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Bangladesh are in prime position to record a maiden victory in the country and square a series they seemed destined to lose

Firdose Moonda in Harare27-Apr-2013Three days ago, Zimbabwe were readying themselves to win consecutive Tests for the first time in 12 years. Now, Bangladesh are in a strong position to record a maiden victory in the country and square a series they seemed destined to lose.The turnaround has been as emphatic as it was unexpected. Bangladesh have put in an improved all-round performance, led by their strike bowler Robiul Islam and followed up through the senior batsmen.The playing field has levelled too, literally. Members of both camps confirmed a “much better” pitch in the second Test, compared to the one that was used in the first. The sideways movement and uneven bounce is gone. There is still something in it for the bowlers to make use of but an enterprising batsman can reap rewards.Shakib Al Hasan did so in both innings. He left well, accelerated at the right times and even though he gave his wicket away twice, he formed the spine the others needed. He would have been one of those that was chastened by the showing a week ago and took it upon himself to fix some of the failing of the first Test.”We were disappointed after the first Test, in all facets, but in particular our batting,” Corey Richards, the Bangladesh fielding coach, said. “We thought we had good plans and the guys wanted up to show how good they have been recently, because they were so good for us in Sri Lanka. So, they were pretty embarrassed and there was a general hunger to do better. Fortunately a bit of experience showed in Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim.”Bangladesh are 272 runs ahead and have five wickets in hand, which puts them in prime position to bat Zimbabwe out of the match. But they have been known to deal with expectation poorly in the past. This time, Richards said team management have a plan to ensure they are not overwhelmed.”Individually we’ve got what we feel is a goal-setting plan and the players have had a lot of buy-in to that,” he said “They are pretty simple and realistic goals and that makes it a lot easier to know where you are heading.”

Corey Richards on Robiul Islam

Bangladesh have the series’ leading wicket-taker to thank for muscling them back into contention. So far, Robiul has taken 14 wickets at 17.14 and is the only Bangladesh seamer to have consecutive five-wicket hauls. He has also bowled an entire day of overs on his own – his 90 overs amount to more than the rest of Bangladesh’s seamers put together and he has put his hand up to lead the attack in future.
“He missed the first Test in Sri Lanka and that fired him up to become our spearhead,” Richards said. “With a few injuries, he got his opportunity here. He is a little bit older and he has got the best first-class record of any of our bowlers. He knows how to get wickets and so far on this tour he’s put the ball in the right areas more often than not and that’s what you’ve got to do in these conditions.”
While Bangladesh will rely on him to secure victory in the match, Richards is aware that he needs careful management going forward. “Robiul’s efforts have been unbelievable. Yes, he has bowled a lot of overs but he has got a lot of energy and a lot of self-belief. And he has got rhythm. When you’ve got good form and rhythm the overs seem to come easily. We will need to look after to him tonight because there’s a big job for him to do in this match.
“In an ideal world, it’s not great for one of your strike bowlers to bowl lots and lots of overs but we’ve needed him to and he has done it. After this fourth innings, he is not going to have a lot of cricket for a while so he will have a break.”

The immediate one is to get “a lead of over 400,” Richards said. “Not too many teams in the history of cricket have chased over 400 but whatever we get from here on in will be difficult to get.”Stephen Mangongo, Zimbabwe’s interim coach, disagreed. “There is nothing to stop us batting one and a half days and chasing the target,” he said. The evidence of the last innings may contradict that statement. Zimbabwe batted 96 overs and their top-order lasted for fewer than 23 but Mangongo was confident they will rectify that in the second dig.”With have got faith in the top-order, that’s why they are in the team,” he said. “Some guys have been in the doldrums for some time and they are due for some runs. We are still in it big time.” Some guys like Vusi Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza are who he might be referring to and they have only a few hours to come up with a plan to negate Robiul.It could mean that Zimbabwe will have to depend on the middle- and lower-order, as they have so far, but they will take heart from knowing another of that lot has returned to form. Elton Chigumbura recorded his highest Test score and changed the course of the Zimbabwe innings by scoring quicker than the rest, something Mangongo has urged him to keep doing.”Elton is a strokeplayer and we want to give him the role of the enforcer – to liberate him and allow him to play his natural game,” he said. “When he came in yesterday evening with 15 overs to go, playing his shots, orthodox cricket people would have said he was mad. He looks like a fool when it doesn’t pay off but he is an attacking player and we want him to play that way.”Another member of the squad who has been urged to do what feels most natural is Shingi Masakadza. He opened the bowling with success and with Keegan Meth unable to bowl so far, he will have to play a major part in ending Bangladesh’s innings early. “Shingi was always out-and-out away swing bowler and someone who hits the deck hard,” Mangongo said. “He has been trying to get the ball to come in so we’ve gone back to basics. We’ve told him to run in, hit the deck and get the ball to move away and it’s working.”Not everything about Zimbabwe cricket is doing the same. After dominating in the first Test, they are scrambling in this one and they already seem to have a ready-made excuse if things don’t go their way. “We are building. We don’t have a team at the moment,” Mangongo said. “There are a lot of hungry players out there and we will only know who the best are when the guys put their hands up consistently.”

