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Mitchell Johnson has mellowed and is unmoustachioed these days, but the menace remains. That much was clear at the Waca as he blasted Perth Scorchers into their fifth BBL final in the competition’s six seasons

Will Macpherson in Perth24-Jan-2017Mitchell Johnson has mellowed and is unmoustachioed these days, but the menace remains. That much was clear at the Waca as he blasted Perth Scorchers into their fifth BBL final in the competition’s six seasons. After claiming an astonishing 3 for 3 in his four-over new-ball spell, there was no way back for Melbourne Stars.Johnson is no Samson; he awoke on Tuesday morning with facial hair, but lopped it off. “I had a beard thing on this morning but decided it was too gross, it was really bad and so I trimmed it down. Maybe I got through the breeze a bit quicker.”Johnson cited the absent moustache as a reason he is friendlier these days; of Kevin Pietersen, who arrived at the crease for the second ball of the match, he said: “I was probably too friendly to him.”He also believes, contrary to what his bowling figures might claim, that a lot of his aura has vanished since the end of his international career. “I get in the moment and enjoy it, but I don’t feel I’m as devastating as I was.” And he simply does not feel as quick either. “It didn’t feel like 146 [kph],” he scoffed, when told what he had clocked on the speed-gun.”I have moments where I get really excited but I don’t think it will ever be the same as what it was a few years ago,” he said. “I said that at the start of the tournament – I won’t be the same Mitchell Johnson that I was three years ago or 10 years ago. It’s today and this is how I am. I felt a little slower than normal in this game, but that suited the wicket perhaps. I celebrate like I was 20, so that’s a good thing. I cherish the game and love it.”Today’s performance must have been one of those “moments” that Johnson refers to. Rob Quiney and Luke Wright were dismissed in the first over, a maiden, while KP went in his third. He did not concede a run off the bat until his 18th ball. He had looked menacing against Hobart Hurricanes on Saturday too, hurrying out key men Tim Paine and Ben McDermott. Perhaps it is because he is relaxed these days, and a bit more philosophical too.”I still want to win and have that hunger, but I’m probably stressing about the game a little less than I was,” he said. “Coming into this I was laid back, excited but normally I’d be stressing out and thinking about what I need to go, going through all the batters. I haven’t looked at all the batters before this game and the last game. The hunger is still there.”It doesn’t matter how you get them in this game,” he said of the Quiney wicket, caught at fine leg off the opening delivery of the match. “As bowlers, you go for big sixes and get little inside-edges, so it was nice to have luck go my way first ball of the over. And it really just set the tone. That’s what I have enjoyed about getting the new ball – there is that little extra pressure, I guess, as an opening bowler, you want to get quick wickets up front, but to do it like that was very enjoyable.”I feel in good rhythm. My cues and everything I used to think about feel good, and that has taken a couple of games to get there. Hopefully I can stay at that pace. If I do, it’s tough to get away, but I’d rather bowl fast than 125 [kph]. I might as well give up if I’m down there. Not many teams would sign me up bowling 125.”One team he will not be playing for again is Australia. Many wise old heads have been touted for a run against Sri Lanka next month, including Quiney and Michael Klinger, Johnson’s Scorchers team-mate. Johnson, however, will not be joining them. “It would be nice but I don’t think I want to play,” he said. “I don’t think it would be as enjoyable for me. I had my moment in the sun, and these young guys are playing better cricket than I am, I just don’t think it would work. There’s too much stress at the top level.”He did, however, come close to signing for the Pakistan Super League and is looking at IPL deals now. “The fresher I stay the better. There are a few little tournaments later in the year, not so serious, that are around.”Could England’s NatWest T20 Blast be counted about those ‘not-so-serious’? Tim Bresnan and Ian Bell, team-mates at Scorchers, have certainly been in his ear to play next season. “It’s been mentioned and it could be an option,” he said.And, after that, he will be back with the Scorchers, although not at the Waca, which is making way for a new purpose-built stadium next season. “I will miss playing here,” he reflected. It is a ground indelibly linked to Johnson at his most fearsome; how nice it would be to see him fire there once more time.

