On the eve of a T20 World Cup, England allrounder knows it’s ok to put herself first

Valkerie Baynes10-Feb-2023Success looks a little bit different for Nat Sciver-Brunt these days.If she learned anything from taking time out of the game last year to care for her mental health and wellbeing, it was how to become – selfish is too strong – willing to put herself first.In fact, many lessons came from that time, including how to develop strategies to ensure she doesn’t reach “boiling point” again. But as she prepares to take England into a T20 World Cup campaign as Heather Knight’s deputy and her country’s most influential player of the previous, turbulent year, the consummate team-player knows she has to take care of herself.Sciver-Brunt enjoyed a successful return from her three-month absence to be England’s leading run-scorer on their combined ODI-T20I tour of West Indies and Player of the Series in the 50-over format. After a conversation with Knight following that tour, Sciver-Brunt decided she was ready to resume the vice-captaincy duties she had kept on hold initially when she made her playing comeback. After a half-century as England beat hosts South Africa in an official warm-up game ahead of the World Cup (she didn’t bat or bowl during a five-wicket win against New Zealand on Wednesday), all is going well so far.”Taking myself out, it’s not really a thing that I’ve had to do previously in my career,” Sciver-Brunt told ESPNcricinfo after the second warm-up game at Western Province Cricket Club in Cape Town. “I’d always try and give my everything to the team and for us to win, to the group, so actually taking the time to think am I going to be okay with it? Is it going to affect my performance, that was really what I wanted to try and figure out and I was happy that I was in a place where it wouldn’t.”I didn’t know how it was going to go. Before the tour I didn’t want my expectations to be that I want to make a score in every game or I want to take wickets. It was more about me feeling comfortable on the pitch and able to contribute in that way, not skill-wise or numbers or anything but yeah, was I able to be part of the group and enjoy myself. So success looked a bit different.”Success does look different now. Obviously you want to win and you want to perform for your team and everything like that but being okay for myself was more important.”Related

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Sciver-Brunt admits that the desire to always do her bit for the team had made stepping away for herself very difficult. But in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the bio-secure bubble touring that followed – an away Ashes campaign, an ODI World Cup (where she was key to England’s runner-up finish) and a home Commonwealth Games – she felt she had little choice but to stop. Speaking to the England Women’s team doctor, though, gave her reassurance.”It was a weird place,” she reflected. “I’d not really felt like that at all in my life before. Normally I don’t want to miss anything, I don’t want to let anyone down. I don’t want to not be there for everyone. And so realising that allowing myself to leave or take myself out of it was the hardest thing to get over because I’ve never really gotten to that point before or felt like that at all.”Once I did go home, it just felt like it was the right thing. I might have got home and thought, ‘I feel fine, I should go back,’ but taking myself out of it and getting home, then I knew that it was definitely the right thing to do. Allowing myself to take myself out, it was a weird thing because in our team that’s not really happened before and I don’t like to miss things. I want to do absolutely everything that we need to do in order to play, so my mentality is not usually, ‘this isn’t right, I need to step back.'”Someone else who knew things weren’t right was her wife and team-mate, Katherine Sciver-Brunt.”Because I’m such a sort of steady character, Katherine can tell when I’m not right as well,” Sciver-Brunt says. “So she sort of knew that I wasn’t okay. Having that person there who, almost she knows me better than I know myself, was good to have, someone there, like, batting for you, basically.”The couple recently switched to using their married name ‘Sciver-Brunt’•Getty ImagesThe couple recently switched to using their married name while playing and will wear shirts to reflect that for the first time while in South Africa.”Everyone already knows we’re married so it’s not like, ‘oh, hi, it’s obvious now’, but it’s something nice to represent us both on the pitch,” Sciver-Brunt says. “And yeah, having a bit of Brunt in my bowling is definitely a good thing!”Katherine, who turns 38 in July, was rested during India’s tour of England late last summer and she wasn’t part of the ODI squad in the Caribbean, but she returned for the T20I part of that tour and is now primed for what could well be her last World Cup.Katherine was part of the England side which won the T20 crown in 2009 and finished runners-up to Australia in 2012, while Sciver-Brunt has twice played in losing finals against Australia, in 2014 and 2018. Sciver-Brunt also scored a gallant 148 not out as England lost the ODI World Cup final to Australia last year. But one result sticking in England’s craw in the lead-up to this event is their washed-out semi-final at the last T20 World Cup in Australia, where India advanced as group winners instead and lost to the hosts in the decider.So when Sciver-Brunt says through clenched teeth and raised eyebrows, “I don’t want to be runner-up anymore” it doesn’t sound like a predictable, throw-away line uttered by an athlete on the eve of a tournament. It sounds and looks like a pledge. And again, when she says: “I’d like to be in the final.””Especially in T20, we always seem to sort of do well and then get to the end and something happens, rain, or we don’t play as we have been playing,” she says. “There’s a lot of us who have experienced those tournaments who are, ‘right, I just don’t want to it do anymore’. We must go for it!'”As a team, we are in a really good place and I think the way that we want to play, as long as we’re able to put that into practice on the pitch and do it against the best teams, I think we’re in a really good spot to make the knockout stages. We say in tournaments you don’t want to think too far ahead and try and keep the next game in your mind as much as possible so I guess that’s what we’ll do. I think I once the tournament starts, it’ll go so quickly that all you can focus on is the next match. But at the moment, I’d like to be in the final.”

