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Board says decision taken “owing to the current threat” of Covid-19

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2020India’s tours of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, scheduled for June and August respectively, have been called off by the BCCI owing to the “current threat of Covid-19”, board secretary Jay Shah said in a statement on Friday.India were scheduled to tour Sri Lanka for three ODIs and as many T20Is starting June 24, and then to Zimbabwe for three ODIs starting August 22.The BCCI’s decision was made public a day after SLC said it was still hopeful of hosting India in August. With Sri Lanka seeing just over 700 active Covid-19 cases currently, the board was pushing hard to restart cricket in the country by also holding a residential training camp for 12 of its players earlier this month.In the circumstances, India are also unlikely to travel to South Africa at the end of August to play three T20Is, a series proposed by CSA recently. At the time, the BCCI had not committed one way or other, but had told CSA that if there were no quarantine restrictions, India could think of stopping by after the Zimbabwe tour.The Indians have not played any competitive cricket since mid-March, when the BCCI was forced to call-off the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa. After the first match in Dharamsala had been rained off, the BCCI had planned to conduct the remaining two games behind closed doors. But the two boards decided to reschedule the series because of the Covid-19 situation. With the IPL also being indefinitely postponed, there has been no cricket in the country for three months.On Friday, the BCCI reiterated that it would conduct a camp for its contracted players “only when it is completely safe to train outdoors”. It added: “The BCCI is determined to take steps towards the resumption of international and domestic cricket, but it will not rush into any decision that will jeopardize the efforts put in by the Central and State governments and several other respective agencies in containing the spread of the coronavirus.”The spread of Covid-19 has played havoc with the cricket schedule globally, and in India, the BCCI is trying its best to host the IPL at some stage this year, even if in front of empty stands. President Sourav Ganguly had recently written to the state associations that the BCCI was on the verge of finalising guidelines for the return of cricket in India.

All future bilateral series between India and South Africa, including South Africa’s forthcoming tour of India, will be called the Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela series

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Aug-2015All future bilateral series between India and South Africa, including South Africa’s forthcoming tour of India, will be called the Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela series, the two boards have announced. The Test series, the BCCI and Cricket South Africa said, will be played for the Freedom Trophy.”BCCI, on behalf of every citizen of our country, is able to pay tribute to these great leaders by naming the series after them, and appeals to each and every citizen of our country to imbibe their ideals and follow the path advised by them,” BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said in a statement.CSA chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, said that naming the series after Gandhi and Mandela was “eternal news for our people and cricketers”. “For the people of both our countries there is no greater duty than to uphold the ideals of both Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela,” he said. “As cricket-loving people we must fight hard to win on the field of play but never forget to do battle in the spirit of these two great men.”Gandhi was the leader of India’s non-violent freedom struggle, and had a South African connection as well, having practised law in the country. Mandela spearheaded the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and was the country’s president from 1994 to 1999. The announcement is significant in the context of ICC chief executive David Richardson’s recent concerns over the relevance of bilateral series that don’t have an “iconic, traditional status”.India will host South Africa for three T20Is, five ODIs and four Test matches between October and December this year.

Initiative to recognise prominent grassroots campaigners for efforts during pandemic

