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Use of saliva for ball-shining, and batters changing ends during dismissals also amended

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Mar-2022The new batter being on strike even if the players crossed while a catch is taken, a reframing of the law for running out non-strikers while backing up, and a permanent ban on using saliva to shine the ball are among the changes to MCC’s Laws that will come into effect later this year.An updated code of the Laws was approved by the MCC’s main committee this week. The changes will also allow greater leeway to the bowler in the judging of wides when a batter has moved across the crease, and see the introduction of penalty runs for the batting side should a fielder be deemed to have moved unfairly.The decision to change the Law for caught dismissals comes as a result of its trialling in the Hundred. Previously, if the two batters crossed before a catch was taken, the new batter would go to the non-striker’s end; now they will always be on strike – unless it is the end of the over – in a move that was proposed as a way of further rewarding the bowler for taking a wicket.The wording that covers a player being run out by the bowler while backing up – often referred to as Mankading – has been moved from Law 41 (Unfair play) to Law 38 (Run out), in a further attempt to remove some of the stigma around such dismissals.”The bowler is always painted as the villain but it is a legitimate way to dismiss someone and it is the non-striker who is stealing the ground,” Fraser Stewart, MCC Laws Manager, told the . “It is legitimate, it is a run-out and therefore it should live in the run-out section of the laws.”The prohibition of saliva as a means of shining the ball came about through changes to playing conditions during Covid, with MCC’s research suggesting it had had “little or no impact” on bowlers’ ability to generate swing. Making this the default position was felt to remove any ambiguity around the use of mints or sweets to change the condition of the ball – something that was already banned.The rewording of Law 22.1, meanwhile, means that wide calls will “apply to where the batter is standing, where the striker has stood at any point since the bowler began their run-up, and which would also have passed wide of the striker in a normal batting position”.Further changes have been agreed governing the use of replacements, the Laws governing dead balls, and the legality of trying to play the ball once it has gone off the cut strip.Updates to the Laws are usually incorporated throughout the game, from international down to club level, although governing bodies around the world have the ability to ignore certain changes by reference to competition-specific playing conditions.”Since the publication of the 2017 Code of the Laws of Cricket, the game has changed in numerous ways,” Stewart said in an MCC press release. “The 2nd edition of that Code, published in 2019, was mostly clarification and minor amendments, but the 2022 Code makes some rather bigger changes, from the way we talk about cricket to the way it’s played.”It is important that we announce these changes now as part of the club’s global commitment to the game, giving officials from all over the world the chance to learn under the new Code ahead of the Laws coming into force in October.”

England quick proud of role in fightback, and primed for possible role with the bat

Andrew Miller04-Jun-2022Stuart Broad says that England will carry their new-found positive approach into the clutch moments of their 277-run chase, after Joe Root’s unbeaten 77 and a streaky but vital half-century for Ben Stokes had taken the fight to New Zealand on an absorbing third day of the first LV= Insurance Test at Lord’s.Broad himself instigated a key momentum shift in the morning session, as New Zealand’s final six wickets fell for 49 runs in 12.3 overs. The first three of those came in a row in his third over of the day, including the run-out of Colin de Grandhomme, as England battled back from a chastening second afternoon to restrict New Zealand to 285.And as Root and Ben Foakes put together an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 57 to reduce England’s final-day requirement to a further 61 with five wickets standing, Broad acknowledged that his work in this match could yet be far from done.”It’s been a really enjoyable Test match, really exciting and hard to know what is going to happen from hour to hour,” he said. “It’s great to be coming [back] knowing either team could win.”In Test cricket you’re constantly saying ‘it’s a big hour’, and I feel like we’ve said that every single hour here. The hour with Rooty and Foakesy before the new ball is going to be crucial to try and get the runs down as low as we can.”There’s been times we’ve had to soak up pressure, but we’ve got to have a really positive mindset leading up to the new ball. The way Rooty and Stokesy played after a bit of luck with the no-ball showed the way this team want to go about it.”After a relatively quiet performance with the ball in the first two days, Broad’s ebullient display was typical of the game-changing displays that he has made his calling card down the years, and after Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell had turned the tide of the game with a 195-run fifth-wicket stand, he admitted that it had come at a critical moment for the team.”It was huge,” he said. “We were a bit disappointed yesterday afternoon…they played really well for their runs. We knew we had to strike with the new ball because the Test match was riding on it. If New Zealand get 340-350 it’s a different game. I really enjoyed the feeling of getting the crowd going, lifting the energy in the stadium. The crowd responded brilliantly and so did the players.”In his 153rd Test, Broad has seen most situations that the game can serve up, and with Covid restrictions now lifted, he said he was looking forward to taking his mind off the game – and his probable role with the bat – by enjoying a night out for his fiancée’s birthday.Related