Jonny Bairstow has impressed for England in the one-day game, possessed with a competitive spirit, a natural power and a sharp eye. No wonder England are anxious to see if he has the aptitude for Test cricket.

Alex Winter14-May-2012Jonny Bairstow has impressed for England in the one-day game, possessed with a competitive spirit, a natural power and a sharp eye. With such a combination it is little wonder England are in a rush to discover whether he has the aptitude for Test cricket.Bairstow, the batsman who has left England eager to find out more about him, now faces the challenge of the Lord’s slope, a talented West Indies attack in bowler-friendly conditions and the rhythms of the five-day game.When he makes his debut in the first Test against West Indies, starting on Thursday, he and his late father David will become the 13th father-son combination to play for England.
Perhaps a Test debut will come at the right time for Bairstow. His natural instincts might be checked by the Test environment. He will be expected to learn and adjust. He is the sort of vigorous and exciting batsman who makes selectors want to take a punt.By contrast, the player he has been preferred to, James Taylor, has been left at Nottinghamshire to refine his approach in less high-profile surroundings. Taylor took a bold decision to make the move to Trent Bridge where bowler-friendly conditions can expose his tendency to play across the line but working out his game in difficult batting conditions and success in Division One is his route to future England honours and everyone expects him to get there.Bairstow will have to play differently than his other innings at Lord’s last August but his previous knock provides a good omen: he made 114 from 136 balls with a West Indian, Corey Colleymore, opening the bowling. That was his first century in one-day cricket.He has also made five first-class centuries, the latest of which came at Scarborough against Leicestershire. His 182 came in a testing scenario, Yorkshire were 33 for 3 when he arrived at the crease, the type of situation where Bairstow has thrived.”It’s probably inner grit,” Bairstow said. “I think it’s a good attitude to have, thinking ‘right we’re up against the wall, I want to dig us out of this situation.’ It perhaps comes naturally to me; I haven’t necessarily worked on it but I’m pleased to have it.”Another natural talent is his power: the asset immediately evident following his 41 from 21 balls on debut in Cardiff which won England the ODI against India. But Bairstow says there is a time and a place for both power, and touch and control – the latter will be the more important skill on Thursday.Power and an eye for the ball were the initial factors in digging Yorkshire out of a hole at Scarborough. Only after tea on the first day when the scoreboard was more pleasant for the hosts did he settle and knuckle down towards and beyond his hundred. It took time for him to look like a proper Test player: he does have it but his state of mind is generally to be aggressive.”The mindset I took to Scarborough, to Northampton, to here at Lord’s will be the same. It isn’t something you can flick on and flick off. Mindset is something that you can only naturally do. Thursday will be the same as every other day. If the ball’s there to be hit, it’s there to be hit.”But this week Bairstow is the latest man to take possession of the troublesome No. 6 slot. He will want to ensure his tenure is longer than the more recent occupants – Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan – whose path to Test cricket through prowess in the one-day arena draws parallels.He will also have a very keen eye to help him in Geoffrey Boycott – a close family friend. Boycott’s wife telephoned Bairstow’s mother to offer her congratulations. His mother and sister should be at Lord’s this week.”Geoffrey is very much, if you want to speak to him you can do,” Bairstow said. “I’m very grateful to have someone like that. I haven’t really picked his brains but it’s possible I could speak to him about his experience. I’ll probably catch up with him at some point.”

