Derbyshire stay on course for knock-out stages with five-wicket win

ECB Reporters Network30-Apr-2019An unbeaten 119 from Wayne Madsen steered Derbyshire to a five-wicket victory over Warwickshire to keep them on course for the knock-out stages of the Royal London One-Day Cup.Warwickshire had to win to have any chance of emerging from the North Group and half-centuries from Alex Thomson and Alex Mellor took them to a competitive 288 for 7 with Mark Watt taking 2 for 32.But Madsen was dominant and, although Thomson followed his unbeaten 68 with 3 for 57, Alex Hughes made 69 as Derbyshire won with 21 balls to spare to eliminate Warwickshire.Warwickshire had to win to stay in contention but they were struggling when they lost three wickets for 15 runs to slump to 113 for 5 in the 22nd over.Ed Pollock top-edged a return catch to Logan van Beek and Dominic Sibley edged the last ball of the first Powerplay before Luis Reece took the key wicket of Sam Hain.Hain had scored an unbeaten 161 in the previous game and looked set for another significant innings until he tried to cut Reece and was caught behind for 34 in the 17th over.With Watt’s accurate and disciplined spell accounting for Will Rhodes and Liam Banks, the innings stalled until Thomson struck the first boundary for 10 overs.He pulled Ravi Rampaul for a six and two fours in an over to give Warwickshire renewed momentum which increased when Mellor twice drove Critchley for six in an over which cost 19.Mellor top-edged a pull but Thomson and George Panayi added 58 before Henry Brookes drove van Beek for six in the last over to give Warwickshire a challenging total.Billy Godleman drove and cut Brookes for three consecutive fours but was bowled by Thomson for 40 and Reece was caught at slip when he cut the spinner onto the wicketkeeper’s thigh.Tom Lace miscued a pull at Jetan Patel’s first ball but Warwickshire’s bowling was too inconsistent to apply any sustained pressure and Madsen played with authority from the start.He drove Patel for two consecutive fours to reach 50 from 43 balls and, with Hughes, took the game away from Warwickshire.Hughes drove Thomson for six and repeated the shot in his next over before he drove Patel back over his head in the 33rd to take the target below a hundred.Patel was Warwickshire’s best hope but Madsen never allowed him to settle, driving him for six and the stand was worth 134 in 22 overs when Hughes was well caught at mid on off Thomson.Madsen completed his fifth List A 100 from 92 balls and sealed Derbyshire’s third victory with his fourth six in the 47th over.

Opener gives Bangladesh another injury concern ahead of opening World Cup fixture against South Africa

ESPNcricinfo staff31-May-2019Tamim Iqbal has given Bangladesh another injury concern ahead of Sunday’s opening World Cup fixture against South Africa at The Oval, after being struck a blow on the left wrist while batting in the nets.Tamim left the field immediately after the incident to be assessed by the Bangladesh team physio, and went for a precautionary X-ray. Although no fracture was detected*, the bruising and swelling could still make him a doubt to play.”It’s too early to say anything specific but we will have an X-ray and if there is a fracture, then he won’t be available,” selector Habibul Bashar said before the results were kn. “But if that is not the case, then we can hope he will be available for the opening game.”The loss of Tamim would be a grievous one for Bangladesh. The opener has been the bedrock of their batting since the 2007 World Cup, and has been in superb form in all formats in recent series, including a brace of half-centuries en route to their tri-series ODI win in Ireland earlier this month.What is more, his aggressive batting style is particularly suited to English conditions, where he averages 50.71 in seven ODIs (and 67.00 in Tests), including scores of 128 and 95 in his first two matches of the Champions Trophy in 2017.Bangladesh are also monitoring the fitness of Mohammad Saifuddin, who is recovering from a back problem, along with Mashrafe Mortaza (hamstring), Mustafizur Rahman (calf) and Mahmudullah (shoulder). Shakib Al Hasan suffered a back spasm recently but is expected to be back to full fitness.*1900 BST – This story was updated with X-ray results

Fast bowler calls for final to be available “to as many people as possible” as interest grows ahead of knock-outs