Mitchell Starc has said it was a welcome break to have minimal work to do in Pune, but expects to be involved a lot more in what will be a tough series

Melinda Farrell28-Feb-2017Australia’s premier fast bowlers are used to carrying a heavy load. In the period before their bounce back during the home summer, when Australia’s batting line up collapsed in a Pune-India fashion with alarming regularity, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, in particular, have toiled long and hard in the middle.Even during the series against Pakistan, their workloads were significant: they each bowled 56 overs in the first Test in Brisbane. The only Test of the Australian summer in which they bowled less than 42 overs each was in Australia’s massive defeat by South Africa in Hobart.So for Starc and Hazlewood to only bowl two overs each in the second innings in Pune, and 11 and nine for the match, was the cricket equivalent of putting your feet up on the table and leaning back while all your mates fetch you cold beers. Time to collect.”It’s amazing,” said Starc. “I think it’s making up for the summer Josh and I had. The spinners bowled really well and the pitch didn’t have much in it for Josh and me. There was very minimal natural swing because it was so abrasive and it didn’t really go too much reverse. But when Steve’s [O’Keefe] taking that many wickets and Nathan’s [Lyon] bowling really well there’s not really much need for us on that wicket.”But Starc expects he’ll be required for heavier duties in Bangalore, particularly after Australia’s spinners were able to exploit the ragging Pune pitch which backfired on India so spectacularly.”I can’t see it being too bouncy or quick because it’s a weakness of the Indian batters,” said Starc. “We’ll probably see it not turning as much as this wicket has or breaking up as quickly. I think we’ll probably see a wicket similar to maybe the England series they had over here where it’s probably flatter and there’s some really big first innings totals and the game happens a bit quicker towards the end. It’s a smaller ground but a bit better of a wicket than what we’ve seen here in Pune.”But even on a Pune pitch offering him little, Starc produced a ripper of a delivery to dismiss Cheteshwar Pujara, the ball rearing up off the back of a length area and catching the glove as Pujara tried to defend. If there’s any bounce to be found in M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Starc will seek it out.”It’s probably something not many batsmen like, especially the guys over in the subcontinent, where they’re not used to those faster or bouncier wickets. So we can get up around their nose every now and again,” Starc said. “A lot of teams have showed that it’s not an area that the India batsmen like most. Hopefully there’s a little bit of bounce in the Bangalore wicket or the wickets to come in this series and we can try and exploit that as well.”While Pujara’s first-innings dismissal was a key moment in the match, the wicket of Virat Kohli is the most highly coveted by his former Royal Challengers Bangalore team-mate – he had him caught at first slip, chasing after a wide delivery. However, Starc admits there was an element of luck in his dismissal.”If you look closely at the ball it was supposed to come back in, so it was a bit of luck there. It was his first couple of balls at the crease so he was probably going a little too hard. Not one I’ll be giving back anytime soon, that’s for sure.Australia’s pacers enjoyed a rare deficit in workload, but Mitchell Starc expects that to change in the second Test•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

“I had a bit of a chuckle the ball before and while I was fielding at long-on and and he was in the dugout. Nice to get that one early in the series. He’s a class player, we all know that. He’s scored a mountain of runs already this year. I’m sure he’ll come back bigger and stronger in the next Test and be wary of the Virat comeback.”With Australia’s spinners dominating the first Test on such an abrasive wicket, there was little opportunity for reverse swing to come into the equation for Australia’s quicks but Starc believes it could be a key factor in the second Test and an area in which Australia can improve.”Obviously we’ll wait until we get there to see what the conditions are like but I’m sure it will be a pretty dry wicket again, so that’ll probably help reverse swing there and it’s something we’ll be working hard at all the time in the nets,” said Starc.”We know we’ve got huge reverse swing every time we’ve got it here in India, so we’ll have a look at what the wicket has got for us. It’s about looking after that shine on an abrasive square. And if it’s not going to spin as much in Bangalore, we’re going to have to make sure we’re using that reverse swing to make up for not as much spin as we’ve seen here in Pune.”For Starc, the lead in to Bangalore couldn’t be much better. It’s been a long time since he’s been able to go into a second Test this physically fresh and off the back of such a confidence-boosting victory that has silenced the doubters.”Obviously we’ve come here as a group believing we can win, and I think everyone has written us off and expected India to win,” said Starc. “So to shut a few people up and really show that this young team is here to play – and we’ve adapted really well in our lead-up – has been great for the group. But it’s one Test win, it’s not a series win yet so we’ll be doing all we can. Especially in the next Test in Bangalore. It’s going to be pretty special for this young group [if we pull it off].”

