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Barbados Royals, Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders will contest the tournament hosted by St Kitts, which is set to begin on August 30

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jun-2022The three teams for a Women’s Caribbean Premier League, set to run concurrently with the men’s CPL, have been drafted. Barbados Royals, Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders will be captained by Hayley Matthews, Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin respectively.The teams were drafted from a pool of players put together by Cricket West Indies, with 33 cricketers picked. The remaining three players in each 14-woman squad will be drafted in as overseas players. The tournament will begin on August 30, with St Kitts to host the entire tournament. The overseas players are to be announced in due course.The squads for the three Women’s Caribbean Premier League teams have been announced•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“With Matthews and Taylor rated in the top 10 T20 allrounders in the world and Dottin one of the most destructive batters in the women’s game, all three players have shown their quality for the West Indies and in domestic competitions around the globe, a CPL press release said.Ricky Skerritt, Cricket West Indies President, said: “This inaugural Women’s version of the CPL represents a huge upward step for West Indies cricket. I am grateful to all those in CPL and CWI who made it happen, especially the three pioneering franchises who have so willingly got on board.”A WCPL had been in the works, with the league officially announced by Skerritt in March. England, Australia and New Zealand have all played host to women’s T20 leagues with the same number of teams as the men’s tournaments. India has hosted four editions of the Women’s T20 Challenge alongside the IPL, and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has assured that a full-fledged Women’s IPL will be launched soon.Pete Russell, Hero CPL’s CEO, said: “A Women’s CPL is the next logical step as we grow the brand, and we are very pleased that we have been able to make this a reality in 2022. We are grateful to the CWI, the Barbados Royals, the Guyana Amazon Warriors and the Trinbago Knight Riders for working with us on this ground breaking tournament and we look forward to showcasing the tremendous skills of all these talented players.”

“When we go abroad and get a seaming track, we don’t talk about excessive grass on the pitch”

Sidharth Monga15-Feb-20212:37

Is Axar Patel now ahead of Kuldeep Yadav in the pecking order?

Debutant left-arm spinner Axar Patel has asked the critics of the Chennai pitch to change their mindset towards spinning pitches, pointing out that India never complain about seaming tracks when they travel.Related

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The Chennai pitch has received criticism from former players such as Michael Vaughan, Mark Waugh, Damien Fleming and Sanjay Manjrekar.”It’s not as though someone has been hit in the helmet or the toes,” Patel said. “It is a normal wicket. We are playing on the same wicket and scoring runs. I feel no one should have an objection about this pitch. When we go out and get a seaming track, we don’t talk about excessive grass on the pitch. You have to change your mindset rather than think about the pitch.”The argument has been that a pitch with puffs of dust and mini-explosions on day one will only get worse for batting, turning it into lottery. But as Patel said, India have scored runs in both innings whereas the whole England side managed fewer runs in the first innings than Rohit Sharma’s 161. He was even asked if there was extra determination from R Ashwin and Virat Kohli to bat on and score as many as possible even though they had more than enough runs on the board.”We don’t think of outside and if we have to send a message,” Patel said. “We just batted normally. If it had been day four we would have thought of declaring.”Patel also said this wasn’t a pitch where you just turn up and release the ball and the surface will do the rest for you.”The way the wicket is behaving, you know there is spin, but the spin is there only if you put some strength behind the ball,” he said. “If you leave it like that or flight it too much, then there is not much turn from the pitch. The speed has to be high. Otherwise the batsman is going back and has time to adjust. Speed is very important for a spinner on this pitch.”Patel had all the strength to give after missing his debut a week ago with a niggle in the knee. He said that while it was frustrating to miss that match, had he risked it, he could have ended up losing out on giving his best in both the matches.”I was selected to play the first Test but I pulled out because of the injury,” he said. “I didn’t want to play with a niggle and take the risk of letting the team down halfway into the match. The physio told me if I gave it time I will be fine for the second Test. So the physio and I took that call. It was frustrating but the positive is that I could give my 100% here.”

