Tag Futebol

Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns will enter Australia’s tilt for the No.1 Test ranking without a single warm-up innings on New Zealand soil, after the national selectors resisted temptation to significantly alter the ODI squad.The only concession to the two Tests in Wellington and Christchurch was the omission of Nathan Lyon after his indifferent displays against India at home, opening up room for the legspinner Adam Zampa to make his international debut while the panel deliberate on his possible inclusion in the World Twenty20 squad.Lyon will instead play in the Sheffield Shield match being played between New South Wales and Western Australia at New Zealand Cricket headquarters in Lincoln near Christchurch. However, Khawaja and Burns will be expected to make the Trans-Tasman adjustments from home, playing for Queensland.

Australia ODI squad for NZ tour

Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, George Bailey, Scott Boland, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Matthew Wade (wk), Adam Zampa

Despite his stunning run of form in the Big Bash League following on from a breakout Test summer, Khawaja remained surplus to a settled ODI batting line-up, as the captain Steven Smith had predicted. The likes of Aaron Finch and George Bailey are a long way from Test calculation, but have done nothing to deserve omission from the 50-over team.The selection chairman Rod Marsh acknowledged that coping with foreign conditions was the greatest blind spot of the Australian side, something shown in 2015 during the Ashes but also in their lone loss of the World Cup, against New Zealand at a raucous Eden Park.”We know one of the biggest challenges we will face in New Zealand is adapting to the change in conditions,” he said. “It has been well documented that this is something we have struggled with in recent times and a major focus for this squad will be to reverse that trend.”The New Zealand side will be very tough to beat in their home conditions. We know we will need to be at the top of our game if we want to be competitive.”Marsh said the panel’s preference was for Lyon to get some time bowling in a first-class environment before the Test matches, while also deliberating on the value of Zampa, who again bowled well for the Melbourne Stars in the BBL final on Sunday night.”We have selected Adam Zampa as the spinning option for this tour in place of Nathan Lyon,” Marsh said. “We want Nathan to use the NSW versus West Australia Sheffield Shield match in New Zealand as preparation for the Test Series and this will give us a chance to have a good look at Adam ahead of the ICC World T20.”Adam has certainly put forward a strong case for selection through good performances in the Big Bash as well as the Matador Cup earlier in the season and we think he has thoroughly earned this opportunity.”The captain Smith and his deputy David Warner will be leaving Australia on Saturday in order to prepare in advance for New Zealand, having been rested from the latter two T20 internationals against India that follow Tuesday’s opening match on Australia Day in Adelaide.

Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs are making progress following theinjuries they picked up in the opening ICC World Twenty20 matchagainst West Indies at Johannesburg, but Gibbs may not be risked forwhat is now a dead game against Bangladesh on Saturday.The South African team arrived in Cape Town on Wednesday and are preparing for back-to-back matches at Newlands over the weekend. Smith, who picked up a soft tissue injury to his right hand after taking a blow from Daren Powell, didn’t bat during the team’s training sessionat Bellville. Coach Mickey Arthur hopes he will have a hit on Friday and admitted losing both Smith and Gibbs would be a significant blow.”They are two of our most experienced players and they are in good form at the moment so it is a little bit of a concern but we are confident of having them ready for Sunday,” he said, adding that AB de Villiers is likely to remain at No. 3 with one of Gulam Bodi or JP Duminy replacing Gibbs as opener against Bangladesh.After playing the tournament’s opening fixture in the high-scoring conditions at the Wanderers, Arthur is well aware his team will have to adjust quickly to new conditions in Cape Town. “We spoke about what a good score was a lot during our warm-ups matches and we thought 170-175 might be about right but we had to adjust that, especially on the highveldt. But down here I think the scores are going to be slightly lower.”I was really pleased we could get a practice today and we saw whenthe guys batted today that they need to hold their shape more. Withthe ball you have to be pinpoint-accurate and even the fielders needto adjust. That’s why today was very important.”Despite being set an imposing target of 206 against West Indies, South Africa cruisedhome on the back of Gibbs’ 90. Athough Arthur believes that batting secondis an advantage in Twenty20s, he thinks the situation will be more variable at Newlands.”Batting second allows you to manage your innings a lot better,” hesaid. “You know exactly what you are chasing so it does become easier.I think down here at Newlands it could be slightly different and youcan put pressure on by putting a big score on the board because thewickets are slower.”Although there is now nothing riding on the Bangladesh game other thanpride, and some prize money, momentum in such a compacted tournamentis vital and South Africa will need to remain focused. After watchingtheir neighbours, Zimbabwe, overcome Australia on Wednesday, Arthur iswell aware that the gap between sides is narrowed in Twenty20. “Youcan’t take anyone lightly. It does become a little bit of a lotteryand class-wise the teams coming a little closer together.”

