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David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has claimed that members of the South Africa squad ‘provoked’ Kevin Pietersen into the exchange of messages that led to him being dropped by England earlier this summe

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Oct-2012David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has claimed that members of the South Africa squad “provoked” Kevin Pietersen into the exchange of messages that led to him being dropped by England earlier this summer.Last week, the ECB announced a process of “reintegration” for Pietersen following his exile from the team during the summer after it was revealed he had sent provocative messages to the South Africans. Initially it was claimed these included tactical advice on how to dismiss Andrew Strauss although this has since been denied.Speaking for the first time about the issue, Collier said the belief was that it was instigated by the South Africans as a tactic to unsettle Pietersen. “That’s our understanding,” he told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme. “It is a very thin line between fair and unfair. These were responses to messages from certain members of the South Africa team and I would not condone an England player doing it if it was the other way around, and I certainly think they provoked the situation.”However, Collier added that the situation should have been handled better within the dressing room. “There was definitely a policy that was happening but we shouldn’t blame the South Africans, we should be above that,” he said. “I think there was a tactic which was used. I think that is sadly some of the ways of modern sport but as I say we have plenty of people who are strong in the dressing room who provide very good leadership who can deal with those situations.”Collier said he had not seen the Blackberry messages at the centre of the controversy – and no evidence of them is believed to remain – but that it was an attempt to disrupt the team ethic.”Those messages were of a nature that Kevin, with definite hindsight, would have refuted straight away and moved on. It is trying to undermine another team and another team ethic.”Cricket South Africa described the messages as “banter” when the story first emerged in August and a representative of CSA denied Collier’s new claims: “That is rubbish. That is not the case at all. No one was trying to rile KP.”Pietersen has not played for England since the second Test against South Africa at Headingley, where he scored 149 and followed it with a press conference where he hinted at a split in the dressing room. The process has now started to bring him back into the fold, possibly for the Test series against India which starts next month, while a series of meetings are due to be held between Pietersen and senior England players in the coming weeks.The final decision of when Pietersen is recalled now rests in the hands of Andy Flower, the team director, who admitted it “hadn’t been a great couple of months”. Pietersen is due to fly back from the Champions League T20 for discussions ahead of England’s training camp in Dubai in a couple of week’s time and Collier has complete trust in Flower’s judgement.”When Andy Flower says to me ‘I am ready to select this player’ I would trust his judgement every single time. If the team director says he is ready, that is good enough for me,” Collier said. “It takes two seconds to destroy a building and it takes a long time to build it, it is the same with trust therefore we have to have face-to-face meetings.”We have an Ashes series and we don’t want a divided dressing room, we want to make sure we can move collectively. People can’t build relationships without meetings – that is the starting point. They will happen this month and Giles Clarke met Kevin earlier this week.”The meeting had this week was described by both sides as cordial – direct but cordial. It is important to be honest and say our concerns and allow Kevin to say what his concerns were.”

For the second day in a row, the 19th over of the chase proved pivotal to a South African team being knocked out of the Champions League Twenty20

Siddarth Ravindran at the Chinnaswamy Stadium05-Oct-2011For the second day in a row, the 19th over of the chase proved pivotal to a South African team being knocked out of the Champions League Twenty20. Yesterday, it had seemed all tilted in favour of the bowling side going into the penultimate over – the lethal Dale Steyn (with figures of 3-1-3-1) to bowl against the Trinidad & Tobago lower order, but it was the underdogs from the Caribbean who won, shoving the Cape Cobras out of the tournament.Today, it was more of an even battle at that stage, with the Warriors having crashed 14 off the previous over to bring the equation to a gettable 23 off 12. With a semi-final place, and the attendant financial rewards, on the line, Somerset’s captain Alfonso Thomas bowled a near-perfect over to virtually end South African participation in the CLT20.He began with a short ball that evaded Craig Thyssen outside off, and then had Thyssen mowing a catch to deep midwicket. There was a single off an inside-edge on the third ball and Wayne Parnell was then fooled by a slower delivery. An almighty heave from a desperate Parnell ended up as a catch to wide long-on before a leg-bye rounded off a two-run over, the least expensive one of the innings.Thomas’ heroics re-affirmed the importance of a solid penultimate over and left the Warriors needing a herculean 21 off the final six deliveries, which proved beyond them. They ended 13 short, and yet again a South African team which made a fast start to a global tournament was eliminated early.”That’s Twenty20 cricket, I suppose,” Warriors captain Johan Botha said as they slid out four days after being top of the table, with two victories in two matches. “It can turn very quickly, we had a good start and then we had a bit of a break, five or six days. Pity that it had to end this way, but the other teams played well, we weren’t giving guys the result, they just played better than us in the last two games.”Bangalore has typically been the highest scoring venue of the tournament, and Somerset’s 146 seemed a below-par effort. Thomas said Craig Kieswetter, who batted through the innings, was “really down on himself” for not pushing the side to a bigger score – but Botha had warned then that it was going to be a tough target to chase.”The wicket wasn’t the best Bangalore wicket we have ever seen, Kieswetter showed his class and set up a good total for them,” Botha said after the match. “The wicket almost played like Chennai, if you got behind the rate, it got hard to catch up being really slow. You have got to give credit to the other team, they closed the game out really well.”Somerset became the first English side to make the semi-finals of the CLT20, leaving Thomas full of praise for his side as he singled out 20-year-old debutant Adam Dibble’s effort. “He’s come in for his first game, went for 13 in his first over and came back and probably bowled one of the better spells of his life (he finished with 4-0-24-1),” Thomas said. “It just shows the character of this team. We came here, nobody gave us a chance, let’s face it, but everybody has pulled together and that is exactly what this team is about.”Thomas admitted there was still room for improvement. “We don’t want to peak too early like this team has been known to do,” he said. “The fielding can certainly sharpen up a bit, but as far as batting and bowling are concerned, we’re hitting our straps.”

