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Pakistan left-arm seamer Junaid Khan has been signed by Lancashire

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jun-2011Lanchashire have signed Pakistan left-arm seamer Junaid Khan as an overseas player for the remainder of the Friends life t20 tournament, subject to his registration.”Junaid is a hot prospect who was recommended to us by Wasim Akram,” Lancashire Cricket director Mike Watkinson said. “He is initially with us for our Friends Life t20 campaign but there may be some scope for him to feature in our County Championship squad later in the summer.”The 21-year-old fast bowler has played seven ODIs and one Twenty20 game for Pakistan and was part of their Test squad on the recent tour of West Indies. He was Pakistan’s second-highest wicket-taker in the recent two-match ODI series against Ireland.”Junaid is an extremely talented cricketer,” head coach Peter Moores added, “who will supplement our seam attack. He bowls with good pace and variation and we look forward to working with him.”Lancashire had earlier signed Sri Lankan allrounder Farveez Maharoof for the season.

Alastair Cook, England’s ODI captain, has warned his team-mates that “no player is guaranteed a place in his side” as England prepare for the one-day series against India

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Sep-2011Alastair Cook, England’s ODI captain, has warned his team-mates that “no player is guaranteed a place in his side” as England prepare for the one-day series against India that starts on Saturday.Kevin Pietersen is being rested for this series and reports emerged on Friday that he will not play for England until January – which would rule him out of the tour to India in October. Pietersen made just two ODI half-centuries in the previous two years but the England management insisted he had been rested, and not dropped, from the current series.”Kevin’s omission is part of our policy of monitoring the workload of players.”‘ Cook told the Daily Mail. “He also has a wrist injury that has to be sorted out. It gives a fantastic opportunity for someone else at four, but Kevin is very much part of our one-day future.”Yet Cook told reporters, “There is no guarantee for anything, because we haven’t had that selection meeting for India,” and when asked if he would prefer someone like Pietersen in his side, Cook repeated “There’s no guarantee for anything.”Pietersen’s absence was an opportunity for Ben Stokes to come into the squad, though it is more likely that Ravi Bopara will feature down the order and Ian Bell be promoted. Unlike the Test arena, where Bell has made himself into one of the best in the world, he is yet to seal his spot in England’s one-day team.

Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, has said his side isn’t going to let up in the third ODI on Tuesday, despite having already claimed the one-day series

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Oct-2011Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, has said his side isn’t going to let up in the third ODI on Tuesday, despite having already claimed the one-day series. West Indies won the second game in Mirpur by eight wickets to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-game series.”We still got a job to do,” Sammy said. “We win the series 3-0 and we get four ranking points so it’s a very important match. It’s not about revenge but going out there putting up a professional display. We win the series 2-1, we get no points. We win it three-love, that’s four points.”One of the team’s stated goals is to make their way up the one-day ranking ladder before the 2015 World Cup, and a sweep here would get them started. West Indies are currently eighth in the ODI rankings, nine points behind New Zealand.Although they won the first two games with ease, Sammy said there was still work to be done. “I thought the lower order batted very well in the last game but we, including myself, dropped a few catches. We had them under 60 for 5, we could have restricted them to under 120.”The seamers have done most of the damage for West Indies, despite the pitches in Bangladesh normally being more conducive to spin, and Sammy said that was testimony to their discipline and perseverance. “Bangladesh normally have spinning wickets. We back our bowlers. When you bowl fast, you do that on every wicket. We control what we can, our line and lengths. We are disciplined.”Bangladesh have won their last four games in Chittagong but West Indies are determined to end that streak. “We prepared well, so it improves our chances to win,” Sammy said. “The team is slowly gelling together.”Lendl Simmons and Marlin Samuels have been the two form batsmen for the visitors. Simmons made a hundred in the first game before narrowly missing out in the second, while Samuels made an aggressive, unbeaten 88 in the second game to see West Indies home. “He’s [Simmons] matured over the years,” Sammy said. “He had a break from international cricket. Playing first-class cricket and Champions League has given him exposure and he’s been consistent.”Samuels, who returned to international cricket earlier this year following a two-year ban, was also singled out for praise. “Before he had a two-year break from international cricket he was playing very well for us. He’s a natural strokemaker. He took a few games to get back into his own. The work he has put in for somebody who has been out from cricket for two years is tremendous.”Batting coach Desmond Haynes was another who received credit for the improved displays from West Indies. “Haynes has done some good work since the Pakistan series,” Sammy said. “It’s good to see that the guys are showing in the middle what they’re practicing in the nets.”So far our fast bowlers have taken the wickets. So far we’ve been batting well and we lost only six wickets in two one-dayers. It hasn’t happened in a long time. Credit to the guys and how the coach has incorporated a professional culture in the team. It’s all well for West Indies cricket.”

