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A couple of months after announcing his retirement, Virender Sehwag has said he was “hurt” by the manner in which he was dropped from the Indian team in 2013

Gaurav Kalra30-Dec-20155:56

Hurt by the way I was dropped – Sehwag

A couple of months after announcing his retirement, Virender Sehwag has said he was “hurt” by the manner in which he was dropped from the Indian team in 2013. Speaking exclusively to ESPNcricinfo in Delhi, Sehwag revealed he learnt of his axe from the newspapers and the decision wasn’t communicated to him by the selectors, team management or BCCI.”I hadn’t scored runs in two Tests against Australia,” Sehwag said. “So, I was thinking I would get a couple of more opportunities to perform well in the last two Tests [of the series] and then get dropped if I didn’t perform. If the selectors would have given me that option to play two more Tests and then retire.”Sehwag was left out after the second Test against Australia in Hyderabad in March 2013 after failing to post a half-century in eight innings. He returned to domestic cricket but failed to make a case compelling enough for a national recall. In 20 Ranji trophy matches for Delhi and Haryana since his last Test, Sehwag scored 1269 runs at an average just under 40 with three centuries. Sehwag admitted that it took him a while to adjust to playing on the domestic circuit after having had a long international career.”When I got dropped, I was thinking that I’m a good player and can get back into the Indian team but I was still living in the mindset that I am an aggressive opener and can score runs but I did not realise that domestic cricket is totally different to international cricket and I was still playing in the same way,” he said. “I did not score runs that [2013-14] season and my highest was 50-odd [56] and I was struggling to cope up with [conditions in] Delhi.”I then changed my thinking next year and batting style by giving myself a little more time and I scored 500 plus runs, but I needed to score that in the previous season and maybe I would have gotten back into the team. It was too late but I was playing because I wanted to play the game.”Sehwag is widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen of the modern era, but he was quite candid about his desire to play in the middle order towards the end of his career. Despite the retirements of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, Sehwag was never offered that option.”I told the management [about wanting to bat lower down] but they felt that I was still good enough to play as an opener and they didn’t want to take chances with the opening pair. I tried my best but could not get an opportunity in the middle order,” he said. “When I played my last series, Tendulkar was still there, Kohli and Dhoni were there. Pujara was playing as the No. 3 batsman. Tendulkar was playing at 4, Kohli at 5 and it meant that I had to bat at No. 6 after Tendulkar as you could not ask him to bat at No. 3 or 5. So, there was no chance for me to bat in the middle order.”While Sehwag retired with an impressive Test record, his performances outside the subcontinent were inconsistent. Some knocks like the 195 at MCG in 2003 are considered modern day classics, but overall Sehwag averaged just 35.84 in 36 Tests and made just 5 of his 23 Test centuries outside Asia. He conceded that as an area he struggled to match his peers in.”You don’t think of these things when you play,” he said. “When you retire, you look back and see that my Test average outside Asia is 40 and it is 49 overall. If I can change something, I’d like to change that average outside Asia. I tried as hard as I could outside Asia but I couldn’t do that. I gave my best but didn’t score as much as I can. Dravid, Tendulkar, Sourav and Laxman did it and scored hundreds as well.”

Ireland will attempt to secure qualification for their third consecutive World Cup by beating Netherlands in two ICC WCL Championship fixtures

