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Sri Lanka batter has been banned from accessing Tinder and his other social media accounts

AAP17-Nov-2022Sri Lanka batter Danushka Gunathilaka has been banned from using Tinder and his social media accounts after being granted bail while awaiting trial on charges of sexual intercourse without consent.Gunathilaka, 31, was arrested in the early hours of November 6 at Sydney’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, where he was staying while the Sri Lankan team were in Australia for the T20 World Cup. He is facing four counts of sexual intercourse without consent and has not yet given a plea.Related

• Danushka Gunathilaka's sexual-assault case: three out of four charges dropped

• Gunathilaka's bail conditions relaxed by Sydney magistrate

• Gunathilaka charged for alleged sexual assault, arrested in Sydney

• Gunathilaka's alleged victim was 'choked repeatedly without consent'

• Gunathilaka suspended by SLC from all cricket

Magistrate Janet Wahlquist granted Gunathilaka bail on Thursday in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, where he appeared via audiovisual link from Parklea jail.Police prosecutor Kerry-Ann McKinnon opposed bail on the grounds Gunathilaka is a flight risk and that he could endanger the safety of the complainant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.Wahlquist said she would take into account how bail would be approached if Gunathilaka was an Australian citizen facing the same charges. Murugan Thangaraj SC, for Gunathilaka, agreed that would result in him being released.”Of course he would be on bail in these circumstances,” Thangaraj said.A police facts sheet filed with the court said: “The complainant tried to remove the accused’s hand by grabbing his wrist but the accused squeezed tighter around her neck.””The complainant was fearing for her life and could not get away from the accused.”In a police interview after his arrest, Gunathilaka corroborated some of the alleged victim’s story but denied he had been violent or consent was not given.Prosecutors allege the victim did not consent to sex without a condom or any of the other sexual acts performed.Thangaraj said Gunathilaka had complied with authorities investigating and surrendered his passport.”There is no capacity demonstrated for him to be able to flee,” Thangaraj said.Bail was granted with a AUD 150,000 surety and various conditions, including Gunathilaka not using Tinder or any other dating apps. He’s also prevented from accessing his existing social media accounts unless in the company of his legal team.McKinnon argued the alleged victim could be at risk. “This man was in her home, they walked to the address together,” she said.Thangaraj agreed the pair walked to her home together, but said it was night time, Gunathilaka had never been to the area before and they had walked for up to 15 minutes. “How will he remember where she lived, in those circumstances, even if he wanted to?” Thangaraj said.The unidentified complainant was being harassed via social media, and has had to close her accounts, McKinnon said. The harassment was coming from accounts with “Sri Lankan names”, she said.Thangaraj said that was irrelevant. “He has not encouraged a single person to do a single thing,” he said. “She’s off social media, so that’s all stopped.”Gunathilaka will be required to live at a specific address and report to police daily.After matching on Tinder, meeting up for a date and heading back to her Rose Bay home, the alleged victim claimed the cricketer refused to wear a condom and choked her three times. Gunathilaka travelled to Australia with Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup team but only played in their first game before being ruled out of the competition with a hamstring tear.Sri Lanka were eliminated from the tournament on November 5 after losing their final match. Gunathilaka was due to board a flight back to Sri Lanka the following day.The case will return to court on January 12.

His unbeaten 42-ball 87 made light work of Pakistan’s 178 as New Zealand won by seven wickets

Danyal Rasool21-Apr-2024It doesn’t seem to matter who turns up for New Zealand, the series they play in Pakistan invariably turn out to be competitive. After a below-par performance in the second T20I, a Mark Chapman-inspired New Zealand side brushed past Pakistan in the third to level the series 1-1. Chapman finished with an unbeaten 87 off just 42 balls as he made light work of the 178 Pakistan had put up, with New Zealand getting there with ten balls and seven wickets to spare.

