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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.

Rehab in lockdown has posed challenges but England seamer is on the mend

Valkerie Baynes22-May-2020Kate Cross heard the crack and felt the pain in her leg, but it’s where her mind went racing to next that was hardest to take. Suddenly, lying on the Sydney Showground Stadium turf, she saw the 2021 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and she wasn’t there.Cross, the England seamer, suffered a severe sprain and multiple torn ligaments in her right ankle when she landed on the boundary rope attempting a catch during the warm-up for her side’s final T20 World Cup group match, against West Indies in March.”My first thought was, ‘I’ve snapped my leg in two here’. I thought my shin was facing the wrong way and my foot was off on all sorts of angles so I then got myself into a big panic about it and I think made the whole situation worse because then I was screaming, ” Cross tells ESPNcricinfo.ALSO READ: England women could return to training in weeks“They gave me the green whistle [pain relief inhaler] in Oz, which is quite a big deal, and everyone saw the pictures and thought, ‘God she must have snapped her shin bone or something,’ but I think they gave me that to try and help me breathe because I think I got into a bit of a panic attack about what was going on.”My brain immediately went to the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand and I thought, ‘That’s it, i’m not going to play in this, it’s going to be that bad an injury.’ When I was laying on the floor, that’s where I got to, in the space of probably 20 seconds. Obviously I’m really lucky that it’s nothing as serious as that.”It will likely be another five to six months before her ankle is completely pain free, plenty of time before England are scheduled to begin their 50-over world title defence in New Zealand in February. But it is telling just how much Cross wants it that her first thought upon suffering the injury was that it might all be taken away – again.Kate Cross receives treatment after injuring her leg during the warm up ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup match between England and West Indies•Getty Images

Cross missed England’s victorious 2017 World Cup campaign amid a two-year absence from the international scene, during which time she grappled with anxiety and depression.”Seeing the girls win the trophy in 2017 and missing out on that squad and having to sit in the crowd whilst the girls played in front of 25,000 people and lifted a World Cup on home soil, that was heartbreaking for me but at the same time it was one of the best days that I’ve been involved in cricket,” Cross says.”I remember thinking on that day, ‘Right, 2021, that’s going to be my year and I’m going to push really hard to get into that squad.’ I think that’s why when I had the injury my first thought went to the World Cup. It certainly showed me how important that World Cup is for me.”Cross enjoyed a fruitful 2019, forming a key part of England’s one-day attack alongside Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole in away series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and a home summer against West Indies and Australia. While she was part of the T20 World Cup squad in Australia, she did not play a match in the tournament.”In terms of confidence, last summer gave me such a boost because I realised that I could be part of that team and help them win,” Cross says. “So hopefully that 2021 World Cup would be something that I could really thrive in.”Cross admits that the Covid-19 crisis has changed her outlook somewhat so that a return to any form of cricket in a safe environment would be welcome. There is no guarantee the World Cup will go ahead in light of the pandemic, and while Cross has let go some of the anxiety she felt over cricket’s uncertain near future, she admits the current lockdown has been tough.But there have been upsides, including the help of friends like former England team-mate Alex Hartley, temporarily moving back in with her parents and being able to find a focus in her ankle rehab.”Honestly, some of my worst days that I’ve had in probably two years have happened in the last eight weeks, particularly around when I wasn’t seeing any progress with my ankle and I was getting really fed up with that,” Cross says. “This is where Hartley was really good for me because I had a day where I think I stayed in bed pretty much all day and I must have watched, I think it was 10 episodes of on Netflix back-to-back.”I just said to her, ‘I’ve written today off, I’ve had a shocker.’ She said, ‘Look, you would probably have this day if we weren’t in lockdown, it’s fine to have these days, just don’t let those days become a habit, don’t then have the same day the following day, make sure you get up and go for a walk or whatever.'”So I’ve found that when I’ve had a bad day, then the next day I’ve been a bit more motivated because I’ve not wanted to fall into the trap of getting into those bad habits.”Cross spoke openly about her mental health struggles after returning to the England side in a one-dayer against New Zealand in July 2018. And, as difficult as it can be to revisit the topic at times, she is glad she put it out there.”I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to talk about it because I knew as soon as I’d done it, there was no taking it back,” she says. “I’m a talker anyway but I just thought, if I’ve got the ability to do something as powerful as helping one person get through a bad week or stop them from doing something silly, whatever it could have been, then I couldn’t believe that I didn’t want to do that interview.”It’s made me almost feel like it was worth going through what I went through because it’s just normal, everyone goes through it and everyone I speak to has said as soon as they started talking about what they were going through, things started changing. It just goes to show the power of talking.”

