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It was all homegrown players to the fore for Rajshahi as Zakir Hasan struck his maiden BPL fifty after Mominul Haque and Mehidy Hasan had done enough to set up the win

Mohammad Isam17-Nov-2017Zakir Hasan goes for a big sweep•BCB

Rajshahi Kings came back to winning ways as they defeated Sylhet Sixers by seven wickets. It was all homegrown players to the fore as little-known Zakir Hasan struck his maiden BPL fifty after Mominul Haque and Mehidy Hasan had done enough to set up the win.Zakir struck an unbeaten 51 off 26 balls, hitting four fours and three sixes, and shared a 53-run unbroken fourth-wicket stand with Mushfiqur Rahim who scored 25 off 20 balls.Sylhet had earlier put up 146 for 6 mostly because of Sabbir’s late charge – 41 off 26 balls that included four sixes – after Danushka Gunathilaka contributed with a 37-ball 40 with four fours and two sixes. Kesrick Williams took two wickets but it was Mehidy and James Franklin who put the brakes on Sylhet’s charge.Sylhet quiet for 17 oversMehidy bowled his four overs in the first eight overs, conceding just 12 runs and picking up Upul Tharanga’s wicket. It was a dream delivery for an offspinner against an in-form left-hand batsman, as he beat Tharanga’s forward push with the turn to crash into the stumps. Nurul Hasan gave a catch to fine leg before Nasir was bowled by Samit Patel in the 13th over. And when Gunathilaka fell in the following over, Sylhet were in real trouble.After Mehidy, Franklin and Patel combined to bowl five overs for only 23 runs as Sylhet hardly looked to be in the groove for the first 17 overs, in which they reached 92 for 5.Sabbir’s big finishSabbir was having trouble timing the ball until the last three balls of the 18th over. He managed to hit Farhad Reza for a six over long-on before hitting the next ball a lot straighter for a second six. The over went for 24 runs after Sabbir swept the last ball for a four.In the last over, Sabbir struck Williams for two consecutive sixes before holing out to square leg, for his first substantial contribution for Sylhet in the tournament. It was a timely effort too, as Sylhet amassed 54 runs in the last three overs.The home boys find their feetMominul and Rony Talukdar got Rajshahi’s chase off to a fast start, adding 65 runs in 8.3 overs. Rony got an early life when Gunathilaka dropped him at midwicket off the second ball of the innings. He went on to hit Taijul Islam for a straight six in the seventh over, but fell for 24 off 22 balls when he was stumped off Nasir in the ninth over. Mominul continued to bat fluently, also hitting one six in his 36-ball 42, that also included five fours.Zakir, playing his first match this season, also rode on a bit of luck in the 12th over when he was caught at midwicket but replays showed the bowler Nabil Samad had overstepped. He slogged the next two balls for huge sixes, handing Rajshahi back the advantage.A stroll to finishMominul’s dismissal came at a time when he and Zakir were looking dangerous together but Mushfiqur calmed things down by rotating the strike regularly with Zakir. The teenager struck the winning runs in the 18th over off Taijul, with two consecutive fours – through third man and midwicket – to take them home with 15 balls to spare.

The ICC has refused to get involved in the BCCI’s tussle with the Lodha Committee, ICC chief executive David Richardson has indicated

