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Afghanistan cruised to a 64-run win against Namibia in their final group-stage game of the Desert T20 Challenge, after posting 167 for 6

The Report by Peter Della Penna in Dubai19-Jan-2017
Scorecard1:11

It was important for us to top the group – Rashid Khan

The de facto home side Afghanistan sauntered past Namibia by 64 runs for their third win in three games in Group A at the Desert T20 Challenge. Afghanistan, the highest-seeded team, casually accumulated 167 for 6 in their 20 overs against the lowest-ranked side in the competition. Four batsmen crossed 30 but not 35, starting with Mohammad Shahzad (31) and former captain Nawroz Mangal (32) who added 56 for the first wicket in breezy fashion.In the chase, Louis van der Westhuizen, who struck a bruising half-century against Ireland, was out second ball of the innings. By the end of the third over, Namibia were reduced to 7 for 4. Rarely does Afghanistan’s excellence keep the home fans quiet, but about 3000 of them hardly made a peep throughout the rest of the innings as if bored by the ease of the impending victory. Jan Frylinck and Gerrie Snyman added 54 runs for the seventh wicket to lift Namibia from 38 for 6.As he has done so many times this tournament, Rashid Khan roused the fans out of their chairs. Captain Asghar Stanikzai abstained from utilising his biggest wicket threat until the 16th over. Rashid trapped Frylinck in front, playing across the line, to break the stand at the start of the 18th over. Left-arm spinner Amir Hamza, who dismissed van der Westhuizen with the new ball, came back in the 19th to have Snyman stumped off the last ball of the over. Rashid then made it a team hat-trick by snuffing out the tail on the first two balls of the 20th over to end with figures of 3 for 4 in 2.2 overs.Nawroz not done yetNawroz Mangal had reportedly retired at the start of the year to take up a role as Afghanistan’s chief national selector. However, he’d been training and warming up with the squad all week in Abu Dhabi. With Afghanistan already having clinched a semi-final berth, he was inserted into the starting XI against Namibia and walked out with Mohammad Shahzad to open the batting.Nawroz Mangal played an assortment of strokes through the off side in his “farewell series”•Peter Della Penna

It was later communicated by the Afghanistan team management that Nawroz was being given a “farewell series” at this event. Shahzad, usually Afghanistan’s most aggressive player with the bat, let Nawroz take the reins in their stand. In a pressure-free environment, Nawroz played some delightful strokes through the off side among his three fours and a six to please the crowd before exiting to warm applause.Najibullah’s not out streak ends… sort of“Half Man, Half Amazing” Najibullah Zadran had come into this match having been not out in his last six Twenty20 innings. The last time he finished without an asterisk next to his name was against England in the 2016 World T20 when he was run-out by Chris Jordan for 14. In Afghanistan’s next match at the tournament, he scored 48 not out to be named Man of the Match in their victory over West Indies.His spectacular one-handed sliced six against UAE on Tuesday night came as part of a 11 not out, making it 174 runs he’d scored in T20Is since being dismissed. Promoted to no. 4 on Thursday afternoon, he made three before he was deceived by left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz and stumped, ending his scoring streak between dismissals at 177 in Twenty20 matches. However, since Namibia doesn’t have T20I status, this match didn’t either, meaning Najibullah’s not-out streak in T20Is remains alive and kicking at 174 off 101 balls.

Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh has been ruled out of the remainder of the Test series in India due to a shoulder injury

Daniel Brettig08-Mar-20170:53

Quick facts – Marcus Stoinis

Victoria allrounder Marcus Stoinis has been called into Australia’s squad for the remainder of the Test series in India after Mitchell Marsh was ruled out due to an ongoing shoulder injury. Stoinis will fly to India after the conclusion of Victoria’s current Sheffield Shield match, which began in Alice Springs on Wednesday, and will arrive during Australia’s 10-day break between the second and third Tests.Marsh will head home with plenty to think about as both a bowler and a batsman. Having hurled the ball down at speeds in excess of 140kph during 2016, Marsh’s pace dropped away alarmingly during a home summer in which he was also axed from the Test team due to a string of poor scores. When recalled for the India series, Marsh was withdrawn from the limited-overs squad in order to rest his shoulder in the hope of recovery.However, in five overs across the two Tests, his pace remained in the 120kph bracket, and it is for this reason, rather than three low scores in four innings at No.6, that the selectors have been compelled to look elsewhere. “Mitch Marsh will go back to Melbourne with his shoulder,” coach Darren Lehmann said after the Bengaluru Test. “We’ll decide in the next day or so the replacement there, and then work out what our best XI is from there.”He had the injury through the summer, he was fine when he got here but it just got worse. I was really happy with the way he played the second innings in Pune. It’s unlucky for Mitch and we move to whoever the next person comes in. Whether we go with Usman Khawaja or Glenn Maxwell or whoever is selected, we’ll wait and see.”David Beakley, the team physio, explained how Marsh’s shoulder had deteriorated: “Mitchell has been playing with a shoulder injury for most of the summer, which we have been managing up until now, but unfortunately it has progressively deteriorated to a point where he is unable to function at the level required. Consequently he will return to Australia to consult with specialists to advise the best course of action.”In mid-January, when Marsh was pulled out of the ODI team, Beakley had made a remarkably similar statement: “Mitchell has had an ongoing shoulder injury which we have been managing but it is now at a point where he is unable to function at the level required. He now requires a period of rest and rehabilitation in order to return to full fitness.”Stoinis was preferred ahead of other all-round options such as Hilton Cartwright, who made his Test debut against Pakistan in the first week of January, and Moises Henriques, who played on last year’s Test tour of India. Henriques has 659 Sheffield Shield runs at 65.90 this summer and Cartwright has 520 at 37.14, compared to Stoinis’ more modest tally of 172 at 15.63.However, Stoinis impressed the selectors by stepping up to international level during the recent Chappell-Hadlee ODI series in New Zealand, when he smashed an unbeaten 146 in Australia’s unsuccessful chase in Auckland. There is no guarantee that Stoinis will play in India, though, with Usman Khawaja and Glenn Maxwell among the other options to replace Marsh in the XI.Mitchell Marsh will take no further part in the series•Associated Press

The break between Tests will allow Australia’s bowlers to freshen up physically, particularly the pacemen and also the spin bowler Nathan Lyon, who is battling a raw and bleeding spinning finger.Lehmann noted the up-and-down fortunes of the left-armer Mitchell Starc in Bengaluru, but said the tourists needed to accept that his ability to strike as violently as he did on the fourth morning always came at the risk of conceding runs.”That’s what you get with a Mitchell Starc who can blow a game or change a game like he did with those wickets,” Lehmann said. “You’d love him to be more consistent, but if he’s more consistent then maybe he doesn’t blow games apart. For us the challenge is making sure he’s fresh to go and he just does what he does. You’ve got to take that sometimes as a coach and a captain, he might go for runs but he’s going to take some key wickets for you.”Assessing the overall mood of the team following the loss of a Test they had started so strongly, Lehmann said it was important for the tourists to move on quickly, given that the surface for the third match in Ranchi was likely to offer up an outright result once again.”They’re pretty good. We had a bad 33 overs [on day four], so you’ve got to move on quite quickly,” he said. “We’ve got a break, it’s been a long summer and we’ve come here with the challenge of retaining the trophy first and foremost, we’re very close but not good enough. We’ve got to regroup quickly for Ranchi.”I presume the wicket will be very similar and that’s a great thing, you know there’s going to be a result when you rock up for the game, so for us to be on the right side of the ledger if that makes sense and play well. If you’d said to us 1-1 after two Test matches you’re not in a bad position, barring not getting enough runs [on final day]. Pleased where we’re at, we’ve got to play well next Test match.”