Ian Bell’s masterful, captain’s hundred carried Warwickshire to the Clydesdale Bank 40 title in a three-wicket victory at Lord’s that condemned Somerset to second prize for the third time this season

The Bulletin by Sahil Dutta at Lord's18-Sep-2010
ScorecardIan Bell sealed his side the title with 107 off 95 balls•Getty Images

Ian Bell’s masterful, captain’s hundred carried Warwickshire to the Clydesdale Bank 40 title in a three-wicket victory at Lord’s that condemned Somerset to second prize for the third time this season.Leading the side ahead of regular captain Ian Westwood, Bell steadied Warwickshire’s chase after three early wickets with one of the finest hundreds seen in a domestic one-day final to ensure that Imran Tahir’s remarkable spell 5 for 14, which instigated a dramatic Somerset collapse – from 176 for 3 to 199 all out – did not go in vain.Bell’s stature has grown in his injury-enforced absence from the Pakistan series but his form since returning for Warwickshire has lived up to the heightened billing. Starting with pair of fifties against Nottinghamshire and then Yorkshire in the semi-final of this competition, he then collected a Championship century against Hampshire.He was always going to be pivotal in Warwickshire’s chase and his unflustered dominance ensured no slip-ups in the evening dew as he resisted a fiery Somerset attack, desperate to salvage some silverware after missing with the last ball in the Twenty20 final and a dramatic finish to the County Championship on Thursday.Defending a below-par 199 after Tahir’s heroics, Somerset leapt out of the blocks, fielding electrically and bowling with a passion that seemed to add a yard of pace to the new-ball pairing Ben Phillips and Alfonso Thomas.Neil Carter fell slicing a cut to third man and Keith Barker was unsettled by a fearful clatter to the helmet off a Thomas bouncer before falling to the same bowler two overs later. When Jonathan Trott was caught behind off a ball that bounced and jagged away it looked Somerset might burst through.Instead Bell serenely progressed through the gears, picking off deft singles and flowing boundaries to bring up a fifty from 53 balls. He found willing support in Jim Troughton and together the pair looked to be steering Warwickshire to a comfortable win before Thomas, the competition’s leading wicket-taker, returned to remove Troughton and end a stand of 79.As the target neared Warwickshire’s nerves frayed but Bell launched a calculated assault on the helpless Mark Turner during the batting Powerplay, taking 20 off the 38th over to reach his hundred and all but seal the result. He began by flicking an upper-cut past the short third-man, before skipping down the wicket and driving over mid-off. Two balls later he pulled gloriously to the fine-leg boundary before, with four more needed, celebrating prematurely when his drive down the ground was fielded on the ropes. Visibly riding on the adrenaline he marked each of the three boundaries in the over with a passionate roar and fist-pump which hammered home, a touch endearingly, his new-found reputation for revelling on the big stage.Under lights Lord’s was a spectacle for everyone bar the fans who turned up to the ground. Huddled under blankets, hats and jumpers the conditions were every bit as chilly as an early April morning, but they were treated to a close encounter with two teams desperate to perform on the domestic game’s biggest stage. It was a pity that Lord’s was barely half full but perhaps that will be enough to persuade the administrators to rethink the scheduling for next year.When Somerset reflect on yet another missed opportunity they may well come back to one point. James Hildreth and Nick Compton were cruising at 172 for 3 with 10 overs remaining in a 95-run stand when Compton called through a suicidal single to Trott at backward point that left Hildreth with no chance. It opened a chink which Tahir burst through dramatically.Returning for a second spell after an anonymous opening four overs, Tahir trapped Jos Buttler, who had been cheered warmly to the crease after a memorable debut season, lbw second ball with a top-spinner. Two overs later he lured Arul Suppiah down the pitch and spun the ball past his outside edge to clip off stump before removing Compton lbw three balls later to cue wild celebrations. The procession continued when Phillips punched straight to Bell at short cover and Tahir collected his fifth thanks to a sharp leg-side stumping by Richard Johnson.It will probably be Tahir’s last game for the county. With Warwickshire his 14th first-class team, Tahir is the very definition of a journeyman and returns to Hampshire next season after spending this year in the Midlands on loan. Born in Pakistan he almost made a Test debut for South Africa against England last winter before he was hastily disposed of when it emerged he hadn’t yet qualified to play.Traditionally, the Lord’s final is a platform for domestic English players to showcase their international credentials but on this evidence, and after a season that has brought 56 scalps at 24.57 in the Championship, Tahir could well nudge the South African selectors ahead of the World Cup. But for one more night he was a Warwickshire man.