• Broad delivers on promise to give his all in Test comeback

• Jamieson stands tall but Colin de Grandhomme epitomises NZ pain

• Ben Stokes, Joe Root carry fight as England wrest back advantage

“Gone are the days of 20 beers to relax yourself. That was my dad’s [former England opener, Chris] trick. I think it’s important for all of us to take our mind off the game tonight.”It’s actually Molly’s birthday today. Happy birthday Molly. So we’re going out for dinner with a couple of her friends which will be great, and I’ll next think about [the match] when I arrive at the ground tomorrow and practice specifics in the nets.”There’s no point just having throwdowns, with me not focusing on how I want to play in the middle,” he added. “Obviously my situation might change depending if I’m in in the first ball or the 10-15th over, or whatever, but it’s runs we need. There’s no point blocking and waiting for a draw. It’s runs we need.”Whatever transpires, however, Broad knows that England have achieved one of their primary aims of this game already, by setting out to entertain.”A win would be great, it would cap off a fantastic Test match,” he said. “But there’s no-one who’s come to watch this game over the last three days who would leave disappointed, I don’t think.”It’s had a bit of everything. It’s up to us as a group of players to do everything we can to get over the line, and it would be very special, but if it doesn’t work that way we step up to the plate in Nottingham.”But I’ve got a really good feeling about tomorrow. Joe Root is one of the calmest, England’s best ever batsmen, and Foakesy I thought settled really nicely, and then it’s going to be up to the lower order to chase these runs, so it’s set up to be a brilliant morning.”

England coach calls on youngsters to seize their moment at Commonwealth Games

Valkerie Baynes18-Jul-2022As England pressed on with a revamp of their white-ball game, choosing a number of inexperienced players for the Commonwealth Games and leaving out Tammy Beaumont due to her low T20I strike rate, Lisa Keightley said: “it’s their time now”.England picked two uncapped teenagers, allrounder Alice Capsey and left-arm seamer Freya Kemp in a 15-player squad for the tournament starting on July 29 alongside 20-year-old quick Issy Wong, who made her international debut in last month’s Test against South Africa.They join the likes of Maia Bouchier, the middle-order batter who has played just three T20Is, allrounder Bryony Smith, who played the last of her four games for England in an ODI against West Indies two years ago, and seamer Freya Davies, who has been unable to break into the England side for the Test or ODI sections of their ongoing series with South Africa despite having 24 white-ball caps.Davies could get her chance against South Africa in the upcoming T20Is, with the Commonwealth Games squad also forming the T20 outfit for the final leg of the multi-format series, and legspinner Sarah Glenn returns for the first time since the rain-hit T20 leg of the Ashes series in January.Related