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2020The Kia Oval has been renamed for 24 hours as the Kia Shahidul Alam Ratan Oval, in honour of a former Bangladesh cricketer who is now the leader of a London cricket charity which has been helping to keep children active during lockdown.The Oval was one of a number of prominent sports venues in London to join an initiative to honour grassroots sport community workers and volunteers who, with the support of National Lottery funding, have gone above and beyond during the Covid-19 pandemic.Ratan, a wicketkeeper in Bangladesh’s pre-Test days in the 1980s and 1990s, is chief executive of Capital Kids Cricket, a charity which uses cricket as tool to change the lives of disadvantaged children.During lockdown, Capital Kids Cricket created a digital activity zone to keep kids active, learning and keep in touch with each other socially. Ratan oversaw all their activity, including running virtual sessions with vulnerable kids such as refugees. The charity also arranged regular quiz evenings and family consultations via Zoom to ask about challenges they might face and offer support.”It is brilliant news to be recognised with this honour and it means a lot,” Ratan said. “This may bring some light to the charity and people like me who want to make a change, who want to go the extra mile to help people who need it.”To have a prestigious stadium like The Kia Oval named after me is a huge honour in the cricketing world, not only here in the UK. I would like to thank Surrey Cricket as well.”Without funding, we can’t do anything. The National Lottery are a very generous funder,” he added.”We work across London but we do a lot of coaching in Newham, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Westminster and Camden – then some bits in Hammersmith & Fulham and Ealing.”As soon as we found out about going into lockdown, I had a call with our coaches and said we must make sure we keep things going.”We have three or four clubs we look after and we told our coaches to set up activities within a home environment. Show the kids what they can do with batting, bowling and fielding within their home – in living rooms, small backyards or alleyways between houses.”After two weeks, we decided to introduce a virtual challenge and competitive element. It was very simple challenges like keepie-uppies with the bat and ball, seeing how many times they could keep the ball up in the air, or juggling with two or three cricket balls.”Once we finished that competition, we’d started to establish a connection with clubs around the world. We then wanted to do something simple to connect with those clubs and even more people.”The charity initiated a virtual ball-passing game globally. Hundreds of people joined from the USA to Australia, South Africa to Sweden, including Syrian refugee camps from Lebanon, ending with a virtual celebration with 130 people and families from across the globe joining via zoom.They have now started women and girl’s activities online, running aerobics exercises and boxing classes, and they also ran summer cricket camps in three locations, while constantly supporting parents over the phone who are facing loneliness or suffering from mental health challenges.Other venues to change names this week will be Twickenham rugby stadium, The Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake, The Paula Radcliffe Athletics Track, The Geraint Thomas Velodrome in Wales and The National Outdoor Centre in Wales.Dame Katherine Grainger, UK Sport Chair said, “It’s fantastic that sports across the nations have been able to come together to celebrate grassroots champions who have gone above and beyond this year. Around £30m a week is raised for good causes across the UK by people playing The National Lottery, and has helped sport at all levels, from the smallest rowing club to helping athletes prepare for the Tokyo Olympics next year.”Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of Sport England, said: “With the help of The National Lottery’s players, thousands of grassroots sports workers and volunteers from local clubs and organisations across the UK have been be able to continue to help people and communities to remain active, connected and motivated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grassroots sport also has a fundamental role to play in providing much needed physical and mental wellbeing in these difficult times.”

The extra official will be separate from the third and fourth umpires and will use technology to help the on-field officials

Vishal Dikshit05-Nov-2019The IPL is planning to have an exclusive TV umpire to monitor no-balls from the 2020 edition. It is understood this extra match official will be separate from the third and fourth umpires and will use technology to help on-field officials monitor no-balls.The decision to use technology more in order to reduce the errors made by the on-field umpires was taken by the newly-formed IPL governing council, headed by former India batsman Brijesh Patel, at a meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.One governing council member confirmed that they were first looking to try out this additional umpire in a domestic tournament. With the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament beginning on Friday followed by the Ranji Trophy next month, the official said the new idea could be tried out in either of the tournaments.The development is likely to be welcomed by players and teams considering umpiring standards in the IPL have been a talking point for several years, which saw the introduction of DRS in the tournament in 2018. In IPL 2019, India’s two senior-most players – Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni – pulled up match officials in separate matches over controversial no-ball decisions.Kohli called a missed no-ball opportunity “ridiculous” after a match against Mumbai Indians when Royal Challengers Bangalore needed seven off the final ball and Shivam Dube only managed a single. TV replays on the big screen later showed Lasith Malinga had overstepped, and had the no-ball been called, AB de Villiers, who was on 70 off 41, would have taken strike and faced a free hit with five needed off the last ball.”We are playing at IPL level, not club cricket,” Kohli had said at the post-match presentation. “That’s just a ridiculous call off the last ball. The umpires should have their eyes open.”MS Dhoni stops the game to confront the umpires over a revoked no-ball call•BCCI

Earlier in the tournament, in Chennai Super Kings’ away match in Jaipur against Rajasthan Royals, Dhoni controversially walked on to the field to engage with the on-field umpire Ulhas Gandhe over a no-ball call. The incident took place in the final over of Super Kings’ chase with the visitors needing 18 to win. With eight needed off the last three balls and new man Mitchell Santner on strike, Ben Stokes bowled a full toss and Gandhe first signalled a no-ball for height, only for his square-leg colleague Bruce Oxenford to overrule the decision.The IPL’s idea comes on the back of a similar decision taken by the ICC which recently decided to conduct trials in which a TV umpire will monitor front-foot no-balls. The ICC said it was looking to try it out in a few limited-overs series first, similar to how it was used during an England-Pakistan ODI series in 2016.

