Paddy Upton, the South African mental-conditioning coach, is almost certain to join the Indian team support staff. Gary Kirsten, India’s new coach, was keen to have Upton on board and he is likely to double up as a trainer as well.”We just need to sort out the terms and conditions,” a BCCI official told Cricinfo. “But he is likely to be appointed in the next few days. Only the formalities remain.”Upton has accepted the amendments which the board made to his proposal. What’s left now is for the board to send him the final copy of the agreement.Upton, currently a mental conditioning coach at Kirsten’s academy in Cape Town, was South Africa’s bio-kineticist and fitness trainer in the mid to late 90’s. He was also a fitness trainer with the South African cricket team from 1994-98 and also worked with the Western Province Rugby team. He then quit to concentrate on the psychological side of the game and became a mental conditioning coach.Although India did not have a full-time mental conditioning coach in the past, the two previous foreign coaches – John Wright and Greg Chappell – had sought services of specialist sports psychologists for brief stints during their tenure.While Wright had turned to eminent Australian sports psychologist Sandy Gordon to have interactions with the players, Chappell had relied on West Indian Rudy Webster to motivate the players.

Jacques Kallis has joined the chorus of international cricketers in urging the ICC to have a separate window for the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kallis felt the players were experiencing an increasing workload and highlighted it as the reason for the lack of allrounders in the game at present.”If you see the amount of cricket we’ve been playing there may be evenmore of a decline [in allrounders],” Kallis said ahead of the first Test against India in Chennai. “There’s just too much of workload on the allrounders and they’re going to have to come up with some plan to cut it down. Otherwise the allrounders may have to become [solely] Test players or ODI players to cope with the workload. From that point of view, it is sad to see.”Adding to the gruelling schedule will be the inaugural 44-day IPL tournament, set to start on April 18. “It’s tough to turn down good money,” he said, “and somewhere along the line there is going to be sacrifices having to be made. It will have to be done by individual players. As far as I’m concerned, I still think I’ve got a good few years left in me and hopefully the IPL will be lucrative.”It’s going to be a tough decision and maybe the ICC will have to integrate the IPL into the international season and make sure that’s part of it. Hopefully work around it, still giving the players a break. Maybe they can come up with some formula – limit it to 20-25 ODIs and 14-15 Tests. I don’t know the ideal number but maybe someone can work it out.”However, after its meeting in Dubai on March 18, the ICC had made it clear that the Future Tours Programme will not be altered to suit the IPL as neither the league nor the Indian board, which runs it, made such a request.South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur was the first international coach tosuggest something similar last fortnight. “I do think the IPL is good for cricket,” he told Cricinfo. “However, there must be a window period for it in the international schedule.”John Dyson, the West Indies coach, had also voiced similar concerns in the wake of the possibility that Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul would miss the first two home Tests against Australia in order to be available to play for their IPL franchises.

2002

Pakistan’s first full tour of Bangladesh ended in a whitewash of the hosts, both in the Tests and one-day internationals. Pakistan won by an innings and 78 runs on day three of the first Test at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Waqar Younis took six to dismiss Bangladesh for 160, Pakistan’s batsmen racked up 490, and Danish Kaneria polished off the local batting order with seven wickets.Bangladesh didn’t fare much better in Chittagong, making scores of 148 and allowing Pakistan to score 465 – Yousuf Youhana had an unbeaten 204 to his name and Younis Khan 119. Reeling under the mountain of runs they crashed to an innings-and-169-run defeat.Tests: Pakistan 2, Bangladesh 0
Bangladesh were clearly overawed by their opponents as the ODI series began. Bangladesh, owing plenty to debutant Tareq Aziz’s 3 for 19, bowled Pakistan out for 202 in 49.5 overs in the series opener in Dhaka but flopped with the bat. Pakistan used eight bowlers – even Inzamam-ul-Haq bowled a wicket-maiden – and won by 49 runs. Crowd trouble marred the second ODI – Shoaib Akhtar, who was fielding near deep fine leg, got hurt when one of the spectators hurled something at his head and had to go to hospital to receive treatment – but Pakistan won by 72 runs. The rout was completed thanks to Adbul Razzaq’s 6 for 35 and Shahid Afridi’s 44-ball 83 in the final game.ODIs: Pakistan 3, Bangladesh 0
2003
Pakistan hosted Bangladesh for a return series in the second half of 2003 and the result was the same. Hundreds in both innings from Yasir Hameed, on Test debut, was the highlight of a seven-wicket win at Karachi’s National Stadium. Habibul Bashar was Bangladesh’s star performer with 71 and 108 but there was little else. Shabbir Ahmed, another debutant, and Kaneria each grabbed eight wickets in the match.Bangladesh made 361 in their first innings in Peshawar, with Javed Omar scoring 119 and Bashar 97, but folded for just 96 in the second as Shoaib finished with ten wickets in the game. Mohammad Hafeez’s maiden hundred then sealed a nine-wicket win.The series ended in a thriller in Multan, sealed by Inzamam’s masterclass. Bangladesh bowled extremely well to gain a 106-run lead but collapsed to 154; set 262 to sweep the series Pakistan struggled spectacularly and owed everything to Inzamam’s unbeaten 138. Victory was attained by one-wicket and Inzamam was rewarded with the captaincy.Tests: Pakistan 3, Bangladesh 0
Bangladesh stayed on for an ODI series and lost 5-0. The margins of victory were comprehensive, bar the fourth ODI when Bangladesh pushed Pakistan to the wire. Hameed’s maiden hundred powered the hosts to a 137-run win in Multan; Youhana’s 106 set up a 74-run win in Faisalabad; the series was clinched with a big win in Lahore, thanks in no small part to Umar Gul’s economical five-wicket bag; Pakistan edged a Rawalpindi thriller in game four, chasing down 223 off the penultimate ball of the match with Youhana not out on 94; and the drubbing came with a 58-run win in Karachi, one set up the top order. Youhana’s 366 runs pushed him into the top ten of the ICC’s ODI batsmen.ODIs: Pakistan 5, Bangladesh 0

Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson expressed regret at the five-year ban imposed on Shoaib Akhtar by a PCB disciplinary committee, adding that the fast bowler would remain an unfulfilled talent.”Whether he got banned today or not, there was always going to be some problem with Shoaib,” Lawson told the . “He has so much ability but he lacks the responsibility that’s needed to become a great fast bowler.”At times he tried really hard for us, but you just never knew what to expect when you turned up to the ground. Personally, I wouldn’t have banned him; I’d have made him earn his international place back by playing domestic cricket. It’s always sad when you see a guy who doesn’t fulfill his talent.”Lawson, in his recent tour report on the away series against India, had advised against Shoaib’s selection for Tests, indicating that he had lost confidence in his abilities in the longer version of the game. But Lawson thought Shoaib would perform well in the Indian Premier League, to which the ban does not extend. “I reckon he’ll go pretty well. We timed him in the nets last week and he was bowling over 93mph.”Meanwhile, Shoaib’s ban brought out contrasting reactions in Pakistan, with Shafqat Rana, a national selector, saying that Shoaib deserved the ban. “Akhtar has been involved in a number of controversies, and in my view the ban is justified. The decision will set an example for other cricketers as well. And they will concentrate on their game,” he told the . “It is true that a person learns from his mistakes, but unfortunately the fast bowler made it a habit of repeating his mistakes. I think the board’s zero tolerance policy should be commended.”But former captain Imran Khan criticised the PCB for its decision. “The ban on Shoaib and even on the players who have gone to play in the Indian Cricket League are unacceptable and will shake the foundations of our cricket system. We are losing good players to bad policies of the board.”Javed Miandad said that he was sorry for Shoaib while agreeing that he was involved in a lot of disciplinary cases. “I would like to add here that it is the result of the PCB’s leniency towards Shoaib’s blunders he did in the past. But now his [latest] offense is not that grave as several Pakistan Test cricketers in the past have done this type of wrong acts repeatedly and got away with those,” Miandad told .Hanif Abbasi, the newly-elected national assembly member from Rawalpindi, Shoaib’s home-town, told a local TV channel that the ban was “unacceptable” and that it would be overturned when a change of guard came about in the PCB.

Ehsan Mani has warned that the ICC could lose credibility as a result of the “disgraceful” handling of the Malcolm Speed affair. Speed was placed on gardening leave until the end of his contract in July after reportedly falling out with some of the executive board.Mani, who was president of the ICC between 2003 and 2006, said that he was disappointed with the way the matter had been dealt with. “He [Speed] has served the ICC with loyalty and a huge amount of distinction and I would have expected that if there were differences they could have been handled privately,” Mani told the .”The way the board has handled this has been disgraceful. If they do not pull their act together they will lose credibility.” Mani’s comments come in the wake of similar remarks by his predecessor, Malcolm Gray, who said that things had got out of control and that differences “should be handled better”.The current executive will also be uneasy with Mani’s comments about the independent forensic audit into Zimbabwe Cricket. It voted to keep the report secret, a decision which was the catalyst for Speed’s departure as he made it clear he did not agree with the move.”The ICC must always be transparent,” Mani said. “Ideally the report should have been made public. Nothing ever stays private. But I am hopeful that with David Morgan taking over [in July] the ICC will come through this.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWesley Barresi struck five sixes and seven fours during his 40-ball 75•ICC/Donald MacLeod