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Sep-2016The ICC has refused to get involved in the BCCI’s tussle with the Lodha Committee, ICC chief executive David Richardson has indicated.Richardson told that BCCI president Anurag Thakur had asked the global governing body to address a letter to the Indian board, asking it to clarify whether the reforms of the Lodha Committee – forced on the board by the Supreme Court of India – did not amount to government interference in the board’s running. As per ICC regulations, member boards cannot have government interference in their running.ICC chairman Shashank Manohar, Richardson said, was reluctant to get involved in the matter unless “formally” requested to.”The BCCI president Mr Thakur did verbally ask the ICC to write a letter to the BCCI asking the BCCI to explain whether the recommendations of Lodha Committee might constitute government interference,” Richardson said, according to PTI. “But Mr Manohar said that the ICC should not write such a letter unless the BCCI first writes to the ICC requesting ICC to intervene, or ICC receives a letter from another of its member boards to do so. But no such letters have been received.”So I understand that Mr Manohar is reluctant to interfere in the domestic affairs of a member country. He will not do so without being formally requested to do so by the member concerned and nor is he prepared to put the ICC in a position where it could be perceived as challenging the authority of the Supreme Court of India.”Don’t forget… the consequences of the government interference could lead to the suspension of a member board and nobody really wants the BCCI to be suspended.”Richardson said Thakur was not happy with the ICC’s refusal to write the letter. “There were other board members present when that request was made by Mr Thakur,” he said. “As far as I [could] see, Mr Thakur actually criticised the ICC for not sending the letter.”BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke responded to Richardson saying: “First of all, any verbal discussion is not a request. Informal discussions take place on so many issues.”Shirke added that it had been Manohar’s call, when he was still the BCCI president and the board had submitted its affidavit to the Supreme Court after the Lodha recommendations, to highlight the threat of suspension.”When these affidavits were made, it was Shashank who approved them as BCCI president and lawyer. He was the one who said, ‘we should include this point’,” Shirke told the . “He was already heading the ICC and was holding both portfolios at that time. Now, either he has conveniently forgotten about this or this Richardson has been tutored to say what he’s saying,”Earlier, Thakur said at a press conference that the ICC had stepped in when there were administrative issues with other member boards, but it was ignoring what was happening with the BCCI. “Here there is an outside interference,” Thakur said. “ICC takes a decision on Nepal, Sri Lanka on the basis of outside interference, [but] they are keeping mum here when BCCI is concerned.”In July, India’s Supreme Court accepted a majority of the recommendations put forward by the Lodha Committee covering wide-ranging aspects of Indian cricket at the central and state level, and gave the BCCI a maximum of six months to implement the reforms. The Lodha Committee, comprising former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges, Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran was formed by the court in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for the franchises involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and propose changes to the BCCI’s functioning.Last week, Thakur had said the “ICC regime” was trying to “sideline the BCCI, one of the most important stakeholders in global cricket today”.Manohar, meanwhile, had said he was concerned with the interests of the ICC and world cricket, not the BCCI. Manohar had seemed to take a similar tone when, soon after taking charge of the ICC in November 2015, he said he wanted to stop the “bullying” caused by the constitutional revamp of 2014 – the “Big Three” episode, which left the BCCI, the ECB and Cricket Australia better off than other member boards financially and in terms of administrative powers.

The future of Northamptonshire County Cricket Club looks uncertain after a request to the ECB for emergency financial help and an examination of the benefits of selling their ground and moving to an out-of-town location

George Dobell03-Aug-2015The future of Northamptonshire County Cricket Club looks uncertain after a request to the ECB for emergency financial help and an examination of the benefits of selling their ground and moving to an out-of-town location.The club, who have already borrowed several hundred thousand pounds from a group of directors earlier this year, have been instructed by the ECB to undergo an independent financial review to ascertain whether they fill the criteria for borrowing. It is believed they require around £500,000 to meet urgent financial obligations.The ECB has assisted counties in the past but with a full-scale review of the professional game in progress, it cannot be assumed that further largesse will automatically be forthcoming.Whether Northants seek to move headquarters or even become the first of the first-class clubs to dissolve remains to be seen. Increasingly, though, the current arrangement appears unsustainable.Northants declared a loss of £305,636 last year and are forecasting another heavy loss for 2015. They have already accepted that their prize asset, the England one-day allrounder David Willey, is likely to leave the club at the end of the season – Willey is contracted until the end of 2016 but had a verbal agreement allowing him to leave if he wished – and are looking at other cost-saving measures. The player wage bill is certain to be reduced.Former club captain Stephen Peters, Scotland international Kyle Coetzer, fast bowler Maurice Chambers and David Murphy are all expected to leave at the end of the season, while younger players such as Ben Duckett, the former England U19 captain, and Rob Keogh, who is the subject of interest from Essex, could also depart.The deeper concern is that this time of year, with T20 revenues secured, should be easier in terms of cash flow. Most clubs suffer more in the autumn when income streams dry up and bills have to be paid.Northants have previously borrowed from Northamptonshire County Council to redevelop their ground and to maximise potential revenue from T20 cricket.They were scheduled to repay the money from ECB receipts, but that income has been damaged by the international retirement of Graeme Swann and the non-selection of Monty Panesar. In the past, Northants have received performance-related payments (worth over £100,000 a year for Swann) as the ‘developing club’ of the two spinners.Financial pressures have encouraged an examination of whether Northants should abandon their ground, situated close to the centre of Northampton, and move to a spot further out of town.Indeed, ESPNcricinfo understands that the club have invested in a research project to identify a potential new location for the ground and, with the local council’s help, are considering a patch at Sixfields near Northampton Town’s stadium.The cricket and football clubs used to play on adjoining grounds until the football club upped sticks in 1994. Northants members would need to sanction such a move.The club bought the freehold on their Wantage Road ground in May 2012 and had the site valued, in its current condition, at around £4.5m. With planning permission, it could be worth more than £10m. The club’s chairman, Gavin Warren, is also a director of a Bleu Star Land and Property Ltd; a company whose tag line is: “unlock the full potential of your assets.”The club state there is a covenant on their ground which makes it impossible to obtain planning permission. They also claim they have not applied for an emergency loan from the ECB. Both these claims are disputed by club insiders and sources at the ECB.Underlining the impression that club is ailing, ESPNcricinfo also understands that Northants was reported to the ECB for failing to have lunch prepared for players and officials during the Championship match against Derbyshire. The chief executive, Ray Payne, is also not a full-time presence at the ground.In the shorter term, the County Tavern, the pub owned by the club, could also be sold. It has been listed for sale before – and valued at around £550,000 – but withdrawn before completion. However, if the directors’ loans have been taken against the value of the pub, the sale of it may not benefit Northants CCC. Such matters will be scrutinised by the independent financial review before any loan is approved.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who is part of India’s ODI squad, has completed a triple-century for Saurashtra in their ongoing Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Karnataka in Rajkot