The outfield for the ground’s first game of the BBL season came in for significant criticism with the tournament boss saying it was “presented poorly”

AAP24-Dec-2024Cricket Australia will consider avoiding Marvel Stadium until later in the summer in future BBL seasons, as Melbourne Renegades great Aaron Finch called for the club to weigh up abandoning the venue for Geelong.Finch was among those to be scathing of the venue on Tuesday when the Renegades’ Monday-night win over Perth Scorchers was overshadowed by a patchy-looking outfield. The pitch also proved difficult to bat on after the roof was closed for two days due to wet weather, with Scorchers struggling to score early.Related

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The issue came just two days after similar issues at Sydney’s Engie Stadium where large parts of dirt didn’t have any grass covering during the Sydney Smash.Both grounds are multi-purpose venues with Pearl Jam concerts having headlined a raft of events to have fallen between the AFL and BBL seasons. An annual RMIT university graduation was also held at Marvel Stadium last Wednesday, before Monday’s match.”Marvel was shocking last night. I was out on the ground and it was slippery,” former Renegades and Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch said on ESPN’s . “There has to be questions, are Marvel Stadium serious about hosting cricket.”Because each and every year the first couple of games the same thing happens there. If they’re not interested in hosting cricket, take it somewhere else. Take it to Geelong, they’ll have it.”BBL boss Alistair Dobson also admitted on Tuesday he was “disappointed”, conceding the ground was “presented poorly”.”By and large they present good outfields and good wickets, particularly as we get further into the season,” Dobson said on SEN. “That [multi-purpose aspect] does come with some trade offs, but we don’t expect it to be the size of the trade off we saw last night.”Dobson said his organisation was open to not scheduling BBL games at Marvel Stadium until close to January in the future, if it would ensure a better surface. But in reality that would cause more issues with the MCG also offline in the lead up to and during the Boxing Day Test.”Last night would certainly give us cause to reflect on that and whether we schedule in a different way going forward,” Dobson said. “The trade off on that though is you end up with a lot of games of BBL in a short period. It’s a balance between the best possible preparation and spacing games out to give fans a chance to go.”The other concern for CA is the way the poor outfields showcase the BBL overseas, in a summer where crowds and TV ratings are up by 30 percent domestically.AAP has been told Finch’s proposed full-time Geelong move is unlikely, given officials believe Melbourne needs two teams to service it both on and off the field.Dobson also rejected any suggestion the Renegades should abandon Marvel Stadium and join Melbourne Stars at the MCG.”We have two clubs in Melbourne that have different identities and different fan bases and different history,” Dobson said. “The Melbourne Stars are iconic to the MCG and the Renegades are keen to have a point of difference on that.”

Brisbane Heat put up a brave chase and needed 10 from two balls but Marizanne Kapp closed out the game

AAP06-Nov-2023Sydney Thunder made a statement in the WBBL, hitting the club’s highest ever total before holding on for an eight-run win in the top-of-the-table clash against Brisbane Heat.Led by hard-hitting openers Tahlia Wilson and Chamari Athapaththu, Thunder smashed 204 for 4 at North Sydney Oval.Heat were gallant in reply to get the equation down to 24 off the final over, before Jess Jonassen whacked two sixes of Marizanne Kapp to make it 10 needed off two balls. But the South African bowler held her nerve.Related

