The side will instead demonstrate their commitment to the eradication of gender-based violence

Annesha Ghosh17-Jan-2021The South Africa women’s team is unlikely to take a knee or do anything else in terms of a gesture in support of the global movement against racial intolerance when they take on Pakistan for six limited-overs matches in Durban from Wednesday. They will, however, be expressing their protest against gender-based violence.When asked if there have been discussions within the team about showing solidarity towards the fight against racial injustice in the upcoming home series, their first international assignment since March last year, senior batter and former captain Mignon du Preez instead focused on what the team is planning to do.”Something that we’re definitely going to talk about in this series is gender-based violence. I think that’s also something that’s close to our hearts and is a big issue in South Africa,” du Preez told ESPNcricinfo. “We, actually, will have a ‘Black Day’, where we will be playing in black, standing together.Related

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“For us that’s going to be the focus this time around. There’s been a lot of talk around other racial issues, and we know it’s a big issue around the globe. But, for us, this is one that really touches home, and we’re going to focus on that during this series.”In the WBBL in October-November, where eight South Africans, including du Preez, made up the largest single-nation overseas contingent and were spread across seven of the eight squads, all teams performed the Indigenous Barefoot Circle ceremony to “reaffirm their commitment to reconciliation and taking a stand against racism”. Several teams even took a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.As far as international cricket goes, the South Africa men’s team had made a belated decision to adopt the “raised fist” gesture ahead of the start of their two-Test series against Sri Lanka on December 26, in protest against racial injustice. On December 21, the interim CSA board chairman Judge Zak Yacoob wrote to director of cricket Graeme Smith and men’s national head coach Mark Boucher noting individuals’ right to freedom of expression, but stating that he felt South Africans should show “the world that all of us are together in opposing racism at every turn”.This came as a reaction to the team not taking a knee – or making any other gesture – on its return to international cricket, against England on November 27, the first time they played together since March. They did, however, wear black armbands to mourn the lives lost in the Covid-19 pandemic.When South Africa staged its first live cricket match following the resumption of the sport after the pandemic-induced break – the 3TC on July 18 – the country’s elite male cricketers showed a united face against racism by taking a knee at Centurion’s SuperSport Park.As for the campaign against gender-based violence, originally launched in February last year, Cricket South Africa had at the time said in a statement that the “focus point” of the drive would be South Africa’s ODI match at Kingsmead against Australia that was scheduled for March 22. However, the Covid-19 pandemic-enforced cancellation of the tour put paid to those plans.

Australian captain Finch has already confirmed Philippe will make his T20I debut against New Zealand

Alex Malcolm12-Feb-2021The rise and rise of Josh Philippe is set to continue as he prepares to make his T20I debut for Australia against New Zealand in Christchurch.The Sydney Sixers star is hoping to take the invaluable lessons he learned playing alongside AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL into the international arena.Australia captain Aaron Finch confirmed on Monday that Philippe would make his international debut in game one on February 22 barring any unforeseen injury. Finch also confirmed Philippe would bat somewhere in the top three, along with Finch and Matthew Wade, after a brief conversation with him on the plane.Related

