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Harbhajan Singh has asked for India’s domestic cricketers to be given contracts in order to ensure their financial security

Nagraj Gollapudi17-May-2017Offspinner Harbhajan Singh has asked for India’s domestic cricketers to be given contracts in order to ensure their financial security. The uncertainty over income, according to Harbhajan, was forcing some players to reconsider their future in the game.To ease such concerns, Harbhajan sought the intervention of India coach Anil Kumble, who is scheduled to meet the Committee of Administrators and BCCI office bearers in Hyderabad on May 20 and 21 to discuss the contracts of the international players.Harbhajan said he became aware of the issue while playing for Punjab over the last few years. “I hate that I’ve found constant struggle around me in the financial situation of my first-class team-mates,” Harbhajan told Kumble in a phone message reported by . “Even though Ranji Trophy is hosted by the richest cricket board in the world, I appeal to you as a player, who is an inspiration and role model for all Ranji players.”Harbhajan told Kumble that former India players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag needed to push for a hike in the match fees of domestic players. “Imagine in today’s day and age, how can you call yourself a professional if your ‘job’ doesn’t even tell you how much you will earn yearly?” he wrote. “How can you sign up and commit your life to a job which doesn’t promise you a fixed income every year. And that too, you are paid one year after you complete your work.”It is understood that Kumble acknowledged Harbhajan’s message and said he would look into the matter.The issue came to Harbhajan’s attention when a former Punjab team-mate highlighted his plight. Harbhajan realised the player had no money to support himself or his family. He was still young but not playing anymore, having been injured for two years. Harbhajan said the player had no insurance if he got injured during the season.”The guys can’t even plan their future because they don’t know whether they would earn Rs 1 lakh or Rs 10 lakh in that year, and it leads to huge issues in their lives and families and (affects) state of mind,” Harbhajan said. “Anyway, let’s try and gently make a change for our brothers.”According to Harbhajan, other countries have a support system in place for domestic players, something that the BCCI also needs to consider.”An international player has a contract, he has everything. But there are domestic cricketers I have played with who don’t have money to pay EMI,” Harbhajan told ESPNcricinfo. “There are some who played just two matches in which they did not perform well and then were in doubt about playing in the next season.”Harbhajan said he would be happy to talk with the COA if given an opportunity. “We need to make sure that the domestic players earn enough to run a household. We need to have domestic contracts in place, regardless of whether the cricketer plays or not. In case the player gets injured, the state association should bear his expenses and assure him about his future on his return.”A BCCI official agreed with Harbhajan but said it was the responsibility of the state association to create such contracts. “The BCCI does not have any control on the selections of players and such stuff. It is the state associations that manage that. The BCCI only pays the money to players.”The money paid to domestic players is in the form of two components: the match fee and a percentage of gross revenue from the media rights income the BCCI earns annually from the home season. The match fee is not standard and depends on the media rights income. The BCCI allots 13% of the media rights income to domestic players and junior cricketers. Domestic players get 10.40% and the rest goes to the junior cricketers. On an average, a domestic player might earn anywhere between INR 80,000 and 100,000 per first-class match.

The Australia captain said an ICC trophy will be a useful bargaining chip for the players’ cause in ongoing pay dispute with the board

Nagraj Gollapudi24-May-2017Australia captain Steven Smith has said a victorious Champions Trophy campaign will be the ideal bargaining chip for the players in their ongoing pay dispute with Cricket Australia. He was also confident this summer’s Ashes will go ahead despite his deputy David Warner suggesting the players might miss the marquee series if CA did not retain the existing revenue distribution model, which is at the heart of the disagreements.Smith’s optimism comes amid talks that CA is reconsidering its stance on independent mediation. The Australian Cricketers’ Association had offered the option to the board last week but it had been rejected. The ACA chief executive Alastair Nicholson will be in London later this week, and is expected to meet with CA chief executive James Sutherland and team performance manager Pat Howard to try and find a solution.In any case, Australia’s players feel they have an additional incentive ahead of the Champions Trophy. “If we win it will certainly be really good for the playing group,” Smith said at Lord’s where Australia conducted their first training camp. “We are sticking really strong together. We are backing what the ACA is doing back home. But as I said before it is about focussing on this tournament and making sure we are entirely switched on.”Smith admitted that he was unaware that CA were mulling over third-party mediation to break the deadlock that has flared up in the past month. “Okay, that is news to me,” he said. “I am not sure. It is great that they [CA] are trying to sort things out. And as I said we are supporting the ACA and what they are doing. They are working really hard to get what the player group wants. I am sure everything will be resolved soon.”Doubts persist over what CA’s next step would be. Sutherland had earlier sent a blunt missive to the players threatening their employment once their existing contracts expire on June 30. If the players did not accede to CA’s pay proposal, which the ACA had rejected, Sutherland warned that they would not be paid under any new alternative model.To safeguard the players’ future, the ACA has set up the Cricketers’ Brand, a company that will manage the players’ intellectual property rights moving forward. Smith said the new venture had all the players’ support. “Yeah, I think everyone’s signed up to that. We are supportive of the ACA in what they are doing back home. They are working really hard with CA to get the deal right. And I am sure in time they will get that and everything will be okay for everyone involved.”Smith was hopeful that the impasse between the players and the board would be solved in time for the Ashes in November. “I saw the comments [Warner’s on missing the Ashes]. I certainly don’t think…Of course, we want to play in the Ashes. Of course, we want everything to go really well there. It is just about making sure the guys finalise a deal and get the MoU sorted and then everything will be fine. Certainly nothing from us that we don’t want to play, we certainly want to be playing in the Ashes. Hopefully they will get things resolved soon and everything will be back to normal.”