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Wooden-spooners last year with only one win, Thunder now lead the WBBL with a 5-1 record and a game in hand over the rest of the top four.Athapaththu has been a star, but equally impressive is the form of the Thunder’s entire top order. Wilson hit 83 from 54 balls in the best night of her WBBL career, setting the tone early with a 102-run opening stand with Athapaththu from 63 balls.The 24-year-old has made an art of piercing the leg-side field in this tournament, and seven of her 11 fours – as well as a six off Courtney Sippel – came in that fashion on Monday.Heat only had themselves to blame, dropping Wilson three times in her fiery innings.Athapaththu continues to be destructive, hitting 58 off 31 deliveries. She flayed the ball at will through the offside when offered width, and helped take 15 off Amelia Kerr’s first over when she hit the spinner back over her head for six.The Sri Lankan brought up her 50 off 25 balls, doing so in style by slow-sweeping Jonassen for two sixes in one over. The runs took Athapaththu to the top of the scoring charts for the tournament, with 304 at an average of 50.66 and a strike-rate of 143.39.More remarkably, the she was overlooked by everyone in the overseas player draft, before later being scooped up by Thunder.Heather Knight banged out 38 off 19 balls, as Thunder took 69 from the final five overs. Jonassen copped the most treatment, going for 0 for 48 from three overs, while Kerr was 0 for 43 from her three.Sippel had more success, removing Athapaththu and Phoebe Litchfield to finish with 2 for 31, while Nicola Hancock’s 2 for 32 included the wickets of Knight, and Kapp for a golden duck.Mignon du Preez gave Heat some hope in the chase with 61 from 37, but she was caught trying to take on Hannah Darlington in the penultimate over.Jonassen handed the hosts a late scare, but it wasn’t enough to pull off what would have been the competition’s highest-ever chase.

Ninth-highest first-class innings of all time sees Leicestershire lose despite posting 584

ECB Reporters Network23-Jul-2022Sam Northeast made an unbeaten quadruple-century before Glamorgan pulled off an astonishing victory on an extraordinary day of records in the LV= Insurance County Championship at the Uptonsteel County Ground in Leicester.Spectators at Leicestershire’s Grace Road headquarters had witnessed one of English cricket’s three greatest feats of batting as Northeast finished with a monumental 410 not out in a total of 795 for 5 declared in reply to Leicestershire’s first-innings 584.Then to cap it all Glamorgan dismissed their opponents for 183 in 59.4 overs to win by an innings and 28 runs.The victory – which lifts Glamorgan to second place in Division Two – capped an amazing day in which Northeast joined Brian Lara, Archie MacLaren and Graeme Hick as one of only four players in the first-class game in England to score more than 400 runs in an innings.The Leicestershire total of 584 is the highest in county cricket by a team that subsequently lost by an innings – smashing the previous mark of 527 scored in an innings defeat against Northamptonshire in 1995 – and is thought to be the highest in first-class cricket to suffer that fate anywhere in the world.Glamorgan’s coach, Matt Maynard, said: “To have a man, Sam Northeast, in your side who has joined only nine other players to have scored more than 400 in an innings is incredible. It was a remarkable feat and he batted selflessly as well, when we needed to up the scoring rate.”A lot of things go into a score like that. You have to maintain a high level of concentration but he never seemed to deviate from his plans until right at the end, when he started to be more aggressive.”I don’t think anyone here will have witnessed a better innings. The way he went from 200 to 300 on Friday, it was as if there were no fielders. Every attacking shot he played went for four. I’ve seen some good players, I’ve batted with some good players, but to see someone maintain that level for so long was just incredible.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Glamorgan won after declaring with a lead of 211 at lunch on the final day. They scored a breathtaking 232 runs in the pre-lunch session, a rate of scoring that left Leicestershire with 65 overs to survive – a task that proved beyond them as Michael Hogan (4 for 43) and Michael Neser (3 for 60) combined with spinner Andrew Salter (2 for 36) and James Harris (1 for 27) to blow them away.Northeast, who had never during his 16-year career imagined making 300 until he did so on Friday, now possesses the ninth-highest individual score in world cricket, behind only Lara’s all-time high of 501 not out for Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1994 and MacLaren’s 424 for Lancashire at Taunton in 1895 as the third highest in England. Hick’s 405 not out for Worcestershire, also at Taunton in 1988 is nudged down to fourth place.Northeast numbered 45 fours and three sixes, sharing an unbroken stand of 461 in 71.3 overs with wicketkeeper Chris Cooke, who finished unbeaten on 191 – by coincidence Northeast’s career-best before this game.The stand was the eighth-highest partnership in County Championship history and, as far as a sixth-wicket stand was concerned, it was the highest ever recorded in English first-class record and the second highest in history.It was also a record total for Glamorgan, whose total is the ninth highest ever made in the county championship.Leicestershire will not need reminding that Cooke was dropped on just 3 and again on 15 on Friday – both comfortable catching chances – or that they missed Northeast at slip on 96.That error, one of only a handful in the entire marathon innings, seemed a distant memory as Northeast led the players off at lunch with almost every spectator on their feet prior to Glamorgan’s declaration after a morning session that saw 232 runs scored and a string of records set.