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“It was nice to hear him say those words,” Philippe said. “He sort of mentioned it on the plane but then to say it to the media obviously is pretty special as well so I’ve just got to train well and try not to get injured.”Philippe is in the form of his life having just been named player of the tournament in the recent BBL season where his Sixers claimed a second consecutive title.But it is the lessons he learned in the IPL from de Villiers and Kohli that he will hope to use in his first foray into international cricket.”I think it was just being in the same dressing room as some absolute superstars like that was really special,” Philippe said. “I sort of leant on AB a lot. He gave me some great advice along the way. It was just really cool to see how they go about their business out in the middle. There was some really challenging situations out there and they keep it so simple. Every time I asked a question or asked what they were thinking it just went back down to stand still, watch the ball, some really simple clear messages. It was pretty cool to know that the best in the business just keep in simple.”While Philippe is inked in to bat in the top three at the start of the five-match series there is a chance he may be utilised in the middle order. Stand-in coach Andrew McDonald revealed that Australia is hoping to use these matches a chance to find some of the missing middle-order pieces for Australia’s T20 World Cup tilt when David Warner and Steve Smith are likely to return to the top four.Philippe has made his name as an opener in the BBL but he began his career batting at No.6 for the Sixers. He had some success averaging 27.40 at an exceptional strike-rate of 152.22 in 10 career innings at that position.If Australia do experiment with Philippe in the middle order he will again use de Villiers as the blueprint for how to play that role.”It certainly takes a little bit of a different skill set,” Philippe said. “Having the opportunity to open gives you the freedom obviously to bat the full 20 overs. When you go through little periods of a few dot balls or not quite scoring rapidly you can always catch up. One thing I noticed, especially with someone like AB is just his ability to get off strike early. He never blew the game away too early. He was always sort of 10 off 8 or 12 off 10 and he’d set a platform from there and really target the back end. I think for me if that’s where my opportunity is I just need to be really busy at the crease. Whoever is at the other end, just sort of pass the strike off to them and really set up to target the last few overs.”The Australian squad exited the strict isolation portion of their 14-day quarantine on Thursday and were able to have a full nets session on Friday but they will train while remaining in quarantine the next week. Philippe plans to use the time to prepare for New Zealand’s bowlers who he has never faced before.”I haven’t seen any of the (Super Smash),” Philippe said. “I’ve seen most of those guys play on TV for New Zealand before. It’s super exciting to be in the mix to play against an international line up.”I’m going to have to start doing my research soon on their bowlers and their variations and work out from there my plan of attack against them.”

At 23, Pant will become the fifth-youngest captain in the IPL

Nagraj Gollapudi30-Mar-2021Rishabh Pant has been appointed the Delhi Capitals captain for the 2021 IPL. The development comes in the wake of the Capitals’ regular captain Shreyas Iyer being ruled of the season after he dislocated his left shoulder during the ODI series against England. This is the first captaincy assignment for Pant in the IPL, who was bought by the Capitals before the 2016 IPL and then became the first player to be retained ahead of the 2018 mega auction.At 23, Pant will become the fifth-youngest captain in the IPL after Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, Suresh Raina and Iyer. While Kohli and Smith assumed leadership at 22, Raina and Iyer were 23 too but younger in terms of days than Pant.Despite his inexperience, Pant was one of the frontrunners in the captaincy race to replace Iyer along with the senior Indian pair of R Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane, who had long leadership stints at Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals, respectively. Pant had only led Delhi in domestic cricket, but he has been in phenomenal form as a match-winner for India recently, starting with the historic Test series win in Australia followed by the series win across the three formats against England at home.Related

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Pant was “humbled” to take on the captaincy, which, he admitted, was a “dream” from the time he started playing for the Capitals.”Delhi is where I grew up, and where my IPL journey began six years ago,” Pant said in a Capitals media release. “To lead this team one day is a dream I’ve always harboured. And today, as that dream comes true, I feel humbled.”Iyer, who is awaiting surgery on his hand, said Pant was the “best man” to take charge at the Capitals in his absence. “I had no doubt that Rishabh would be the best man for the job,” Iyer said in the media release.The decision to appoint Pant was taken collectively by the franchise co-owners Kiran Kumar Grandhi and Parth Jindal along with the Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting.In the 2016 auction, the Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils) bought Pant for INR 1.9 crore and in 2018, he got INR 15 crore (USD 2 million approx). In 2022, the IPL will host a mega auction where teams will overhaul squads while being able to retain a few players. Pant will once again be expected to be the first retention on the Capitals’ auction sheet. Along with Iyer, he is expected to be among the core group of players.The development marks a turnaround of sorts for Pant since the 2020 IPL. Pant had entered last IPL, which was played in the UAE, on the back of some strong words from the Indian team management, with his shot selection coming under the scanner.Although the Capitals reached the IPL final last season, Pant’s batting remained under par by his standards. Overall, he made 342 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of just 114 and an average of 31, with just one half-century. The Indian selectors wanted Pant to work on his fitness and did not include him in the squads for India’s limited-overs segments on the Australia tour. Despite the snub, Pant ended the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as India’s best batsman, including setting up the historic win on the final day of the Brisbane Test, where several of India’s frontline players were absent.Pant then dominated England both in the Test series as well as the white-ball segments, with some adventurous and dominant strokeplay including the memorable reverse scoop against James Anderson in the Test series against England.Ponting said Pant now had a “tremendous opportunity” to bring that form in the IPL. “The previous two seasons under Shreyas’ leadership have been incredible, and the results speak for themselves,” Ponting said in the media release. “This is a tremendous opportunity for young Rishabh, who is coming off successful stints against Australia and England which will no doubt give him the confidence needed to take on a new role that comes with a lot more responsibility.”According to Jindal, Pant with his brand of cricket “embodied” the ethos of the Capitals. “Delhi Capitals as a team plays a passionate and fearless brand of cricket, and Rishabh Pant embodies that best. The Delhi team has played an important role in his growth as a cricketer, just like he has played an equally important role in the growth of the Delhi team.”