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jan-2013Cheteshwar Pujara, who is part of India’s ODI squad, has completed a triple-century for Saurashtra in their ongoing Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Karnataka in Rajkot, on the eve of the first one-dayer against England which is also in the same town. MS Dhoni, however, said it was unlikely that Pujara would play the first ODI.”It looks very unlikely as of now because we have to see the whole batting line-up, the position he’s ideally suited for and all those things,” Dhoni said a day ahead of the first ODI. “As of now, it looks very unlikely. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. If somebody gets unfit, we’ll see.”As the rest of India’s one-day squad practised at the SCA Khandheri Stadium, Rajkot’s new international venue, Pujara resumed his innings on 261 at the Saurashtra University Ground and went on to reach his 300 off 356 deliveries on the fifth morning. His innings had helped Saurashtra secure their semi-final berth. He was eventually dismissed for 352 as Saurashtra closed made their second highest score in the Ranji Trophy.”My plan was to get some practice for the ODI. Once I was set, once I scored my hundred I was in a positive mood and our team was safe,” Pujara had said after the third day. “Even if I would have got out, we were still safe to qualify.”His inclusion in India’s squad for the first three matches against England was his maiden ODI call-up, and it had come at the expense of Virender Sehwag. Pujara was India’s best batsman in the Test series against England and was picked in the limited-overs team after India lost the ODI series to Pakistan.

Shaun Marsh is confident he will be fit for the Boxing Day Test after pulling up well from his net sessions over the past two days in Melbourne

