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The PCB chairman remains steadfast about hosting the entire tournament in Pakistan

Nagraj Gollapudi26-Nov-2024The ICC has called for a board meeting on November 29, hoping to get a clear answer on where and how the 2025 Champions Trophy will be played. With India not willing to travel to Pakistan and with Pakistan refusing to back down and adopt a hybrid model that allows India to play their games in a second country, it is likely members will be asked to vote on a solution. ESPNcricinfo understands the meeting will be virtual and a final decision could be taken after the ICC Board arrives at a consensus.While the window for the eight-team ODI tournament has been earmarked between February 19 and March, the ICC has not announced the dates as well or a schedule formally. Normally, for a global tournament, the ICC has in the past announced the schedule 100 days prior to the event.The reason for the delay is the Indian government’s refusal to allow Rohit Sharma’s team the permission to travel to Pakistan. That decision was communicated to the ICC a fortnight ago. The PCB, who were awarded the hosting rights for Champions Trophy in 2021, subsequently wrote to the ICC posing several questions around the exact reasons BCCI had given, and when they informed the ICC. According to a PCB official, they have not received a response from the ICC to date.The PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi has remained steadfast about hosting the entire tournament in Pakistan, at three venues: Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi. Last week he said he would be open to a dialogue with the BCCI to break the deadlock. An ICC spokesperson confirmed Friday’s meeting, but the PCB has made no comment so far.Related

• Champions Trophy: PCB promises to do 'what's best for Pakistan cricket'

• India withdraw from T20 Blind Cricket World Cup in Pakistan

• Hybrid model for Champions Trophy? ICC likely to take call on November 26

• PCB chief on Champions Trophy: 'I still have positive expectations'

The ICC Board comprises representatives from the 12 Full Member countries, three representatives from Associates, an independent director along with the ICC chairman and CEO. The meeting comes right at the end of the tenure of the current ICC chair Greg Barclay. This will be the last board meeting he chairs before, on Sunday (December 1st), he is replaced by Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary and a key figure in the Champions Trophy matter.Naqvi, the PCB chairman, is also a key figure in the Pakistan government, as its interior minister. Over the last couple of days he has been preoccupied in Islamabad in an effort to quell political protests by PTI, the party of former premier (and captain) Imran Khan.

Another impressive innings from young batter as Anuj Dal leads fight for visitors