“I haven’t even looked that far,” Morris said when asked about playing for South Africa in the future

Deivarayan Muthu30-Mar-20212:31

Chris Morris – ‘Stokes and I could be an interesting duo to come up against’

Chris Morris had played all of one international – a T20I against New Zealand in Durban – when he earned his maiden IPL deal in 2013, with the Chennai Super Kings shelling out US$ 625,000 for him. Eight years later, Morris’ South Africa future is uncertain, but he continues to be a sought-after player in the IPL.In the most recent auction, he became the most expensive player ever in the IPL, with the Rajasthan Royals outbidding the Royal Challengers Bangalore to sign him for INR 16.25 crore (USD 2.2 million approx.).Morris recalled the fierce bidding war for him at the auction earlier in February, saying his “breath was taken away”.Related

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“Look, I’ll be the first person to say that my breath was taken away,” Morris said during a virtual-media interaction on Tuesday. “I didn’t expect to first of all be bought for that much and second of all for so many teams to want to employ my services. It’s definitely a humbling feeling…and like I said it took my breath away for that to happen and for teams to keep going for me like that blew my mind.”Between the end of IPL 2020, when Morris was injured, and the IPL 2021 auction, Morris hadn’t played a single competitive game, but the Royals still broke the bank for his big hitting and death bowling. Those dual skills have made him a T20 globetrotter – he has had stints in the BBL, IPL, and T20 Blast in England. This will be Morris’ eighth IPL season and he will return to the Royals, a franchise he represented in 2015, when they made the playoffs. Morris, now 33, said that initially he didn’t see himself playing as many seasons in the league.”I never in my wildest dreams thought I’ll be in my ninth IPL or eighth – math has never been my strong suit – but I never thought I’ll be playing this many IPLs,” he said. “For me to still be needed for my services and be valued is very cool and humbled. We need to put the performances in; it’s as simple as that. When you do contribute to the team and have a bit of fun…amazing things happen when you have fun on the cricket field.”Morris also looked back at the IPL as a “life-changing” event, cherishing the experience of playing with and against top international players in the world.”You want to use the word life-changing, but every single time you come to the IPL, your life changes whether it’s personal or cricket or anything else,” he said. “It’s a life-changing experience to be part of the IPL. It’s been an absolute blast of a journey so far and hopefully there’s a new story to be written over the next nine weeks.”Morris, though, refused to view the IPL as a dry run for the 2021 T20 World Cup, which will also be held in India, insisting that his focus is entirely on performing for the Royals.”Whether there’s a World Cup or not, it’s going to be a very important [IPL] season all the way,” he said. “Like I said, World Cup or no World Cup, [I] still want to win the IPL doesn’t matter what’s coming up after. Your main focus is to win the IPL – the second-biggest trophy, if not the biggest trophy to win in a year without the World Cup. It’s the biggest trophy to win as a cricketer playing domestic cricket. The whole world is watching you, the eyes are on you. It’s the one. It’s the big one to win as a player especially when you’re playing in it for a quite a number of years. You don’t want to use the word tick the box, but definitely something you want to do to have an opportunity to win the IPL.”Other guys will hopefully be focusing on the World Cup and that takes their focus away from the IPL and we can jump onto that. Personally, I’m not worried about the World Cup, I’m here to do the