De Kock will “grab it with both hands” if given the chance to lead the T20I squad

Firdose Moonda04-Nov-2019Quinton de Kock expects Faf du Plessis to lead South Africa in next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia but said he would probably not turn down the opportunity if asked to captain in the format.The wicketkeeper-batsman, who captained South Africa in their recent T20I series in India, has been appointed skipper of Cape Town Blitz for the second edition of the Mzansi Super League and is being seen as a successor to du Plessis in the shortest format.With back-to-back T20 World Cups in 2020 and 2021, it may not be long before de Kock is at the helm, and it’s a role he would welcome.”The way I see it is that I was just a replacement,” de Kock told ESPNcricinfo. “That’s the way I took it. For now, it’s still Faf’s baby. But maybe if things change and they do want me to do it, then I will do it.”For the moment, I am not looking too far ahead. I am just trying to look at how I can help out with the youngsters, with the new guys in the T20 team, and by myself, just getting better and getting ready for the T20 World Cup next year. But if that does come upon me, then I will try and grab it with both hands.”He did exactly that when Blitz coach Ashwell Prince approached him at the MSL draft on September 3. “Ash came to me at the draft and asked me if I want to do it and I said, ‘, no problem.’ It was pretty quick and easy. I don’t think there was much discussion around it. He just asked me right there and then and I said yes,” de Kock said, speaking at the Cape Town Blitz media day.Prince had good reason to ask de Kock – his team needed the stability of a leader who would be around for the full five-and-half weeks of the tournament. Last season, Blitz were led by Dawid Malan for the first two matches before Farhaan Behardien took over on his return from international duty in Australia. With Malan not involved in this year’s event and Behardien playing forNelson Mandela Bay Giants, Prince had to find someone else, someone who would also bring form and the ability to think on his feet. De Kock, fresh off two half-centuries in his first two matches as South Africa’s T20I captain, and known for his no-frills approach to playing, seemed to be the perfect fit.”He leads from the front as a player but he is also street-wise,” Prince said. “I like people who can see what’s required on the ground and can make calls and be brave and I think he does all of those things.”De Kock will need to do a bit more. His new role means he will open the batting, keep wickets and lead the side, a trio of tasks that became too much for even the likes of AB de Villiers, who did not open but had a similarly important role of setting the tone in white-ball innings.But de Kock isn’t fussed about the workload. “It’s nothing too difficult – keeping and batting, and the keeping will help out my captaincy anyway,” he said. “Rather than being out in the field, I seem to read things better, how the pitch plays, which bowlers to bowl when, the angles and all that kind of stuff when I am keeping. I feel like the keeping helps my batting and also my captaincy.”This season of the MSL could confirm if de Kock is indeed equipped to perform all three tasks and may also tell us whether he is seriously considered for the national job in the near future. Asked if that’s where he sees de Kock’s career going, Prince said: “Why not? He is still quite young. He hasn’t captained a lot but everyone has to start somewhere. He has had a bit of a taste of it and I think he can grow in the role.”De Kock’s only stint with captaincy before the India series was in an ODI series against Sri Lanka in 2018 after du Plessis suffered a shoulder injury. South Africa had already clinched the series, winning the first three ODIs, but went on to lose the last two matches, which de Kock led in. That instance was considered nothing more than an emergency replacement but it marked the start of a downward spiral for South Africa, which saw them lose five Tests in a row in Asia, and three out of their last four Test series. Their white-ball form also dipped and a poor World Cup followed, which has left South African cricket on the brink of a crisis.Quinton de Kock is mobbed by teammates after pulling off a stunning run-out•Getty Images

But de Kock is one of very few players to have weathered the storm. He has been in prolific run-scoring form across formats for South Africa this year and also finished as the third-highest run-scorer at the IPL this season, and his form could give South Africa some hope that a revival is not far off.”We are not the first team that has gone through a transition,” de Kock said. “England did it after their last World Cup and look at them. Four years later, they end up winning the thing.”With England the visitors this summer, there’s motivation in the camp for South Africa to start putting things right. But de Kock also pointed to the national team’s triumph at the rugby World Cup as a rallying point for cricket to get itself back on track.”It’s all right if the whole country and guys are a bit down and out but when we all gather together, especially after winning this rugby World Cup, a lot of people are pumped up and want to get this transition going so the time we get to our next World Cup, we can really put ourselves in a good stead, just like England did.”