Niroshan Dickwella has been fined 30% of his match fee, and handed two demerit points, for a stumping attempt that was deemed to be “contrary to the spirit of the game” by match officials

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Jul-2017Niroshan Dickwella has been fined 30% of his match fee, and handed two demerit points, for a stumping attempt in the first ODI against Zimbabwe that was deemed to be “contrary to the spirit of the game” by match officials.The incident had occurred in the seventh over of Zimbabwe’s innings on Friday. Dickwella gathered the ball, and waited many seconds for Solomon Mire to leave the crease, before finally breaking the stumps, long after Mire had completed the shot.When Dickwella made the appeal, the decision was sent to third umpire Nigel Llong, who found the batsman to be in his crease at the time the bails were dislodged in any case. Keepers have often waited for batsmen to overbalance before whipping off the bails, but, on this occasion, the umpires who laid the charge had likely taken exception to the length of time that elapsed between the stroke’s completion and the stumping attempt.”Dickwella admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Chris Broad and, as such, there was no need for a formal hearing,” an ICC release said.This was Dickwella’s third fine of the year. In February, he had had an on-field run-in with Kagiso Rabada, and later in the month showed dissent to an umpire’s decision. He was suspended for two limited-overs games as a result, and now, having accrued seven demerit points, will suffer a similar suspension again if he is hit with any further demerit points over the next two years.

The Zimbabwe captain was disappointed after a seven wicket defeat to Sri Lanka, saying his batsmen did not adjust to the change in the pitch on Sunday and play more straight-bat shots

Andrew Fidel Fernando02-Jul-2017Graeme Cremer conceded Zimbabwe’s batsmen may have been too eager on the sweeps and reverse sweeps during the second ODI on Sunday, even though those strokes had proved productive during Friday’s record chase. Sri Lanka’s best bowler Lakshan Sandakan, meanwhile, had come prepared for that tactic from Zimbabwe, which goes some way to explaining his match figures of 4 for 52.Zimbabwe had been 67 for 1 before the spinners came into operation in Galle, and prompted a collapse that cost the visitors five wickets in the space of 10.3 overs. Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl all fell attempting to sweep or reverse sweep.”Maybe with the wicket, we should have adjusted, should have hit the ball down the ground a bit more,” Cremer said after the seven-wicket defeat. “I thought the wicket was a little bit different from the pitch for the first game, and we didn’t adjust early enough. At one stage we could have batted off the overs – 230 could have been a decent score, but we lost too many wickets in the middle.”Sandakan, playing his first ODI since March, employed several strategies to counter Zimbabwe’s sweep-happy batsmen. Early in the innings, he overcame Hamilton Masakadza’s reverse sweep threat by firing deliveries on a leg-stump line. Later in the innings, the dip he achieved also made him a difficult bowler to play across the line.”We identified that they were sweeping us, and we tried to change the field, slow the ball up a bit and change our lengths,” Sandakan said. “We didn’t try too many changes, but length and pace was important and it worked for us today. We also bowled wicket to wicket – a little straighter – to stop some of those shots.”While Sandakan had made the more telling blows to the opposition innings, debutant legspinner Wanidu Hasaranga knocked out Zimbabwe’s tail with a hat-trick in his third over. After the match, captain Angelo Mathews said he had not known much about Hasaranga, which suggests Cremer and the Zimbabwe are likely to have been even less enlightened on the threat he posed.”To get a hat-trick on debut that something special,” Cremer said of Hasaranga. “He looked a little bit nervous when he started, which is understandable. But credit to him when he stuck at it, and credit to the skipper having faith in him to keep him on. To clean up the back end of the innings was excellent.”Sandakan also lauded the 19-year-old’s poise. “When someone is debuting, he is under pressure. He managed the pressure well and bowled his googlies, flippers and leg-spin nicely.”