West Indies Under-19s took Australia Under-19s last six wickets in their second innings for 41 runs and managed to win the three-day game in Dubai by four wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-2011
ScorecardWest Indies Under-19s took Australia Under-19s last six wickets in their second innings for 41 runs and managed to win the three-day game in Dubai by four wickets. At 187 for 4, Australia looked like they had done enough to earn a draw, but seamer Derone Davis and spinner Kavem Hodge rant through the middle order and tail to set up a 153-run chase.Kraigg Brathwaite and Akeem Saunders took West Indies to 105 for 1, and though five quick wickets fell after that, their side got home. Legspinner Ashton Agar, who didn’t bowl in the first innings, caused the flutter in the chase, and finished with 4 for 59.Before Australia’s late collapse half-centuries from Nick Stevens and Cameron Bancroft had taken them to a seemingly safe position. The win means West Indies have emerged victors in both the fifty-over match series, which they won 2-1, and the one-off Youth Test.

In the last two years, Graeme Smith suffered six injuries of the arm, resulting in him missing either whole or part of six limited-overs competitions

Firdose Moonda02-May-2010The ICC World Twenty20, besides representing an opportunity for Graeme Smith to captain South Africa to their first major trophy in 12 years, is also a chance for Smith to complete his first limited-overs series in 2010. He has started three such series, including the World Twenty20, and pulled out of two with a problem that he can’t seem to shake: lower arm and hand injuries.In the last two years, Smith suffered six injuries of the arm, resulting in him missing either whole or part of six limited-overs competitions. His latest niggle was a double fracture to his right middle finger, sustained while taking a catch in the IPL. He had played just two matches when he was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament. Prior to that, he fractured his little finger in practice in India, forcing him out of the three-match one-day international series in February this year.Smith was sidelined from both home and away ODI series against Australia in 2008-09 after Mitchell Johnson broke his hand twice. That came after he suffered from a tennis elbow condition, which he developed in April 2008. The injury recurred over the course of a year and kept him out of three ODIs against England in July 2008. With a record like that, one can’t help but wonder: does Smith really detest playing limited-overs cricket so much, is he just horribly unlucky, or is there something wrong with his lower arms and hands?One of the theories doing the rounds is that Smith’s dalliance with cortisone may have made his bones brittle. Smith initially used cortisone injections as treatment for his tennis elbow, before finally agreeing to have surgery. Dr Jon Patricios, a sports scientist in Johannesburg, said excessive amounts of cortisone could have an adverse effect on bone strength, but only if it was administered in a certain way. “Usually if it is injected into the joints directly, and in copious amounts, it can weaken the bones. However, with Smith, the cortisone was injected into the tendon.”Although medical evidence suggests tendons could be weakened for up to three months as a result of direct cortisone treatment, and Patricios said he knew “a lot of people who felt Smith should not have had so many cortisone injections,” he felt only negligible amounts of cortisone were absorbed into Smith’s system. That, together with the speed at which Smith’s latest injury healed (three weeks as opposed to the expected four to six weeks), led Patricios to believe that the captain’s bones were strong and that it was “unlikely” that cortisone could have had any effect on him. In fact, the doctor said Smith was fortunate not to have had the injuries closer to joints because that would have been far more serious.”Lucky, but unlucky,” said Patricios, who thinks Smith just had wretched fortune when it came to his fingers and hands. He said Smith could consider using reinforcing materials in his gloves to lessen the blow, should he get hit again. South Africa’s batting consultant, Kepler Wessels, said Smith would probably use more padded gloves but getting nailed was “part of the job.”Wessels said that on the occasions Smith was hit, it was by a “freak delivery”. “No bowler can really plan on bowling a ball that takes off like that, so when it happens it’s generally an accident. I can’t see any coach telling their bowlers to plot how to break one of Smith’s fingers or hands, since that isn’t a line of attack. Opening batsmen accept that this is part of the game and that they are more vulnerable to it but it can’t be seen as a weakness.” Although a Ray Jennings-Andre Nel style bounty hunting (remember the deal over hitting Allan Donald on the head) is not likely to happen at international level, bowlers won’t be blamed for smelling blood when they see Smith’s hands gripped around his bat handle.Wessels believed Smith had healed sufficiently to not have to worry about being seen as a soft target, and since his last two injuries were not even batting related, he didn’t think the South African captain had reason to be concerned. He added if Smith felt any precaution was necessary, it would be better used in the field, where, “He may choose to stand in a place where the ball won’t get hit a lot, but that’s not an exact science, so the chance of him picking up another fielding injury can never be nullified completely. But he may do something like that if his finger is still feeling a little tender.”Smith may have fears of a seventh lower-arm injury buried somewhere deep in his burly frame, but Wessels said he wasn’t over thinking the reasons for his recurring problem. “He is the kind of person who wants to score runs and lead the team to victory more than anything else, and if that means getting hurt, he’d be willing to get hurt. At the moment he has so much else on his mind that his injury risk probably doesn’t feature too high.” Things like the fact that South Africa’s silverware cabinet is eerily barren and it’s up to him, broken fingers or not, to try and change that.