• Tammy Beaumont back in the top ten in ODI batting rankings

• Wong rides the emotions as England sense their chance

• One goal achieved, Dunkley moves swiftly onto the next

• Van Niekerk out of CWG, Luus SA captain

• Dunkley century powers England

England have already seen some benefits of changing up the ODI side which finished runners-up at the World Cup earlier this year. Wong took 3 for 36 in six overs on debut against South Africa last Friday and Sophia Dunkley, in just her second game since being promoted to No. 3, scored a century.”We’ve really looked at how we played the last two years and after the World Cup and had a look at the areas that we needed to improve in,” Keightley, England’s head coach, said. “We’ve had really good conversations and hopefully we’re picking the players that we think can go out and do that. It’s their time, I think… and the structure underneath, the regional structure, has given them confidence to come in and play at the next level.”Keightley said 17-year-old Capsey had progressed even further after enjoying a breakout season for Oval Invincibles in the inaugural season of the Hundred. She has since represented England A in Australia and most recently at home during South Africa’s warm-up matches. Her first senior call-up comes six months after Heather Knight, the England captain, warned against “over-egging” young players like Capsey.”We’ve had a lot of cricket between here and there,” Keightley said. “It’s always great to get on a bandwagon really early but I think she’s matured. Going over to Australia and seeing her travel and play probably a little bit under the radar, she’s been really clear on what we want her to do and how we want her to play and I just think her time is now.”She gives us a lot of options with the ball and she can float in a batting order and tends to be able to move quite freely with a good strike rate, so we’ve always had an eye on her. Sometimes the skipper doesn’t want to put too much pressure on a young kid too early and I think she’s done that really well.”Issy Wong took three wickets on her ODI debut•PA Photos/Getty Images

The younger brigade joins experienced hands like veteran seamer Katherine Brunt and Danni Wyatt, who will open the batting – possibly alongside Smith – in the absence of Beaumont, who was a surprise omission from the T20I squad.Beaumont is one of England’s leading ODI batters and was briefly top of the ICC’s player rankings in the format last year but has not been as prolific in T20Is. She made 97 off 65 balls against New Zealand last September but was used out-of-position in the middle order in the T20 World Cup in 2020, Keightley’s first tournament in charge, and has a career strike rate of 108.37 in the format.”Obviously Tammy’s an amazing player,” Keightley said. “She’s performed really well over a long period of time and I suppose the challenge is out to Tam to go away and work on things that we’ve been working on and show us why she should be in the squad. I’m sure she’ll bounce back and that’s what we want, really. We want pressure on and players getting better in every format.”In 50-over cricket you can’t match Tammy’s record. I think it speaks for itself. In T20, I think there’s still some room for growth and improvement there and now it’s up to her to go away and do it. The Hundred’s a fantastic opportunity to do that, and we’ll see what she can do.”Beaumont was a surprise omission from the Commonwealth Games squad•Getty Images

Dunkley’s move to No. 3 has proven successful early in the ODIs and Keightley suggested the middle order, which also includes Knight, could remain fluid depending on match situations and how players settle into their roles.”It’s been interesting how it’s evolved,” Keightley said of Dunkley’s promotion. “Performing not as well as we wanted up front and losing early wickets and being quite slow has made us think about, well, how can we improve that?”It’s quite clear how we want the openers to go out and bat in 50-over cricket and then we felt Sophia’s improving. She’s a clean striker. Usually if we lost a wicket or we’re going well her strike rate’s roughly going to be around the same.”She just gives us that punch-ability, I suppose, if we did lose a wicket, for her to go out and play her natural game and put hopefully the bowlers back under pressure.”Wicketkeeper Amy Jones, who in ODIs has played in every position from No. 1-7 since her debut in 2013 has batted predominantly at No. 5 since the end of 2019, reaching fifty only twice in that time. In T20Is she moved from opener to the middle order at the end of the World Cup in 2020 with limited success.”Amy would admit that she probably hasn’t finished games off for us and gone the way that we want probably consistently and we know Heather is cool and calm under pressure,” Keightley added. “If we’re in trouble, she can work with players around her to read the situation a little bit better than probably we have in the past, so I still think three, four and five could be flexible moving forward.”

“The plan was not to bowl outside the stumps; the plan was to bowl at the stumps,” explains coach Chandika Hathurusinghe

Mohammad Isam10-Oct-20235:43

What England did right, what Bangladesh did wrong

Taskin Ahmed’s face at the media ruck after Bangladesh’s crushing defeat to England indicated how the day had gone for his team.It was Taskin, so the line of questioning was quite obvious: why did the fast bowlers bowl so poorly?Taskin, usually affable, was glum from the start. And then, faced with a bombardment of questions, looked shaken.Related

