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India’s coaching staff is in a state of flux ahead of their first challenge of a long and busy season. The team director, Ravi Shastri, will only join the squad in Sri Lanka on August 8 – four days before the first Test, and only after the practice game – once he completes his duties as a television expert for the Ashes broadcaster. His three assistant coaches are reportedly yet to be given their contracts because the BCCI appears to be waiting to take a decision on Shastri’s future first.Shastri, B Arun (bowling coach), R Sridhar (fielding coach) and Sanjay Bangar (batting coach) were promised extensions during India’s tour of Bangladesh in June, and were expected to be offered contracts before the team’s departure to Zimbabwe later that month. However, it is understood that no contracts have been offered yet.One of the reasons for the delay is Shastri’s perceived lack of commitment. He skipped India’s tour to Zimbabwe after seeking prior approval from BCCI, and having signed up as an analyst with Sky Sports, Shastri also missed the preparatory phase for the Sri Lanka tour.A BCCI source said that part of the reason for Shastri skipping the initial phase of the Sri Lanka tour was due to the revision in itinerary – the schedule was advanced by about ten days, causing a conflict with his commitment to Sky Sports. The BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya and secretary Anurag Thakur have not been critical of Shastri’s decisions. Thakur had said last month that Shastri had informed the board about his unavailability for the Zimbabwe tour “well in advance”.However, his absence from the touring party to Sri Lanka has raised doubts about his commitment among some BCCI office bearers. Several board members told ESPNcricinfo that it sent a wrong signal because the man in charge of the Indian team’s affairs had substantial media commitments as well.The situation has neither helped Shastri nor his assistants as long-term appointments. The BCCI hierarchy is understood to be happy to wait for the appointment of a head coach, before giving year-long contracts to assistant coaches. The BCCI is believed to be in touch with a couple of overseas candidates and the cricket advisory committee is likely to interview them in the first week of September.The last set of assistant coaches India had – Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh – worked through their two-year stint without a long-term contract. They were compensated on a series-by-series basis. The three assistant coaches have been on a similar arrangement since they were roped in midway through India’s tour to England last year.

The Leeward Islands cricket team cruised to a comfortable victory thispast Wednesday at the Antigua Recreation Ground in Antigua over theBermuda National side. Upon winning the toss, the Ridley Jacob ledLeewards elected to field. It proved to be a profitable decision bythe West Indian wicketkeeper as the Bermudans were quickly reduced toan unrecoverable 31 for 5 with Goldwyn Prince and Kerry Jeremy rippinginto their top order. A mini recovery was then staged, however, asJaneiro Tucker (57) and Wendell White (14) managed to put together a63 run partnership for the sixth wicket.The Leeward Islands bowling attack proved to be too much, in the end,for the Bermudans as they crumbled to a modest total of 129 all outfrom 46 overs. Pacer Goldwyn Prince, was the main culprit as he torethe heart out of the Bermudan batting order with a fiery match spellof 4 for 22 from 10 overs. Young Antiguan and West Indies pacer, KerryJeremy, also slotted into the bowling action as he grabbed 3 for 27from his allotted 10 overs. Both off-spinner, Anthony Lake and leftarmer, Keith Arthurton claimed a wicket apiece.In reply, the Leewards cruised, despite loosing a few wickets on theway, to a total of 133 for 5. Wilden Cornwall (21), Stuart Williams(14), Runako Morton (11) and Stlvester Joseph (13) all lost theirwickets in the victory as did Dave Joseph who contributed 36.However, veteran Keith Arthurton (30 not out) and skipper RidleyJacobs (0 not out) saw their side to victory as the Leewards wrappedup a comfortable victory in their first effort of the 2000 Red StripeBowl.The Leewards only match in Anguilla takes place on Sunday the 15thagainst the Windwards. The Leewards will be without star Anguilliancricketers Alex Adams and Omari Banks, who from an Anguillian point ofview were unfortunately not selected. However, the Leewards, hopefullycan carry on with their good form and produce a winning season.