England’s managing director of cricket talks about his management philosophy, combating franchise cricket’s allure, and why Bazball has succeeded

Vithushan Ehantharajah05-May-2023By Rob Key’s own admission, he is not much of a planner. In a different era it would be jarring to hear from an ECB employee in possession of the keys to the men’s national set-up. Perhaps it is a refreshing sign of the times that it isn’t.”My missus sort of says to me, ‘Right, what are you doing in a couple of weeks, I want to have someone around,'” he says. “But I’m a bit like, ‘Just invite people around tomorrow. We’ll be fine.’ What’s the worst that can happen? I think I’ve done that with this job, really. ‘We’ll give it a go.'”Related

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Since assuming the role as managing director of England men’s cricket in April 2022, that attitude appears to be working. Capped 21 times for his country, a long-serving captain of Kent before moving into the commentary box, the 43-year-old has overseen an overhaul in the fortunes of the Test side, who have won 10 out 12 after just one in 17, and a T20 World Cup.Key admits this was a job he never considered and certainly did not covet. That he was approached when he was, during the Test series defeat to West Indies after a demoralising 4-0 loss in Australia, made it a more attractive proposition. “What’s the worst that could happen?” he repeats, this time on his thought process upon accepting the gig. “We’ll keep losing. But it will be one hell of a story. And I suppose that’s the extent of my planning going into this job.”He wasted no time sifting through the in-tray. Ben Stokes was made Test captain, Brendon McCullum red-ball coach, and Matthew Mott for the white ball teams. The appointment of Luke Wright as men’s national selector in November rounded off the list of vacancies to be filled.The start of his second year has been a lot more akin to an office job. “Now it’s different,” he says, as a weekly commuter to Lord’s. “You’re in the world of work. The other day was the first time I’ve ever booked a holiday in my life. Where I had to sort of ask for it. Like, can I go away for three days and play golf?”For a man who describes himself as “relatively childish”, with “an active mind where I can’t sit still and have to go off and just do stuff” administration might not be a natural fit. But he is aware his most important work to come will be in the boardrooms and corridors of power.Since he began, franchise cricket has expanded further, with the inaugural seasons of the SA20 and ILT20, along with Major League Cricket set to take place in July in the US, right in the middle of the English summer. In the last month, it emerged IPL franchises have already begun conversations on recruiting English talent year-round. Inevitably, the new world encroaches on the old.Key believes the answer to franchise cricket’s brain drain is building a lucrative competition at home•Alex Davidson/Getty ImagesKey has long maintained both can coexist. When English players turned down places on the white-ball tour of Bangladesh to play in the Pakistan Super League in March, Key was prominently involved in conversations with those individuals, who appreciated the flexibility and particularly the open dialogue.That, however, can only cover for so much. In turn, the ECB are in the process of revising their remuneration to players, particularly match fees, which are dwarfed by the contracts offered in franchise competitions. While central contracts are also being looked at, it is game-to-game pay that Key feels needs to be addressed first, especially given the demand on talent, as per the winter, when over 70 English cricketers were recruited overseas.”For example, you know, the match fees? They’re not enough money. You might get, I think it was £3500 for a T20I. In these leagues around the world, they get £25,000. So all of a sudden they’re playing ten games in that competition, not three like we did in South Africa when it was a 50-over bilateral series. You’re never going to compete financially with these competitions. So you’ve got to try and find a way to actually make sure that you do retain control of those players.”He sees a remedy at home in the Hundred. That is all the more complicated off the back of reported informal discussions to amend or even scrap it altogether, though the latter seems a long shot given broadcasters Sky and the BBC will dig their heels in. Essentially, Key believes mimicking the IPL is the best way for English cricket to retain control of its players.”It’s not simple, but I think that the way that we do that is basically by concentrating on our own game. So we can think, ‘Okay, we’ve got the American League, and you’ve got this, you’ve got the Pakistan Super League.’ Actually, don’t worry about that – the key is to make our own competition the best thing we can possibly make it; the most lucrative as well. So all of a sudden, if you’ve got a central contract, which is good value, as well as a good amount of money, plus you get another amount of money in our franchise competition – that’s the answer to it.”That’s how India do it. India are able to stop their players from going and playing all around the world because they have such a big competition in their own backyard with the IPL. I don’t think there’s any reason why we couldn’t do that. It’s not simple, but that’s what we’ve got to focus on.Jofra Archer has been on a customised programme to ease him back into the game and be fully fit by the Ashes after his injury layoff in 2021•BCCI”I read the other day about Saudi Arabia [reportedly launching a lucrative T20 league]. All of a sudden, the picture changes again, so you’re going to have to be pretty fluid. But like all of these things, you just have to look after your own backyard. And if you get that right, what a great time to be a cricketer.”Imagine it: you get to play in your country. Plus, you earn a huge amount of money from playing in it. Plus, you then have your four-day system and all of that going around – that’s where we’ve got to try and get to. Because if you look at it any other way, we’ll end up losing out. All these other countries that are looking at their own competitions, they’ll win.”Perhaps the best real-time example of trying to strike the right balance between player’s needs and desires dovetailing with franchise competitions and doing right by England is the situation with Jofra Archer. The 28-year-old quick has been on a tailored “roadmap” back to action after an 18-month layoff.It began in the SA20 with MI Cape Town, into ODIs in South Africa – taking 6 for 40 in the third ODI – before moving on to the tour of Bangladesh and into the IPL with Mumbai Indians. All looked to be going according to plan, only for Archer to suffer a minor setback after experiencing discomfort in the right elbow that had suffered a stress fracture in 2021. It was enough to require him to travel to Belgium two weeks ago