Dominic Sibley scored his third hundred in four innings as Warwickshire maintained their grip against Kent

George Dobell at Edgbaston25-Sep-2018
ScorecardA few weeks ago, Dominic Sibley hardly knew where his next run was coming from. Twenty innings into the first-class season, he had reached 30 just three times and had suffered 11 single-figure dismissals. His place in the Warwickshire side was in serious jeopardy.But then, in search of a solution, he turned to Gary Palmer. Readers of a certain age may recall Palmer as a player. A seam-bowling all-rounder, he was labelled as one of the first ‘new Bothams’ when he broke into the Somerset side as a 16-year-old in 1982. For various reasons, though, he did not develop as had been hoped and, by the time he was in his mid-20s, his playing career was over.In a way, though, his on-field career was little more than foundation work ahead of his more serious contribution to cricket: as a coach. After helping Alastair Cook rediscover his form in early 2015, he has gone on to enjoy success with well-known international players from Pakistan and West Indies as well as several England cricketers.Sadly for Palmer, most of those players prefer for his involvement to remain secret. They are keen not to offend – or annoy – their regular coaches and they know that Palmer’s methods are just a touch controversial.Why? Well, at a time when the prevalent view would appear to be that confidence is more important than technique, Palmer believes strongly to the contrary. He is adamant that it is competence that breeds confidence and argues that it is only hours of drilling technical skills against bowling machines that can deliver lasting improvement.He also believes – and this is the more controversial bit – that some of the traditional beliefs held about batting are a nonsense. In particular, he believes – insists, really, is the apposite word – that batsmen are inhibiting themselves by standing sideways on and maintains they will perform better with an open stance, both feet pointing more towards mid-off than point, allowing them to avoid becoming trapped behind their front leg. This, he believes, allows them to hit straighter, remain better balanced and play in a more compact manner.It may not work for everyone but the evidence is starting to mount up to suggest it does work for some. Take Sibley for example. After that horror start to the season, he spent a long session with Palmer and has now registered scores of 106, 44, 144 not out and 119 in his four most recent Championship innings. He looks better balanced at the crease – he has struggled with his head falling to the off side at previous times – and less likely to follow the ball outside off stump. In short, he looks a far better player.And while Palmer will not confirm it – he is famously guarded over the identity of his clients – it is understood Cook turned to him for help just before his final Test at The Oval. And we all know how that went.Not everyone resists Palmer’s methods. The England management are relaxed about players visiting him (they have even encouraged a few) and he was part of the coaching team on the England Lions tour to Australia over the winter. Ashley Giles, Warwickshire’s director of sport, is also something of an advocate of Palmer’s approach and open-minded enough to know that different views and different voices can sometimes prove beneficial.Whether many modern players are so open-minded remains to be seen. One young player on the Lions tour recounts a story of Palmer seeing a batsman – who has played international cricket – face one ball in the nets and shout “No, no, no” and march down to show him where he was going wrong. At a time when coaches are, generally, unfailingly gentle in their approach, Palmer’s no-nonsense style is not always welcomed. They don’t like to be told and he insists on telling them.For Sibley and Cook and several more, however, Palmer’s input has proved valuable. And, as county cricket experiences an epidemic of batting collapses, it could be their success acts as a spur to reembrace the old virtues of technique and drilling. While it may seem that flair has never been more prevalent in the game, it is surely stronger if it is built on a foundation of substance.Technique was not the only admirable quality in Sibley’s innings. He also demonstrated great hunger in resisting for 100 overs for his 119 runs. And, when he was finally out, he was clearly furious with himself. Such a desire to persist is rare among younger players and such greed bodes well. It helped Warwickshire carve out a first-innings lead of 213 – vast on a surface that is now providing a decent amount of assistance to spin bowlers – despite nobody but the openers reaching 40.Kent fought back valiantly after a poor opening day. With Harry Podmore, one of the breakthrough players of the season, bowling a relentless spell and both spinners enjoying the conditions, batting proved hard work. Joe Denly, bowling his legbreaks at a sharp pace, was impressive in his control while Adam Riley came back well after a grim opening on the first day. Will Rhodes’ fine innings ended when he left a straight one and it eventually took a ninth-wicket stand of 55 in 12 overs between the departing Chris Wright and Jeetan Patel to lift the lead above 200. With only a win allowing Kent to snatch the Division Two title, however, that is likely to be enough.Sibley’s defiance will be a reassurance to Warwickshire supporters who know they must now do without Jonathan Trott. Trott was given a guard of honour by Kent’s players when he walked out to bat on Tuesday – quite possibly his final innings as a professional player – but was soon brilliantly caught by a diving Darren Stevens at midwicket. They probably don’t make them like Trott anymore, but after a bit of assistance from Palmer, Sibley isn’t a bad imitation.