Brydon Coverdale22-Dec-2011Shaun Marsh is confident he will be fit for the Boxing Day Test after pulling up well from his net sessions over the past two days in Melbourne. Marsh will play for the Perth Scorchers in Thursday night’s Big Bash League match against the Melbourne Renegades at the Docklands Stadium and he believes if he makes it through without a problem, he will be fit for the first Test against India.The Twenty20 game will be Marsh’s first match since severely hurting his back during the Cape Town Test six weeks ago. Early last week, he appeared to have no chance of playing on Boxing Day, but a tweak to his rehab routine and plenty of work with the team physio Alex Kountouris has put Marsh firmly into the frame to bat at No.3 against India.He has batted without discomfort in the MCG nets over the past two days and was named in a 13-man squad for the first Test, along with the allrounder Daniel Christian. The national selector John Inverarity said on Wednesday that if Marsh could prove his fitness he was likely to play ahead of Christian, and the initial signs have been positive.”It’s actually pulled up fine,” Marsh said. “Probably a week and a half ago if you asked me the same question it was a bit stiff and sore, still. But I’ve worked very hard in the last week and a half to get myself in this position and the last two or three days have been really good. I’ve had extended net practice and have felt fine. Hopefully I can bat a few overs tonight and dive around and have a catch and run around and field and pull up fine and be ready to go.”It has been a remarkable turnaround for Marsh, who has had back issues several times during his career. During the Cape Town Test, he was struck in the groin by Morne Morkel two balls before lunch on the first day and the sudden movement contributed to his back seizing up. That night, the situation was so bad that Marsh couldn’t even get out of bed without assistance.”The night that I did it I had Michael Beer and [Michael] Hussey and Alex Kountouris picking me up and taking me to the toilet,” he said. “It wasn’t pleasant. I couldn’t move. Every time I did move I was struggling. I couldn’t get out of bed. It was tough there for a few days. It was a tough month for me to try and overcome it. In previous times I could move around and do things by myself, still in pain, but I’ve never had help before to get out of bed.”It was pretty slow at the start. I was struggling a fair bit for the first month. Every time I tried to increase my training schedule or load I just couldn’t do it, I would pull up terrible. I’ve worked hard with my people back home in Perth and with Alex Kountouris, changed a few things around in the last three weeks which have helped a lot. It has improved a lot in the last week and a bit. I’m confident but we’ll have to wait and see.”Marsh has become one of the most important members of Australia’s batting order during his short Test career, having scored a century on debut in Sri Lanka, 81 in his second Test and 44 in Cape Town, where he was the only man to offer serious support to the centurion Michael Clarke. He will slot back in at No.3 if he plays against India, with Usman Khawaja having been dropped.

Gloucestershire have signed David Wade, an active Lance Corporal with Royal Signal Corps in the British Army

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2010Gloucestershire have signed David Wade, an active Lance Corporal with Royal Signal Corps in the British Army, on a two-year contract after he impressed during training and trials.Wade, 27, was due to return to Afghanistan in January and will remain in the Army but will train with the county during the rest of the winter and be available for the whole of 2011 season having come to an agreement with the Army. Wade, who was part of Hampshire’s youth set-up until he was 17, caught the eye of Gloucestershire coaches while playing for Westbury in the West of England Premier League.”I have been in the Army for six years,” Wade said. “I spent seven months in Afghanistan between September 2007 and April 2008 and was due to go back out there in January for a six-month tour of duty. Gloucestershire’s offer came out of the blue, but I have always played club cricket at a very competitive level.”I have been here since the players reported back in November, but everything had to be right with the Army and it took a little time to get everything sorted out. They have been very helpful.”The soldiers going out to Kabul this time have got a hard job and my troop will be going out in an infantry role. There is a pang of regret about not going with them because I did all the build-up training and I was ready to go.”But my fellow soldiers are right behind me in the decision I have made and wish me well. It’s a last roll of the dice for me as far as playing professional sport is concerned and I will be giving it all I’ve got.”John Bracewell, Gloucestershire’s director of cricket, said: “Like Gemaal Hussain, David is a relative late comer to the professional game and like his predecessor was discovered through our scouting programme. He trialled with us early last year and impressed us with his pace bounce and outswing. With his proven discipline and obvious courage through the army’s forces he has shown throughout the winter months a dedication to training and coaching. We are confident that David will be a real contributor to our campaign this season.”

Reema Malhotra. Jhulan Goswami and Amita Sharma will lead the three squads for the Women’s Challenger Trophy to be played in Ahmedabad from January 2 to 5

Cricinfo staff23-Dec-2009Reema Malhotra, Jhulan Goswami and Amita Sharma will lead the three squads for the Women’s Challenger Trophy to be played in Ahmedabad from January 2 to 5. The teams have been renamed India Red, India Blue and India Green, keeping in sync with the annual men’s tournament.Goswami (India Green) and Sharma (India Red) had captained teams in the previous edition. Rumeli Dhar, who captained India A last year, makes way for Malhotra, who is now in charge of India Blue. The Indian players have not played as a unit since the World Twenty20 in June.India B won the tournament in Ahmedabad last October in a low-scoring encounter against India A.India Red: Amita Sharma (capt), Samantha Lobatto, MD Tirushkamini, Babita Mandlik, Neha Tanwar, Anjum Chopra, Rumeli Dhar, Mamta Kanojia, Diana David, Niranjana, Neha Maji, Reva Arora. Coach/manager – Purnima RauIndia Blue: Reema Malhotra (capt), Anagha Deshpande, Mithali Raj, Latika Kumari, Varsha Chowdhury, Shweta Jadav, Veda Krishnamurthy, Snehal Pradhan, Lalita Sharma, Sapna Randhawa, Kathakali Banerjee, Ekta Bist. Coach/manager – Sandhya AgarwalIndia Green: Jhulan Goswami (capt), Sulakshana Naik, Poonam Raut, Priyanka Roy, Harmanpreet Kaur, Asha Rawat, Shikha Pandey, Sonia Dabir, Nishu Chowdhury, Pooja Sharma, Gauhar Sultana, Payal Panchal. Coach/manager – Mithu Mukherjee

