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Gateman gets connected
Albert, a gentlemanly Queensland Cricket corporate gateman, has been serving with distinction at the Gabba for years, but one of the downsides of his job is he can’t watch the game. He greets and directs people cheerfully as they exit the lifts and occasionally gets a score update. During the Test a kind businessman gave him an “event com radio” that offers a choice of the ABC or Nine commentary so he no longer misses out.Where is the fun?
First it was the eviction of the Barmy Army’s trumpeter. Now England fans are reportedly boycotting the stadium and even the locals are complaining they are being drowned in stadium regulations. “Queensland has banned fun,” Solomon Rowland, a Brisbane solicitor, said. “It now seems to be illegal to have a good time.” Despite the complaints, the ground and local cricket authorities are happy with the rules.No singing when they’re not winning
England’s on-field performances have not been the only disappointment of the first Test. The Barmy Army’s singing has been as quiet as their support bowlers, although they have not been helped by being scattered around the ground. Before tea a pocket of fans at the Stanley Street end tried to get going and ran through a few of their repertoire, but they could sustain the music for only 12 minutes. Like their playing heroes, the army operates better as a pack than a collection of individuals.

Scorecard

Sri Lanka’s batsmen missed a crucial opportunity to adjust to the Queensland conditions ahead of next week’s Test and were knocked down on the first day of the tour game by Ashley Noffke. The tourists received an early taste of what the Gabba would be like next week and their top order failed to cope with the tricky bounce and early movement from an attack led by Noffke’s 5 for 36 and supported by Mitchell Johnson, Andy Bichel and Michael Kasprowicz.However, there was encouragement with the performance of the bowlers as they reduced Queensland to 4 for 60 when bad light stopped play 5.4 overs early. Lasith Malinga was a difficult prospect under dark clouds and he captured Jimmy Maher and Chris Simpson while Farveez Maharoof removed Ryan Broad and Andrew Symonds. Symonds’ Test warm-up ended on 22, an innings which included three consecutive boundaries off Malinga and finished with an edge to Prasanna Jayawardene.Jayawardene, the batsman-wicketkeeper who will play in Brisbane after Kumar Sangakkara’s hamstring injury, and Marvan Atapattu were the only members of the top seven who made an impression as the Sri Lankans reached 9 for 210 before declaring to allow their bowlers an opportunity in the sultry conditions. It was a worrying performance and the batsmen have only one more innings to fine tune for the first Test.Sanath Jayasuriya (0), Michael Vandort (4) and Mahela Jayawardene fell in the morning to Noffke and Chamara Silva (0) was run-out chasing an unnecessary second. While Jayasuriya dusted off with a century in the previous match in Adelaide, Jayawardene has looked unconvincing since arriving in Australia and picked up a second zero.Jayawardene lasted only six balls before Noffke had him lbw playing from the crease, which left the Sri Lankans at 3 for 14 after Jayasuriya pushed to gully and Vandort edged to first slip. Noffke was particularly impressive in his first spell, taking 3 for 7 off 11 overs, and he kick-started the opening session, which finished when Atapattu was out cutting on 48, leaving the Sri Lankans at 6 for 81.”It was a bit of hard work in the morning,” Atapattu said. “We were taken by surprise more than anything by the sideways movement. We expected the wicket to be harder and bouncier. But you shouldn’t have any doubts about our talent and ability going into a Test.”Noffke was again heavily involved after lunch, collecting Maharoof and Chaminda Vaas, who fell to a sharp caught-and-bowled, and he took his third five-wicket haul of a fine season to justify his elevation to the new ball ahead of Bichel and Kasprowicz. “It’s never been done before and it’s strange,” he said.”They’re two guys who I’ve learnt a lot from in the past, standing at mid-off and watching them. It’s a good learning experience and it’s just the evolution of cricket, we’re all going to retire or step down and let the younger guy through.”Fortunately for the Sri Lankans, Prasanna Jayawardene was able to push them towards respectability with the help of Maharoof (20) and Malinga Bandara, who struck eight fours and a six off Daniel Doran’s legspin in his 43. Jayawardene’s responsibilities have increased with Sangakkara’s injury and he showed his capabilities during his half-century. Like Atapattu, Jayawardene cut well and hit nine boundaries in his unbeaten 58, which came from 130 balls.

