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Cricket Kenya chief executive Tom Sears has told ESPNcricinfo that plans are progressing to introduce a new national tournament in the country

Martin Williamson10-Jan-2011Cricket Kenya chief executive Tom Sears has told ESPNcricinfo that plans are progressing to introduce a new national tournament in the country with the aim of improving the domestic structure and helping bridge the current gulf between the local and international game.At present, the Nairobi Provincial Cricket League is the country’s main competition, but standards are widely regarded as being poor and not conducive to bringing on young players. An attempt by CK to start a provincial event in 2009 failed for a variety of reasons, but Sears believes now is the time to try again.”That was a senior men’s competition, this is a junior competition and is different,” he explained. “This proposal will be put forward to the board and discussed at our next meeting.”We are looking at basing it around a club structure primarily in Nairobi. The plan is to have eight teams in two pools of four. Six would be Nairobi-based clubs and we would probably invite the top six teams from the Nairobi league and a combination side from the Rift and a combination side from the Coast … but this is just a proposal at the moment and has yet to be ratified. If it is, we would put the Coast and the Rift in opposite pools to limit the amount of travelling and the top two in each pool would go through in semi-finals and a final.”It’ll create an opportunity for our national players, best club players, and also we have a good clutch of Under-19s and Under-17s and it will give them the chance to play in good, hard cricket because the standard of league cricket here is just not good enough at the moment.”Sears wants this to start in 2010, and unlike other attempts, this will spread right down through the age groups and into the vital area of schools cricket.”It’s about development all the way up, particularly at schools level. At the moment you can have a 12 year-old kid in Nairobi playing a completely different format of the game to a 12 year-old in Nakuru, Mombasa or anywhere else. So what we are trying to do is standardise the format of cricket we are playing at various age groups and have a regional competition that feeds into regional teams that compete in a national competition. This will create opportunities for kids to play locally and the best of those will be creamed off into regional teams at all the age groups up until 17.”And then four regions, which will possibly be a Coast, Rift and two Nairobi sides who will compete in a national competition. We are making sure the kids can play and then we are looking at the best of those kids with a view to selecting those national sides. And once we have selected those national sides, making sure they are playing meaningful fixtures.”Funding remains a major obstacle, but Sears says CK is “in discussions with broadcasters who have verbally committed to televising some of it” as well as speaking to a variety of commercial partners.”We’ve got the ICCC, who provide the majority of our funding, onside and they are supportive of what we are trying to implement. If the ICC stipulate that this is a kind of structure they want to have in place, it adds a lot of weight to it. If we can’t do all of it, certainly the senior men’s league and some more structured junior competitions and that is what we have budgeted for.”Another issue historically has been the reluctance of clubs to agree to anything which dilutes their stranglehold on domestic cricket. “The provinces have their own leagues and place a lot of importance on them and that is fair enough,” Sears said. “But any board member who sits on the board of a governing body has to look at the good of the game nationally as opposed to their own locality. I am sure there will be some interesting discussions but we are looking to implement something from the middle of the year onwards.”

A round-up of the second day’s action of the World Cricket League Division One in Netherlands