job to win matches and hopefully push for winning the trophy in the IPL.”Earlier this year, when asked about his South Africa future, Morris didn’t provide a firm answer. This time as well, he maintained his stance on the matter, having last played international cricket in the 2019 50-over World Cup.”I haven’t even looked that far,” Morris said. “I’ve just focused on playing for Rajasthan Royals – that’s my immediate focus and port of call right now. We will cross that bridge if we get there – if it ever arrives – but no focus on that and all my focus is here.”Playing for the Royals will invite price-tag pressure – and there will be greater pressure if the injured Jofra Archer is sidelined from the entire tournament – but Morris wasn’t too fussed about it, having dealt with it in the past.”It’s natural to have a little bit of added pressure when something like that has happened [at the auction],” he said. I would be lying if I said there wasn’t any pressure. But, fortunately enough, in the past I have come in [to the tournament] with quite a big price tag on my head, so at the end of the day, you got to perform on the field, no matter what your price tag is. So, there is a little bit of added pressure, but the pressure that you get from a price tag doesn’t affect you on a cricket field at the end of the day.”Morris disagrees with Steyn about too much money talk in IPL
During his PSL stint with the Quetta Gladiators, Dale Steyn, speaking to , reckoned that the IPL was less rewarding than some of the other T20 leagues, with more “emphasis on the amount of money”. Morris, however, disagreed with his former team-mate at South Africa and the Royal Challengers.”No, I don’t feel the same (laughs). Dale’s a free spirit, Dale’s one of the legends of the game, Dale’s one of my favourite people in the world,” Morris said. “Dale’s got his opinions, he will be outspoken about his opinions, but that’s Dale’s character.”I’m not going to delve into it too much and it was just the case of Dale feeling at that time what Dale was feeling – what he was feeling emotionally or physically or mentally. Whatever he feels that’s what he feels, and I’m happy to have a conversation with him about it. But, we’re all different animals, we’re all different people and we have different opinions and that’s what makes the world go around.”

Coach backs legspinner Hasaranga to give Bangladesh tough time in fourth innings

Andrew Fidel Fernando24-Apr-2021Sri Lanka are still 29 runs behind Bangladesh’s first-innings total, but they think – or rather they hope – that they can still win the first Test, with one day left to play.The Pallekele surface continued to be abominably flat through large parts of day four, which Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva batted out without losing a wicket. The hosts have seven wickets in hand, though, so will likely aim to quickly establish a lead on the fifth morning before trying to skittle the opposition out.”We’re certainly thinking about winning,” said head coach Mickey Arthur after stumps on day four. “That’s how we want to play our cricket. That’s such an important culture to inculcate in a dressing room. We’re not here to make up the numbers.”I said to the guys in the West Indies [during their previous Test series] that, first of all, we want to be a team that’s hard to beat before we become a winning team, because that’s kind of the cycle. I think we are a team that’s hard to beat. We played some hard-nosed cricket in the West Indies on some very flat surfaces. We’ll show some intent tomorrow and who knows where the day goes? It is very flat, but pressure’s a funny thing. If we get ourselves enough in front and leave ourselves enough overs, who knows what could happen?”Related

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• Lahiru Kumara ruled out of Bangladesh Tests due to hamstring injury

