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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

India captain Shubman Gill was visibly upset with the ball they were given by the umpires after the second new ball had to be changed in the first hour

Sidharth Monga11-Jul-20255:19

Kumble: There can’t be so many ball changes in a Test

The Dukes balls were at the centre of attention once again as India were unhappy with the replacement ball for the second new ball, incredibly just 10.3 overs into its life on the second morning of the Lord’s Test.The difference in results was stark. Jasprit Bumrah had wreaked havoc with the original ball, taking three wickets in his first 14 deliveries, but India went the rest of the first session without another wicket despite bowling to England’s Nos. 7 and 9. After plenty of remonstrations the ball was changed once again, 48 balls after the first ball change.The second new ball, which went out of shape in just 10.3 overs and didn’t pass through any of the rings on the gauge, had swung 1.869 degrees and seamed 0.579 degrees on average. The replacement ball swung 0.855 degrees an average and seamed 0.594 degrees. More than the data perhaps it was the softness and the age of the ball that irked India.Bumrah said he didn’t want to invite sanctions but also later said he didn’t remember having to ever get the ball changed on his previous two tours of England.Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad, who has been a critic of the balls used in England since 2020, said on the broadcast that the replacement ball looked like it was 18-20 overs old. He also expressed his displeasure on X.”The cricket ball should be like a fine wicketkeeper. Barely noticed,” Broad wrote on X. “We are having to talk about the ball too much because it is such an issue & being changed virtually every innings. Unacceptable. Feels like it’s been five years now. Dukes have a problem. They need to fix it. A ball should last 80 overs. Not 10.”Former England captain Nasser Hussain said there was a “serious issue with the Dukes ball” but felt they were also changed “too often” as players search for the perfect ball.”The first thing is that there’s a serious issue with the Dukes ball,” Hussain said on . “Both captains talked about it before the game. We’ve seen it in this game: in this session, it’s been changed twice. We’ve seen it in the last few years, really, the Dukes ball going out of shape.”The second point at play here is that I think the ball is changed too often. I think we’re getting a bit precious about cricket balls. In the history of the game, the cricket ball gets old, and the cricket ball gets soft. I think we’re getting a bit addicted to having the perfect cricket ball for 80 overs.”The third thing at play is that they got through in that first hour and Bumrah was unplayable … I looked up from my laptop at the back of comms box and went, ‘They’re changing the ball: why would you change the ball that is doing something to a random box of balls?’ You know nothing about that, you know everything about this … I get why they’re getting upset – it did look older, it did look softer — but why change? Why take the gamble? I thought that was a real bizarre thing to do when you’ve got something, especially in this time when the Dukes ball is so all over the place, when you’ve got something, stick to it. They didn’t.”The Dukes ball has been in the eye of a storm since 2020 as it has been going out of shape and soft too soon. The ECB’s decision to introduce Kookaburra balls for four rounds of County Championship matches has also brought the Dukes ball in focus.This series has featured regular complaints from the fielding captain – starting as early as the first session of a Test – and regular ball changes around the 43rd over. During this series, a combination of pitches and the balls has resulted in dramatic results. Wickets have come at an average of 86.09 between overs 31 to 80, the highest average in England since we have maintained ball-by-ball records. It is also marginally the third highest in all Test series we have ball-by-ball-records for, overwhelmingly behind Sri Lanka’s tour of Pakistan in 2008-09 and trailing Zimbabwe’s tour of New Zealand in 2000-01 by just 0.57.

The trophy commemorates the tragic Tangiwai train disaster of 1953 where 151 people, including the fiance of NZ fast bowler Bob Blair, lost their lives

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2024All New Zealand and South Africa Test series will now be played for the Tangiwai Shield, starting with the two-match Test series that’s set to begin on February 4 in Mount Maunganui. The trophy commemorates the tragic events of 1953, when 151 people on the train from Wellington to Auckland on Christmas eve – including Nerissa Love, the fiancé of New Zealand fast bowler Bob Blair – lost their lives in the country’s worst rail disaster.The tragedy coincided with the second Test between New Zealand and South Africa at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on December 24, which Blair was part of. On the opening day, New Zealand’s seam attack reduced South Africa to 259 for 8. The New Zealand squad spent Christmas at their team hotel, but woke up on Boxing Day to the news of the accident.Blair remained behind at the hotel to grieve. It was announced that he had withdrawn from the match, and flags at the ground were lowered to half-mast.But Blair appeared out of the players’ tunnel after New Zealand lost their ninth wicket for 154 in the first innings, which left the players and the crowd at Ellis Park stunned. Along with Bert Sutcliffe, he put up a 33-run stand to drag New Zealand to 187. It remains one of the most defining moments in New Zealand sporting history.”The background to this Test match is one of the most sad and moving and heart-breaking stories imaginable,” NZC chief executive Scott Weenink said. “It’s also an uplifting story of incredible courage and resilience, and in terms of the South African team and public, great compassion and empathy. I’m delighted to see this very important part of cricket history properly recognised and acknowledged.”The Shield was created by carver David Ngawati (Ngati Hine), is made from the native New Zealand timber puriri, and includes an inlaid mere made from pounamu, a type of stone sourced from the Tangiwai region. An NZC release said that the shield will be blessed and presented to the teams in Tauranga today.CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki said, “On behalf of CSA, I send my best wishes to everyone who was touched by this tragedy, and to both teams contesting the inaugural trophy. It’s important that the teams of today and tomorrow know where they came from, and I’m sure the Tangiwai Shield will do much to assist with that.”

