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A group of 14 players began training last weekend under West Indies’ head coach Phil Simmons, at the High Performance Centre at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados

ESPNcricinfo staff16-May-2016Seven West Indies Test players are part of a 14-member squad named for a week-long training camp focusing on spin bowling and batting under head coach Phil Simmons, at the High Performance Centre in Barbados.West Indies are slated to play four Tests at home against India in July and August, after which they will take on Pakistan in three away Tests in September and October.”The camp is specifically for batsmen and spin bowlers. At this stage, we want the batsmen to focus on getting better against the slow bowlers,” Simmons said. “We want bowlers to look at ways to improve their art of spin bowling. In the coming months we will have Test matches against India and Pakistan – two higher-ranked teams – so we know we will face a lot of spin and we will play against players who are good players of spin.”The list of players for this camp does not mean that they have already been selected to play the Test matches. The squads for the India and Pakistan matches will be named at a later date. We have chosen players to work on certain specific areas and to have a closer look at their techniques and skill sets, as we look to prepare for what is ahead of us.”WICB is also expected to organise a camp ahead of the 50-over tri-series against Australia and South Africa, starting June 3.List of players: Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, Shai Hope, Jermaine Blackwood, Shane Dowrich, Leon Johnson, Vishal Singh, Roston Chase, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Imran Khan, Gudakesh Motie, Damion Jacobs, Jomel Warrican

Cricket South Africa will be holding a spin bowling camp next week at the Centre of Excellence in Pretoria ahead of upcoming tours of Bangladesh and India

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2015Cricket South Africa will be holding a spin bowling camp next week at the Centre of Excellence in Pretoria ahead of upcoming tours of Bangladesh and India.Batsmen JP Duminy, Temba Bavuma and Reeza Hendricks, and spinners Aaron Phangiso and Dane Piedt are the internationals who have been invited for the camp. A host of Under-19 players will also be involved as South Africa prepare to defend their junior World Cup title next year in Bangladesh.Former internationals Nicky Boje and Paul Adams will be the spin-bowling coaches while HD Ackerman and Neil Johnson will be the batting ones.”This annual camp has particular significance this year,” said Vinnie Barnes, CSA High Performance manager. “If one looks at our international fixture list for the second half of the year, we have away Test Series in both Bangladesh and India while South Africa A will be playing both four-day unofficial Tests and a triangular one-day series in India.”Spin bowling obviously plays an important part on the subcontinent so it is important that we prepare players properly, particularly those who have little or no experience of playing in that part of the world.”The camp will also be attended by some of our less experienced batsmen who will be representing these various squads. Some of our (senior-team) batsmen have also asked to attend in preparation for the tour of Bangladesh.”Our Under-19 squad struggled during their recent tour to Bangladesh where they will be defending their world title next year so we are also involving players at this level.”Spinners Aaron Phangiso, Ruben Claassen, Bjorn Fortuin, Tshepo Ntuli, Dane Piedt, George Linde, Shaun von Berg, Sean Whitehead, Nduduzo Mfoza, Tshepiso Ndwandwa, Lizo MakhosiBatsmen Temba Bavuma, Rudi Second, Theunis de Bruyn, Omphile Ramela, Gihahn Cloete, JP Duminy, Reeza Hendricks, Rivaldo Moonsamy, Dean Foxcroft, Wiaan Mulder, Dayyaan Galiem

James Pattinson, the Australia fast bowler, may have broken down again with serious injury after he complained of side pain when taking the second new ball on the third morning of the second Test against South Africa in Adelaide