An impressive debut from Dawid Malan helped England seal the T20 series over South Africa with a 19-run victory at Cardiff

The Report by George Dobell in Cardiff25-Jun-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMason Crane was overjoyed at claiming AB de Villiers as a maiden international wicket•Getty Images

An impressive debut from Dawid Malan helped England seal the T20 series over South Africa with a 19-run victory at Cardiff.Malan, the fourth England debutant in the series, contributed a classy 78 to help his new team cope with the absence of their captain, Eoin Morgan, and take the three-match series 2-1.Morgan had decided to leave himself out in order to provide another opportunity for England to take a look at some of their fringe players. Specifically, he said they were keen to provide another game for Liam Livingstone, who endured a nervous debut at Taunton.And while some ticket-holders were upset at the lack of star players in the England side – Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali were among those to be rested for this series, while Jonny Bairstow had returned to Yorkshire to prepare for the day-night Championship fixtures starting on Monday – Morgan’s decision might have helped England build some depth ahead of a typically relentless winter schedule during which resources will be stretched.Malan, in particular, took advantage in a strikingly assured performance. Having left his first ball outside off stump, he pulled his second – from the distinctly sharp Morne Morkel – for six to kick-start an innings that displayed timing, power and an ability to improvise. It was, by some distance, the highest score by an England player on T20I debut.He was not the only new-ish player to impress. Mason Crane, back in the side after making his debut in Southampton, survived an early assault at the hands of AB de Villiers in a display that hinted at a wonderfully calm temperament. At one stage, de Villiers, who was playing his final match of the tour, swept Crane for 16 in three balls – two sixes and a four – but the young legspinner retained his nerve and his flight and, by the end of the over, had de Villiers well held by Alex Hales on the square-leg fence as he attempted a repeat. Crane, whose celebrations of his maiden international wicket were something to behold, finished his spell by conceding just two from his final over.”He handled it really well,” de Villiers said of Crane afterwards. “He was always the one to get after, but he stuck to his guns. Well played to him.”Livingstone, however, was unable to take advantage of his second outing. He would have been the man to miss out had Morgan played, and might have wished he had after falling first ball as he went across his stumps and attempted to scoop over the leg side.There was also no debut for Craig Overton. Despite England having intimated that all their new faces would win an opportunity at some point during the series, Overton – who was declared fully sit – was not utilised. It left Somerset’s director of cricket, Matt Maynard, unimpressed. He tweeted that he was “gutted” for Overton and then added “#brokenword”.”We couldn’t get him in today,” Morgan said. “We wanted to retain our seamers from the second game who bowled well. Craig is aware and all is fine.”Perhaps, had England failed to win, they would have been criticised for their decision to rotate to the extent they did. But with impressive performances over the series from the likes of Malan, Crane, Bairstow and Tom Curran, who again looked to have the skills and temperament to thrive at this level, England will feel it was a worthwhile experiment. It is probably also fair to suggest that, while both sides would have wanted to win this game, it was hardly the most meaningful confrontation either has played even this month. The calls for greater context for such matches are certain to increase.”We recognise the series as a big opportunity to have a look at a younger group of players,” Eoin Morgan told Sky Sports. “It’s an important part of our development and our success in 50-over cricket and T20 has been down to the strength in depth we’ve had in the side. We’ve always had a lot of competition in the playing XI.”Ideally, I would play, yes. Given the rotation system that we have had in the past, it’s unfortunate. If it was a case where I could go on and captain, I would. But this is an important part of our development for this series. You have to look to the long-term.”Besides, Malan looked every inch an international-quality player. British-born but raised in South Africa, his debut has come relatively late – he is aged 29 – but he has put himself at the head of the queue of those pressing for places.Here he added 105 in 63 balls with Hales, who survived a simple chance to Andile Phehlukwayo on 10, bringing up his fifty with a beautifully-played scoop to the boundary off Imran Tahir, while a driven straight six off Morkel also caught the eye.South Africa’s fielding was oddly fallible, though. De Villiers reckoned they “gave away around 20 runs” which, considering the margin of defeat, was crucial. “We let ourselves down in the field,” he said.Once the pair were parted, England fell away against some excellent death bowling from South Africa. England managed only 54 from the final 39 balls of their innings, culminating in a spell where they lost five wickets for 14 runs from 13 balls against Dane Paterson, who was twice on a hat-trick, and Phehlukwayo.But only for a moment, when de Villiers was partnered by JJ Smuts, did it appear South Africa might get close. With Liam Plunkett again bowling at sharp pace and gaining some assistance for his back-of-a-length bowling from the River Taff End, South Africa subsided to 91 for 6 in the 14th over.Phehlukwayo and Mangaliso Mosehle narrowed the margin with some impressive strokeplay – Willey was plundered for 34 from his final couple of overs – but once de Villiers had gone, there was only ever likely to be one result.

