T20 has improved spinners’ ability: Vettori
jamaica: Former New Zealand left-arm spinner and captain Daniel Vettori believes the Twenty20 format has helped spinners evolve in the long run, also adding that it has made the spinners think a step ahead of the batsman and take extra risks. Having announced his retirement following the 2015 World Cup final, Vettori is now the coach of two franchises, Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier league and Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash league. “There have been different stages. You look at the dominance that a number of spin bowlers had through the last five or six years — that has changed a lot because of the crackdown on illegal actions,” Vettori was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo on Thursday. “And that is down to T20 cricket a lot, because you spend the whole time trying to guess what a batsman is trying to do. Because they are being so aggressive towards to you, the good spinners have had to find ways to deal with that, and mainly that is through anticipation.”
McGrath backs Hazlewood, Joe Root to fire in Ashes
sydney: Australia legend Glenn McGrath on Thursday nominated a pair of young guns he expects to shine at the upcoming Ashes which is set to begin from July 8, namely pacer Josh Hazlewood and England batsman Joe Root. McGrath believes the 24-year-old Hazlewood can deliver with the ball if given the opportunity from the first Test in Cardiff. Hazlewood has played five Tests, collecting 25 wickets at an average of 19.08. He was involved in Australia’s 2-0 Test series against the West Indies recently. “He’s pretty grounded now, he knows his game well, he’s a good country lad, he had a bit of a sniff of international cricket quite a few years back, now he’s got a second stint (which) makes you hungry,” McGrath was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au. Root has begun his Test career in impressive fashion, already registering six hundreds in 27 matches, including 180 against the Australians during the 2013 series, and McGrath places him alongside a couple of England veterans as key wickets for the Aussie bowlers.
Pawar-led new MCA committee to meet today
mumbai: After cruising to a thumping victory to retain his post in biennial elections, Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president Sharad Pawar called a first meeting of the newly-elected managing committee members here on Friday. The meeting will see several issues put forward by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo, who on Wednesday defeated his challenger and outgoing vice president Vijay Patil by 34 votes to hold on to his domination on Mumbai cricket. Pawar has been the MCA president for ten years from 2001-2010 and was unanimously elected in 2012. “On behalf of Pawar-Mahaddalkar group, I would like to give thanks to all the members of MCA. I call for a first meeting of the newly elected managing committee on Friday at 11 am. Along with the winning candidates, we are also going to work with losing candidates for interest of MCA,” Pawar said on Wednesday after his group’s victory. The meeting will see a number of issues being put forward by the president for the betterment of Mumbai cricket and India. One of the most important point on which Pawar stressed at the time of election campaign and after the victory was that the new management would create reserved seats for women representatives from the next election onwards.
No Chanderpaul in West indies first class draft
st. john’s (antigua): There is no sign of recently discarded Test batsman Shiv Chanderpaul among the 90 players entered for the draft of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Professional Cricket league (PCl), which is the first class competition in the Caribbean. Chanderpaul is conspicuously missing from Guyana Jaguars list of draft nominees. The veteran left-hander was controversially axed from the West Indies Test squad for the recent Australia tour, a move that is likely to end his career, reports CMC. The 40-year-old averages 51 from 164 Tests and is just 88 runs shy of overtaking Brian lara as the all-time leading run-scorer in West Indies cricket. He has scored 11,867 runs. Chanderpaul, however, can still play for Guyana at the discretion of the franchise on Pay-For-Play contract. His son Tagenarine Chanderpaul, a left-handed top order batsman, is among the list of draft nominees for the defending champions.