A bad week for Zimbabwe Cricket grew worse with a threat from Themba Mliswa, the controversial Zimbabwean political activist, that he was set to challenge Peter Chingoka, the board’s chairman, and Ozias Bvute, the managing director, with the support of the country’s “highest authorities”. The board were already reeling from the resignations of Crispen Tsvarai and Bruce Makovah and will be further alarmed by this latest development.Mliswa, who has a chequered career, was the man widely considered responsible for driving Tatenda Taibu into retirement last year. After seeming to ingratiate himself with the Chingoka-led interim executive, it seems that, as Cricinfo exclusively reported last month, he had a major falling out with the executive’s top brass.Mliswa, heading a group calling itself “Black Pioneers stakeholders”, addressed a media conference at a Harare hotel this afternoon, repeating virtually the same allegations that have been raised against the ZC bosses by players and disgruntled stakeholders over the past two years. But this time, Mliswa vowed to finally deal with the alleged maladministration and corruption by the ZC top brass.”These individuals are holding Zimbabwe cricket to ransom,” Mliswa said. “They are killing the game for what are evidently selfish ends. They are directly responsible for the rampant corruption, mismanagement and outright criminal activity that has become the order of the day.We have confidence in the authorities and powers that be in this country that they will deal with this decisively now.”He was sitting alongside Makovah, the former convener of selectors who resigned earlier this week after a fall-out with the country’s board. “I resigned because there were serious lack of transparency”, Makovah said, adding another reason was the decision by Chingoka and Bvute to allow Kevin Curran, the coach, to dictate selection matters.Mliswa also revealed he had held discussions with Taibu and now claimed to be on talking terms with him. “I admit to be one of the people who had a go at him, but I never threatened him,” he insisted. “I tried to talk to him as a brother. Tatenda is a Zimbabwean. He wants to play for his country… but in the best environment with the best adminstrators”.He also said he had met some of the old provincial chairmen, although he evaded he said he was independent of the former administrators.

Nadeem Malik, 22, has signed a three year contract with Worcestershire which will keep him at the county until 2008. Malik joined Worcestershire in 2004 from Nottinghamshire, and in his first season he took 24 wickets and has so far taken 36 this season.Head coach of Worcestershire and former England wicketkeeper, Steve Rhodes, was delighted to secure Malik’s services: “Nadeem is a talented young bowler with the ability to be selected for the National Academy. To secure the services of such a young talent shows how committed the club is to developing young English players.”Malik himself was delighted to be staying with Worcestershire. “I have really enjoyed the last two years at the club and have been pleased with my progress so far. Over the next three years I want to help the club be successful.”

Ireland 204 for 5 (Molins 47, Watson 3-32) beat Scotland 200 for 6 (Watson 88*) by 5 wickets at Deventer
A five-wicket defeat to Ireland at Deventer has left Scotland with no chance of winning the ECC championship. Scotland batted first and scored a competitive 200 for 6, thanks mainly to a superb 88 not out from the Zimbabwean-born Ryan Watson, who also chipped in with three wickets, but Ireland cantered home by five wickets with three overs to spare.Jason Molins and Jeremy Bray got Ireland’s run chase off to an excellent start, capitalising on some wayward bowling in an 81-run opening stand. Watson made the breakthrough, having Bray caught behind by Colin Smith for 39, and instigated a mini-collapse that temporarily put the match in the balance. Andre Botha departed for 6, also to Watson, and Molins was out in the next over with no addition to the score, bowled by Greig Williamson (93 for 3).However, Andrew White and Peter Gillespie then laid to rest any hopes of an Scottish fightback, adding 87 as the bowlers, Watson and Gregor Maiden apart, failed to maintain any pressure. Watson again broke the partnership, when Dewald Nel caught Gillespie for 32 (180 for 4), but by then the result of the game was already assured.White fell just before the victory came, stumped by Smith off Maiden for 43, but Kyle McCallan (18*) and Trent Johnston (2*) guided Ireland home without any further problems.Earlier, Scotland had made a solid start, with Bruce Patterson and Maiden putting on 44 for the first wicket before Maiden was bowled by Gordon Cooke for 13. Then followed two needless run outs, as first Colin Smith (3), and then Patterson (40), gave away their wickets (100 for 3).White then ripped through the middle order with three quick wickets as Scotland stumbled to 151 for 6, but he had his fair share of luck, as the ball that dismissed Dom Rigby lbw turned far too much to hit the stumps.At the other end Watson was still batting fluently though, racing past his half-century, and he had some good support from Williamson in the final overs. However, Scotland were left ruing their soft dismissals, and inaccurate bowling, as Ireland raced home without ever really being tested.