Despite the rain, spectators at the Rose Bowl were left with the consolation of having watched one of the game’s modern greats produce an innings that has been long overdue

Andrew Miller at the Rose Bowl20-Jun-2011A grand total of 369 overs were lost to the rain in the course of England’s three Tests against Sri Lanka – which is roughly 26 and a half hours’ worth of play, or nearly four full days out of a possible 15. It was only fitting, therefore, that on the stroke of tea on the final afternoon, yet another dirty great cloud rolled across the Rose Bowl to extinguish the final embers of a contest that, but for a crazy 24 overs in Cardiff last month, would never have come close to igniting.If the hardy citizens of Hampshire arrived at the ground today hoping for, and maybe expecting, a similar burst of finality from England’s bowlers, then at least they left with the consolation of having watched one of the game’s modern greats produce an innings that has been long overdue.Kumar Sangakkara’s six-and-a-half hour 119 was the 25th century of his 97-Test career, but his first in nine attempts in England. In partnership first with the nightwatchman Rangana Herath, and then with his fellow stalwart Thilan Samaraweera, he repelled England’s advances on a pitch that Andrew Strauss ruefully remarked was effectively a day three wicket.The sting of the first day had certainly disappeared, but the application that Sangakkara showed could not be under-estimated. Had he failed to build on his overnight 44, England would surely have fancied their chances of wrapping up a 2-0 win.”It’s very satisfying,” said Sangakkara at the close. “To score a hundred, especially in England, is quite an achievement coming from the subcontinent. It would have been nice to have done it at Lord’s, but that’s something you have to get over. It’s nice to finally get there.”In the final reckoning, the innings does little to redress the imbalance of Sangakkara’s Test average in England. His mark now stands at 30.58, which is barely half his overall figure of 56.18, and he admitted that it had taken him longer to adjust to the bounce and movement in this country – a process not helped by his belated arrival from the IPL in India.”I just kept getting out,” he said. “When I first came to England [in 2002] I was a bit at sea and tried to make some adjustments, but was not getting anywhere. Second time around I had two opportunities [66 and 65], one at Lord’s when I got out to Monty Panesar. So coming here from the IPL it was a case of adjusting again. Not just technically but also mentally. It took me a bit too long to do that.”Kumar Sangakkara finally reached 100 in a Test in England on the ninth attempt•AFPNevertheless, there was some satisfaction to be gleaned from Sri Lanka’s final-day performance. At times on this tour, with the bat in Cardiff and with the old ball in most of England’s innings, they have performed with the fragility of a side ranked far lower than their No. 4 billing. It was important, therefore, to make a statement of the class that still exists in their cricket since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan.”Cricket is all about continuously improving what you can do and what you can do as a team,” he said. “And what you can achieve if you perform as a team collectively. Our ambition now has to be to consolidate with the players we have, the ability we have and find new ways of winning Test matches. We don’t have Muralitharan any more, we don’t have [Chaminda] Vaas. For us to win, we have to find different avenues. That’s the thing for us. Those are the questions we need to answer in the months ahead.”But for that crazy session in Cardiff, Sri Lanka would have escaped with a drawn series, and Sangakkara was well aware of that fact. “That was probably the biggest regret on this tour,” he said. “None of us were switched on to that situation really. We just needed to bat consistently for 25 or 30 overs – just one pair to put on a proper partnership on a wicket that was flatter than this one. It just goes to show that one mistake, two mistakes, can magnify a situation that we should have been capable of handling nine times out of ten.”With the debutant Lahiru Thiramanne demonstrating a technique and temperament that enabled him to survive on a tricky surface and, in all likelihood, to thrive on more benign ones, Sri Lanka’s batting still looks capable of sustaining their status in the world game. England’s more powerful bowlers made the difference in this rubber, as they continue to push towards the No. 1 spot, but Sangakkara refused to believe that his team’s days as a top-ranked side are numbered.”I think all the sides in the top six have their eye on that prize,” he said. “We do too. But for us to do that, we need to improve our record away from home. England has a great all-round side and I think they can realistically achieve that ambition. But there are sides to beat, milestones to achieve along the way. We just have to wait and see if the teams battling for that position can deliver.”

