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Greg Barclay hopes Jay Shah brings “India into the international fold even more” but without making cricket “under the yoke of India”

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-2024Greg Barclay, the outgoing chair of the ICC, has acknowledged the game he governed for four years is “a mess” and has warned of more challenging times ahead as he gives way to Jay Shah. In an interview with the , Barclay, who had two two-year terms at the helm from 2020, also cautioned Shah against taking the game “under the yoke of India”.Barclay stepped down on December 1, in the midst of an ongoing crisis over the Champions Trophy venues, and he admitted there was so much cricket being played that he had lost track of who was playing whom. In his tenure, three more major franchise-based T20 leagues cropped up, in the USA, the UAE and South Africa, further cramming an already packed calendar. He blamed the members’ self-interest for the situation.”I reckon, gee, I’m at the apex of the game and I can’t tell you who’s playing around the world. In fact, I didn’t realise that Sri Lanka were in South Africa until I read about Marco Jansen’s seven wickets this morning,” Barclay said. “So we’ve lost perspective. It’s not great for the game at all. It’s a mess. The calendar is incredibly congested and self-interest is such that it’s almost impossible to untangle all of that, because no one’s going to give up their content.”Related

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Barclay said he hoped Shah would be able to leverage India’s stature take the game out of the mess it was in. “I think he’s got a great opportunity to use what he’s got in his background to help India take the game to another level, but without making it sort of under the yoke of India as well,” Barclay said. “We’re really lucky to have India, they’re a massive contributor to the game across all the measures, but one country having that amount of power and influence does distort a whole lot of other outcomes, which is not necessarily helpful in terms of that global growth.”Jay has the ability to bring India into the international fold even more. There are a number of things that India could do to help unite and grow the game, including commercially helping to pool off-shore rights, using their teams to give opportunity to smaller Full Members and emerging countries, using their clout to open new territories and markets, collaborating closely with the ICC to help benefit members, as examples.”Barclay also warned of an impending financial readjustment the game might be forced to make, in the shape of its next media and commercial rights deal. The current rights deal is the most lucrative the ICC has signed, worth over US$3 billion. The bulk of that value has come from the Indian market where Disney-Star* hold the rights to broadcast ICC events until 2027. That has resulted in revenue distributions to Full Members of a size they have never seen before, and it has become particularly important for members such as the PCB, NZC, CWI, SLC and CSA for whom annual ICC revenue makes up a significant chunk of their total earnings.Barclay said the deals were ultimately “way in excess” of the actual value and that there will be, in time, a correction.”At some point, it is going to correct,” he said. “It’s a market. Is it going to be a sharp, severe correction? Or is it going to be a long, slow one? Or maybe there’s going to be an alternative broadcaster that comes to the market? But people have been saying that for 10 years now. New Zealand cricket had a deal with Amazon, but it didn’t work, so I don’t think they’re going to be the white knight that everybody is anticipating. I just think what we’ve got in front of us is what we’ve got.”I know that when we did our current deal it was way in excess of what the valuations we got before we went to market. We got £2.4 billion just out of India. The next biggest one is UK Sky. They did an eight-year deal, which was £237 million, so that’s 10% of the India deal for double the length of time. So if we go back to what the original projection was of £800 million it more than halves ICC revenue. It could even be less than that. There’s no discernible replacement for that at the moment.”One of the prominent issues that marked Barclay’s time was the Afghanistan Cricket Board not being allowed by the country’s Taliban government to field a women’s team. Fielding a women’s team and programme is a central tenet of Full Membership and despite calls to suspend membership, Barclay said the ICC had been right in not sanctioning Afghanistan’s membership status.Greg Barclay cautioned Jay Shah against taking the game “under the yoke of India”•Associated Press

“It is not the Afghanistan board’s fault. They used to have women’s cricket. I think our approach has been right,” he said. “It would be easy to kick Afghanistan out, but their board haven’t done anything wrong. They’re just working under a decree and a series of laws that says this is what you have to do. I don’t think it would make a jot of difference to the ruling party there to kick them out.”Maybe I’m a little naïve, but I think cricket is such a force for good there, and it brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. It is better to leave it there and hope that it can foster a bit of a change.”Instead, Barclay did point to the double standards of boards – such as Cricket Australia – that have cancelled multiple bilateral series with the Afghanistan men’s team as a sanction, but has played them at ICC events. “If you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup. Sure, it might cost you a semi-final place, but principles are principles. It’s not about having half a principle.”*

