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Manish Pandey, Unmukt Chand, Rajat Bhatia, Rishi Dhawan, Iqbal Abdullah and T Suman are some of the names that feature in the 651-strong longlist of uncapped players, who will be part of the IPL auction for the first time

Nagraj Gollapudi30-Jan-2014Additions to capped players’ list

Twelve players have been added to the list of capped players, which now stands at 244.
Varun Aaron, Hemang Badani, Laxmi Shukla, Aavishkar Salvi, VRV Singh (all India), Chris Lynn (Australia), Simon Jones (England), Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Roelof van de Merwe, David Wiese (all South Africa), Andre Russell (West Indies)

Manish Pandey, Unmukt Chand, Rajat Bhatia, Rishi Dhawan, Iqbal Abdullah and T Suman are some of the names that feature in the 651-strong longlist of uncapped players, who will be part of the IPL auction for the first time. The franchises received the list on Thursday morning and have till February 3 to send the names they are interested in to the IPL, which will then make a final shortlist for the player auction that takes place in Bangalore on February 12 and 13.A further 50 names are likely to be added to this longlist, which was drawn up after receiving nominations from all state associations in India and eight other countries. The list has been divided into two groups: the first one comprises 127 players who have already played in the IPL, while the second features potential first-timers.The absence of uncapped players in the auction thus far was a controversial topic, with many franchises complaining of horse trading by their richer rivals who, it was alleged, were luring players with under-the-table deals.In 2011 Pandey along with Ambati Rayudu and Suman were the most sought after Indian uncapped players. After some uncertainty over where they would go, Pandey eventually played for Pune Warriors while the Andhra Pradesh pair of Rayudu and Suman was snatched up by Mumbai Indians.The IPL defended the non-inclusion of uncapped players in the auction then, saying there were already rules in place with players getting a fixed fee of Rs 1 to 3 million (US$16,000 approx.) and the contracts being governed by the BCCI. But the reality was different. Although the franchises were asked by the IPL not to approach an uncapped player till the auction was over, most tried to lure players with “perks”, as one official put it in the past.With the IPL restricting the squad strength to 27 this year, including a cap of nine overseas players, the franchises have been forced to lay more emphasis on domestic Indian players. However the quality of talent in the uncapped market has always been in short supply and the franchises once again feared horsetrading would be the norm.Fortunately for them, the IPL finally decided to bring uncapped players into the auction. Their base prices have been fixed between of Rs 1 million and Rs 3 million. Pandey, the IPL’s first Indian centurion, and Dhawan – this season’s leading wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy – have listed their base prices at Rs 2 million, while the likes of Suman, Bhatia, Chand and Abdulla are in the top uncapped bracket at Rs 3 million.

The SLPL has been scrapped in favour of a short domestic Twenty20 tournament for the second consecutive year, after SLC failed to attract meaningful commercial interest in the tournament

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Feb-2014The Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) has been scrapped in favour of a short domestic Twenty20 tournament for the second consecutive year, after SLC failed to attract meaningful commercial interest in the tournament. The SLPL has failed to materialise in three of the four years since it had been announced, crashing most dramatically in 2013, when each franchise was terminated after failing to pay the participation fee three weeks before the tournament was scheduled to begin.After that cancellation, SLC had hoped to draw up a more lucrative business model alongside Hong Kong-based commercial partner Somerset Entertainment Ventures (SEV), but despite several meetings that goal remains unrealised.”Since terminating the contracts of seven franchise owners we have tried to revive the tournament, but there has been no response from the promotions partner,” SLPL director Ajit Jayasekara told . “Beside there’s no window left due to South Africa’s visit in July and Sri Lanka A team’s tour of England later that month.”Last year’s SLPL had been replaced by a week-long Super Fours tournament, which produced the Kandurata Maroons team that played in the Champions League. “We are in the process of organising the Super Fours on a grand scale this year,” Jayasekara said. “Obviously there will not be any foreign players, but we will have all local stars – the national team and the A team players in action. It can be a short tournament – we can finish it in about six to eight days.”South Africa this week confirmed a two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in July this year, and the Sri Lanka A team is expected to leave for a tour of England and Ireland shortly after that tour ends. While the A team tour had been in the works for some time, South Africa’s revised Test tour is believed to have been advanced to 2014, only after it had become clear the SLPL would not materialise this year.Jayasekara said a third cancellation did not necessarily sound a death-knell for the SLPL concept. “We have to go through a fresh process – getting advertisers and getting people to apply for franchises. That is a time-consuming thing. We’re hoping SEV will come up with a plan – maybe for a scaled down version – and try to revive the SLPL.”The only SLPL tournament that did materialise, in 2012, had been a mild cricketing success, but it had been poorly supported and had failed to convince franchise owners that they would eventually break even in subsequent years. At least one franchise owner had also seemingly corrupt intentions, having told an SLPL captain that franchises could only make money from the tournament if spot fixing occurred. The player immediately relayed this to the ICC’s anti-corruption unit.