Australia and England will look to firm up their chances of a semi-final spot, even as Sri Lanka and West Indies pursue their first win in this edition

The Preview by Annesha Ghosh08-Jul-2017The two teams with the most World Cup titles and tournament favourites in this edition – defending champions Australia and hosts England – will face off in Bristol as the race for a place in the semi-finals nears a tight finish.Australia have a chance to secure a semi-final berth with a win, while a victory could put England on top of the points table, with eight points from five games and healthier net run rate than the other teams.If numbers are anything to go by, Australia, six-time world champions, have a clear edge over the hosts. Out of the 71 matches between the two, Australia lead England 47-20, having won 11 out of 16 matches in the World Cup. The last time they met in a World Cup, Australia upstaged England by two runs in a low-scoring thriller in Mumbai after seamer Anya Shrubsole’s 3 for 24 had limited Australia to 147.The two teams, however, haven’t played in the format against each other since the 2015 Ashes. Back then Australia captain Meg Lanning scored 85 and strung an 85-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Ellyse Perry to hand the hosts an 89-run drubbing in Worcester.The numbers could turn a shade brighter for England on Sunday if Lanning opts to sit out her second successive match. She was rested in Australia’s previous game against Pakistan to avoid aggravating her chronic shoulder injury. Australia coach Matthew Mott was “very hopeful” of Lanning’s return for Sunday’s match, even as he praised middle-order batsmen Elyse Villani and Alyssa Healy for taking on the onus with fifties in the side’s 159-run win over Pakistan.The Bristol pitch, in the previous match, had produced a 678-run slugfest between England and South Africa. A new surface will, however, be used for Sunday’s game, which could most likely facilitate the contest ending up as a battle of two unwavering batting line-ups with six centuries between them in this edition. Despite the batting-friendly nature of the track, the spinners of both teams could pose a challenge, having been the preferred mode of attack, with 37 wickets between them.Stafanie Taylor’s unbeaten 171 had consigned Sri Lanka to a 209-run defeat during the previous World Cup encounter between the two sides•Getty Images/ICC

Sri Lanka and West Indies, on the other hand, will be pursuing their first wins in this edition, in Derby.Having lost all five warm-up fixtures, followed by four consecutive defeats in the league stage, West Indies are languishing at the bottom of the table. They batted first in all four matches so far and their narrowest margin of defeat was by seven wickets against India.After folding for 48 against South Africa, they crawled to 150 against New Zealand, and were smashed by Rachel Priest, who scored the fastest Women’s World Cup fifty. New Zealand went on to beat West Indies with 190 balls to spare.Sri Lanka will look to build on their performance against India, where they nearly pulled off a win. Medium-pacer Sripali Weerakkody, who kept India’s batsmen in check with 3 for 28, said the remaining matches were a good platform for the seniors to pass on knowledge. “We have so many juniors in the team, so we can give a chance to them and do something good for the future,” she said.Both teams are matched evenly in head-to-head numbers, each having won 14 out of 28 ODIs.Former West Indies captain Merissa Augilleira admitted the side has been far from showcasing the might that took them to the final of the 2013 World Cup. “We know our potential, we know what this team has and what we can do but apparently it is not clicking for us,” she said.While little may have gone West Indies’ way so far, a look back on their previous World Cup encounter against Sri Lanka in 2013 could serve them a much-needed encouraging stimulus ahead of what is poised to be a knockout game. Led by Stafanie Taylor’s unbeaten 171 and a 22-ball 50 from Deandra Dottin, West Indies had piled up 368 before consigning Sri Lanka to a 209-run defeat.