She last played for India in 2014, and returned to the limelight in the WPL a decade later

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Aug-2025India left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana has announced her retirement from all forms of the game. She played 50 ODIs and 37 T20Is after making her debut in 2008, and last represented India in April 2014. Thereafter, Sultana came back into the limelight a decade later when she featured in the 2024 and 2025 WPL seasons.”To have represented India at the highest level – in World Cups, tours and battles that tested both skill and spirit – has been the greatest honour of my life,” Sultana wrote in her retirement announcement on Instagram. “Every wicket taken, every dive in the field, every huddle with my teammates has shaped the cricketer and the person I am today.”Sultana finished with 66 ODI wickets at an average of 19.39, the third-best for any India bowler to have taken at least 50 wickets in the format.Related

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Sultana played in two ODI World Cups, in 2009 and 2013, and picked up 12 wickets in 11 matches at an average of 30.58. She also played in three T20 World Cups from 2009 to 2014, and took seven wickets while going at an economy rate of 5.81.Sultana was signed by UP Warriorz (UPW) ahead of WPL 2024. She played two matches in the tournament, going wicketless across five overs. In 2025, Sultana again played two games for UPW, and only got to bowl the one over.”There were times when I thought of quitting – seasons I didn’t do well, my mental health was affected,” Sultana told ESPNcricinfo before her comeback tournament in 2024. “But then even when I was about to give up, I was like, ‘No, this shouldn’t be the end. I want to end it the way I want it.’ It was not to prove anything to anybody, but I enjoyed playing and I still enjoy playing. That’s the primary reason I am still here.”Sultana, 37, is also a BCCI Level 2 coach.

The left-arm quick spent the last two months on the road, playing in the ILT20 and the PSL

Matt Roller20-Mar-2024David Willey will miss the start of IPL 2024, where he was due to play for Lucknow Super Giants, due to personal reasons. The English left-arm seamer spent the last two IPL seasons with Royal Challengers Bangalore and was due to play for LSG this year after he was signed at his base price of INR 2 crore (£190,000 approx) in December’s auction in Dubai.But Justin Langer, LSG’s new head coach, revealed on Wednesday that Willey would not be available for the start of the season, after spending the last two months on the road, representing Abu Dhabi Knight Riders and Multan Sultans in the ILT20 and the PSL respectively.Related

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ESPNcricinfo understands that Willey has not yet been replaced in the squad and could yet travel to India at some stage in the tournament. But he has been away from home for most of the English winter, having played at the World Cup in India, and he returned to the UK after playing in Monday’s PSL final.Willey is the second Englishman who is unavailable for the start of LSG’s season, after Mark Wood was pulled out by the ECB for the whole campaign to manage his workload ahead of the T20 World Cup. Wood has been replaced by Shamar Joseph, the West Indies fast bowler, while Willey has not yet been replaced.”With Mark Wood pulling out of the tournament and also David Willey won’t be coming now either, that means we lack some experience,” Langer said, when asked about LSG’s pace attack. “But what I’ve also seen in the last couple of days is that we have enormous talent. Some of our guys have had some injuries but they all look very fit at the moment.”They look fit and healthy and they’re very hungry, so we’ll just have to manage them well so that we can get them through and work through the whole tournament, not just the start of the tournament. We’ve got one overseas player up our sleeve if required, where we might be able to add some experience.”Langer also name-checked the 21-year-old Delhi seamer Mayank Yadav as a genuine fast bowler who could provide some pace in Wood’s absence. “Mark Wood is a world-class bowler, isn’t he? And he pulled out after the auction, which is disappointing but this is the world we live in,” Langer said.”We also have Shamar Joseph, we have Mayank who bowls with very good pace. Hopefully we can replace, not [Wood’s] experience, but his pace with Shamar Joseph and Mayank. He’ll be missed – of course he’ll be missed, he’s a world-class bowler – but this is the world we live in and we will adapt and we will be okay.”LSG will travel to Jaipur this week ahead of their opening match of IPL 2024, against Rajasthan Royals in an afternoon game on Sunday.

