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Litton, who missed the start of the Asia Cup with an illness, linked up with the team in Lahore a couple of days ago

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2023A hamstring injury has ruled Bangladesh batter Najmul Hossain Shanto out of the rest of the Asia Cup.The BCB said that Shanto would be brought back home to begin his rehabilitation, with an eye on getting him fit in time for the ODI World Cup, which starts October 5. He will be replaced by Litton Das, who was omitted from the original squad following a bout of ill health, had flown into Lahore on Tuesday morning to join the team.Bangladesh team physio Bayjedul Islam Khan said that Shanto picked up the injury during his century against Afghanistan earlier this week – he did appear to be struggling in the latter part of his innings. Shanto continued to bat until he got out for 104, but didn’t come out to field during the Afghanistan innings.”The player had complained of hamstring pain during batting and could not field. We had an MRI scan done confirming a muscle tear,” the physio said in a statement. “As a precaution, Shanto will not take any further part in the tournament and will be returning home to start rehab and prepare for the World Cup.”Shanto is the Asia Cup’s leading run-scorer at this stage, having made 89 in the first game against Sri Lanka before the century against Afghanistan, totalling 193 runs.Litton is likely to open the innings, and that might force Bangladesh to tweak their batting order, since they have so far opened with Mohammad Naim and one of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Tanzid Hasan, and Shanto had batted at No. 3, his usual position, against Sri Lanka and No. 4 against Afghanistan.

ESPNcricinfo experts Sanjay Manjrekar and Piyush Chawla suggest “reviewable” lbw calls against CSK an example of below-par umpiring in the IPL

Karthik Krishnaswamy12-May-20222:49

Piyush Chawla on Conway lbw: ‘Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t’

Match 59 of IPL 2022 got off to an unusual start, with a power outage at the Wankhede Stadium leading to the unavailability of the Decision Review System for the first two overs. And it took only two balls for the lack of DRS to make an impact on the game, with Chennai Super Kings opener Devon Conway unable to call for a review after being given out lbw off Mumbai Indians left-arm seamer Daniel Sams.Replays suggested that the ball, angling into the left-hander and nipping in further, would have missed leg stump, but there was no way to re-assess umpire C Ravikanthreddy’s decision.Related

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The next over, from Jasprit Bumrah, brought Mumbai another lbw decision in their favour, with Robin Uthappa playing around a good-length ball that straightened on him. Replays suggested this decision, from Chris Gaffaney, may have been a 50-50 call, with the ball straightening to strike Uthappa’s back pad, which was on the move, roughly in line with off stump. There was no way for Uthappa to call on DRS to examine whether the ball struck him in line with the stumps or not, and whether ball-tracking’s projection would have shown the ball to be hitting off stump or not.At the end of the match, which his team lost by five wickets after being bowled out for 97, Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming was philosophical about being on the wrong end of the no-DRS situation.”It was a little bit unlucky that it happened at that time,” Fleming said. “We were a little disappointed, but that’s still part of the game, isn’t it? It sort of set off a chain of events that were not in our favour, but we should be better that than [being bowled out for 97]. It certainly wasn’t a great start.”ESPNcricinfo experts Piyush Chawla and Sanjay Manjrekar, however, suggested that the decision against Conway was just the latest instance of below-par umpiring in the IPL.”It didn’t look out at first go, because the way the ball moved, at the point of impact, it looked like the ball was still doing a bit, so definitely looked like it was going to miss the leg stump, but DRS was not available,” Chawla said on the analysis show . “We have seen some very ordinary umpiring this season, so that was one of the decisions [of that kind] as well.”Manjrekar felt both decisions had been “reviewable”, and that Super Kings’ inability to use DRS during that two-over window had tilted the game in the favour of Mumbai’s fast bowlers, in conditions where they were already thriving.”We talk about the white ball just moving for 2-3 overs and then suddenly stops moving. That is the talk at the international level. They keep wondering why that happens,” he said. “Today, I saw in the seventh and eighth over, Riley Meredith bowling proper outswingers. It was great to see Bumrah come and bowl two early overs with the new ball, and we saw swing from Bumrah, the outswing to Uthappa, and that was too high-quality for Uthappa to handle.”So ball swinging, good bowling at the top, helped by some glitch in technology because there were two decisions there, Uthappa’s and Conway’s, that I would call reviewable.”The quality of umpiring from the local officials this season, Manjrekar felt, had been particularly concerning.”Because there is now a problem getting all the quality foreign umpires from all over the world here, with the Covid situation and everything, you have to make do with a lot of local umpires,” he said. “The DRS was down for 10 minutes, and disaster happened.”It pains me when those kind of decisions happen. I saw one earlier as well, when a ball that pitched outside leg stump, about four or six inches, and those are given out, so that is [disappointing].”He did add, however, that the same situation could have benefited the team on another day. “It could have been the other way round as well. Some obvious decision would have been given not out, and then Mumbai Indians would not have had the chance to review that.”