Worcestershire County Cricket Club has awarded Tom Moody a Testimonial Year in 2004.World Cup winner on two occasions with Australia in 1987 and 1999, Moody has been with Worcestershire since 1991 as both a Player and Director of Cricket. As a Player he enjoyed much success with the County including scoring 25 first class centuries. He captained the County from 1995 until 1999 and scored a thousand runs in a season on four occasions. He was a key Member of the team that won both the B & H Cup in 1991 and the NatWest Trophy in 1994.In 2001 the Club appointed him to the new position of Director of Cricket. Over the last three seasons Moody has overseen a transformation in the County’s cricket fortunes including an overhaul of the Worcestershire CCC Academy which is already producing a fine crop of young players.Upon receiving the news, Tom Moody said “I am honoured the Club has awarded me a Testimonial Year. It has been a privilege to have been involved with the County since 1991 as a Player and now the Director of Cricket.”

All five of New Zealand’s One-Day Internationals with England in February will be day/night matches.Originally no decision had been made on whether games in Auckland and Wellington would be day or day/night games.New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden said today that consultations with Auckland Cricket and Cricket Wellington had resulted in the decision to make both games day/night matches.”The reasoning is that a day/night game allows spectators more flexibility in their travelling arrangements and the changing environment adds to the excitement of the match,” he said.The matches are: (reserve days will be day games): Wednesday, February 13, Jade Stadium, Christchurch; Saturday, Feb 16, WestpacTrust Stadium, Wellington; Wednesday, Feb 20, McLean Park, Napier; Saturday, Feb 23, Eden Park, Auckland; Tuesday, Feb 26, Carisbrook, Dunedin.

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.”

Jesse Ryder’s third successive half-century of the tournament capped off a dominating batting performance by Central Districts as they beat Wellington by 55 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in North Palmerston. Their third win in five matches put them behind table-toppers Canterbury on the points table.Ryder’s 74-ball 83 was one of three half-centuries for Central Districts as they posted 324 for 7 after being sent in to bat. That he had a platform set when he came out to bat at No. 3 was courtesy George Worker (64) and Ben Smith (57), who put on 112. The next highest stand of the innings was 74 for the third wicket between Ryder and Will Young, who made 34 to pave the way for a strong finish.Michael Pollard and Michael Papps, the Wellington openers, started slowly by adding 61 in 13.5 overs, but the loss of three quick wickets further slowed their progress. Wellington had moved on to 141 for 4 in 29.1 overs when rain forced an end to proceedings, with Central Districts well ahead by the D/L method.Neil Broom’s unbeaten 124 was the standout in a low-scoring thriller, which Otago won by three runs in Whangarei to register their first victory in the competition. Otago’s 298 for 6 nearly didn’t prove enough as Anton Devcich and BJ Watling led Northern Districts‘ fightback with 81 and 56 respectively. When Devcich was dismissed, Northern Districts still needed 96 off 62 balls.Watling and Daryl Mitchell (31) kept them in a hunt with a 55-run stand off just 38 balls, but their dismissal in the space of 13 deliveries pulled the plug on their chase. With four losses in five matches, Northern Districts are currently at the bottom in the league standings.

Ottis Gibson continued his age-defying season with 7 for 46 as Durham and Worcestershire traded blows at Chester-le-Street. Seventeen wickets fell in the day, but thanks to half-centuries from Michael Di Venuto (50), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (54) and Gordon Muchall (62 not out) , Durham edged into the lead as Gareth Batty grabbed five. Worcestershire were in early trouble against Gibson and slumped to 50 for 4. Graeme Hick (64) and Steven Davies (26) added 60 before Paul Wiseman broke Gibson’s monopoly on wickets. But Gibson was soon back into it, ending Hick’s counter-attacking 65-ball innings. Nadeem Malik began Worcestershire’s fightback, but the key wickets fell to Batty. Any runs that Muchall and the tail can add in the morning could prove vital.Glen Chapple revived Lancashire with a rapid 88 at Canterbury after Kent threatened to take a significant lead. Lancashire slipped from 127 for 1 to 179 for 5 before Chapple joined Stuart Law (66) in a sixth-wicket stand of 118. Chapple dominated by clubbing five sixes and 10 fours in his 81-ball innings, a season-best for the allrounder. With a century in sight he was bowled by Martin Saggers, who led Kent’s attack with 4 for 43 off 25 overs, and two further wickets leaves the game shaping as a one-innings contest.

Stephen Fleming struck his third century of the season as Nottinghamshire enjoyed a profitable first day against Middlesex at Lord’s. He reached his hundred off 142 balls and added 188 with Mark Wagh, who struck 92 before falling to Tim Murtagh. Middlesex’s bowlers stuck to their task and fought back as Nottinghamshire went from 245 for 2 to 346 for 7 either side of tea. However, Chris Read’s jaunty 47 held the lower order together and guided his side towards 400.