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Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s T20 captain, has said that he is excited by the prospect of AB de Villiers keeping and opening the innings in the shortest format

Firdose Moonda13-Aug-20153:22

We’ll stick with AB at the top – Du Plessis

Can he? Can’t he? Will he? Won’t he? Should he? Shouldn’t he? Does he want to? Doesn’t he want to? Does it even matter what he wants?AB de Villiers and his wicketkeeping gloves are back for another season. A quick refresher: De Villiers will keep wickets and open the batting for the T20 side from now until next year’s World T20. He will not captain the T20 side. He will not keep wickets or open the batting in the one-day side, which he will also captain. He will not keep wickets, captain nor open the batting in the Test side. Got it?About five years back, de Villiers stoically refused to keep because he wanted to be the best batsmen in the world. He then heroically accepted the gloves in shorter formats when Mark Boucher was dropped, and later also in Tests when Boucher’s career ended. De Villiers also took on the captaincy in the shorter formats, which eventually became too much to handle when coupled with the responsibility of keeping.De Villiers can do anything on a sports field, and there was a time when it was thought he could do everything as well. But those things are different. Anything can be done in isolation, everything has to be done all at once and sometimes, even some who can do anything, cannot do everything. Both de Villiers and South Africa learnt that the hard way.A chronic back issue means de Villiers cannot both keep and be the pivot of the batting line-up in all formats, so there has had to be a compromise. Besides captaining, de Villiers will do it all in the format which gives South Africa their next opportunity to win a major trophy, something they will do anything to get.”Deciding to put AB at the top was a conscious change we made leading up to the World T20,” Faf du Plessis, who will captain in the T20s explained. That makes sense because, as du Plessis said, “the best time to bat is in those first couple of overs and you want to give your most explosive, best players a crack at getting in early and scoring runs.”The decision to have de Villiers keep was unexpected, and came as a result of Quinton de Kock being dropped. It also required some convincing. “That’s the benefit of being best friends with someone – you can tweak things a little more,” du Plessis joked. “To be honest, keeping wicket is something he does’t really want to do; it’s not on his priority list and it does affect him on his back.”But having de Villiers keep “solves a lot of problems for us,” du Plessis said, because it means he can slot in to replace de Kock without South Africa changing the rest of the line-up. They can have de Villiers as the new de Kock with Amla at the top, and have made room for an extra player in the middle order. That’s the way they are going to go about this T20 series and probably, at the World T20.

“That’s something we will stick with even though the conditions may say otherwise. In Durban, with a bit more grass, your cricket brain tells you you should keep AB back because the ball will move around a little bit and there is potential for him getting out early but it’s not about this, its about the bigger picture. He needs to get used to batting in that new role,” du Plessis said. “We’ve got Hash back to slot in at the top there and I think that’s a good combination.; they complement each other really well.”Where does that leave the other opening-batsman-gloveman South Africa picked for these matches, Morne van Wyk?”Morne is our back-up keeper,” du Plessis said. Despite scoring a century the last time he played a T20 international and being a like-for-like replacement for de Kock, van Wyk will likely carry drinks in T20 cricket because it appears South Africa do not see him as a World T20 candidate. “It’s important to give AB some opportunity at the top. He is a fantastic player but he is also human and he wants to get practice in the new role. If Morne does not keep it makes it quite tough for him to make the team at the moment.”Van Wyk may get a chance to play in de Kock’s place in the ODIs next week, when de Villiers will return to the middle order and as captain.”The only format we will see AB keeping in is T20 cricket – one-day cricket is just too much for him from a captaincy point of view,” du Plessis said. “He likes being next to the bowlers and controlling the game. If he was keeping, he is too far away.”Also, his body is quite important, we need AB to play for as long as possible so in saying that, Test cricket and one-day cricket, it’s going to be tough for him to keep. It would be great if he could but to get longevity out of AB its important that he doesn’t. It’s nice because we’ve got possibilities there for the T20s and it will only be something until the World Cup, not after that.”After all that, you may think du Plessis’ main concern for his best friend would be how he will keep himself from getting confused about what he can, can’t, should or shouldn’t want to do but all du Plessis wishes is that de Villiers gets some good sleep.”He has got his baby with him on tour so now it’s just about making sure he gets some sleep – that’s quite important for us.”