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jul-2019Liam Plunkett has taken to Twitter to clarify his comments about free-to-air access to the World Cup, after appearing to call for the final to be shown on terrestrial television if England make it through next week’s semi-final in Edgbaston.Plunkett’s recall for the past two matches against India and New Zealand helped England to overcome a wobble in the group stages, and seal their progression to the last four of the World Cup for the first time since 1992. They will face either India or Australia in the second semi-final on July 11, with the final at Lord’s following three days later on July 14.Speaking in the wake of England’s 119-run win over New Zealand at Chester-le-Street, Plunkett was asked by the BBC’s 5 Live Breakfast Show whether he would support calls for the final to be made available on free-to-air, given that the World Cup has been overshadowed in terms of viewing figures by the women’s football World Cup – England’s semi-final against the USA on Tuesday drew 11.7 million viewers, making it the BBC’s biggest television audience of the year. England’s World Cup cricket fixtures, by contrast, have drawn an average of 450,000.
“I’m not sure they’re going to do it, but it would great for everybody to be able to watch that,” Plunkett said. “Playing for England, you’re the pride of the country and you want people to be able to access that and watch that. I’m not sure it’s going to happen but for the guys, you want as many people to watch it as possible.”Although the ECB is understood to have held talks with Sky about the status of the World Cup final, it is now unlikely that the match will be made available beyond Sky’s own subscribers. There is a possibility that it will be shown on Sky One, which is estimated to reach half of the households in Britain, and one-off subscriptions may be also made available through Sky’s Now TV platform.”It’s always nice to be on a bigger platform,” Plunkett added. “Hopefully people tune in to watch that game. It would obviously be great to have as many people watching as possible, we feel like we’ve built something special here as a team. It would be nice to go all the way and to have big numbers watching that final if we get through and win, that would be huge.”A proportion of free-to-air cricket access is set to be reinstated from next year onwards, with the advent of the ECB’s new 100-ball competition, after Sky agreed to cede some of its exclusivity to the BBC as part of a new £1.1billion rights deal from 2020-2024.Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive who brokered the deal, recently described Sky as “cricket’s best friend” – the broadcaster has been involved in cricket since 1990 and has been the exclusive partner for home internationals since 2006 – and Plunkett later tweeted to clarify his remarks.”Sky Cricket are an incredible partner for the game and have been for the past 20+ years,” he wrote. “I was asked a question & I never said that it should be on FTA. My words have been twisted & the headline is misleading. The whole country is behind us. Keep believing.”

The fans wanted to indulge him on his 29th birthday. The New Zealand captain ended up indulging fans instead

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Aug-20190:56

Williamson cuts his birthday cake with fans

Just how wholesome can Kane Williamson get?He’s fielding in a ground in the northernmost reaches of Colombo, as New Zealand warm up for their Test series in Sri Lanka, which begins next week. His bowlers aren’t having a lot of luck on a surface that seems to have completely neutered quicks. It’s hot. It’s humid. It had rained earlier.These aren’t necessarily the ideal circumstances in which Williamson may have liked to spend his 29th birthday (a long day of batting might have been more to his liking). But his day, was, nevertheless enlivened by a smattering of fans that had come to watch the game, at Katunayake. Having learned that it was the visiting captain’s birthday, a group of spectators brought a cake to the periphery of the ground, and beckoned Williamson over.As soon as it was time for drinks which allowed a break in play, Williamson was seen happily trotting over to the fans, and to their joy, taking a bite out of the cake as a fan fed him, before the New Zealand captain took a piece of cake into his own hand and fed the man in return. Williamson gave high fives, posed for a video or two, and returned to the field as his teammates were getting ready to take their positions again.The recent World Cup won Williamson and New Zealand many admirers across the planet over the past few weeks. In Sri Lanka, though, New Zealand have long been a well-liked team. Their captain can only have won over more hearts on the island, as he indulged a few fans who had sought to indulge him.