Four current Somerset players will be taking part in the Cricket World Cup that gets underway in South Africa next month, whilst another two former players have enjoyed mixed fortunes.As expected Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick were named in the England squad of fifteen and they will be joined by all rounder Ian Blackwell.New boy Blackwell has made quite an impression in the VB One Day International triangular tournament that is currently taking place in Australia with a number of valuable contributions with both bat and ball.Whilst `Blackie’s’ inclusion in the squad for the World Cup was not unexpected, it is worth remembering that just twelve months ago he was spending the winter working in the office at the County Ground in Taunton.Just after the Christmas break last year the former Derbyshire all rounder decided to work hard on his fitness levels and change his dietary regime, which he found hard work, so he will be absolutely delighted to have made it into the squad because that was his target.Nixon McLean, one of Somerset’s trio of new signings for 2003 will also be taking part in the Cricket World Cup. The twenty nine year old paceman who played the last of his 44 One Day Internationals in 2001 has been playing cricket for Natal where he has been enjoying some good returns.Roland Lefebvre, who played for Somerset back in the early 1990’s before moving onto Glamorgan will also be out in South Africa. The talented all rounder, who will be forty in early February has just been named as captain of the Dutch team for the tournament.However, Steve Waugh another Somerset old boy was not so fortunate, and will no doubt be disappointed to have missed out on a place in the Australian squad.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKieron Pollard ensured his team remained on top of the table•Caribbean Premier League

Barbados Tridents captain Kieron Pollard inspired his team to a 14-run win against Guyana Amazon Warriors with 4 for 30 to keep the team on top of the table in their last league match, in Guyana. Pollard defended 24 runs off the last over as Tridents defended a modest total of 125 by restricting Amazon Warriors to 111 for 6. Tridents, already in the playoffs, will now not make it straight to the final only if Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel lose one of their remaining two matches. Amazon Warriors are on second spot, but with the same points as Red Steel, Jamaica Tallawahs and St Lucia Zouks.Amazon Warriors started steady in their chase with an opening stand of 43 between Lendl Simmons and Brad Hodge before both fell within a space of six balls. Simmons scored a 31-ball 15. Umar Akmal and Denesh Ramdin also could not up the ante with their stand of 28 in 4.4 overs. When Pollard got rid of Akmal in the 15th over, Warriors still needed 53 runs from 31 balls with seven wickets in hand. But Ravi Rampaul gave only 14 runs in his next two overs to make it a more challenging equation of 37 from last two overs. Christopher Barnwell hit two consecutive fours in the penultimate over, which went for 13 runs, and started the last over with a six but Pollard finished his innings of 24 off 13 and took another wicket to finish with his fourth four-for in T20s, conceding nine runs in the last over.Tridents had opted to bat but could not get substantial partnerships going early on, thanks to David Wiese’s five-for, his third in T20s. He removed the openers, Dwayne Smith and Steven Taylor, in the fifth over, and was on a hat-trick when he had Jonathan Carter caught behind on the first ball of his next over. Legspinner Devendra Bishoo dented them further by getting rid of Robin Peterson and Misbah-ul-Haq within three deliveries, and Pollard was bowled in the next over for 2, to leave the score on 65 for 6 after 13 overs. Jason Holder and Rayad Emrit then hauled them past 100 with a 45-run partnership in under six overs. Holder smashed two fours and as many sixes in his 17-ball 30, while Emrit scored a run-a-ball 21 to help them finish on a competitive 125 for 9. Sunil Narine finished with 4-1-14-0.

Kenyon Ziehl has been appointed Zimbabwe’s convener of selectors. He will head a panel that includes national coach Dav Whatmore, assistant coach Douglas Hondo and captain Elton Chigumbura.Ziehl, 52, has played two first-class matches, one List A game, and was part of a Zimbabwe A team as well. Although he did not play international cricket, a ZC release said he did represent Zimbabwe in rugby. He has previous experience as a selector, having led the panel from 2007 to 2009. He has also had a good reputation as the CEO of the Rhinos franchise.”It is an honour and a privilege to be appointed once again as convener. I will carry on the good work my colleague Givemore [Makhoni] has been doing because it is vital that as the national selection panel, we do our best to ensure a positive team performance,” Ziehl said.His predecessor Givemore Makhoni has been named the new director for development and club cricket.