for a minor surgical procedure.Archer has since returned to India, but the fear back home is that he will be unable to play a part in the Ashes later this summer, which was where his roadmap concluded. Given he is on a full central contract, the ECB could pull the cord and ask him to return to England at any point.That, Key says, is not going to happen. Both for the player and as a case study, it is a situation they have to nail. “We sort of judge on what’s the best thing we think applied in terms of getting their preparation right. But also what they want to do with their lives and the decisions that they’ve got. You’re talking at times about huge sums of money. And also the IPL, for example. That’s competitive cricket. It’s only good for players, in a way, and we have the control on when Jofra comes back to play.”So it’s not a case that he’s now over there and we have no say in it. We’re speaking with them all the time. Mumbai Indians are actually a brilliant franchise to work with as well. Because they turn around and say, ‘Well, you know, right, Jofra has got this issue at the moment, and we don’t think it’s going to be a long-term thing.’ Which we know [the elbow issue] is not going to be a long-term thing.”But we’re the ones that decide when he can play again. And he’s got a whole programme going into our Ashes summer as well. So even out there, he’ll be doing his work, be “getting his loads up”, as the medical people say now. I’m pretty happy with that. So we do have a bit of a compromise.England’s brains trust are go-getters: “Brendan, Stokes, and Jos and Motty – they’re not people that just tell you the trouble all the time”•Mike Egerton/PA Photos/Getty Images”I think the real thing that we’re trying to work out is, actually there’s always unintended consequences to everything we do. So if you stop people doing all of this stuff, well, what you’re doing is, you’re making it closer to the time when no one’s signed a contract. You know, you end up with freelance cricketers, even in the county [circuit], and you have no control over anyone, which is not a position you want to be in.”A willingness to approach these matters head-on is vital, not least because the can is running out of road to be kicked down. The need to future-proof the men’s sport in this country makes this a legacy-defining period for the ECB.Likewise for Key, though the nature of his role links him more to on-field matters. That is particularly evident by those on the street, who stop him now and again to wish him well.”Occasionally, someone will go, ‘Well done’ and ‘Thanks,'” he says. “But then you become aware that when we start losing, that’s not going to last. So you enjoy it for the moment. It is nice. Everyone thinks you start doing well and that’s it. Life isn’t like that, is it? Cricket will be the same.”Nothing cements a legacy more than an Ashes series. A little over a month away, England’s best opportunity to beat Australia for the first time since 2015 will fast-track those involved to high status, Key included.Of course, he has been pestered for tickets. “It’s driving me mad. But isn’t that great?” Typically, he is already bored of waiting for it to come around. Having played in four Ashes Tests himself in the 2002-03 series, he gets the rivalry. He has always had an admiration for Australian cricketers. Particularly Shane Warne.Key met Warne for the first time in 2000, during a County Championship match between Kent and Hampshire at Portsmouth. He pestered the legspinner about cricket, and their friendship and interests expanded over the years, particularly when they were colleagues in the commentary box.Warne died in March 2022, and a part of the sadness of his passing was that it was a shame he did not get to watch this current iteration of the England Test side. It is very much in the image of the “Tee off (not recklessly)” mantra.Key (right) sees a bit of his friend Shane Warne’s derring-do in England’s Bazball philosophy•PA Photos”You’d meet him for a game of golf and the first thing he’d do is ask you to play tomorrow,” remembers Key. “He’s always looking for ways to make the most out of every opportunity. He’s a guy that, because of who he was, lived a hundred lives in the one that he had, and that’s so infectious. And that’s what people want to follow.”People, they have probably got managers at work or something like that and all they do is talk about what you can’t do. That’s so uninspiring and that’s the thing you sort of learn. And that’s what Brendan has, and Stokes, and Jos [Buttler] and Motty – all these people they’re not people that just tell you the trouble all the time. That, to me, is what leadership is about.”That’s what I think Bazball is: it’s that ability to get people to maximise their potential. So it doesn’t matter about how you do, it’s just maximise everything you’ve got. And that’s what I think those guys do. They get the best out of people.”It should be stressed, Key’s use of the “b word” was unprompted. “We can’t get rid of it!” he protests when I ask if he would like to have the word bleeped out, given how much McCullum dislikes it. He reiterates the coach’s view that it is as much “Stokesball”. “He’s unlucky,” says Key of Stokes, “it doesn’t roll off the tongue as much as Bazball.”On Key’s own part in the Test resurgence, he is pretty phlegmatic. His horizons have been broadened, his exposure to corporate life has been insightful without being particularly groundbreaking. It is when he talks about the actual cricket under his tenure that you see a sparkle.A man who lists “cynical” as one of his personality traits bristles with enthusiasm looking at the manner in which the Test side have revitalised a fan base that was starting to disengage. All while bringing in new eyes with the style and calibre of their play.”I love the fact that what they did last year captured the imagination of the public. That’s what this game is about. It’s about entertaining. I spent a lot of my career thinking it was a job, and batted like I was an accountant. Whereas, most of the time people come to watch you. There might not have been that many people at Kent, but you exist to entertain people as much as you can. Without that, if no one watches it, the game dies.”You wonder from that reflection, particularly how he felt he lost sight of what cricket was supposed to be during his 17-year career, if this managing directorship is his own way of reconnecting a little deeper with the sport. At least for a little while.”You’re never going to do these jobs forever, are you? But it’s just something I’ll look back on and think, ‘Geez what an interesting time that was.’ My hunch is, it’s a role you do for a bit, then you move on and pass it on to a new voice, to someone else who can add, change things, or do whatever else is needed.”How would he feel if he left his post tomorrow?”It’d be all right, wouldn’t it?” he answers. “If you’d have asked me at the start, I’d have taken what we’ve done so far.”