Cricinfo staff03-Jul-2010Kenya were no match for Netherlands as the hosts stormed to a 117-run win in Voorburg . A century stand between Alexie Kervezee and Tom Cooper set Netherlands to 229 before a combined effort from the bowlers sunk Kenya to 112 within 30 overs.Kervezee and Cooper came together after Thomas Odoyo struck in the fifth over, and the pair added 123 for the second wicket. Kervezee progressed at more than a run-a-ball, hitting 11 fours and a six before he was trapped in front by a delivery from James Ngoche which turned in sharply. Kervezee, unfortunately, fell eight short of his century. Ngoche struck again soon after when he sent back the captain Peter Borren. Cooper and Wesley Barresi then added 53 to lift the hosts but the lower order failed to put together partnerships as Kenya struck quickly. Jimmy Kamande ran through the lower order to finish with 4 for 36.The chase got off to a rocky start as Kenya lost their top three for 32. The fourth wicket pair of Collins Obuya and Rakep Patel added 48, but that was the best stand Kenya could manage. Obuya’s dismissal in the 20th over, bowled by Cooper, sparked a collapse as Kenya lost their last six wickets for 23 runs. Netherlands recorded their first win after losing narrowly to Scotland on Thursday.Rain in Rotterdam forced the game between Afghanistan and Ireland to be pushed to the reserve day after Ireland completed their 50 overs. Andrew Poynter top scored with 78, supported by useful contributions by Kevin O’Brien and Trent Johnston to push the score to 237 before rain intervened.Afghanistan held the initiative initially as their seamers, Khaliq Dad and Shapoor Zadran, made early inroads to reduce Ireland to 27 for 3. But Ireland recovered via two seventy-plus stands spearheaded by Poynter. Kevin O’Brien departed for 44 before Andrew White joined Poynter to add a quick 73 in 12 overs. Johnston then made a cameo unbeaten 42 off 28 balls to lift the score to 237. Hamid Hassan, who claimed the wicket of Poynter for 78, took 3 for 53.Scotland and rain were the victors in Amstelveen as Canada fell short by 69 runs by the Duckworth-Lewis Method. Chasing 237, the Canada batsmen weren’t quite up to the mark, losing wickets at regular intervals and by the time rain forced a long interruption, they were well behind the par score.The win was set up by half-centuries by Richie Berrington and Neil McCallum, who became Scotland’s most-capped player. Umar Bhatti bowled a tight spell of 2 for 29 in ten overs to keep the top order in check before Berrington and McCallum took the initiative away. The pair added 124 for the third wicket before Rizwan Cheema bowled Berrington for 67. McCallum remained unbeaten on 89, hitting seven fours and four sixes.Early strikes by the Scotland seamers put Canada on the back foot when they began their chase. Rain intervened after ten overs with Canada 49 for 2. They stumbled further on resumption as the seamer Gordon Goudie removed Hiral Patel and Geoff Barnett in one over. When rain intervened for the second time, after 21 overs, Canada were in deep trouble at 79 for 6. They were already 80 behind the par score and Scotland had all but sealed the game. Just when it seemed as if the umpires would call it off and award the victory to Scotland, the rain stopped and the covers were off. The match was reduced to a 26-over contest and the target revised to 196. Canada had just five overs in which to get an improbable 117 and the lower order, led by Calvert Hooper did the best they could to narrow the deficit.On his record, McCallum said: “I don’t play for records and I wasn’t aware of it until I was told after I batted. If you play for any length of time then those things will follow and it’s gratifying. But the main thing is that the team is playing well.”On the match, he added: “We knew Canada would be a difficult game and by deciding to bat first we knew we had to give ourselves a chance by getting a total to defend. Myself and Richie Berrington managed to put a partnership together. In the dressing room we always talk about getting 100-plus stands and it was good that we did just that.”It was a totally different surface from the one we played against the Dutch on Thursday. We knew it wouldn’t be easy up front but we still opted to try and put a total on the board and all the batsmen did well in tough conditions. The top order had to work so hard to take the shine off the ball and keep wickets intact and Richie and I took advantage when the hardness went off the ball.”Scotland take on Ireland on Monday. “We’re very pleased with the way things are going at the moment. We took a lot of confidence from the way we played against India A last week and although the Dutch game on Thursday could have gone either way we’ll take that win, and this performance against Canada sets us up nicely for our match with Ireland,” McCallum said. “It’s a cliche but we’ve not looked beyond this match at this stage. We’ll just take each game as it comes, do the basics well if we can, and if we can do that then the rest should take care of itself.”

Ben Wright recorded a career-best 172 and James Allenby scored his first century for Glamorgan as the Welsh county put themselves in a strong position

19-May-2010
Scorecard
Ben Wright recorded a career-best 172 and James Allenby scored his first century for Glamorgan as the Welsh county put themselves in a strong position against Gloucestershire going into the final day at Cardiff. Responding to the visitors’ 417 all out Glamorgan amassed 583 for 9 before declaring – giving them a first-innings lead of 166.And Gloucestershire then finished day three on 12 for 1 with Dean Cosker
getting a vital breakthrough bowling Chris Dent with the final ball of the
evening session.Glamorgan were indebted to Wright, who scored the second century of his career. He dominated the fourth-wicket partnership of 157 with Michael Powell, who was only able to contribute 37. After Wright went, Jim Allenby and veteran Robert Croft shared a record seventh-wicket stand for Glamorgan against Gloucestershire of 153 in 39 overs.After a 30-minute delay to the third day because of rain Wright built on his fine overnight platform of 77 not out, reaching his second century in 140 balls with 14 fours and a six before overtaking his career-best 108 against Leicestershire in 2007. That was after Glamorgan had resumed the day on 257 for 3 – 160 behind Gloucestershire.But he was not content with just a century as he hit Vikram Banerjee and Gemaal Hussain for sixes into the grandstand racing to 150 with the final ball before lunch – his third 50 coming up in only 49 balls.The Gloucestershire bowlers did not have much to smile about until James
Franklin bowled Powell with a ball which kept a little low, and Wright was in sight of becoming Glamorgan’s first double-centurion since July 2006 when he edged a lifter from Jon Lewis. His impressive innings came to an end having faced 219 balls with 23 fours and three sixes.After Mark Wallace went for a duck caught at third slip off Anthony Ireland it was left to Allenby and Croft to take Glamorgan to maximum batting points and then take them past Gloucestershire. Croft produced a wonderful cover drive to take Glamorgan into the lead before Allenby secured his sixth 50 in six championship games this season. He reached the landmark from 78 balls, and his fifty included six boundaries.After going to tea at 478 for six, a lead of 61, Croft went to a 104-ball half-century, and after he was out, Allenby reached his first Glamorgan century from 157 balls with eight fours and a six. Allenby faced another 10 balls before he holed out to deep backward square off Ireland, who was the pick of the bowlers with 5 for 114, in the pursuit of quick runs.

His comments come at a time when there are still doubts over his availability for IPL 2025

Sruthi Ravindranath27-Oct-20249:15

Will CSK retain Dhoni as uncapped player? What about Jadeja and Dube?