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To put things in perspective, Bangladesh had started ordinarily with the ball against Afghanistan in their World Cup opener, too, but they came back well in that game. Here, England had their 100 in the 16th over, 200 in the 33rd, and 298 by the end of the 40th. Shoriful Islam’s three wickets did bring down England’s run rate a bit in the last ten overs, but they were always going to get a big total.Bangladesh have conceded big totals often, but their improved pace-bowling unit had given rise to the hope that was all in the past. In the four-year period between the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, they had the second-best combined bowling average among the teams participating at the World Cup. The expectation, as a result, was sky-high.Taskin, considered the leader of the pace attack, is proud of that record. The questions poured in, and Taskin snapped when asked about the pacers not doing well in this game, before saying “we didn’t bowl well” to other questions on the subject.”If you consider the performance of two matches as haphazard after two years of achievement, it is a failure. We will try to do well in the future,” he said to one. “That’s what I have been telling you. There’s no point in giving an excuse. We couldn’t bowl well.” The frustration in his voice was palpable.When he settled down, he elaborated on the path to better results.”We have to be more accurate. Different batters have different types of weaknesses – we have to make them play more good balls,” he said. “Sometimes we will concede runs but we have to bowl more good balls. We have to execute these plans accordingly. We will do well if we can bowl out oppositions for low totals.”We didn’t bowl according to the expectations [in this game], although we were playing in mostly batting-friendly conditions. There was enough room for us to do well. We started badly, but Shoriful and Mahedi [Hasan] came back well.”It was that sort of day for Shakib Al Hasan and Bangladesh•AFP/Getty Images

Hathurusinghe: The execution let us down in this game

In the previous game against Afghanistan, Bangladesh took seven wickets for 77 runs off the 112 balls they bowled outside off stump.In the first 37.2 overs against England, Bangladesh went wicketless in 83 balls outside off stump, conceding 108 runs.The plan, however, was to bowl at the stumps, not outside them.”The plan was not to bowl outside the stumps; the plan was to bowl at the stumps,” coach Chandika Hathurusinghe said. “I think the execution let us down in this game especially. In the last game, we came back later with the help of the spinners. This game, what happened was our spinners did not bring us back into the game due to the good, intelligent batting.”Taskin said that as much as the bowlers would do their best to keep the runs down, it was important for the batters to try and chase 300-plus totals in mostly batting-friendly conditions.”Most of the wickets in India are going to be batting friendly. Our batters have to be ready to chase 300-plus totals but we, as bowlers, also have to think about keeping the opposition down to below 300,” he said. “It will happen sometimes but we have to be prepared for both scenarios.”

The Australia legspinner will play his 100th game in the format at Trent Bridge

Andrew McGlashan17-Sep-2024Adam Zampa admits the ODI game faces an uncertain future, but he believes the format remains a priority for young players coming through despite the congested calendar and increasing amounts of franchise cricket.Zampa will play his 100th ODI in the opening match against England at Trent Bridge on Thursday having established himself as Australia’s most important white-ball bowler. He reiterated how, for him, international cricket will always mean more than franchise T20 and, although not putting a definitive timeline on his career, has his sights set on winning “many more” World Cups.Related

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A survey earlier this year by the World Cricketers Association (formally FICA) showed that the gap was closing in terms of which men’s World Cup title was viewed as the most important, with now just 50% saying the ODI version and 35% picking the T20 edition.”There’s been a lot of questions about the ODI format and what that looks [like] going forward,” he said. “In terms of playing for Australia and that drive, I think every young guy coming through still thinks that’s the be-all and end-all.””There’s obviously those other opportunities in terms of franchise cricket and that’s good,” Zampa said. “There’s been a lot said about how it’s a saturated market but all these different competitions give other guys opportunities, whether it’s guys who have just played a little bit of BBL or a bit of Blast, there’s opportunities to go and improve yourself at different franchise levels, even if they are going on at the same time which seems to be the case at the moment.Adam Zampa was Australia’s leading wicket-taker at the 2023 ODI World Cup•Getty Images

“But feels like playing for your country is still the priority. I agree with you, don’t know what it’s going to look like in the next few years, particularly with this format, but I feel like ODI cricket’s still a really good format, I still enjoy playing it and think a lot of young guys coming through still see it as a good opportunity to play for your country.”Zampa, who is without doubt Australia’s second-greatest white-ball spinner after Shane Warne, was their leading wicket-taker in both their 2021 T20 World Cup title success (13 wickets) and the 2023 ODI World Cup (23 wickets). Australia have come up short at the last two T20 World Cups in 2022 and 2024 but Zampa will again be key in the 2026 edition in India and Sri Lanka.”The feeling of playing for your country and still winning for your country beats playing franchise cricket and winning franchise cricket,” he said. “I experienced the Hundred, it was great, I loved playing it, and winning at the end is a bonus but it hits different when you play for your country, when you win World Cups. Still got that drive to win many more.”Zampa will have his wife, Harriet, and baby boy present at the 100th ODI along with his parents. “It means a lot to me,” he said. “I never thought I’d play this much for Australia.”