ICC chief executive David Richardson and head of global development Tim Anderson will lead a town hall meeting in Chicago on Saturday as part of the ICC’s efforts to engage stakeholders and bring disparate factions together in the wake of USACA’s suspension at the ICC annual conference in June.Anderson was one of several ICC representatives who arrived in Chicago on Thursday night and said he hoped the meeting will encourage open dialogue. Richardson was expected to spend part of the meeting directly discussing the background to USACA’s suspension and Anderson hoped a Q & A session between ICC staff and stakeholders may unlock solutions to some of the problems that have plagued US cricket in recent years.”The key focus for us for the day is that we’re looking to kick off the strategy development process and we want to talk to the stakeholders and leagues about what they think are the most important cricketing aspects of the game in this country moving forward,” Anderson told ESPNcricinfo on Thursday. Prior to the meeting, the ICC sent out a survey to select stakeholders last week to find out what areas of concern were the highest priorities for them, ranking a list of wide-ranging topics from lowest to highest in terms of importance. The survey data will be used for discussion sessions during the meeting.”They are relatively simple questions around areas of key interest within US cricket, cricket related issues and trying to get a sense from the community as to priorities and perhaps why some things have worked and why some things haven’t,” Anderson said. “Junior development, women’s cricket, fundraising, performance of teams are all key issues and we’re trying to get an understanding of what the community feels about all of those things.”Anderson said that 80 leagues from around the country had received direct invitations to participate in the meeting, which will take place beginning at 9:30 am at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at O’Hare International Airport in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont. He said although the ICC expected most of the attendees to be league representatives, the meeting was open to all cricket stakeholders and anyone was encouraged to come and participate in the various dialogues taking place throughout the day.”One of the key things that we want to be as much as possible during this whole process and during the day on Saturday is as open and transparent as we can be,” Anderson said. “Even though we invited some specific people, it’s actually an open meeting. Anyone can come but we invited the people that we really wanted to be there, the league representatives. In terms of the stakeholders we thought were most important, the leagues we thought were most important so the large majority of invitations were sent to the leagues.”The political affiliations within the US cricket system aren’t of interest to us in this process. We’ve invited leagues aligned to USACA, aligned ACF, aligned to both and neither. So we anticipate a really diverse spread of people to attend. Our local advisory group will also attend and at this point we anticipate 70 or 80 people to attend. If we are able to get 70-80 people in the room from a wide diverse landscape of US cricket, we think that would be a really positive thing.”For anyone unable to attend Saturday’s town hall meeting, Anderson said that he did not envision this to be the last opportunity for stakeholders to interact with the ICC staff or the ICC’s local advisory group during the strategy development process.”We obviously got a good sense during the review group process that domestic cricket in the USA is very disconnected and we want to try to help the community rectify that situation,” Anderson said. “We might open the survey up again after the meeting to a wider group of people to get their feedback as well. We want to try to connect with as many people as we can.”