The batsman Phillip Hughes has capped off a strong 12 months in which he returned to the Test team by being named Australia’s Domestic Player of the Year

Brydon Coverdale04-Feb-2013The batsman Phillip Hughes has capped off a strong 12 months in which he returned to the Test team by being named Australia’s Domestic Player of the Year. Hughes was one of the winners at the Allan Border Medal ceremony in Melbourne, where the promising Queensland batsman Joe Burns was named the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year and Jess Cameron won the Belinda Clark Award as the best player in Australian women’s cricket.Hughes picked up 33.80% of the player votes for the Domestic Player award and narrowly beat the Tasmania fast bowler Jackson Bird, who collected 29.10% of the votes, while the retired Test batsman Ricky Ponting earned 17.60% of the votes. In the voting period, which ran from February 12 last year until January 19 this year, Hughes scored 1108 runs across all formats (Sheffield Shield, Ryobi Cup and Big Bash League) at an average of 55.40.His figures included two centuries and eight fifties and it was those kind of scores that earned Hughes a recall to the Test side after Ponting’s retirement in December. The success also more than justified his decision to move to South Australia from New South Wales after last season. Perhaps surprisingly given the mountains of domestic runs he has scored, this was the first time Hughes had earned the award.In the past three seasons the Domestic Player of the Year award has gone to Rob Quiney, Usman Khawaja and Michael Klinger. Klinger scored more runs than Hughes during the voting period but at an inferior average – 1169 runs at 41.75 – while Ponting was sixth on the state run list with 1000 at 62.50.Bird was unlucky to miss out after a remarkable debut season last year, which led to Australia A selection during 2012 and eventually a Test debut on Boxing Day against Sri Lanka. In the voting period, Bird picked up 67 wickets across all formats at an average of 19.63, including four five-wicket hauls. His Tasmania team-mate James Faulkner claimed 63 wickets, and they were streets ahead of the third-placed wicket taker Nathan Coulter-Nile on 44 victims.Burns, 23, was a clear winner of the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year title with 41.90% of the votes given by players, ahead of the South Australia fast bowler Kane Richardson with 14.2% of the votes and the New South Wales fast man Pat Cummins, who earned 10.80% of the votes. The award is eligible to players who at the start of the voting period were aged 24 or under and had not played more than ten first-class games.During the voting period, Burns played 24 matches across all formats and scored 1038 runs at an average of 35.79, including two Sheffield Shield centuries against South Australia. He also made his Australia A debut during the tour of England. A stylish batsman who will be in contention for higher honours in the coming years if he can build on the strong start to his career, Burns joins a long list of international players to have won the Young Cricketer honour.All the men who have won the award since it was first given to Darren Lehmann in 1990 have played for Australia in at least one format and they range from big names such as Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee and Shane Watson, to those whose careers at the top were only brief, including Martin Love, Mark Cosgrove and Dan Cullen.

Zimbabwe Under-19 sank to their second successive drubbing in the tri-series, losing to Pakistan by 129 runs in Somerset West

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jan-2012
ScorecardZimbabwe Under-19 sank to their second successive drubbing in the tri-series, losing to Pakistan by 129 runs in Somerset West.Batting first, Pakistan were steered towards a formidable total by their captain Babar Azam who made 85. Umar Waheed contributed a quick 63 off 49 balls in the middle overs to keep up the momentum, as Pakistan surged to 265 for 9. They could have finished with even more, but for Luke Jongwe’s restrictive and incisive spell of 3 for 46.Zimbabwe’s chase began in solid, if somewhat sluggish fashion, with the openers adding 43 in 16.1 overs. Thereafter, the wheels gradually came off, with opening bowler Zia-ul-Haq taking three wickets, and Usman Qadir chipping in with two. Luke Masasire finished with a half-century, but no one else went past 22 as Zimbabwe subsided to 136 all out in the 37th over.