The 30-year old batsman was one of four uncapped players picked in a 16-man squad to face Pakistan from March 26

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Mar-2017Jason Mohammed, one of the only bright spots to emerge from a series whitewash by England, has been called up to the West Indies T20I squad for the first time. The 30-year old batsman struck back-to-back fifties earlier this month and could be vital to a team missing some of its biggest players.

West Indies T20I squad

Samuel Badree, Carlos Brathwaite (capt), Jonathan Carter, Andre Fletcher, Jason Holder, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Veerasammy Permaul, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton, Kesrick Williams
In: Jonathan Carter, Jason Mohammed, Veerasammy Permaul, Lendl Simmons
Out: Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Nicholas Pooran

Chris Gayle has not played international cricket since the 2016 World T20. On top of that, Dwayne Bravo’s hamstring injury and Andre Russell’s ban took away two of the world’s best allrounders from Carlos Brathwaite’s side.But there was good news on Friday, when it was learnt that Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree and Lendl Simmons were picked for two of the four T20Is against Pakistan from March 26. A WICB release listing the 16-man squad on Saturday confirmed all four men were available to play the entire series.Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul also has the chance to be capped for the first time in T20Is. He picked up 12 wickets from eight List A matches in January and February and will likely be the understudy to legspinner Badree and offspinner Narine, both in the top 10 of the ICC bowlers rankings in the shortest format.Batsmen Jonathan Carter, who has recently become a regular in ODIs, and Rovman Powell, whose power-hitting has invoked comparisons with Russell, pushed the number of uncapped players in the squad to four. The experience of Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor and Jason Holder could offset that, although Holder has not played a T20I for West Indies since 2015.

Australia’s tour of Bangladesh still hinges on security assessments of the region despite a personal assurance from Cricket Australia chairman David Peever

Mohammad Isam04-May-2017Australia’s tour of Bangladesh still hinges on security assessments of the region despite a personal assurance from Cricket Australia chairman David Peever to BCB president Nazmul Hassan that Steven Smith’s team will visit for two Tests in late August and early September.The proposed schedule, ESPNcricinfo understands, has Australia arriving in Bangladesh on August 18, and comprises a practice match in Chittagong from August 22 to 24, the first Test from August 27 to 31 also in Chittagong, and the second Test from September 4 to 9 in Mirpur.Hassan said he had been given Peever’s guarantee during last week’s ICC meetings. “The Australia series is final,” he said. “Their chairman told me on the last day of the ICC meeting that he will come along with his wife. This was actually the first time they spoke to me about a series or tour. He came up with it, so I am sure they are coming.”Hassan said the only issue with the schedule was the break between the two Tests due to Eid-ul-Azha, which is supposed to be from September 1 to 3. But that issue, according to him, had been resolved as well.”The second Test starts on the third day of Eid, so the first one will be held before Eid. The dates are confirmed, but I don’t want to mention it now. The issue was a five-day break for Eid, which was too long for them. Then we decided that we can hold the second Test on the third day of Eid. There won’t be a long gap.”When asked about Peever’s exchange with Hassan, a Cricket Australia spokesman declined to comment, and said the board’s earlier position about awaiting security assessments remained unchanged.The Tests were originally scheduled to be played in 2015 before the tour was cancelled due to a specific security threat against Australian nationals in Bangladesh.”We are still hopeful of touring Bangladesh in the near future and are working closely with the BCB to look at options, but the safety of players and officials will always come first,” a CA spokesperson said earlier this month. “We will continue to monitor advice from ASIO, DFAT and our own security advisors about the security risk for any future tours of the Australian team in Bangladesh and make a decision based on this advice closer to any potential tour.”