Chris Rogers, one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year, had a lot to reflect on after his Middlesex side lost to Sussex by an innings

Alex Winter at Hove09-Apr-2014
ScorecardJames Anyon made the early breakthroughs to help spoil Chris Rogers’ day•Getty ImagesChris Rogers had a lot to reflect on at the Wisden dinner. Named as a Cricketer of the Year he could take pride in a consistent career which has been finally rewarded at Test level. But domestic cricket has been his main patch and he has overseen a mess of a performance from Middlesex in the opening match of 2014.Billed as potential champions, Middlesex will have to play a good deal better than this. A collapse of 8 for 33 saw them lose before lunch on the final day and begin the season with a hammering in little over six sessions after the second day at Hove had been lost to rain.Without Rogers, who made 1068 Championship runs last year, and Sam Robson, 1180 in 2013, Middlesex have often veered off course but here, with Robson out on the third evening, they finished in a mangled heap once their captain was dismissed 40 minutes into the final day in what became a shocking highlight of their middle-order deficiencies.The weakness was identified by Sussex captain Ed Joyce: “The two openers have been big batsmen for them over the past couple of years and if you can get them out the middle order is potentially a bit vulnerable, looking at the averages.”Joyce described the loss of quick wickets as the “Hove Cluster” – such things tend to happen here – but Middlesex suffered a Hove Calamity. James Anyon, bustling up the hill from the Sea End, marched them to the shore, and Steve Magoffin kicked them into the water to finish with five wickets.Sussex’s consistency with the ball was crucial with enough swing available to cause problems. The opening overs were settled before Anyon struck and carnage ensued. Rogers looked to play to leg and was caught by wicketkeeper Ben Brown; Eoin Morgan failed again, also feathering an edge behind; Adam Rossington was Anyon’s third wicket, lbw looking to play square too.Jon Lewis floated a wide delivery that Neil Dexter couldn’t resist driving at; he edged to third slip. A better Lewis delivery saw Dawid Malan caught at first slip. Magoffin then blew away the tail with an ugly flattening of stumps.Middlesex’s Championship challenge faltered towards the end of last season and it will take a defiant response towards perceived weaknesses even to get in the frame this year. They now have three matches at Lord’s to find a response. They need to work not just on their batting, but all aspects of their game.”We got outplayed throughout the whole game,” Rogers said. “We’ve had a very poor game. We’ve got some questions that need to be answered. It’s not a great way to start the season.”We played poorly all round and we got what we deserved. Even if we had scored 200 in the first innings we’d have been in the game. And then there was a crucial dropped catch. We had a lot of players who performed below expectations. We had no one apart from Steve Finn who stood up and for only one person to do that in a game is not good enough.”At the beginning of the season we’re thinking we’ve got half a chance to be contending at the end but not with performances like that. But we’ve only had one bad game, that can happen, and we have to get better.”Sussex also began 2013 with an innings victory and will hope to go a couple of places better than last year’s third place. They have a very solid bowling attack with Jon Lewis’ six wickets here a fine start to what could be a second wind for his career. Chris Jordan is also to come back but it was his batting that Joyce identified as a key component in Sussex’s development.”We bowled a lot more consistently then they did and showed more fight with the bat and our lower order really contributed well,” Joyce said. “We’ve been working hugely hard over the winter to try and improve the lower order batting. We looked at the teams who have won the title over the past few years and they seem to be scoring runs from six down.”We did a lot talking over the winter as a group and went to Spain together to come up with a bowling plan; it’s pretty simple to hit the same spot lots and lots of times and we did that in this game. It’s obviously a great start.”

