David Gilbert, CEO, Cricket NSW is pleased to announce the following selections for NSW Breakers to play in the Women’s National Cricket League against Victoria Spirit at the Frankston Oval, Vic, on 20th & 21st December. Selectors have kept the same team who played against SA Scorpions in Bowral on 6/7 December.NSW and Victoria last met in the WNCL Final Series in 2002-03 at MCG and this season are currently on equal points, each winning 3 out of 4 matches and earning3 bonus points but NSW take top position with a better net run rate.Selections for NSW Breakers v Vic Spirit:
Looking out from his office overlooking the County Ground on a bright sunny morning earlier today, Somerset Chief Executive turned his thoughts to the new season which is only just over two months away.Mr Anderson told me, “Structured practice is now underway, and the attention is turning to the make up of our best side in all competitions.”The Chief Executive said, “The key to it all rests really on the unknown factors. On the batting front will Piran Holloway rediscover his form of two years ago, when he was the second highest run scorer in the National League in the country, will Peter Bowler in the autumn of his cricketing life continue with the form that he displayed in 2001, and will Keith Parsons develop into a top order County Championship batsman?”He continued, “Will our young bowlers Bulbeck, Tucker and Trego come through to fill what is perceived to be a bowling vacancy?”The Somerset Chief went on, “Further down the line the big question is will Caddick be discarded by England after the World Cup next winter and be available for Somerset for the whole of the 2003 and 2004 seasons? This factor alone clearly has an impact upon the expectations placed upon Bulbeck, Tucker and Trego.”Mr Anderson concluded, “The players as a group all feel that we are well positioned to challenge for one or more of the one day competitions, but in the championship we really need the gaps to be filled by people in form.”
It’s just seventeen days until Bangladesh step out to play their first Testmatch. But as the momentous day approaches, it seems nothing is going right.Bangladesh just completed a demoralising three-game one-day series against aSouth African Invitational squad.A short two-week tour of South Africa intended to give the Bangladesh teamvaluable match practice prior to their inaugural Test has ended up assomething of a nightmare. The Test debutants suffered crushing defeats inback-to-back one-day games in the past two days.On Sunday at Pietermaritzburg, the Bangladesh side were dismissed for 51,losing by ten wickets in a match which was all over before lunch. Last nightat Kingsmead, Durban, they were bundled out for 57, losing by 202 runs.Last week, Bangladesh were beaten, though not humiliated, by Griqualand Westin the only first-class match of the tour, and their only multi-day game ofcompetitive cricket as a team since January. On Wednesday, they went down byseven wickets to the SA Invitational team in the first of the three-matchseries.With only two of the invitational squad having full international experiencefor South Africa – namely Dale Benkenstein and Nic Pothas – it was 25 yearold Boland seamer Charl Langeveldt who did the damage on Sunday, taking 5/7in four overs as Bangladesh collapsed in 18.3 overs. Mark Bruyns (18*) andGraeme Smith (28*) scored the required runs without the loss of a wicket, andthe game at Pietermaritzburg was all done in less than forty overs.Yesterday’s day-night encounter at Kingsmead lasted longer simply because theSouth Africans batted first, sent into bat by Naimur Rahman. The Invitationeleven made 259 for 5 in their fifty overs, with half-centuries to Smith(56), Ahmed Amla (68) and Martin van Jaarsveld (62). The Bangladesh bowlingwwas by no means disgraced. Left-arm spinner Naimur Rahman, probably the bestbowler on the tour, took 3/45 from nine overs, while Hasibul Hussain claimed2/33 from eight overs.The Bangladesh batting had no answer against the seam attack of CharlWilloughby and Mfuneko Ngam and slumped to 27 for 7 in the fourteenth overbefore reaching 57 after 27.2. Akram Khan batted for ninety minutes to remain10 not out in an attempt to preserve some dignity in proceedings, but thesupport was not there. Ngam finished with 4/20 from eight overs andWilloughby 3/9 from his eight.With no further competitive cricket until the historic opening day of theTest against India on November 10, the current slump could not have come at aworse time. A team that has never played so much as a single five-day matchhas been dismissed twice in two days in a total of 46 overs.Nonetheless, the Bangladesh Cricket Board are already planning ahead to theirnext Test opponents after India. BCB secretary Syed Ashraful Haq is reportedin today’s “Independent” (Dhaka) as saying that plans are afoot for a two-Test series against Pakistan in January if India’s tour of Pakistan iscancelled.There will be a problem, however… Bangabandhu National Stadium, the venuefor next month’s game against India, will almost certainly be unavailable, asit will be heavily in use for football once that Test is over. Alternativevenues, possibly the BKSP ground outside of Dhaka, or grounds at Rajshahi orChittagong, may come into play.The Bangladesh team are scheduled to enter a training camp at the BKSP groundwhen they return from South Africa this week, to begin their finalpreparations for their historic meeting with India. Judging from theirperformances over the past fortnight, they will need all the help they canget.
