve been working very, very closely with Patrick Farhart — he’s been my physio for 16 years — and he’s happy with the way it’s progressing,” Lee, who has been named in Australia’s 30-man preliminary squad for the World Twenty20, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I’m looking to be up to full pace within a couple of weeks.”Lee added his retirement from Tests had not diluted his ambitions, for he had much to achieve in the limited-overs format. “It was . . . a lifestyle choice through having a young son. I don’t want to be away 11 months of the year,” Lee said, speaking from Dubai at the opening of a training centre for the Kings XI Punjab franchise. “There are many things I want to achieve in the shorter form of the game. One, the Twenty20 World cup for Australia; and two, the 50-over World Cup for Australia in India. I want to be a part of that.”Lee played four matches in the IPL’s inaugural edition, taking four wickets at 28 and followed that up with five wickets in five matches the next year, at 22.20. He was more successful in the Champions League Twenty20. His all-round effort in the final against Trinidad and Tobago won New South Wales the competition, and he was also named Player of the Tournament. The experience of recovering well from injury and succeeding at the highest level, Lee said, was reason to be confident of a strong comeback in the IPL.”Just like anything, experience [matters],” Lee said. “Unfortunately or fortunately — whichever way you look at it — I’ve had a few operations now so I really know what you’ve got to do after it. If it was the first one then I’d be a little bit nervous but I’ve been through it before so I know what I have to do. It doesn’t make it [physically] any easier but it just makes the mental side of things a little bit more relaxed.”In the event of a failure to return to his desired level of fitness during the IPL, Lee said he would opt out of the World Twenty20 but added the possibility was unlikely. “You’ve got to be bowling well and bowling fast. If I can’t get back and bowl the way I want to, whether it’s through [bowling with] pace or through pain, I won’t play. But I don’t think that will be the case, I’m confident my body will stand up to it,” he said.”I’ve got nothing to prove, I’m no out there to prove that I’m bigger and better than ever. I’m just going to keep trying to bowl quick and if I can do the business on the field and still enjoy my cricket that will make me very proud.”

James Foster, the Essex wicketkeeper, heads into the 2010 domestic season in a familiar position

Andrew McGlashan29-Mar-2010James Foster, the Essex wicketkeeper, heads into the 2010 domestic season in a familiar position. Generally regarded as the finest gloveman in England, he is once again in the international wilderness having missed out on a spot in the preliminary 30-man squad for the World Twenty20.Foster was his country’s keeper in the previous tournament, last year in England, when he excelled behind the stumps but couldn’t make much of impact with the bat in his limited opportunities. He is now well down the pecking order again with Matt Prior and Craig Kieswetter heading the list, while Steven Davies is the third option in the 30-man party which will be trimmed on Tuesday.However, Foster wasn’t surprised that he was overlooked despite gaining acclaim for his work last summer – particularly an outstanding stumping to remove Yuvraj Singh at Lord’s – and didn’t expect to get a phone call this time. But he refuses to dwell on the disappointment, instead focusing on his role with Essex.”I don’t want to sound bitter, no matter what team you are in coaching staff and selectors make decisions and go with what they think is right,” Foster told Cricinfo. “Unfortunately I wasn’t in their plans and you have to accept that. It wasn’t unsurprising to be honest because getting left out immediately after the last one and not being picked to play the Australians I was pretty aware that I wasn’t going to be involved in the squad.”I would love to have been involved, but it was pretty clear from outset that it wasn’t going to be. It was a seven-year gap between my previous appearances and I’ve always worked hard to try and get involved again. It worked last summer, but it didn’t last very long. I’ll just keep plugging away and try and enjoy myself down at Essex and what will be, will be.”Although it seems unlikely that Foster will be called upon by the selectors in the near future, he at least feels Essex’s promotion to Division One of the County Championship will help him push his claims and he believes the selectors take more notice of the teams in the top nine. “I think it does it matter and I’m sure the hierarchy would probably say otherwise, but I think it does make a difference,” Foster said as he prepared to play for MCC against Durham in Abu Dhabi.And he believes Essex have the squad to ensure they don’t become a yo-yo team that heads straight back down to Division Two. “It’s going to be a challenge not just for myself but also the team,” he said. “We’ve been dying to get back up there and it went down to the wire last season. I think we’ve got an excellent chance of not just staying up but doing a bit better than that.”On paper the Essex bowling attack looks short of the strike power needed to force results in the top flight, but Foster is excited by the winter development of Mervyn Westfield and Maurice Chambers, two young quick bowlers who have been highly rated around the County Ground for a number of seasons. Their chances have been limited by injury, but Foster feels they are now ready to play key roles.”Watching them in Barbados I was impressed with them both,” he said. “Mervyn has been in Adelaide and Maurice has been to Brisbane and they’ve worked exceptionally hard. They’ve had a few injuries over the last few years, but hopefully they have put that behind them and a promising sign in Barbados was their second and third spells were still very quick. I don’t want to add too much pressure on them, but we are excited by their talents.”