England Women laid down a marker ahead of this month’s World Cup as they beat West Indies by six wickets in a warm-up encounter in Loughborough

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jun-2017England Women laid down a marker ahead of this month’s World Cup as they beat West Indies by six wickets in a warm-up encounter in Loughborough.West Indies opted to bat first and were dismissed for 150 in the final over of their innings, captain Stafanie Taylor top-scoring with 59.Nat Sciver (10-0-39-4) shared the bowling honours with offspinner Danielle Hazell who took 3 for 21 from her 10 overs.In reply, England reached their target in the 36th over but, with World Cup preparations at the forefront of both teams’ minds, the decision was taken for England to bat the duration of their 50 overs.Sciver made an enterprising 85, and Tammy Beaumont also passed fifty, before Katherine Brunt opened her shoulders with the game won to make a quickfire 49. England reached 281 for 7 from their 50 overs.

Cricket Australia’s decision to rebuff the players’ calls for mediation to end the escalating pay dispute has been accompanied by another attempt to deal directly with some of the nation’s highest-profile players

Daniel Brettig27-May-20173:46

What exactly is the Cricket Australia-ACA pay dispute?

Cricket Australia’s decision to rebuff the players’ calls for mediation to end the escalating pay dispute has been accompanied by another attempt to deal directly with some of the nation’s highest-profile players.CA’s chief executive James Sutherland and his Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) counterpart Alistair Nicholson are set to cross paths in London over the next week, and it is clear a sharp change of course will be required to take the heat out of a dispute that is creeping perilously close to the June 30 expiry of the current MoU without any resolution in sight.After a week’s deliberation, CA chairman David Peever wrote to his ACA counterpart Greg Dyer on Friday to reject the mediation request while maintaining his view that the players’ association had not yet started to negotiate. It also emerged on Saturday that the team performance manager Pat Howard had written to Steven Smith, Meg Lanning, David Warner, Alex Blackwell, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Ellyse Perry to again press the board’s case.Peever’s letter to Dyer emphasised CA’s refusal to countenance any form of fixed revenue percentage model while accusing the ACA of not attempting to negotiate. “This is a regrettable approach because CA’s proposal features substantial increases in player payments while allowing greater flexibility to address the underfunding of grassroots cricket over the next five years,” Peever wrote.”You indicate that the ACA has offered flexibility within the negotiation process around certain issues. However, this does not address the significant problems with the current player payments model from CA’s perspective. While we fully respect the enormous contribution made by the game’s elite players, it is also true that player payments have grown by 63 per cent for international men and 53 per cent for domestic men over the past five years.”These words were echoed by Sutherland in a column in The newspaper, which also reported Howard’s approach to key players, which he said insisted CA’s offer was fair while also questioning whether the players had read its financial details for themselves.”During the player period at the NCC, it became clear to me that very few players have actually read the CA offer,” Howard wrote. “As leaders of Australian cricket, you need to review the actual offer and ask questions. My view as leaders of the game is that your duty is to cricket, not CA, not ACA, but cricket.”This year players will benefit from $79m, our offer next year is $91m. This is a pay rise of over $12m or over 15 per cent. I heard from some quarters that Cricket Australia was ‘screwing us’, as you can see, that is not the case. These are like-for-like numbers and include all male and female players.”BBL salaries will go up 6 per cent every year. Yes, we are trying to put a lid on big increases to state cricket; however, both BBL (6%) and state (1.4%) are going up. I don’t apologise for putting international players ahead of domestic players. (Under) our offer, Australian cricket wages are the highest in the world for males and females and the highest for any team sport in Australia. Something we are proud of.”Howard also expressed discontent that he had been unable to communicate more directly with the players about the pay issue, as distrust grows on both sides of the argument. In response, the ACA said the board was continuing to play “word games” while also questioning how the game’s grassroots could be so underfunded when CA retained 80 cents out of every dollar in the game’s revenue.”These are the word games and evasions of the last six months, and a window into the negotiations over the same period,” an ACA spokesman said. “The CA strategy is to refuse to deal with the ACA and go directly to individual players to try and break the model. This is despite the players’ repeated insistence for CA to respect their request and mediate with the ACA. To refuse mediation at a time when it’s the only sensible way forward shows a clear lack of common sense.”CA takes 80 cents in every dollar that comes into the game: that’s 80% of revenue, yet blames the players for under expenditure on grassroots. CA’s grassroots argument therefore has no factual basis. What CA forget is that the players themselves are the ones that have invested around $10million of their own money in to delivering grassroots programs. The most often asked question in this current climate is the right one: Where does all the revenue go?”The board’s public emphasis on the need for more grassroots facilities funding formed only a part of its formal pay offer to the players. That document also pressed the case for an expanded media production unit and game development staff to rival those of the AFL, and a desire to invest in “other projects” capable of generating more revenue for CA.