It was his second six-wicket haul in successive Championship games

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay23-Jul-2025 Somerset 250 (Lammonby 89, Drissell 5-59) and 89 for 5 (Banton 33*, Parkinson 4-39) beat Durham 145 (Raine 42, Overton 6-23) and 190 (Gay 42, Leach 6-63, Vaughan 4-85) by five wicketsJack Leach returned figures of 6 for 63 as Somerset wrapped up a five-wicket Rothesay County Championship Division One win over Durham inside two days at the Cooper Associates Ground, Taunton.From an overnight 5 for 2 in their second innings, trailing by 100 runs, the visitors were bowled out for 190, left-arm spinner Leach claiming his second six-for in successive Championship games and off-spinner Archie Vaughan taking 4 for 85. Emilio Gay top-scored with 42, while Ben Raine contributed 36.That left Somerset needing just 86 to win, a target they achieved in 19.2 overs, not without alarm, at just before 4pm, Tom Banton ending unbeaten on 33 and Callum Parkinson taking 4 for 39. They took 20 points from the game to Durham’s three.Despite the turning pitch, Somerset elected to start the day with seam at both ends, skipper Lewis Gregory operating from the River End in tandem with Craig Overton.Gay and Neil Wagner were rarely troubled and had added 26 to the overnight score by the time Vaughan was introduced from the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion End.His first over went for 16, Gay striking fou fours and clearly intent on carrying the game to Somerset’s slow bowlers. Leach’s first over from the other end saw Wagner hit a six over long-off to bring up a half-century stand from just 57 balls.Gay struck a straight six off Vaughan and followed up next ball with a swept four as Durham’s total reached 76, just 29 runs behind, before Somerset made a much-needed breakthrough.Wagner had played well, facing 49 balls, before attempting to sweep a full delivery from Vaughan and falling lbw. It signalled a collapse as Gay quickly followed, caught by Overton, diving forward at short mid-wicket off Leach.Colin Ackermann bagged a pair when playing Leach in the air to mid-off where Banton took a similar catch to Overton’s, throwing himself forward. It was 92 for 6 when David Bedingham fell lbw to a Leach delivery that straightened from around the wicket.Durham were still 13 runs from avoiding an innings defeat. Ollie Robinson and Graham Clark ensured that indignity was avoided with a partnership of 40 before Robinson aimed a big drive at Vaughan and was bowled for 28.Vaughan almost struck again with his next delivery, Raine driving it back and the bowler just failing to hold a low catch diving full length to his right. The lunch score was 152 for 7, 147 runs having been scored in the session off 40 overs.Clark was unbeaten on 24 and Durham led by 47. Leach had figures of 4 for 50 from 17 overs and that became a five-for with 14 runs added when Clark’s 89-ball innings of 32 ended with an edged forward defensive shot to wicketkeeper James Rew.Leach struck again when George Drissell was caught and bowled off a leading edge. That left Raine with little option but to go on the attack and he cleared the ropes twice in a Vaughan over.Vaughan claimed revenge in his next over as Raine holed out to long-off and, with 46 overs remaining, a two-day finish was guaranteed. Not surprisingly, Durham gave the new ball to left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson, whose second delivery was deposited over midwicket for six by Tom Kohler-Cadmore.Drissell was greeted by a Josh Davey boundary to wide long-on as Somerset went for a quick kill. That plan suffered a setback when Davey fell leg-before to Parkinson, aiming to sweep, with the total on 13.It was 16 for 2 when Kohler-Cadmore edged Parkinson to second slip. Rew, on a pair, reverse swept his first ball for four and, on five, narrowly escaped a catch to second slip off Drissell.Tom Lammonby eased any tension with two fours off Drissell full-tosses, but was then bowled through the gate by Parkinson for 22 with Somerset halfway to their target. Rew quickly followed, caught at short mid-wicket to give Parkinson a fourth wicket.Tom Abell was bowled by Drissell on the back foot with 24 needed. But Banton used the sweep and reverse-sweep to good effect to see Somerset home.