“We landed here, we saw the security that was going on and everyone became calmer”

Firdose Moonda18-Jan-2021″Those sharks are everywhere at the moment.”Quinton de Kock was not talking about the security arrangements or the lurking spin threat from a Pakistan squad that has been bulked up with slower bowlers, but about a real life shark. That he caught.De Kock spent a significant part of the 10 days between the end of the Sri Lanka series and South Africa’s trip to Pakistan fishing. Or is it sharking? And found that ragged-tooth sharks are plentiful and “pretty simple to catch.” His mind may have been wandering to fun in the great outdoors because currently he is both locked down in a bio-bubble and heavy security in Karachi.Related

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Like the rest of the touring party, de Kock has been allowed out only to train so he hasn’t seen much of the country that South Africa last visited 14 years ago.”We are across the road from the training facilities and we are only allowed in our rooms and the team room,” de Kock said when asked what he thought of Pakistan so far. “But the rooms look quite nice, at least. It’s not easy, from an emotional side and a mental side [to be isolated]. You are trying to keep yourself mentally stable and perform for your country.”But even if there was no Covid-19, tours to Pakistan would remain strictly controlled, as the country is still considered a high-risk place from a security perspective (though not as high risk as before, given so many teams and players have toured in the past few years). It was that, and not global lockdown, that was top of South Africa’s mind according to de Kock when they made their way to Pakistan, on a charter plane after the last-minute cancellation of all Emirates flights into and out of South Africa until January 28.”When we were coming here, security was a concern, if not the biggest concern,” de Kock said. “And then we landed here, we saw the security that was going on and everyone became calmer. Over the days, it’s become less worrying. We have been able to focus more on cricket. On the plane, people spoke about, ‘what about this and what about that?’ But we when we landed here we saw the amount of security – it’s something to be seen. They’ve taken so many measures, we can actually feel comfortable and focus on the cricket and not worry at all.”South Africa are being afforded a state security presence, with Tabraiz Shamsi posting images of armed guards escorting the team from the airport to their base. They will receive similar treatment when traveling to the match venue and between cities.Only one member of the squad, Faf du Plessis, has played in Pakistan and that was briefly for the World XI and in the PSL, and in white-ball cricket. No-one knows what to expect from conditions except that “spin and reverse swing plays a big part,” and the home side will want to use conditions to their advantage. “When we’ve played on Asian pitches in the past, I think they target this team specifically and they prepare dustbowls,” de Kock said.Although coach Mark Boucher previously indicated that pitches in Pakistan don’t take as much turn as their Indian and Sri Lankan counterparts, the hosts’ squad, which includes left-arm spinners Nauman Ali and Mohammed Nawaz and offspinner Sajid Khan, in addition to legspinner Yasir Shah may indicate otherwise. “Those selections say a lot about where they want to go and how they want to prepare these wickets,” de Kock said.South Africa will have to figure out how to deal with those bowlers without their long-serving analyst, Prasanna Agoram, whose contract has not been renewed. Agoram worked with the team for 11 years and his departure only came to de Kock’s attention “late last night.” De Kock was among several players who expressed the magnitude of Agoram’s absence. “A lot of guys took a lot of value from him and used him when it comes to analysis. It’s a tough thing to see him leave. Ever since I started here, he was here. It’s going to be tough to see him go but that’s the nature of the beast at the moment,” de Kock said.Training is just about all South Africa’s players can do for the next few months as they move from a bubble in Pakistan to a similar environment at home against Australia, where they will remain to host Pakistan to end the summer. It allows them to keep doing their jobs, though de Kock continues to caution that it won’t be easy.”You carry on because people want to watch good cricket and watch you perform. That’s something that keeps you motivated,” de Kock said. “But I’ve only been home for three weeks, if that, over the last five or six months. It’s been tough but I’m soldiering on.” With thoughts of fishing as far from his mind as he can get them, perhaps.