The team was invited to train in Lahore and Rawalpindi by the PCB because of the ongoing political unrest in Bangladesh

Mohammad Isam10-Aug-2024The Bangladesh senior men’s team is set to arrive in Lahore on August 13, four days before their scheduled arrival, for a two-Test series. The team will train for three days each at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore and at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium before the first Test in Rawalpindi from August 21.The players’ preparations had been disrupted as a result of the ongoing political unrest in Bangladesh. The overseas coaching staff of the team also couldn’t join the players at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka last week because of security concerns. BCB is currently following up with the coaches’ respective embassies for security clearances.The departure ahead of schedule came after an invitation from the PCB to the BCB to ensure the visiting players have “adequate and fair training opportunities” ahead of the Tests.Related

• Mushfiqur, Taskin back in Bangladesh Test squad for Pakistan series

• BCB set to meet new sports head as calls for reform grow louder

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• Bangladesh in turmoil: how will cricket be impacted?

“Sports is not only about winning and losing, it’s also about [camaraderie],” Salman Naseer, PCB chief operating officer, said in a statement. “I remain confident that the extra training sessions in Lahore will allow the players to showcase their best skills and talent on the global stage.”The Bangladesh players have been training individually at the Shere Bangla under coach Shohel Islam for the last three days.”We thank the PCB for giving the Bangladesh cricket team the opportunity to have additional training in Pakistan,” BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said in a statement. “This will certainly help the players to [acclimatise] to the conditions and prepare better for the ICC World Test Championship series.”Bangladesh’s Test cricketers had a training camp in Chattogram that was disrupted because of the anti-government protests across the country last month. There have been political rallies inside the Shere Bangla premises, too.The BCB ended up managing to send the high-performance team to Australia, and the Bangladesh A team to Pakistan. The latter’s departure was delayed by a few days, and the team reached Islamabad on Saturday. Bangladesh A will play two four-day matches and three one-day matches in Pakistan, which will run alongside the senior team’s Test matches in Rawalpindi and Karachi. The Bangladesh squad for the Tests is expected to be announced on Sunday.

Trevor Griffin invited to re-apply for job after seventh-placed finish in 2022

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Nov-2022The MCC have advertised for a new London Spirit coach in the women’s Hundred after missing out on the knockout stages in the tournament’s first two seasons.Trevor Griffin, the Western Storm and Sydney Thunder coach, took charge of Spirit in the last two seasons but has been invited to re-apply for his job as part of an open recruitment process. Hundred coaches are appointed on one-year contracts which can be extended by mutual agreement.Spirit missed out on the play-offs on net run-rate in 2021 but struggled in 2022, losing four of their six games and finishing second-bottom in the group stages.Related

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“London Spirit has recently opened the process to recruit a head coach for its women’s team in the 2023 edition of the Hundred,” an MCC spokesperson said.”This open recruitment process is designed to find the best possible head coach for London Spirit women for 2023, with all candidates who meet the criteria, including the head coach from 2022, invited to apply.”London Spirit, in conjunction with the England and Wales Cricket Board, will announce the outcome of the recruitment process at a later date.”Dates for the Hundred’s 2023 season have not been officially announced but the tournament is expected to run from the first week of August until the weekend of August 26. Applications for Spirit’s vacancy close on November 21.