Chapman picks up from where he left last April

Chapman was New Zealand’s most impressive performer when a similarly under-strength side visited in April 2023, and had little trouble picking up from where he had left off.Related

• Pakistan slowdown: Babar on the defensive, but Shadab wants more 'impactful innings'

New Zealand had begun brightly with the big-hitting Tim Seifert and Tim Robinson, but lost both in the space of seven balls to Abbas Afridi and Naseem Shah, respectively. At that point, with inexperience to follow and a battery of impressive bowling options for Babar Azam, the chase felt in severe danger of being going off course.But Chapman demonstrated that his ability extended beyond power hitting, as he set about taking apart the dangerous duo of Shadab Khan and Abrar Ahmed. He understood the target wasn’t huge enough to require reckless slogging and manipulated the field to pick boundaries in three successive overs the two bowled. There was a slice of fortune when Naseem fluffed a fairly simple chance off a miscued sweep, and it resulted in the batter going back into his shell for a stray Iftikhar Ahmed over.The reprieve ended up costing Pakistan dearly. Iftikhar was shown no such respect when he came back on, smashed for a huge six back over his head and, as Chapman steered New Zealand towards Pakistan’s total with chanceless inevitability, the flair in his game began to shine through, too. For he wouldn’t just get New Zealand to their target, but land a psychological blow by decimating their two prized fast bowlers.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Shaheen Shah Afridi was the first to bear the brunt, as two boundaries and a six in the 15th over brought the asking rate below nine. Babar brought his ace Naseem back in immediately, but a worse fate awaited him. A carved six, a carved four, a straight six, and a pulled four. That’s how his first four balls went in a 23-run over, plunging the required rate to under a run a ball.It’s perhaps obligatory to say at this point that Dean Foxcroft was an able understudy, but in truth, this was a one-man chase. Just two boundaries came off Foxcroft’s bat in a 117-run partnership, and while Foxcroft struggled to keep his strike rate over 100, Chapman finished at more than double that. Pakistan will rightly reflect on the quality of their death bowling, but the fact that all it took was a solo effort to hunt down what they managed raises the question about the adequacy of that first-innings total.

New Zealand bowlers stymie Pakistan’s progress

Pakistan were put in to bat on a pitch Babar said was the typical batting-friendly strip Rawalpindi is known for, in stark contrast to Saturday’s surface. But the approach Pakistan took to setting a target was muddled at best. Saim Ayub got the side off to his trademark flyer, but in Zak Foulkes, Ish Sodhi and Will O’Rourke, New Zealand kept finding bowlers to sneak in tight overs and stymie Pakistan’s momentum.That was especially true once Ayub fell, and Babar and Mohammad Rizwan came together two balls after the powerplay ended. Overs six to 11 saw New Zealand allow just 36 runs as the momentum Pakistan had built faded, with Rizwan, in particular, unable to find the gaps he so cannily does in the powerplay. He would go off shortly after with a hamstring injury, while captain Michael Bracewell coaxed a false shot from Babar to send him on his way.Shadab Khan scored a quick 20-ball 41 to lift Pakistan•Associated Press

Shadab provides impetus to the innings

Pakistan meandered for another couple of overs, and it was Shadab Khan’s introduction that injected purpose into the innings. By now, the run rate had slipped to 8.07, but a couple of boundaries off his first four balls set the wheels in motion for an innings where he flew to 41 off 20. Alongside Irfan Khan, Pakistan began to blast their way back towards a competitive total. Perhaps cruelly for New Zealand, it was Bracewell, whose overs had reined Pakistan in so, who took the greatest hit during that whirlwind partnership as the pair smashed his final over for 19 runs.Once more, though, New Zealand found a way to have the final say, with Jacob Duffy and Foulkes managing a pair of tight final overs that kept Pakistan below 180. Pakistan might have felt it was enough against an enfeebled New Zealand side, but as is often the case in T20 cricket, there are few hiding places for below-par totals.

Chameera becomes Sri Lanka’s third injury replacement at the World Cup after Chamika Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Oct-2023Lahiru Kumara has been ruled out of the World Cup after hurting his left thigh during training in Pune, where Sri Lanka play their next game of the tournament, against Afghanistan on Monday. He has been replaced in the Sri Lanka squad by Dushmantha Chameera, who becomes the third player to come in as an injury replacement for Sri Lanka since the tournament started.Chameera was one of the key players who Sri Lanka couldn’t fit into their World Cup squad earlier because of fitness issues. He was initially out of action with a torn pectoral muscle, which he suffered ahead of the World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe, and after recovering from that, he injured himself again in the Lanka Premier League in August.Related