Blair Tickner, who was taken to hospital for treatment soon after picking up the injury, “is awaiting further specialist assessment to determine his return to play”

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Dec-2025Blair Tickner will not bowl or field at all, and is unlikely to bat for the remainder of the ongoing second Test between New Zealand and West Indies in Wellington, after dislocating his left shoulder while diving to stop a boundary on the first day of the game on Wednesday.Tickner, who was taken to hospital for treatment soon after his injury, which he suffered in the second session of the first day, has joined the squad at the ground but “is awaiting further specialist assessment to determine his return to play”, New Zealand Cricket said in a statement on Thursday.Tickner, who led New Zealand’s fast-bowling show on the opening day with a four-for, had to be stretchered off in the 67th over of West Indies’ innings when he attempted to prevent a boundary at fine leg. Chasing a flick from Tevin Imlach, he dived full-length near the rope and stayed down, prompting concern from his team-mates. The medical staff from the New Zealand camp and the venue attended to him before he was taken off the field – sitting up but in obvious discomfort – to warm applause from the Basin Reserve crowd.Playing his first Test since early 2023, Tickner had been drafted into the XI for this match after injuries to Matt Henry and Nathan Smith in Christchurch. His 4 for 32 from 16 overs made him New Zealand’s best bowler on the day. His injury, however, added to an already lengthy list of unavailable fast bowlers for New Zealand this series, which includes Ben Sears, Will O’Rourke and Matt Fisher.New Zealand are now facing the prospect of losing a third fast bowler this series. They were similarly reduced in Christchurch, which had a knock-on effect and allowed West Indies to bat out a draw.Before being forced off, Tickner trapped Brandon King (33) and Kavem Hodge (0) lbw, used a sharp bouncer to dismiss Shai Hope for 48, and uprooted Roston Chase’s leg stump to put New Zealand firmly in control.In Tickner’s absence, New Zealand’s bowling in West Indies’ second innings will have to be shouldered by Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes and debutant Michael Rae, with the part-time spin trio of Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson and occasional medium-pacer Daryl Mitchell around to chip in as needed.

South Africa top order batter set for first county stint after impressing in domestic T20

ESPNcricinfo staff03-May-2024Northamptonshire have signed South Africa top-order batter Matthew Breetzke for the the upcoming Vitality T20 Blast.Breetzke, 25, has won three T20I caps for his country but was not named in South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad and should be available throughout the group stage alongside Northamptonshire’s other overseas signing, Zimbabwe allrounder Sikandar Raza.”Matt is a very capable batter who will bring power, experience and some real determination to the side,” John Sadler, Northamptonshire’s head coach, said. “We identified what we wanted to achieve with our overseas signings this year and he fits the profile of exactly the type of player that we wanted to bring in as our second overseas.Related

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“He has been excellent over the last couple of seasons domestically and we’ve been really impressive so we can’t wait to see him this summer.”In a tough market for overseas signings, Breetzke stood out with his domestic T20 form. He was the third-highest run-scorer at the 2023-24 SA20, with 416 at a strike rate of 135.50 for Durban’s Super Giants, then topped the list in the recently completed CSA T20 Challenge, with 467 runs for Warriors.Breetzke said: “I am very excited to join the Steelbacks for the upcoming Vitality Blast and really grateful for the opportunity. I hope to contribute a lot on and off the field during my time at the club.”