Brendon McCullum hit 85 off 110 balls and Dawid Malan produced a telling all-round display the day after his England call-up as Middlesex secured a 28-run victory against Glamorgan in Cardiff

ECB Reporters Network14-Jun-2016Middlesex 294 for 7 (McCullum 110, Malan 70, Ingram 3-38) beat Glamorgan 266 (Ingram 85, Rudolph 45, Fuller 3-53) by 28 runs
ScorecardDawid Malan enjoyed a good day after his England call with runs and wickets•Getty Images

Brendon McCullum hit 110 off 85 balls and Dawid Malan produced a telling all-round display, scoring 70 and taking two wickets, the day after his England call-up as Middlesex secured a 28-run victory against Glamorgan in Cardiff.Despite another masterful innings from Colin Ingram, who scored 85 from 73 balls, Glamorgan were beaten for the first time although they remain top of the table ahead of their break from this competition before resuming in the first week of August.Middlesex, who were put in to bat on a good pitch, made a respectable 294 for 7, but after an opening partnership of 176 in 27 overs between McCullum and Malan, they would have expected to have reached a total in excess of 350.On the ground where he scored 160 on his Championship debut for Glamorgan against Leicestershire 10 years ago, McCullum was soon into his stride, striking boundaries on both sides of the wicket, but he was reprieved on 49, when a leading edge was dropped off Craig Meschede at mid-off.He then raced to his first century for Middlesex, but after scoring 110 from only 85 balls with 11 fours and five sixes he struck a full toss to long-off.Earlier, Malan, who was named in England’s T20 squad on Monday for the forthcoming game against Sri Lanka, played a composed innings of 70 before touching one to the wicketkeeper.From a strong position, Middlesex then suffered a mid-innings collapse, as Ingram settled into an accurate 10-over spell with impressive figures of 3 for 38. Eoin Morgan played a laboured innings of 10 from 16 balls, which included eight singles, until he swept Ingram to deep square leg.Glamorgan’s bowlers were so effective that no boundaries were struck between the 30th and 46th overs, and it needed a partnership of 46 in 26 balls between Toby Roland-Jones and Ollie Rayner to boost Middlesex’s total.Needing to score at six runs an over, Glamorgan’s openers Jacques Rudolph and David Lloyd made a rapid start, reaching 50 from the first ball of the eighth over with Lloyd striking Roland-Jones for three fours in his third over. He scored 41 from 29 balls, before pulling a short ball from James Fuller to Paul Stirling on the long leg boundary.Rudolph and Will Bragg then added a useful 49 before Rudolph was caught behind from James Franklin’s fifth ball of his opening over. Bragg soon followed and at the half-way stage Glamorgan required a further 174 with seven wickets in hand.Franklin, obtaining movement from the River End, halted Glamorgan’s progress and took his third wicket when Aneurin Donald wafted at one outside the off stump.Ingram and Chris Cooke then settled in to their stand, playing every ball on merit, with Ingram reaching his third consecutive one-day fifty from 47 balls. With ten overs remaining, Glamorgan needed a further 87, but Franklin’s gamble paid off when he brought Malan on to bowl his occasional legspin with Cooke holing out at long-on, and Meschede falling in similar fashion.Ingram, however kept going until the 47th over when he drove Fuller to long-on and with him went his team’s hopes of maintaining a 100% record.

