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Club accept sanctions but express disappointment at being docked 48 points in County Championship

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-2023Yorkshire have been fined a total of £400,000, and handed points deductions in both this year’s County Championship and Vitality Blast competitions, following the announcement of long-awaited sanctions from the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC).The punishments relate to Yorkshire’s handling of Azeem Rafiq’s revelations of institutional racism at the club, for which they admitted to four amended charges at the original CDC hearing in February. In those, they accepted that their conduct between 2004 and 2021 had been prejudicial to the interests of cricket and had brought the game of cricket into disrepute.On Friday, the CDC panel – comprising Tim O’Gorman (chair), Professor Seema Patel and Mark Milliken-Smith KC – issued the club with an official reprimand, in addition to a £400,000 fine, an immediate 48-point deduction in the 2023 County Championship, and a four-point deduction from the 2023 T20 Blast.Neither points deduction is likely to make any material difference to Yorkshire’s on-field ambitions this season. They finished fifth in the North Group standings in the Blast, and so missed out on a quarter-final berth of a competition that concluded earlier this month, while they are off the pace for promotion in Division Two of the Championship, after managing one win in their first ten fixtures.The official breakdown of the fine is as follows:

The former Pakistan quick is particularly concerned about the form of Shaheen Shah Afridi

Andrew McGlashan23-Dec-2023Waqar Younis has voiced his alarm at the lack of pace in Pakistan’s Test attack as they search for a way back into their Test series against Australia.During the first Test in Perth, Pakistan’s pace bowlers – Shaheen Shah Afridi, Khurram Shahzad, Aamer Jamal and Faheem Ashraf – rarely broke the 140kph mark although they did give the Australia batters some uneasy moments in the second innings as cracks emerged on the Optus Stadium surface.Pakistan were comprehensively beaten by 360 runs, bowled out for 89 in their second innings, and to compound their woes have lost Shahzad, who impressed on debut, to a series-ending rib injury. It will mean an enforced change at the MCG with either Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr or Mir Hamza coming into the attack, but Waqar remains unconvinced.Related

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“Another thing that I’m worried about is that always when we come to Australia, one thing that excites is the fast bowling and this time around I’m not seeing that,” he said on ESPN’s show. “I’m seeing medium-pacers or slow-medium-pacers, allrounders, there’s no real pace. People used to come and watch Pakistan pace bowlers really running in hard and bowling 150 clicks [kph], and that’s what I’m not seeing there.”That’s my worry and issue because I have not seen it at the domestic level also. There are a few injured, I can understand, but in the past you would always see a battery of fast bowlers that they could always bring on, but unfortunately that is not there and I’m really worried about that.”Shaheen Afridi was below his best in Perth•Getty Images

Naseem Shah, who was also ruled out of the World Cup with injury, was a big loss while Haris Rauf opted to play the BBL for Melbourne Stars instead of the Test series. Pakistan will need much more from Afridi, who claimed 2 for 172 in Perth, if they are to challenge Australia but Waqar had particular concerns about his loss of pace.”I’m not really sure what’s wrong with him,” he said. “If he’s not fit, if he’s got some issues, he needs to go away from the game and fix that because if you are going to carry on like that you are going to become a medium-pacer. He used to bowl 145-150kph and used to swing that ball. What I’m seeing now, yes there’s a little bit of swing but his pace is way down… and that is not going to get him wickets.”Watching the first Test match was painful. We had moments, we had opportunities where we could have pulled the game back a bit but we didn’t take the opportunities. When Pakistan come to Australia they have to make sure their fielding is spotless… because Australia batsmen, if you give them opportunities, they’ll take it with both hands and make it big and that’s what we saw in Perth.”

Avesh is already in South Africa and took a five-for in the second four-day game on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Dec-20231:34

Should India be worried about their pace-bowling depth?

Uncapped fast bowler Avesh Khan has been added to India’s squad for the second Test against South Africa, a day after they were handed an innings defeat inside three days in Centurion. The second and last Test will begin on January 3 in Cape Town.Avesh comes in as a replacement for Mohammed Shami who is missing the Test series because of an ankle injury.Avesh is already in South Africa, staying back to represent the India A side after playing the three ODIs earlier this month. He is currently playing the second four-day game in Benoni, where he took a five-for on the third day.Related

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Until that game, Avesh had played 38 first-class games for 149 wickets, averaging 22.65, with seven five-wicket hauls. He was also the leading wicket-taker for Madhya Pradesh in the last Ranji Trophy season with 38 scalps from eight games.

India docked two WTC points for slow over rate in Centurion

India have been penalised two World Test Championship [WTC] points for maintaining a slow over rate in the Centurion Test. They have also been fined 10% of their match fees. India will, as a result, slip from fifth to sixth place on the WTC points table.India were found to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration. Players are fined 5% of their match fee and a team is docked one point each for every over they are short.