There were two main components to the charge, and the CDC was convinced on neither point

Vithushan Ehantharajah03-Apr-2023ECB chair Richard Thompson described it as “the most complex and thorough regulatory investigation and disciplinary process” English cricket has ever seen. As such, when it came to the most high-profile component of the Cricket Disciplinary Committee (CDC) hearings over racism at Yorkshire, the grey areas were simply too grey.The key difference between the case against Michael Vaughan by the ECB following Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of discriminatory language and those levelled at five other former Yorkshire players was on the scale of detail. It relied on proving a specific sentence was uttered by Vaughan at a specific time – prior to the start of a T20 match between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in June 2009 and post the team huddle. This was the only charge against Vaughan, as opposed to the others – and it failed to stick.The first reason for that was because full, exact phrase could not be ascertained. It was noted within the final report produced by the CDC panel -consisting of Tim O’Gorman as chair, Mark Milliken-Smith KC and Dr Seema Patel – that while the beginning of the alleged comment Vaughan made to Rafiq and three other Asian players (Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan) had been consistent in Rafiq’s accounts leading up to the disciplinary hearing – “There’s too many of you lot” – the end varied from either “we need to have a word about that” or “we need to do something about it”.Related

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It was noted the final ECB charge went with “we need to have a word about that”, whereas a letter sent to Vaughan in February 2022 notifying him of the investigations went with “we need to do something about it”. During cross-examination, Rashid, a key witness, ended up using both versions which, in the eyes of the panel, made his testimony obsolete: “in respect of an allegation in which the words alleged are particular and important, this clearly has an adverse impact on the reliability and accuracy of the ADR’s evidence”.When questioned by Milliken-Smith, the ECB lawyer Jane Mulcahy KC acknowledged the “slightly messy” nature of the different versions but argued the subclauses did not change the meaning behind the sentence. The panel acknowledged as much, as well as that the incident occurred almost 14 years ago and so might not lend itself to clear recollection. This caveat they afforded to both sides.In their opinion, the consistency in the allegations and recollections of the first part of that sentence – “There’s too many of you lot” – constituted a ‘second limb’ to Vaughan’s charge. That moved the process along, allowing other evidence to the table, which, ultimately, brought down the ECB’s case against Vaughan.Shahzad, in a recorded interview with the ECB on 3 December 2021, was unequivocal that he “didn’t hear” the comment, at odds with Rafiq’s assertion it was “said loud enough for all of us Asian players and the other Yorkshire players to hear it”. Even though Shahzad was not present for cross-examination, weight was given to his testimony as one of the four allegedly targeted by the comment. That is in contrast to Naved-ul-Hasan, who declined the request of the ECB to engage with the process in January 2022, despite confirming to ESPNcricinfo that he would in November 2021.The key figure in Vaughan’s case was Jacques Rudolph, whose story in this incident has several layers. Rudolph was captain on the day, and as per the inconclusive Sky footage from the match, was stood between Vaughan and the four Asian players in the huddle. It is a position he was reasonably assumed to have remained in during a 19-second period when the broadcast cuts away from the huddle, in which time the comment was alleged to have been made.Vaughan and his Yorkshire team-mates lie in a huddle before their T20 fixture at Trent Bridge in 2009•Clive Mason/Getty Images Moreover, Rafiq’s witness statement in the case against Rich Pyrah mentioned that Rudolph was also referred to as “one of us” or “one of you lot” – an Asian player – because of his darker complexion compared to the white members of the squad. Thus, the panel reasoned, he would have been more sensitive to what was supposedly said. In an email to Brabners – Vaughan’s solicitors – in October 2021, Rudolph stated “categorically” that he “did not hear any comment made in that regard”.The words could not be proved. Historic tweets presented by the ECB – which Vaughan himself described as “offensive” and “completely unacceptable” – might have worked as supplementary evidence, particularly two from 2010, some 15 to 16 months after the incident. Further testimony from Shahzad – “I don’t remember him saying stuff like that…. He wasn’t that way inclined, you know, he definitely wasn’t” – along with the fact this was the only public accusation levied against Vaughan in what the panel called “a lengthy and high-profile playing career” were stronger assessments of his character. With little to ride alongside, the tweets were, ultimately, redundant.Evidently, offering himself up for cross-examination also worked in Vaughan’s favour. That is expressly clear in the summation of the cases against Pyrah, Andrew Gale, Tim Bresnan and John Blain. The panel drew “reasonable inference” that their failure to attend the disciplinary hearings was because they did not have “an answer to the ECB’s case which would sensibly stand up to cross-examination”. The same point was made about Matthew Hoggard, who admitted using terms like “Rafa the K*****”, P*** and “TBM” or “token black man”. Hoggard’s qualified admissions and that of Gary Ballance and Yorkshire were used as vital components against those four.In a statement, Vaughan criticised the “adversarial” nature of the CDC investigation. While there are legitimate questions to be asked about how all this has been conducted, especially how English cricket arrived at a point where this was rightly deemed a necessity, the process of squaring one man’s word against another, whether held in an Arbitration Centre or the high courts, is necessarily adversarial. Of course, the portrayal in parts of the media as all this being solely about Vaughan and Rafiq didn’t help. Though unavoidable, perhaps, given former England captain was the only one of the six charged to attend the hearings.In summing up Vaughan’s case, which occupies eight of the 82 pages of the CDC’s findings, the panel stated they did not conclude that anyone had lied or acted out of malice – which in itself feels like their way of dampening the “Vaughan vs Rafiq” framing of this whole affair. Their considerations centred squarely on whether the ECB’s case against Vaughan “was sufficiently accurate and reliable on the balance of probabilities, to rule out mistake.”Their conclusion: “It was not”.