Former England captain does what he’s been doing for two decades to counter Matthew Montgomery’s 177

Paul Edwards20-May-2023
Nottingham on the third Saturday morning in May. Green buses – 4, 6 and 9 – proud and prompt to the minute, rumble over the Trent Bridge, where the inn has been trading for hours. There is a quiet busyness about the streets, an air of incipience.So it seemed on this leisured day when the East Midlands began to take leave of spring. Canyoned clouds drifted against a silver-blue sky and the shorts worn on the middle terrace at the Radcliffe Road End suggested more than a mulish determination to spite the climate.Red shirts flecked the white-painted stands inside the cricket ground. We were near the very last hurrah of the football season – and therefore five minutes away from the very first hurrah of the next. Some folk were taking in a few hours’ cricket before going to the City Ground, where mighty Arsenal were the visitors. In the streets around Colwick Road the fast food joints were setting up for a lively afternoon and evening. Fat and fat profits.Related

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And amid this activity, this skelter to capture the moment, a tall, slim figure would also soon be going about his business, which was that of scoring runs and saving a game either for Essex or England. It is what Alastair Cook has been doing for two decades now and it still brings him satisfaction.His batting today was certainly not without fault; he was put down twice in the slips before he’d reached 30, though neither chance was easy, and he sometimes seemed in a tangle when Liam Patterson-White bowled into the footholes. But he is 87 not out and if the job of saving the game has not yet been done with ease, the loss of Nick Browne, leg before to Lyndon James, is the only damage suffered.And in a way, Cook’s achievement in the second innings was the more admirable because he was less fluent today than when he made 72 on Thursday. Only 12 of his first 37 runs came in boundaries and two of those cover-driven fours off Dane Paterson sandwiched a fiery chance to second slip where Calvin Harrison, both hands above his head, could not cling on. Otherwise, there were the jabs down that gave Cook singles to backward point and the little deflections to the on side that gave him a few more. His fifth four, a drive through cover-point, brought him to his 122nd first-class fifty, although only his third at Trent Bridge. The achievement drew applause but the stroke was played against the growing tumult on the Radcliffe Road, where another crowd grew and steamed and prepared for manic partisanship.Even though he knows to celebrate, Alastair Cook does not do manic. Excitable is a rarely allowed indulgence. He takes the tiny defeats that come along in most long innings and is thankful one of them has not sent him back to the pavilion. In company with his captain, Tom Westley, with whom he had put on an unbroken 137 by close of play, he wore Nottinghamshire’s bowlers down on the third evening of this game and thereby exposed the inadequacy of his own side’s 298 in the first innings.Steven Mullaney’s fields became funky and merely hopeful: two short-midwickets, one short-cover and no slip to Westley, who ended the day with a pleasant unbeaten 70 of his own. Stuart Broad and Ben Hutton, whom one might have thought two of their side’s biggest threats, bowled eight overs apiece. It will take a lot for either side to win this game tomorrow and there is no need for a contrived finish. There is though, the probability that Cook will make a century on this ground for the first time in his career. It will be another tick on a career record that is littered with them.Matthew Montgomery made his first hundred of the season•Getty Images

And maybe we had an inkling how things might go during a morning of brief appearances and carefree strokeplay, a curious counterpoint to all that Cook represents. None of the last six in Nottinghamshire’s order batted longer than Patterson-White, who stodged around for 51 minutes before a crabbed poke, neither Catholic nor Protestant, edged a catch to Simon Harmer at slip off Jamie Porter. By contrast, Jamie Harrison hit seven varied boundaries in his 36-ball 31 and everyone else showed willing, especially Stuart Broad, who wiped Harmer towards West Bridgford for a six and a four before Matt Critchley picked up the last of his three cheap wickets.At the other end, Matthew Montgomery batted with all the confidence of a chap who looks up at the scoreboard before play starts and sees three figures against his name. Montgomery stroked six more boundaries today before falling leg before when attempting to reverse-sweep a full-length ball from Critchley. He was one short of his career-best 178 but one doubts he’ll need counselling.

