With a new coach, Grant Morgan, at the helm, Dolphins will now turn their attention to bolstering a depleted squad, ahead of the 2016-17 season

Firdose Moonda06-May-2016With a new coach, Grant Morgan, at the helm, Dolphins will now turn their attention to bolstering a depleted squad, ahead of the 2016-17 season. The Durban-based franchise lost both active internationals, Kyle Abbott and David Miller, as well as four other players – Jonathan Vandiar, Daniel Sincuba, Matthew Pillans and Ayavuya Myoli – and have only added one name to their outfit so far.Mthokozisi Shezi, who was playing in Cobras but is originally from Dolphins, will return for the next season and CEO Pete de Wet hopes he will not be their only acquisition. “We’ve got some work to do in the next 24 hours with some discussion with potential players,” de Wet said at Morgan’s unveiling. “In an ideal world, we would have had Grant involved with identifying the squad right from the beginning. The core nucleus of the squad is the same but there are a few potential announcements we want to make and we wanted to do that with Grant around.”But de Wet was forced to admit that with the other five franchises’ contract lists all but complete, it could make it difficult for the Dolphins to lure high-profile names to their waters and they may have to fish in their own pond. That would mean promoting players from the KwaZulu-Natal and KwaZulu-Natal Inland provincial teams.”It hasn’t been easy,” de Wet said. “I am of the belief that the squad that we have is really talented and there is a lot of depth. The challenge for Grant will be to get the best of that group of individuals in the next season and to get settled in the role and then to take a slightly longer-term view and see where the deficiencies are and who we need to potentially target and bring in for the following season.”Morgan is not too unhappy with that prospect, especially because he is familiar with the Inland players. He was the team’s head coach since the 2012-13 season, leading them to four trophies in that time. He wants to be able to incorporate more players from Pietermaritzburg into the Dolphins set-up. “We have to make that side of the franchise feel like they are also part of it. When I was there, we did feel like it but we need to do it even more. Although Kingsmead and Durban is our main base, we need to make ‘Maritzburg our home too,” Morgan said.That may mean players like Kyle Nipper, who was second on the provincial three-day competition run charts and Graeme Hume, who was third on the wicket-taker’s list in that format, could come into contention for more regular roles at the franchise. It will also mean Morgan has to keep his eye open for younger talent, something he takes particular pleasure in.”I picked Quinton de Kock in my Gauteng side when he was 15 and a half years old,” Morgan recalled. “We were playing a game against Durham when he faced Steve Harmison. When Quinton walked off the field the score was 85 for 1 and he had made 72. That was one of the greatest days of my life, to watch a guy who hadn’t yet turned 16 cane an international bowler. Hopefully we will have one of those.”At the same time, Morgan also wants to call on some of the Dolphins’ experienced players like Morne van Wyk to add gravitas to a squad in transition. “If a guy is 44 and he is still delivering and he wants to play and he is the best guy for the team, then he must play,” he said.If that’s not enough, Morgan has also been told he is expected to win some silverware with a franchise that has not seen as much success as it has liked. The Dolphins’ only franchise trophy was won in the 2013-14 season when the won the 20-over cup, and they previously shared the first-class title twice. “It’s daunting but every job should be daunting. Every job is your World Cup,” he said.

The ICC has denied that Sri Lanka Cricket had asked that the costs involved in the Kusal Perera doping case be reimbursed, and it said it had not agreed to compensate the board