The exclusion of Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha were the major talking points in India’s 15-man squad for the World Cup starting next month

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jan-2011The exclusion of middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma was the surprise in India’s 15-man World Cup squad announced in Chennai. The other bone of contention had been the second specialist spinner’s slot, and the selectors have picked both offspinner R Ashwin and legspinner Piyush Chawla, ahead of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. Most of the other names in the squad were along expected lines.India’s major concern ahead of the team selection was the injuries to four first-choice players – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and quick bowler Praveen Kumar – but the selectors picked all four, confident that they will be fit in time for the tournament which starts on February 19.India’s bowling attack for the World Cup will be significantly different from their standard Test attack, with only Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh being named. The fast bowling pair of Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma, and Ojha are all excluded while Munaf Patel, who helped India to a series-levelling victory over South Africa on Saturday, has found a place as the fourth seamer.The selectors have gone in for a well-stocked slow bowling department, expecting traditional subcontinent tracks for the World Cup. Besides Harbhajan, there are two specialists in Ashwin and Chawla, an allrounder in Yusuf Pathan besides the part-time offerings of Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Virender Sehwag.Chawla was also something of a surprise pick, though he is part of the one-day squad currently touring South Africa. He hasn’t played any one-dayers for India since the Asia Cup in July 2008, and none of his 21 ODIs have been at home.The squad also has only seven specialist batsmen, including MS Dhoni, which might be a worry in case of injuries. India haven’t played their full-strength one-day side since the New Zealand tour in early 2009. There is no reserve keeper in the squad either, but that shouldn’t be a concern as they can have one travel with them in case he is needed at short notice.Kris Srikkanth, chairman of the national selection committee, was confident India could end their 28-year wait for a one-day World Cup. “This particular Indian team is doing brilliantly for the past couple of years in both Test and ODI cricket. They are playing consistently not only in India but outside,” he told reporters after the team was announced. “We are confident this team will do well and win the World Cup for us in front of the home crowd.”He also defended the large spin contingent in the squad. “Don’t forget that you are playing in India. The spinners probably play a very major role on the turning wickets. I am confident that the kind of balance we have, the kind of batting line-up we have, this team led by Dhoni will do the job for us.”Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin

Kevin Thelwell is reportedly now eyeing up a move for Luka Jovic for Everton in the summer.

The Lowdown: Fall from grace

There was a lot of hype around Jovic when he was playing for Eintracht Frankfurt, where he scored 40 goals and made a further ten assists in 93 games in total over all competitions (world-class‘.

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Lionel Messi has even gone as far as to call him a ‘magical’ player in the past, but since moving to Real Madrid, he has only managed a mere three goals and four assists (Transfermarkt).

Nonetheless, it would not be a surprise if the UEFA Champions League semi-finalists decide to move him on this summer.

The Latest: Everton lurking

As per Sport, the Goodison Park faithful are now ‘attentive’ to Jovic’s situation at Los Blancos, as well as Arsenal, while both Inter and AC Milan are also thought to be interested in his signature.

However, it is thought that the Serbia international would prefer a move back to the Bundesliga.

The Verdict: Avoid

Jovic showed a lot of promise early on in his career, and is still just 24 years of age, but given his form at Madrid, signing him would be a big and expensive risk.