Brijesh Patel, the former India opener, is set to occupy the position of the National Cricket Academy director, which has been vacant for more than a year and half

Amol Karhadkar09-May-2014Brijesh Patel, the former India opener, is set to occupy the position of the National Cricket Academy director, which has been vacant for more than a year and half. This will be Patel’s second stint as NCA director, after serving between 2001 to 2004, during the early years of the academy.The decision was taken during the NCA Board meeting that was held in Bangalore on Friday. Patel, who heads Royal Challengers Bangalore’s cricket operations, will take charge soon after the conclusion of the IPL.The NCA director’s post has been vacant since Sandeep Patil was appointed as the chairman of the national selection panel in October 2012. It is understood that the BCCI hierarchy were trying to convince Rahul Dravid to take over from Patil. Once the talks with Dravid didn’t materialise, Patel’s name came up next as the NCA Board preferred a candidate based in Bangalore. Patel, who took over the Karnataka State Cricket Association administration last year thus realigning himself with the BCCI bosses, was thus a “natural choice”, according to an NCA Board member.The NCA, which has primarily been converted into a rehab centre for centrally-contracted players of the BCCI, has been in a transition phase for almost a year. NCA chairman TC Mathew has been wanting to implement the plan set in motion by his predecessor Ranjib Biswal to set up five zonal academies and streamline coaching methods to avoid junior cricketers being confused by various coaches. It remains to be seen if Patel pushes the proposals that were passed more than a year ago but haven’t been implemented so far.

Marcus Trescothick has been the mainstay of Somerset cricket for so long that any sign that he is beginning to rediscover some of his old poise is bound to quicken West Country hearts

David Hopps at Hove27-Apr-2014
ScorecardMarcus Trescothick made it through a tricky session, with the occasional reminder of his best•Getty ImagesMarcus Trescothick has been the mainstay of Somerset cricket for so long that any sign that he is beginning to rediscover some of his old poise is bound to quicken West Country hearts. There were enough Trescothick clumps to record on an abbreviated first day at Hove, interspersed in an innings of staunch resistance, to encourage the belief that the old mastery can yet return and provide the sort of finish he deserves as the shadows lengthen on a grand career.Sussex’s seam attack has possessed an early-season potency that has carried them to the top of Division One, their first two matches won, and once the grouchy South Coast skies had finally relented, 32 overs represented a daunting proposition for Somerset: more than enough time, as events elsewhere in the country indicated, for carnage to ensue.When Chris Jordan, in turquoise-backed boots, twinkled in with a loosener which may not be bettered all season, Chris Jones edging his first ball to the wicketkeeper, that impression was heightened, but their line was astray too often. It was only in the nick of time that Sussex made further inroads after Trescothick and Nick Compton gradually asserted themselves with impressive deliberation.Compton was 14 balls away from seeing out the day when he became the second batsman to be caught at the wicket, this time off Steve Magoffin. Sussex looked at their most dangerous when Jordan had the slope in his favour in his second spell. He made several deliveries bounce steeply and, from one of them, the nightwatchman Jamie Overton fell to a cracking reaction catch at second slip, low to his left, by Mike Yardy.The Sussex keeper, incidentally, remains Ben Brown as Matt Prior’s Achilles problems are yet to relent. A season in which he must have yearned to make heavy runs to re-establish himself in the England side has so far deepened concerns about his longevity at international level.Prior habitually credits cycling with assisting his recovery, but this time his ailment has been so troublesome that he might have to put in enough miles to have an outside chance of a Tour de France spot when the tour comes to Yorkshire later this summer.Trescothick stood firm to the close. Somerset’s hopes must be that when he finally retires, his 2013 Championship season will be seen as an aberration: an average of 28 and, more strikingly, no Championship century for the first time since 1998, a shortfall which encouraged much chat about whether he should reduce the burden by relinquishing the captaincy. The player himself saw no burden and remains, a player whose big presence on the county circuit continues to be prized by the crowds and whose wicket is still valued by the professionals he pits himself against.Never particularly fleet of foot, he took his first run from a pushed drive a little slowly – setting off like a second-hand tractor on a damp morning. There are many farmers in Somerset who will tell you that a second-hand tractor is not to be trusted, but this particular variety has proved its serviceability more than most.More than 20 overs elapsed before Trescothick’s first belligerent moment – an overpitched delivery from James Anyon which he barndoored through cover. The old boy clearly got a taste for it and so nearly got out as he failed to connect with an attempted repeat against a wider delivery. But his authority had been announced and when Anyon went in search of a similar dismissal in his next over Trescothick deposited him for three boundaries in a row. A sumptuous straight drive near the close was the highlight. Another tough examination lies ahead.