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

• ICC rescinds demerit point for Rawalpindi pitch that hosted Pakistan-England Test

• PCB appeals against ICC's decision to award Rawalpindi pitch demerit point

• Rawalpindi pitch earns second 'below average' rating of 2022

• Why does Ramiz Raja think Pakistan have a problem with their pitches?

• Pakistan and the consequences of fixing what wasn't broken

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.”

Opener’s 64 off 35 renders chase a formality despite mid-innings wobble

Matt Roller14-Jun-2021Surrey 167 for 5 (Roy 64) beat Glamorgan 166 for 8 (Labuschagne 74, Moriarty 3-26) by five wicketsBowlers, beware: Jason Roy has got his mojo back. Surrey’s margin of victory at the Kia Oval should have been much bigger than five wickets as they won their third game out of three in the Vitality Blast, but a middle-order wobble obscured the fact Roy had killed the game as a contest inside four overs of the chase; Glamorgan, who once boasted a proud record of six T20 wins in a row at this ground, had Marnus Labuschagne’s third consecutive fifty to thank for sparing their blushes.Roy’s personality does not lend itself to bio-bubbles and “secure team environments” and his form has suffered at times over the last 12 months, with a rare lean patch in ODIs and scratchy form in both the Big Bash and England’s T20I series in India and South Africa. Last week, he started the Blast with an ugly innings of 45 off 42 at Lord’s, swinging rustily and being outscored by a ratio of five-to-two by Will Jacks, then thrashed a cameo of 30 off 14 at Taunton.But here, in front of 4000 or so supporters, he scoffed at Glamorgan’s plan to start with spin against him in the Powerplay, racing to 41 off 18 balls. “I always look for small progressions,” he said afterwards. “Lord’s was very scratchy and I didn’t have that rhythm, hitting a lot of fielders and just getting a bit frustrated. At Taunton I had a bit of fun after a four-and-a-half-hour journey – I thought ‘why not?’ But tonight, it was a lot better.”Roy had dumped the first ball he faced straight back over Prem Sisodiya’s head for four and the second over of the chase demonstrated his dominance over bowlers at this level. Andrew Salter, the offspinner, went full and straight to start with, so Roy cleared his front leg and smeared him over mid-off. Roy realised the second would be shorter, so rocked back and slapped a cut through point with a powerful snap of the wrists. Salter had nowhere to go, and went full again; Roy lined him up, and hammered him straight back over his head.He was quieter against Glamorgan’s seamers, but still brought up a 28-ball half-century off the final ball of the Powerplay. When Labuschagne was introduced, Roy swept his first ball hard for four, and belted his third over midwicket; the only surprise came in Labuschagne’s second over, when he miscued a skier to backward point via a thick top-edge.Marnus Labuschagne made his third consecutive fifty•Getty Images

“Someone has to get you out at some stage, don’t they?” Roy said of Glamorgan’s ploy to bowl spin at him up front, which has become a consistent plan against England in T20Is. “Sometimes it happens to be a left-arm spinner. A leggie got me out tonight eventually, didn’t they? So I’m sure someone will have something to write about. As a player, it gives you something to work on, which is always nice.”Roy’s innings took the equation from 167 off 120 balls to 79 off 71 by the time he was dismissed, effectively sealing the game despite their minor stumble. Sam Curran and Jamie Overton fell in successive overs after Roy’s dismissal before Laurie Evans drilled Sisodiya straight to long-off, but Jamie Smith’s cool-headed 35 not out saw them across the line with 10 balls to spare.Roy will play two more games for Surrey, at home against Sussex and Hampshire on Thursday and Friday, before he links up with England on Saturday ahead of their white-ball summer, which comprises six ODIs and six T20Is, three each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.”You always go back to square one, no matter how many runs you’ve scored,” he said. “Before every series you go back to the drawing board and get yourself back to basics and go from there – you certainly don’t want to think that you’re going to score runs every game, because unfortunately that’s not the way the game works. But it’s obviously very nice to have these runs behind me – it makes it a lot easier.”[Last year] was a huge experience and a massive learning curve. I’ve come through the other side a lot better for it. It was a very tough year on and off the field so it was about keeping my head down and making sure I stay consistent with my training and back myself, knowing that eventually it would come right. Am I in a good headspace now? Absolutely.”For Glamorgan, Labuschagne had been the glue holding the innings together for the third game in a row after Nick Selman’s leg-side pick-ups had got them to 55 for 1 inside six overs. Surrey exploited match-ups to their advantage, with Gareth Batty and Dan Moriarty encouraging batters to hit towards the long boundary and Glamorgan duly obliging.Labuschagne had stated his desire to use the Blast as a chance to pitch his case for inclusion in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad at the start of the season and his early efforts have been persuasive: 93 not out, 59 and 74 tonight, giving him 226 runs for twice out at a strike rate of 146.75 and four cheap wickets to boot.One of his biggest assets in T20 is his willingness to use his position on the crease to throw bowlers off their line, and his ability to adjust. There was no better demonstration than the fifth ball of the 17th over, when he jumped outside leg stump to encourage Tom Curran to bowl wide outside off, despite having point and third man up inside the ring. Curran landed a perfect wide yorker, but Labuschagne stretched out and deflected it away through the gap, like a centre-forward in hockey deflecting the ball in at the back post.He had started slowly, eking out 17 off the first 22 balls he faced with Curran putting down a caught-and-bowled chance, but once Labuschagne had adjusted to the slowness of the pitch he was away, hitting 57 off the next 29. His slow start was put into perspective by Roy’s fireworks, but with Surrey applying the squeeze, there had been no other option.