“It extends the batting… and with all [Australia’s] lefties, we’ve got an offspinner bowling at them,” he explains

Matt Roller07-Jun-2023Are England better-equipped to face Australia now than they were a week ago? Graeme Swann believes they are, following Moeen Ali’s decision to reverse his retirement from Test cricket and fill the vacancy created by Jack Leach’s lower-back stress fracture.”I think it makes us stronger,” Swann, a three-time Ashes winner during his England career, said. “Which is hard on Jack, because he was doing a good job with the ball. But it extends the batting, which is important. And with all their lefties [Australia are expected to pick four left-handers in their top seven] we’ve got an offspinner bowling at them.”Leach has thrived under Ben Stokes’ captaincy but has struggled against left-handers throughout his Test career. “Jack does a similar thing every game: he holds an end up and does a job,” Swann said. “There are still areas I think he could be better and he does things differently to how I did, but he’s playing a role in a team.”If you’ve got seamers who are attacking all the time – if you’ve got Stokesy’s bouncer theory coming in – then you need a spinner who can go around three an over rather than one going at sixes. It is a loss, but you’ve got Mo, who extends the batting… and they’ve got so many left handers.”Related

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Moeen’s recall was confirmed by the ECB on Wednesday morning after discussions between him and Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum and Rob Key – England’s captain, coach and managing director respectively – over the past few days.”The very fact that Baz and Stokesy are in charge makes it easy for him,” Swann said, speaking at the launch of IG’s Net Gains campaign at Lord’s. “They’ve said, ‘You come in and all your positive attributes are what we’re after’ – none of the hang-ups of anything that has happened before.”I’m sure he’s just been given a licence to run up and bowl, and spin it as hard as he can, and bat the way he can. I’m glad to see him back: he’s still brilliant. I watched him in the IPL. He’s mercurial, sure, but he’s still a brilliant talent.”I think having his tyres pumped up by Baz and Stokesy and coming into a dressing room with guys he has grown up with, who play in the same free-spirited way, will suit him down to the ground – and that is why he’s come back.”Swann was speaking at the launch of IG’s Net Gains campaign, which will raise funds to build cricket nets for community use in the cities hosting Ashes Tests this summer•IG

Swann believes that Moeen’s biggest challenge will be getting to grips with the red Dukes ball again, rather than the rhythms of first-class cricket after an absence of nearly two years. “They don’t worry about that,” he said. “They are redefining red-ball cricket and I applaud that.”My one concern is the difference between bowling with the red Dukes ball and the white Kookaburra. There is a major difference. It is harder to bowl with a red Dukes ball: it is not as easy to grip, it is smaller.”That might be an issue, just getting enough overs under the belt to be confident. The red ball can be almost slightly greasy: it has a wax on it and can be a bit tricky to get used to again. But if the sun is out and it’s dry, that’s no issue.”Swann also believes that Moeen’s success – and his own – exposes an issue with English coaching of fingerspinners. “The reason why I always liked Mo as a bowler is because he spins it properly and bowls it off the right knuckle,” he said. “He doesn’t do it how you are coached in England, which goes back to why we haven’t got many spinners.”The coaching manual is wrong from an early age, for bowling spin. Mo is a natural spin bowler. I was a natural. Monty Panesar was a natural. We all hold it completely differently to how you are taught as a young kid: they teach you to put it [the ball] between the first knuckle on both your first and second finger as if you are opening the door which gives you no revolutions, no dip, no spin.”You hold it on the first knuckle of your first finger and the second knuckle of your second finger and you rip it over the top. That is how you get high revolutions and drift and dip. That’s how the Indian spinners bowl, when I watched them growing up, so I copied them. But you’re not coached that in England.”To that end, Swann has launched a coaching career over the last 12 months. He was part of Trent Rockets’ backroom staff in the Hundred last year, which they won, and said that he “adored” the opportunity to work with some of the best young county spinners on Lions tours to the UAE and Sri Lanka over the winter.Swann has worked with Sussex offspinner Jack Carson in the England Lions set-up•Getty Images

But he suggests that the wider message sent by Moeen’s recall is “concerning”. Swann said: “We haven’t got 10 candidates lined up and banging on the door. it says that we don’t have good enough spinners in the country ready to go.”We have spinners coming through: I’ve been with the Lions and there are some talented lads there who I don’t think personally are quite ready for Test cricket… someone like Jack Carson at Sussex is a great little bowler. I think he’d do well – but whether has has got the actual skills to cope with it is another thing.”It could ruin a career before it has even started, so I think Mo is a safe – and exciting – option. And the fact he is there means Keysy and Baz are probably laughing that they had a back-up option there all along.”

There is a serious rain threat over the entire game, with bad weather forecast for the whole week

Ashish Pant15-Oct-2024Persistent and occasionally heavy rain in Bengaluru has forced the cancellation of India’s training session the day before the first Test against New Zealand at the city’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The session, originally slotted for 9.30am, was first postponed by an hour and then cancelled altogether with the rain showing no signs of relenting.New Zealand ‘s training session, slotted for 1.30pm, did take place*, but in the indoor facility at the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy, also in the Chinnaswamy premises.The Indian Meteorological Department has forecast rains for the rest of the week, which could seriously affect the Test match. There is a 70% to 90% chance of rain on the first and second days of the Test, and a yellow alert has also been issued for many places in the state of Karnataka (of which Bengaluru is a part).Bengaluru has experienced a lot of rainfall for the past week. It rained on Monday as well, two days before the game, but both teams managed to finish their respective training sessions. India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma also had time to get a good look at the surface, which was followed by a long discussion with the pitch curator.There was rain in Bengaluru all through Monday night and Tuesday morning, and the covers at the Chinnaswamy stayed in place. There was some activity when the rain stopped for a bit around 1pm, and the covers were being moved a bit, but within half an hour the clouds opened up again and the covers were back in place.