• Peak Sri Lanka too sharp for England

• Kumara goes from back-up to frontman

But Chameera came into the touring party – along with Angelo Mathews – on October 19 as a travelling reserve, and has now moved into the main squad. Mathews had earlier replaced Matheesha Pathirana (shoulder injury), while Chamika Karunaratne had come in for regular captain Dasun Shanaka (quad injury).While Chameera would have been an automatic pick in the Sri Lanka squad under ordinary circumstances, Sri Lanka would probably have wanted Kumara in the mix too, especially after his Player-of-the-Match performance against England on October 26. Kumara picked up three big wickets in that game – those of Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone and Ben Stokes – as Sri Lanka won by eight wickets, only their second win in five games in the tournament so far.Sri Lanka’s updated World Cup squad: Kusal Mendis (capt, wk), Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Angelo Mathews, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushan Hemantha, Chamika Karunaratne

Lancashire skittled before hitting back with ball, but visitors have final word with Jennings dismissal

ECB Reporters Network17-Sep-2024Twenty-one wickets fell on the first day of the Vitality County Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford where title-chasing Somerset earned just a six-run first-innings lead over Lancashire, who probably need to win this game to avoid relegation.Replying to Lancashire’s 140 on a seam-bowler’s pitch, Somerset made only 146 but then took the vital wicket of Keaton Jennings for 4 as the home side ended a bizarre day on 16 for 1, giving them a lead of ten runs.In the first three hours of of play, Lancashire were dismissed for 140 in 40 overs with Craig Overton and Lewis Gregory picking up four wickets apiece and the only substantial resistance being offered by the home side’s skipper, Jennings, who made 56.However, Lancashire’s seamers operated just as effectively, George Balderson taking 4 for 50 and Tom Bailey 4 for 37 as Somerset took a seemingly paltry lead.Having opted to field, Somerset’s quicker bowlers made good use of an olive-coloured pitch on the edge of the square to take four wickets in the first session. The first batter dismissed was Harry Singh, whose maiden Championship innings ended on 7 when he edged Overton to Tom Lammonby at third slip.Four overs later, Josh Bohannon followed for just 4 when he was beaten by a fine ball from Overton and nicked a catch to wicketkeeper James Rew. Rocky Flintoff was bowled for 7 when he inside-edged an attempted off drive to a ball from Kacey Aldridge into his middle stump and the same bowler took his second wicket in similar fashion when Jennings’s front-foot slash only diverted the ball into his stumps.Three balls previously, Jennings had reached his fifty and three runs off the next delivery from Brett Randell saw him reach 1000 Championship runs for the season. However, his dismissal for 56 left Lancashire on 85 for 4 and Somerset might have been reflecting that things would have been even better for them had not Aldridge dropped Jennings at slip off Overton’s first ball of the game.Things declined rapidly for the home side early in the afternoon session as they lost their next four wickets for one run in 24 balls and their last six for 33 runs in less than an hour’s cricket. Gregory dismissed four of the batters to finish with 4 for 50 and Overton picked up two more to return figures of 4 for 32 from 15 overs.Despite losing Andy Umeed, caught by Jennings off Tom Bailey, to the first ball of their innings, Somerset added 58 runs in relatively untroubled fashion until they lost three wickets in 13 balls just before tea.Archie Vaughan, who made 21, and Tom Kohler-Cadmore were both caught behind off Balderson and those dismissals sandwiched the departure of Lammonby, who pushed forward to Will Williams when he had made 36 and nicked a catch to George Bell at slip.Things got no better for Somerset immediately after tea when Rew became the third batsman to be caught behind by Matty Hurst off Balderson and Rew’s dismissal for 4 was quickly followed by that of Aldridge, who lost his off stump to Balderson when he had made a single, to leave Somerset on 83 for 6.Gregory and Tom Abell inched their side towards Lancashire’s total with a 34-run partnership for the seventh wicket but Bailey had Abell caught behind for 22 and then dismissed Overton and Randell, both leg before wicket, in the space of three deliveries, Overton falling to an outrageous slower ball.Jack Leach then helped Gregory put on a priceless 25 for the last wicket before he was caught behind off Anderson Philip for 13, Hurst taking his fifth catch of the innings.Five overs before the close, Jennings edged Gregory to Andy Umeed at slip and the day ended with Singh and nightwatchman Williams defending stoutly against the Somerset attack.