In a thrilling encounter at Utrecht, Ireland beat Holland by 10 runs in another rain-affected match to draw level with Scotland and Holland on the points table. The ECB XI are two points clear at the top, but they still have Scotland and Holland to play, meaning the championship is still wide open. The Irish victory was set up by a superb allround performance by man-of-the-match Trent Johnston, who hit a rapid 49 from 30 balls, then took 3 for 44 as Holland fell just short of their target.Persistent rain delayed the start of the match for some time, and when play did start Ireland got off to a poor start, losing Jeremy Bray (8) and Jason Molins (13), who has just recovered from a hamstring injury, in quick succession. Andre Botha was run-out for 24 after some excellent fielding on the boundary, but Andrew White and Trent Johnston swung the match firmly back into Ireland’s favour with their aggressive batting.Johnston’s innings included a clutch of sixes, but he fell one short of his half-century when he was caught by Tom de Grooth off the bowling of Tim de Leede. White also fell short of his milestone, caught and bowled by Luuk van Troost for 40. Kyle McCallan was run out for 12 after he attempted a single to a misfield, and JJ Esmeijer took two wickets in the last three balls, as Ireland finished on 181 for 9 after their 31 overs.Naseer Shaukat, who took 5 for 30 in Holland’s second innings in Ireland’s Intercontinental Cup victory prior to the championship, immediately put Holland on the back foot again here, removing Tom de Grooth early, caught behind by Steve Ogilby.Darron Reekers was then bowled by Botha for 17, but Daan van Bunge and Bas Zuiderent fought back, taking Holland to 100 for 20 after 20 overs. Then came the vital breakthrough as Johnston bowled van Bunge for 50. In the next over Paul Mooney had Zuiderent caught by Molins for 36, and despite good innings from de Leede and Edgar Schiferli, two wickets each to Johnston and Gordon Cooke kept Holland in check, and Ireland squeezed home.

Glamorgan have turned to Australia to help ease their middle-order problems.They have signed Nick Selman, a 20-year-old from Brisbane with a dual passport, on a one-year contract ahead of the 2016 season.Selman represented Queensland in both cricket and Australian Rules football at age grade levels before choosing cricket as his first choice sport.Following spells with Kent and Gloucestershire 2nd XIs in 2015, Selman has joined Glamorgan after impressing in two late-season 2nd XI matches.”I’m very excited to be joining Glamorgan, coming to Wales and helping the county to build on their performances of 2015,” said Selman. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of helping the club push for promotion into Division One.”Glamorgan began the season well in Division Two but fell away badly and they were also one of the counties unable to surf the trend of rising attendances in Twenty20.Glamorgan chief executive and director of cricket Hugh Morris said: “We identified we needed more depth to our batting department and Nick is a talented young player who will have an opportunity to score runs for the county as he has done in grade cricket in Australia and in Second XI cricket over here.”Nick has played through the age groups for Queensland and has spent some time in county cricket already, so knows what to expect. I’m sure he will have a big future with Glamorgan.”

Just a couple of days after hogging the headlines at the ICC awards, Rahul Dravid insisted that he was ready to continue with his dual role – key batsman and wicketkeeper – in the Indian one-day side. “I’m extremely delighted at these awards but it hasn’t really sunk in, to be honest,” he said. “As for my cricket, there is a lot more I can still do.”A report in the quoted Dravid as saying that he would be willing to do whatever the team required, brushing aside speculation that he was unhappy with donning the wicketkeeping gloves. “It is not for others to presume that I like it or don’t like it,” he said. “Sure, it puts extra physical effort but I have been able to cope with it because of my improved fitness. To be honest, it is not so difficult to do it in these conditions compared to say Sri Lanka where the conditions can be hot and oppressive.”But according to a report in Kolkata’s , Dinesh Karthik was back in the wicketkeeping frame despite earlier hints from Sourav Ganguly that his appearance at Lord’s against England had been a one-off. Karthik missed the first 45 minutes of India’s training session on Thursday after getting the departure time wrong, but it’s unlikely to cost him in the run-up to India’s first match against Kenya.

Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie have come out in favour of ICC’s new rule regarding bowling actions. After comprehensive testing, the ICC recommended that bowlers could straighten their arm up to 15 degrees and both supported having a common limit for all variety of bowlers.”I think it’s a great thing,” Gillespie told the . “It’s one universal law, rather than having different degrees of flexation, which I think is near impossible to police.”McGrath was also in favour of standardising the testing procedure and said, “At least you’ve got a benchmark. I know they go into the lab afterwards, which, to me, is nothing like a match situation. You can do whatever you want and change your action. But when you’re out in the middle, if they can have a standard testing procedure … I’m all for it.”When I found out that the testing could be done in match situations with high-speed cameras, and a few of us had already been tested, I started thinking it was a good idea. It already shows that people like myself and Shaun Pollock who people say have pretty sound actions, that we have a bit of a flex of 10-12 degrees.”Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, said it was important that the players could see the evidence and “knee-jerk reactions” were avoided. “It shouldn’t be secretive and names [of suspected bowlers] shouldn’t be put up without basis,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotion around chucking and I’m very conservative on this topic.”Fleming was due to meet today with Tim May, a member of the ICC’s cricket committee which endorsed the recommendations, while May spoke to Ricky Ponting yesterday. “I think it’s a bit clearer now,” Ponting said. “It’s good to hear it from Tim but we still need to know a bit more about it.”

Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s captain, said he feared for the future of the game in Zimbabwe after his side had completed a crushing innings win inside two days at Harare Sports Club.”It’s good for us, but I’m not sure it’s good for the game,” he told reporters after the woefully one-sided first Test. “The mood was clinical out there. After the first hour the goal was to win this Test today.”To be able to turn the game around so quickly was a good effort. To get 20 wickets in a day you have to bowl well and this was some of the best cricket I’ve seen this team play.”But Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s captain, struggled to find any positives. “It was very disappointing,” he said. “I thought we would bowl them out on the first day and our batting wasn’t good enough. It’s not a good feeling.”Phil Simmons, Zimbabwe’s coach, said that the side would need to look at where they went wrong, especially on the first day when they had New Zealand 113 for 5 and let them amass 452 for 9 by the close. But he rejected the inevitable calls for Zimbabwe’s Test status to be reviewed. “I don’t think it makes sense to think like that, all we can do is try to improve our cricket. It’s always been hard for us. We are one of the smaller countries in Test cricket.”

Australians 484 for 6 and 250 for 4 (Symonds 119*, Langer 63*) lead Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XI 166 (Gunawardene 70, Lee 4-29) by 568 runs
Scorecard

Somebody call Amnesty international. Cruelty reached new heights on the second day of the tour match against Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XI, as the Australians built a lead of 568 runs, after dismissing their opponents for 166 in 36.2 overs. Brett Lee took the morning’s honours, crashing through the top order to take four wickets, and then Andrew Symonds turned the competition for a Test berth into a full-blown battle with a sparkling unbeaten century that gave his team the momentum to score 250 for 4 in only 50 overs.In the first innings, Simon Katich and Darren Lehmann cracked rapid hundreds, while Symonds, their competitor for the sole middle order slot, managed an unbeaten 45 in the limited time he had. In the second innings, under Ricky Ponting’s `everyone gets to play’ policy, Symonds made pretty good use of his promotion to No. 3 by smashing 119 with 18 fours and a six that cleared the ground. For the second time this game, the ball was lost.Symonds shared a 141-run stand with Justin Langer, who struggled to score 63. Shane Warne then turned up and scored 31, but Symonds kept applying more and more pressure on the hapless bowlers, and he tonked 15 boundaries on his way to 90, before cautiously scoring singles to reach his hundred. It was a comprehensive performance by the batsmen, who followed up the work of the bowlers earlier that day.The Australians had made an overnight declaration at 484 for 6, and let their bowlers loose first thing in the morning. Lee wasted no time, trapping Russel Arnold with his first ball, and yorking Saman Jayantha with the fifth. The double-blow exposed a soft underbelly, and the bowlers were on to it like vultures. Sanjit Fernando struck three fours before Michael Kasprowicz slipped one through, and Lee then removed Sanjeewa De Silva and Thilan Samaraweera, who average over 50 for Sri Lanka. In seven overs, Lee decimated the top order, but would have had prettier figures if not for eight no-balls.A cavalier attitude to batting cut short Gunawardene’s Test career three years ago, though the same quality held him in good stead today. Unaffected by Lee’s onslaught, he took Kasprowicz apart. By lunch, Gunawardene had crashed his way to 59, with 52 coming through boundaries. When he was finally out for 70, leg before to MacGill, the team fell into a crevice. MacGill picked up two other wickets, but the innings was ended by Shane Warne, who had Ruchira Perera stumped to pick up his first wicket in Australian colours since January 25, 2003.Then came the Australian batsmen, and more misery for the Sri Lankans.