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jul-2013Ireland will attempt to secure qualification for their third consecutive World Cup by beating Netherlands in two ICC WCL Championship fixtures over the next three days and their captain, William Porterfield, has emphasised how important the achievement would be in the continuing development of Irish cricket.The top two teams in the WCL Championship will qualify automatically for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Ireland currently head the table, two points ahead of Scotland with two games in hand and three clear of Netherlands, who are themselves eyeing a direct route to the tournament.The two fixtures will take place in Amstelveen, with Ireland unbeaten in their last six ODIs against Netherlands. Both matches will be streamed live on the ICC website.”These matches mean everything for both sides as both of us must win,” Porterfield said. “The Dutch have got to win to keep things in their hands while we know that two wins will get us to Australia and New Zealand.”Cricket Ireland has set out a strategic plan to be playing Test cricket by 2020 and that involves a lot of hard yards. One of the boxes we have got to tick is winning events like this. Doing that is very important for Irish cricket as it will give us the profile to help bring more people to the game and that will hopefully bring in funding that will keep the game growing.”Ed Joyce spoke to ESPNcricinfo earlier in the week about the difficulties Ireland continue to face in securing matches against the Full Member nations. Exposure during global ICC tournaments – they have been at the last four, including World Twenty20s – has been vital, with memorable victories over Pakistan and England at the last two World Cups.Cricket Ireland has been very transparent in its aims to develop the game, setting out a blueprint to achieve Test status by 2020. For Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland’s chief executive, it is all about “being first through the gate” and he said that failure to win the WCL Championship would be “a backward step”. Qualification would help Ireland’s forward planning in the next 18 months, as well as bring a $1 million preparation grant from the ICC.Should Ireland lose either or both of the two games against Netherlands, they will have to beat Scotland when the two teams meet in the final round of matches in September. The six countries who do not warrant automatic World Cup spots will take part in a qualifying event in New Zealand next year for two remaining places.”It would be an advantage to go through now, or even in September rather than through the Qualifier because it gives [coach] Phil Simmons a chance to identify his squad as far out from 2015 as possible,” Deutrom said. “We can set up Full Member opponents and get planning in place from 18 months out rather than 12 months out and it is all part of the way we are thinking.”We do not just want to qualify though. We do not just want to do that and think ‘we’ve qualified, now let’s sit back and rest on our laurels’. We want to do it as winners of the World Cricket League Championship, as to do that would be matching our expectations and those of our government backers, our sponsors and our fans.”Everyone has invested in us and continues to do so, and so, for us, it is all about being first through the gate and cementing our place as the top Associate, something we have been for the last four or five years. Anything less would be regarded as a disappointment and a backward step.”Netherlands have competed in four World Cups, including the last three, and will be aiming to record their first victory over Ireland in 50-over cricket since 2006. Their captain, Peter Borren, played in that game and knows that another victory would take them above Scotland and substantially improve their chances of finishing in the top two.”We have got four games left, two of them against Ireland and two against Canada, and if we win three of them then that should be enough,” he said.”For any country, the World Cup is the ultimate stage and for Associate teams like us it is our chance to get exposure and to compete with the big boys. For Dutch cricket it is huge because in order to expand the game we have got to be on the global stage as often as possible.”

Gloucestershire gave their CB40 campaign a boost after an impressive performance with bat and ball by Will Gidman helped them record a crushing 109-run victory over Worcestershire at New Road.

10-Jun-2012
ScorecardGloucestershire gave their CB40 campaign a boost after an impressive performance with bat and ball by Will Gidman helped them record a crushing 109-run victory over Worcestershire at New Road.Gidman, the 27-year-old all-rounder, made his first limited-overs half-century in Gloucestershire’s total of 238 for 6 and then took 2 for 10 as the Royals limped to 129 all out after losing half their side for just 25.Worcestershire’s lowest 40-over score of 86 was looking some way off until left handers James Cameron (35) and Gareth Andrew (23) mustered a face-saving partnership of 46 with the help of a couple of fielding lapses by Gloucestershire.The failure of the front-line batsman was due to good, accurate seam bowling and a sluggish pitch which consistently shackled the stroke-makers. When Vikram Solanki drove to mid-on in Gidman’s third over, he set the pattern for a dramatic collapse.Moeen Ali edged a flashing drive off James Fuller and Phil Hughes, after successive CB40 centuries against county opposition, was one of two victims in a lively spell by left-arm seamer David Payne.Cameron was the only specialist batsman to survive for any length of time but he was brilliantly caught by Kane Williamson, back-pedalling towards long on for off-spinner Jack Taylor’s first success in a spell of 2 for 21.Earlier, it was the Gidman brothers, with fifties of contrasting styles, who underpinned a Gloucestershire innings that came to life when the last seven overs produced 64 runs. Left-hander Will continued his adjustment to a new role as a one-day opener with only three fours in making 76 from 98 balls and Alex launched the late surge with a 6-4-4-6 sequence off successive deliveries from Andrew.Those were the first boundaries in 16 overs as Gloucestershire finally tired of picking off singles on the stodgy surface.Hamish Marshall’s early rush was quickly halted when he scooped a straightforward catch to deep square leg and Benny Howell was barely under way when Hughes held a more difficult chance at point.Both wickets fell to the emerging left-arm seamer Jack Shantry, and at the end of the innings he took his CB40 tally to 14 wickets in six games this season after yorking Alex Gidman for 59. Shantry also bowled Ian Cockbain for a full return of 4 for 37 but Worcestershire’s support bowlers had limited success.Daryl Mitchell had Williamson (29) caught at deep midwicket from his third ball and Moeen was on target when Will Gidman heaved across the line after a stand of 97 with his brother.The victory was Gloucestershire’s third from five Group A matches this season, with Worcestershire slumping to their third defeat from six games.