A guide to what is expected from Thursday’s hearing, which could decide the fate of the board and its state associations, which are yet to fully comply with the Lodha Committee’s recommendations

Nagraj Gollapudi16-Jan-2019Why is this hearing significant?This hearing has the potential to end the bizarre situation where the BCCI has not carried out the Supreme Court’s orders on reforms. On July 18, 2016, the court approved the reforms recommended by the RM Lodha Committee and directed that they be implemented by all state associations; it subsequently amended certain reforms at the request of several state associations. To date, though, not a single member association of the BCCI, nor the parent body itself, has implemented the recommendations in toto.The CoA has now recommended that the BCCI conduct elections within 90 days from the court’s ruling and has requested, in its status report, that the court approve a timeline for elections.Why has the BCCI failed to hold elections?To conduct the elections, the states and the BCCI first need to comply with the new constitution, which was registered last August. That means they have to agree unconditionally to all reforms. Not one of the 34 state associations of the BCCI was fully compliant at the time when the CoA submitted its status report on October 27 last year. The CoA identified seven states as being “non-compliant”, while the rest fell under the “partially compliant” and “substantially compliant” categories.ALSO READ: CoA asks Supreme Court to suspend voting rights of non-compliant statesWhat are the contentious reforms?Although the state associations have set the ball rolling, many have dragged their feet on key reforms such as the cooling-off period, disqualification criteria, and selection panels. The most significant reform that BCCI members want the court to re-examine is the nine-year tenure limit set for office bearers in the new constitution. The members have suggested that as per the original order of the court in 2016, the office bearers’ tenure at BCCI and state associations was distinct, giving office-bearers a potential cumulative life of 18 years. However, under the new constitution, that limit has been reset to a cumulative nine years – whether at state level or at the BCCI or both.What can the court do to enforce its order?Follow the CoA’s recommendation of barring errant state associations from their voting rights in the BCCI elections and also withholding their funding.Diana Edulji and Vinod Rai emerge from a CoA meeting•Getty Images

Anything else the BCCI members want to pursue?Several BCCI members want the CoA’s reign to be brought to end. But that will only happen if they conduct elections. Nonetheless, the members want to make the court aware of the deep divisions and distrust within the two-member CoA comprising Vinod Rai, the former Comptroller & Auditor General of India, and Diana Edulji, the former India women captain. Their motive? Some members feel that would allow them to regain control of the BCCI despite being forced to implement reforms unconditionally.The issues that have split the CoA
The Rahul Johri sexual-harrassment allegations
The hiring of the India women coach
The Hardik Pandya-KL Rahul chat show controversyHow does the divide in CoA really matter?It matters because the CoA’s squabbles have now spilled over to the cricket arena and are in danger of affecting India’s World Cup preparations. Take the controversial TV-show comments of Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul: Rai and Edulji agree the players ought to be penalised, but have differed strongly on how to go about it. Both players have now been suspended and are out of the ongoing ODI series in Australia and are set to miss the limited-overs tour of New Zealand as well. The BCCI’s legal team recommended that the players be suspended pending an inquiry with the Ombudsman being the final adjudicator. Both Rai and Edulji want the court to give directions on the appointment of an Ombudsman, a position the BCCI has not filled since late 2016.Any other matter of interest?The court is also likely to hear a petition, filed by whistleblower Aditya Verma, to make public the findings of the ad-hoc committee that handled the sexual misconduct allegations against BCCI CEO Rahul Johri. The CoA will submit the findings in a sealed envelope but Verma has petitioned the court to ask the CoA to make the findings public.And, finally, who is conducting the hearing?At least three chief justices have presided over the case stretching back five years. On Thursday the bench will comprise Justices SA Bobde and AM Sapre.