The England pacer, who should continue to take on new-ball duties in New Zealand, has particular issues with the ball used in day-night Tests

Vithushan Ehantharajah12-Feb-2023The drive to Mount Maunganui from Hamilton takes barely a session, through the lush greens and postcard backdrops you’d associate with New Zealand. But on Sunday the vistas were blurred by the first winds and driving rains ahead of Cyclone Gabrielle’s visit to the North Island at the start of next week.Preparations ahead of the opening Test on Thursday at Bay Oval are set to be severely hampered, with domestic flights to nearby Tauranga Airport cancelled, and with no indoor facilities beyond an admittedly impressive marquee that will probably end up as a glorified kite. England are not worried, believing their two-day match against New Zealand XI in Hamilton supplemented by seven intense practice sessions since arriving in the country at the end of February should hold them in good stead.They were certainly in no rush to get down on Sunday evening, stopping along the way for a barbecue at casa del McCullum, which sits at a neat halfway point just outside the town of Matamata. And by all accounts, they aren’t in a rush for the series opener, their seventh pink-ball Test.Related

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“It’s a bit gimmicky,” said seamer Ollie Robinson on day-night matches in general. Perhaps an unsurprising viewpoint from an Englishman given they have lost five out of the six they’ve played, each by considerable margins. The last one over here came just up the road in Auckland back in 2018 – a humiliating innings and 49-run defeat after getting bowled out in their first innings for 58.”They’re trying to get crowds and and change the game a little bit. But the way England are playing Test cricket at the moment, I don’t think that needs to happen. We could stick to how we’re going and we’re entertaining people as we are so I’m not sure if it’s necessary really.”Just traditional Test cricket – there’s nothing wrong with it to start with. I don’t think we need to play these pink-ball games.”The ball is the main gripe, something not limited to this group of players. Especially the Kookaburra version which has been used most in the 23 day-night matches so far. Criticisms range from a loss of colour to varying degrees of hardness dependent on the batch. And, of course, little assistance off the seam or through the air. Even the greater threat to the twilight period seems to be due to batters struggling to adjust their eyes.”I think they’re all different. Every time I play with it, they’ve been different. Some have swung, some have seamed and some are harder. Some are softer. The warmup game the other day, I got hit with a 65-over-old ball and it hurt more than a brand new ball. It’s just like a rock.”I’m not a massive fan of that, no. We’ve been trying to get them to swing this last week and they’re very inconsistent and the seams a bit grippier in the surface. They’re just not a traditional cricket ball.”Robinson has a pretty good record with the pink Kookaburra. Across the three times he’s used it, all in Australia – two Tests during the recent Ashes series (Adelaide and Hobart) and against Australia A at the MCG for the Lions in February 2020 – he has taken 12 wickets at 24.41. Throw in a match with the Dukes equivalent for Sussex against Glamorgan in 2018, and his overall pink average drops to 21.06, close to an overall first-class average of 20.71.Clearly, whether he likes it or not, he has found a way to make it work for him. Therefore you would expect him to continue this week in his newly acquired opening role. It was as much something he took from Stuart Broad as the veteran quick gave to him upon Robinson’s return to the side for the second Test against South Africa last summer. Ahead of the match at Old Trafford, Broad suggested to Ben Stokes the 29-year-old’s skills warranted first dibs after overcoming general fitness concerns.The captain agreed and Robinson went on to 12 wickets at 15 in the remaining two matches of the summer, as England overturned a 1-0 deficit against South Africa.”To get that opportunity to bowl with Jimmy [James Anderson] at the other end was really special for me and my career. And Broady was really good about it as well. Every morning he’d tap me on the back, good luck, go well. Talk to me at mid-off every other ball. So the three of us have got a really good relationship about it. And it’s been going really well for the last 18 months.”A more wide-ranging part came in Pakistan as the only quick bowler to play all three back-to-back matches. Wedding the usual control with relentless spells of bumpers and even reverse swing, he finished with nine dismissals at 21.22.Starting 2023 with 60 at a ridiculous 20.01 from 14 caps so far, and more equipped for the rigours of multiple spells across multiple days, he has offered more than a glimpse of a future beyond Broad and Anderson. England’s dexterity with their bowling this tour centres around the opposition’s batting which is left-hand heavy at the top of the order with Tom Latham and Devon Conway, with Olly Stone the outlier given his extra pace.The improved durability, more of a lifestyle change than a short-term fix, is something that is on the way to becoming a standout trait for Robinson, even given the outright skill he possesses. His aim, in essence, is to prove him worth of being a constant, much like Anderson, to allow others to come in and out and do their work around him.”That’s obviously what I’m going for. Try and be economical, let the boys around me with pace sometimes go hard and I’ll try and hold the game like we did in Pakistan when Woody [Mark Wood] played. That’s probably my role and if I can play as many games as possible to help the team that’s what I’ll do.”It proved crucial in Pakistan and will be especially so this summer with six Tests across seven weeks, with the one-off match with Ireland and a condensed Ashes series. The prospect of the latter meant a number of England players have been following the start of Australia’s tour of India, which culminated in a collapse for 91 on Saturday evening in New Zealand to confirm defeat inside three days.”It’s always good to see the Aussies lose,” Robinson said with a wry smile. Even then, he appreciated the nature of the wicket and the way the game fell, believing India’s batters had the better conditions to bat: “Sometimes you win the toss, bat first but then it almost plays better second day”.Nevertheless, he was taking what cues he could on how Pat Cummins’ charges might approach the summer. All the more important as he enters his third year at this level – one he regards as the most important so far.”I think it’s probably the biggest year of my career now. It’s an exciting year and I think with the group and the environment we’ve got it’s going to be amazing. The memories that we’re going to create and hopefully the Test match wins we’re going to do. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Allrounder could miss entire series after failing to recover from hamstring injury