Mumbai Indians lost their last eight wickets for 33 runs but did enough either side of that to beat Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs and stay alive in the tournament

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy23-May-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:20

Guha: Mumbai Indians won despite being patchy

Mumbai Indians lost their last eight wickets for 33 runs, and were bowled out with three balls left to play. As Rohit Sharma watched his team collapse, the expression on his face went from incredulous to annoyed to angry. This, after all, was a must-win game for Mumbai if they wanted to retain any chance of qualifying for the playoffs.Eight wickets for 33 runs. And yet, Mumbai won, and comfortably at that. They did just about enough either side of the collapse to keep their hopes alive.Michael Hussey got them off to a flier with a 33-ball 56, and Mumbai had been looking at 200 before their innings came crashing down. Chasing 174, Delhi Daredevils never got any real momentum going. JP Duminy and Manoj Tiwary kept them alive with an 85-run fourth-wicket partnership, but 32 from the last two overs proved beyond their reach. Marchant de Lange and Jasprit Bumhah bowled two excellent overs to close out a 15-run win for Mumbai.Sent in to bat, Mumbai profited from some ordinary bowling at the start to run away to 65 for no loss at the end of the Powerplay and 100 for 1 after 10 overs. Siddarth Kaul and Jaydev Unadkat kept drifting down leg to Hussey, and he kept playing pick-up shots and pulls into the gaps on the leg-side boundary.Imran Tahir’s introduction did nothing to slow Mumbai down. On the contrary, it brought Lendl Simmons into the game. He took three fours off the over, two with his favourite square cut – off back foot and then front foot – to capitalise on the width offered by the legspinner.The dismissal of Simmons brought Rohit Sharma in, and he was soon capitalising on some width of his own – this time offered by JP Duminy, who bowled short and wide despite having only deep cover on the off-side boundary. Mumbai were going at close to 10 an over, and even the first few wickets didn’t slow them down. Kieron Pollard hit the first ball he faced for six. Aditya Tare caressed the first two balls he faced to the off-side boundary.The slide really began when Ambati Rayudu picked out long-off off Shahbaz Nadeem, and soon batsmen were holing out and running themselves out all over the place. Mumbai didn’t even play out their full 20 overs. On this pitch, a target of 174 didn’t look like all that much.But Daredevils, as they have so often done this season, batted pretty well without ever giving their opponents a real scare. They got off the blocks quickly enough, with Kevin Pietersen striking three fours off de Lange in the second over of the chase, and were 43 for no loss after five overs. The next five overs, however, brought them only 19 runs and cost them three wickets.Shreyas Gopal had M Vijay stumped with an enticingly loopy legbreak that the batsman flailed at and missed, but the bowlers didn’t have to do too much to earn the next two wickets. Pietersen was bowled trying to switch-hit Harbhajan; Dinesh Karthik was bowled trying to scoop a full, straight ball from de Lange.Daredevils were left needing 112 from their last 10 overs. They stayed in the hunt, with Duminy clinical in targeting the midwicket area, and Tiwary getting into good positions against the spinners to slog-sweep or hit inside out. When de Lange started the penultimate over by giving away two free runs with a chest-high full toss to Duminy, it looked like Mumbai could come to regret their batting meltdown.But de Lange quickly recalibrated his radar, and found the blockhole three times in the next six balls. He also dismissed Tiwary, and 30 off 12 balls became 25 off six. There was still an outside chance, but Jasprit Bumrah quickly snuffed that out with some yorkers of his own. Mumbai hadn’t been at their best, and had put themselves in some extremely sticky spots, but they were still breathing, just about, at the end of it.