An emotional Graeme Smith has apologised for not explaining why he wasn’t with the South African team upon its return from the World Cup

Firdose Moonda05-Jun-2011An emotional Graeme Smith has apologised to fans for not explaining why he wasn’t with the South African team upon its return from the World Cup. Smith arrived in South Africa only on Saturday, and said he needed a break due to the “emotional stress” he experienced in the aftermath of South Africa’s dispiriting quarter-final exit.”I was feeling incredibly emotional at the time,” Smith read from prepared statement in Johannesburg. “Prior to the World Cup I had asked permission to go on to Ireland to attend to a personal matter. At the time I had faced a full media schedule and felt that signalled the end of the campaign. What I did not take into account was the public’s reaction.”Smith went to Ireland to propose to Morgan Deane, who is now his fiancée and then travelled to India for the fourth season of the IPL, where he was part of the Pune Warriors squad. South African fans reacted angrily to his no-show, some describing it as cowardly following his last assignment as ODI captain. He also stopped interacting with the public on social networking site, Twitter, that Cricket South Africa has encouraged its players to sign up on and use.Smith said his no-show was caused by anxiety and that he needed some time out. “The emotional stress was something that I hadn’t been through before in my career,” Smith said. “I felt it best to take a break from being stupid and saying stupid things. The fans have a first-hand line from their phone to my phone so I just wanted a break.”Smith said the World Cup campaign had exhausted him mentally, particularly because of the high expectation placed on the team. South Africa took what was believed to be their strongest squad into the tournament but were forced to exit at the quarter-final stage after a 49-run loss to New Zealand. South Africa failed to chase 222 in Dhaka, a performance that led to them being relabelled as chokers. It’s a term that has raised much controversy in South Africa and one that continues to haunt the national side.”I am still convinced that we adopted the right strategy in deciding to use three spinners in addition to two strike pace bowlers. This meant that all of our lower order had to bat one place too high,” Smith said. He did not make excuses for his team’s batting and admitted that the fault was with the top order, that, he said, “did not bat as expected and it is something we, myself included, need to work hard on.”Graeme Smith will stay on as Test captain•Associated Press

Smith has been through a patch of poor form in recent months; he notched up a top score of 45 in seven matches at the World Cup. In 12 ODIs this year, he has averaged 28.25, substantially less than his career average of 39.25. His Test average has also slipped, to 35.87 in five Tests in the 2010-11 season, compared to 49.71 over his career.”I admit that my own form has not been what I had hoped it would be of late,” he said, admitting that without strong performances with the bat, he will struggle to the formidable leader he once was. “Nothing that I say in the next few weeks is going to be worthwhile unless I can back it up with performance.”Smith has battled a knee injury since the IPL and said he hopes to develop a personal programme, with the new coach, who will be appointed on Monday, in order to make a full recovery. It appears that most of the healing has to happen in the mind, with Smith saying he would like to rediscover the joys of playing cricket. “The last two to three months have been the toughest of my career. I want to get back to enjoying my cricket again.” Without the responsibility of captaining in the shorter formats of the game, form is something Smith can concentrate on. He remains the country’s Test captain, despite speculation that he would step down at Sunday’s press conference.While Smith has used his time away to refresh his mindset and sharpen his physique (he looked distinctly slimmer than he has in a long time), he hopes the rest of the World Cup squad have also been able to get over their calamitous exit. “Time is a good healer and it gives you perspective. It’s easy to be emotional at the time.”There are a lot of exciting times ahead for us with the appointment of the new coach and ODI captain. We did a lot of work in the off season on our team culture. Ultimately, it’s always about the cricket and it always has been.”AB de Villiers is expected to succeed Smith as the ODI captain. South Africa take on Australia and Sri Lanka in their home season this year.

The Pakistan board has expressed its disappointment at not having a domestic team invited to participate in the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa

Osman Samiuddin28-May-2010The Pakistan board has expressed its disappointment at not having a domestic team invited to participate in the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa. This appears to be a u-turn on an earlier stance it had taken, when in the aftermath of the IPL snub to Pakistan players, Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, had ruled out the participation of any Pakistan team in the Champions League. That, says the chairman however, was not what he had said at the time.”Those comments of mine were about the IPL and our participation in that event and not at all about the Champions League,” Butt told Cricinfo. “I had said our players would not be in the IPL because of what had happened at the auction. I did not say that our domestic teams would not go to the Champions League. Why would I deprive them of that opportunity? My comments were misinterpreted.”Nevertheless, the confusion means that Sialkot Stallions, Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 champions five years running now, will again miss out on the most lucrative global club tournament in cricket. Sialkot, which won the RBS Twenty20 in March this year, could potentially include Pakistan players such as Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Abdur Rehman and Abdul Razzaq. They were invited to take part in what would have been the inaugural Champions League at the end of 2008 but the terror attacks on Mumbai in November that year forced a postponement to 2009. By that time, relations between India and Pakistan having deteriorated, no team was invited from Pakistan.”Nobody has invited us this year and that is disappointing,” Butt said. “We asked them about it and we received no reply at all. We will take up this issue with the ICC. After all, why are we being discriminated against like this? Clubs from so many other countries are invited and our Sialkot side has done so well over the last few years.”A Champions League official, however, told Cricinfo that no Pakistan team had been considered for the 2010 tournament after Butt’s statements in February. “Mr Butt had formally announced and communicated in February that no Pakistani team would be permitted to compete in the 2010 CLT20, and as Mr Butt is the Chairman of the PCB, the Governing Council of CLT20 could not and did not consider any invitations to Pakistani teams,” the official told Cricinfo. “Unfortunately, due to the announcement by Mr Butt, it is now clearly too late to even consider the addition of Pakistani teams to the 2010 CLT20.”Gerald Majola, chief executive of Cricket South Africa, one if the founding members of the Champions League, also said it was too late to include a Pakistan team. “I don’t think the PCB approached us,” he told Cricinfo. “If that was the case we would’ve known earlier. Unfortunately it too late now, things have been finalised so there can be no question of sending an invite.”However, whether or not the league was ever considering inviting a team from Pakistan is open to question. Another tournament official told Cricinfo that “the plan was always to invite the same make-up of teams as 2009, with the understanding that if English teams were unavailable, the field would be reduced to 10 teams.”To my knowledge PCB made no approaches to be included in this year’s CLT20,” he said. “There won’t be any late invitations issued. The match schedule is being drafted at the moment and venues being finalised, so we’re advanced in our planning.”That means Shahid Afridi, who helped South Australia qualify, could be Pakistan’s only representative in the tournament this time round, although his national responsibilities until September 22 makes his participation uncertain as well. The number of teams taking part was reduced to ten this year (from 12) after the ECB said its sides could not take part because of a clash of dates with the end of the English domestic season. Other than Bangladesh and England this year, teams from all Test-playing countries participate in the tournament. The tournament is run jointly by the cricket boards of Australia, India and South Africa.

Division One leaders need less than two session to take the nine wickets they needed

ECB Reporters Network25-Aug-2024Title favourites Surrey took less than two sessions on day four to bowl out Lancashire for 177 at the Kia Oval to complete an impressive innings-and-63-run victory.Conor McKerr polished off Lancashire’s tail to finish with 4 for 27 while Dan Worrall and Jordan Clark picked up three wickets apiece as long-time Division One leaders Surrey, champions in 2022 and 2023, made it seven wins from ten Vitality County Championship matches this season. It is another big step for Surrey towards a third title in a row.Matty Hurst, Lancashire’s highly rated 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batter, tried hard to hold up Surrey by adding a fine 64 to a first-innings 46 in what is only his 12th first-class appearance but there was never any real doubt about the eventual result as wickets fell regularlyLancashire resumed still 214 runs adrift on 26 for 1 from 11.1 overs, after a rain-hit third day had seemingly given them a chance of escaping with a draw, but lost their last nine wickets for 151 runs as Surrey’s five-man pace attack proved too hot for them to handle for the second time in the game.Worrall, the Championship’s leading wicket-taker with 40 at an average of only 15.55 runs apiece, made the initial breakthroughs by dismissing Lancashire captain Keaton Jennings for 13 and 16-year-old debutant Rocky Flintoff in successive balls in the fifth full over of the morning.First, coming from around the wicket to left-hander Jennings, he swung one back into the former England Test opener who offered no shot and saw the ball thud into the top of his off stump. And another fine piece of bowling by Worrall immediately inflicted a first ball duck on young Flintoff, the son of former England captain Andrew who had batted so promisingly for 32 on day one as Lancashire’s youngest first-class cricketer.Pushing forward to an outswinger that also bounced perhaps more than he expected, Flintoff edged to keeper Ben Foakes who took an excellent diving catch in front of first slip.That left Lancashire 33 for 3 and they soon declined further to 82 for 5 as Josh Bohannon chopped a short, rising ball from Clark into his stumps to go for 29 and George Balderson edged a returning Worrall to second slip on four.Hurst, however, was then joined by Venkatesh Iyer in a sixth-wicket stand of 36 that at least took Lancashire through to lunch, with Iyer even having the temerity to flip Worrall over the short leg-side boundary for six. Yet it took only two balls after the interval for Surrey to break the stand, with Iyer nibbling at Clark outside off stump and thin-edging through to Foakes.Tom Hartley also offered some lower resistance, battling through a testing spell from Sam Curran in which he was beaten several times before hitting Will Jacks’ off spin over long-on for six.Hurst, though, was disgusted with himself for clipping the first ball of McKerr’s second spell – an innocuous loosener – straight into Ryan Patel’s hands at midwicket after a defiant 116-ball stay featuring seven fours. And the end was nigh when McKerr took two more wickets in his eighth over, Tom Aspinwall lofting a full toss straight to mid off and Josh Boyden losing his off stump to depart for a second-ball duck.Hartley was last man out, for 22, fending McKerr to Patel at short leg just after 3pm. Worrall finished with 3 for 34 while Clark took his own season’s Championship wicket tally to 32 with his 3 for 43.