ECB Reporters Network10-Sep-2023Ollie Price’s third first-class century put Gloucestershire in a strong position on the opening day of the LV= Insurance County Championship match with Derbyshire at the Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol.The 22-year-old followed up Championship hundreds against Yorkshire and Worcestershire this season with a career-best 125 not out, receiving excellent support from captain Graeme van Buuren (78) in a fifth-wicket stand of 157, which helped their side close on 333 for six.Anuj Dal was the most successful Derbyshire bowler with three for 42 from 16 overs. But it was a draining day in the field for the visitors in energy-sapping heat.Gloucestershire, who gave a first-class debut to 22-year-old Exeter-born leg-spinner Ed Middleton, opted to bat first, despite initially sultry, overcast conditions. The decision looked justified when Ben Charlesworth and Chris Dent took the total to 32 from the first seven overs with only the odd alarm.Sam Connors bowled four tight overs from the Ashley Down Road End for just seven runs, but new signing Pat Brown struggled to find the right line and conceded 21 from his opening three overs.The floodlights were already on when just half an hour into the match the umpires considered the light too poor for play to continue. Shortly afterwards rain started to fall and soon the heavy covers were brought on.Thirteen overs were lost either side of an early lunch before play resumed at 1pm. Batting conditions soon improved, with increasingly bright sunshine, and Dent, unbeaten on eight before the break, played more aggressively.The experienced left-hander had moved comfortably to 41, off 72 balls, with six fours, before edging a back-foot defensive shot off Luis Reece, in his first over, through to wicketkeeper Brooke Guest.The breakthrough ended an opening stand of 80 in the 20th over. Left-arm seamer Reece struck again in his second over when Charlesworth, on 30, looked to play into the leg side and got a leading edge which carried to Wayne Madsen at second slip.At 85 for two, Gloucestershire needed to rebuild. Price and James Bracey did so to good effect, adding 43 in 12 overs before Dal pierced Bracey’s apparently immaculate defensive stroke and bowled him for 23.Price had shown his confidence with an early reverse-sweep for four shortly after off-spinner Alex Thomson had been introduced from the Ashley Down Road End. Miles Hammond got off the mark with an edged boundary to third man off Dal and by tea the pair had put together a fourth-wicket stand of 33, taking the total to 161 for three from 42 overs.Brown had figures of none for 36 from six overs at the interval. But the former Worcestershire seamer soon notched his first Derbyshire wicket when Hammond top edged a short-arm pull shot and skyed a catch to Guest, departing for 21.He was the fourth member of Gloucestershire top order to lose his wicket, having made a promising start and at 169 for four the hosts needed stability. Price supplied it and moved to his fifth Championship half-century of the season with a two through the covers off Brown, having faced 71 balls and hit eight fours.Skipper van Buuren was soon busily milking singles while dispatching the occasional bad ball to the boundary, helping to build a half-century stand in 14 overs with Price in what was now glorious early evening sunshine.Price laced his innings with some sumptuous straight drives, while van Buuren reached a 68-ball fifty with his second six, lofted high over wide long-on off Thomson. By then Gloucestershire had bagged a first batting point and were looking to accelerate against a tiring bowling attack.The hundred partnership was brought up by a Price two off Conners, which took him into the eighties. A series of sweeps and cuts off spinners Thomson and Mark Watt saw him reach three figures off 155 balls, with his 13th four, handsomely struck off Thomson.Price then moved past his previous career-best score of 115. Dal ended van Buuren’s enterprising knock by bowling him with less than four overs left in the day and, with the second new ball, had Zafar Gohar caught behind to lift Derbyshire spirits.

Scott Edwards will take over Netherlands’ captaincy from him

Matt Roller19-Jun-2022Pieter Seelaar, the Netherlands allrounder who has captained the national side for the last four years, has retired from international cricket with immediate effect due to a persistent back injury.Scott Edwards, the wicketkeeper-batter who has made two half-centuries in the ongoing ODI series against England and captained the side in the second match against England, will take over as captain.Related

• Nine years after Lord's win, memories come flooding back for Seelaar

• Ryan ten Doeschate 'told me he'd like to play another World Cup' – Pieter Seelaar

“Since 2020, my back problems got worse to such an extent that – much to my regret – I am no longer able to give everything I’ve got,” Seelaar said in a statement released shortly before England completed their run chase.Roland Lefebvre, the KNCB’s high performance manager, said: “Pieter’s input has been priceless, first as a player and later also as captain. His management style is open, honest and transparent, which has always been appreciated by the players.”He can look back upon a wonderful international career which unfortunately comes to an untimely end. We wish him the very best for the future.”Seelaar was appointed captain in 2018 after Peter Borren’s retirement. His biggest achievement was leading the side to victory in the qualifying tournament for the 2021 T20 World Cup, while he has also captained against several major nations in the ODI Super League.He has struggled with a back injury in recent years which he aggravated in his side’s heavy defeat against England in Friday’s first ODI, missing Sunday’s defeat with Edwards leading the side in his absence.Seelaar finishes his career as Netherlands’ most-capped T20I player, their leading T20I wicket-taker, their second-most-capped ODI player and their joint-highest ODI wicket-taker. He has played over 300 games for them in all formats across a 17-year career, and featured in the Associate nation’s two biggest wins – both against England, at the 2009 and 2014 T20 World Cups.Eoin Morgan, England’s captain, paid tribute to Seelaar in the presentation after Sunday’s ODI. “It’s been amazing. His contribution to Dutch cricket has been outstanding,” he said. “On behalf of the England cricket team, we’d like to congratulate him on his retirement and wish him well on his next journey.”