Daniel Brettig at Adelaide Oval24-Nov-2012James Pattinson, the Australia fast bowler, has broken down again with a serious injury after he complained of side pain when taking the second new ball on the third morning of the second Test against South Africa in Adelaide.Having bowled the first ball of the 84th over, Pattinson, 22, spoke to his captain Michael Clarke and walked off the ground. After speaking with the team physio Alex Kountouris it emerged that he was troubled by pain in his left side. Pattinson left the ground to have scans which confirmed a left side injury, though its exact severity is yet to be known.To that point Pattinson had bowled only nine overs out of the first 83, as Clarke sought to preserve him in the Adelaide heat on a largely unhelpful pitch.The most hostile and aggressive of Australia’s crop of young fast bowlers, Pattinson has battled a succession of injuries since he first toured for the national side in India in 2010. A brilliant start to his Test career last summer was curtailed by a foot injury during the Sydney Test against India in January.It was later revealed that Australia’s selectors chose to play Pattinson in the SCG Test despite medical evidence that he was at high risk of suffering an injury due to his bowling workload up to that point. They preferred to keep him in the team due to his strong bowling form, and he duly suffered from a stress injury in Sydney.Pattinson then returned to action during the West Indies tour, but while playing in the Trinidad Test suffered a back injury while throwing off balance from the outfield and was sent home. His lead-in to this summer’s home Tests was carefully managed, affording him a quartet of Sheffield Shield matches and no Twenty20 cricket.Before the match, Pattinson said he did not want to be rested, as his body felt free of niggles. “At the moment I’ve got no soreness in my body, so I want to keep playing, I don’t want to get rested,” he said. “But I suppose there’ll come a time when I’ll have a high workload and it’ll look like I’m going to get rested as we’ve spoken about.”I’m happy for that, I put the faith in the medical staff’s hands and if they think it’s a good idea for me to get rested one Test then so be it. We’ve got to want what’s best for the team and if that’s best for the team then so be it.”

A round-up of the action from the Coca-Cola Pro50 Championship 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Oct-2011An all-round team performance helped Mid West Rhinos to a five-wicket win against Mountaineers at Kwekwe Sports Club in the Coca-Cola Pro50 Championship.Mountaineers chose to bat and were dented early by medium-pacer Richard Muzhange, who claimed three quick wickets to leave Mountaineers 27 for 3 in the ninth over. Opener Jethro Maudzi , though, prevented a collapse with a fluent half-century. He hit 77 off 85 balls with seven fours, and put on 115 for the fourth wicket with his captain Timycen Maruma. A couple of handy cameos followed from Ned Eckersley and Gary Chirimuuta, which carried Mountaineers past 200. Muzhange eventually picked up Mawudzi to finish with 4 for 45.Chasing 222, Rhinos lost Bothwell Chapungu early, but a 70-run stand between Steve Marillier and captain Gary Ballance got the innings back on track. Apart from Chapungu, Rhinos’ top order batsmen all managed between 35 and 48, with Riki Wessels top scoring. Fast bowler Tendai Chatara picked up three wickets, but it was not close to being enough as Rhinos got home with all of 11 overs to spare.The result, Rhinos’ first win in three games following a loss and a tie, put them at No. 2 on the points table, while Mountaineers are languishing in last spot after their third straight loss.Mashonaland Eagles consolidated their position at the top of the points table with a 38-run win against Matabeleland Tuskers at the Harare Sports Club.Eagles’ top order came good after they were inserted. Three successive half-century partnerships – 95, 59 and 87, the last one at a run-rate of over nine an over – set up their total of 278. Cephas Zhuwao and Ryan Bishop both hit half-centuries, with Zhuwao top scoring with 71. Glen Querl was the pick of the Tuskers bowlers, claiming 4 for 49. Bradley Staddon also snagged four wickets, but was expensive, going for 6.54 an over.The chase was dotted with regular wickets. Tuskers’ captain Gavin Ewing made 50 off 60 balls but, as the others scratched around and then got dismissed, his team slumped to 116 for 6 in the 30th over. Steven Trenchard showed some purpose with a rapid 60 – it included six fours and one six, and came off 43 balls – but after the early listlessness, even the late surge could not lift Tuskers to a win. Mark Mbofana finished with the best figures for Eagles: 3 for 26 in 6.1 overs.