A number of big-name sponsors are leaving their CA deals but the board sees it as a time to try a new approach

Daniel Brettig26-Feb-2020Domain, the naming-rights partner for Test cricket, is not the only brand to be exiting Cricket Australia’s suite of sponsors. Mastercard and Specsavers are also on their way out, with Bupa to scale down its commitment and so lose its naming rights sponsorship of the national cricket centre in Brisbane and place on the shirts of Australian team support staff.If this sounds like a worrying exodus for the game, it is nothing next to the climate in which CA’s last broadcast rights deal was signed, a matter of weeks after the Newlands scandal. Having been front and centre of that negotiation, CA executive Stephanie Beltrame is now concocting a plan to recast the governing body’s portfolio of partners in order to grow it.Cricket is hardly doing badly: in terms of revenue raised from corporate backers it sits third in Australia behind tennis and the AFL. However, the dwarfing of all other sports revenue by the cash derived from broadcast rights means that the wider commercial realm is due a rethink, and cricket is getting its own from the very person who played a large part in growing that broadcast revenue.As CA’s head of broadcast rights, Beltrame worked assiduously towards the creation of competition in the market for a 2013 deal that included the Big Bash League for the first time and was worth some A$500 million. The next step was bigger, bolder and more lucrative still, the 2018 agreement with Fox and Seven reaping A$1.18 billion for CA. Having returned from maternity leave, Beltrame is now the executive in charge of all commercial concerns, and wants the wider picture to follow the broadcast trend.”I prefer the term partnership than sponsorship because there’s so much more to it than a one way investment,” Beltrame told ESPNcricinfo. “I also want us to be able to form partnerships in other commercial areas, diversify our revenue and seek new opportunities so that we will be able to grow in the same way that we’ve seen growth across our media rights revenue. I have high expectations.”From time to time we’ll have a partner advise us that they’re exiting despite having what they regard as quite a successful result, but we just have to respect that decision. Every partner you want to be treated in the same way when you arrive as when you leave, and exactly the same way an employee should have that – so we don’t have any issues when partners go. We’d prefer they stay obviously, but you’ve got to respect the decision.”Among CA’s other current sponsors, KFC, Toyota and Sanitarium have deals that run until 2021, and its commercial betting partner Bet365’s much-debated contract expires the following year. Of Bet365, Beltrame said: “Ultimately because we still have a number of years left in the agreement, no decision has been taken about our association, whether that’s to status quo, to change, so I think they’re all considerations, but at this point in time we’re still in a current agreement.”Chief among Beltrame’s questions is to investigate, alongside the state associations, whether there is more to be wrung from the BBL, a far bigger proposition than it was at its inception in 2011. The league’s current list of four partners may yet grow.”If we believe a different model is required for BBL then we might look at changing the number of partners that can be associated with it,” Beltrame said. “And then some consideration of how do you grow the pie but still provide meaningful protection and exclusivity to brands. How the BBL fits in with international cricket, how brands can opt to be involved across Australian cricket or be involved in international only or BBL only.”Where the AFL has been able to successfully build sponsorships over a long period of time through its breadth of clubs, matches, length of season and connection to the passions stirred in club members and followers, tennis’ fulcrum is the Australian Open, a truly international event that sets the eyes of the world on Melbourne Park for two highly lucrative weeks. With its strong hold on the summer months, and the extra overseas eyeballs presented by its standing as a far more global game than AFL but somewhat less so than tennis, cricket should sit somewhere in between.”The mix of how [our revenue] made up is very different, we don’t have many partners, we’ve been quite exclusive for a long period of time,” Beltrame said. “I think there’s opportunities where we can create different partnerships at different levels. We can really take advantage of our national and international footprint. India’s touring here, what else can we do, how can we sell directly to India? There’s things we can do because of our remit as a national and international sport.”Some things, of course, are beyond anyone’s control, like the extreme weather that blighted this summer’s BBL almost as much as all previous events combined, or a slackening Australian economy after more than 25 years of growth. Whatever lies ahead, Beltrame wants CA to be able to adapt: “It just really starts from my perspective from reviewing what we’re currently doing – looking under the hood.”