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Nov-2021Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of Bangladesh’s first Test against Pakistan in Chattogram, which begins on Friday. It was, however, an inevitable decision from the BCB’s medical team after Shakib apparently failed to recover from the hamstring injury he sustained during the T20 World Cup.Bangladesh’s chief selector Minhajul Abedin said that Shakib might take longer to recover, which could mean that he is entirely out of the Test series against Pakistan.Related

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“Shakib’s hamstring injury hasn’t improved,” Abedin said. “Shakib needs further rehabilitation. Our physiotherapist is constantly taking care of him. We understood that he wouldn’t be available for the first Test. We are also not sure of his availability for the second Test. The physio will let us know soon. We haven’t called up a replacement since we picked the 16-man squad knowing Shakib’s condition.”Shakib missed the last two matches of Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup campaign, as well as the three T20Is in the series against Pakistan. Bangladesh have grown accustomed to playing Tests without Shakib even after his return from suspension this year. Shakib appeared in only one Test in the World Test Championship, against West Indies in February, a game in which he got injured midway. Shakib also played against Zimbabwe in the Harare Test in July.Bangladesh are already without Tamim Iqbal in this Test series due to a second thumb fracture after he had seemingly recovered from the first one. Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam are also out with injuries for the Chattogram Test. Taskin hurt his hand during the third T20I against Pakistan while Shoriful sustained a back injury during the second game.Bangladesh’s Test series against Pakistan is their first in the new WTC cycle. They are also scheduled to play against Sri Lanka and India at home next year, apart from tours to South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand to round off their WTC schedule.