Matthew Wade has switched BBL teams, moving to the Melbourne Renegades on a four-year deal

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jun-2014Matthew Wade has switched BBL teams, moving to the Melbourne Renegades on a four-year deal. Wade has moved from the Renegades’ cross-town rivals the Melbourne Stars, hoping to gain consistent batting time up the order in an effort to push his case as a Twenty20 international player for Australia once again.”It’s a good move for me personally to come over and get the opportunity to try and better myself as a T20 player,” Wade said. “Internationally, you generally see that the better players are the guys who are getting the best opportunities and batting higher in the order.”I wanted to sign a longer term deal as this is a serious move for me, to move from the MCG and the Stars. I had to be serious – I didn’t want to be one of those players moving between clubs all the time. This long-term deal is a sign of my commitment to the Renegades.”Simon Helmot, the coach of the Renegades, said: “Having Wadey come into the team is a massive boost for us, particularly this early in the contract period. He’ll add even more stability to the top order and will play a key role in our batting plans during BBL 04. He’s a competitor and he can hit the ball a long way, which is what we’re after at the Renegades.”

Why did MS Dhoni stand back to Ravindra Jadeja’s spin on the final day at Lord’s? He said later that he was trying to double up as a keeper and a fine leg slip

Sidharth Monga22-Jul-2014In the 21st over of England’s second innings at Lord’s, MS Dhoni did something many commentators – former cricketers all – claimed they had never seen before. Two balls into Ravindra Jadeja’s seventh over, Dhoni got rid of his helmet and stood further behind the stumps than usual. He kept doing so whenever Jadeja bowled to left-hand batsmen. For right-hand batsmen, he would return to the normal position of standing up to the stumps.As the unusual scene of Dhoni standing close for the medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and back for the spinner Jadeja played out, the experts began to guess what exactly he was trying to do.Some thought Dhoni was being funky for the sake of it. A little too funky. Others said they had last seen this in an Under-11 match. Some felt an edge off Jadeja’s pace and extra bounce would be easier to take if the keeper was standing back. The majority agreement, though, was that on an uneven pitch in a tense Test, Dhoni was a little too worried about conceding byes off Jadeja, who was firing the ball into the rough – an extremely cynical view to take, even for the sternest critics of Dhoni’s captaincy.After India’s 95-run win, Dhoni revealed why he had stood back. It did have a lot to do with the rough, the uneven bounce and Jadeja’s pace, but the move was necessitated because of the laws of cricket.A catch had just lobbed wide of Virat Kohli at leg gully. Dhoni needed two leg gullies – or a leg slip and a leg gully – but that would mean sacrificing short fine leg to meet the rule of not having more than two fielders behind square on the leg side. No fine leg meant an easy getaway sweep shot.So Dhoni went for a home remedy. He asked Kohli to move squarer for the meatier edge, and he took a couple of steps back so he had the time to go for the fine edge down the leg side.”I wanted to have a fielder there,” Dhoni said of his new position. “But according to the rules of the game you can’t have three fielders there. I wanted Virat to stand slightly wide of where he was standing because anything like a snick or a faint edge on the leg side would go between him and me. So the plan was to stand behind and cover that.”Dhoni did not get to show off his genius because no edge went that fine. In Jadeja’s next over, though, one flew off Alastair Cook’s glove but fell short of Kohli. The bigger danger of this plan, however, was of Dhoni missing a stumping or watching the batsmen use their feet comfortably. England’s batsmen, though, did not do that.”If the batsmen kept stepping out and playing, I would have had to go in,” Dhoni said. “They didn’t really step out so I had the liberty of standing back and trying to catch the ball at both ends, but nothing really came to us.”The good thing was, they didn’t really step out and miss one because that would have been a perfect thing for the commentators to talk about.”