Ramiz Raja warns that the country is paying price for lengthy exile from international cricket

Danyal Rasool02-Dec-2022The Rawalpindi pitch on which England racked up a world-record 506 runs on the first day of the first Test was “embarrassing”, according to PCB chairman Ramiz Raja. Terming Pakistan as living in “the dark ages of pitch preparation” owing to a decade-long hiatus of Test cricket in the country, Ramiz said it would take at least another season for the quality of pitches to begin improving.”It is embarrassing for us, especially when you have a cricketer as chairman,” Ramiz said, speaking to media during the lunch break on the second day of the Test. “This is not a good advert for cricket. We’re a better cricketing nation than this.”The quality of Test match pitches has become a point of intense scrutiny, effectively since the day Ramiz took over as chairman last year when he promised to bring drop-in pitches to Pakistan. While such talk has continued apace in the past 15 months, tangible progress on the subject has been non-existent, with Ramiz decrying the costs of having them shipped from abroad as prohibitive.”Ultimately, the only situation is a drop-in pitch. Which is extremely expensive if we’re bringing it from abroad. Instead, we’re developing soil here for drop-in pitches. That way, we can prepare square turners or bouncy wickets depending on what we want.”This is not an issue of not leaving grass on the pitch. The grass looks good from the point of view of optics. We need to create bounce, which can happen without grass, as happens on Australian pitches. They don’t leave lots of grass on the pitch. We get different pitches in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.”We have the same pitches because we get the same kind of soil. We’ve tried to bring a curator from abroad; we needed to bring a curator from Australia for the Lahore Test, because the situation had got out of hand. When I want a spinning pitch, we don’t get that either, so it ends up being half and half. We don’t want that.”While Ramiz implied there were structural issues undermining pitch preparation in Pakistan, there had been relatively little controversy about the quality of the surfaces for Test series until Australia’s visit to Rawalpindi in March. The pitch for that match produced 14 wickets in five days, and was awarded a poor rating and docked a demerit point by the ICC.Pindi was recently regarded as Pakistan’s spiciest Test pitch, the one that offered the most assistance to the bowlers. When South Africa visited in January 2021, the Test in Rawalpindi was something of a classic, with all four innings producing scores between 200 and 300, leading to a thrilling climax on day five.Eighteen of South Africa’s 20 wickets fell to Pakistani pace bowlers, an advantage that Ramiz acknowledged Pakistan needed to capitalise on. Even the surface in Karachi at the time produced an absorbing contest, with Pakistan triumphing by seven wickets on the final day.Related

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Ramiz’s repeated talk of overhauling pitches in Pakistan has led to criticism that the PCB chairman is micromanaging their preparation. That speculation isn’t completely unwarranted, either, with Ramiz flying in Toby Lumsden, a former curator at the MCG, to help with the Gaddafi Stadium surface ahead of the third Test against Australia.Ramiz, however, insisted he did not interfere in the preparation of individual Test match pitches. “The board doesn’t direct how pitches are made. I’ve left this to the thinktank. We look at our strengths and then the pitch and then make selections. I try and limit my involvement because otherwise I can’t hold people accountable. For accountability you have to cede control. I aim to create a pitch that ends up defining our tactics so a template is set.”We live in the dark ages of pitches in Pakistan. They aren’t exposed in T20 and 50 overs but they are in Test cricket. We lived in an apartheid situation where teams didn’t come here. Pakistan players had played 70 Tests without playing here. It’s an achievement that we managed to stay afloat. We’ve tried everything, bringing in a curator from abroad. Pitches are the lifeblood of cricket in a country, but having said that, I’ve never seen batting like England’s on Day 1 either.”Pakistan were untroubled in their own first innings, when England were finally dismissed for 657, if not quite as explosive. With little seam movement or variable bounce, Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq eased to an unbeaten 150-run stand. In the Rawalpindi Test against Australia in March, the same pair put on an undefeated 252 for the opening partnership on the fifth day.Ramiz, however, warned there would be little immediate improvement to that situation. “This will improve by next season. Unfortunately we’ll see the same kinds of pitches for the New Zealand series.”