Smith said there had been conversations with the coach in the weeks since the end of the India series

Daniel Brettig06-Feb-2021Steven Smith has paralleled his evolving tale as a Test batsman, in which he emerged from a brief run of low scores against India to make the runs in Sydney and Brisbane that clinched his third Allan Border Medal, with the need for Australia’s coach Justin Langer to keep continually improving as a mentor and man manager.As the world’s pre-eminent Test batsman for most of the past six years, it’s unsurprising that Smith revealed Langer gave him very little coaching whatsoever, aside from an occasional reminder to stay energetic on his feet at the crease. But he credited Langer for maintaining an attitude of learning and seeking feedback, though acknowledging that unvarnished opinions would not always be easy to find.”I think even if you speak to Justin, you want to be improving all the time as a coach or as a player, so of course there’s things you can always get better at,” Smith said. “One thing that hasn’t been spoken a lot about is how tough a job it is to coach an international team, particularly in the circumstances we’ve been in when we’ve been in bubbles for long periods of time.”But Justin’s always working hard, trying to improve and get better and we’ve had conversations over the last two weeks since we’ve finished and he’s always trying to get better and better and that’s all you can ask from a coach.”Langer and Smith’s earliest interactions took place in 2010, when Smith was playing his first Tests for Australia and the coach was a batting assistant seeking to smooth the rough edges of players including him, David Warner and the late Phillip Hughes. Since Smith’s return to Test cricket for the 2019 Ashes, their relationship has been largely a case of the coach keeping out of the way of a batsman in command of himself and his game.Related

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• Team rumblings are a 'wake-up call' which Langer won't ignore

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“Justin’s actually said about me before he doesn’t try and coach me too much,” Smith said. “Only every now and again he’ll say something particularly about the energy in my legs and tell me to have a bit more energy and that helps me move my feet a bit better and get going. He just lets me go about my business and do what I need to do. But he’s great around the group, he’s always improving and wants to get better and wants the feedback from the players, and I think that’s really important as a coach.”Sometimes it can be difficult to get that feedback, you always want to get better, you always want to learn on the job and I think he does that as well as anyone.”While it would be well beyond the realm of possibility for a player to give his frankest thoughts on the national team’s senior coach and selector during an open media call, Smith responded in the affirmative when asked directly whether Langer had his full support to keep coaching the team in all formats.”Absolutely, I think he’s done a terrific job over the last couple of years, I wasn’t there the first year, but since I’ve been back I think he’s done a great job,” Smith said. “He always wants to get better and that’s all you can ask of anyone in the setup, whether it be a player or a coach, as long as you’re striving to improve every day, then that’s all you can ask.”That kind of thing [split coaching] has been floated for a while for different formats and different teams and things like that around the world, not just Australia, so I think it’d be interesting. But Justin’s got my full support at the moment, I think he’s doing a terrific job and he has done for a few years, and I can’t see it changing anytime soon.”Steven Smith said he had enjoyed the battle of overcoming new tactics against him•Getty Images and Cricket Australia

As for Smith’s own evolution, he said the past two summers had been refreshing in their challenges, as New Zealand and then India provided new angles of attack and filed placings that restricted him from some of his usual areas to rotate strike. After two slim Test matches in Adelaide and Melbourne, Smith resorted to a more aggressive mindset in Sydney and Brisbane, running up his first century since 2019 in England in the process.”Teams are starting to attack me a little bit differently or bowl to me a little bit differently, so I’ve had to make small adjustments,” he said. “At times I’ve had to be perhaps a little more aggressive than I have been in the past. I think I did that pretty well in the last two Test matches here and just coming up with some different plans and different scoring options but continuing to also play the game in front of me.”There’s times in Test cricket where you’ve got to absorb pressure, time when you’ve got to put the pressure back on the bowlers and try and get on top of them, and I did that well in the last two games, perhaps not as well in the first two of the summer. I felt I learned a bit out of the first two games that I could improve on at the back end. Teams have different plans to me and I’ve got to keep working on my game and I love doing that, I love working hard and finding new ways to do things and getting better.”It was a great challenge and that’s what Test cricket’s all about, people come with different plans to you and you’ve got to try to counter-act them. It’s been a great learning curve. I’ve loved the last two years of developing and learning and absorbing pressure putting pressure on when I need to, and just continuing to grow as a player.”