Dramatic New Zealand, who lose four wickets in five balls, stifle Pakistan to emerge comfortable winners

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2017
ScorecardSophie Devine clobbers a sweep over the midwicket boundary•Getty Images

New Zealand went 2-0 up in the four-match T20I series after Pakistan fell 39 short of their 151-run target in Sharjah. This after New Zealand endured a sensational collapse, losing five wickets in six deliveries to slide from 138 for 3 to 139 for 8.Electing to bat first, openers Sophie Devine (70 off 44 balls) and captain Suzie Bates (52 off 43 balls) raised the 100 in just the 13th over, before Javeria Khan struck to break the stand and then dismiss Katie Perkins in her next over.It was in the subsequent over that the dramatic collapse unfolded, starting with Amy Satterthwaite’s wicket, followed by the run outs of Katey Martin, Maddy Green and Sam Curtis. In the next over, Sadia Yousuf removed Thamsyn Newton for a duck. Anna Paterson and Leigh Kasperek then batted through the last two overs to help cross 150.Pakistan started slowly in their chase with openers Nahida Khan and Sidra Ameen adding just 29 runs in the first five overs. It was Bates who halted their progress, dismissing Ameen for 18 and running Nahida out within the next two overs.Javeria and captain Bismah Mahroof couldn’t bring out the big hits and their wickets left Pakistan reeling at 77 for 4. Aliya Riyaz (23 off 22 balls) and Sidra Nawaz took Pakistan across 100, but offspinner Satterthwaite dismissed both of them in the penultimate over. But by then the game was well and truly out of grasp.

The ball still spun, and the sell-out crowds bayed for Sri Lanka, but Australia have comfortably won the limited-overs series playing “scrappy cricket”, captain David Warner said

Andrew Fidel Fernando09-Sep-2016The ball still spun, and the sell-out crowds bayed for Sri Lanka, but Australia have comfortably won the limited-overs series playing “scrappy cricket”, captain David Warner said.Warner took Australia’s reins when the ODI series was tied 1-1, but has won each of the five matches since then. His team has been particularly impressive in the T20s, winning the first by 86 runs, and the second by four wickets with 13 balls to spare, despite having lost six wickets for 27 runs.”I think the guys showed a lot of determination and fight to overcome the conditions, which were very, very challenging and something that we are not very used to,” Warner said. “The Test guys had to make an adjustment to make – from the Test match conditions to the one-day conditions.”You saw scrappy cricket during the one-day series, where the highest score was 280 here. And then we were scrapping to get to 200. It was good grinding cricket. It was something that we’re not used to. The encouraging signs mean that we’ve worked really hard to win both series. “Though Australia have fared much better against spin in the limited-overs series, Warner suggested that didn’t necessarily make them better players of spin in the Test format. He was, however, pleased with the seam attack, which prospered in conditions not known to favour quick bowlers.”We knew once the shine got off the ball, the ball was going to spin consistently,” Warner said. “In one-day cricket it’s a bit different – you can’t have two in close with slip and a leg slip. It’s just not possible. The reverse sweeps, sitting in the crease to pinch the ones and twos, and rotating the strike, are all much easier in this game than in the Tests, where it was very, very tough for us as a batting team. But the way the bowlers conducted themselves and reduced totals after losing the toss consistently, was a fantastic effort.”Maxwell had also said good T20 scores in Asia didn’t guarantee better Test performances, though he has now starred in consecutive matches as opener. He hit the best innings of the match again, scoring 66 off 29 balls to break the back of the target during the Powerplay. He remains a makeshift opener however, having replaced the injured Aaron Finch in this series.”Maxwell is a very good player of spin inside the first six,” Warner said. “He can chance his arm. He can reverse sweep and sweep. What he did today and the other day was no fluke. That’s exactly what he can do when given the opportunity. We know with the team we have a structure there, and once Aaron Finch comes back in, he’ll probably have to move down the order and assess what his game plan is again. We’ve seen him do it at the top, we’ve seen him doing it in the middle – there’s no excuse.”Warner, who has been critical of bowler-friendly nature of the limited-overs pitches in Sri Lanka, said the Khettarama surface was the worst of the lot.”The wicket probably wasn’t up to scratch in the games. In the last game at Pallekele the wicket was outstanding – I know we played 260, but both teams felt like the wicket was very encouraging. We could hit over the top. There was nice, consistent bounce. Here it was very, very tough.”