All the analysis, stats, news and reaction from the third round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy

Sruthi Ravindranath28-Sep-2019

The ground will host the first Test between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe later this year, from November 3 to 7

Mohammad Isam28-Jul-2018Sylhet is set to become Bangladesh’s eighth Test venue. The BCB has announced that the north-eastern city will host the first Test of the Bangladesh-Zimbabwe series later this year, from November 3 to 7. It will also host its first ODI, between Bangladesh and West Indies, on December 14.The venue so far has staged seven T20I games, six of them during the 2014 World T20, and one in February this year between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Zimbabwe, whose tour had to be rescheduled due to the BCB’s plan to shift the Bangladesh Premier League from October to January, will play the second Test at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.Zimbabwe will arrive in Dhaka on October 16, and start the tour with a 50-overs practice match at the BKSP ground in Savar on October 19. The three-match ODI series begins on October 21 in Dhaka, before the two sides move to Chittagong for the second and third ODIs on October 24 and 26.Zimbabwe will play a three-day practice match in Chittagong from October 29 to 31, before going to Sylhet for the first Test, which begins on November 3. The second Test will be held from November 11 to 15.

Simon Harmer claimed his career-best figures of 8 for 36, and 14 for 128 in the match. For Warwickshire, dismissed for 94, it added up to a whole lot of trouble