Dav Whatmore, the Bangladesh coach, said Thursday he would quit only when he feels he is not doing his best to improve the Test minnows’ fortunes in international cricket.Bangladesh’s cricketing image suffered yet another blow when they lost the second and final Test against Sri Lanka by an innings and 69 runs on the third day at the P. Saravanamuttu stadium to surrender the series 2-0.It was Bangladesh’s 35th defeat – and 24th by an innings margin – in 40 matches since gaining Test status in 2000. They have won just one Test, against a depleted Zimbabwean side at home early this year.Whatmore, who was named Bangladesh coach in 2003, said, “As soon as I feel that I am not wanted or not doing a good job I will go, like I did with Sri Lanka in 1996 before my contract expired.”The Australian coach was referring to his quitting the Sri Lankan coaching post soon after helping them win the 1996 World Cup.”I will continue to push the cause of Bangladesh cricket,” said Whatmore, whose contract lasts up until the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.Under Whatmore, Bangladesh have sprung a few major surprises in one-day cricket. They beat India at home last year and then beat World Cup winners Australia in a triangular series match in England in June.Whatmore said his team had a chance of putting pressure on Sri Lanka before losing both the Tests by an innings margin inside three days.”We gained advantage on the first days of both the Tests but handed it over to the opposition.”Don’t forget they were 48 for four here. If the catch of (Tillakaratne) Dilshan had been taken it would have been 60-5,” he said of the dropped catch before the Sri Lankan batsman had reached double-figures.Dilshan went on to make a career-best 168 to help his side post a massive 457-9 declared in the first innings.Bangladesh managed just 191 and 197 to end their tour on a disappointing note. They were also beaten in three one-dayers before the Tests.

Kiran More, whose high-profile and controversial four-year term as chairman of selectors comes to an end later this month, has said that, contrary to popular perception, he was not anti-Ganguly and believed Ganguly could still make a comeback into the national side.”Sourav was in a difficult phase,” he told when asked about one of the toughest decisions of his tenure. “He was captain and had been a great player … All of us had debated it long and I was very clear about it. The media hype made things worse. But when you are dropped, you need good people around you. I have been dropped and went through that phase when people around you attribute reasons to the dropping. India’s culture is such that a person’s dropping affects not just him but his parents, family, friends and the city. Soon, you forget about performing and instead, put on a performance. It is tremendous pressure and takes your focus off cricket.”However, he asserted that he is “not anti-Ganguly” and believed that Ganguly can make a comeback. “A strong domestic performance, a place in the team management’s plan, an open slot. Most cricketers make five-six comebacks. I am not anti-Ganguly. I am against no one. Sometimes players get dropped and they glare at you, stop wishing you. Players have said a few things to me, have argued, I have put it out of my head.”More also felt the board needed to be flexible about the terms given to the selectors. “If someone is good, give him a longer term, even seven-eight years,” he said. “Otherwise, if every year the appointment has to be made, then obviously a selector comes under pressure. He is only human.”Despite many criticisms against the selection system – John Wright, the former coach, went to the extent of comparing it to “horse trading” – More spoke about the benefits of having such a policy. “The system per se is not that bad, you need zonal representation because in a country as large as India, you need to see players from all over. Then, I don’t think that if a selector is unpaid, he is not professional. Still, I agree selectors should be paid. They spend too much time doing this job, away from family and regular commitments.”We tried to remove a zonal bias, and even in the West Zone we’ve tried to make changes. I am human, I can make mistakes but as long as I have done so in good faith, it is OK.”More also spoke about one of his biggest disappointments. “I really have to think [about regrets] but probably, Aakash Chopra. [He was] a fantastic talent and great temperament and we really believed in him and supported him after his knee injury but somehow, he just shut himself down – mentally more than technically, I think.”If you see his scores before he played for India, they were all big, but then he slowed down. Perhaps what affected him was the media hype about technical perfection, about him being the best-equipped Indian opener in a long time, maybe technique took him over. It can be difficult to deal with, I know him very well and wondered. Only, the doors aren’t shut for him, for anyone. An outstanding season, win a couple of games for your state, you’re back in contention.”