George Dobell in Whangarei14-Nov-2019Sam Curran seems all but certain to play as England’s third seamer in next week’s first Test against New Zealand, after being preferred to Chris Woakes in the England side to play New Zealand A in Whangerai.With the England management having made clear that the side named here will, fitness permitting, play in the first Test next week, it means
Curran can expect to play at Mount Maunganui, on November 21.Woakes’ overseas record will have done him few favours. He averages 61.77 in his 12 Tests away from home when using the Kookaburra or SG ball (he averages 23.45 in home Tests using a Duke’s ball) and finished wicketless in the tour match against a New Zealand XI earlier
in the week.Curran’s record is no better – he averages 105.50 with the ball in his four Tests away from home – but he is, aged 21, nine years younger than Woakes and offers some variation from the rest of the attack with his left-arm angle.While neither man gained much movement with the Kookaburra ball in that first warm-up game, Curran did take one wicket – that of Jakob
Bhula – when the batsman misjudged the line; a result, perhaps, of that variation.It would be premature to write off Woakes, but the decision does raise questions about his future at Test level. England hope to have Mark
Wood and James Anderson back by the time they go to South Africa in December, and there are unlikely to be many opportunities for seamers of Woakes’ style in Sri Lanka in April. He remains a potent force in England but as England start to look to the future, it is possible he may struggle to win a recall.The rest of the England side for the three-day match in Whangerai is as expected. Dom Sibley opens alongside Rory Burns, with Joe Denly
moved to No. 3 and Joe Root to No. 4. Ollie Pope will bat at No. 6 in between Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad
are expected to take the new ball, with Jack Leach playing as the only spinner.England XI 1 Rory Burns, 2 Dom Sibley, 3 Joe Denly, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Ollie Pope, 7 Jos Buttler (wk), 8 Sam Curran, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Jack Leach.

Sam Billings has led Kent to promotion but Glamorgan are now consigned to the wooden spoon

ECB Reporters Network20-Sep-2018
ScorecardKent took a giant leap toward a return to the top tier of the Specsavers County Championship by wrapping up an innings and 172-run win over Glamorgan with five sessions to spare in Canterbury. And by the time they had got changed the celebrations could begin as Sussex, their only challengers, failed to gain maximum batting points at Hove.Kent’s 10th win of the campaign – their first with maximum points – was Glamorgan’s 10th defeat and although Kent will have to wait on events at Hove in the game between Sussex and Warwickshire to know their promotion status, the reverse ensures that the Welsh county will collect this season’s wooden spoon.Glamorgan lost their last six wickets inside 75 minutes of the third day as Darren Stevens, so often their nemesis, took 5 for 24 to secure the 21st five-wicket return of his career.Matt Henry, the undoubted signing of the season in Division Two, chipped in with another four and eight in the match as Kent banked 24 points to Glamorgan’s three.

“Division One has always been my ambition” – Billings

Sam Billings, Kent captain: “I’ve never played first division Championship cricket and it’s always been my ambition, so I’m tremendously proud that this team has taken Kent back to the level of English cricket that this great club feels it belongs.”
Robert Croft, Glamorgan coach: “It’s a challenging time for everybody at Glamorgan cricket and there’s a lot of work still to do. There are young players here we are giving opportunities to and they’re fully aware they’ve got to meet us half way by giving us performances. We expect them to show signs of improvement.”

Glamorgan suffered their first loss to the ninth ball of the morning and the third of the day from Kent’s ageless all-rounder Darren Stevens. A good length away-swinger that cut away further off the pitch, drew Jeremy Lawlor into an injudicious defensive push outside off stump that the right-hander feathered through to keeper Sam Billings.Ten balls and six runs later, Chris Cooke departed in near identical fashion by meddling with a Stevens leg-cutter that brushed the outside edge to give Billings another catch.Matt Henry then added to his tally as the championship’s leading wicket-taker with a full-length leg cutter that squared up the right-hander’s defence to pluck out his off stump and make it 45 for seven.Still within the opening hour, Ruaidhri Smith nudged outside off to be superbly caught by Billings, diving low to his right in front of first slip off Henry, who then took his 74th victim of a prolific summer by ripping out Timm van der Gugten’s off pole.It was left to Stevens to polish the job off by 11.45am when last man Michael Hogan, the Glamorgan captain, sliced an attempted cover drive to be athletically caught at extra cover by Joe Denly, leaving the tenacious Jack Murphy unbeaten on 22.Stevens finished with five and Henry four as Kent returned to the Championship top flight after eight seasons in Division Two.