Development follows a warning from the prime minister’s office of a possible attack on the team

Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Sep-2019Sri Lanka’s forthcoming tour of Pakistan has been thrown into doubt after Sri Lanka’s government is said to have received news of a “possible terrorist threat on the Sri Lanka team”.The team was scheduled to leave for the tour in less than two weeks, but the tour now hinges on a “reassessment of the security situation in Pakistan”. One security assessment – described as “meticulous” by an SLC official – had already been conducted, with the board formerly convinced that the tour was safe. But this new information about a specific threat on the team has sparked fresh fears.”Sri Lanka Cricket today sought the assistance of the Sri Lankan government to conduct a ‘reassessment’ of the security situation in Pakistan ahead of the national team’s planned tour to Pakistan,” a board release said.”The decision was taken following a warning SLC received from the Prime Minister’s office, sent via the Ministry of Telecommunication, Foreign Employment and Sports.”The warning highlights that the Prime Minister’s Office has received reliable information of a possible terrorist threat on the Sri Lankan team, while touring Pakistan.”The new information had been received on Tuesday evening by SLC, who had named their ODI at T20 squads for the tour late in the afternoon. With 10 frontline players already having refused to tour Pakistan, this new perceived threat may create apprehension among even the players who have agreed to travel.Cricket in Pakistan came to a halt in 2009, after the Sri Lanka team was attacked by gunmen on the way to the ground in Lahore.The first match of the tour was set to be played on September 27 in Karachi.

England suffered a middle-order collapse against the recalled Mitchell Marsh before a late counterattack helped save face

The Report by Andrew McGlashan12-Sep-2019This was a strange day of Test cricket. Tim Paine raised a few eyebrows by bowling and for the first half Australia’s performance suggested that the Old Trafford celebrations might have been a touch more exuberant than the two out of ten Justin Langer suggested. Yet they surged back into the ascendancy through a man playing his first match of the series as Mitchell Marsh bagged 4 for 35 with some brilliant swing bowling only to be stopped in their tracks when Jos Buttler flicked the one-day switch.So much fitted to type for England as they slid from 170 for 3 to 226 for 8 and it appeared they wouldn’t bat out the day. But all of a sudden, Buttler changed gear – perhaps deciding to live by the two-letter expletive on his bat handle – with a pair of straight sixes off Josh Hazlewood on the way to his first half-century of the series and alongside Jack Leach added an unbroken 45 for the ninth wicket. It made things look a little better for England, but in reality it was a rescue mission that shouldn’t have been needed.The top seven all reached double figures (before today a top five in the series hadn’t managed that) including Joe Root’s 57 as the captain again couldn’t convert into three figures despite being dropped three times between 24 and 30, extracted by another off-stump rip-snorter from Pat Cummins.However, the game really swung, in every sense, in the hands of Marsh who found significantly more movement than any of his team-mates. A short ball accounted for Ben Stokes, but it was full-length movement that removed Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes. Cramp stopped him one ball into his 16th over and though he returned the chance for a maiden five-for had to wait.There had also been movement – of the seam variety – with the new ball after Paine inserted England, citing a decent covering of grass and some cloud cover. Only Joe Denly succumbed, though, driving loosely at Cummins with Steven Smith taking a juggling catch at second slip. Root and Rory Burns moved along at a decent clip against bowling that lacked the consistency of much of the series.Playing a Test on his homeground for the first time, Burns, who was given lbw to Hazlewood on 4 before DRS overturned it, looked in excellent touch as he got off the mark with a well-timed square drive before adding an on-drive and cover drive to the tally before lunch. Root, too, started with a sparkle, making a concerted effort to get forward to Australia’s quicks rather than be caught on the crease, before the innings took on a very different character.On 24 he hooked Cummins and got a top edge to deep backward square where Siddle’s under-par morning got worse when he couldn’t hold on. In Cummins’ next over, Root aimed a back-foot drive at Cummins which produced a thick edge that Paine palmed away. Then, in the first over after lunch, Smith dropped a tough chance at second slip off Siddle. It was looking as though Root should play Friday’s EuroMillions which is worth £143million.Life now looked much harder for Root, although there was one moment of relief when he drove Hazlewood through the covers to take him to 7000 Test runs – the third youngest batsman to reach the milestone after Alastair Cook and Sachin Tendulkar – before a fortunate fifty came from 105 balls.By then he had already lost two team-mates to poor cross-batted strokes. Burns miscued to mid-on and Stokes, batting at an elevated No. 4, skewed a big top edge to point to give Marsh his first. Be like Stokes had been the message to Marsh, this wasn’t a bad start.For all that England had been solid for large parts of the first two sessions there was always the feeling of it being an innings on the edge. Either side of tea Australia really turned the screw and they earned their rewards swiftly at the start of the final session. Only one run, a leg bye, had been scored since the interval when Cummins shot one past Root’s outside edge for the second time in two innings.Then it was over to Marsh. He produced a wicked inswinger to trap Bairstow who had faced 21 consecutive dot balls and been set up beautifully by a series of outswingers. Curran edged a booming drive to slip to end a skittish stay which included a hooked six of Cummins and a reprieve when he was lbw only for Cummins to have over-stepped. Marsh’s fourth came from another swinging yorker which took Woakes on the back leg.When Jofra Archer edged Hazlewood, England had lost 5 for 56 and thoughts were turning to how many Smith might score but Buttler, who had kept his place ahead of Jason Roy when Stokes’ shoulder injury forced a reshuffle, produced a calculated counterattack. Two straight sixes gave Hazlewood neck-ache and he added a third with a pull over deep square leg before he unfurled a reverse sweep against Marnus Labuschagne.Such was the woeful over rate that just 82 overs were bowled in a six-and-a-half-hour day and by the time the second new ball was briefly taken there were weary Australian bodies, and perhaps minds. However, this is far from an overwhelming total (although Buttler may have power to add in the morning) and England will still need to find a way of stopping Smith.