Having missed South Africa’s previous game with an elbow problem, he returned with a match-winning 64 off 56 balls against England

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Mar-20251:49

Is Klaasen among the best batters against spin?

Heinrich Klaasen wants to prove he is “the best in the world”, after his 64 off 56 balls helped South Africa cruise to a seven-wicket win over England on Saturday, confirming their place in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy.Klaasen missed South Africa’s first match of the tournament with an elbow problem but extended his impressive 50-overs form against England in Karachi. He made his fifth consecutive ODI half-century, scoring freely from No. 4 as South Africa romped to their target of 180 inside 30 overs.Speaking to after Saturday’s match, Klaasen revealed that, along with head coach Rob Walter, he had set himself a lofty ambition to prove himself as the world’s best player over the course of the Champions Trophy.”I gave myself a challenge with Rob Walter this trip: I want to be the best in the world,” Klaasen said. “But I want to be the best in the world, and I know I can play situations well and for me, just to keep hitting it on the ground for as long as possible, like I did tonight [is important]. I’m quite pleased with my innings tonight. [I scored runs] by standing still and just trusting my technique. I know my swing is good, so as long as it clicks then I am quite happy.”Heinrich Klaasen hit 11 fours and no sixes in his 56-ball knock•AFP/Getty Images

As if to underline the point about hitting along the ground, Klaasen hit 11 fours and no sixes before he was caught at short third, trying to hit the winning runs off Adil Rashid with six runs required. “I want to jump off this building, the way I went out tonight,” he joked, but said he was happy with his recent form, and explained that he has looked to keep things simple in training since his elbow injury.”I think I’m very blessed at the moment where I’m with my game, and understanding my game quite well,” he said. “I’m not a guy that faces all our seamers in the nets. I just do a couple of drills and face a little bit of spin. At the moment, I’m meeting the ball out of the middle of the bat. That’s my piece that I go with, and as long as my technique is good, I’m quite happy.”Klaasen, 33, has been in career-best form since turning 30 and said that he has tried to keep things as simple as possible, reacting to each ball rather than premeditating. “It’s about standing there still,” he said. “It was about three years ago that I really worked hard on that, just standing there still, not premeditating the game too much.”Aiden Markram, who stood in as South Africa’s captain for the unwell Temba Bavuma, said of Klaasen, “It’s always great to see him out in the middle. He’s been in a ridiculous patch of form over the last many months, and for him to walk out after having a little niggle on his elbow and for it to look like he’d never really left is a great sign for us.”

The proposed plan involves a total of 22 matches, with a maximum of five overseas players in each XI