Regional Retainers designed to bridge financial gap in season disrupted by Covid-19

Valkerie Baynes19-May-2020Up to 24 domestic women’s cricketers will receive retainer payments from June 1 as the ECB tries to ease some of the financial hardship of their season being disrupted by the Covid-19 lockdown.The ECB was due to award full-time contracts to 40 domestic players this year under a plan to transform women’s and girls’ cricket, with those players involved in a 50-over competition between eight new regional teams in September. Clare Connor, the ECB’s managing director of women’s cricket, said it was still the intention to award those contracts in 2020, but that the regional retainers were designed to support players financially in the meantime.”The momentum behind the women’s game has been staggering in the last few years and it is still firmly our ambition to build on that,” Connor said on Tuesday. “As we emerge from this pandemic, we believe even more strongly that cricket will be a sport that throws its arms around everyone – truly inclusive, diverse and a sport for modern Britain to be proud of.ALSO READ: Hundred delay a knock for women’s game – Katie Levick“This was due to be the most exciting year in the game’s history for our leading domestic players. A number of them would have been hoping to sign a full-time contract with one of our eight Regions this summer. While we still intend to award those full-time contracts in 2020, we want to try to support our players as much as we can until that point, hence the introduction of these Retainers to provide an interim solution.”As the effects of COVID-19 on the rest of the summer and beyond become more apparent, we will continue to support our players to the best of our ability, and we promise them that our drive for a more gender-balanced sport remains vitally important.”ECB Women’s Cricket Regions•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Earlier this month, Connor said that while the domestic competition had not been removed from this year’s schedule, “we have to plan for it not to happen as much as we have to plan for it to happen”. Meanwhile, the decision to postpone the inaugural Hundred competition until 2021 left a host of women’s players facing the prospect of not playing – or earning an income from the sport – this season.The eight regions will recruit players to the retainer scheme and, in turn, the players will take part in strength and conditioning programmes, online education on topics including anti-corruption and anti-doping, and devote time to activities and appearances aimed at supporting the game.

Their resignation came hours before the Mumbai Cricket Association ad-hoc committee meeting on Friday that was to decide their fate

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Mar-2019In a bizarre move on Friday, Mumbai’s entire five-man selection panel resigned hours before the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) ad-hoc committee meeting on Friday that was to decide their fate. Chairman Ajit Agarkar and his colleagues Nilesh Kulkarni, Sunil More and Ravi Thakkar emailed their resignations to the ad-hoc committee and the MCA CEO CS Naik on Friday afternoon. The resignations came after the conclusion of Mumbai’s domestic season even though there had been moves to end their stint mid-season.Creating further chaos, the former Mumbai pair of Amol Muzumdar and Sahil Kukreja, two of the four members on the Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) that picked the selection panel, are understood to have tendered their resignations on the same day. The MCA, however, has not made any public statement yet on whether it has accepted the resignations.It is understood that Agarkar told the MCA that he did not wish to continue next season as he wanted to focus on personal commitments. The CIC is scheduled to meet on March 19 to decide on the next step.Although the resignations appear to be a sudden development, the pressure on Agarkar’s selection panel had been simmering for months. It eventually boiled over at a Special General Meeting (SGM) of the MCA in February, where some of the members – the clubs – passed a resolution directing the CIC to remove the selectors. The members said that they had “lost confidence” in Agarkar’s panel, who they accused of not watching enough club games.The CIC, which is headed by former Mumbai and India fast bowler Raju Kulkarni, overruled the resolution “unanimously”, saying the selectors’ commitment was beyond question.This was an unprecedented situation. On one hand, the MCA members were now calling for the selectors to be removed; on the other, the CIC, set up by their own managing committee, was against questioning their commitment. In a bind, the four-member ad-hoc committee, comprising Naik, MCA secretary Unmesh Khanwilkar, Shah Alam, Naveen Shetty and Ganesh Iyer, is believed to have taken legal advice before Friday’s meeting. It is understood the ad-hoc committee conveyed to the selectors they couldn’t set aside the SGM resolution.It is understood the selection committee has not been popular with the MCA members. Parsee Gymkhana vice-president and secretary Khodadad S Yazdegardi sought the removal of selectors through an SGM back in July 2018, but didn’t succeed. The matter also died down as Mumbai began the season by winning the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The move against the selectors regained momentum when Mumbai failed to make the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy this season, which led to the meeting in February where the resolution to sack them was passed. Mumbai, however, bowed out of the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with a win against UP in the last Super League game on Tuesday, which wasn’t enough to ensure them a berth in the final.