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West Indies coach Stuart Law said the lack of bounce in Bridgetown was “heartbreaking”, given his side’s fast-bowling talent

ESPNcricinfo staff06-May-2017West Indies coach Stuart Law is deeply disappointed with the Bridgetown pitch, on which his team registered a stirring 106-run victory against Pakistan this week. The track, Law said, suited Pakistan more and left him “heartbroken” for his quick bowlers. Praising his side for winning convincingly despite that, he said the victory came as a result of the hard work they put in but do not often get credit for.”I wasn’t expecting what we turned up to see,” Law said. “If we can’t get a good coverage of grass in a tropical climate, there is something wrong. It wasn’t the sort of pitch we would have liked, I know that Pakistan were licking their lips when they saw it because it was a bit like a Pakistani pitch.”Day two when we were bowling, bouncers were landing five metres short of the keeper. We’ve got boys who bowl 90 miles an hour, and to see the ball do that is heartbreaking, particularly on day two. You expect it on day four, day five, no problem. But to get through the game the way we did, in those conditions, which suited the opposition more so, very proud of the effort.”West Indies’ victory brought the series level at 1-1, with one Test left to play. In the first Test, they fell to a seven-wicket defeat after collapsing in their second innings to 152. Here, they conceded the first-innings lead, before a second-innings seven-for from legspinner Yasir Shah left Pakistan chasing 188. Shannon Gabriel, with help from 20-year-old Alzarri Joseph and captain Jason Holder, made sure they did not get close.Law said the work Gabriel puts in behind the scenes to be fit and ready for the games needed applauding. “He just improves every time he goes out there. Not [just] his effort on the field, that’s unquestionable, but behind the scenes, which people don’t see. He goes to lengths to see he’s right and in perfect physical condition every time he goes out on the field.”He has had injury problems, but physio CJ Clarke is working tirelessly with him. Even away from the Test-match scene, he gets in early, works hard with him. And Shannon is very diligent with his preparation. When you’ve got a guy who can bowl 90+, you want to make sure you’re looking after him, and then he produces like he did this Test, that was just outstanding work.”Much like Gabriel, Law said many in the team put in a lot of hard work away from the public eye. He said there was no shortage of talent, but improvement would only come with more exposure to Test cricket – of the playing XI in Bridgetown, only Kraigg Brathwaite has played more than 30 Tests. “They’ve got the talent, that’s for sure. It’s one thing having talent, but when you couple that with experience, you become a formidable opponent. At the moment there’s not a lot of experience in our dressing room.”The experience is coming. We’ve seen in difficult conditions, playing against the best legspinner in the world [we won]. He got seven wickets but a lot of boys coped with him pretty well. To keep him out for as long as we did, I think [it] shows that we are learning.”From the first Test match we changed a few technical things with our batsmen, it seemed to work for the right handers. The work ethic…if someone says the West Indies boys don’t work hard enough, they don’t know what they’re talking about. The boys are pretty proud of their effort, leading up to this Test match and during it, to strive for that perfect game, to strive for errors to be eradicated… We’re going in the right direction.”The series decider will begin on May 10 in Dominica.

The BCB has paid the players of Dhaka Premier League clubs Kalabagan Cricket Academy (KCA) and Cricket Coaching School (CCS) their dues on Wednesday