Andrew Fidel Fernando16-May-20163:42

Perera and SLC must be compensated

The ICC has denied that Sri Lanka Cricket had asked that the costs involved in the Kusal Perera doping case be reimbursed, and it said it had not agreed to compensate the board. Hours before the ICC’s denial, a SLC official claimed the ICC had said verbally that it would compensate the board.”The ICC can confirm that it has not received any request for compensation from SLC or Mr Perera and it has not agreed (verbally or otherwise) to any such reimbursement,” the ICC said. “Whilst the circumstances of this case are unfortunate, the ICC does not accept that it is responsible for the finding of the WADA-accredited Qatar Laboratory or the consequences that flowed from such a finding, and the ICC will be considering its own position in respect of who should bear the costs incurred by the ICC in its additional efforts and investigation that ultimately resulted in the Laboratory agreeing to withdraw the original finding.”The statement contradicted SLC secretary Mohan de Silva, who had said: “The ICC has agreed to compensate us, but there is nothing in writing. In any case we will be making an appeal for that. I’m quite confident that they will oblige us.”De Silva had said it was SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala who was in direct contact with ICC about the reimbursement. Speaking on the amount SLC had spent on the case, Sumathipala had said on Thursday that SLC “definitely have to get our costs back.”SLC had said it spent over 13 million Sri Lankan rupees (USD $92,000 approx) on clearing Perera’s name, though the board did not quite need the 15 million it had set aside to fight the case.In addition to fees paid to Perera’s UK-based lawyers Morgan Sports Law, SLC also helped fund a polygraph test and separate urine test conducted in London, as well as a hair analysis conducted in a Paris lab. Each of these measures is said to have helped give Perera leverage with the ICC.Perera himself suggested he was not dwelling on the suspension’s personal cost to him, but board president Sumathipala had said the “indirect cost” to Perera had been “colossal”. In addition to missing a full tour of New Zealand, a bilateral series against India, and two major tournaments in the Asia Cup and World T20, Perera was also ineligible for the IPL auction. He had been fixture in all three formats for Sri Lanka prior to the suspension.SLC’s executive committee had not made a firm decision on further legal action, but de Silva confirmed discussions were ongoing in the board about “how to compensate Kusal”.The Qatar-based lab, whose findings were deemed “unsustainable” for “scientific and technical reasons” by the independent expert hired by the ICC, may come under scrutiny. However, that expert had also stated the lab had “correctly identified 19-Norandrostenedione in the samples” taken from Perera.Perera has resumed his training with SLC coaches at Khettarama, after five months of being barred from doing so. He may be in the fray for the limited-overs leg of Sri Lanka’s tour of the UK and Ireland.1400 GMT, May 16: The story was updated with the ICC’s response to the SLC official’s comment

Somerset beat Surrey by eight wickets with five balls to spare at The Kia Oval in a Royal London One Day Cup match but if felt more like a Twenty20 fixture after rain

ECB Reporters Network08-Jun-2016
ScorecardA Rory Burns half-century couldn’t prevent Surrey’s latest defeat•Getty Images

Somerset beat Surrey by eight wickets with five balls to spare at The Kia Oval in a Royal London One Day Cup match but if felt more like a Twenty20 fixture after rain had reduced it to a 24-over affair.Surrey scored 163 for 6 and Somerset were set a recalculated 180 for victory. Jim Allenby, with 71 from 56 balls, and Johann Myburgh, who struck 76 from 59, put on 155, just four short of a record opening stand for Somerset in List A matches at this ground. Michael Burns, who shares the 1998 record with Dermot Reeve, was an umpire this time.Surrey were led for the first time by Rory Burns after regular captain Gareth Batty had pulled out of the match in the morning for family reasons. That allowed Dominic Sibley to make his first appearance of the season.Burns had chosen to bat and when Jason Roy and Steven Davies opened in bright sunshine it was a 50-over game.
An out-of-sorts Davies, head back and pulling, was bowled by Allenby for 6 in the eighth over. But three overs later the players left the field to shelter from torrential rain which would prevent any further play for four hours and 20 minutes.When play resumed at 7pm Surrey, who were 53 for 1, with Roy unbeaten on 31, had 13 overs to face and reverted to T20 mode.Roy appeared to relish the increased tempo as he pulled and drove Peter Trego for fours as 11 came off the first over after the restart. But then Surrey lost two key players in the space of three deliveries.Roy had carved one more boundary to third man when he was bowled by a slower delivery from Tim Groenewald for a 43-ball 46, with five fours. Then, from the second ball of the 14th, Sangakkara, on 12, was run out when a straight drive by Burns was directed onto the stumps by the bowler Roelof van der Merwe.After that Burns led by example. He hoisted Max Waller over long-on for six, but lost Gary Wilson, who was well caught low down by Adam Hose in the covers, to make it 106 for 4 in the 19th over.Tom Curran was run out first ball and Zafar Ansari fell cheaply. The innings was being held together by Burns, who swiped van der Merwe over midwicket for his second six.Surrey were 147 for 6 at the start of the last over and Somerset were relieved that Burns had lost the strike. But tail-ender Mathew Pillans struck the first two deliveries from Trego over square-leg and midwicket for sixes as 16 came off the final six deliveries.But it would not be enough as Myburgh and Allenby, who each hit three sixes, put the result beyond doubt.