The striker is currently earning a whopping £152,000-per-week at the Santiago Bernabeu, and Madrid would no doubt want to recoup as much of the £52.4m fee that they paid to sign him as possible.

Nonetheless, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison still remain at the Merseyside club, and so Thelwell and the board should really be assessing their options more carefully once the summer transfer window comes around.

In other news, find out what big transfer boost the Toffees have now been gifted here!

Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Juventus ‘will buy’ Moise Kean on a permanent deal from Everton in June.

The Lowdown: Goodison flop

It just has not worked out for Kean since his £29m move from Juve back in 2019, where he has managed a mere four goals in 39 games in total over all competitions (Transfermarkt).

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He has been shipped out on loan twice, first to PSG, and then back to his old club last summer, and so it seems as if he has no future at Goodison Park.

The Latest: Romano update

Taking to Twitter, Italian football journalist and transfer expert Romano has now shared some recent comments from the Old Lady’s vice president Pavel Nedved on Kean:

“Moise Kean? We want him to score 25 goals per season, he has a huge potential.”

Romano added that Juventus ‘will buy’ Kean permanently in June.

The Verdict: Get rid

Whatever kind of fee that they can get for him, the Merseyside club just need to get rid of Kean now.

His loan spell at Juve has not been much better than his time in blue, with just six goals so far this season, and at 22 years of age, the Toffees could still demand a decent sum of money.

Nonetheless, with both Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison still at the club, there is just no room for the Italian, and so it is best to get him off of the wage bill.

In other news, find out what ‘serious upgrade’ the Blues are now eyeing here!

Legspinner Rahul Sharma, who received his maiden call-up to the India squad on Thursday, has said he wants to perform on-field, rather than make big promises

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Sep-2011Legspinner Rahul Sharma, who received his maiden international call-up on Thursday, has said he wants to perform on the field, rather than make big promises. Sharma, along with uncapped Karnataka medium-pacer S Aravind, was named in the 15-man squad for the first two ODIs of the five-match series against England that begins on October 14.”My aim is to capitalise on the opportunity given to me. I don’t want to make big statements,” Sharma told . “I have fulfilled my first dream of getting the national call-up. Now, my next goal is to don the India cap and do well for the country. [Being a legspinner] I am not thinking about taking Anil Kumble’s place in the team.”His performance for Pune Warriors in IPL 2011 – he claimed 16 wickets and had a miserly economy rate of 5.46 – despite health issues [he has Bell’s Palsy, which effects his vision] put him in the national spotlight. However, he said, he did not expect to break into the national side so early. “I didn’t expect it [the call-up] to come. It was unbelievable when Parthiv Patel disclosed the news to me.”Sharma said he was disappointed to miss out on working with Harbhajan Singh, who has been India’s first choice spinner for a while but was left out from the squad following a run of poor form. “It is an irony that I walk into the team as Bhajji [Harbhajan] goes out,” he said. “I wanted to play with him and bowl in tandem with him.”Left-arm fast bowler Aravind, the other new face in the squad, said he had expected to make the national team only next season. “I wasn’t expecting the call this year, especially after I missed the Emerging Players Tournament [in Australia in August] due to injury,” Aravind said. “After I recovered, I was hoping to do well this [domestic] season and was looking forward to a call next year.”I am really looking forward to the challenge. I have been really working hard on my bowling ever since I recovered from the injury. I think I am a better bowler than what I was a couple of years back. I hope to get a match and give my best.”Aravind is currently playing in the Champions League T20 with Royal Challengers Bangalore. He had a strong 2010-11 domestic season, leading the attack for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy and South Zone in the Duleep Trophy. Aravind said he would look to state-mate Vinay Kumar, who is also in the ODI squad, to calm any nerves. “In the Karnataka Ranji side, Vinay plays the role of a mentor to me and [Abhimanyu] Mithun. I’ll be getting guidance from him even in the Indian team, and that will help ease the pressure.”