Sri Lanka’s attack is short-staffed for their second-innings victory push, though. Seamer Lahiru Kumara has picked up a hamstring strain and is out of the series. And they have played only one specialist spinner in legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga. Playing only his fifth Test, Hasaranga has so far seemed much more suited to limited-overs bowling, than a serious wicket-taker in red-ball cricket.”There will be a burst from the fast bowlers with the new ball, but if we’re going to get close tomorrow, it’s going to be Wanindu Hasaranga that’s going to get us close,” Arthur said. “I don’t want to put too much pressure, I just think he’s such a fantastic player.”Arthur did concede, though, that Sri Lanka’s plan to defeat Bangladesh on a green, seaming surface had perhaps been ill-conceived, as those kinds of surfaces are rarely seen on the island. Sri Lanka had expected much more help for the quicks on the first two days than has been evident from this pitch.”Maybe it was a little bit naive of me in terms of strategy – this is my first Test in Pallekele – in understanding the surface. We wanted to beat Bangladesh with a bit of pace and bounce, but it’s just been extremely flat. We’re going to have to reassess that. We’re going to have to look at how we go for that second Test. We’ll have a discussion about that Test tomorrow, we’ll let this Test happen first.”

Thirty-eight Sri Lanka players have signed a statement refusing to sign the tour contracts offered by SLC

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Jun-2021Sri Lanka’s tour of England has been cast into serious jeopardy after the players expected to be selected refused to sign the tour contracts offered by Sri Lanka Cricket.This is as part of the men’s cricketers’ larger resistance to SLC’s new annual contracts scheme, which they believe lacks transparency and does not adequately compensate senior players. Although players have not been centrally contracted since last October when the previous round of contracts expired, series since then have been played under a succession of temporary tour contracts. But the players have now dug their heels in and are headed for a serious confrontation with SLC over the next 72 hours. The team is due to leave for England at 12.05am on Wednesday (June 9).Thirty-eight players have signed a statement refusing to sign the tour contracts – an increase from the 24 players who had previously made their resistance to the new scheme official. Primarily, the players’ contention is that the workings of the grading system devised by SLC to assign contracts of varying value to players have not been sufficiently made clear to them.”Because of the problems with the transparency of the ratings system devised by SLC, the players will not sign the [tour contract],” the release signed by 38 top players said.Their lawyer, Nishan Premathiratne, told ESPNcricinfo that in addition to refusing the tour contracts on principle, there was also a legal objection to these contracts.”The tour contract also refers to matters of the annual [main] contract for 2021, which is yet unsigned,” he said. “In the event, the annual contract is not settled and a dispute is pending, the validity of the tour contract referring to an unsigned contract is also an issue.”Related

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In addition to taking issue with transparency, the players have also stated they would prefer the only criteria for drawing up contracts lists should be player performance and fitness. SLC’s new scheme, however, also takes into account leadership, professionalism and future performance/adaptability.And while the annual contracts were offered to 24 players – a reduction from the 30 who were offered central contracts in the last round – players are also now suggesting that some compensation be given to a wider group of players. As 14 further players have joined the original 24 in resisting the new contracts scheme, this new request follows.”In addition, the players have decided they will not sign the contracts until players who have performed well in past years are looked after fairly,” the statement said.The new contracts scheme had been drawn up primarily by the technical committee headed by Aravinda de Silva and SLC’s new director of cricket Tom Moody. There will now need to be serious negotiations over the next few days if Sri Lanka are to fulfil their tour obligations.Players who have refused to sign the tour contract: Kusal Perera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Dananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, Suranga Lakmal, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lasith Embuldeniya, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dushmantha Chameera, Kasun Rajitha, Lakshan Sandakan, Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana, Oshada Fernando, Ramesh Mendis, Lahiru Kumara, Danushka Gunathilaka, Ashen Bandara, Akila Dananjaya, Chamika Karunaratne, Asitha Fernando, Binura Fernando, Shiran Fernando, Avishka Fernando, Ishan Jayaratne, Charith Asalanka, Dananjaya Lakshan, Nuwan Pradeep, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamil Mishara, Praveen Jayawickrama, Roshen Silva, Minod Bhanuka

Leicestershire bowled out for 171 as hosts win second Championship match of season