Young batter impresses former captain after composed debut at No.3 in Christchurch

Andrew Miller05-Dec-2024Alastair Cook, England’s former Test captain, believes Jacob Bethell’s temperament can make up for his lack of red-ball experience, after he came through a challenging maiden Test in Christchurch with his reputation enhanced.Bethell was thrust in at No.3 for the first Test against New Zealand, after a hand injury prevented Jordan Cox from making his own Test debut, with Ollie Pope moving down to No. 6 as a makeshift wicketkeeper.Bethell responded with scores of 10 and 50 not out in England’s eight-wicket win, despite having played just 20 previous first-class matches in his professional career, and never having made a century in any senior format.Cook, like Bethell, was also 21 when he made a century on Test debut against India in March 2006, and went on to miss just one subsequent match through illness while compiling a then-record tally of 161 appearances.However, by the time of his call-up, Cook had completed a breakthrough home season in 2005, featuring five County Championship hundreds and a memorable double-century against the touring Australians. And speaking on the eve of the second Test in Wellington, for which he will provide studio analysis for TNT Sports, he warned against expecting too much, too soon from Bethell.”There’s a long way to go, but it’s been an encouraging start,” Cook said. “He’s probably a year or two years behind as a player, in terms of knowing his red-ball game. But all of us who’ve watched cricket and played cricket, have seen something about him.”It’s hard to always pinpoint what it is about certain players that makes you think they’ve got a really good chance of making it to the next level. But I saw Jonny Bairstow bat as a youngster for Yorkshire, and I saw Jos Butler bat for Somerset … it’s not easy to put into words, because it isn’t about words. It’s about something you see.”For some, it’s the time they have at the crease, for some it’s how cleanly they hit the ball. But Bethell’s a seriously talented player, and he’s looked at home in international cricket straightaway. He’s plays the situation in front of him, and he’s not overawed by what is going on.”Related

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That was apparent even in the adversity of England’s first innings at Christchurch. Bethell arrived in overcast, swinging conditions, after Zak Crawley had been dismissed for a duck, and ground his way to 10 from 34 balls before receiving a brute of a delivery from Nathan Smith, in the final over before the lunch break.”I was impressed,” Cook said. “Particularly the way that he gutsed it out in the first innings. His strike-rate in red-ball cricket is actually under 50, so it’s clear he likes to build an innings [even though] his array of shots is why he got picked for the white-ball team. There’s a huge amount of growth to be had there, without a doubt, even though he’s nowhere near the finished article.”Cook himself had been sceptical about Bethell’s selection when addressing his call-up in the build-up to the first Test, but admitted that the manner in which he had handled such doubts was further proof of his potential.”When he got called up, there was some question why [you’d pick] a guy averaging 25 with no hundreds, and that does bring some pressure onto you as a player. To handle that like he’s done, it’s as if he’s doing all the other stuff first, rather than score the actual volume of runs that might have been required [for selection] in the more traditional way.”A lot of Test cricket is played in the mind,” Cook added. “You do need a decent technique, but the power of the mind can overcome a hell of a lot. I don’t want to get carried away, but he’s obviously made of the right stuff, and you are trusting the judgment of people in that leadership group who have played Test cricket, and wouldn’t have taken this risk without thinking that he could cope.”Bethell’s calm arrival now increases the scrutiny on Ollie Pope, especially with Jamie Smith due to reclaim the wicketkeeper’s duties when he returns from paternity leave in the new year. But Cook acknowledged that Pope’s glovework in the first Test had been faultless, while his calm 77 from No.6 turned out to be a vital contribution to England’s eventual victory.”I was pleasantly surprised at how well he kept in that game,” he said. “I don’t think you should ever get to a case where you’ve got a fourth-choice county keeper [doing the job for England], but, actually, maybe I’ve misjudged that situation. He hasn’t really made many mistakes, if any, in his four Test matches as keeper.”So, does that start to be a a viable option down the line as well? Two weeks ago, the XI that played last week wouldn’t have been on anyone’s list of teams, but things change very quickly in sport, because it is a results-driven business. Pope just looks more suited batting at five and six, while Bethell, in that first innings, had more chance of getting through that swinging, nipping ball.”Watch every ball of the New Zealand vs England second Test, live on TNT Sports and discovery+ from 9.30pm on Thursday, December 5

Stand-in Superchargers captain Matthew Short expects “a lot of energy” from new head coach

Matt Roller25-Jul-2024Andrew Flintoff is “raring to go” for his first head coach role and will be “at his happiest” when his Northern Superchargers play Trent Rockets on Friday night. That is according to Kyle Hogg, Flintoff’s assistant at the Superchargers and his right-hand man ever since they met as teenagers making their way at Lancashire.”I was around Lancs as a 16-year-old playing in the second team, and he’d have been 19 or 20,” Hogg told ESPNcricinfo. “I don’t want to say he took me under his wing – but he probably did, really. He looked after me in the dressing room and we’ve been close friends for about 25 years, which is scary. He’s never changed one bit from the first day I met him to today.”Related