Andrew Leipus has stepped down from his job as physiotherapist at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Bangalore, according to a report in the

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jul-2017Andrew Leipus has stepped down from his job as physiotherapist at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Bangalore, according to a report in the . Leipus, the newspaper said, had submitted his resignation letter to the BCCI due to the ambiguity surrounding his dual roles at the NCA and IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, and any possible conflict of interest that may amount to. Leipus reportedly had written to BCCI officials several times, asking for clarity on the matter but got no response, forcing him to take this decision.Leipus, who had worked with the Indian team between 1999 and 2004 and was pivotal in raising fitness levels in the national squad, took up the post in the NCA in October 2015. He already had the job with KKR then, but given the recent buzz around the Lodha recommendations regarding conflict of interest, he was doubtful about keeping both roles. According to the Indian Express, due to family commitments he did not want to have a situation in which he was left with neither job, and so he had first written to the BCCI a month ago asking for direction. When no response came, he resigned from the NCA role.A similar issue cropped up for Rahul Dravid, who worked as mentor with Delhi Daredevils and coached India’s Under-19 and A teams. He too had written to the board, asking for clarity on his roles. Not long after, the board confirmed that Dravid will continue in his role as the coach of India A and Under-19 teams for the next two years. This time though, conforming to the recommendations of the Lodha Committee, Dravid’s new contract will run for 12 months each year as opposed to the 10-month contract he had previously – which allowed him to work in the IPL for two months a year.The matter of such conflict of interest was precipitated by a stinging resignation letter from Ramachandra Guha, who gave up his position in the CoA because of what he perceived as inaction from his colleagues against conflicts of interest in Indian cricket. While Guha didn’t directly name Dravid, he contended that it was “contrary to the spirit of the Lodha Committee” for coaches or support staff of India’s senior and junior teams, or staff at the NCA, to have IPL contracts.

A ready reckoner ahead of the media rights auction on September 4, where 24 companies could be in the fray as bidders