This will be the India offspinner’s first stint in county cricket, and he could be available as early as Worcestershire’s match against Gloucestershire starting on August 28

Sidharth Monga14-Aug-20172:08

Dasgupta: India will want Ashwin primed for overseas tours

India offspinner R Ashwin, who had been left out of the limited-overs leg of the tour of Sri Lanka, will play county cricket this season. He could be available as early as Worcestershire’s match against Gloucestershire starting on August 28. ESPNcricinfo had earlier reported that Worcestershire had shown interest in availing Ashwin’s services towards the end of their season.Ashwin’s India team-mate left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja is also in talks with the counties, but it as yet unclear whom he will play for.Worcestershire are currently placed second in division two of the county championships. Ashwin could come up against another India team-mate, Cheteshwar Pujara, in his second match as Worcestershire take on the table-leaders Nottinghamshire starting on September 5. Pujara is all set to continue playing for Nottinghamshire, whom he signed up for at the start of the season, following the conclusion of the Tests against Sri Lanka. Pujara scored 223 runs for them in five innings over four matches, including a match-winning hundred against Gloucestershire.This will be Ashwin’s first stint in county cricket. The last time India toured England for a Test series, he was played in only two of the five Tests, losing out to Jadeja in the first three. India have another five-Test series coming up in England next year.India’s next assignment after the Sri Lanka tour is the five ODIs against Australia starting on September 17. If Ashwin is selected for those matches, he might play only two matches in England. If he is not, he could go on till the end of the season as Worcestershire make a push for promotion.

Karn Sharma took his second five-for in as many matches for India Red, who are now through to the final

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Sep-2017
ScorecardGetty Images

A century from Deepak Hooda, and lower-order fireworks from Jaydev Unadkat and Bharghav Bhatt, ensured India Blue took first-innings points from a drawn match against India Red in Kanpur. Hooda’s 174-ball 133 was the seventh hundred of his first-class career.India Red, who took one point from this game to add to the six they picked up by beating India Green, are through to the final. India Blue and India Green will meet in the last of the round-robin matches, which begins on Tuesday.A rain-hit third day, on which only 4.4 overs had been possible, had diminished any chance of a decisive result, but the question of which team would get three points remained to be resolved when Saturday dawned. Responding to India Red’s 383, India Blue were 151 behind with seven wickets in hand, with Hanuma Vihari at the crease on 88 and Hooda on 37.Vihari fell soon after reaching his hundred, bowled by Basil Thampi, and Chama Milind had Ishan Kishan caught behind 3.3 overs later to leave India Blue 300 for 5. Hooda needed help from the lower order, and it arrived in the form of Unadkat, who smashed 57 off 53 balls (10×4, 1×6), the pair putting on 96 off 101 balls to take India Blue into the lead.Both fell in the space of five balls, but India Blue weren’t quite done yet, as Bhatt (33 off 26 balls, with four sixes) went after the bowling and stretched their total to an eventual 444. The legspinner Karn Sharma took the last four wickets to finish with figures of 5 for 94 and take his tournament tally to 15 wickets in two matches.There wasn’t a whole lot of time left in the match, and India Red made 133 for 5 in 35 overs in that time, Rishabh Pant top-scoring with a 23-ball 46.

Shadab Jakati and Amit Yadav helped Goa cling on, while Himachal were thwarted by Punjab debutant Abhishek Gupta’s double-hundred