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Hogg, who has worked as a pathway coach at Lancashire and is an assistant coach at the Thunder women’s team, was asked late last year if he would be interested in working with Flintoff in the Hundred. They have recently worked together on the BBC series and Hogg did not need much convincing: “Any time he comes calling, you’ve never turning him down.”Flintoff has been working in England’s white-ball set-up as an assistant coach and has been mentioned as a potential successor to Matthew Mott. But Hogg played those links down, saying: “He’s been in TV for the last 15 years. This is his first time in cricket, so I guess it’s, see how he finds it. What happens in the future, who knows?”But at the moment, he loves being part of cricket again… He went from being a cricketer to, every time you switch a TV on, he was doing something different. But he’s never changed once. He’s got his core group of friends who have always been there, forever. He’s had a tough few years, and it’s great to see him back in a cricket environment.”Matthew Short will deputise as Superchargers captain•PA Images via Getty Images

The Superchargers are light on players, so much so that their strength and conditioning coach took part in Wednesday’s practice match against the South Asian Cricket Academy. Harry Brook and Ben Stokes are with England’s Test squad, Mitchell Santner is at Major League Cricket and Reece Topley will miss at least a week with a finger injury. Matthew Potts will, at least, be made available by England.*Brook is due to captain but Matthew Short, the Australian opener, will deputise for two games after leaving MLC early. “The Superchargers showed some faith in me, retaining me for this year, and I thought, ‘al lright, I’ll commit to these guys 100 percent,” Short told ESPNcricinfo on Thursday, barely 24 hours after flying into the UK from Dallas. “It’s a bloody fun tournament.”Short had sorted his retention for 2024 before Flintoff’s appointment but said he is excited to work with him. “He’s been great: he’s probably even more excited than the players at the moment. He loves to be on this side of the fence here at Headingley. I’m sure everyone is going to get around Freddie and help him out. We love having him around.”At the T20 World Cup, where he was a travelling reserve, Short asked England’s players about Flintoff’s characteristics. “From what I’ve heard, he’s a bit of the modern-day coach now, especially in white-ball cricket. It feels like he’s got a lot of fun and a lot of energy to bring. He’s going to be nice and relaxed, and I’m sure it’s going to be a really nice environment.”Their main discussions so far have been “around the whereabouts of all the players,” Short said, laughing. “How we want to play as a team is pretty hard to work out in a couple of days, so we’re going to have to learn on the go in that regard. The guys have played enough cricket to know what to do and know what they’re doing personally.”Flintoff and Hogg were long-time Lancashire team-mates•Getty Images

Hogg spent 14 seasons playing for Lancashire’s first team and admitted it felt strange to be in the home dressing at Headingley, the home ground of their fierce rivals Yorkshire. “It is probably hard to get your head around it,” he said. “But we’ve come in and felt like this is our home, which is really good. We want this to be our fortress.”[Flintoff] would have played here a lot more than I have over the years. He said even playing for England, sometimes you’d get a bit of grief being a Lancastrian which is part and parcel of it. But as everybody knows with Fred, anything he does, he does it 110%. He’s more excited than probably anybody: he is raring to go.”Cricket is what he loves, that’s the bottom line. He loves the preparation and everything that goes with it, and tomorrow night, when we get going, he’ll be at his happiest… he’ll be the same as he is in all walks of life. He’ll want the lads to give it everything, [just like] how he played his cricket. He’ll be there for all the players, and he’ll want them to enjoy it.”July 26, 1600 GMT – This story was updated to reflect Nicholas Pooran’s arrival in Leeds