Lace becomes third young Middlesex player to join Gloucestershire in four years

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Aug-2020Gloucestershire have announced the signing of 22-year-old batsman Tom Lace with immediate effect on a three-year contract.Lace, who made 835 County Championship runs at 41.75 last year with three hundreds, becomes the third young Middlesex player to join Gloucestershire in four years, after Ryan Higgins and George Scott.He spent the majority of the 2019 season on loan at Derbyshire, topping their Championship averages and making 83, 57, 16 and 125 in his four innings against Gloucestershire.After passing a medical last week, Lace will go straight into the Gloucestershire squad for their Bob Willis Trophy match against Glamorgan on Saturday having been released from his Middlesex contract with immediate effect.”I’m delighted to have signed for Gloucestershire for the next three years,” Lace said. “I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running and helping the team to more success.”Bristol is a brilliant city and Gloucestershire is a county full of hungry and talented young players. I’m hugely grateful to everyone at the club for the opportunity to be a part of that.”Richard Dawson, Gloucestershire’s head coach, described Lace as a “very talented young batsman” with a “great work ethic”.”Last season we saw first-hand when he played for Derbyshire how good a batsman he is,” he said, “and now we look forward to him scoring runs for Gloucestershire.”Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s managing director of cricket, said: “We are sorry to see Tom leave. He is a fine young man with a bright future in the game. When Tom extended his contract, it was on the mutual understanding that if, for whatever reason, he was not playing regular first XI cricket he would be entitled to seek opportunities elsewhere. Everyone at Middlesex wishes him well for the future.”

Cricket South Africa had been trying to get SuperSport to broadcast the second season of the T20 tournament but it couldn’t be done

Liam Brickhill07-Aug-2019This year’s Mzansi Super League will once again be screened on , South Africa’s public broadcaster.There had been some speculation, especially ahead of the first edition of the MSL, that Cricket South Africa might look to as broadcaster, but they have ultimately stuck with once again, despite the lack of a financial incentive to do so. Last month the secured a R3.2 billion bailout from the government, and earlier this week it was announced that the broadcaster had failed to secure the rights for the country’s Premier Soccer League as it was not commercially viable. But CSA are short of other options.

List of retained players

Cape Town Blitz: Asif Ali, Janneman Malan, Anrich Nortje, Dale Steyn
Durban Heat: Kyle Abbott, Sarel Erwee, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Khaya Zondo
Jozi Stars: Dan Christian, Reeza Hendricks, Duanne Olivier, Sinethemba Qeshile, Ryan Rickelton, Rassie van der Dussen
Nelson Mandela Bay Giants: Junior Dala, Heino Kuhn, Marco Marais, Chris Morris, Jon-Jon Smuts
Paarl Rocks: Henry Davids, Cameron Delport, Bjorn Fortuin, Aiden Markram, Mangaliso Mosehle, Tabraiz Shamsi
Tshwane Spartans: Theunis de Bruyn, Tony de Zorzi, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla

“We only have literally two broadcasters in the country who can afford to broadcast cricket, and that’s and ,” chief executive Thabang Moroe said on Tuesday. “So you can imagine that CSA does not have much room to manoeuvre in terms of making decisions.”As things stand, we are lucky to find ourselves where we are, in the sense that we can broadcast international cricket both on free-to-air as well as pay TV. Obviously because none of them have exclusivity, we do not receive the same values as we would, had we given any of them exclusivity, but that’s the pain we have to take for wanting to spread the game.”As far as restructuring of commercial and broadcast deals is concerned, it’s difficult to say yes or no to that question now, the reason being the landscape that we operate in as far as the South African economy is concerned.”The second MSL will take place in November and December this year. The date for the player draft has not been announced yet, but it is expected to be shortly, as are the various South African and international marquee players.Dale Steyn is one of several Protea cricketers who have been retained by their franchises for this year’s tournament. More than 250 cricketers, including international stars, T20 specialists and Kolpak signings have entered the draft.”This is confirmation that MSL is now an established global brand that is taking its place at the head table alongside the other Global T20 events,” Moroe said. “We have drawn interest from around the world with players applying from virtually all the top tier international countries.”This will certainly be the biggest T20 event we have hosted since the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup that was staged here in 2007 and became the fore-runner of all the global T20 events that followed. We look forward to adding yet another highlight to our home international season that will be followed by the incoming tours by England and Australia.”

Sri Lanka’s profligate use of their reviews came back to haunt them as England edged the first-day honours

Andrew Fidel Fernando23-Nov-2018In general, umpires do not need an excuse to do their job badly in Sri Lanka. Over the last four years, there has been an abundance of botched decisions, over-officiousness, as well as a banning of bands in the stands while the over is in motion, so that the umpires can supposedly hear edges better. Not that stopping the bands has helped them. Replays have demonstrated several out decisions in which the bat has clearly been in a separate administrative district from the ball.In the umpires’ partial defence, they have it especially tough in Sri Lanka. The prevalence of spinners and dustbowls means there are faint nicks, bat/pad chances and lbw opportunities galore. In some games, there are almost more appeals than runs. And, although there have been none at the grounds in this series, it is possible there are wilfully insubordinate bands playing elsewhere on the island, despite being told repeatedly that they confound the umpires’ sensitive hearing, and generally confuse them. I mean, when there is a highly serious Test match being played, is it not time the ICC imposed a nationwide ban on fun?And yet, while it has been well known for some time that umpires are junkies for terrible decisions in Sri Lanka, the nation’s own cricketers have enabled them, routinely burning their two reviews early in the innings.If umpires were shoddy drivers, then Sri Lanka’s cricketers would still hand them the keys to new luxury cars and point them in the direction of the nearest power pylon. If they were known public urinators, Sri Lanka would ply them with gallons of soft drink and follow them around putting fire hydrants in their vicinity.On Friday, for the second consecutive innings, Sri Lanka lost both reviews at an unacceptably early stage of the game. In the second innings at Pallekele, they had waited with relative patience until the start of the 27th over to squander their second review. At the SSC, they were both spent before the end of the 22nd – the first on a prospective caught behind off Jonny Bairstow in the 15th over; the second being an lbw appeal against Joe Root, in which Root’s front pad was shown to be closer to his childhood home in Yorkshire than the line of off stump when it was struck.Party to both terrible review decisions was wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella. With the bat, in limited-overs cricket, Dickwella is the dynamic, hyper-energetic opening batsman, sending the third ball of the match over the wicketkeeper’s head, sweeping and reverse-slapping with abandon, and generally attempting to be the man who Dickscoops his way into a nation’s hearts (the Dickscoop being his particular version of the Dilscoop). But in whites, 24 Tests in, he is yet to step up as a batsman. Worse, he is prone to fits of acute DRS fancy. If there was a Dickwella DRS flowchart, all the arrows would ultimately point to the box that reads: REVIEW IT! At nightclubs, if he hears a song he doesn’t like, you can imagine him racing up to the DJ, making a “T” with his forearms, disbelievingly shaking his head.In a series in which Sri Lanka have had dollops of bad luck, losing their captain to a groin strain, losing all three tosses, and generally being on the receiving end of the umpires’ bumbling, of course the squandered reviews would come back to floor them. Ben Stokes should have been out lbw on zero off the bowling of Dilruwan Perera, but that appeal was wrongly turned down, and Stokes would go on to smack 57 off the next 75 balls, putting up a 99-run stand with Bairstow in the process. Later in the day, Bairstow would himself miss a sweep off Lakshan Sandakan to a ball that would have taken out leg stump, but was ruled not out. In the first two sessions of day one, it seemed it would have been easier to get the umpires to sign over deeds to their houses than get an lbw decision out of them, and Sri Lanka had no recourse to challenge.Towards the end of the day, Sri Lanka’s DRS misadventures were put into sharp relief by England. In between being dropped twice, by Dickwella and Dimuth Karunaratne at slip, Moeen Ali was given out lbw twice, and overturned those calls on both occasions. Unlike Sri Lanka, England had saved their reviews until the umpires’ inevitable mistakes actually came against them.