David Hopps at Chelmsford22-Jun-2017
ScorecardSimon Harmer did the hard yards on the third day. On the fourth, gifts were bestowed upon him. For Harmer, it all added up to his career-best figures of 8 for 36, and 14 for 128 in the match. For Warwickshire, dismissed for 94, it added up to a whole lot of trouble.While Essex strengthened their hold at the top of Division One, Warwickshire are marooned with Somerset at the bottom, 40 points away from safety. Defeat by an innings and 164 runs underlined the extent of their challenge and, soon after the finish, their coaching team were huddled in earnest conversation.As Harmer took the last wicket, in a hospitality box overlooking the ground Mohammad Amir confidently predicted that he could help Essex win the Championship. Neil Wagner departed with a magnum of champagne and public thanks during a lunchtime celebration – a sign that Essex are doing the small things well – and, in Amir, they have quite a replacement.Ryan ten Doeschate, Essex’s captain, was delighted with his side’s response so soon after their last-over defeat in the Royal London Cup semi-final against Nottinghamshire. “Obviously Friday’s defeat was massively disappointing, but it was up to us to bounce back and the Championship is vitally important,” he said.Bouncebackability owed much to Essex’s first-innings batting, but it was ultimately down to Harmer. A switch of ends, a decision made late in Warwickshire’s first innings, and a harder ball, both contributed to faster turn than he had achieved the previous day and Warwickshire succumbed shortly after lunch.”We didn’t think the wicket was going to turn all that much, hence we only played one spinner,” said ten Doeschate. “Harmi is a turning spinner and there is not much more you can say about 14 wickets in the match. It was great for Harmi – he has predominantly done the holding job for the first six games of the year so to be able to fulfil that attacking role is a feather in his cap.””The English summer has arrived,” said Harmer with a smile. Hmm, perhaps somebody should have a word and warn him that it is an itinerant beast.Harmer had put in a 39-over shift on the third day, the bulk of it to take 6 for 92 in the first innings, but there were immediate indications that he had managed to fall out of bed in decent order as he took up a central place in Essex’s attack.By the time he came on for the ninth over of the day, Essex’s pace attack, encouraged by dark, thundery skies, had already struck. Ian Bell, a Warwickshire captain who must find a way out of a calamitous season, fell to an excellent diving catch by wicketkeeper James Foster after nicking a good ball from Wagner, which bounced a shade from a demanding line. There was no shame in that dismissal, although Bell had also edged just short of first slip earlier in the over.Harmer needed just six deliveries to start adding to his tally, Andrew Umeed edging onto the back foot and falling lbw. In his next over, Sam Hain tried to bale out of what seemed to be a pre-meditated sweep, got in a tangle, and squirted a catch off one knee to ten Doeschate at short leg.For the second time in the match, Rikki Clarke eschewed his attacking inclinations and concentrated largely on survival. The lbw decision against him that Harmer won was bound to get a few replays in the Warwickshire dressing room. Clarke shouldered arms to a good-length ball that pitched well outside off stump and was adjudged lbw. With his departure, Warwickshire’s last chance had gone and Tim Ambrose cast his bat aside in frustration.Next ball, Keith Barker tried to paddle the delivery away, got a top edge and was caught behind by Foster. Jeetan Patel, whose leg-side assault had damaged Harmer’s figures in the first innings, fell lbw. By lunch, Harmer’s morning’s work amounted to 5 for 31 off 15 overs.The lunch interval was delayed by 15 minutes, without success, to try to complete the match, but Warwickshire’s last two wickets did not delay overlong thereafter. Boyd Rankin was lbw to surely the slowest, loopiest full toss that Harmer has ever bowled, leaving Sunny Singh to push a turning delivery to first slip in the next over.So the pitch upon which Essex suffered a heartbreaking 50-over defeat had provided consolation by wearing sufficiently quickly for Harmer’s benefit. Patel, a fellow offspinner, and a fine one at that, will rue the fact that Warwickshire lost the toss and imagine that he might also have felt the benefit.But luck rarely runs with a side at the bottom of the table. It is Essex who have become the story of the summer. Their top six has been sheltered from the storm by Alastair Cook and will soon have to prove its mettle without him. Harmer is the signing of the summer and the combative qualities of Wagner are about to give way to the sheen of Amir. And a clutch of promising young pace bowlers are a reminder that Essex remain committed to unearthing their own.Chris Silverwood, a coach with a rising reputation, was absent from the final day because he was feeling unwell, but there was much good news to aid his recovery.

The Mumbai Cricket Association and Maharashtra Cricket Association have moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order that ruled that May’s IPL matches be moved out of Maharashtra

Arun Venugopal22-Apr-2016The Mumbai Cricket Association and Maharashtra Cricket Association have moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order that ruled that all IPL 2016 matches scheduled to be played in Maharashtra in May should be moved out.The Mumbai Cricket Association’s plea, according to PTI, was put before a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh, who listed the matter for hearing on April 25. The association said in its plea it will not use potable water for the pitches but treated sewage water instead.”Both of us [the MCA and the Maharashtra Cricket Association] have filed separate petitions. [Our contention] is that there is loss of revenue and diminishing of job opportunities,” MCA joint-secretary Unmesh Khanvilkar told ESPNcricinfo. “We are challenging it on that [ground] only because we are ready to use [treated] sewage water for the matches. Even without the IPL, we use the water to maintain the grass.”

PIL against IPL games in Jaipur

The Rajasthan High Court, according to reports, asked the state government on Thursday why IPL 2016 matches should be held in the state where the water situation is worse than in Maharashtra. The query was put forward after a PIL questioning the decision to shift IPL matches into the state was filed a day earlier. The state government has to reply by April 27.
The court also issued notices to the Rajasthan Cricket Association and the state’s Public Health Engineering Department. According to ANI, there have been protests in Jaipur against the matches being moved into the city.
Mumbai Indians had opted for Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium as their alternative home venue, after the Bombay High Court ruling that matches be moved out of Maharashtra. Rising Pune Supergiants, the other franchise based in Maharashtra, had listed Visakhapatnam as their alternative venue.