The 17-year-old Sutherland has chosen to accept the offer of a multi-year rookie deal with Victoria rather than nominating for the AFL draft

Daniel Brettig16-Jul-2017Will Sutherland, son of Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland and one of the most talented young athletes in the country, has revealed his decision to choose cricket over football.Having led Australia at Under-19 level but also been among the most closely watched AFL players at junior level, 17-year-old Sutherland has chosen to accept the offer of a multi-year rookie deal with Victoria rather than nominating for the AFL draft.”This was an incredibly tough decision,” Sutherland said. “Most of the advice that I received was to just follow my passion. That sounds easy enough, but not so much when my passion is for both sports.”I really loved my experience in the recent Under-18 National Championships when representing Vic Metro and this only made the decision more difficult. When it came down to it, my love and passion for the game of cricket just won out.”I’ve thoroughly enjoyed representing my state and country in the under-age ranks and the prospect of potentially being able to continue this at the senior level is very much my dream. I’m excited and relieved about this decision and will now look to focus on completing my Year 12 studies.”A powerful batsman and strong fast-medium bowler, Sutherland had been openly courted by the AFL amid expectations that he could be a top 10 draft pick. Details of Sutherland’s contract with the Bushrangers will not be finalised until an MoU is agreed between CA and the Australian Cricketers Association.”We’re pleased Will has made this decision and we look forward to supporting him through the rest of his Year 12 studies and his Cricket Pathway,” Cricket Victoria’s general manager Shaun Graf said.”The full Cricket Victoria squad lists for the upcoming 2017-18 season will be announced following the resolution of an MoU.”

The ECB has delayed the announcement of the West Indian Test and one-day tour parties, and will now unveil its squads on Wednesday afternoon

Wisden Cricinfo staff17-May-2016

The ECB has delayed the announcement of the West Indian Test and one-day tour parties, and will now unveil its squads on Wednesday afternoon. It had been assumed that the selectors would have completed their global consultations over the weekend – involving Duncan Fletcher in South Africa and Rod Marsh in Australia – but they have opted to delay for 24 hours.It could well be that there are one or two last-minute bleep tests to carry out. The bulk of the selectors’ conversation will have been about the fitness – or rather lack of – of their seam bowlers. The main contenders are in various states of unreadiness, and it is not inconceivable than the bulk of the front-line choices could be ruled out on medical grounds.The key man in the whole business of who goes to the West Indies is Peter Gregory, the England doctor. David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, made it clear that no player would make the trip if he couldn’t satisfy Gregory that he was fit.”We have to listen to Peter Gregory and his input will be crucial,” said Graveney. “In view of what has happened last year in Australia, we must be sure that we don’t select players who aren’t going to last. The medical team on tour simply can’t treat ongoing injuries as well as those that are bound to crop up, otherwise it’ll be chaotic.”That leaves three men – Simon Jones, Andrew Caddick and Steve Harmison – sweating by the telephone. Caddick has the most to fear – Graveney said as much – as he has still not resumed bowling following surgery last summer. Jones is reported to be bowling well in the nets but, like Caddick, he is woefully short of any match practice. The selectors will not gamble on both of them, and so Jones’s youth – and the fact that he has at least started bowling – will count in his favour.The questions surrounding Harmison’s suitability are quite different. His fitness is an issue, but perhaps no more than his growing reputation as being a difficult tourist. Stories abound that since his early return from Bangladesh he has been markedly reluctant to fall into line with what England believe is the best rehabilitation for him. Several influential members of the England camp are reported to be less than thrilled with his overall attitude.If all three were to be ruled out, England’s attack looks decidedly weak. Andrew Flintoff is a certainty, James Anderson not far short of being one, and the rest include Matthew Hoggard, Richard Johnson, James Kirtley and Martin Saggers from the autumn tours. It’s not quite scraping the barrel, but with West Indies pace attack in disarray, it will not be a battle of the world-class fast men.The spinners are easy to pick now that Robert Croft has withdrawn his hat from the ring, and the two allrounders – Flintoff and Rikki Clarke – pick themselves in the absence of any realistic alternatives. The same applies to the wicketkeepers.The batting is also more straightforward, with the same six as toured Bangladesh and Sri Lanka almost certain to retain their places.Possible squad Michael Vaughan (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Rikki Clarke, Chris Read (wk) Geraint Jones (wk), Ashley Giles, Gareth Batty, Steve Harmison, Richard Johnson, James Anderson, Simon Jones.