Nagraj Gollapudi02-Sep-2017Is the Indian Premier League the most lucrative property in global cricket?The answer will be revealed on September 4 when the BCCI conducts the auction for the IPL media rights. The bidding will take place in Mumbai, with some of the biggest names in global business set to vie for various rights of a tournament that has already realigned the boundaries of cricket in unpredictable ways during its ten years of existence.Here is a ready reckoner to the bidding process, the bidders and the different rights being auctioned.How many bidders are there?A total of 24 bidders bought the bid document, including Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Yahoo, Reliance Jio, Star India, Sony Pictures, Discovery, Sky, British Telecom and ESPN Digital Media.The growth of the league can be measured through the diversity of the bidders as well as the number of companies that have shown interest. In 2008, when the IPL was conceived, about six companies bought the bid document for the first rights cycle. All were television entities and, eventually, only two qualified for the bid – the Sony-World Sports Group alliance and Nimbus.How many categories of rights will be auctioned on Monday?Previously, the BCCI, which owns the IPL, had sold the rights only for three categories: India television rights, India digital rights and rest of the world. However, on Monday, a set of seven rights will be open for bidding. For the Indian market, bids are divided into television and digital; then there will be separate bids for the USA, Europe, Middle East, Africa regions and the rest of the world. For these five markets, the bids include both television and digital rights.How will the bidding process work?The rights will be awarded to the highest bidder in each category. An interested party or a consortium can even make a global bid (for all seven categories) – if their bid is the highest, they will earn the rights.The winner in each category will be determined by matching the bids which will be presented in a sealed envelope. In May, the BCCI had decided to retain the tender process which it said was the most transparent way to award the rights as opposed to e-auction. Recently the Supreme Court, too, struck down a petition favoring the e-auction. The BCCI was against the e-auction mainly because of the danger of bidders walking out once they realised they had reached their limit with the bid figures being publicly displayed. In a tender process, the bidder just gets one chance and has to commit to a figure they can put in the envelope.What is the duration of the rights?All rights have a five-year span: 2018-2022.Why a five-year cycle, considering the previous television rights were for 10 years?According to Rahul Johri, the BCCI’s chief executive officer, 10 years is “too long” a period to commit in an industry that is dynamic. Previously, when the BCCI sold the television rights for 10 years, the IPL had not yet established itself. “It was a new property and it needed a long-term commitment,” Johri said. “But now the world is changing so fast, so from both the rights seller’s point of view and rights buyer’s point of view, five years is a good term. A lot of companies do a five-year plan. So it is a more realistic way to go.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Which category could attract the most competition?In the Indian market, television rights will remain the prime target as it is the “most valuable” property. In 2008, WSG bagged the television rights for the Indian market for a 10-year cycle (2008-2017) for $918 million. A year later, Sony bought those rights for $1.63 billion.What is the likely worth of television rights in the Indian subcontinent?
Johri will not speculate, but is optimistic the number could be quite high considering the BCCI recently sold the India team sponsorship rights and the IPL title sponsorship for large sums. Smartphone manufacturer OPPO Mobiles India bought the team sponsorship rights for a five-year period, beginning April 2017, for about $166 million, edging out Vivo, another mobile phone manufacturer. Vivo, however, trumped Oppo by retaining the IPL title sponsorship rights (2018-22) for approximately $341 million, a 454% increase over the price paid for the same rights in 2012. “The IPL is one of the most viewed properties in the world. The IPL is a disruptive property. When the IPL is on, the world watches only IPL,” Johri said.How fierce is the competition for digital rights likely to be?
An increasing number of viewers are turning to digital platforms for sports coverage. With Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Discovery Sports, Yahoo and BAMTech (an American internet video provider) aiming to leverage this audience, there could be fierce bidding among them and local providers like Reliance Jio, Star India and Sony. Star India was the previous rights holders for digital rights globally, having paid close to INR 303 crore for a three-year period of 2015-17. These digital behemoths are challenging traditional broadcasters by venturing into sports broadcasting. Amazon recently won the UK rights for showcasing all the major Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments while BAMTech has been streaming Major League Baseball for a few years now.

Liam Norwell took the final three wickets in Leicestershire’s second innings to finish with a first-class career best return of 8 for 43

ECB Reporters Network08-Sep-2017Liam Norwell was in the wickets again•Getty Images

Liam Norwell took the final three wickets in Leicestershire’s second innings to finish with a first-class career best return of 8 for 43 as Gloucestershire completed a ten-wicket victory at the Fischer County Ground.His return was the best in Division Two of the County Championship this season, and also meant the young seamer had taken ten wickets in the match for the second time against Leicestershire this season.”We made three changes for this match, with Matt Taylor, Josh Shaw and James Bracey coming in, and they all took their chance and made an important contribution to the victory,” Richard Dawson, Gloucestershire’s coach, said.”We’re still searching for the big partnerships of over 100, but we had three or four partnerships of 50-plus, and they helped us build a solid first innings score in difficult conditions. The challenge now is to take this form into our match against Kent at Bristol next week.”Liam Norwell is a class act, there’s not many better seamers around in county cricket at the moment.”With Leicestershire resuming on 152 for 7, leading by only eight runs, Gloucestershire’s only real concern was the weather, but play started on time, and Norwell made an immediate breakthrough, with a delivery which Matt Pillans edged to George Hankins at third slip.The end was not long coming as Clint McKay then edged an expansive drive to Gareth Roderick behind the stumps before Dieter Klein edged to Chris Dent at second slip.Gloucestershire openers Dent and Cameron Bancroft needed just 3.3 overs to score the 15 runs needed for the visitors to complete their third victory of the season, and leave Leicestershire still winless after a hapless performance in which only captain Mark Cosgrove, who hit 170 of the 382 runs Leicestershire scored in the match.”Obviously we haven’t played our best game over the last four days, and today was another disappointing effort,” Cosgrove said. “It was an opportunity to play good cricket which we didn’t take, but the season’s not over, there are two more games to show we’re good cricketers, and we have to turn it around quickly.”We’ll look hard at selection, especially after a game like we’ve played here. It could be tough at Worcester, with Ashwin in the side they’ll probably prepare a dry turning wicket, but we have to look at it as another opportunity to do well.”It is a tough ask to lift players in these circumstances but we’ll regroup and try and have a good lead-in to the game next week. We do need some positives going into the winter because otherwise it could be a very long pre-season for some of the boys.”