Zimbabwe cricket is taking small but important steps back to normalcy, and their participation in a major global event is an important part of that process

Liam Brickhill01-May-2010

Overview

Zimbabwe will rely on their spinners to bog the opposition in helpful conditions•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Zimbabwe cricket is taking small but important steps back to normalcy, with several former players opting to return to a revamped domestic competition under a board that is keen to present itself as amiable and open to progress. Their participation in a major global event is an important part of that process, especially after they were forced to miss the last edition of the tournament in England last year.There were positive signs on their tour of the region six weeks ago, although the team unravelled against a resurgent West Indies as the series wore on. With the national coaching position in limbo at the time, Zimbabwe suffered through unimaginative team selections and their lack of batting depth was also exposed on occasion, as when they sank to 104 all out in the third ODI with the series in the balance.New coach Alan Butcher will be hoping to make a difference to their fortunes and instill a positive attitude as quickly as possible, but Zimbabwe are sure to struggle against New Zealand and Sri Lanka’s experienced campaigners.However, as Butcher recently remarked, one inspired performance can be enough to turn a game in this format. With their victories over Australia at the 2007 tournament and in the warm-ups for this competition, and against West Indies last month, a shock win cannot be ruled out.

Twenty20 pedigree

Zimbabwe are relative novices in the format, having played just eight internationals in four years. They did not take part in the last World Twenty20 tournament in England, and will have to draw on the experience gained in their domestic Twenty20 competition and familiarity with West Indian conditions as they hope to spring a surprise. They will be buoyed by the fact that they are playing both of their group games at the Providence Stadium in Guyana, where they beat West Indies in the first match of their recent ODI series and pushed them in the second.

Strengths and weaknesses

Given the likelihood of a slow, low wicket, Zimbabwe’s game plan will revolve around their spin-bowling department. Ray Price took the new ball in several games on their tour of the West Indies in March, and may very well do so again in this tournament, while with Prosper Utseya, Graeme Cremer, Greg Lamb and Timycen Maruma in their stable, Zimbabwe have plenty of spin-bowling depth. Their batting line-up, on the other hand, is notoriously brittle and will no doubt struggle against their opponents’ experienced attacks.

Key men

Zimbabwean wickets tend to fall in heaps, and so while Hamilton Masakadza’s contributions at the top of the order will be important, quick runs from Elton Chigumbura at the tail end of the innings will be vital to paper over the cracks in the middle order. He was Zimbabwe’s leading run-scorer in the West Indies in March, and, as the most experienced seamer in a spin-heavy attack, he also picked up six wickets at a touch over 24 in the series.

X-factor

Andy Blignaut has trod an unconventional path in his cricket career, but amid the controversies, disputes with the administration and a brief dabble in male modelling, there have been telling performances with bat and ball. Tailor-made for Twenty20 cricket, Blignaut announced his comeback with a match-winning unbeaten 63 against the Mountaineers in Zimbabwe’s domestic competition and could form an explosive pairing with the hard-hitting Chigumbura in the lower order.