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen’s unbeaten 44-ball 68 went in vain after his bowlers and fielders conceded too many runs, to allow Netherlands amass 191 for 6. Netherlands’ 32-run win was set up by Wesley Barresi’s quick start and Peter Borren’s surge at the end which helped them collect 56 runs in the last five overs, after Scotland had dropped Barresi twice early on in the same over.Opting to bat with an unchanged side from the game against Afghanistan, Netherlands lost their first wicket, that of Stephan Myburgh, to Alasdair Evans in the third over before Ben Cooper joined Barresi. In their second-wicket partnership of 82 runs, Cooper’s contribution was only 12 off 14 as Barresi unleashed several orthodox shots, including drives and cuts before he was given two reprieves in three balls in the sixth over. He soon struck a six to make Scotland realise the price of that. He was particularly harsh against Michael Leask and Richie Berrington, collecting 25 runs off eight balls, put together. Evans provided a bit of respite by getting both batsmen out in the 11th over, but that only brought Borren on the pitch.The run rate was over nine when he walked out and he made sure it fell only fleetingly. After relying on singles early on, he let loose with two leg-side heaves in the 15th over, and pelted Watt for 19 runs in the 17th over with slog-sweeps and a reverse-sweep. His fifty off 24 balls acted as the a burn in the wounds after Scotland had hurt themselves to allow Barresi’s fifty off 27 balls. An 18-ball 24 from Roelof van der Merwe lifted them past 190. Evans took two more in his last over to finish with a career-best 5 for 24.Scotland, in response, were in a spot of bother early on after losing their openers in the first nine balls. They struggled to get partnerships going as left-arm spinners van der Merwe and Pieter Seelaar got the next four batsmen out, three of them holing out in the deep, to leave them reeling at 75 for 6. The required rate had shot up to 14 when Safyaan Sharif joined Mommsen with eight overs to go. Mommsen chaperoned the partnership of 80 runs for nearly eight overs, but it was a near-impossible task to accomplish with the tail and despite some meaty blows till the end, Scotland were all out for 159.

In a departure from hundreds of years of cricket tradition, there will be no mandatory toss in either division of the English County Championship in the 2016 season, after the ECB confirmed they were implementing an experiment to try to encourage the development of spin bowling.Instead of the toss, something that was recorded as taking place as far back as the 1700s, the visiting team will first have the choice of whether they want to field first. If they don’t wish to take up that option the toss will take place as it always has.There has been growing concern that the standard of pitches in county cricket – particularly in Division Two – is compromising the development of players. Specifically, the role of spinners has become marginalised on surfaces that sometimes provide extravagant help to medium-pace seamers while batsmen, fearful that they will receive an unplayable delivery sooner rather than later, have responded by playing more aggressively. As a result, some of the skills required to succeed in Test cricket – patience, discipline and consistency – have been lost.Initial reports about the move had centred on the trial being used only in Division Two of the Championship but, after a meeting of the ECB cricket committee at Lord’s on Thursday, it was decided to implement it across the board in four-day cricket.”By giving the away team the option of bowling first, we hope the home side will be encouraged to produce the best possible four-day pitch,” Peter Wright, the chairman of the cricket committee, said. “That will be good for cricket in general, and not only for spinners: batsmen should also benefit, from better pitches which will lead to them facing more spin bowling; and if pitches start drier, the ball may scuff up a bit more and produce more reverse swing.

Who is the ECB cricket committee?

Peter Wright (Chairman)
Alan Fordham (ECB Head of Cricket Operations)
Tom Harrison (ECB Chief Executive Officer)
Andrew Strauss (Director, England Cricket)
Angus Porter (Chief Executive – Professional Cricketers’ Association)
Rob Key (Kent captain)
David Leatherdale (Chief Executive – Worcestershire)
Mark Robinson (formerly Sussex’s Cricket Manager – recently appointed head coach of England Women)
Steve Garrett (First-Class umpire)
Andy Flower (ECB’s Technical Director of Elite Coaching) also attended at the committee’s invitation.