After falling short of expectations several times before, he knows he needs to step up and take the opportunity with both hands

Firdose Moonda08-Mar-2023Eight years after he captained King Edwards VII, one of Johannesburg’s most prestigious schools, and seven years after he led South Africa’s Under-19 side at a World Cup they entered as defending champions and left in 11th place, Tony de Zorzi returned to the Wanderers and discovered mates he didn’t know he had.”There were a couple of my friends here – some people claimed to be my friends but I’ve never met them – and it’s always nice to have my mom watching,” de Zorzi said.Related

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Raised by Natasha, a single parent, de Zorzi has always wanted to be the best he could be for his mother. These days, she doesn’t watch him play much because he has taken the scenic route to international cricket, from the alma mater of Neil Mckenzie and Graeme Smith, through Pretoria and eventually to Cape Town, 1400 kilometres away from where he grew up. In a way, it’s been cathartic for de Zorzi to make his Test debut on the Highveld, and to score his first Test half-century with Natasha watching on.”She usually sits in the same place, so I knew where she was,” he said. “I’m in Cape Town, so she hasn’t been able to watch a lot of the games. Hopefully, next time she comes, I can get three figures.”De Zorzi has set himself high standards. In the last two years, only one of his team-mates has scored a century at home and only two others (Sarel Erwee and Kyle Verreynne – neither of whom are playing in this series) have brought up three figures. But after falling short of expectations several times before, he knows this is his chance to step up.”From playing for SA under-19, a lot has changed in my life,” de Zorzi said. “Although I was captain, I wasn’t the star boy out of that side.”That’s because Wiaan Mulder was. De Zorzi returned from the age-group World Cup and had to go back to playing club cricket and “start again.” He played for the University of Pretoria’s team, where current fielding coach Kruger van Wyk was in charge. Then he was contracted by Northerns, where he made steady progress and averaged nearly 80 for the second-tier provincial side in the 2016-17 summer. He moved to Western Province in the summer of 2020, where Ashwell Prince was the head coach, and has since been elevated to captain.

“It’s been a long process, and I’m happy that it has eventually led to this. It’s also a reminder of where I come from and not to get ahead of myself because I’ve had to do a lot of dirty work to get there.”Tony de Zorzi

This summer, he averages over 100, thanks largely to his unbeaten 304 against the Knights, with an attack that included Gerald Coetzee (though admittedly not many other big names).”It’s been a long process, and I’m happy that it has eventually led to this,” de Zorzi said. “It’s also a reminder of where I come from and not to get ahead of myself because I’ve had to do a lot of dirty work to get there. For some guys, it happens a bit earlier. Mine’s starting to happen now.”After averaging above 48 in three of the last four seasons, de Zorzi was impossible to ignore in this Test squad but it took a changing of the guard for that to happen. He was picked by new red-ball coach Shukri Conrad, who also acts as a selector in the absence of a panel, to get his chance. “With the changes in coaching, we knew it would be a fresh start,” de Zorzi said. “If everyone gave themselves an opportunity and did well, you knew it would be a fresh set of eyes and maybe, more opportunities. That was exciting. There was always a message from senior guys – Dean (Elgar) said it while he was captain, that the weight of runs would get you in the side. Guys knew that if they wanted to make the step up they had to have a good season. There was no other way.”De Zorzi is particularly adept at the cut shot and scored almost a third of his runs with that stroke in this innings•Gallo ImagesBut now that that has happened, players like de Zorzi need to own their space. In the first Test, he showed West Indies’ attack what he was made of, and Kyle Mayers saw it. “This guy looks very organised,” he said. “He is strong, square of the wicket.”De Zorzi is particularly adept at the cut shot and scored almost a third of his runs with that stroke in this innings but knew West Indies worked him out from the first Test. They tried to offer him less width at the SuperSport Park. “They stick to the basics a little bit longer,” de Zorzi said. “You might get a few less bad balls but international cricketers that are going to do their homework. I could see from the way they bowled to me today compared to at SuperSport Park, they had different plans and they can limit your scoring options. And obviously, the intensity is a little bit higher, like I was really tired once I was out. It’s challenging.”But so was de Zorzi. He played with authority during South Africa’s free-flowing afternoon session. All the while, Natasha sat in the Memorial Stand, unmoved. De Zorzi gestured to her first when he drove off Alzarri Joseph through gully off the 82nd ball he faced. Undoubtedly, she would have been unbelievably proud. De Zorzi went on to face 73 more balls, and score 35 more runs, as the pitch quickened up and West Indies staged a comeback.They took five for 64 after tea and now see the game as being in the balance. Restrict South Africa to under 350, and West Indies are in with a chance of fighting back. Concede over that, on a pitch that is already showing signs of turn, and it may be that the game is gone. Either way, it’s set up to attract friends cricket didn’t know it had, especially in a mid-week Test match where the crowd only fills a fraction of the stadium. But it matters. And no one knows that more than de Zorzi.