Hard-hitting opening batsman Steven Taylor is one of nine US players in a 15-man ICC Americas combined squad announced on Wednesday to take part in the WICB Nagico Super50 competition next January. Taylor played this year for the Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League but Canada’s lone CPL-contracted player, Nikhil Dutta, was left out of the squad.Dutta was a surprise exclusion after excelling in limited opportunities at the 2015 CPL with St Kitts and Nevis Patriots but underperformed during several trial matches at the second phase of the ICC Americas cricket combine last month in Indianapolis and was beaten for the offspinner’s slot in the team by USA captain Muhammad Ghous. Aside from Ghous, the bowling attack is dominated by US players. Fast bowling allrounder Timroy Allen, medium pacers Hammad Shahid and Ali Khan, legspinner Timil Patel and left-arm spinner Danial Ahmed also made the team. Jeremy Gordon was the only Canada bowler to be included.Khan, from Dayton, Ohio, is the lone player in the 15-man squad who is yet to play for his respective national team but was consistently impressive throughout both phases of the trial for his pace and ability to bowl yorkers. He was also one of six players – along with Allen, Ahmed, Gordon, Alex Amsterdam, and Srimantha Wijeratne – who progressed out of phase one of the trial to beat numerous competitors who were fast-tracked directly into phase two.Allen’s inclusion is another step towards his return to international cricket after vowing not to play for USA again in the wake of a falling out with then head coach Robin Singh following USA’s tour of the UAE in November 2013 for the World Twenty20 Qualifier. Allen served as vice-captain on that tour and stood in as skipper for two games.Allen was not nominated by USACA as a fast-tracked player for phase two of the Indianapolis trial and therefore had to apply to compete in phase one to make it into the final weekend for a spot in the team. However, he was easily the best performing player over the two phases out of more than 90 competitors.The fast bowling competition was the most intense part of the trial, meaning that David Pieters, who consistently impressed with his athleticism and attitude through both phases of the trial, was left out. The fielding around him did not help his case though with catches regularly dropped off his bowling, including three in the final 50-over trial match with all three of those players – Taylor, Fahad Babar and Nitish Kumar – going on to make half-centuries.Babar, who was the MVP and leading scorer at the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 in May in Indianapolis, was left out despite half-centuries in each trial match, but Kumar’s 70 off 59 balls in the final game cemented his place.Surprisingly, all four wicketkeepers – Taylor, US team-mate Akeem Dodson, Canada’s Hamza Tariq and Wijeyratne – who were competing in phase two of the trial were included in the final 15 with Taylor and Wijeratne expected to compete as specialist batsmen.The final squad was selected by a panel headed by Courtney Walsh, Mike Young and Venkatapathy Raju – who were all brought in by the ICC Americas office as independent talent evaluators present during both phases of the trial – as well as multiple local coaches including Ontario Cricket Academy coach Derek Perera and current USA U-19 coach Thiru Kumaran.”We’d like to thank all the players and coaches involved in what was a unique process to select the team,” said ICC Americas High Performance consultant, Tom Evans. “There is an exciting amount of talent in the region, and we are looking forward to helping the players selected, and those that missed out this time, continue to improve.”The team is scheduled to arrive in Trinidad on January 4 with the first of six 50-over matches starting on January 7. Included in their four-team group is Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and Combined Campuses and Colleges, with all teams playing each other twice before the semi-finals begin on January 21.ICC Americas squad: Timroy Allen, Danial Ahmed, Alex Amsterdam, Navneet Dhaliwal, Akeem Dodson (wk), Muhammad Ghous, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Jeremy Gordon, Ali Khan, Nitish Kumar, Timil Patel, Hammad Shahid, Hamza Tariq (wk), Steven Taylor, Srimantha Wijeratne

New Zealand may be 1-0 down in the Trans-Tasman Test series, but the team’s coach Mike Hesson believes his side scored a significant psychological victory over Australia with their remarkable comeback to take the innings lead at the WACA Ground.Australia were cruising at 416 for the loss of just two wickets at the end of the first day’s play and, after posting a total of 559, had New Zealand 6 for 1 when Mitchell Starc claimed the early wicket of Martin Guptill. But a double-century from a rejuvenated Ross Taylor, and a majestic hundred from Kane Williamson hauled New Zealand back into the game. Until lunch on the final day, any result seemed possible.Steven Smith waited until 11 overs after lunch to declare, leaving New Zealand requiring a near impossible 321 runs from 48 overs on a deteriorating pitch to claim victory. There is a strong feeling in the New Zealand camp that Smith’s conservative declaration was a sign of respect Australia had grown for their opponents after the first Test in Brisbane, which was a