India took apart South Africa’s spinners to finish with 27 sixes in the match, five more than any team has ever hit in a Test

The Report by Sidharth Monga05-Oct-20194:05

Agarkar: Rohit can better his own record for most sixes

In his second innings as opener, Rohit Sharma scored a century even better than in the first to set up a declaration for India with a day and 13 possible overs to go. In the nine overs before bad light brought a premature end to play on the fourth day, Ravindra Jadeja removed the first-innings centurion Dean Elgar.Rohit’s was another six-filled innings but on a worn-out surface with the ball beginning to rag. A strike rate of 85.23 on day four was truly exceptional, and just what India needed after South Africa had kept them in the field for far longer than they would have liked to.

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Rohit became only the second India opener to score twin tons in a Test, and now holds the record for most sixes in an international match in all three formats. Batsmen around him had a merry time as the South Africa spinners went into complete breakdown, undoing the work done by their batsmen on day three and the fast bowlers at the start of India’s innings.Only two bowlers in Test cricket – timeless ones included – have conceded more runs than Keshav Maharaj’s 318 in this game. He went for 129 in his 22 overs, and wasn’t even close to being the most unimpressive bowler on show. Dane Piedt’s inconsistency was taken apart: he was hit for nine sixes in his 17 overs, which went for 102 runs. Between them, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada went for just 62 in 25 overs, and it could be argued they bowled better than that.BCCI