BCB president Nazmul Hassan has revealed the significant influence he has over the selection process, saying it was his call to drop Mahmudullah

Mohammad Isam16-Mar-2017BCB president Nazmul Hassan has revealed the significant influence he has over Bangladesh’s selection process at present, saying that it was his call to drop allrounder Mahmudullah from the ongoing Test against Sri Lanka.Hassan also said another high-profile player might have suffered the axe had the designated wicketkeeper Liton Das not been ruled out of the second Test through injury. Indications are that the player he was referring to was the captain Mushfiqur Rahim, who had said “if I get to play” more than once ahead of the game.”I take all the decisions,” Hassan said in Colombo on the first day of Bangladesh’s 100th Test. “I have said it repeatedly that I take every decision. The decision that [Mahmudullah] won’t play the Test also has to come from me. And no one told me that he won’t be in the ODI squad. Until I take the decision, what others say doesn’t count. Chandika [Hathurusingha, the coach] doesn’t send me anything, it is the selectors who send me the list of players.”Mahmudullah got left out because this is an important Test for us. Just because we like Mahmudullah, Shakib [Al Hasan], Tamim [Iqbal] and Mushfiqur, doesn’t mean we will sit around while they keep playing with poor form. It will make the team unstable.”There would have been a bigger change had Liton Das not got injured. Anyone can be dropped. I don’t need a player in the squad who effects a team after being dropped. This message has to be clear. Whoever is replacing a senior player, you have to encourage him, impart intelligence to him. It is a team game after all.”Hassan’s comments, however, appeared to be at odds with the mandate he had set out for the revamped selection committee in June 2016, when the selection of the Bangladesh team became a three-step process.The committee was expanded by the inclusion of the coach Chandika Hathurusingha, the team manager Khaled Mahmud, and BCB’s cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan. Hassan said at the time that his role in the selection process would be diminished because of Mahmud’s inclusion in the panel.Then the chief selector Faruque Ahmed had quit as a result, saying the new composition would curb the independence of the appointed selectors. Former Bangladesh batsman Minhajul Abedin was given Faruque’s position.Over the last nine months, however, Hassan made public comments about selection on at least three occasions. During the home series against Afghanistan in September 2016 – right after the selection committee was revamped – Hassan said left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain should be picked for the ODIs against England. The 34-year-old was left out of the second and third ODIs after a poor first game.During the Bangladesh Premier League, Hassan had said the selectors should consider performers from the T20 tournament for the training camp for the New Zealand tour. Mehedi Maruf, one of the players Hassan had mentioned, was included in the camp in Sydney as a “development player”, and also travelled to train with the squad in New Zealand.Hassan’s latest comments about Mahmudullah are likely to put more pressure on the current selectors, particularly the chief selector Minhajul, who is a respected figure in Bangladesh cricket, having been the country’s best batsman in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mumbai Indians crushed Delhi Daredevils by 146 runs, the largest margin of victory in the IPL

The Report by Varun Shetty06-May-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:27