England batsman Kevin Pietersen has said he is feeling “fantastic” after working on some technical and mental aspects of his game with coach Graham Ford during his time with the Natal Dolphins

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Oct-2010England batsman Kevin Pietersen has said he is feeling “fantastic” after working on some technical and mental aspects of his game with coach Graham Ford during his time with the Natal Dolphins.Before joining up with the England squad in Perth this weekend, Pietersen spent four weeks in South Africa attempting to regain his form, and while he managed to play just two first-class innings, scoring 36 and 0, he insisted the trip had been a positive and helpful experience.”I feel fantastic now. I’ve had a lovely little break from the international circuit which has been very, very refreshing,” Pietersen told . “I’m really, really excited about what could be one hell of an interesting and positive winter ahead.””I put myself under a lot of pressure by going to South Africa knowing that every practice session and every hit I had would make headlines in the cricketing world but that’s what I wanted to do because I know it’s going to benefit me in the long run. Fordy’s been somebody I’ve worked with throughout my life so it was amazing that I could go and spend two weeks with him and gather back that confidence and that free spirit.””He knows me as a person. I haven’t given a lot away about me as a person here, especially playing for England, but Fordy knows where I’m from, knows everything about me so he can talk to me in a very different way, more than anyone in this country probably apart from my brothers and my parents. He picked out one little thing that I haven’t been doing in the last six months, since the Caribbean in the World Twenty20 and we worked on that little thing in particular.Pietersen, who has not struck an international hundred since March 2009, hit out at the intense media attention given to his struggle for form ahead of England’s defence of the Ashes in Australia. He empathised with footballer Wayne Rooney, who has also been the focus of negative publicity recently.”I wasn’t fed up with the scrutiny, I found it funny,” he said. “The journalists get paid to make opinions and the punters have the right. But people don’t realise we know as sportsmen if we’re not playing well. We actually know as sportsmen if we are not playing well, if we are letting ourselves down or letting people down, so the more times that people hammer you about it, it doesn’t really help.”I look at the Rooney situation – he’s getting killed every single day and it will definitely not be helping the lad and he shouldn’t have to go to Dubai to get away from things. He should be supported. The man’s a genius, he will be a legend of the game and he should be supported rather than be hammered about stuff.”Pietersen also insisted he would not be drawn into a war of words with the Australian camp before what is sure to be a keenly-contested Ashes series. Australian captain Ricky Ponting recently suggested that Pietersen “is a big question mark for them [England] at the moment” and that opener Alastair Cook and middle-order batsman Paul Collingwood would be “nervous” after their own struggles for form during a successful English summer.”This is my fourth series against Australia,” said Pietersen. “Every single time I have played against Australia, for the months leading up to it a lot of things are said which have absolutely no bearing after the first ball is bowled. I am not prepared to get involved. I’m not prepared to add any fuel to any fire that they might have started. I just want to go out and play some really tough, hard cricket and challenge myself against the Australians in Australia.”

Don Lockerbie has been relieved of his position as chief executive of the USA Cricket Association with immediate

Martin Williamson21-Nov-2010Don Lockerbie has been relieved of his position as chief executive of the USA Cricket Association with immediate effect hours before a board meeting in Florida, according to sources inside US cricket.The news comes a little over a week after the resignation of Nabeel Ahmed, the first vice-president of USACA.While nobody was prepared to confirm the report, it follows several months of increasing concern that Lockerbie’s bullish promises about changes he was going to make to the game in the USA had come to nothing.The board’s finances remain a concern, and despite official denials it is widely believed the ill-fated tournament in Florida in May featuring New Zealand and Sri Lanka landed USACA with considerable losses.Lockerbie had a reputation of being someone big on talk but far more reluctant to address media inquiries about the more questionable aspects of USACA’s operations.He took up his role in April 2009 and quickly unveiled ambitious plans to turn US cricket professional and stage an IPL-type tournament in the country. But despite strong support from the ICC his plans failed to materialise, and in recent months there has been growing discontent within the USA which appears to have cost Lockerbie his position.While few will lament his departure, it does raise the grim spectre of the USA sliding back into the murky shambles that led to its suspension from the ICC in 2005.