Only 21.5 overs were possible on the first day of Glamorgan’s Championship match with Kent

ECB Reporters Network19-Jun-2016
ScorecardWill Bragg continued his good form on a rain-affected day•Getty Images

Only 21.5 overs were possible on the first day of Glamorgan’s Championship match with Kent. Glamorgan lost both openers but recovered well before prolonged rain through the afternoon led to a 4pm abandonment.Will Bragg and Chris Cooke shared an undefeated third-wicket partnership of 86, after Kent had chosen to field first on a green-tinged pitch. Sam Northeast’s decision was immediately vindicated when Matt Coles uprooted Mark Wallace’s leg stump with his fifth ballSix balls later, Darren Stevens trapped Jacques Rudolph leg before and, with the pitch assisting seam and swing, the visitors would have been confident of dismissing Glamorgan cheaply.Coles, however, conceded 25 runs from his opening three overs, forcing his captain to take him off as Bragg and Cooke began Glamorgan’s recovery. Stevens and Mitchell Claydon were not as expensive but there were too many loose deliveries that were punished, as Glamorgan raced along at almost five runs an over.Bragg, Glamorgan’s leading Championship run-scorer this season, again batted fluently, striking six fours from 61 balls, but Cooke was the more aggressive with eight boundaries, mainly from Coles’ bowling – the Kent seamer returned to concede 10 off his fourth over for figures of 4-0-35-1, before rain stopped played 25 minutes before the scheduled lunch break.Adam Rouse, the Kent wicketkeeper, would have been glad of the truncated day’s play after he dislocated the little finger of his left hand, which was put back into place by the Kent physiotherapist following a lengthy stoppage.

Taskin Ahmed has said that his bowling action did not require a major change after he was suspended by the ICC over it in March this year

Mohammad Isam31-Jul-2016Bangladesh fast bowler Taskin Ahmed has said that his bowling action did not require a major change after he was suspended by the ICC over it in March this year. Both Taskin and Arafat Sunny, whose actions were found illegal after independent assessments, are likely to have their remodeled actions tested by the ICC in August.Taskin underwent rehabilitation work with BCB coach Mahbub Ali Zaki while also playing in the Dhaka Premier League from April to June. On Sunday, he gave an action test in front of the BCB’s bowling-action review committee who employed six cameras during the session at the National Cricket Academy ground in Mirpur.”I never really needed a major change in my bowling action, because the problem wasn’t that big,” Taskin said. “They found three deliveries faulty out of seven overs.”It feels good that we have such technologies at home now. The test has given me more confidence. I have spoken to a number of experts who said that my bowling action has improved. If I keep going at this rate, I will be ready for the main test soon.”BCB’s Management Information Systems manager Nasir Ahmed said that the committee will analyse the footage which will give them a better picture of Taskin’s improvement.”We have taken his footage in a professional way, for the first time since his rehab began. We will analyse the footage of this test and those from his rehab,” Nasir said. “We will see his progress before sending him for the ICC bowling action test.”We have done the test in 2D camera, but the ICC’s test will be in 3D so it will be hard to be 100% sure about his action. But we can judge how much he has improved and whether he has been able to grasp what he was told to work on.”The BCB had asked the Bangladesh team management to take a decision on Taskin and Sunny, the other Bangladesh bowler who was banned in March.
According to BCB sources, national coach Chandika Hathurusingha believes that both bowlers should be sent in August, well in time for the team’s preparation ahead of the England series in October.

During the course of their centuries, Steven Smith and Shaun Marsh put together fourth-highest stand for any Australian pair for any wicket in a Test in Asia, to help them take a 24-run lead

The Report by Brydon Coverdale15-Aug-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:19