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Oct-2017
Scorecard
A 239-run partnership between debutants Abhishek Gupta and Abhishek Sharma narrowed Punjab’s overnight deficit of 245 to 128, before they were bowled out for 601 in response to Himachal Pradesh’s 729. Himachal offspinner Gurvinder Singh finished with a career-best haul of 6 for 162. Himachal then batted out 40 overs in the second innings play as the match ended in a draw in Dharamsala.Having begun the day on 484 for 6, the overnight pair were separated when Sharma fell six short of a century, managing to add only 13 to his overnight score of 81. Wicketkeeper-batsman, Gupta, however, converted his overnight score of 129 into a near run-a-ball 202 on debut. He hit 24 fours and five sixes in his knock to left-arm spinner Akash Vashisht.Handed a lead of 128, Himachal wobbled early in their second innings, losing six wickets for 81 by the 22nd over, with medium-pacers Sandeep Sharma, Manpreet Gony, and Barinder Sran taking two wickets each. Paras Dogra and Vasisht then put up an unbroken 64 runs for the seventh wicket to take Himachal through to stumps. They picked up three points for their first-innings lead, while Punjab took home one point.Prashant Chopra was adjudged Player of the Match for his triple-hundred for Himachal in the first innings.
ScorecardA half-century from Vikas Hathwala ensured a draw for Services against Bengal in Delhi. Bengal’s second innings declaration at 161 for 5 left Services with a target of 355 but the latter kept losing wickets to give Bengal a glimmer of an outright win.Wickets from the pace-bowling line-up of Ashok Dinda, Mohammed Shami and Kanishk Seth had left Services at 124 for 5, before Hathwala and Muzzaffaruddin Khalid battled in a 75-run sixth-wicket partnership. Where Hathwala was brisk, scoring 64 off 71 deliveries with nine fours and two sixes, Khalid played out 99 deliveries to remain unbeaten on 9 at stumps.
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Goa scrambled for a draw on the final day in the face of Chhattisgarh left-arm spinner Sumit Ruikar’s first 10-wicket match haul in first-class cricket. Following on after conceding a 181-run lead in the first innings, the home team averted a loss after the eighth-wicket pair of Shadab Jakati and Amit Yadav played out 80 balls to force a draw.An early collapse on the final day saw Goa lose six wickets for 54 runs, having finished on 223 for 4 overnight. Ruikar started the collapse with the wicket of Reagan Pinto in the third over of the day, and ran through the line-up with thereafter. He’d begun the day with only one wicket to his name.
In their second innings, Goa’s resistance came from opener Sumiran Amonkar and Darshan Misal’s 54-run stand for the fourth wicket, before No. 6 batsmen Saurabh Bandekar and wicketkeeper Samar Dubhashi made scores in excess of 20 to keep them alive.

“To bat with pretty minimal intent on day one when you get the best of conditions, to say you’re trying to win the Test is not in my realms of thinking,” said Australia’s coach

Daniel Brettig13-Nov-2017Australia’s coach Matthew Mott has criticised England’s approach to the inaugural day-night women’s Test match, questioning whether the visitors ever had genuine intentions of trying to win after they showed little willingness to take the game on after opting to bat first on a pristine North Sydney Oval pitch.In a result that left the multi-format Ashes series open leading into the final Twenty20 leg – England must win all three matches to prevail – Australia were unable to force victory on the final day after Ellyse Perry’s epic double century had built up a big first-innings lead. However, Mott was dubious about England’s first-innings approach, soaking up 116 overs to make 280 before the hosts tallied 448 from only another 50 overs.”I think both teams have got to be honest about whether they were trying to win the Test match,” Mott said in Sydney. “To bat with pretty minimal intent on day one when you get the best of the conditions, I think if you’re going to sit back and say you’re trying to win the Test is not in my realms of thinking.”We certainly would’ve been disappointed with that scoring rate on day one. That slowed the whole Test match up and made it difficult to get 20 wickets for both teams. I thought it was a monumental effort for us to bowl them out for 280 given they won the toss and batted first on that wicket.”We were really pleased with that, but I suppose that backed us into a bit of a corner with the game taking a slow path, that we had to bat big in that first innings and get right ahead and roll the dice that we could get 10 wickets and not have to bat again. It certainly wasn’t the way we wanted to play the Test but I’m pretty sure if there was maybe a bit more grass on day one and two, got the first innings through a bit quicker, that we might have seen that result.”England’s coach Mark Robinson argued the issue was more to do with the type of pitch prepared for the match, which lacked the grass to be exploited by the seamers early in the match and then dried out into a slow and low surface where sharp spin was about the only assistance on offer.”Ultimately we want to play on better wickets … the biggest disappointment is it wasn’t a fresh wicket, which I don’t get for this one-off Test, pink ball and we haven’t got a fresh wicket,” he said. “You’ve got a young leg spinner [Amanda Wellington], she needs bounce. You’ve got Perry, [Katherine] Brunt, I take my hat off to [Megan] Schutt, all of them, they run in hard and then sometimes you want them to deserve better.”I sat on the edge [of my seat] yesterday unfortunately having to watch Ellyse Perry relentlessly go on in her quest of excellence, which it was, and I actually felt like I was in something special again and it reminded me of the day at Lord’s [the World Cup final]. It was a special day to have nearly 4000 there for a pink-ball Test match to watch a player relentlessly go on.”Yes we’ll talk about the wicket and we should play on better wickets but hopefully that’ll show the ICC and a lot of other people that there is an appetite for Test match cricket. We’ve got to understand our product don’t we, we’ve got to entertain people. We want all of these 12,000 to come back.”