Alex Blackwell posted the second-highest score in WNCL history to push the New South Wales Breakers to a record-breaking 5 for 395 against Tasmania

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Oct-2010New South Wales 5 for 395 (Blackwell 157, Poulton 86, Sthalekar 75) beat Tasmania 160 (Burns 51, Perry 4-10) by 235 runs

Scorecard
Alex Blackwell posted the second-highest score in WNCL history to push the New South Wales Breakers to a record-breaking 5 for 395 in the 235-run victory over Tasmania. The total comfortably beat the previous best of 3 for 309, which was set by ACT against South Australia last year, and the victory was sealed when Tasmania fell for 160.Blackwell, the captain, raced to 157 off 111 balls, with 17 fours and a six, while Leah Poulton (86) and Lisa Sthalekar (75) also joined the fun. “I was quite determined once I got to 100 to see if I could push myself to 150,” Blackwell said. “I’ve never done that before. I didn’t have any records in mind but as a personal milestone I just wanted to make sure I kicked on.”She said as the game wore on the team was aiming for 400. “All the way through our innings we had our goals,” she said, “and in the end we fell just short of that.”Tasmania lasted until the 37th over, with Erin Burns top scoring with 51. Ellyse Perry did the damage with the ball by taking 4 for 10 from 7.4 overs.

The battle lines between Cricket NSW and the SCG Trust have again been drawn, with Blues chief executive Dave Gilbert suggesting Sydney’s next Ashes Test could be staged at ANZ Stadium

Cricinfo staff11-Nov-2009The battle lines between Cricket NSW and the SCG Trust have again been drawn, with Blues chief executive Dave Gilbert suggesting Sydney’s next Ashes Test could be staged at ANZ Stadium, the main venue for the 2000 Olympics. Cricket NSW and the Trust were involved in a similar stand-off five years ago during negotiations over the existing tenancy agreement, and Gilbert has again flagged the possibility of moving cricket from its traditional home at the SCG to the 80,000 capacity stadium in Homebush.The last agreement, signed in 2004, expires at the end of 2010, creating an air of uncertainty over where the New Year’s Test of 2011 against England will be staged. The very notion that major international fixtures could be relocated from the SCG will dismay the cricketing purists of Sydney, but Gilbert said he would keep all options open when negotiations with the Trust begin next year.”ANZ is focused on getting a major cricket match to its venue,” Gilbert said. “I know Test cricket will be a difficult one to do at this stage – and you have to weigh up tradition and history and the drama at the SCG – but when I was a kid growing up at the SCG, rugby league Test matches and union Test matches were only ever at the SCG. Not anymore.”If you’re a 15-year-old kid, you’ve only ever known big sport events to be played at ANZ Stadium – that’s not meant to be an inflammatory comment, it’s a fact. If you take the heat and emotion out of it, as CEO of Cricket NSW, I have to do what is best for cricket to generate revenue to keep this game going, and this is what this process is about.”This is what our negotiations will be about the next few months. It has to be recognised SCG and ANZ Stadium run a ground and we run a sport, we need each other and it’s about working out the best deal moving forward.”Simon Katich, the Australian opener and NSW captain, said it would be a “huge surprise” if the decision was made to break with tradition and relocate Test cricket from the SCG to the larger-capacity ANZ Stadium. NSW have staged 20- and 50-over matches at the Olympic venue for several seasons, but as yet no internationals have been played there.”We’ve played a lot of one-day cricket out at ANZ Stadium,” Katich said. “The game is always developing and changing, who knows where it could head now with where we play, but it would be a shock if we moved from the SCG.”I think the only issue might be that the wicket at ANZ is a drop-in wicket and people are always worried about losing the characteristics of all the five different [Ashes Test] venues in Australia,” he added. “That would be an issue, but in terms of attendances out there, we obviously get great crowds for the Blues and being a big stadium, who knows what a Test match could draw out there?”A spokesman for ANZ Stadium said the venue’s primary focus was to attract ODI and Twenty20 international cricket, but would not rule out a bid to poach Test matches from the SCG.