Jason Gillespie said that if it had been up to him to choose from the candidates on England cricket director Andrew Strauss’s shortlist then he would also have picked Trevor Bayliss

Jon Culley25-May-2015Jason Gillespie took the news that he has apparently been snubbed for the vacant England head coach’s job with typically jocular sangfroid and said that if it had been up to him to choose from the candidates on England cricket director Andrew Strauss’s shortlist then he would also have picked Trevor Bayliss.He said that in his final telephone conversation with Strauss before play began on the second morning of Yorkshire’s match at Taunton he had been told only that there was a “preferred candidate” and had been given to understand that his fellow Australian Bayliss was the ECB’s choice to succeed Peter Moores.But he exonerated Strauss from any blame in what appears to have been another embarrassing leak, with news that Bayliss had accepted the job gathering pace even with no official announcement.”I knew before the news came out,” Gillespie said. “That’s one thing the ECB may need to work on because things do seem to be coming out but I spoke to Straussy early this morning and one thing I was impressed with is that Andrew was able to contact me and let me know. So I’ve absolutely no problem with that.”He fully endorsed Bayliss as the best man for the position following his successes in Australia with New South Wales and the Sydney Sixers, with Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL and with Sri Lanka, whom he took to the 2011 World Cup final.”England wanted a coach with a proven track record, and if it is Trevor, as it appears likely, his track record’s absolutely unbelievable,” Gillespie said. “I’ve got absolutely no qualms about that. If I put myself in Andrew’s shoes, I’d probably make the same decision if I’m honest.”He is a very good operator and I’ve only heard good things about him. Farby [England’s interim head coach Paul Farbrace] speaks very highly of him from the time he worked with him in Sri Lanka so I can’t say anything negative. I wish him well.”Gillespie, the 40-year-old former Australia bowler, admitted he would have almost certainly taken the job had it been offered but found plenty of positives to balance his disappointment.”I have always seen it as a win-win from my end,” he said. “I have got two great jobs – here with Yorkshire and with Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash. If I had have got offered an international job I would have had to have seriously considered it, that’s for sure. Either way, I don’t see any negatives.”My thoughts were: ‘what is the worst that can happen?’ Go and sit for an interview, which is another experience for me. I can only be better for that, I saw I had nothing to lose.”Straussy said to me, ‘You interviewed very well, but we have made a decision that we are going to go with another candidate.’ I said, that’s fine, mate. I wish you well. You’ve got to believe in your decisions and this is what your job is.”Gillespie admitted there were elements of the job as it was presented that were not ideal, but that the ECB’s refusal to readmit Kevin Pietersen to the fold was not one of them.”They made it very clear they’ve got a stance with Kev,” he said. “I didn’t have a problem with it. That certainly wasn’t any issue.”Where he might have had second thoughts was over the length of time he would have been required to stay away from his young family. “It is a massive commitment and you are away from home a lot. It would have been something I would have had to consider, but I think if I did get offered it I would have jumped at it.”

Lalit Modi, the former chairman of the IPL, has claimed that he survived three assassination attempts for refusing to fix matches in the tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Nov-2012Lalit Modi, the former chairman of the IPL, has claimed that he survived three assassination attempts for refusing to fix matches in the tournament.Modi, who was sacked from the IPL in 2010 over allegations of corruption and money-laundering and now lives in London, has made the allegations in written by the British journalist Ed Hawkins.In Mumbai, in March 2009, Modi says: “There was a shoot-out outside my house and one guy got killed and one got picked up.”The other attempts, according to Modi, came in South Africa and Thailand and on each occasion he was warned that he was in danger by police or intelligence agencies.Modi alleges that spot-fixing, in which cricketers fix a particular element of the game but not the overall result, is widespread: “Spot-fixing is rife in the game. And I’m talking globally. It’s a Pandora’s box. It’s staring you straight in the face, but difficult to prove. Almost impossible to prove.”While he remained confident the IPL was clean he could not give 100% assurances and said there were times when he was concerned by certain incidents.”I think it was clean, but I could never, sitting here today, categorically tell you that we picked up everything for spot-fixing, and that goes for all games, not just IPL. We had to warn players from time to time. We found undesirable elements in the stadium and removed them. We found them touring with players or managers of players who were in touch with bookmakers and we removed them.”