Players from Dambulla and Kandy dominate the 2023 honour roll

Madushka Balasuriya21-Aug-20231. Babar Azam (Colombo Strikers)
Even before the LPL auction, Babar’s services had been locked up as Colombo Strikers’ Icon overseas signing. It would prove to be an astute move as the Pakistan skipper racked up 261 runs in 8 innings, including the only hundred of the season. Sadly for Colombo, his output waned as the tournament wore on, but such was his early form he still ended as the second-highest run scorer.2. Avishka Fernando (Dambulla Aura)
Runs 244, Average 27.11, Strike rate 125.12After three successful seasons with Jaffna, Avishka took his talents to Dambulla this season as their pre-auction Platinum signing. While he only ended fourth in the run charts, he was a large part of Dambulla’s run to the finals, with his aggressive approach at the top proving particularly valuable on the frequently two-paced tracks. He also showcased more intent this year, highlighted by his 14 sixes – a figure only matched by Wanindu Hasaranga.3. Dinesh Chandimal (B-Love Kandy)
It’s been quite some time since Chandimal was given any serious consideration as an effective limited-overs option, but this year he showed that an old dog can indeed learn new tricks – or in this case, relearn long forgotten old ones. Chandimal’s strike rate of 125.12 was far and away above his career T20I strike rate of 103.60. What’s more? He was delivering them on a consistent basis – across 10 innings he failed to cross 20 just three times.4. Sadeera Samarawickrama (Dambulla Aura)
Sadeera was Player of the Series in last year’s LPL, so it was pleasing to see him follow that up with another stellar tournament – this time for Dambulla. Once again he has been the picture of consistency, only failing to reach double digits once in 10 outings. Of those, his 30-ball 36 in the final, despite coming in a losing cause, might have been arguably the best of the lot, counterpunching in the powerplay against Kandy’s spinners on a tricky surface.Both Noor Ahmad and Dhananjaya de Silva make the TOTM•SLC5. Lasith Croospulle (Galle Titans)
While the rest of the names on this list are more of the household variety, Croospulle’s isn’t quite there yet. In Galle side littered with powerhitters, it was the 24-year-old from Negombo that most caught the eye with his measured and confident stroke play at the top of the order. While not renowned for his big hitting, he made up for it with clever placement and eager running, meaning that his strike rate was consistently amongst the highest in the tournament.6. Dhananjaya de Silva (Dambulla Aura)
Rarely did Dhananjaya set this LPL alight, but hardly ever did he fail. His only scores of note – 43, 61 and 40 – came in losing causes, but were crucial in helping his side remain competitive, while he was twice there to calmly see home a successful chase. With the ball, only thrice did he fail to pick up a wicket, but only once did he pick up more than a solitary scalp – on that occasion he put up career-best figures of 4 for 6 in two overs; he might have had more, but as stand-in skipper he felt there were better bowling options to call on and didn’t bowl out.7. Wanindu Hasaranga (B-Love Kandy)
Wickets 19, Economy rate 5.51, Runs 279, Strike rate 189.79After their first three games, Kandy had won one, lost two, and Hasaranga had a grand total of 18 runs and one wicket. But then, they changed things up. From a lower-order batter, the captain was floated up the line-up as an experiment in the fourth game, and the move proved a masterstroke. With Hasaranga’s devastating ball-striking used as needed, either in the powerplay or against spin in the middle overs, opposition plans were thrown in the mud. Then with the ball, the gradually more sluggish surfaces afforded Hasaranga the type of assistance he thrives on.8. Noor Ahmad (Dambulla Aura)
With 12 wickets in eight innings, Noor’s bowling impact was only behind that of Hasaranga’s. Frequently asked to bowl in the middle overs, his skiddy wristspin proved a strong weapon for Dambulla in building pressure. Only once in his eight matches did he go wicketless, while his three wickets in the final nearly turned a straightforward chase in his side’s favour.Not a season to remember for Colombo, but Pathirana was red hot•SLC9. Matheesha Pathirana (Colombo Strikers)
The rawness is still apparent for all to see, with stray deliveries either side of the wicket a frequent occurrence with the young slinger. But when he gets it on target Pathirana is an absolute handful, troubling batters with his express pace and awkward bounce. Still only 20, once he masters his control, Sri Lanka will have a real star on their hands.10. Lahiru Kumara (Galle Titans)
Kumara only played the last five games, but such was his impact you wonder what he could do if he were able to remain fit consistently. His fierce new ball spells, where he frequently found a hard length at pace, proved extremely difficult to get away. His death bowling has also come on leaps, making a him a viable option at both ends of the innings.11. Nuwan Pradeep (B-Love Kandy)
All the talk pre-tournament was on Dushmantha Chameera’s express pace, but Pradeep showed that at 36 years of age he’s still got plenty left in the tank. Regularly hitting speeds in the mid-to-high 130s, Pradeep’s control and ability to vary his length and pace adeptly played a key role in Kandy’s title win. He picked up three three-fors in seven games.

Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda catch up with the England teenager just over a year after she burst on to the international scene

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2023In the latest edition of Ladies who Switch, Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda are joined by England’s teenage allrounder Alice Capsey to discuss the development of her game after an eventful first year on the international scene. They also tackle Sri Lanka’s historic success in England, South Africa’s tour of Pakistan, Hayley Matthews’ heroics for West Indies in Australia, and the return of Meg Lanning at domestic level.