KL Rahul’s second Test century was the centrepiece of a fluctuating opening day at the P Sara Oval, which saw India recover from a troubled start and move to a solid but never dominant position

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy20-Aug-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHaving capitalised on an early life, KL Rahul went on to make his second Test hundred•AFP

KL Rahul’s second Test century was the centrepiece of a fluctuating opening day at the P Sara Oval, which saw India recover from a troubled start and move to a solid but never dominant position. Rahul and Virat Kohli, who came together after two early strikes from Dhammika Prasad, added 164 for the third wicket before Rohit Sharma built on the platform they erected and scored the third half-century of his stop-start Test career.Rohit and Wriddhiman Saha put on 52 for the sixth wicket and took India past 300 before Angelo Mathews ended the partnership with what turned out to be the last ball of the day.Rohit came in at No. 5 – with Ajinkya Rahane taking the No. 3 slot he vacated – and eased his way into form, taking plenty of singles against spread-out fields and hitting only four boundaries in his first 50 runs. The scoring opportunities arrived late in the day, when Sri Lanka took the second new ball as soon as it was due.Prasad had already sent down 18 overs in the day, in five separate spells, and a sixth one proved too much of an ask. He sent down two long-hops in his first over, which Rohit duly pulled for a six and a four, and another short ball in his next over, which Rohit steered behind point for another boundary.But just when he looked set to have a good night’s rest and resume in sight of a hundred, Mathews dismissed him for the second time in two Tests in exactly the same manner, jagging one back off the seam to strike his front pad as he looked to play around it.Noting at the toss that “whatever grass we saw two days ago has disappeared”, Kohli chose to bat first. Mathews said he would have bowled anyway, expecting the pitch to stay true to its usual self and assist his seamers early on.Mathews’ hunch was proven right, as Prasad found seam movement to strike in the first over of the Test. Having swung two of the first three balls away from M Vijay – only gently, but perceptibly – he got the fourth to nip back in off the seam. Not quite fully forward to defend, Vijay’s front pad was right in front of off stump when the ball struck it.Next to go was Rahane. At his regular No. 5 slot, against an older ball, he may have gotten away with reaching away from his body to drive on the up. Against a new ball that curved away from him, he didn’t; the thick edge carried nicely to third slip.With Mathews taking the new ball from the other end and asking questions of the batsmen – he straightened one from wide of the crease to send it flying off Rahul’s edge between gully and point – India were under a fair deal of pressure.Dushmantha Chameera – in the team because of Nuwan Pradeep’s hamstring injury – released some of it when he came on as first change, but only after creating a clear chance in his first over. Rahul went hard at a shortish ball outside off and sliced straight to gully, only for Jehan Mubarak to drop the waist-high chance.Three fours came off Chameera’s first two overs – all from half-volleys driven down the ground or flicked off the pads – and two more in his next two, including a controlled pull from Kohli off a waist-high short ball.Rahul and Kohli grew increasingly comfortable as the ball lost shine and shape – the umpires called for a replacement after 10 overs – though the odd one still seamed around, as Kohli discovered when Prasad jagged it back into him and struck him on the back thigh. The pitch too lost its early juice and flattened out into an inviting batting strip.At lunch, Rahul was on 39 and Kohli on 48. Rahul overtook his captain with three fours in the first three overs after the break, the best of them a drive off Prasad between short cover and mid-off. It was the result of a big forward stride and immaculate weight transfer, and it brought up his fifty.Every now and then, Kohli lapsed into his old tendency of pushing at the ball away from his body, and one such hard-handed jab nearly cost him his wicket against Prasad, in the fifth over after lunch, the edge falling just short of first slip. This came in a phase when he was stuck on 50 for 11 balls: he also popped Prasad off the inside edge and pad into the vacant short leg area in this time.Having survived that stretch, Kohli grew dominant, clipping Chameera for two fours in an over and drilling Herath with immense bat-speed into a small gap between short extra cover and a deepish cover. With the batsmen growing increasingly dominant and the bowling increasingly ragged, Kohli and Rahul hit seven fours and a six from the 34th to 43rd overs.Just when Sri Lanka seemed at a loss for ideas, Kohli fell against the run of play. Rahul had late-cut Kaushal to the third man boundary in the previous over, and Kohli tried to play a similar shot off Herath, when the ball wasn’t quite short enough for it. Mathews anticipated well at slip, dived across, and snaffled the ball one-handed.The wicket re-energised Herath, who gave India a few nervous moments before tea with his changes of pace and trajectory. Rohit made the same mistake that got him out in the second innings of the Galle Test, coming forward to defend with his front leg a long way inside the line. The ball popped in the air, off the edge, but there was no silly point and Rohit escaped a second-baller.Herath then nearly had Rahul, deceiving him in the air as he skipped down the pitch, and forcing him to push his hands at the ball as it dipped and turned away from him. The edge, however, didn’t carry to slip.Aside from that moment, Rahul’s eagerness to dance out of his crease had served him well. All the Indian batsmen looked to do just that, against Herath, and Kohli, Rahul and Rohit hit him for a big six each.Sri Lanka turned to the short ball after tea, with Chameera steaming in from around the stumps, and the tactic brought them Rahul’s wicket. Rahul, who had reached his hundred five overs earlier, went for the hook, looking to fetch a shoulder-high ball from outside off stump, and could only spoon a simple catch to the keeper off the top edge.Stuart Binny, who never looked comfortable at any point during his 40-ball stay, fell while trying to take on Herath as soon as he came back into the attack an hour into the final session. Looking to hit him inside-out, over the covers, Binny only managed to spoon him to long-off.