It is hard to believe, but for a session and a third, it all seemed to be going to plan for South Africa. Starting the day 117 behind, they had a sticky last-wicket stand of 35 and also kept India’s scoring in check. It took India two hours and 27 minutes of play to get back to a lead of 117. Philander had bowled a spell of 4-3-2-0, Maharaj has taken a wicket, and Rabada kept asking questions. While Rohit had managed to hit three sixes, rotating the strike had been difficult and the scoring rate hovered around two.It was an interesting time in India’s innings. It might seem ridiculous after the later onslaught, but there was a brief period when India needed to make sure they didn’t collapse and allowed South Africa hopes of winning the Test. Pujara was cautious to begin with; when he began to look for runs, he found that the pitch was not easy right now to manipulate gaps. He kept skipping down the pitch, but he kept finding fielders on the leg side. An outside edge off Piedt went down, but so big was the deflection that to call it a chance would be cruel on Quinton de Kock.Two overs before a drinks break, gloves came out for Pujara. Rohit berated him for lack of urgency in running. You could feel there was pressure building on Pujara. He still kept finding the fielders. You wondered if he would finally try to loft the ball. He skipped down to Piedt again, was beaten in the air – a rare occurrence – and then managed to get a thin inside edge to beat de Kock and get four runs. After that, as if magically, the ball began to find gaps.Pujara was 8 off 62 before this, and India 64 for 1 in the 28th over. The flood gates opened so dramatically that he had hit four fours in seven balls. All along the ground. In the extended middle session, he went past Rohit’s score and also his boundary count. The only time he hit in the air, though, was when spinners bowled long hops, and he put them both several rows back in the stands.Rohit Sharma made his opening debut with centuries in both innings•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Rohit’s six-hitting at the other end was something else. Except for one, his 10th of the match that landed in long-on’s hands but Senuram Muthusamy’s foot just flicked the rope before he did the release-and-step-out trick, all of Rohit’s sixes were regal languid hits. It was contagious with Jadeja hitting three in 32 balls, and Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane landing one each of their own. India hit 27 sixes in the match, five more than any team has ever hit in a Test; the overall tally of 34 sin the match was one short of the record.Pujara once again got a beauty from Philander to be dismissed lbw by a straight ball that seamed away, but by then he and Rohit had put India on the path to domination again. The torment, though, was to continue. India promoted Jadeja possibly to get a right-left combination going, but he didn’t have to worry about picking up the scoring rare because Rohit gave already high rate a boost by hitting Piedt for three consecutive sixes.By the time Rohit missed once, South Africa had been beaten into submission and they chased after him to congratulate on his superb effort: more runs and more centuries in a match than anyone opening for the first time.After some more fun – it was arguable India enjoyed themselves for a bit too long keeping in mind there could be some rain on the final day – Kohli asked South Africa to enter the cauldron again. India were not allowed to use fast bowlers because of the light, but it wasn’t a blow to them. Spinners would have done the bulk of the bowling anyway. Before stumps, Jadeja trapped Elgar in front, but before that he had to convince his captain to go for a review.Having worked hard with the bat on day three, having batted out 131.2 overs, South Africa’s batsmen will be filthy with their spinners for having put them in such a situation yet again.

Offences related to corruption in sports will carry a prison term of up to 10 years, as well as various fines

Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Nov-2019Sri Lanka has become the first South Asian nation to criminalise several offences related to match-fixing, after its parliament passed all three readings of a bill entitled “Prevention of Offences Related to Sports” on Monday. Offences related to corruption in sports will carry a prison term of up to 10 years, as well as various fines.Aside from Sports Minister Harin Fernando, who presented the bill to parliament, former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga, who is a cabinet minister, was a strong supporter of the new legislation during Monday’s parliamentary debates. The sports ministry in particular is understood to have worked closely with the ICC’s Anti Corruption Unit during the process of drafting the bill. In fact, although the bill covers all sports, it is the recent ACU investigation into Sri Lankan cricket that is believed to have prompted this legislation.The bill’s ambit is broad. It seeks not only to punish “any person related to a sport” who is directly involved in fixing, but also those who “provide… inside information”, curators who prepare playing surfaces to suit betting operators, and match officials who “deliberately misapply the rules” for money. In addition, it is now also illegal for former players (and others involved in sports) to provide corrupt figures access to current players.Just as significantly, the bill also criminalises “acts of omission”, which includes failure to report corrupt approaches. This means that Sri Lankan cricketers who are approached by potential corruptors may now have to report these approaches not only to the ICC’s ACU under the ICC code, but also to a Special Investigation Unit appointed by Sri Lanka’s government.Although parliament passed this legislation during Monday’s special sitting, it is not law until the Act is gazetted, probably in the course of the next 10 days. A parliament spokesperson said the gazetting is expected to be a mere formality.While Ranatunga was a leading figure during the debate, urging parliament to push an unamended bill through as soon as possible, former SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala proposed amendments to the bill that were ultimately defeated on the floor. Sumathipala was at pains to mention, however, that he was not against the passing of the bill as a whole, only the contents of certain clauses.Sri Lanka’s cricket has been under investigation by the ICC’s ACU since 2017. Several former players have been charged under the ICC code, the most notable of whom is Sanath Jayasuriya, who was banned for two years in February this year.