ECB Reporters Network14-Jul-2021Middlesex 324 (Robson 154, Davis 5-66) and 196 (Eskinazi 66*, Parkinson 4-35) beat Leicestershire 228 (Ackermann 82, Inglis 49) and 171 (Inglis 52, Harris 46, Murtagh 4-36) by 121 runs Acting captain Tim Murtagh led the charge for wickets as Middlesex claimed just a second LV= Insurance County Championship win of the season against Leicestershire at Merchant Taylors’ School.The old warhorse took 4 for 36 before limping away from the action just prior to the 121-run win being secured, Leicestershire coming up well short in their pursuit of 293, despite 52 from British-born Australian Josh Inglis.James Harris weighed in with 3 for 50 in the success, this after Stevie Eskinazi made 66 in the hosts’ second innings of 196, Callum Parkinson taking 4 for 35.Both sides will play in Division Three when the Championship resumes on August Bank Holiday Monday.Middlesex’s second innings folded quickly on the final morning thanks to three wickets in as many overs for Parkinson.Nathan Sowter spooned the third ball of the day into the hands of mid-on before the slow left-armer struck twice in three balls to remove Ethan Bamber and Murtagh.Leicestershire’s chase got off to a terrible start when Murtagh bowled Sam Evans for 0, but Marcus Harris, who’d made 185 against the hosts during a successful run chase in the reverse fixture in May, hit five boundaries to send the visitors into lunch 63 for 1.Middlesex though wrestled back control after the resumption. Harris got one to lift from a length, take the shoulder of Lewis Hill’s bat and balloon to Josh De Caires at gully, while Sowter got the prize wicket of Harris for 46 with a peach of a leg-spinner which bowled him through the gate.Skipper Colin Ackermann also didn’t last long, Murtagh finding the edge of the Foxes’ skipper’s bat to give Robbie White a simple catch.Dangers still lurked in the shape of Inglis and in-form wicketkeeper/batsman Harry Swindells. but the latter drove loosely at Bamber and was snaffled by Joe Cracknell at first slip.Inglis though, dropped by Sam Robson at slip on 33, fought hard to reach a first Championship 50 in 79 balls with his seventh four, but Murtagh returned to end his resistance with an out-swinger edged to a diving White, and Parkinson followed next ball bowled by an in-swinger which plucked out middle stump.Ed Barnes prevented the hat-trick and Murtagh limped off soon afterwards with what appeared to be a calf problem, but Harris picked up the baton as Middlesex mopped up the tail.

Starc moves up as many as 10 places to reach eighth among ODI bowlers

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-2021Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga has leapfrogged Afghanistan’s new T20I captain Rashid Khan to be ranked career-best No. 2 among T20I bowlers. The ICC rankings list is led by South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi, who has a 72-point advantage following impressive returns on the tour of the Caribbean and Ireland earlier this month.As many as six wristspinners feature in the top 10 – the others being Adil Rashid (fourth), Adam Zampa (seventh) and Ish Sodhi (ninth). Hasaranga will have an opportunity to establish a lead over Khan, who is just one point behind, during the second and third T20Is against India this week. The 23-year-old legspinner picked 2 for 28 during the series opener in Colombo on Sunday.Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s vice-captain on tour, jumped four places to be ranked 16th, while Yuzvendra Chahal, whose tight spell reined in Sri Lanka in the first T20I, jumped 10 places to be ranked 21st. Fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera also moved up five places to 37th spot.

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The other gainers include India’s stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan, who is joint-29th with Reeza Hendricks. The South Africa opener made a 48-ball 69, his sixth T20I half-century, in an impressive 127-run opening stand to help South Africa clean sweep Ireland in Belfast last week.In the ODI arena, Josh Hazlewood made significant gains following an excellent tour of the Caribbean, jumping to No. 2 after taking five wickets and starring in Australia’s 2-1 series win. His new-ball partner Mitchell Starc, who also came up with a Player-of-the-Series performance in picking 11 wickets, jumped 10 places to be ranked eighth. The list is headed by New Zealand’s Trent Boult.Among the batters, Alex Carey jumped three places to be ranked just outside the top-20 (22nd), while Avishka Fernando, who struck a match-winning half-century against India to lift Sri Lanka off the bottom of the World Cup Super League points table, is now ranked 52nd.