Bangar: Daredevils lost the match in the first half

Mumbai Indians made a mockery of their opposition on Saturday. First they smacked Delhi Daredevils’ bowlers around to put up a total of 212. Then they bullied the batsmen into folding for a paltry 66. And in the end, a team that had recorded the second-highest chase in IPL history two nights ago was defeated by a margin so huge – 146 runs – it became a tournament record.So how did this all come about? Well, a few things went to plan. Like Lendl Simmons coming off the bench and hitting a half-century, Kieron Pollard responding to his promotion to No. 3 with an innings that was both calculated and cruel and the Mumbai bowlers knocking over each of their bunnies.Daredevils were five down in the chase before the Powerplay was done, and bowled out for their lowest IPL total. Mumbai, on the other hand, stormed into the playoffs.Caribbean carnage, Part 1Simmons has some phenomenal IPL numbers – before tonight he had 10 scores of fifty or more in 22 innings – and yet he had to wait until tonight to get his first game of the season. He began tentatively – as is expected of a batsman whose most recent T20 innings were 1, 1, 4* and 1. But the shackles seemed to break with a pull for six off Kagiso Rabada in the fourth over.Daredevils peppered Simmons with a mix of back-of-a-length and short deliveries, but it did not bother him. He got, both, on top of the bounce, and under it in equal measure – only one of his nine boundaries came off a fullish delivery.Simmons’ 66 off 43 balls took apart Daredevils’ famed fast-bowling attack, counterbalanced Parthiv Patel’s sedate 25 and gave Mumbai the perfect start on a small ground.Caribbean carnage, Part 2For a brief time, Amit Mishra was able to put a stop to Mumbai’s momentum. His first two overs went for only seven runs and had yielded a wicket too. Daredevils’ decision to play a fourth seamer in place of left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem came under question.Pollard, however, hit that hypothesis out of the park, along with four of Mishra’s deliveries. This included denting Zaheer Khan’s plan of bowling Mishra out at a stretch. His two sixes off Mishra’s third over forced Zaheer to give him a change of ends. The two overs needed to make that switch went for 25, and when Mishra returned, Pollard hit him for two more sixes. That was the start of Mumbai’s slog-overs push. Pollard saw it through with an unbeaten 63.Daredevils come a full circleA target of 213, mere days after achieving their highest successful chase, didn’t trouble the Daredevils – for as long as they were in the dugout. Once they came onto the field they realised that the Mumbai bowling attack was well-manned and well-marshalled.Mitchell McCleneghan had removed Sanju Samson three times in nine balls before today. After the first ball of the chase, the head-to-head was adjusted to four wickets in 10 balls.Bumrah had removed Pant twice in six balls. He was brought in for the fourth over and got the batsman out for a duck.Harbhajan had knocked Karun Nair over three times in 19 balls. So naturally he was brought on to bowl to his bunny and the battle ended with a catch to midwicket. These were all signs of a team being well-informed of their own strengths, the opposition’s weaknesses, and exploiting them all perfectly.Meanwhile, Daredevils had updated their lowest score twice in the space of six days, while also pulling off their best chase in the period.

Another ruthlessly efficient bowling performance from Nottinghamshire swept them to their fifth victory of the Specsavers County Championship season and strengthened their lead at the top of the Division Two table

ECB Reporters Network21-Jun-2017
ScorecardJames Pattinson claimed an eight-wicket match haul•Getty Images

Another ruthlessly efficient bowling performance from Nottinghamshire swept them to their fifth victory of the Specsavers County Championship season and strengthened their lead at the top of the Division Two table.After being bowled out for 134 in their first innings Leicestershire struggled just as badly the second time around and, with Ben Raine unable to bat due to injury, they succumbed for exactly the same total, to lose by an innings and 280. Luke Fletcher took 3 for 16 and James Pattinson bagged 3 for 38 – giving him a haul of 8 for 71 – as the match was wrapped up just after lunch on the third day. Clint McKay hit his way to an unbeaten 41 from 24 balls but by then the contest was almost over.Stuart Broad only bowled one over before leaving the field but by that stage the visitors were five wickets down and spiralling to their second heavy defeat against Notts this season.Pattinson had helped himself to five Foxes wickets during the previous day and needed only five deliveries to add to his tally as Leicestershire began their second innings after being made to follow-on 414 behind. Pattinson took eight wickets when the sides met at Leicester in early April and another four in the Royal London Cup clash between the two sides at Welbeck and made the early breakthrough by having Paul Horton caught behind for 6.Jake Ball also struck in his opening over, with Brendan Taylor taking a sharp catch at third slip to remove Harry Dearden, who has fallen for 12, 0, 6 and 0 against Notts this season. Mark Cosgrove made 22 before falling lbw in Luke Fletcher’s first over to leave the innings in tatters at 49 for 3.Fletcher struck twice more, dismissing Colin Ackermann by the same method and then had Mark Pettini caught at second slip. Steven Mullaney removed Ned Eckersley for 20 and with the final ball of the morning session Pattinson nipped out Lewis Hill to bring the finishing line even closer.Hill had received treatment earlier in the over after being struck on the helmet and had earlier survived a catch at slip after the umpires ruled it had come off the forearm rather than the glove or bat.McKay hit Mullaney for two sixes in a bold act of defiance but at the other end Dieter Klein was yorked by Pattinson and then Gavin Griffiths nicked Ball into the hands of second slip, condemning Leicestershire to their heaviest innings loss since 1932.Nottinghamshire gained the full 24 points from their victory and face promotion rivals Kent under the Trent Bridge floodlights next week, whilst Leicestershire only gathered two bonus points ahead of their next fixture against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.