“It isn’t all about spin. There has been concern for some years about some Championship pitches. But it is fair to say that the plight of spin bowling in this country brought things into focus.”Of course counties want to win matches, and that generally means taking 20 wickets. That has to be a reason we have seen a lot of pitches that start a bit green and damp, and get better as the game goes on, rather than deteriorating to help the spinners. But another main function of the County Championship is to develop players for England. We don’t think it has been serving that purpose for spinners.”We did originally consider introducing this as a trial in one division only but, after further discussion and debate today, we have decided to extend this to both divisions of the County Championship. We believe this is an innovation which will be watched closely well beyond the County Championship. We will then need to assess how successful the trial has been at the end of the 2016 season before deciding whether to continue with this.”Peter Such, the ECB’s lead spin bowling coach, recently told ESPNcricinfo: “In overseas Test cricket somewhere between 46-48% of overs are bowled by spinners, but in county cricket that figure is around 20%.” At a couple of division two counties, that figure drops below 10% at home games.”The pitches tend to start damp, which makes them seam-bowler dominated and makes it very hard for spin bowlers to break through. We need to do more to encourage spin bowling.”

At a time when Australia’s ODI fast-bowling depth is being tested, they seem to have no shortage of quality batsmen to call on. Centuries to George Bailey and Steven Smith won Australia the first ODI against India in Perth on Tuesday, and for the second game they will likely bring in a bloke with a List A batting average of 72.86 in the past three years. And one of the most in-form batsmen in the country probably still won’t get a game.The former is Shaun Marsh, the back-up batsman in the squad and the likely beneficiary of David Warner’s absence for paternity leave over the next two games. The latter is Usman Khawaja, who is joining the squad for the Brisbane and Melbourne ODIs, and is enjoying a remarkable run of form whatever the colour of the ball: not since October has Khawaja been dismissed below 50 in any format.Yet it is hard to argue with the probable batting line-up Australia will use in Brisbane, where Marsh is expected to open with Aaron Finch. After all, Marsh was second only to Smith on the Matador Cup run tally in October, with 390 at 65.00, and the last time he played for Australia he plundered 182 in the Hobart Test against West Indies. Khawaja’s return from injury bumped Marsh from the Test side; now Marsh looks set to keep Khawaja out of the ODIs.It is nearly three years since Khawaja last played ODI cricket for Australia, and even then he played only three games without reaching double figures. However, since his most recent ODI appearance Khawaja has thrived in one-day cricket, averaging 56.88 in List A matches, although he played only three Matador Cup games this summer due to a hamstring injury. Khawaja hopes his selection is the first step towards becoming an ODI regular.”The hunger is to play as many forms of the game as possible,” he said on Wednesday. “I’ve made it clear that I’ve always wanted to play one-dayers. But sometimes it’s about timing. If I’m going to get my opportunity, I don’t know, but when I do get it hopefully I can take it and be more than just a Test cricketer. At this moment I’m really happy with how I’m hitting the white ball.”Already 2015-16 has been a breakout summer for Khawaja in the Test team – he scored centuries in all three Tests in which he batted, in Brisbane, Perth, and Melbourne. His last two BBL innings, an unbeaten 109 before Christmas and 62 on Monday, suggest his white-ball form is indeed strong.”I’m really happy with how the Test stuff went,” Khawaja said. “There’s a lot of one-day cricket coming up in the next year. I’d love to be a part of it. Hopefully I can contribute moving forward.”However, Khawaja knows he will likely be warming the bench for the second ODI in Brisbane on Friday. “I haven’t been told anything,” he said. “I’m just using common sense – SOS [Marsh] is already there so I’d assume he’d slot into Davey’s spot and I’ll be the spare batsman. That’s what I’m expecting.”Australia will be aiming to secure a 2-0 lead in the five-match series in Brisbane, after their win in the high-scoring opener in Perth on Tuesday. India managed 3 for 309 against a new-look Australia attack featuring debutant fast bowlers Scott Boland and Joel Paris, whose combined figures read 0 for 127 from 18 overs, but Australia’s batsmen chased down the target with four balls to spare.