far more one-sided affair,”I think we do [gain a psychological advantage] and we gain some confidence from the way the game evolved today”, Hesson said.”If Australia didn’t rate us highly then the game could have unfolded quite differently than the way it did. I thought we were very good with the ball this morning and we’ll certainly gain lot confidence from that.”It showed that when we’re on song we’re certainly equal, if not better than our opposition. We just need to do that, particularly with the ball, for longer periods of time.”New Zealand have not suffered a series defeat since losing 2-0 to England in 2013 and are determined to extend that streak by securing the win in Adelaide.Hesson insists that maintaining the streak is “absolutely” a motivation, although it is not discussed.”It doesn’t need to be”, he said. “It’s something we’re very proud of as a team. To scrap the way we did after day one today shows continuation of character we’ve shown for a long time. You find out a bit about people when you’re under a bit of adversity. Think we found that out of the last four days.”Hesson was particularly pleased with the improvement in the performance New Zealand’s bowlers, who were exposed as underdone in the first Test at the Gabba, where the much vaunted new-ball pairing of Trent Boult and Tim Southee failed to make an impact.”I think that’s something we really need to make improvements on in the third Test because that’s a real strength of ours and we haven’t been able to put Australia’s top-order under pressure enough,” Hesson said.”We put a lot of good sides under pressure when we get our own shop in order. That is probably going to be our main focus. I think we know that if we get it right and get the ball swinging we can run through any side in the world.”New Zealand will play a two-day match against Western Australia at the WACA in preparation for the third Test, using the pink ball, ahead of the day-night match in Adelaide. They will use the opportunity to look at the balance of the bowling attack and assess the form of players with the unfamiliar ball.But while the final make-up of the side will be decided after assessing the Adelaide pitch, it seems likely New Zealand will stick with Mark Craig, despite the offspinner finishing the second Test with match figures of 3 for 204.Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who is also a handy lower-order batsman, has a broken little finger on his bowling hand, but could play wearing a splint if conditions call for a second spin option. But Hesson emphasised his support for the under-siege Craig.Despite match figures of 3 for 204, Mark Craig had the backing of his coach•Getty Images

“Mark has been a really influential member for us for the past year and a half, and Australia is a tough place to bowl spin”, he said. “If you look at the stats there have been some high-quality spinners that haven’t done very well over here, and there’s no doubt Mark has been put under pressure. But what we’ve seen from him time and time again is that he has actually fought back for us.”We’ll look at the surface in Adelaide and we’ll see how much grass is on it and look at the balance of the side. But he’s certainly an integral member of our side, batting at No.8 and scoring valuable runs and grabbing a few catches at second slip. He’s highly likely to play in Adelaide.”When you get put under pressure you start to be a little bit more deliberate in how you do things. Spin-bowling, like many things, is about being able to relax and let it unfold. Once you get going and get a couple of wickets you get that confidence and get through the crease a little bit better. That’s something you can’t really get at practice, you need to get it out in the middle.”The prospect of the series being decided in such experimental circumstances does not appear to bother Hesson. The vagaries of the pink ball can hardly be greater than those of the red Kookaburra balls that had to be changed with alarming regularity at the WACA.”Well, we had plenty of issues with the red ball in this one,” Hesson said. “It is what it is. We’re delighted to be playing the first day-night game. It’s an exciting time, going to be a big crowd. Who knows? In five years’ time it could be the norm.”We’re heading to Adelaide, third Test, big game for us. We will make the most of the situation, rather than worrying about what colour the ball is.”

Ireland successfully defended a small total of 149 when they defeatedNetherlands by 19 runs in the Plate Championship of the under-19 WorldCup at the Radella grounds on Wednesday.Electing to bat, Ireland found runs hard to come by against the trioof Tewarie (3 for 23), Nijman (2 for 31) and Hout (2 for 23) and wererestricted to 149 for eight in 40 overs. Opener D Joyce top scoredwith a fighting 58. He faced 101 balls and hit five of them to thefence. With wicketkeeper R Haire (23) he took part in the only standof note – 62 runs for the fourth wicket off 11.5 overs.Netherlands also struggled for runs and at 66 for seven, they faced abig defeat. But A Raja (43) and A Buurman (15) put up a semblance of afight by adding 34 runs for the eighth wicket off seven overs. Rajawho was last out, faced 46 balls and hit two fours and two sixes. CArmstrong was the most successful bowler with three for 13 off sixovers. Netherlands were all out for 130 in 38.3 overs.