Khanvilkar said that while they haven’t used treated sewage water in the past, they have started doing so for a month now. According to the , senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Mumbai Cricket Assocation, told the apex court that the association is not against the suffering people of Marathwada who are reeling under drought.The Bombay High Court’s ruling had come after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) questioned the hosting of IPL matches in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur while severe drought persisted in Maharashtra. The court had sought an explanation from the BCCI and the state associations on why water should be “wasted” on hosting the games when the state faced one of its worst ever droughts, before delivering a ruling that originally affected 13 matches, including the final which was to be held in Mumbai on May 29.But the court later granted permission to conduct the match between Rising Pune Supergiants and Mumbai Indians in Pune on May 1, after the BCCI had sought permission for the same citing logistical difficulties due to a short turnaround time from the match between Supergiants and Gujarat Lions on April 29 at the same venue. So, eventually, Pune will miss out on five matches, including the Eliminator and the second Qualifier, while no games will be held in Nagpur.

On the same day that Bangladesh saved their run-fest Test against Pakistan, the other international taking place followed a very different path as 18 wickets tumbled on the second day in Barbados – the most ever to fall in a day at the famous venue

The Report by Andrew McGlashan02-May-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:24

Dobell: Ridiculous day leaves Test delicately poised

On the same day that Bangladesh saved their run-fest Test against Pakistan, the other international taking place followed a very different path as 18 wickets tumbled in Barbados – the most ever to fall in a day’s Test cricket in the Caribbean. James Anderson took 6 for 42, earning England a first-innings lead of 68, but they stumbled badly in their second innings as they were left tottering on 39 for 5, the advantage extended to 107 on a surface where every run was at a premium.West Indies were superb in the final period of the day: the five bowlers used conceded just four boundaries in 21 overs. Jerome Taylor, who set the tone with three morning wickets to end England’s first innings, again found the fast, full swing which can make him so dangerous, Shannon Gabriel pushed 93mph and Veerasammy Permaul probed out of the rough.Amid the many subplots to the day there was the likely last innings of Jonathan Trott’s Test career as he failed for a second time, completing a poor series where he has made double figures just once, when he was lbw to Taylor. His Warwickshire colleague Ian Bell completed the second pair of his Test career when he went the same way. Bell’s previous pair was ten years ago, in a certain Test at The Oval.Meanwhile, Alastair Cook could not build on his cathartic hundred when he edged Gabriel to slip and Joe Root was also caught in the cordon, driving at Jason Holder. It is fair to say the quality of batting throughout the day was not the highest, but there was some impressive pace bowling (England’s spin less so) and, above all, it made for thoroughly entertaining cricket – a value that should not be underestimated.Extraordinarily, when Moeen Ali dragged on a ball from Permaul which skidded low out of the footmarks in the penultimate over, West Indies could be considered to have evened the ledger for the day. If England find another 100 runs from the last five wickets chasing 200 will pose tough questions, but they will take some gouging out on the third – and probably last – day.It is worth a reminder that England resumed on 240 for 7, but they could only add another 17 runs and in all the last six wickets fell for 68, although when West Indies slipped to 21 for 3 in the face of Anderson’s opening burst that became more than competitive. Anderson picked up where he had left off on the final day in Grenada; his first spell was a classy 6-4-4-3 and after tea another three-wicket burst wrapped up West Indies’ innings and pushed Anderson closer to his next milestone: 400 wickets.West Indies would have been further adrift on first innings had it not been for Jermaine Blackwood’s punchy 88-ball 85. It has been a mixed series for him, a maiden hundred interspersed with some reckless shots, but these were priceless runs made in a wonderfully free spirit – including three sixes, the best a straight drive off Ben Stokes – having walked in with his team a mess at 37 for 4. He was the last-man out, lofting to long-off, to give Anderson his sixth wicket.Blackwood and Shivnarine Chanderpaul hinted at a fightback after Anderson’s first spell, but the latter fell to another stunning slip catch by Chris Jordan, then Stokes and Stuart Broad made good use of a ball that started to reverse to further work through the middle order.Jerome Taylor spearheaded West Indies’ fightback in the final session on a bowler-dominated day•Getty Images