Vital stats

Australia’s selectors have forgiven Michael Clarke for his poor form in Twenty20, naming him to captain Australia against Pakistan in England in July

Cricinfo staff24-May-2010Australia’s selectors have forgiven Michael Clarke for his poor form in Twenty20, naming him to captain Australia against Pakistan in England in July. Clarke will lead the side for the two Twenty20s in Birmingham on July 5 and 6 despite his struggles with the bat in the shortest format, where his strike-rate of 101 is well below par.Clarke was praised for his attacking captaincy at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, where he guided Australia to the final, but he needs to lift his scoring rate to justify his position as a batsman. He has been given virtually the same squad, with the only change being the omission of Tim Paine due to the reduced need for a backup wicketkeeper.”We don’t have any doubt that he [Clarke] has a definite role to play in Twenty20 cricket, which predominantly is a little bit different to some,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said. “We’ll be looking for him to bat through an innings when we need it. He didn’t quite do that over there but we weren’t concerned about it.”The positive side was I think his captaincy was extraordinary and our tactics in Twenty20 cricket were far in advance of where they’ve been. Our field was I thought the best in the tournament so there were lots of positives. Obviously we lost the final so that was devastating but the other side of it is that we won six on the trot and if we’d won seven on the trot it would have been a record that maybe wouldn’t have been broken in Twenty20 cricket.”In the 50-over arena, Shaun Marsh has been chosen to make his comeback to international cricket after missing the tour of New Zealand in February with a back injury. Marsh has replaced Adam Voges in the ODI squad for the one-off game against Ireland in Dublin that kicks off the tour of June 17 and the five one-day internationals against England that follow.However, the squad to take on Pakistan in two Tests from mid-July won’t be named until several contenders have fronted up for Australia A late next month. The absence of Phillip Hughes due to a shoulder injury means Usman Khawaja, Michael Klinger and the Australia A captain George Bailey will be jostling for the role of backup Test batsman when they face Sri Lanka A in Brisbane.That series will also give Ben Hilfenhaus a chance to continue his steady return from knee tendonitis. Hilfenhaus has been chosen in the four-day Australia A squad and is hopeful of proving himself fit for the Tests against Pakistan, having not played for his country since the first Test of the home summer back in November.”Ben Hilfenhaus is making good progress with his knee tendon injury,” the physio Alex Kountouris said. “As part of his rehabilitation he has commenced bowling and has spent some time at the Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence during the past week. So far he has coped well and if his progress continues with an increasing bowling workload over the coming weeks, he’ll take his place for Australia A against Sri Lanka A in preparation for possible selection in the Test squad.”Peter Siddle is recovering well from a lower back stress fracture sustained during the Australian summer. However it was felt that there was too big a risk for his to return for the tour of England and Ireland, particularly with the important 12 months coming up. Peter remains on target to return to the playing field at the start of the Australian domestic summer. Brett Lee is recovering from the elbow muscle injury that he picked before the ICC World Twenty20 and is yet to commence bowling.”The Australia A squad also features Mitchell Marsh, the brother of Shaun and captain of Australia’s Under-19 World Cup-winning squad this year. He will be joined by another player with cricketing blood, James Pattinson, the Victoria fast bowler whose brother Darren played a Test for England in 2008.ODI squad Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Cameron White, Brad Haddin, Steven Smith, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Ryan Harris, Clint McKay, Doug Bollinger.Twenty20 squad Shane Watson, David Warner, Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin, Daniel Christian, Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Ryan Harris, Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait.Australia A four-day squad Ed Cowan, Usman Khawaja, Michael Klinger, George Bailey (capt), Peter Forrest, Andrew McDonald, Tim Paine, Mitchell Marsh, Steve O’Keefe, Ben Hilfenhaus, Josh Hazlewood, Peter George, Mitchell Starc.Australia A one-day squad Tim Paine, Usman Khawaja, Adam Voges, George Bailey (capt), Travis Birt, Aaron Finch, Andrew McDonald, Mitchell Marsh, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, James Pattinson, Jake Haberfield, Josh Hazlewood.