Neesham instrumental in recovery from top-order implosion

ECB Reporters Network14-Jul-2024All-rounder Lewis Goldsworthy hit a career-best 67 as Leicestershire Foxes maintained their push to win a place in the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast with a five-wicket victory over East Midlands rivals Notts Outlaws at the Uptonsteel County Ground.New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham backed up Goldsworthy’s performance with 44 from 22 balls as the Foxes won with an over to spare – despite having been six for three at the start of their chase – condemning the Outlaws to an eighth defeat in what has been comfortably their worst season in the current Blast format.With seven of the nine North Group counties chasing four qualifying places in a tight finish to the group season, the Foxes have 14 points but may still have to defeat group leaders Birmingham Bears in their final fixture at Edgbaston next Friday if they are to go through.Ben Martindale, the 21-year-old left-hander, made 44 from 42 balls – his best in a fledgling T20 career – and skipper Joe Clarke 39 from 23 as the Outlaws made 160 for six, a mid-innings collapse rescued to a degree at the death by Liam Patterson-White (28 from 16) and Lyndon James (22 from 11), Scott Currie taking two for 35 for the Foxes.But it was a score that proved not enough despite Olly Stone taking two for 22 from his four overs, Rehan Ahmed chipping in with 34 from 38.Having opted to bat first, the Outlaws would have been pleased to be 49 without loss from six given their recent form. After taking only 10 runs from the first 16 deliveries, Clarke and Martindale plundered seven boundaries from the next 20.Clarke lifted a Rehan full toss over the short boundary on The Meet side of the ground for his second six, quickly adding two more fours, but the partnership was broken on 68 as he fell to a catch on the cover boundary.After a tentative start, Martindale grew in confidence, reverse pulling six off Goldsworthy but Notts were checked again in the 11th when Jack Haynes was caught at deep midwicket in a wicket-maiden by Josh Hull.Martindale briefly broke free from a Foxes squeeze as he slogged Currie over the midwicket rope but an attempted repeat was brilliantly caught by Louis Kimber, keeping the ball in the air as he crossed the boundary and stepping back to take it inside.Matt Montgomery and Tom Moores fell cheaply as the Outlaws slipped to 115 for five in the 17th but Liam Patterson-White, who hit back-to-back sixes off Hull before being caught off Currie off the penultimate ball, joined Lyndon James (22 not out off 11) in adding 45 from 20 balls to give the innings substance.Indeed, 160 looked a decent total as the Foxes made a calamitous start, losing Sol Budinger, pulling to deep backward square, and Peter Handscomb, miscueing to extra cover, and Rishi Patel, bowled off an inside edge, to be six for three from 14 balls.It could have been much worse for the home side, with two difficult slip chances and one comparatively comfortable return catch put down, Patterson-White giving Rehan a life on 21 in the third instance. As it was, by the halfway point, with no further losses, the Foxes needed 100 runs to win.Rehan was caught at mid-off off James after the fourth wicket pair had added 76 but Goldsworthy, on loan from Somerset, chose the right moment to make his biggest contribution so far, hitting two sixes and six fours in a fine innings before holing out to deep midwicket off Patterson-White.He added 54 with Neesham for the seventh wicket, leaving 25 more to get with his departure, the New Zealand all-rounder going most of the way to finishing the job with three sixes and two fours before Louis Kimber drove Fazalhaq Farooqi for the winning boundary.

Travis Head revealed that the visitors are considering a batting order than changes from innings to innings with a match

AAP27-Jan-20251:52

Smith: Konstas can bat conventionally too, he’s got ‘all the tools’

Australia will consider taking the drastic step of changing its batting order mid-Test match to combat its selection dilemma at the top for the Sri Lanka series.Travis Head and Sam Konstas arrived in Galle seemingly locked in a battle to partner veteran opener Usman Khawaja for the first of two matches beginning on January 29.Teenage swashbuckler Konstas is the incumbent and helped seal Australia’s first series win over India in a decade with valuable contributions across his first two Test matches.Related

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Australia’s middle-order aggressor on home soil, Head averaged 55.75 runs as David Warner’s injury replacement during the final two and a half Tests on the last subcontinent to India in 2023.”I don’t know where I’m going to bat at this stage,” Head said ahead of Monday’s main training session for the first Test. “We’ll see how that wicket plays out over the next couple of days.”But Head revealed Australia had been discussing the prospect of shifting its batting order mid-game if pitch conditions called for flexibility.Questions remain as to how much spin will be on offer from day one in the Test matches, with the pitch playing very differently in Galle across Australia’s last two visits in 2022 and 2016.Travis Head has dominated in the middle order at home, but the subcontinent has been a different story•Getty Images

Head is more experienced in Asia than Konstas, who is embarking on his first subcontinent Test tour, but has not always been able to make the best of turning wickets. He said when it came to the opener debate, Australia may be able to have its cake and eat it too.”It’s been a topic of conversation for the last little bit in this team on whether the Australian first innings, second innings, why doesn’t the order change?” Head said. “Why can’t we be flexible? What moves? How can we be brave? That hasn’t played out as such yet. Is this the tour to do it? We’ll wait and see.”The current Australian team has often changed its batting order mid-game to deploy a nightwatchman, usually Nathan Lyon, but a premeditated mid-game switch would be unprecedented. But in the era of Konstas reverse-ramp shots and booming support for Test cricket, Head feels the time is ripe for change.”The game is evolving, so why not continue to see where we can make jumps and leaps and where can we get an advantage?” he said. “If that’s using people in different positions, it’s not traditionally done a hell of a lot … [but] this team’s experienced enough and in a great position where players will be open to that if needed to be.”