Birmingham maintain winning start as bumper Bank Holiday crowd sees lopsided contest

ECB Reporters Network29-May-2023Birmingham 99 for three (Davies 51*, Yates 30) beat Lancashire Lightning 98 (Briggs 4-15, Mousley 4-13) by seven wicketsBirmingham Bears extended their 100 per cent start to the Vitality Blast and ended Lancashire Lightning’s with a commanding seven-wicket victory in front of a sun-soaked 11,243 crowd at Edgbaston.After choosing to bat, Lightning tumbled all out for 98 after losing their last seven wickets for 36 runs in 35 balls. They were spun to destruction as Danny Briggs took four for 15, Dan Mousley three for 13 and Jake Lintott two for 24. Only Steven Croft (22, 13 balls) passed 20 for the visitors.Lightning desperately needed to strike early when the Bears replied but openers Alex Davies (51 not out, 39 balls – his maiden Blast fifty for the Bears) and Rob Yates (30, 24 balls) added an untroubled 50 by the seventh over to set up a victory stroll. The Bears reached 99 for three with 34 balls to spare.”We didn’t really sense that this was going to be a game for the slow bowlers but we talk about being adaptable because so much depends on who can adapt quickest,” Mousley said. “Maxy got the early wicket and then we thought, ‘okay. it’s going to offer a bit of assistance to the spinners’ and we took advantage of that.”I love bowling and playing away in the ILT20 last winter I just learned as much as I could by bowling to some of the best players in the world. It made me realise that I am actually okay at it and I have brought that confidence back here.”With Phil Salt ruled out by a back spasm, Josh Bohannon came into the Lightning side to open the batting but perished fourth ball, bowled through a mow at Glenn Maxwell. Luke Wells, scorer of a match-winning 66 against Derbyshire Falcons on this ground nine days earlier, fell in the next over to a superb return catch, clutched centimetres from the ground, by Mousley.Croft bashed 18 from four balls from Henry Brookes to get the innings going momentarily but the bowler gained his revenge when he was waiting at square leg to accept a catch when Croft lifted a sweep at Mousley. That was 62 for three and from that point the Lightning fell in a heap in the face of fine spin bowling backed up by brilliant fielding.Mousley switched ends to bowl the dangerous Liam Livingstone first ball back. Chris Benjamin took a stinging slip catch to prevent Colin de Grandhomme damaging his former team. Mousley made a steepling catch at long off from Daryl Mitchell look simple and Rob Yates took a blinder at extra cover to oust Luke Wood.Wood was the second of Briggs’ four victims as he plucked off the tail with three wickets in four balls and Lightning committed the heinous T20 crime of leaving 31 balls unused.Faced with such a meagre target. Yates allowed himself the Blast luxury of a leave, first ball, and the Bears openers killed the game dead with a stand 50 of in 39 balls. Yates top-edged a sweep at Matt Parkinson to short fine leg and Maxwell’s home debut knock yielded only two from three balls before he missed an attempt to carve Hartley through the off side, but it was already game over.Sam Hain reached the crease facing one of the less exerting equations he has faced over the years – 37 needed from 74 balls with eight wickets in hand. He was soon bowled by Wells’ third ball but Davies advanced smoothly to his 16th Blast half-century and the captain eased his side home to the jubilation of most in the big crowd, though you got the feeling a fair few of them would have swapped the cakewalk for a more gripping contest in perfect Bank Holiday weather.With three wins from four, Lancashire’s head coach, Glen Chapple, was philosophical. “We lost three wickets to very good catches and throw in a bit of bad luck and before you know it you’re six down. We’re not going to dwell on it, we’re just going to crack on.”