India captain talks up side’s bench strength and chances of winning elusive ICC title

Deivarayan Muthu in Guwahati04-Jan-2020India’s captain Virat Kohli has said that having a strong pool of “game-ready” players has set the scene for their T20 World Cup campaign in Australia later this year.India will be without seamers Deepak Chahar (injured), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (injured) and Mohammed Shami (rested) for their upcoming three-match T20I series at home against Sri Lanka, but they have able back-up options in Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur. In addition, their premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is set to return to international action for the first time September 2019.On the batting front, they will be without the rested Rohit Sharma, but they still look in fine shape, with Shikhar Dhawan returning from injury to partner the in-form KL Rahul at the top of the order.”T20 is something we don’t have any problems in picking players,” Kohli said of India’s bench strength on the eve of the series opener in Guwahati. “Because you have the IPL. At a very competitive level, the guys have been performing season after season.”And all the players you see are probably the most important Indian players in their team in the IPL. So, from that point of view, it’s about figuring out which player can fit in at what time and what’s the strongest combination you can take to the World Cup.”And everyone’s game-ready, which is the most important thing and the biggest plus of having a squad like this with guys who have played a lot of T20 cricket, as I said, at a very competitive level.BCCI

“So, yeah the next few series will be very exciting to see [as to] who stands up under pressure situations and how they react to pressure when maybe Rohit or maybe myself, or KL or Shikhar at the top haven’t fired.”In Dhawan’s absence, Rahul had enjoyed a longer stint at the top during the limited-overs series against West Indies and embodied India’s new, attack-at-all costs approach in T20Is. Now, with Rohit rested, Dhawan will have an opportunity to regain his touch after recovering from injury.Dhawan didn’t quite have the weight of T20I runs behind him in 2019, and suffered two major injuries that year. However, he was the top scorer in T20Is in 2018, with 689 runs in 17 innings at an average of 40.52 and strike rate of 147.22.Kohli discussed the possible toss-up between Rahul and Dhawan for the second opener’s slot while keeping all the cards close to his chest.”Rahul has done really well for himself and it’s good for the team as well that he’s coming into his own,” Kohli said. “We know how good a player he is and what he can do with the bat. We are happy that he’s got runs so consistently.”Look, these things happen in cricket that some guy gets injured and another guy comes in and grabs that opportunity. I think it all boils down to who is batting [well] at that moment.  You want to go into a tournament with the strongest XI you can compile. Shikhar has been unfortunate in terms of injury but he’s an experienced player. That’s the dynamic of the squad.”When Rohit comes back, it’s going to be a difficult thing to address because Shikhar is an experienced player but KL is playing so well. We have to decide the best combination to go with and what’s the best eleven we can go with.”Kohli was also particularly enthused with the progress made by both Saini and Thakur – both of whom were not part of India’s T20I squad for the West Indies series. Saini has cracked T20 cricket after bowling lengthy spells in the Ranji Trophy while Thakur has been drafted back on his back of his impressive performances in the IPL and more recently in the ODI series decider against West Indies in Cuttack.BCCI

Kohli believed that having all bases covered on the bowling front will benefit India on the larger grounds in Australia during the T20 World Cup.”Saini is a different case because he has come from the domestic set-up into the IPL and into the Indian team,” Kohli said. “So, he has bowled quite a bit and has good understanding of lines and lengths and he’s obviously got pace. Thakur, again, has played a lot of T20 cricket and has been playing the IPL for a while. And, he’s quite experienced in that regard.”Bhuvi, Bumrah, we really don’t have to discuss [about them]. Shami is again someone who will always stay in the mix. And Deepak Chahar has bowled really well for the number of games he has played.”Because the tournament is in Australia, you will need these many options and back-ups to be able to take firstly your strongest squad and have those back-ups in place who also can come in and do the job.”It’s good that we’ve identified five or six guys and it will be priority based on who goes and back-ups will be in place for fast bowlers. Small niggles can happen now and then, so we’re pretty sorted in that regard. So, not a worry at all.”India finished 2019 unbeaten in Tests, shed their conservative approach in T20Is, and were also on a roll in ODIs until New Zealand stopped them in their tracks in the 50-over World Cup semi-final. Another World Cup year has dawned, and Kohli set India’s focus towards the ICC tournament, challenging them to build on the gains from the past year.”We want to keep the standard as high as we can because it’s very important to understand that there’s a young influence that’s coming into the team now,” he said. And they need to be able to take the same culture and same mindset forward. Little transitions keep happening and we want to make sure that the guys who are coming in are on the same page and get up to speed as soon as possible.”We need to keep growing these younger guys into guys who will take the team forward. I think the main focus is on that and the ICC tournaments that are coming along, that’s something we are going to target.”