Ajmal Shahzad is the most notable English county player seriously considering whether to sign up for the planned PSL

David Hopps31-Jan-2013Ajmal Shahzad, who only two years ago was regarded as a integral part of England’s fast-bowling future, is the most notable English county player seriously considering whether to sign up for the planned Pakistan Super League.Pakistan are so anxious to attract overseas players that they have offered life insurance of $2 million (£1.25m) as well as 24-hour personal security for a tournament which would offer competitive cricket immediately ahead of the English county season.That has been enough for Shahzad to toy with the possibility of making himself available, along with three other county players with Pakistani antecedents: Lancashire’s Kabir Ali, Mooen Ali of Worcestershire and Kadeer Ali, who is currently a free agent since being released by Gloucestershire in 2010.That they would eventually accept offers, though, is far from certain. Players’ associations including the international body, FICA, and their England equivalent, the PCA, have warned players that they should not visit Pakistan on security grounds and there is a general acceptance that overseas players will be immensely difficult to attract.But players with a Pakistan background, and of Muslim religion, are naturally more willing to consider any offers than most, privately feeling that their safety, although impossible to guarantee, might be less compromised.Shahzad, who is forging a new career with Nottinghamshire after sharing a troubled 2012 season between Yorkshire and Lancashire, said: “It’s still early doors but if the PSL is set up professionally and becomes official and the security is top notch then I would think about it. My first commitment is to Notts but the fixtures don’t clash with the English season.”Nottinghamshire have taken a firm line against the involvement of their players in the IPL because it clashes with the England season, but their director of cricket, Mick Newell, emphasised that there would be no automatic objection to any overseas T20 tournament which took place in England’s close season.He counselled: “We would advise players to have full discussions with the PCA before making a decision about any overseas T20 tournament so they were fully aware of any issues, but we would not automatically block an NOC if it was requested.”Lancashire are confident that they have dissuaded Kabir from making the trip. “We haven’t granted an NOC for any of our players to go forward to the PSL auction,” a Lancashire statement said, giving the impression that the subject was closed.Kabir, though, had been among the keenest to make the trip, despite an unnerving experience with terrorist violence, this time in India, more than four years ago. When attacks on Mumbai forced the suspension of India’s tour of India, In November 2008, Kabir was due to have dinner at the Taj Palace, where England were also shortly due to stay, on the night of the attacks. He changed his mind at the last minute and went to the cinema and the shootings began shortly afterwards.Worcestershire’s director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, said that Mooen Ali has also not yet applied for an NOC certificate. Such applications would be premature, however, as details of the PSL have not been finalised. Mooen is believed to have more reservations about the tournament than many others under consideration.

The first match between Australia Women and New Zealand Women in the Rose Bowl one-dayers was washed out after only 22 overs were bowled at the SCG

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2012
ScorecardThe first match between Australia Women and New Zealand Women in the Rose Bowl one-dayers was washed out after only 22 overs were bowled at the SCG.Rain was expected to be a factor in the game as Australia elected to field. The first break occurred in the fifth over when showers stopped play. When play resumed, New Zealand openers Frances Mackay and Lucy Doolan played solidly to put up a half-century stand within the first 10 overs. Mackay was the more aggressive batsman, hitting five fours before falling for 25. Doolan, though, persevered and scored 43 before edging to the keeper just before the rains came.Only three more balls could be bowled after her dismissal before the game was abandoned. The two teams will clash again in the remaining two matches, both to be played at the SCG, on January 27 and 29.