The two matches will provide Australia’s preparation for the Champions Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jan-2025An extra ODI has been added to Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka which will provide the visitors additional preparation for the Champions Trophy.The two matches will now take place on February 12 and 14 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and will be day games.The first of the games begins just two days after the scheduled fifth day of the second Test in Galle so it remains to be seen how many players featuring in that match can turnaround for the one-dayer if the Test goes the distance.However, Australia have nine players in their preliminary Champions Trophy squad who aren’t part of the Test series, including captain Pat Cummins and fellow quick Josh Hazlewood.But Cummins’ participation remains uncertain as he is carrying an ankle injury which he played with during the India Test series.Australia’s ODI players are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka around the start of the second Test. Their first match in the Champions Trophy is against England on February 22 followed by South Africa on February 25 and Afghanistan on February 28.The first semi-final will take place in Dubai on March 4 with the second in Lahore on March 5 following confirmation of the hybrid model due to India not traveling to Pakistan. The final will be on March 9, in either Dubai or Lahore depending on whether India qualify.

Meg Lanning is feeling confident ahead of her WBBL return but has refused to commit to being available for Australia’s tour of India in December

AAP17-Oct-2023Australia captain Meg Lanning is confident she has more good cricket in her but has refused to be drawn on her availability for the upcoming tour of India.After missing the Ashes in England earlier this year over health concerns, Lanning is back in action ahead of the Melbourne Stars’ WBBL campaign. The 31-year-old declined to elaborate on her second extended break from the game during the last two years.Lanning missed Australia’s recent home series against West Indies but could head to India for a historic day-night Test in Mumbai in December.Related

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“I haven’t thought that far ahead [about India],” Lanning said on Tuesday in her first media appearance for more than six months.”I’m back playing some cricket, which is nice.”I’m really enjoying it, and I still feel like I have a little bit more to give, but what exactly that looks like, I’m not sure.”As for returning to captain Australia, Lanning said she had not “really got that far”.”I’m just worrying about this next couple of weeks with the Stars,” she said.Lanning admitted she barely watched any of the Ashes as Alyssa Healy captained Australia as they retained the urn in England courtesy of a drawn series.She put the bat away after finishing the inaugural Women’s Premier League with the Delhi Capitals in March.”I didn’t bat for a fairly long time,” Lanning said.”Probably I needed a little bit heading into the WNCL.”But I have played a lot of cricket over the years so I do feel like the skillset’s there.”It’s just about getting into a confident position and feeling good in my mind that I can go out there and play. I feel like I’m in that position now.”Lanning initially took a break from cricket last year following Australia’s gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, returning for the home series against Pakistan in January.She led Australia to a Twenty20 World Cup title in South Africa in February, before again taking leave on the eve of the Ashes on medical grounds.Lanning’s Stars will open the WBBL season with a match against the Sydney Sixers at North Sydney Oval on Thursday night.