South Africa’s assistant coach backs Temba Bavuma to return stronger after being dropped

Firdose Moonda in Port Elizabeth14-Jan-2020Temba Bavuma is not among the 12 South Africa players who have assembled in Port Elizabeth to prepare for the third Test against England, but he remains close to the conversation. So close, that assistant coach Enoch Nkwe has indicated that if Bavuma finds form, he could be candidate for the national captaincy in future.That may seem like a long way away for a player with 39 Tests to his name and only one century, scored more than four years ago, who averaged 19.84 in 2019 and has scored 9 and 17 in his last two domestic first-class innings but Bavuma is no ordinary player. He is South Africa’s only only black African Test batsman and has accepted the pressures of being a flagbearer and leader for millions.Bavuma has chosen not to engage in the debate at the moment, posting on social media that his silence is “full of answers”. Instead it was Nkwe, himself a black African batsman, who spoke extensively on the expectations and challenges Bavuma faces and the reasons why the South African administration believes he will be back in a big way.Are you comfortable with where South Africa is in terms of transformation targets and how things are progressing? “There’s been a different approach, but that will come over time. We’re keeping very close with Temba Bavuma, for example. I strongly believe he’s a good player, and he’s in the process of making sure that — from a mental, emotional and skills point of view — when he gets an opportunity to come back, whether it’s in the next Test match or in a different format, he takes ownership of his position and does 10 times more than what he has done. We’re confident and believe in him. [Mark] Boucher is the same, and the rest of the team. All I’m going to ask is that we are more patient. We’re trying to put a few things in place so that we can shape things in the right direction.”Do you think the weight expectation on Temba, being the first black African Test batsman in South Africa, has been detrimental to him?“Knowing Temba, no. There is always going to be pressure in this environment but if you look at it, he has been unlucky. Let’s be honest. There’s been times where he got 95 not out and he was probably one big hit to get over the line and he was unfortunate. There’s been times where he got 70, 80. But also sometimes people tend to forget that the situations he has come in for South Africa have been challenging and he has been able to take the team from that position and put them in a much healthier position. Sometimes he gets out for 60, sometimes he gets out for 50 and if you look at the batting positions over the last couple of years – Nos. 4, 5 and 6 – he has been able to make those massive contributions. They might look small in terms of numbers but his contribution has been very powerful for the team and put them in a winning position. He has had good partnerships with Quinny [Quinton de Kock] and obviously Quinny has been more explosive. If maybe a bit of luck had gone his way, he would have got two or three more hundreds but those things we’ve put behind us.”I know that having spoken to him recently, he is someone that actually looks forward to getting an opportunity. He is going to do everything in his power to make sure that when the next opportunity comes he is ready for it. He wants to be in this environment and hopefully in the future he performs well enough and he can lead the team because I know having worked with him, he is a strong leader, very smart and he is able to lead a massive group to greater heights.”Do you see him as a future captain? “In my mind, yes. I can see that happening. But he does understand that he needs to put in some performances. The future could be in a year’s time, it could be in two years’ time, we don’t know. Having worked with him in the last year-and-a-half, he has got the qualities, there’s no question around that. I wouldn’t be surprised if, after Faf, he takes over. That will be great for South African cricket.”Was it the right decision to send Temba back to franchise cricket? “From a coach’s hat and a high-performance point of view, it’s not healthy just to sit around and not play. If you are not playing, you really need to go and find some game time and fortunately, we have some franchise cricket taking place at the moment and we saw that opportunity for him to go there and stay in the game. Some of the challenges we have when we go on tours, is we have a 15-man squad and only 11 can play and the challenge of those individuals to try and get some game time is massive. It’s not only him; it’s a couple of other guys we have released as well.”