Everton have had a difficult season in the Premier League this time around, having won just seven of their 27 played games, drawing four and losing 16 along the way.
One other worrying factor of their campaign is the lack of goals they’ve managed to score, with the Toffees finding the back of the net just 29 times, leaving only Norwich City, Burnley and Brighton & Hove Albion with fewer goals.
This could be down to the fact that the Merseyside club have had to go through the majority of the season with striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the sidelines through injury after he managed to score 16 league goals in the previous campaign.
To make things worse for Frank Lampard’s side, recent reports have claimed that the club are willing to sell their English striker in the summer, with fellow Premier League sides Arsenal and West Ham United reportedly interested in him.
With that in mind, if Everton were to cash in on the 25-year-old in the coming months, this could pave the way for the club to make a swoop for another striker that they have been recently mentioned with.
According to a recent report from Spanish media outlet AS (via TEAMtalk) Real Madrid are looking to get rid of Luka Jovic in the summer, with Everton being mentioned as a potentially interested party to sign the striker, who has been dubbed as “magical” by Lionel Messi.
Having scored just three goals in 49 appearances for the La Liga giants since his arrival back in the 2019 summer transfer window, it’s easy to see why they would be looking to move the 24-year-old on.
However, having found the back of the net 40 times in 93 appearances with Eintracht Frankfurt, the £16.2m-rated ace has shown that he is capable of being a consistent goalscorer, which is something that the Toffees have desperately needed in this campaign.
Moving forward, if Calvert-Lewin does end up making a move away from Goodison Park this summer, then Farhad Moshiri could then use the money raised for the Englishman to potentially give Jovic the chance to put an end to his nightmare in Madrid and have a go at playing in the Premier League, which could be a very tempting prospect for the Serbian.
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From Lampard’s point of view, having a fairly young striker in his ranks that has experience of playing across Europe and scoring goals that can be a long-term feature at the club, this should be a dream deal for the club to complete.
Having been fairly active in the previous January transfer window, bringing in the likes of Dele Alli, Donny van de Beek, Nathan Patterson, Vitaliy Mykolenko and Anwar El Ghazi, Everton certainly have the means to back their managed once again in the summer, if they manage to avoid getting relegated.
In other news: Lampard may have found Everton’s new Rooney in “top quality” £7.2m-rated “boy wonder”
A sense of deja vu prevailed amid the light mist engulfing the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. Zimbabwe won the toss, stumbled at the start, Tatenda Taibu and Sean Williams put on a rescue act, a stutter followed and they ended at least 50 short of a competitive total. The script was very similar to that of the second match in Hyderabad where Zimbabwe had let the initiative slip.Early successes in the field followed, but the shallowness of their bowling attack, and a lack of pace and penetration resulted in their fifth successive loss of the tour.Disappointed by his own performance as well as the team’s overall show in the field, Hamilton Masakadza, Zimbabwe’s stand-in captain, said his bowlers simply didn’t create enough chances.”Sean and Tatenda provided a great start once again but, as before, we failed to capitalise on that,” Masakadza said. “There is a lot of disappointment but by not creating opportunities, we made things difficult for ourselves. We have a match to go and we need to improve our bowling in order to get a result out of it.”The failure of the top order has been a worry for Zimbabwe. Vusi Sibanda and Masakadza have managed starts of 45, 16, 10 and 7 so far in the series. The pressure, as a result, fell on a middle order that has coped remarkably well. Taibu has three half-centuries in the serieswhile Williams followed up scores of 51, 3 and 71 with an attacking 48 off 56 balls today.”Our strength is our middle order and they have been staging the recovery in light of our poor performance at the top,” Masakadza said. “I think it is a matter of playing as many matches as possible to gain the required amount of experience and not repeating the same mistakes again.”Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan captain, was all smiles after a Man-of-the-Match winning performance with three crucial wickets and a 99-ball 88 at No.3, in place of the rested Younis Khan. Malik praised a fine team effort, as well as an enterprising century from Mohammad Yousuf, and was confident of completing a 5-0 whitewash with his young side.”The youngsters have been really impressive in the series so far,” Malik said. “Winning is not easy even if you are playing a weaker side and it has been a commendable effort from the young bowling attack to restrict Zimbabwe.”Shrugging aside calls that his team, especially the debutantes, have not been tested thoroughly by Zimbabwe, Malik argued that the players performed impressively in conditions which tested them.”The pitch was on the slower side today and the ball wasn’t really coming on to the bat. Yousuf played a gem of an innings but the good start was given by our bowlers early on.”Pakistan will get another opportunity to test more new players in Sheikhupura where the final match of the series will be played, on Saturday. For Zimbabwe, it will be a chance to put a disappointing tour behind them and deliver the performance that their captain and coach have long been talking about.