Four years after the incident with Joe Root in a Birmingham bar, the Australia vice-captain says it changed him as a person and cricketer

George Dobell in Edgbaston08-Jun-2017David Warner admits the incident in which he punched Joe Root in a Birmingham bar four years ago was “pivotal” to his development as a cricketer and a man.Warner, the Australia vice-captain, was fined and suspended after the incident during the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, following England’s defeat of Australia. But now, four years to the day since the event and back in Birmingham to play England in a must-win Champions Trophy fixture on Saturday, he reflected on the episode as a key learning experience in a career that has risen to new levels in recent times.”It was a learning curve for myself,” Warner said. “I was young and now I’m old. I’ve two kids and I’m married. There’s a lot of settling down there.”It definitely was [pivotal] to me becoming the person I am today; not just the cricketer. We all go through periods when we’re young and naïve. It’s not about stuffing up and moving on, it’s about learning the ropes of being away on tour for such a long period of time. There are things you have to think about as a youngster: what you can or can’t I do.”I probably didn’t work that out at that stage. But now I have and I have a great balance on and off the field.”A fan’s t-shirt references the David Warner-Joe Root incident from 2013•Getty Images

There’s little disputing that Warner is a more consistent player. As well as being rated No. 2 in the ODI batting rankings – he recently
became the third-fastest man in history to 4000 ODI runs – Warner finished the recent IPL season as the top run-scorer and is placed at No. 7 in the ICC’s Test batting rankings. Such is his growing maturity, he has been promoted to vice-captain of the Australia side, been a eloquent critic of Cricket Australia’s plans to abandon the revenue-sharing model and earned the nickname ‘Rev’ – short for The Reverend David Warner – by colleagues who have marvelled at his change in behaviour since he gave up alcohol a couple of years ago. He used to be nicknamed ‘Bull’ for pretty obvious reasons.”The bull can still come out here and there,” he admitted. “It just depends on what day you get me. Most of the time, I’m probably the reverend – as they say – but look, it’s about winning games for Australia and being the best person I can around the team and around people outside cricket.”While Warner said he would be happy to revisit the Walkabout bar where the incident happened and shake Root’s hand, he did hint that he felt his side of the incident wasn’t fully recognised. There was a suggestion at the time that Warner felt Root, who was playing with a wig, was mocking South Africa’s Muslim batsman Hashim Amla. It is a suggestion strongly denied by Root and his colleagues, who insist Root was making fun of himself, his infamously youthful complexion and his inability to grow facial hair.”People didn’t look too far or deep into it to see who was in the right or wrong,” Warner said. “But that’s all gone, it’s in the past and we can tell a happily ever after story at the end of my career.”If they [at Walkabout] give me a couple of free drinks, some diet cokes, and the rest of the boys they can shout them a table. And if I see Joe I’ll give him a handshake.”