Any disappointment England felt after a poor early morning was soon evaporating as Anderson quickly found his groove – fittingly from the Malcolm Marshall End. The removal of the openers was skilful, but the stand-out wicket was that of Marlon Samuels who was dissected with the precision of a surgeon in a series of deliveries that should be shown to any aspiring swing bowler. It was the fast-bowling version of what Shane Warne used to do to batsmen.Samuels was keen to counterattack, but Anderson had the ball on a string: five outswingers, of varying width outside off, one which beat the edge, were followed by an inswinger which Samuels did not spot, at least until he was beyond the point of no return as he padded up. For some reason, that only the batsman will know, he used up a review – which confirmed middle stump was the destination. The same could be said of Bell later in the day.The way Anderson worked over an experienced player highlighted how the inexperienced openers – including one on debut – need feel no shame in their troubles against him. Anderson continued his hold over Kraigg Braithwaite, with a perfect full outswinger second ball which was edged to third slip, then in his third over he ended Shai Hope’s first Test innings when the 21-year-old nicked very low to first slip.Cook, who moments earlier had dropped a chest-high chance to give Darren Bravo a life on 0 off Broad, was confident he had claimed the catch but as so often it went upstairs. Cook, himself, had benefited from third-umpire uncertainty when he nudged to short leg on 22 yesterday but this time the catch was given. The difference between the two, it emerged, was the emphasis of the on-field umpire when asking for the TV: in the case of Cook’s catch they were confident it had been taken, whereas in the case of yesterday’s they believed it was not out.The chance Cook shelled did not prove costly as in the first over after lunch Bravo fiddled outside off at a delivery which spun from Moeen but could have been left, presenting a comfortable catch to Jordan at slip. Better was to come later from Jordan. But Moeen then began to struggle with his length, dragging the ball down as he tried to hit the pitch hard, and was taken for 26 off two overs largely by Blackwood who latched on with the pull.Root replaced Moeen and his golden arm came to the fore again, although as in Antigua it owned everything to Jordan’s reflexes at slip. Chanderpaul was playing off the back foot, Jordan was anticipating any potential edge would go wider then sprang back to his left to pluck off another eye-popping catch. It will, perhaps, go unnoticed but Jordan had also helped reassert England’s control with a six-over spell which cost just four runs.England’s quicks kept the ball full, a tactic that paid dividends for Broad when he found the edge of Denesh Ramdin and then for Stokes, in his first over, when a delivery tailed away from Holder to give Jos Buttler a second catch. After tea, it was clear that attack, led by Blackwood, was West Indies’ preferred mode and it made for exciting viewing as they added 50 in 40 balls.Moeen continued to struggle for the right length, leaving Anderson to carry the burden. Permaul was well held at short leg by the substitute, Adam Lyth, who was on for Gary Ballance – a victim of a short ball from Root that was cracked into his wrist. Taylor drove Anderson effortlessly over long-on for six before being bowled off his pad in the same over to complete Anderson’s 17th five-wicket haul. Would that be followed by England steadily building on the lead? Nothing of the sort.

Australia selector John Inverarity opened the possibility of Shane Watson following Jacques Kallis by moving further down the order to No. 4 in future