Chemar Holder was bowling in Basseterre in St Kitts and Nevis less than three weeks ago when West Indies Under-19 were playing a bilateral series in Bangladesh, just before the World Cup warm-ups. West Indies lost all three youth ODIs against a second-string Bangladesh side, but Holder finished with a five-for while playing for Combined Campuses and Colleges in Nagico Super50, West Indies’ domestic 50-over tournament, in only his fourth List-A match.About ten days later, Holder got a call that one of the Under-19 players, Obed McCoy, was injured in Bangladesh and that he had been picked as the replacement. Needless to say, Holder was not expecting it.”It was a big news. I was happy but shocked,” Holder said with a laugh after West Indies got through to the semi-final with a five-wicket win against Pakistan. Holder flew in, got two practice sessions and made his debut straightaway. He grabbed everyone’s attention by cranking up some good pace along with their lead pacer Alzarri Joseph. Holder stuck to a strangling line outside off, got the ball to move off the pitch and picked up two wickets in his first three overs.”Well, yes it is different conditions compared to the ones back home,” Holder said. “The pitch is a bit faster at home. So I had to bowl at fuller length.”Not many people knew where Holder had come from. Just 17 years old, he had not been picked for any of the three West Indies Under-19 camps in 2015 and had only played for Barbados Under-19s until then. He had not really set the Under-19 regional tournament on fire, with three wickets from four matches, but was soon picked for the Nagico Super50.”Well, really and truly it was a good feeling because I played against international players,” Holder said about his five-wicket haul. “And taking five is a big thing. So coming here now, I am not getting complacent. The wickets may not be as good, so I just keep it simple.”West Indies captain Shimron Hetmyer could hardly stop smiling after the quarter-final win, and sung praises of Holder, who joined the team only a few days back.”The boys have coped with the wickets and conditions very quickly,” he said. “Even Holder bowled very well today. Just leading from the front with the ball with him and we have Alzarri Joseph also, so he was very good. Very good day for us.”Holder and Joseph provided their team with a dream start by reducing Pakistan to 57 for 5 before Umair Masood led their recovery with a century and put on 164 runs in 28.1 overs with Salman Fayyaz. Hetmyer admitted that the team became a little “complacent” after taking the early wickets.”Possibly I think we got a little bit too relaxed after taking the first five wickets of the game,” he said. “We got complacent and possibly we could have just kept grinding them and possibly it would’ve been a lower score for us to chase.”Even though the pitch was not flat like it usually is in Fatullah, Hetmyer said West Indies were always confident of chasing down the target. Opener Gidron Pope looked to slog from the first ball he faced and even though he did not succeed in his first four attempts, the openers soon set the tone with an important stand of 45 in 6.2 overs. Pope fell for an 18-ball 25 and Imlach top-scored with a more composed 54.”I think that probably wasn’t the plan (how Pope started),” Hetmyer said with a smile. “That’s how he plays his natural game and for a couple of balls he played, he should have given himself a chance. After he got accustomed to the pitch and how the bowler was bowling and he got on top of them and kept banging them as hard as he could.”We thought we gave them a score of possibly about 190 and they scored 227. We still thought we could get this score because it wasn’t that much of a big score. And just have a bat and get a few good partnerships. That’s what we did today, got good opening partnerships and with me and the keeper (Imlach) as well.”For the game today, how I came on to bat, I was just trying to play my natural game. The way I play back home in the Caribbean and how I play my cricket right through. I think it helped me today because I came out in a positive mindset and to play my shots, hit the balls in the air, I played my shots and I guess it came off for me.”Hetmyer also agreed that many people may not have expected his team to come this far in the tournament after having a poor run of form in the build-up to the tournament. But their fortunes turned once the World Cup started. Including the warm-ups, West Indies have now lost only one of the six matches they have played so far.”I think probably coming into the tournament a lot of people thought that because we lost the three games against Bangladesh all here, we wouldn’t really get this far. I think the guys got accustomed to the conditions and adapted as fast as they could, very fast I should say. We have just been playing our normal cricket as we play in the Caribbean and that’s what we have to continue from now on and play our normal cricket.”

Left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava has been named Zimbabwe’s new Test and ODI captain.Ngarava, 27, takes over from Craig Ervine, who stepped down from the role, according to a media statement from Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC). Allrounder Brian Bennett was announced as Ngarava’s deputy. Veteran Sikandar Raza will continue to captain Zimbabwe in T20Is.The new appointments were made following the Zimbabwe board’s fourth quarter meeting in Harare. “Ngarava has shown remarkable growth as a player and leader over the years,” ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani said. “He commands respect within the dressing room and has consistently delivered for Zimbabwe across all formats. We believe he is ready to lead the team into its next chapter.”Craig Ervine led with professionalism, resilience and dignity during a challenging period. ZC is deeply grateful for his contribution to the team’s stability and progress.”Ngarava has played 11 Tests and 145 white-ball internationals for Zimbabwe since making his debut in 2017. He is Zimbabwe’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is, with 108 strikes in 90 matches at an economy rate of 7.30. He also has franchise T20 experience, having had stints in the UAE’s ILT20, Lanka Premier League and Bangladesh Premier League.At 22, Bennett has scored centuries in all formats for Zimbabwe and is known for his attacking enterprise at the top.”Brian’s appointment as vice-captain reflects our confidence in his cricketing intelligence, maturity and long-term leadership potential,” Mukuhlani said. “He represents the future of Zimbabwean cricket.”