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Oct-2022The long-awaited women’s IPL is set to become a reality next year with the BCCI planning a five-team tournament for March 2023, immediately after the Women’s T20 World Cup ends in South Africa on February 26.The BCCI’s proposed plan involves a total of 22 matches, with each squad comprising 18 players with a maximum of six from overseas. No more than five overseas players can feature in a playing XI, with four from Full Member countries and one from an Associate nation.As per the plan, which the BCCI sent on Thursday to state associations and which has been seen by ESPNcricinfo, each team will play the others twice during the league phase (20 matches), with the league topper heading straight to the final. The second finalist will be decided via an Eliminator between the second and third-ranked teams from the league phase. The BCCI is yet to finalise the schedule of the WIPL, but it will be wrapped up before the men’s IPL begins, which is likely to be at the end of March.Whether the March window has been pencilled in for the long term remains to be seen, but the BCCI said in a paper on the WIPL that it has identified a “clear 25 days Women’s IPL window in the FTP cycle”. The inaugural WIPL is likely to clash with the inaugural season of the Women’s Pakistan Super League.”It will be a challenge to play the WIPL in the home and away format, because with five to six teams it is not possible to have a match every day,” the BCCI said in its paper on the WIPL, which was sent to the states as part of the wider agenda for the board’s annual general meeting scheduled in Mumbai on October 18. “It is suggested that the tournament can be played in caravan style, where after finishing ten matches at one venue, the next ten matches to be played at the next venue. Therefore, ten matches each to be played across two venues in the 2023 WIPL season, ten each in the next two venues in the 2024 season, and for the 2025 season ten matches in the remaining one venue and the remaining ten in one of the venues from 2023 season.”Where will the teams be from?
Unlike the Women’s T20 challenge, the precursor to the WIPL, where the teams were assembled randomly, the BCCI will sell the five franchises. However, unlike the men’s IPL, where franchises bid for teams in a particular city, the BCCI has chalked out two plans for the WIPL. The first one comprises selling teams across six zones spanning the country. A set of cities in each zone has been shortlisted and comprises: Dharamsala/Jammu (North zone), Pune/Rajkot (West), Indore/Nagpur/Raipur (Central), Ranchi/Cuttack (East), Kochi/Visakhapatnam (South) and Guwahati (North-East).The second plan involves teams being sold but without a solid home base, with matches to be played at six shortlisted IPL venues: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.The BCCI will present the WIPL plan at the AGM next week but a final decision will be taken by the IPL Governing Council chairman – who that is will be decided at the upcoming AGM – along with the BCCI office bearers.Exponential growth in participation – the reason behind WIPL
Women’s cricket in India became a big talking point ever since they reached the final of the ODI World Cup in 2017 at Lord’s, where they lost to England in front of a full house. In 2018, the BCCI launched the Women’s T20 Challenge, but it was restricted to just one match. Over the next three years, it expanded to a three-team competition. Voices across women’s cricket, both in India and globally, were critical of BCCI’s reluctance to launch a women’s IPL at the time.The board and several state associations were originally concerned by the shallow player pool in women’s cricket, but those reservations have gradually receded now.”With the rise in popularity of women’s cricket in the country mainly due to prominent performances by the Indian Senior Cricket team on world stage by qualifying for semi-finals in 2018 T20 World Cup, finals in 2020 T20 World Cup, securing silver medal in recently held 2022 Commonwealth games in Birmingham, we intend to conduct the Women’s IPL on similar lines with the Indian Premier League,” the BCCI said in its paper on WIPL.The growth on the domestic front was massive with the paper listing “an overall increase of 111% in participation of players along various categories” in the eight-year period between 2014-22. A further breakdown listed the number increasing by 129% in the senior women’s category and a 92% increase in the Under-19 category.The WIPL – and the proposed WPSL – will join the FairBreak Invitational, the Women’s Hundred, WCPL and WBBL as T20 leagues that bolster the popularity and growth of women’s cricket globally. The WIPL paper also noted that the BCCI had studied both the WBBL and the Women’s Hundred models before finalising its plan.

Australia seamer says it isn’t “the be all and end all but it certainly plays a part”

Danyal Rasool24-Dec-2023Pakistan seamers’ lack of express pace in the first Test got plenty of attention at home, and it appears it didn’t go unnoticed by the opposition, either. Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc said “everyone” in their set-up was surprised at Pakistan’s inability to hit higher speeds with the ball, particularly given the side’s reputation for it.”I think everyone was slightly surprised at the lower pace of the Pakistan bowlers, when you’re generally used to some guys getting in the 150s [kph],” Starc said, speaking to media at the MCG two days before the start of the second Test. “I don’t think that pace is the be all and end all but it certainly plays a part and can help.”An injury to Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf opting to make himself unavailable for the Test series against Australia meant Pakistan were limited in the number of high-pace options they had to choose from. Much of that burden fell on Shaheen Shah Afridi, but even his pace has been significantly down from his quickest days since his recovery from a knee injury.During the first Test in Perth, he averaged in the low 130 kph, dropping down to the high 120s in the second innings. The other three seam options Pakistan went with are not express either. Khurram Shahzad bowled at medium-fast speeds throughout the game, and though Aamer Jamal picked up as the match went on, he rarely hit 140 kph. It was in stark contrast to Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Starc, each of whom routinely hit the mid-140s. On a spicy wicket that became even livelier as the game went on, that difference was palpable.Related