Twenty-one BCCI member representatives have unanimously decided to support N Srinivasan for the board presidency at an informal meeting in Chennai on Sunday

Amol Karhadkar07-Sep-2014Twenty-one BCCI member representatives have unanimously decided to support N Srinivasan for the board presidency at an informal meeting in Chennai on Sunday. The members were briefed that the BCCI AGM, where the election will take place, would be postponed and the decision to do so would be formalised at a working committee meeting on September 26.Despite being sidelined from BCCI affairs by the Supreme Court for over five months because of the on-going investigation into the IPL corruption scandal, Srinivasan hopes to be re-elected as president for the next three years. Sunday’s meeting was a show of strength, with Srinivasan sending out a strong message days after the court granted the Mudgal inquiry committee a two-month extension to file its corruption report and said that Srinivasan was barred from BCCI duties until then.If N Srinivasan is allowed to contest the elections, he could be elected unanimously again•AFPIt is understood that 18 members, including five of the six voters from the east zone, were present in Chennai. Rajeev Shukla, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Assocation chief who is also a BCCI vice-president, joined over teleconference, as did Shivlal Yadav from Hyderabad and Arindam Ganguly from Tripura, the sixth member from the east. The fact that all six east-zone units pledged support to Srinivasan means, if he is allowed to contest the election, he will be re-elected unanimously. No individual can file nomination papers in this year’s election for the president’s post without support of two east-zone members.Among other BCCI member associations, Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan [suspended] and three government bodies did not attend the meeting.”The working committee will discuss and finalise how to proceed further in this issue,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told ESPNcricinfo after the meeting. “After taking all the possible technical and legal opinions, at the moment, there seems to be no other option but to postpone the AGM.”Meanwhile, Aditya Verma, the petitioner in the IPL corruption scandal, has stated he will move Supreme Court if the BCCI doesn’t hold its AGM and election before September 30. “I will pray to court to direct BCCI to conduct their AGM on time and also to appoint an observer for the smooth and fair election of BCCI,” Verma said.

Stephen Fleming, the former New Zealand captain, has said it might help India’s Test-match prospects to create specialist long-format players by keeping them away from the IPL

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Aug-2014Stephen Fleming, the former New Zealand captain, has said that keeping specialist Test players away from the IPL might help India’s long-format prospects.”The IPL is two months of the year and the only challenge is that it is probably eating into the spare time of the players around the world, especially Indian players,” Fleming said, during a promotional event in Mumbai. “The thought about creating specialist Test players is an excellent one. A lot of countries are doing it, earmarking some players for one form, and that is something India might need to consider.”To do this, however, Fleming said the players would need to be compensated for the monetary losses they could incur by not taking part in the IPL.”And keeping in mind though that the IPL is such a good competition to play, and to keep a player out of it there might have to be remuneration of another form because all players want to gravitate towards it and play it so there will have to be a pretty strong directive to keep them away,” Fleming said. “Then again becoming the Test player could be enough but it is something they need to consider. [Cheteshwar] Pujara is that type of player, even [Murali] Vijay, they are very talented players in the short form but keeping them out of it would enhance their Test game probably.”Fleming, who is head coach of Chennai Super Kings, has worked closely with MS Dhoni, but said it was hard for him to judge Dhoni as a Test captain, particularly since he didn’t watch the Test series ball-by-ball. But considering India’s results in the series, he felt the questions being asked of Dhoni’s future as captain were warranted.”It is hard because I only deal with him in T20 matches and you don’t have any time to drift there,” Fleming said. “It is very hard for me to comment before the series falls for us in the middle of the night so you don’t get to see the ball by ball for the series and without doing that I find it hard to comment on his captaincy.”He was very good at Lord’s especially with the short ball but after that they didn’t get enough runs so there was run pressure. As far as his captaincy goes, I didn’t see enough to give you a comment. What I will say again is within the results he has got to be under pressure naturally as the leader of side. The dramatic turn of form, speaking from advice, does warrant those questions. His form with the bat was good I understand but certainly the captain always gets looked at when the series goes wrong.”