Six wickets for Mohammad Abbas has left a tense third day ahead at Grace Road between two sides in the top four

ECB Reporters Network20-Aug-20181:43

Moeen and Mitchell leave Yorkshire feeling Toxic

ScorecardMohammad Abbas took 6 for 48, his best return for Leicestershire, as the bowlers continued to hold the upper hand in a Specsavers County Championship match against promotion rivals Kent that ended the second day very much in the balance at the Fischer County Ground, Grace Road.The Pakistan international seamer, who was named Man of the Series after his country’s two Tests against England earlier this summer, took full advantage of the heavy cloud and used pitch to move the ball both in the air and off the seam, with only Joe Denly standing firm as visitors were bowled out for just 195 in their first innings.Kent struck back strongly however, with Ivan Thomas taking 4 for 50 as the Foxes ended the day on 126 for 5, a lead of 151 with five second innings wickets in hand.Resuming with Kent on 53 for 3, Denly and Sam Billings were made to work hard for their runs as the ball continued to swing and nip off the pitch. Abbas had beaten Billings on numerous occasions before he found the edge of the Kent captain’s bat and Ned Eckersley held a outstanding low catch diving to his right behind the stumps.Zak Crawley went the same way, feathering a thin edge off Abbas to give Eckersley a more comfortable catch and reduce the visitors to 100 for 5, but Denly was joined by debutant Ollie Robinson in building a substantial partnership for the sixth wicket, helped by frontline seamers Abbas and Ben Raine coming to the end of their spells.Denly broke the shackles by hitting four boundaries in one over from Gavin Griffiths, bringing up his half-century with a fine straight drive to the rope off the same bowler, but Raine returned to the attack to pick up three quick wickets before lunch.Robinson, on the back foot, edged an outswinger to Eckersley, and in the same over Darren Stevens glanced down the leg-side only for Eckersley to pull off another brilliant catch flinging himself to his left. In the over before the break Denly, having battled his way to 62, missed a full inswinger from Raine and was plumb leg before wicket.Abbas returned after the break to bowl Harry Podmore off the inside edge before Grant Stewart was caught at cover driving.Kent picked up an early wicket of their own when Horton was leg before to a Stewart in-swinger, but Dearden in particular was batting positively, and he and Colin Ackermann added 69 for Leicestershire’s second wicket before Ackermann went leg before to a Thomas delivery that seamed back in.Mark Cosgrove, going through a bad patch by his high standards, nicked off to Thomas without scoring, and though Dearden passed 50, he lost two further partners, both to Thomas, as Ateeq Javid was caught down the legside by Billings and Eckersley fell leg before before rain and bad light saw play close 13 overs early.

West Indies captain understood to have agreed a deal in April ahead of Ireland tour

George Dobell in Barbados17-Jan-2019Jason Holder is set to join Northamptonshire as an overseas player for the early weeks of the 2019 season.Holder, the West Indies captain, is understood to have agreed a deal to represent the county in April ahead of West Indies’ trip to Ireland
from May 1, as part of their World Cup preparations.That means he should be available for two Championship and five One-Day Cup games. He is currently rated 10th in the ICC’s Test bowling rankings and third in their Test all-rounder rankings.Northants have previously announced that South African batsman Temba Bavuma will join them from May for around eight Championship matches, while Faheem Ashraf will join them for the T20 competition.