The ICC decided against allowing teams to keep referrals denied on an umpire’s call out of fear the game would be slowed down too much, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has revealed

Daniel Brettig11-Oct-2013The ICC decided against allowing teams to keep referrals that were denied on an umpire’s call out of fear the game would be slowed down too much, even as it approved the introduction of a DRS “top-up” after 80 overs, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has revealed. As he discussed the fall-out from the Nine Network’s decision not to employ Hot Spot during this summer’s Ashes series, Sutherland said the equity of umpire’s call verdicts had been debated “long and hard” by the chief executive’s committee at the most recent ICC meeting.While Hot Spot’s effectiveness and use has been a point of contention since the Ashes Tests in England earlier this year, the loss of referrals to tight decisions that have stayed with the umpire’s original verdict created a similar level of discussion among players, spectators and administrators. Sutherland said it was still possible that such reviews would be handed back to the players, but admitted there was hesitance based on the possibility that the number of reviews may increase substantially.”We debated umpire’s call long and hard, and what was eventually decided was that they wanted to leave that pending for a little while,” Sutherland said. “We agreed to the top-up after 80 overs. That will come back on the agenda, and it’s not a bad idea. The ICC assessment is that if you don’t lose a review for umpire’s call, you will increase the number of referrals by at least double, and that will change the game. Everyone likes the idea of the referral being really valuable, and you need to think really carefully about using it, because it all comes back to the howler.”Sutherland denied that CA needed to step in to the stand-off between Nine and Hot Spot’s ringmaster Warren Brennan, and rejected the notion that Australian cricket’s governing body did not provide financial support in the way of other nations. He said that CA’s rights fees factored in the broadcast costs of Nine, whereas other nations paid for production in-house and then charged at higher odds for the rights themselves. “Indirectly we’re paying for it,” he said.”The first use of Hot Spot was all about broadcast enhancement. And in Australia that’s been something Nine have sponsored and dealt with and had discussions with Warren Brennan and his company in the past, they’ve had arrangements that they’ve used successfully. We’ve never been involved with those discussions and never needed to be. That continues to be a commercial negotiation between those two.”I’ve spoken with [Nine chief] David Gyngell about it, I know and understand from Nine’s viewpoint they’re not walking away from that and see it as an ongoing discussion. They certainly have concerns about Hot Spot in various ways, both commercially and in an operational capacity, and it’s something they will work through. They’ve been able to sort it out in the past, so let’s see if they can sort it out. This is still six weeks out from the series, it’s not a unique circumstance where Nine and Hot Spot have had discussions about broadcast enhancements.”Debates about DRS have ranged from whether the system should be used at all to which technology is most reliable and which system makes the best use of it. Sutherland saw a tension around the issue of how much accuracy should be demanded from technology that will always have a certain margin of error, no matter how small.”The biggest problem is what is your satisfaction level about imperfection,” he said. “We can all say ‘we know it’s not perfect’, but someone’s acceptance of imperfect might be here and another’s is 99.9%. That area of grey in between those two extremes is where this system gets into trouble. Not saying this is true, but as an example, do you accept the fact that if 80% of the time a nick will show on Hot Spot, but you know that 20% of the time it won’t – do you accept that or not?”