• Pakistan change tack as Rizwan replaces Sarfaraz for Boxing Day

• For Aamer Jamal, dark alleys will always lead to high streets

• Sarfaraz vs Rizwan: Pakistan's self-inflicted conundrum

• 'I'm really worried' – Waqar questions where Pakistan's pace has gone

• Want to watch Shaheen Afridi bowl? Peer through the fence

Starc acknowledged that the extra pace wouldn’t be quite as crucial at the MCG. “Case in point, you look at Scotty Boland who can bowl good wheels, but he’s not at your top end of pace bowlers,” he said. “But he generates a lot of sideways movement here in Melbourne, obviously being his home ground. He’s done it for a long time and we saw that obviously against England, where every ball he bowled could have been a wicket. So I don’t think that pace is the be all and end all. Certainly, for our attack we all complement each other really well by doing things very differently.”Pakistan’s lack of pace options has also concerned their former captain Waqar Younis. Speaking on ESPN’s show , he said fast bowling had been one aspect about Pakistan that had always been exciting in the past. “But this time around, I’m not seeing that. I’m seeing medium and slow-medium pacers, I’m seeing allrounders. There’s no real pace. People used to come to watch Pakistani pace bowlers running in hard and bowling 150 clicks. That’s what I’m not seeing and that’s what my worry is.”That’s my worry at domestic level as well. I can understand there are a few injuries, but in the past, you saw a battery of fast bowlers in reserve that Pakistan could bring on. But unfortunately, that as not there and it’s something I’m really worried about.”Pakistan’s bowling attack was further hampered by Shahzad being ruled out of the series with a stress fracture. Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza and Mohammad Wasim Jnr all lie in reserve, but none of them, with the possible exception of Wasim Jnr, can truly be classified as express pacers.

Greg Barclay has acknowledged that exposure gained from playing top teams regularly has made Associate teams more competitive

Firdose Moonda08-Jul-2023Following Netherlands’ stunning run to the 2023 Men’s World Cup, there are calls from both the Dutch and the ICC for a continuance of the World Cup Super League (WCSL) in some form. The world’s top 13 ODI sides featured in the first edition of the WCSL, which gave Associate teams such as Netherlands the chance to pit themselves against top opposition regularly. Netherlands’ performance in the World Cup Qualifier, as also those of other Associate teams, notably Scotland, has been seen as proof of the WCSL having made these sides more battle-hardened.”I don’t think there is any doubt that the Super League was hugely helpful in terms of a pathway to Associate countries,” Greg Barclay, the ICC chairman, said at a press conference in Harare on Friday. “The fact that you are seeing some of the performances from the Associate members over here, in large part, was due to the fact that they have had the experience of playing teams ranked above where they are.Related

• Sri Lanka finish ODI WC qualifier with spotless record after bowlers script big win in the final

• Qualification pathway for 14-team 2027 World Cup approved

• De Leede's all-round dazzle puts Netherlands in the ODI World Cup

“It’s a work on. It’s no secret that T20 is in a pretty good place, Test cricket has had a shot in the arm [with the World Test Championship] but maybe we’ve lost our way a little bit in the 50-over format. We need to address both context and relevance and the experience around that. Is that a re-creation of the Super League or something equivalent? I don’t know but I suspect that the answer to that will be yes. We need to do something.”As things stand, the WCSL will not be played during the 2023-2027 ODI cycle, with the participants for the 2027 World Cup to be decided based on rankings. This means there is no imperative for teams to play a set number of ODIs in the next four years (the World Cup Super League made provision for 24 ODIs, in eight series of three matches each), Associate teams are not guaranteed 50-overs cricket against Full Members, which has increased the volume of questions surrounding the relevance of bilateral ODI cricket, which the ICC acknowledges.”We need to make sure one-day cricket continues to have a following,” Barclay said. “It’s running the risk at the moment of having a lot of irrelevancy in terms of the bilateral arrangements that are made.”But how this will be fixed remains unclear. From the information ESPNcricinfo has to date, the Super League is not on the agenda at the ICC’s AGM, which will take place next week, even though the Associate boards will be present and eager to discuss the way forward. Barclay, too, believes that they have a case, especially after the Netherlands’ Qualifier success. “If we accept that we are keeping all three forms of the game then we have got to give the next tier of countries, mainly those high-performing Associates, the opportunity to make sure that they then perform at the top table when they are performing at world events,” he said. “We’ve got 14 teams [qualifying for the World Cup] in the next cycle, so we’ve got to make sure they are competitive and prepared when they get to those events.”A case in point are the Dutch themselves, who, had they not qualified for the World Cup, would have had no fixtures scheduled from the end of the Qualifier until the start of the new World Cup Cricket League 2 next February. Their success at last year’s T20 World Cup, where they advanced to the Super 12s and finished fourth in their six-team group, means they do not have to play in the European Qualifiers for the 2024 T20 World Cup. That means that in peak European summer, Netherlands have an empty calendar and no indication of when they play competitively before or after the ODI World Cup.’If we didn’t play that Super League, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are’ – Max O’Dowd•ICC via Getty Images