With the tour clashing with the SA20, many of the first-choice players, including all of the bowling attack, is missing

Firdose Moonda30-Dec-2023Uncapped opening batter Neil Brand has been named South Africa’s captain for their two-Test tour to New Zealand, which starts on February 4 and clashes with the SA20. South Africa will travel with a makeshift squad, which features only three players that are part of the ongoing series against India: Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham and Zubayr Hamza, who was added as a replacement following Temba Bavuma’s hamstring injury. None of the first-choice bowling attack are available for the series, which is part of the World Test Championship (WTC).The bulk of the squad currently playing the India series will be unavailable because they will be engaged in the SA20 which begins on January 10. That ruled out Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne, Marco Jansen, Nandre Burger, Wiaan Mulder, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj. Dean Elgar will not be involved in the T20 tournament but he is retiring from Test cricket in the New Year.Red-ball coach Shukri Conrad’s plans were dealt a last-minute blow as well when Durban’s Super Giants signed Tony de Zorzi, who was slated to open the batting for South Africa in New Zealand, on Thursday morning. In all South Africa have seven uncapped players to go with seven capped players. Seamer Duanne Olivier, who played 15 Tests between 2017 and 2022 is the most experienced, followed by Petersen (12).Related

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South Africa’s 2023-25 WTC campaign began on Boxing Day, where they beat India by an innings and 32 runs to get their first points on the board. They will only play two-Test series for the entirety of this campaign including away trips to New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh, and home series against India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. CSA attempted to get the New Zealand series moved in order to choose a stronger squad but was unable to and has left Conrad with the task of trying to get away points without his best players. But, South Africa have never lost a Test series to New Zealand and Conrad had earlier said he “backs himself to come back with something” from a trip where he could hand on as many as seven debuts.”The players picked for this tour have every chance of challenging New Zealand and we have full confidence they will do exactly that when we arrive for the first Test match at Mount Maunganui,” he said in a statement put out by CSA. “Most of these guys participated in the recent A series against West Indies where they showed that they have what it takes against players of international calibre. That experience will no doubt leave them in a better position for what we expect to be a testing series in New Zealand.”South Africa will travel with their usual support staff, none of whom are involved in the SA20, apart from batting consultant Ashwell Prince, who joined them for the India Tests. Prince is commentating on the SA20 and Imraan Khan, former Test batter and current Dolphins coach, will go to New Zealand in that role for this series.South Africa Test squad: Neil Brand (capt), David Bedingham, Ruan de Swardt, Clyde Fortuin (wk), Zubayr Hamza, Tshepo Moreki, Mihlali Mpongwana, Duanne Olivier, Dane Paterson, Keegan Petersen, Dane Piedt, Raynard van Tonder, Shaun von Berg, Khaya Zondo

James Vince, Tim David and Shimron Hetmyer were with Gulf Giants while Jason Holder and Andre Russell were with Abu Dhabi Knight Riders

Mohammad Isam03-Feb-2025A cluster of big names joined the playoff stage of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), all arriving from the International League T20 (ILT20) tournament in the UAE after being eliminated in that competition. James Vince, Tim David and Shimron Hetmyer have come from Gulf Giants (GG) while Andre Russell and Jason Holder have arrived after playing for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR).All five were in action at Monday’s BPL eliminator match. David, Russell and Vince turned out for Rangpur Riders while Khulna Tigers have Hetmyer and Holder in their corner.Kyle Mayers is reportedly also returning for Fortune Barishal after his stint with the Abu Dhabi franchise in the ILT20. Mayers had initially played five matches for Barishal, before hopping off to the ILT20 where he played ten matches.Related

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It is a timely boost for the BPL after a plethora of controversies over allegations of corruption and salary payment issues.The inclusion of these T20 A-listers will give the tournament some legitimacy. But the swift player transfer highlights the absurdity of the T20 market where a player gets to play more franchise leagues in the same window if his team is eliminated earlier than others. Vince has played in the Big Bash League, before making it to the ILT20 and now have arrived for the BPL.The injection of big stars created an early problem for Rangpur in the eliminator though. Vince had a mix-up with Soumya Sarkar in the first over of the eliminator, resulting in the latter getting run-out. Vince then fell for just one run, unable to read a two-paced wicket. David and Russell fell for seven and four respectively.The BPL hasn’t had a lot of big names playing this season. Alex Hales and Shaheen Afridi featured for the first couple of weeks while Jason Roy and Reece Topley also appeared for a few matches. In fact, there has been criticism of the large number of lesser-known and former overseas cricketers in the BPL.