The former Australia captain is one of two directors up for re-election at the AGM next week, which will be preceded by meetings of state chief executives and chairmen, and also a CA board meeting

Daniel Brettig20-Oct-2017Mark Taylor, the former Australia captain, is set to be re-elected to the board of Cricket Australia for another three years when the governing body meets for its annual general meeting in Brisbane next week.Alongside Tony Harrison, Taylor is one of two directors up for re-election at the AGM, which will be preceded by meetings of state chief executives and chairmen, and also a CA Board meeting. There has been discussion, too, about elevating the CA chief executive, James Sutherland, to a formal seat at the board table as executive director, a move recommended by the David Crawford and Colin Carter governance review of CA in 2011 but blocked by the Board at the time.Some uncertainty had surrounded Taylor’s future, after he hinted earlier this year that he may well move on from the directorship he has held for 12 years, apart from a brief period in which he resigned while the board moved from 14 state delegates to nine independent directors.”At this stage I’m forging ahead as a board director and a commentator,” Taylor told the in February. “But that could all change for me in the next 13 months. I could no longer be a director and could not be a cricket commentator by this time next year so if that was to happen, I’m going into it eyes wide open and ready to make some decisions about where I might want to go.”However in the wake of this year’s pay dispute between CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association, both the state associations and the board chairman David Peever are believed to have encouraged Taylor to stay on, as one of the most highly regarded directors on the board and also a provider of much cricket credibility to decision-making. Under CA’s constitution, at least one director must be based in each of the six states, with Taylor filling the New South Wales slot.Since 2012 the board has been bolstered with plenty of corporate acumen. But the need for a balanced array of perspectives and backgrounds was underlined by the way the dispute unfolded, with the players firmly rejecting CA’s desire to break up the fixed revenue percentage model at the heart of all MoU agreements since 1998 despite being pushed out of contract by the June 30 expiry of the previous deal. CA has conducted an internal review of the MoU process, results of which are expected to be tabled at the board meeting before the AGM.Greg Dyer, the president of the ACA, wrote in the annual report of the players’ association this week that both parties needed to work alongside one another to ensure a similarly damaging dispute is not allowed to happen again. “Throughout, the players and the ACA held true to the principle that the players need to be real partners in the game, rather than mere employees, and the final result was a strong affirmation of that principle,” he wrote.”All involved from the ACA and all of our players are to be congratulated on a great outcome for cricket. But we must never allow such a process to happen again. At the ACA, we commit to a full review of the MoU process to determine how all this was allowed to occur and how it may be avoided for all future negotiations.”Further, it is my intention as president of the ACA to continue to ask the questions that challenge the sport to keep getting better. Whether on the field or off, the ACA stands committed to playing an active role in seeking improvement and reform where needed. I assume a similar review process is underway at CA, which should include consideration of the behavior and tactics employed by those involved, both collectively and individually.”Australia’s vice-captain David Warner, the most outspoken of cricketers during the standoff, said this week that the players had never sought to get into a conflict with CA, but felt compelled to stand their ground. “We regret the way it was played out in the media,” Warner told the . “But we didn’t ask for a fight. We just stood up for what we believed in. That was a revenue-share model.”We hope it never ever gets to that again. We’ve got another five years to deal with it now moving forward. We came to an agreement and both parties are satisfied now. We’ve moved on and we’re trying to concentrate on cricket and the Ashes. You saw the stance that the players had on it. We weren’t going to go on tour. At the end of the day, they came to an agreement and we ended up touring Bangladesh. But we were standing firm and strong and we believed in what we thought was right.”CA is expected to announce a modest financial profit for 2016-17, a season in which Australia hosted South Africa and Pakistan. However, the chairman Peever and chief executive Sutherland can be expected to highlight major progress at international level this year, in helping to drive constitutional reform at the ICC and more recently usher the introduction of a Test Championship and ODI league to add context to the game.