In a tight tussle, marred slightly by a couple of umpiring decisions, Kensington foiled West Torrens’ attempt at its first premiership for nearly forty years with a narrow victory giving them their second title in the past four seasons. The Browns commenced their innings in perfect conditions and there was action a plenty in the opening hour as Andrew McRitchie top edged a reckless hookshot and was dropped by over-exuberant paceman Daniel Lynch as he nearly collided with Ben Higgins who was running in from square leg. A few balls later, McRitchie shouldered arms and had his off stump bent back off a no ball and in the next over Anthony McDonald was dropped low down in the slips by Bradley Young off Brett Swain. Lynch redeemed his early error by getting McRitchie a short time later, attempting another rash hook stroke. Bradman Medalist John Lee immediately went on the attack, and just as he had reached his fifty, following some strong off side play, he edged to slip and lunch was taken at 2/105.Jamie Siddons went on the attack after the break, hitting Matthew Minagall into the temporary stand, but immediately after drove at one that he wasn’t to the pitch of and hit a return catch. Left hander McDonald continued to play the sheet anchor role and he was next to go giving Brad Wigney the first of two wickets in two balls as Jamie McPhee was trapped plumb in front first ball to make Kensington an uncomfortable 5/131.Skipper Dean Waugh was joined by Barry Steele but the union didn’t last long with the ex-New South Welshman becoming Minagall’s third wicket. Then came the first of two very contenious umpiring decisions in the match by Paul Angley as Steele was fortunate to survive a huge lbw shout as he padded up to Wigney. He eventually succumbed to Young but he and Justin Creek added 30 very valuable runs in the meantime and in the eventual context of the game these were vital to the outcome. Creek continued to bat well and he and John Palmer got the Browns through to tea at 7/196.Kensington’s innings didn’t thrive for too long into the final session with Minagall getting his fourth wicket and Young his second from 15.1 very tight overs. Creek was unbeaten at the end, justifying his place in the team solely as a batsman. West Torrens had 25 overs to survive on the Saturday and things started poorly as Jarrad Taylor padded up to left arm quick Andrew Watson. Darren Reeves and Andrew Haslett scratched out the foundations of a good partnership until shortly before the close Reeves played a loose shot off McPhee to go for 27 and in the next over Haslett was brilliantly stumped down the leg side off medium pacer Jamie Panelli.Sunday again dawned clear, but for West Torrens double disaster struck with Young being brilliantly snapped up in the slips by Waugh and immediately after Minagall went to Watson. Malcolm Howell and Ben Higgins then joined forces to attempt to carry out a very similar scenario to that which occurred in the semi-final and were going along smoothly until umpire Angley decided Howell was leg before to Panelli when fully forward and playing a shot. Higgins was joined by Ben Smith who took 31 minutes to score his first run and the partnership was promising when lunch was taken at 6/121, with Higgins having just reached his fifty with a leg glanced boundary.In a pulsating final session of the season, Smith went in the second over after lunch and Swain, after a brief flurry edged Steele behind, thus West Torrens needed 71 with just two wickets in hand. Captain-Coach Wigney strode to the wicket and immediately Higgins went after the bowling and with the new ball approaching, the pair made it to drinks needing a further 37. Watson returned to the crease, as did Steele and Higgins hit a juicy full toss over mid wicket to bring up a wonderful century. Sadly there was little acknowledgement from the fielding side who were starting to feel the tension of the situation. Higgins then beautifully drove Watson to the long off ropes and then in trying to keep the bowling, attempted a glide to third man only to give a catch to the solitary slip fielder present. Wigney was then dropped at third slip by Siddons and after he off drove an all run four, Lynch edged behind to end the match.Kensington thoroughly deserved their win however, but their over-appealing and non-clapping of Ben Higgins reaching his ton did slightly stain their efforts. Waugh expressed delight at the win particularly after the miracle come from behind effort in the semi-final. His opposite number, Brad Wigney was obviously disappointed and in the frustration of the narrow loss called for the sacking of the Umpire’s director Dennis Rebbeck.