Rahul Dravid has held this position till now and he can apply again if he chooses to

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Aug-2021The BCCI has advertised for the position of head of cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. The position was till now held by former India captain Rahul Dravid, whose two-year term has come to an end. Dravid can apply again should he be interested in getting an extension.The job mainly involves development of emerging and youth cricketers not only at the NCA but also India A and age-group teams, working in close co-ordination with both men’s and women’s national coaching teams and captains to ensure a seamless supply of talent, assisting selectors of both men’s and women’s sides at senior, age-group and India A level, and developing all coaching programmes at the NCA.The qualifications required for the job are an experience of representing India in at least 25 Tests and having coached for at least five years at international level or at India A, India Under-19, India women or IPL. Candidates must be under 60. The last date to apply is August 15.If Dravid does apply for the job, it will end, for the time being, any speculation around his becoming India’s next coach. The current coach, Ravi Shastri, and his team of B Arun, R Sridhar and Vikram Rahour, end their term with the T20 World Cup later this year.Dravid’s term began in July 2019. India’s feeder systems have come in for praise after a severely depleted Test side beat Australia in Australia earlier this year. India were able to send a second-string side to Sri Lanka when all the first-choice players were in England this July. They won the ODI series, but lost the T20I series. They had lost the services of eight players during the last two T20Is of the series because of Covid-19 cases in the Indian camp. Dravid travelled to Sri Lanka as the coach of this team.

Heat and Hurricanes will be able to travel to Perth to play under strict biosecure protocols despite having been in ACT and NSW in a positive sign for the Perth Ashes Test

Alex Malcolm23-Nov-2021Cricket Australia has been forced to move one BBL fixture out of Perth due to Western Australia’s Covid border restrictions but has locked in two home games for Perth Scorchers at the start of the season.CA confirmed on Tuesday that the scheduled clash between Scorchers and Adelaide Strikers set for December 11 at Perth Stadium will be moved to Sydney Showgrounds in New South Wales. The match will be played at 9.30pm AEDT, which will be 6.30pm in Perth. There is no curfew on the lights at the Showgrounds, unlike at the SCG, which allows CA to hold the fixture so late as it’s part of a double-header that follows the fourth day of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.The reason for the fixture change is that Strikers will be travelling to Victoria on December 7 to face Melbourne Renegades, three days prior to the Scorchers clash and at present, the Western Australian government classifies Victoria as an extreme risk jurisdiction under their Covid protocols and no person is allowed entry into WA if they have been in Victoria over the previous 14 days.New South Wales has previously been an extreme risk jurisdiction but is now categorised as high risk which means people can enter WA but must undergo 14 days of quarantine. Australian Capital Territory is a medium risk jurisdiction that also requires quarantine.Brisbane Heat will be in the ACT and Hobart Hurricanes in NSW prior to their fixtures in Perth on December 8 and 20 respectively but CA confirmed those two matches would go ahead at Perth Stadium with the two teams to enter WA and play under strict biosecure protocols. BBL teams and other sporting teams have managed to play in Perth over the last 18 months under similar protocols with players and staff unable to have any contact with locals during their time in Perth.The remainder of Perth Scorchers’ home games are yet to be confirmed with CA set to wait to see if there are any changes to border restrictions.”We understand Scorchers fans will be disappointed with the need to move the December 11 match out of Perth,” BBL General Manager Alistair Dobson said. “The League is committed to taking as many home Scorchers matches to Optus Stadium as possible and we look forward to providing further positive updates in the coming weeks.”However, the confirmation of two fixtures bodes well for the fifth Ashes Test to be played in Perth on January 14 as Australia and England will be travelling from Sydney, although the fourth Test in Melbourne finishes only 15 days prior to the first day of the fifth Test in Perth meaning the teams may well need to travel the day prior if Victoria is still an extreme risk jurisdiction in January. The Test teams will still likely need to be in a biosecure bubble of some description, the details of which are still being negotiated.