Nottinghamshire Outlaws claimed their second NatWest T20 victory in as many days after defeating Northants Steelbacks by 12 runs under the DLS method

ECB Reporters Network22-Jul-2017
Nottinghamshire Outlaws claimed their second NatWest T20 victory in as many days after defeating Northants Steelbacks by 12 runs under the DLS method at Trent Bridge.Set a victory target of 196, the Outlaws had reached 52 without loss after 5.1 overs when heavy rain set in and prevented any further play. DLS at that time showed 40 as being the target.Richard Levi clubbed 88 off 43 balls but finished on the losing side•Getty Images

Alex Hales was unbeaten on 30 at the time, with Riki Wessels, who scored a century in Friday evening’s win over Derbyshire, on 14.Earlier, the visitors made 195 for 8 after being asked to bat first by Notts captain Dan Christian. Richard Levi top-scored with 88 from just 43 balls for the Steelbacks, bludgeoning seven fours and eight sixes in a brutal display of ball-striking.New Zealand legspinner Ish Sodhi claimed 3 for 39 for the home county, while Harry Gurney picked up two wickets in the final over to finish with 3 for 46.Levi’s innings gathered momentum in just the third over of the match, with Jake Ball twice being hit into the crowd. The South African clubbed three more sixes in his 26-ball half century, which boosted the Steelbacks’ total into three figures by the ninth over.Luke Wood stemmed the flow of runs with a brace of wickets from consecutive deliveries in the eleventh over. He had been made to wait until his fifth outing in this format before striking for the first time but he then bowled Ben Duckett for 28 and had Rory Kleinveldt caught at point from his next delivery.The youngster would also have added Levi to his tally but he over-stepped and was called for a no-ball as the opener lofted down the ground and into the hands of Steven Mullaney, when on 81.Levi only added seven more runs before Sodhi, who had earlier removed Adam Rossington for 17, had him taken by Hales on the midwicket fence, to the relief of most of the 7,638 crowd.Alex Wakely made 19 from 16 balls but he became Gurney’s 100th victim in T20 cricket when he picked out Wood at deep backward square leg when looking to accelerate.The paceman dismissed both Rob Newton and Steven Crook in the closing over before Ben Sanderson launched the final ball of the innings into the pavilion seats.It took Hales and Wessels only 4.3 overs to bring up the Notts’ 50 as they began their pursuit of 196. Light drizzle then began to intensify and the umpires had no option but to take the players from the field after just one delivery of the sixth over.The outcome lengthens Northants’ unhappy record at Trent Bridge, where they have never won in T20 cricket and where their last win in any format was a one-day success in 2003.They did taste success in their last meeting with the Outlaws, however, winning their semi-final clash at Finals Day last season.After losing their opening two matches, this time around, Notts now have four points from four games, whilst the defending champions missed out on a chance to take top spot in the north group but remain second on seven points from six matches.

Ellyse Perry believes it is time to move on from comparing women’s cricket with the men’s game and celebrate the female version as a sport in its own right.