Through his 80 off 42 on captaincy debut against Australia, he showed that few understand the pulse of T20 cricket better than him

Hemant Brar24-Nov-20235:19

Takeaways: Mukesh, SKY headline India’s win

Suryakumar Yadav is at peace when he is surrounded by chaos. How else do you explain what he does in T20 cricket?Imagine a Venn diagram with three sets: Longevity (1000+ T20I runs), Consistency (average above 40) and Explosiveness (strike rate over 150). Virat Kohli has both longevity and consistency but lacks explosiveness. Glenn Maxwell has longevity and explosiveness but falls short on consistency. Rinku Singh has consistency and explosiveness but is yet to achieve longevity.There is only one T20I batter at the intersection of these three: Suryakumar Yadav. He has 1921 runs, an average of 46.85, and a strike rate of 173.37.Suryakumar is yet to crack it in Test cricket and ODIs, but few understand the pulse of T20 cricket better than him. Perhaps the chaos of T20 cricket leaves no room for confusion in his mind, as most of the time the only way out is to attack.ESPNcricinfo LtdThat’s why even in ODIs India try to use him when the situation becomes similar to a T20 game, that is in the last 15 overs of the innings. In the ODI World Cup final on Sunday, when they lost their fourth wicket in the 29th over, Ravindra Jadeja walked in ahead of him.Suryakumar didn’t have a great World Cup. Out of seven innings he played, he couldn’t cross 25 in six. But in the first T20I on Thursday, when he walked in at 22 for 2 with India chasing 209, he seemed to be in his comfort zone.In the first innings, Josh Inglis’ strokeplay during a blazing hundred had left even Suryakumar in awe. So much so that he was seen shadow-practising one of Inglis’ shots.Now it was Suryakumar’s turn. On the fourth ball he faced, he brought out the ‘supla shot’ and lap-pulled Jason Behrendorff over fine leg. In the next over, he hit Sean Abbott for a six and a four.Related

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Suryakumar raced to 37 off 19 balls. But at the other end, Ishan Kishan, with whom he has played a lot of cricket for Mumbai Indians in the IPL, was struggling on 19 off 21. Legspinner Tanveer Sangha had bowled his first over for just six runs despite it being a favourable match-up for Kishan.With 130 required from 12 overs, Suryakumar and Kishan had a chat.”I told Surya I was going to take this guy [Sangha] down, irrespective of where he bowled,” Kishan said afterwards. And as decided, Kishan hacked the first three balls of Sangha’s next over through the leg side for 4, 6, 6.Suryakumar, meanwhile, told Kishan just one thing: “Don’t think about what we are chasing, just keep batting, we will analyse at the end of ten overs.”After ten overs, it was a perfect, tailor-made situation – 100 [103] needed off 60 balls,” Suryakumar said. “That happens every second game in the IPL.”

“I left that luggage in the dressing room. Whenever I go in to bat, I just try to enjoy my batting, whether I bat for 10 balls or 40 balls.”Suryakumar Yadav on the baggage of captaincy

Kishan started Sangha’s next over in the same fashion, smashing him through midwicket for a four and a six. But the spinner tossed the next one wide outside off and Kishan holed out to deep extra cover. Later, Kishan revealed that Suryakumar had asked him to take a single on that particular ball. Talk about reading the pulse of the game.Kishan fell for 58 off 39 but Suryakumar was unstoppable. He brought up his half-century off 29 balls, same as Inglis, with a six.In the World Cup final, Australia had restricted Suryakumar by bowling the slower bouncer with deep third and fine leg in place. Abbott used the same ploy in the tenth over. Suryakumar went for the ramp, but got no power behind the shot and the ball fell well short of a charging in deep third.For some reason, the Australia seamers didn’t use that option much after that. Nathan Ellis tried it as a last resource, after Suryakumar had taken him for a four and a six in the 17th over. But the deep-third fielder was inside the 30-yard circle and Suryakumar had no trouble in helping the ball over him.Suryakumar Yadav, back to his favourite format, scored an entertaining 80 off 42•AFP/Getty ImagesBy the time Australia got rid of Suryakumar, he had scored 80 off 42, and India needed just 15 from 14. They wobbled towards the end but eventually reached there with one ball to spare.This was also the first time Suryakumar was leading India. Did he feel that extra responsibility while batting? “I left that luggage in the dressing room,” he said with a smile. “Whenever I go in to bat, I just try to enjoy my batting, whether I bat for 10 balls or 40 balls.”I thought there would be some dew [in the second innings] but there wasn’t. But I knew it’s a small ground and the wicket gets better later on.”During and after the match, there was lots of praise for Suryakumar – both online and on air. The best compliment, though, came from Inglis at the post-match presser: “SKY did what SKY usually does.”