Opening batter Max O’Dowd described Netherlands as “gutted” at the discontinuance of the WCSL. “It’s just the tough reality that we live in as Associate teams,” he said. “I don’t like the word Associate but us, in that boat, we just don’t get the same cricket. We’re all extremely gutted that the Super League is gone because you can see where we’ve come from to where we are now.”Netherlands won only three of their 24 Super League matches (two against Ireland, who finished 11th, and one over Zimbabwe, who were 12th) and ended the WCSL in last place. But the value they took from playing against Full Members informed how they went about this Qualifier – particularly their approach against spin – and taught them how to build winning habits.”The playing experience was massive. If we didn’t play that Super League, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are,” O’Dowd said. “We were in situations so many times where we actually should have won games and then, we created a culture where we gave ourselves permission to win these games. In the past, we were quite happy just getting close against big sides. And now, we know that if we are in a winning position, we should be winning. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing against. That’s been massive for us. The Super League has boosted so many guys’ confidence.”The game against West Indies in June 2022 is one example. Netherlands were 164 for 1 in the 30th over, chasing 309, and lost 9 for 124 to fall short by 20 runs. They were particularly conservative against Akeal Hosein and Hayden Walsh in that game; they rethought their strategy against spin shortly afterwards. Since then, they have developed confidence in their sweep shots, and memorably beat West Indies in this Qualifier.Now, Netherlands will have the opportunity to play against nine other Full Members at the World Cup albeit without knowing when their next chance to play against them will be. Asked what they hope their journey to India will offer other Associates, O’Dowd hoped it could serve as an example that the game should continue growing.”It shows the strength of Associate cricket. The gap between Associate cricket and Full Member nations is dwindling. Three Full Members have missed out on the World Cup,” he said. “I don’t want to sit here and say to other Associates to work harder and all that kind of stuff because I feel that’s a bit degrading. These guys are quality and they know what they need to do to win games. I just hope they can take a bit of inspiration from what we’ve been able to achieve and hopefully going forward, they can do the same.”

With visitors having been 195 for 7, Glamorgan will feel they let their opponents back into the game

ECB Reporters Network23-Jun-2024A well-constructed half-century from Emilio Gay was the mainstay of Northamptonshire’s batting efforts in the first day of their Vitality County Championship match in Cardiff.Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Northamptonshire reached 279 all out with runs for Luke Procter and Gus Miller helping them to recover from a middle-order collapse.Three wickets apiece for Timm van der Gugten, Andy Gorvin and James Harris were the highlight for Glamorgan with the ball but with Northamptonshire having been 195 for 7 they will feel they let their opponents back into the game.Glamorgan had seven overs to face before the close and they reached 36 without loss, 243 behind on first innings.Northamptonshire won the toss and chose to bat but were pegged back early on by two wickets for James Harris. The first was Ricardo Vasconcelos who was bowled for 7. Harris claimed his second wicket in his next over when Prithvi Shaw edged a ball to Sam Northeast at first slip to leave them 19 for 2.Gay continued his fine form with a patient and well-made 65 that included some lovely drives through the off side. He shared a stand of 90 with Proctor, the pair doing well against a Glamorgan seam attack that got the ball to move laterally throughout the day.Gay was dismissed by one of those moving deliveries when he edged Gorvin to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip to leave Northamptonshire 109 for 3. A stand of 48 between Proctor and Rob Keogh took the visitors past 150 before both departed at the start of a spell that saw Northamptonshire lose four wickets for 28 runs.Glamorgan’s bowlers were fantastic in the period before the tea break and made things very difficult for the batting side. There was a spell in the afternoon in which Lewis McManus faced 20 balls from Timm van der Gugten and he played and missed at eight of them, but it was Gorvin who trapped him lbw for 19.Liam Patterson-White combined with debutant Miller for a stand of 37 that slowed the Glamorgan progress, but Patterson-White chipped a ball from Gorvin to Eddie Byrom at point for 30 with Northamptonshire still 18 runs short of claiming their first batting bonus point.Miller and Raphael Weatherall managed to take Northamptonshire past 250 to claim their first point of the game as the old ball became a little easier to score against. Even after Glamorgan took the second new ball Miller continued to impress in his maiden first class match. His 40 included the only two sixes of the innings as he helped his team to what could prove to be a challenging total on this pitch.Eddie Byrom and Billy Root successfully saw out the seven overs that were left to bowl at the end of the day without too many alarms as the inexperienced pair of Miller and Weatherall didn’t get the same movement that Glamorgan managed with the ball. They will be hoping that changes when the game resumes on Monday morning.