Daniel Brettig16-Oct-2012As Cricket Australia mounted a vigorous defence of Shane Watson’s early departure from the Twenty20 Champions League, the national selector John Inverarity opened the possibility of the allrounder following Jacques Kallis by moving further down the order to No. 4 in future.Watson has often felt embarrassed by comparisons with Kallis, his modesty well founded given the vast difference between their respective Test batting averages (37.54 to 56.94) and tally of centuries (2 versus 43). Nevertheless, Watson at his best offers a similarly compelling combination of robust top-order batting and muscular bowling, and Inverarity said the example of Kallis dropping from Nos. 3 to 4 for reasons of longevity was an instructive one.He suggested Watson may be set for a similar move whenever one of Michael Hussey or Ricky Ponting retires, as they must at some point not too far distant. “Watson at No. 3, could be a No. 4…” Inverarity said. “If Michael Hussey or Ricky Ponting retired, and if we included Phil Hughes, then it could be Hughes at three and Watson at four. That’s feasible. Mickey [Arthur] often talks about Kallis, and a very good position for Kallis is bowling and batting at No. 4. I just think Watson’s flexible.”The Sydney Sixers general manager, Stuart Clark, has expressed irritation at plans to bring Watson home from the CLT20, particularly their seemingly hurried nature. CA’s team performance manager, Pat Howard, said while the call was recent, the option had been flagged some months earlier, and was a simple case of prioritising Test matches and not allowing last summer’s events repeat themselves.”He’s right, the final decision wasn’t made until recently,” Howard said. “This is a very big series against South Africa – Shane is an important cog for the national selection panel to have consideration of and the reality is you can’t play all the games in all the tournaments, all the time.”The fact that he’s an allrounder makes him a pretty unique proposition. We’re trying to avoid the same mistakes that we made 12 months ago. Stuart and I have been talking, and it has been reasonable. Outside the limelight it has been a fairly cordial conversation. I know this debate could keep going on but the reality is we’ve made a decision in the best interests of Australian cricket and in the best interests of Shane Watson.”Australia’s increasingly directed and cohesive management of players has reflected the growth of thinking among its decision-makers that fresh, intermittently rested players are going to produce far better results than those forced to traipse around on the constant merry-go-round of international cricket.Inverarity, the sage voice of more than 50 years’ experience in the game, said keeping players on the park for every match was no longer an option. He raised the example of Mitchell Starc as proof of how the judicious management of a player’s workload could result not only in keeping him fit but also allowing his skills to develop.”Rotation is not a dirty word, rotation is reality,” he said. “The cold, hard facts are a cricketer can’t just play every game, and last and perform at his best. And in the interests of developing some depth and creating opportunities for players, I think just phasing a few in and out is the best way to go.”Mitchell Starc played in the first two Tests against New Zealand, then we kept him around the group for the first two Tests against India. We then played four quicks in Perth and he was the fourth; he didn’t play in Adelaide. He came into the one-day series, we took him to the West Indies in a sort of development role. We had a couple of injuries and he came in for the last Test there.”Then he went to Yorkshire and learnt to bowl in England. I think the planning with Mitchell Starc over the last 12 months has been pretty good. You saw how well he bowled first in the UAE and then Sri Lanka. He has been the beneficiary of the amount that he has bowled and the circumstances in which he has bowled, and being kept close to the team.”

Tendulkar, who has 51 centuries in Tests and 48 in ODIs, claimed the landmark of 100 international tons wasn’t preoccupying his build-up to the game

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2011Sachin Tendulkar is one century away from reaching 100 international tons and has an opportunity to achieve that on a historic occasion at Lord’s, where India and England will play the 2000th Test later this month. Tendulkar, who has 51 centuries in Tests and 48 in ODIs, however, said the landmark wasn’t preoccupying his build-up to the game.”I am not thinking of records,” Tendulkar told the . “I am just thinking of enjoying this tour. The secret to any performance is not in chasing records. I think about, ‘What is the best way to enjoy the game, and how can I enhance that enjoyment factor?'”If I enhance the enjoyment then, naturally, the standard of play becomes higher. To me, that is more important. If I am playing well, things can happen. I don’t need to go around chasing them. It is a process. You construct a solid foundation and build on it.”Tendulkar opted out of India’s tour of the West Indies, where they won the ODI series 3-2 and the Tests 1-0. It was India’s first international assignment after their World Cup win, of which Tendulkar was an integral part. “I was extremely delighted. It was something I had always dreamt about,” Tendulkar said of India’s triumph in his sixth World Cup. “You start playing cricket, and one day you walk away as part of a world champion team.”I took up playing serious cricket because in 1983, we won the World Cup, and that was a big turning point in terms of considering cricket a full-time profession. That moment was a decisive one. I felt, ‘I want to play for India one day’. It was a huge boost. From then I started working hard.”When asked of his plans for the future, Tendulkar said it was important he left behind a good legacy whenever he chose to leave the game. “For me, it’s not about breaking records or creating new ones. It’s about adding value to my team. Records will be set by me, they might be broken by someone else.”They’re not going to stay permanently. But the impression that I leave on people will last forever, I feel. The impression that I leave behind – to me that is important. If I can motivate the next young cricketers, that will be a big contribution.”