The USA Cricket Association has been hit with a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by the North American Cricket League

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2010Although Gladstone Dainty has announced an ambitious plan for a national Twenty20 tournament in the USA starting in 2012, the USA Cricket Association has been hit with a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by the North American Cricket League (NACL).NACL, which describes itself as a “sports media and entertainment company dedicated to promoting cricket throughout the world, including so-called Twenty20 format cricket in the United States” claims that it has an existing deal with USACA which is in direct conflict with the board’s new initiative.A statement from NACL said that there were “nine causes of action” including
breach of contract, fraud, misappropriation of proprietary business information and theft of trade secrets. It accuses USACA of embarking on a “fraudulent scheme to extract money from NACL and its investors”.NACL’s case centres on an agreement it says it entered into with USACA to promote and organise an official Twenty20 league in the United States. “The parties signed an interim agreement that granted NACL an exclusive period of negotiations during which USACA was contractually bound to cease negotiations with any third parties for the same rights.”While NACL continued to negotiate a master agreement in good faith, USACA had no intention of honouring the terms of the interim agreement and engaged in a fraudulent scheme to extract money from NACL and its investors.”The complaint further alleges that while NACL was negotiating with USACA in good faith, USACA entered into additional agreements with third parties from which USACA also accepted large cash payments for the licensing of the same commercial rights.

The South Africa coach has expressed his “mixed feelings” about the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), and has called for standardising the use of the system across the world by using all the tools available

Cricinfo staff19-Jan-2010South Africa coach Mickey Arthur has expressed his “mixed feelings” about the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), and has called for standardising the use of the system across the world by using all the tools available.”I was always in favour of the UDRS but now that we have seen the system in operation for a decent period of time, I have mixed feelings,” Arthur told the magazine. “Incorrect umpiring decisions can affect the results of matches and also players’ careers so I felt that anything that could bring more correct decisions had to be good for the game.”The system is definitely more good than bad but I do have some misgivings. If Hot Spot and Snicko are used in one series but not another then the system is half-baked.”In fact, he said there were reservations about Hawk-Eye’s predictive element as well, indicating if the ball would go on to hit, or miss, the stumps. “I’m not 100% convinced about the predictive element of Hawk-Eye and I don’t think many players are either.”Another issue he drew his attention to was the amount of time taken to decide whether to call for a review. “I understand that in Australia it has been 10 seconds,” Arthur said. “In our series against England we were given 25. I think it’s fair to say that both South Africa and England did take longer than we should have done at times.”He also believed more lbws would be given under the UDRS in the subcontinent. “It will be interesting to see how the UDRS works in the subcontinent,” Arthur said. “I suspect there may be more lbws given out on review because height and bounce will rarely be an issue. In the past these decisions would have been given not out because of the turn and perhaps the batsman getting a long way forward.” South Africa will play two Tests in India next month, but a verification of Arthur’s statements might have to wait a little longer since the UDRS is unlikely to be used during that series.The recently-concluded Test series between South Africa and England had created an uproar regarding the UDRS, with umpire Daryl Harper at the centre of controversy. When Graeme Smith, on 15, flashed a cut at Ryan Sidebottom during the fourth Test in Johannesburg, England went up as one for the top-edge. However, Tony Hill, the on-field umpire, turned down the appeal and Andrew Strauss quickly asked for a review.There was no noticeable deflection on the replays so the noise from the stump microphone would have to be the decisive evidence. Except Harper couldn’t hear anything, so he simply upheld Hill’s decision. Smith went on to score 105 and South Africa went on to level the series 1-1 with the innings-and-74-run win. However, Arthur said that as far as the umpires’ perspectives went, he felt that they might have made “made their peace” with the system as long as correct decisions were reached in the end.”I get the impression that some umpires are in favour of it, others less so. [Dave] Richardson [the ICC’s general manager (cricket)] told us that the UDRS has improved the percentage of correct decisions from 93 to 98. And that really is what it comes down to. If the UDRS can eliminate the absolute shocker, then it is doing its job.”