Durham beaten as Duckett, Clarke combine but hopes fade for hosts

ECB Reporters Network01-Jul-2022Nottinghamshire 184 for 6 (Duckett 53*, Clarke 51) beat Durham 183 for 8 by four wickets Nottinghamshire Outlaws’ last desperate hopes of a seventh successive T20 quarter-final berth finally vanished despite a comfortable victory over Durham Jets by four wickets in the Vitality Blast at Trent Bridge. Amongst other things, they needed a tie, no less, in Leicester to retain any hope but Leicester just refused to oblige.It was at least a rousing farewell for Dan Christian, their departing veteran captain who led the Outlaws to T20 glory in 2017 and 2020. He could revel in watching 51 from 30 balls for Joe Clarke and Ben Duckett’s unbeaten 53 from 34 that helped bring success at the gallop with three overs to spare.Christian’s fellow Australian and opposite number, Ashton Turner, threatened to upstage things earlier with a rapid 33 as Durham’s third wicket added 54 in five overs but Steven Mullaney removed him and two new batters in four balls as the Jets backfired.From 98 for five with 51 balls to come, Michael Jones, the opener, reached 41 until brilliantly caught on the mid-wicket rope by Mullaney off Jake Ball and Durham finished with 183 for eight, late-order hitting bringing 70 from the final six overs. It proved far from enough.The evening had started painfully when the opening delivery, from Ball, cut back to strike Graham Clark flush in the box, flooring him and causing a three-minute delay for treatment. Durham, already out of quarter-final contention, chose to bat but lost Clark, slicing his drive for 14, and Ollie Robinson, who skied a swipe to the keeper, as Ball conceded only four in the fifth over.But in the later charge, Brydon Carse, batting at No.7, was dropped off Ball when twelve before surging to 25 from 17 balls when becoming Lyndon James’s maiden T20 scalp, whilst Ned Eckersley finished unbeaten with 23 from a dozen balls. Andrew Tye hit two sixes in his not-out 13.Even by the second over of the reply, however, with Liam Trevaskis taken for 19, the target seeemed less than daunting. The left-arm spinner had revenge of sorts when Alex Hales top-edged a sweep to go for 26 but the Outlaws had struck as many sixes in the reply’s first 47 balls as the Jets managed in their entire innings.Clarke, who had creamed 53 with Hales in 26 balls for the first wicket on a typically good Nottingham pitch with short boundaries inviting mayhem, then added another 55 in 35 balls with Duckett.Eventually miscueing against a leg-break from the Australian, Nathan Sowter, Clarke gave way to Mullaney, another victim of spin when soon stumped by Robinson off Trevaskis next over. James arrived to send his third and fifth balls for six off Carse and at the end of an over that cost 16, only 46 were needed from the final 42 balls.James fell smiting for 20 but, maintaining the tempo, Tom Moores hit his first four balls for boundaries until magnificently caught by Sowter who took the ball jumping on the boundary, threw it up before crossing the rope then grasped it again back on the field. Dramatic, indeed. But not enough, even though Sol Budinger fell stumped with three needed.

Shakib had hurt his left thigh during the first Test, which Bangladesh lost by three wickets

Mohammad Isam08-Feb-2021Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of the second Test against West Indies, beginning in Dhaka on February 11, because of the left-thigh injury that kept him away from large chunks of the action during the first Test in Chattogram. *Bangladesh have named Soumya Sarkar as his replacement.According to a BCB statement, the board’s medical team will continue to treat Shakib, who will, however, leave the team’s bio-security bubble for the time being. “After careful consideration it has been confirmed that he will not be available for the second Test,” it read.Related

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Shakib picked up the injury during the second day’s play in Chattogram, when he attempted to stop a ball off his own bowling with his foot. He continued to bowl for a while longer, but neither batted nor bowled after leaving the field later that afternoon. Bangladesh, who had a 171-run lead after the first-innings exchanges, eventually lost the Test by three wickets with debutant Kyle Mayers hitting a stunning 210* to take West Indies to victory. Shakib had scored 68 in nearly four hours’ batting in the first innings.Shakib had earlier suffered a groin niggle during the third ODI against West Indies, on January 25 in Chattogram. He had left the field on that occasion too, and joined the national team’s training a few days before the first Test, which began on February 3.Despite the injuries, Shakib’s return to international cricket following the one-year ICC ban has been a successful one. He was the Player of the Series in the ODIs, where he returned 4 for 8 in the first game and hit 43* and 51 in the next two games as Bangladesh won 3-0.No replacement has yet been announced by the Bangladesh selectors, who had earlier named an 18-man Test squad for the two matches.*This copy was updated on February 9 when the BCB announced Shakib Al Hasan’s replacement