MS Dhoni has said he wants to enjoy “whatever last few years of cricket” he can play. While there are still doubts over his availability for IPL 2025, Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan said last week he was hopeful that Dhoni will be part of the upcoming season.”I just want to enjoy whatever last few years of cricket I’m able to play,” Dhoni said at a promotional event in Goa. “Like how during our childhood we used to go out and play at 4[pm], just enjoying the game. But when you play professional sport it becomes difficult to enjoy the game just like a game. So what I want to do is, there are emotions and commitments, but I want to enjoy the game for the next few years.”October 31 is the deadline by which the ten franchises have to submit their list of retained players to the IPL ahead of the mega auction, and this year Dhoni is eligible to be retained by CSK as an uncapped player. That was made possible after the IPL brought back a rule that had been scrapped in 2021, according to which a player can be considered as uncapped if they have been retired from international cricket for five years.Related

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Dhoni had batted lower down the order throughout IPL 2024, coming out to face only a handful of deliveries. While workload management owing to his knee surgery was one of the reasons for the move, Dhoni also revealed that it was to give game-time to India players who were then in the fray for the T20 World Cup.”My thinking was simple, if others are doing their job well why do I need to come up the order,” Dhoni said. “If you’re talking about last year (season) specifically, the T20 World Cup squad was going to be announced soon. So we have to give people who are fighting for a spot a chance. In our team (CSK) we had a few, [Ravindra] Jadeja was there, Shivam Dube was there so you give them an opportunity to prove themselves to get into the Indian team. There was nothing in it for me, no selection and other things. So I’m good behind [playing down the order] and my team was happy with what I was doing.”

Dhoni: ‘Love how teams are playing Tests now’

Dhoni admitted he’s a fan of Bazball. He said he “loves” how Test cricket has become more result-oriented when asked if he was a fan of this high-risk, no-fear brand of cricket.”You can give cricket any term that you want to, what we have seen is cricket has evolved,” Dhoni said. “The way people are playing cricket is very different. There was a time when in ODIs something was considered a safe score, now that score is not safe in T20s too.Will Dhoni return for another season?•AFP/Getty Images

“You give something a term, it becomes much more interesting because you start talking about it, you start relating to it but at the end of the day what is it? It’s a way to play cricket. Some people want to play aggressive cricket, some people want to play authentic cricket. A lot of that depends on the kind of team you have got – whether they can change the way they play that cricket. What is important is to realise the strength of your team and according to the strength of the team you decide which is the way you want to play cricket but it takes time. It doesn’t happen that overnight you say, ‘let’s start playing like this tomorrow’. You need to give time to individuals because they have played maybe 10-12-15 years of cricket and they have a certain way of playing cricket, so you need to give them that time to change.”Dhoni said there were a few “difficult” days back when he was playing Tests especially when he knew the match was heading towards a draw.”For me, the most difficult time during a Test match was the fifth day of a match which is the last day when you knew that 100% it is going to be a draw,” he said. “I would still need to keep for nearly 2.5 sessions and that was the most tiring part. You see there is no result happening, you are just going through the motions. Yes, bowlers would like to take wickets, batters will try to score runs, [but] there is no result in the game. You think let’s finish this and go, why do I have to be here. So I love the fact there’s change in the way teams are playing Test cricket.”Imagine telling someone who doesn’t know much cricket we play over five days and we start at 9.30 and 4.30 is the scheduled end of play, we play till 5[pm] sometimes, and after five days we don’t get a result. That’s not nice for the game. So I love how there’s more results in today’s world. Even if we are playing only four days of cricket and one day gets washed out, still you get a result – that’s the beauty of Test cricket and that’s how it should stay – you want to get a result after five days and you shouldn’t have a draw.”

Visiting attack run riot on green Oval surface to set up victory with 34.1 overs unused

ECB Reporters Network28-Jul-2024Glamorgan thumped Surrey by seven wickets in their Metro Bank One-Day Cup group B match at the Kia Oval after bowling them out for 121 in 34 overs.It then took the Welsh county only 15.5 overs to knock off the runs, with Colin Ingram launching one magnificent six over long-off from down the pitch against fast bowler James Taylor as he ended up on 39 not out from 26 balls in their 123 for 3.Opener Eddie Byrom, who took a six and a four from Matt Dunn’s first over, also made a quickfire 28 before being caught at midwicket off Conor McKerr.Only Ben Foakes, with 44, and tailender McKerr (25) made significant scores for Surrey, who have now lost both of their first two One-Day Cup games. Glamorgan, by contrast, have begun the competition with two wins.Surrey, put in on a well-grassed surface, were soon 11 for 3 as Glamorgan’s new ball bowlers, Jamie McIlroy and Timm van der Gugten, found significant help from the pitch.Ryan Patel managed one scoring shot, an inside edge for four off McIlroy, before hitting van der Gugten to Kiran Carlson in the covers.Ben Geddes fell first ball, cutting McIlroy to point, and Dom Sibley had made just 6 when McIlroy nipped one away off the seam to have the former England Test opener caught at slip.