ESPNcricinfo previews the first T20 international between England and South Africa at Chester-le-Street

The Preview by Alan Gardner07-Sep-2012

Match Facts

September 8, 2012
Start time 2.30pm (1330 GMT)Stuart Broad will be the latest England captain to try and succeed against South Africa•Getty Images

The Big Picture

We’ve been here before: England’s seemingly-quite-resistible force against South Africa’s immovable Hashim Amla. This time the tourists are the No. 1-ranked side going into the series, however, and England are merely the reigning World Twenty20 champions. Both have solid records from sporadic outings in the shortest form this year and both will be looking to nail down their plans for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, which starts in less than two weeks’ time.For England, it means a change in captain and Stuart Broad will aim to become the first of the now-defunct triumvirate to hand South Africa a series defeat. Andrew Strauss retired from cricket after his side were steamrollered in the Tests, though Alastair Cook did marginally better, clinging on to the one-day top ranking and gaining a promotion into the bargain. Broad will probably settle for a trio of consistent performances from the squad, as well as the avoidance of injury.There is no respite for AB de Villiers, who had the wicketkeeping gloves thrust upon him at the start of the Test series and now continues to balance his own personal three-for in the T20s as captain, batsman and keeper. After two months away from home and with one eye on the subcontinent, he will need all his powers of multitasking and compartmentalisation to help drag his team towards the finish line.

Form guide

(Most recent first, completed matches)
England WWWLW
South Africa WWWLW

Watch out for

Alex Hales scored 99 in his only international outing of 2012 so far but walked off the pitch at Trent Bridge looking distraught to miss out on a hundred. Still, making the highest T20I score by an Englishman is as good a way as any to start life as Kevin Pietersen’s replacement. Hales’ coach at Nottingham, Mick Newell, recently suggested his first-class returns had been wanting this season but he is a talented young opener who could offer England options in all formats.Without Jacques Kallis, rested for the ODI series, South Africa looked an unbalanced side. They will welcome back the ursine allrounder with wide open arms ahead of the World Twenty20, even though his sole T20I appearance in the last two years came during a one-off tribute match against India in March. Experience can count for a lot in T20 cricket and Kallis, an IPL winner with Kolkata earlier this year, is smarter than your average bear

Team news

Barring one high-profile exception, England have played the same team in all four of their T20 internationals this year. Graeme Swann should return after being rested for the last three ODIs against South Africa, while Steven Finn and Tim Bresnan are both carrying niggles, which could mean a first T20I appearance in three years for James Anderson. Ravi Bopara has struggled with the bat recently but made fifty in his last 20-over outing against West Indies.England (possible) 1 Craig Kieswetter (wkt), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Eoin Morgan, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Samit Patel, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad (capt), 10 Steven Finn, 11 Jade DernbachSouth Africa have a similar squad to pick from as for the ODIs, with Kallis, Richard Levi and possibly Johan Botha likely to be the only different faces in the mix for a starting spot. Depending on his fitness, Albie Morkel could come back into the side, while South Africa have also experimented with batting Wayne Parnell up the order in de Villiers’ short reign as captain.South Africa (possible) 1 Richard Levi, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Justin Ontong, 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Robin Peterson, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel

Pitch and conditions

The pitch at Chester-le-Street has not been a friendly one to batsmen all season and Australia struggled to 200 for 9 in an ODI there in July. Durham twice made 300 or thereabouts in 40-over games last month, however, and the prospect of sunshine breaking through the fluffy white clouds at some point in the afternoon should boost the chances for a high-scoring affair.

Stats and trivia

• Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann are tied as England’s leading T20I wicket-takers, with 41 each.
• Richard Levi struck the fastest-ever T20 international hundred, from 45 balls, in only his second appearance.
• There have been six T20 meetings between the two sides – England have won two, South Africa three, with one abandonment…
• …which occurred when they were due to play each other at Chester-le-Street in 2008.

Quotes

“The planning started from Trent Bridge, when Kevin said he wasn’t available for the Twenty20 World Cup, and his replacement came in and got the highest score by an England batsman.”
“Twenty20s fly by. You can almost see the finish line now.”