A year on from the spot-fixing allegations that rocked the cricket world, Pakistan’s Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif appeared in court as the trial into one of the sport’s greatest controversies began

Richard Sydenham at Southwark Crown Court04-Oct-2011The spot-fixing trial, involving one of cricket’s greatest controversies, has begun with Pakistan’s Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif appearing in court and a jury being picked and sworn in.Former opening batsman and ex-Test captain Butt and swing bowler Asif sat in at the start of the case at Southwark Crown Court in central London. They are yet to speak as two hours of legal arguments ensued and an appropriate jury was sworn in after lunch with a mixture of racial backgrounds and sexes (six men and six women). Both players were asked if they had any objection to the jury formed and they said: ‘No objections’.Just 30 minutes was required after the lunch break to settle on a jury and Justice Cooke informed the court that proceedings would resume at ten the following morning. Cooke told the jury: “I think you will find this an interesting and unusual case.” He also suggested that some of them would be aware of the case because of its high-profile nature but they were ordered not to research it or to discuss the case outside of the jury roomButt and Asif, who flew in at the weekend from Lahore, are facing the possibility of a custodial sentence if deemed guilty, though both are pleading not guilty. They are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord’s Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired to bowl pre-determined no-balls.Both wearing suits, without a tie, they sat in a dock sealed off by a Perspex screen with holes in for hearing purposes. Butt sat alone and listened intently, often leaning forward with a concentrated look on his face. Asif was accompanied by a Punjabi interpreter. Butt’s barrister, Ali Bajwa QC, immediately informed Justice Cooke that his client did not require the services of an interpreter because he had a confident grasp of English.Behind the players’ dock sat interested journalists taking up every seat in the public gallery. They would no doubt have been pleased when Justice Cooke noted early on that they could ‘tweet’ from the courtroom as long as they did it quietly. With reporting restrictions in place, the detail of the legal arguments cannot be repeated at this stage.But Justice Cooke did agree to three clauses that he later read out to potential jurors who were walked into the courtroom. They were told they would need to be available for up to five weeks, and were also informed that they would need to fill out forms asking three questions and if they answered ‘yes’ to any of them they could not sit in the jury.The questions were: 1) Have they or any family members ever worked as a professional journalist or currently work in that capacity. 2) Do they or any family members earn their living from professional cricket? 3) Are they or family members working in the gambling industry?

South Africa are in favour of using the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in their upcoming Test series against India

Firdose Moonda24-Oct-2010South Africa are in favour of using the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in their upcoming Test series against India. Gerald Majola, Chief Executive Officer of Cricket South Africa (CSA), confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the board is still negotiating with its Indian counterparts over whether the system will be used during the end-of-year tour.”We have to persuade India because at the moment they don’t want it,” said Majola. As per ICC regulations, the host team can take the take the call on whether to use UDRS, in consultation with the visiting country. Majola said the South African players want to use the system because they think “it’s the most fair way for decisions to be made.”South African captain Graeme Smith voiced his conditional approval for the UDRS in a more measured manner. “Technology is obviously an important way forward in cricket. It will be beneficial to the game and the players are behind. I think if the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) is going to be successful it needs to be implemented properly by the ICC and not on a 50/50 basis like we have seen so far,” Smith said. “It must be used all of the time and not for selective series’ like we see now.”Recent history may explain Smith’s issue with consistency. In their last four Test series, South Africa have used the UDRS three times. They first used it against Australia in the 2008-09 season, then against England at home last season and, most recently, in their three-test series in the West Indies in June. They did not use it in the series in India in February this year, when the choice lay with the hosts.India have made no secret of their dislike for the system since they first used it in a series against Sri Lanka in 2008. In the three-Test series, India made only one successful review, compared to Sri Lanka’s 11. They haven’t used it since then, with senior players such as Sachin Tendulkar openly saying they prefer Hot Spot, as they feel it is a more accurate tool for establishing contact between bat and ball or pad.There is the possibility that Hot Spot will be used during the South Africa-India series, even though it wasn’t part of the production in the recently-completed series between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Hotspot was used during the home series against England. The broadcasting rights have since changed hands. Previously the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcast Corporation, was responsible for the production; now Supersport is. Both services still broadcast live matches.The exact technology tools to be used in the series will be decided in the coming weeks. It is almost certain that South Africa will have ball-tracking technology, Super Slo-Mo and a clear stump mike, the three requirements needed for the UDRS system, should India change their mind. The first Test starts in Centurion on December 16.