Jon Culley11-Aug-2017Australian star Ellyse Perry believes it is time to move on from comparing women’s cricket with the men’s game and celebrate the female version as a sport in its own right.Speaking on the eve of her first match in the 2017 Kia Super League – Loughborough Lightning’s opening fixture against Western Storm in Taunton on Saturday – Perry sees no reason why women’s cricket should not enjoy the same profile women’s tennis has alongside the men’s game.”If you look at tennis, it is probably the leading sport in terms of male and female equality yet they are really different games as well,” the 26-year-old all-rounder said.”Aside from the obvious difference that one goes for three sets and the other for five at the slams, the way the game is played is different.”People appreciate the games for different reasons, like in the women’s game the rallies go on for longer because the serves are not as hard whereas in the men’s game there is the real power there.”But fans appreciate the two games equally for different reasons and because you’re a fan of men’s tennis doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy women’s tennis too.”Perry, whose Lightning team open their fixtures in a double-header with Somerset’s NatWest Blast match against Kent Spitfires, believes women’s cricket can also succeed because it is different.”Obviously, women are biologically different from men but I think it is time we moved away from comparing women with male players,” she said.”In my mind we are two different sports and so long as we are compared to the men’s game it kind of hamstrings us a bit because you can’t forge your own competition, your own game and your own kind of entertainment for the public.”If you look at the World Cup and the final in front of a full house at Lord’s you saw what a great spectacle it can be and the ECB and the ICC deserve congratulating for the way they staged and promoted a great tournament.”Thanks to her success in cricket and her parallel career in international women’s football, Perry has become a high-profile figure in her native country, the face of women’s sport in Australia. She is also married to the Australian rugby international Matt Toomua, who plays just down the road from Loughborough for Leicester Tigers.Most other female cricketers have some catching up to do in that respect but Perry believes there is enormous potential for top women’s cricketers to become stars in the same way as their male counterparts.”For women’s sports in general, whether it be cricket, soccer or the AFL at home, it is about creating your own identity and product,” she said.”It is not just about the match on the day, it is about developing the stories and the rivalries and bringing the players to the fore in terms of their own stories and personalities in the way they play the game.”There is so much scope for that in the women’s game with great characters and personalities and the World Cup showed it is really possible.”After their away match with Western Storm, Lightning host their two home fixtures in this year’s Kia Super League next week, taking on 2016 champions Southern Vipers at Derby on Tuesday, followed by a clash with Yorkshire Diamonds on Friday at Loughborough.As well as Perry, the Lightning line-up features two more Australian World Cup stars in batter Elyse Villani and leg-spinner Kristen Beams, as well as England World Cup-winners Georgia Elwiss, the captain, and Beth Langston, and 35-times capped wicketkeeper Amy Jones.

Asanka Gurusinha had stepped down from the role alongside the Sanath Jayasuriya-led selection committee after a string of defeats to India last month

Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Sep-2017Despite having stepped down from his role as Sri Lanka selector just weeks ago, cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha has been reappointed to the position, along with three new selectors.Graeme Labrooy, the former Sri Lanka seamer, had already been confirmed as the head of the committee on Friday. The remaining members are former national team manager Jeryl Woutersz, former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Gamini Wickremasinghe, and Sajith Fernando, who was once a prolific allrounder at domestic level.Gurusinha had been part of the Sanath Jayasuriya-led selection committee since April, and had resigned alongside that committee, saying: “When the others are stepping down, I can’t stay there.” His reinstatement affirms that SLC are happy for him continue in his powerful, tri-partite position. As cricket manager, Gurusinha effectively fulfills the roles of a team director, a team manager, and now, again, selector.Woutersz, meanwhile, had been team manager as recently as January last year, before he was replaced by Charith Senanayake.The new selectors’ first assignment will be to choose the squad for the Tests against Pakistan – the first of which begins on September 28. The team is scheduled to depart on Sunday.

This is the reason behind the opening batsman’s omission from Sri Lanka’s squad for the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Oct-2017Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has suspended Danushka Gunathilaka for six white-ball matches for misconduct. This is why the opening batsman was omitted from Sri Lanka’s squad for the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE. He has also been fined.ESPNcricinfo understands Gunathilaka missed a training session, turned up to a match without his gear, and was generally found to have had an indifferent attitude towards training – all during Sri Lanka’s recent home series against India. One other player had also been pulled up about his off-field behaviour, but has received only a warning, as unlike Gunathilaka, SLC believed he had displayed full commitment to training and matches.Cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha is believed to have initially brought the issue to SLC’s notice, before the board’s CEO Ashley de Silva made further inquiries. “The board had asked the selectors not to consider Danushka for six white-ball games,” Gurusinha said. “Yes, is for disciplinary reasons that they made that decision.”Gunathilaka’s absence in the ODI squad had been something of a surprise, given he has averaged 42.41 in ODIs this year. This is his first serious case of misconduct. The board is expected to make a further statement on the matter.