Shane Bond believes he is fit enough to get through the rest of the CB Series in Australia, despite his latest reoccurrence of his back problems.”I never thought I was going home, I didn’t think it was that major,” Bond said, after being hampered during New Zealand’s 90-run victory over England at Adelaide this week.”It still aches, it did ache in the last game,” Bond said. “I can deal with the pain, but when that pain diminishes my back spasms and almost locks right across the back and once that happens it becomes a little difficult to bowl.”Bond underwent a scan after the Adelaide match, and the New Zealand media speculated that his tour could be over, but no stress fracture or structural problem was detected. Instead, he has arrived in Perth for the next round of matches, still reveling in the capture of his 100th one-day international wicket.”I’m stoked because the 100-wicket thing is not a very big group of people and even though I’ve had injuries it shows a degree of longevity to get to 100,” said Bond, who needed just 54 games to reach the mark – one more than the record-holder, the former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq, but one fewer than Australia’s spearhead, Brett Lee.”I knew I was in the running for the record but the rain out in Hamilton [against Sri Lanka] killed it,” added Bond. “I knew in the last game if I got a wicket I could equal it but I’m just pretty happy to get there.”
It has been announced that Alviro Petersen’s contract with the Titans has been terminated by mutual agreement.Petersen, despite considerable success in South African domestic cricket, was left out of the squad for the semi-final and final of the Standard Bank Cup after an internal hearing took place in January. He has not played for the Titans since.”I have loved playing for the Titans. I will always be grateful that I was given the opportunity by the Titans to play professional cricket,” Petersen said in a statement released on Monday. “It was also during my time with the Titans that I was selected for South Africa ‘A’ and I know that playing for the Titans assisted me to achieve this honour.I believe, though that it is time to move on and that it will be in my best interests if I continue my career with another Franchise. I thank everyone at the Titans for what they have done for me and wish them all the very best for the future.”Elise Lombard, the Titans’ chief executive, said: “On behalf of the Board of the Titans I thank Alviro for his contribution to the Titans and wish him well for his future in South African cricket”.Petersen’s place in the team was taken by the return of AB de Villiers, who was on national duty, and Goolam Bodi.
Tim May, the former offspinner who set up the Australian Cricketers’ Association, has resigned as the union’s chief executive and will move his family to the United States. After eights years in the role, May will depart in June, unless the current Memorandum of Understanding with Cricket Australia is not completed, and will continue as the chief executive of FICA, the international players’ association.May, 43, has been behind obtaining greater pay for national, state and rookie players, negotiating the first Collective Agreement with the Australian Cricket Board in 1998 and implementing events such as the Allan Border Medal. “I have been in the fortunate position of representing a collection of men whose performances both as cricketers and role models have continued to grow and set benchmarks for others to emulate,” May, who took 75 wickets in 25 Tests, said.Ian Healy, the ACA president, said players since 1996 owed much to May for his creativity, commitment and dedication. “As a former top-class player and with a financial background Tim’s skill set was perfect for the role,” he said.Ricky Ponting said May had always placed the welfare of Australia’s players at the top of his priority list. “Tim’s contribution has been first class,” he said.
Rizwan Saeed’s 10 wickets went in vain as his team, Defense Housing Authority (DHA), still faced defeat against Pakistan Customs in the sixth round of the Inter-Department Qualifying Tournament.Rizwan, after taking 6 for 58 in the first innings, took 4 for 88 in the second, but Customs still built a lead of 349, scoring 268. DHA, needing 350 for victory, had slumped to 119 for 4 at stumps with Junaid Zia and Imran Ali taking two wickets apiece.To earn a place in the Patron’s Trophy first-class competition starting on December 1 at Karachi, Customs not only needed to win this game but they also needed PIA to defeat DHA in the final round.Overnight rain affected three matches played in Punjab and while KPT benefited, NBP suffered. KPT needed points through a first innings lead, even if their game was drawn, and had closed the first day play at 221 for three. The second rain-affected match was at the Shalimar Ground in Islamabad where PTCL, engaged in a duel with ARL, were 135 for 1 after first day’s play.There was no play at LCCA Ground, where Service Industries were 222 for 3 against HEC.
Punjab were on course for an outright win over Assam at the end of daytwo of the five-day pre-quarterfinal between the two sides at thePunjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali. The hosts had reducedAssam to 53 for two in the second innings after securing a 187-runlead.Resuming at 130 for three, Punjab were well-served by opener RavneetRicky, who pushed his overnight score of 46 to 88, before beingdismissed. Later, Hari Krishan Kali (48) and Navdeep Singh (51) put on76 runs for the eigth wicket and this was followed by debutant IshanMalhatra run-a-ball 37 made with the aid of four fours. Malhatra’sbatting exploits follow his fine bowling performance on Wednesday; heclaimed 7 for 59 in the Assam first innings. Punjab’s final score of357 meant that Assam were left to make 188 to avoid an innings defeat.Opener Parag Das, who smashed 40 off 43 balls with nine fours, almostsingle-handedly ensured that Assam got off to a better start in theirsecond dig. Assam will be looking to him and the rest of the batsmento deliver to avoid an embarassing elimination.