Division Two leaders edging closer to promotion despite Gloucestershire racking up 482

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay09-Sep-2025Leicestershire’s march towards promotion may be in danger of becoming something of a shuffle, but a resilient batting performance saw the Foxes go a long way towards securing the draw that depending on results elsewhere, could prove enough to see them over the line on the second day of their Rothesay County Championship match against Gloucestershire.Big half-centuries from Lewis Hill, his fifth of the season, and Shan Masood, on his Championship debut for the county, saw Leicestershire recover from 86 for 3 and secure a batting bonus point before closing on 270 for 4. Both achieved personal landmarks in the course of their innings, Masood passing 12,000 first-class runs, and Hill 5000.Leicestershire still trail the visitors by 212, and need another 63 runs to be sure of not being asked to follow-on, but a poor weather forecast for days three and four means the draw is now strong favourite, and there should be enough play for Leicestershire to secure at least two more batting bonus points.A return of 14 or 15 points could prove sufficient to confirm their return to the top division.A sunny morning at the UptonSteel County Ground, Grace Road, saw Gloucestershire resume their first innings on 382 for 7, but play began with one of those somewhat unedifying periods of county cricket when the bowling side opts to hurry through a few overs to improve a negative over rate, which in this case saw Leicestershire opening batsmen Rishi Patel and Sol Budinger squeezing 11 overs of their occasional off-spin into the first 20 minutes of play.While on one hand this meant the Foxes were no longer in any danger of being deducted any points at the end of the game, it also meant they had little chance of taking the two wickets they needed for a third bowling bonus point, and Zaman Akhter and Matt Taylor happily and comfortably built a half-century partnership before, with the seamers now back into the attack, Taylor top edged a pull at a short delivery from Logan van Beek, and Hill took a good catch at deep square leg.Van Beek then produced a fine delivery to bowl Josh Shaw, but Akhter and last man Ajeet Singh Dale laid about them to good effect, Akhter registering a third half-century of the season to underline his status as aspiring all-rounder before edging an Ian Holland out-swinger to wicket-keeper Ben Cox.Having made important contributions with the bat, Taylor and Singh Dale then looked dangerous with the ball, finding sufficient movement to beat both Patel and Budinger in impressive spells before lunch. Budinger could consider himself unfortunate however, when having hit Taylor for consecutive boundaries, the left-hander got a delivery that kept markedly low before thudding into off stump.Patel, who has struggled for form in recent weeks, followed shortly after the break, an uncertain defensive push at Shaw giving Ben Charlesworth a straightforward catch at second slip, and though Holland tried to dig in, the Leicestershire captain’s inclination to stay on the back foot cost him when a fullish Taylor delivery stayed low and pinned him leg before.Hill, however, has been one of Leicestershire’s most consistent run scorers this season, and having played himself in, the 34-year-old former captain began to unfurl some fine shots, including four boundaries in five balls before a glorious on-drive off Shaw took him past 50, the half-century coming off 57 deliveries.Masood, coming in to the side in place of Peter Handscomb (the Victorian having returned to Australia to prepare for the forthcoming season down under), also began slowly, but as the ball got older and the bowlers began to tire, he too began to show his class, with one particular late cut verging on the exquisite. The partnership had passed 150 when Hill, to his dismay, was given out caught behind on 88 off the bowling of Matt Taylor.His dismissal brought in another making his Championship debut for Leicestershire, Steve Eskinazi, and the tall right-hander gave Masood solid support in steering their side to the close without further loss.

Australia amassed the highest total in Test cricket then the visitors’ top order was again knocked over

Tristan Lavalette16-Feb-2024South Africa 75 and 67 for 3 (Tucker 27*, Brits 18*, Garth 2-8) trail Australia 575 for 9 dec (Sutherland 210, Healy 99, Mooney 78, Gardner 65, Tryon 3-81) by 432 runsAnnabel Sutherland smashed a slew of records after notching an imperious double century on day two as a ruthless Australia closed in on a comprehensive Test victory against South Africa at the WACA.Sutherland’s 210 dominated Australia’s 575 for 9 – the highest total in women’s Test cricket – before captain Alyssa Healy declared early in the final session. Seamers Kim Garth and Darcie Brown again bowled spectacularly with the new ball and tore through South Africa, who slumped to 13 for 3.Related