His place in the side coincided with South African Test success, and his personality always made him stand out

Firdose Moonda22-Dec-2023There goes Dean Elgar and with him, the last link South Africa have to the team that became and stayed world No.1 in the early 2010s.There goes Dean Elgar, who scored his first Test runs at Newlands and plans to score his last there, a tribute to the format he has excelled in at the ground that hosted South Africa for more Tests than any other.There goes Dean Elgar, and with him a particular kind of cricketer from a particular period in time, the likes of which we may not see again.To call Elgar one of South Africa’s post-readmission OGs is not an exaggeration. His entire professional career coincided with the country’s golden age in Test cricket and when the gloss faded, he still shone. He will walk away from the international stage among his nation’s top 10 batters with hundreds against all but two of the opposition he played against, contributions to some of the team’s most celebrated victories and a member of the generation that were the best to represent South Africa in Tests.Between December 2006 and November 2015, South Africa played 30 Test series and only lost two, both to Australia at home. In that period, they beat England and Australia in away series twice. Elgar made his professional debut in 2006 and his international debut in 2012, in the second of the wins over Australia. By the time he and South Africa got to India in late 2015, the team had gone nine years unbeaten on the road. Kagiso Rabada, the next most capped player after Elgar in the current set-up, made his debut in that series, which South Africa lost 3-0 to begin an unravelling that some would argue has not yet ended. Though Temba Bavuma, the third-most experienced in this outfit, first made an appearance the summer before, it was in fact in that year – 2014 – that South Africa briefly lost their grip on the No.1 rankings.Elgar was the last to taste the real success of being on top even though his participation was limited to only two of their nine magical years. Still, his emergence on the international stage was evidence that South Africa’s domestic system produced high-quality players, who could have long, successful careers. As evidence of that, in the 2009-10 season, Elgar topped 1,000 first-class runs in the domestic competition but he was not the leading run-scorer of that summer. Rilee Rossouw scored 129 runs more than him and Stephen Cook just 47 fewer. Elgar is the last of the generation of players who played enough first-class fixtures to be able to accumulate numbers like that.As Elgar’s Test career matured and his seniors retired (and there was one in every year of Elgar’s career starting with Jacques Kallis in 2013), they were replaced by players who did not have his depth of experience. So the onus was on him to carry the responsibility of anchor and aggressor. He did both and he did it well. The lack of depth was evident on the domestic scorecards too as the last time anyone crossed 1,000 first-class runs was in 2015-16 (Heino Kuhn). That same summer, South Africa lost the No.1 ranking definitively when they were defeated by England at home. They have not got it back since.File photo – Elgar receives treatment after a blow to his helmet•Marco Longari/AFP/GettyBeing a left-hand opening batter, comparisons to Graeme Smith were unavoidable, especially as there were more similarities. Like Smith, Elgar’s technique was not aesthetic and the joy of watching him play was in seeing the success of the struggle.At the crease, he was stubborn and streetwise and when he decided to have a say on a game, he did. His most decisive statements came in Galle in 2014 when his 103 set up a first series win on the island in more than 20 years, and in Perth in 2016 when a defiant second-innings hundred set Australia an unchaseable target. That knock saw the ‘baby-Smith’ rhetoric soar but Elgar was always his own person. His most successful Test year was in 2017 when he scored five hundreds, including a 199, and finished as the world’s third-leading run-scorer. Like Smith, Australia was a favourite foe of Elgar’s and his 141 at Newlands was one of the final nails in the coffin of their misery in that series. His last great knock – 160 in Visakhapatnam – provided a sliver of hope on another South African tour of India that went horribly wrong.India were also an opposition Elgar thrived against. He led South Africa to a home series win over them in the 2021-22 season, one of the many false dawns that suggested things were getting back on track. By then, South African cricket was on the verge of complete derailment. The COVID-19 years and the Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) hearings ravaged the game and in that time, Elgar was a symbol of consistency.Apart from his runs, he offered honesty from a player’s perspective at a time when Cricket South Africa (CSA) was trying to recover from an administrative upheaval that left it without sponsors or public confidence. Elgar spoke his mind about what he thought was a lack of support for team management during the SJN and later called the emphasis on the disciplinary proceedings which instituted against then-head coach Mark Boucher and director of cricket Smith as bullshit.His defence of Boucher came not because he had played with him, but because he played for him. Boucher was the Titans’ coach from 2016 to 2019; Elgar moved to the franchise in 2014 and played under Boucher’s guidance throughout his time there and the loyalty Elgar had towards him appeared immense. Not to mention that they were cut from similar cloth. Boucher, like Elgar, was known for being hard and uncompromising. Elgar seemed the same when he told Bangladesh to harden up after they complained of excessive sledging in 2022.”It’s a man’s environment,” Elgar said then, and it was the kind of mantra he lived by. He may also be among the last of this kind of boys’ club, one that creates old-fashioned environments of hierarchy and cliques that are becoming relics of a time before the T20 league circuit, which promotes camaraderie and skill-sharing.Why Elgar never made it on the white-ball stage remains a bit of a mystery. He was often among the top batters in the domestic scene, and the leading run-scorer in the franchise one-day cup in 2011-12. That earned him an ODI debut but modest returns against India meant he was dropped. But the runs kept coming. In the 2014-15 one-day cup, he was sixth on the run-charts and scored back-to-back centuries in the semi-final and final in the Titans’ run to the trophy.As recently as this season’s domestic one-day cup, Elgar was among the highest run-scorers and came in seventh but he has attracted no interest in T20 leagues, including the IPL. Perhaps it hasn’t helped that he was once quoted as saying he didn’t put his name in the auction because he couldn’t stand the “satisfaction of retiring in a few years because of a million dollar contract.” Neither did he get a team in South Africa’s SA20. Elgar always said he’d finish his career in England; with talk of a deal with Essex, he looks set to do exactly that.So there goes Dean Elgar, who may be among the last of those who will look for their final cricket-playing pay cheques on the county circuit as more and more players turn to T20 leagues instead. He is a certain kind of player, from a certain time, and the end of his international career marks the end of a certain era.