Ameen had put Pakistan in a commanding position in the chase, but Matthews’ two wickets triggered a collapse and then forced a slowdown

Danyal Rasool30-Apr-2024A stunning death-overs implosion from Pakistan amidst more all-round heroics from Hayley Matthews helped West Indies take an unassailable 3-0 series lead over Pakistan in the T20I series.Another commanding half-century from Matthews – 68 off 49 balls – guided West Indies to the series’ highest total of 132 – but Pakistan were cruising at 115 for 2, spearheaded by Sidra Ameen’s 63 off 58, needing 18 off the last 23 balls. But Matthews took two wickets in as many deliveries to kickstart a stunning collapse and Pakistan lost six wickets for 10 runs in 20 deliveries. The hosts fell apart spectacularly, with West Indies sneaking home by two runs.Pakistan won the toss and put West Indies in to bat. Fatima Sana struck early to remove Rashada Williams, but the hosts ran into the familiar brilliance of Matthews, and couldn’t find a way to stem the dazzling strokemaking that flowed. The best they could do was work around her, and although taking wickets was a problem, Pakistan’s success in keeping one end relatively quiet ensured West Indies did not get up to the 150 mark, something Matthews said the side had been aiming for.Once Tuba Hassan managed the wicket of Matthews in the 16th over, the hosts wrested momentum back. Shemaine Campbelle edged one off Nida Dar to the keeper in the following over, and Pakistan ground the visitors down. The last six overs saw just 30 runs scored on a wicket that looked good enough to offer more, and at the halfway mark, Pakistan had the momentum.Sidra Ameen and Ayesha Zafar put on 64 for Pakistan•PCB

They rode on that momentum in the second innings with a blistering opening partnership dominated by Ameen. Five boundaries in the first four overs, all struck by Ameen, saw Pakistan gallop to 39, instantly reducing the target to below a run a ball. West Indies found ways to stop the bleeding, but Pakistan never really fell behind the asking rate, ensuring they had wickets in hand and never got bogged down for too long.A pair of tight overs from Afy Fletcher saw Ayesha Zafar hole out trying to go over long-on, but Ameen once more eased the pressure with a big 13th over, taking 11 off it and bringing up a 42-ball half-century. Pakistan appeared to have timed their push perfectly when Ameen and Dar targeted Karishma Ramharack’s 16th over, plundering 13 and bringing the equation down to 20 needed in four remaining overs, with eight wickets still in hand.But having not won a game all series and fallen short by narrow margins a couple of times, the psychological scarring was palpable, and it made its presence felt in a frenzied final half hour. Aaliyah Alleyne cleaned up Nida Dar in the 17th over to keep West Indies alive, but Pakistani panic properly set in when Ameen missed an expansive inside out drive and Matthews knocked back the top of off. The next ball saw Fatima Sana spoon one to short cover-point, and two more wickets fell in the following over, including a needless run out that revealed the nerves that had clouded the hosts’ thoughts.The three overs before the final one saw just eight runs scored, meaning another 12 were required in the final one. The hosts never looked like getting there, and by the time the final ball was helped away for a boundary, the game, and the series, was already beyond Pakistan.