Mohammad Isam29-Jun-2016The BCB has paid the players of Dhaka Premier League clubs Kalabagan Cricket Academy (KCA) and Cricket Coaching School (CCS) their dues on Wednesday, a week after the deadline it had issued for payments to be made had passed. Players from Victoria Sporting Club and Brothers Union, however, remained unpaid and were in the dark leading into the Eid holidays.The board paid the KCA players 30% and the CCS players 52% of their total payment, completing the 60% they were supposed to be paid by June 9, when the league’s first phase ended. The BCB had instructed the clubs to pay the players 30% of their full payment before the start of the league, the next 30% at the end of the first phase, and the remaining 40% six weeks after the end of the Super League on June 22.Players and officials from Abahani Limited, Gazi Group Cricketers, Kalabagan Krira Chakra, Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, Legends of Rupganj, Prime Bank Cricket Club and Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club confirmed they had received 60% of their payment, and were awaiting the rest in the next five weeks. Some of the Mohammedan Sporting Club players were waiting for the second installment but most of the players had been paid the amount due.CCS captain Rajin Saleh said he received a check from an officer of CCDM, the BCB standing committee that runs the capital’s leagues. He said he received 52% of his total payment from the board, in addition to the 8% he had received from CCS during the league.”The BCB has paid the CCS players today,” Rajin said. “We are quite relieved because now we have at least the first 60% of the payment. We will tell the club that if they pay us another 10%, we will let go of the remaining money.”KCA captain Mahmudul Hasan also confirmed that many of his team-mates had received cheques from the board. BCB director Jalal Yunus said the BCB considered paying players from these two clubs first because of their plight during the league. He also said that KCA and CCS would have to reimburse the BCB the full amount it paid on behalf of their clubs.”We have paid players from these two clubs as they have suffered the most during the league,” Yunus told ESPNcricinfo. “We have informed both clubs that they have to reimburse the BCB the exact payment. Otherwise we will have to take action against them.”However, the BCB and the players from Victoria and Brothers Union remained unaware about their payment. ESPNcricinfo learned that the clubs had told the board that they would make the payment themselves, but as of June 29 the players had not been given the remaining money.”The payment issue with Victoria and Brothers is unlikely to be resolved before Eid. The clubs told the BCB that they would pay the players but so far the players haven’t been paid,” a BCB official said. “I think the board will wait until after Eid before paying the players.”Brothers Union batsman Shahriar Nafees said they were owed 30% by the club. “The Brothers Union club authorities have assured us that they are going to pay us as soon as they have funds,” he said. “The BCB too have told us that they will do all they can to get the clubs to pay us. We also prefer that the clubs pay us. It has become quite difficult for many of the players, because Eid is coming up.”The situation is most difficult for the Victoria players. On June 14, they wanted to meet the BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury but were stopped by their club president Nisar Uddin Ahmed Kazal’s promise that they would be paid up to 60% by the next day. The payment was not made and it prompted the BCB president Nazmul Hassan to give the clubs the 72-hour deadline on June 19.

Jack Leach was the bowling hero on the first day of Somerset’s Specsavers’ County Championship game against Surrey at Taunton. He picked up four wickets in his 18 overs as Surrey finished the day on 236 for 8

ECB Reporters Network28-May-2016
ScorecardJack Leach put Surrey in a spin•Getty Images

Jack Leach was the bowling hero on the first day of Somerset’s Specsavers’ County Championship game against Surrey at Taunton. He picked up four wickets in his 18 overs as Surrey finished the day on 236 for 8.Having chosen to bat first, Surrey made a quickfire start before losing their first wicket, at 26, when Rory Burns was caught at second slip by Marcus Trescothick off the bowling of Craig Overton.Arun Harinath followed with the score on 70, once again caught by Trescothick at slip, this time off the bowling of Jim Allenby.It was turning out to be a morning of mixed fortunes for Allenby who had earlier dropped Kumar Sangakkara at slip off Jamie Overton. Still, the former Glamorgan allrounder did strike shortly before lunch when trapping Gary Wilson lbw for 12 at 90 for 3.Sangakkara looked in decent touch until the first over after lunch when he offered a return catch that bowler Tim Groenewald gratefully accepted.Left-handers Steven Davies and Zafar Ansari played well, thereafter, adding 85 for the fourth wicket in even time. However, having been dropped at short leg by Trescothick earlier in his innings, Davies eventually played around a Leach delivery, from the River End, and was given out lbw, for 49, off 119 balls.Then, off the final ball before tea, Ansari, who struck four boundary fours and a six over long-on, off Leach, offered a catch to Trescothick at short leg to leave Surrey on 201 for 6.Leach picked up a third wicket, that of Tom Curran, caught at slip by Allenby for 0 and shortly after sent back captain Gareth Batty, lbw for 0. At that stage, Surrey had lost four wickets for no runs in 28 minutes.Ben Foakes and Mathew Pillans dug in after tea and together rescued what was a rather desperate situation, for Surrey. They added an unbeaten 35 for the ninth wicket when the players were forced off the field due to rain, thunder and lightning.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy’s emotional speech at the presentation ceremony after his team won the World T20 final against England at Eden Gardens

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Apr-2016I want to thank the almighty, because without him nothing is possible. We have a pastor in the team in Andre Fletcher, he keeps on praying. We are a praying team. I’m really happy for this win and it’s something we are going to cherish for a long time.I’ve said we have 15 match-winners. Nobody gave us a chance but every game somebody stepped up and took responsibility. To see Carlos [Brathwaite] play like that in his debut World Cup, it’s just tremendous. It shows the depth we have in the Caribbean in T20 cricket and hopefully with the right structure and development our cricket will continue to improve in one-day and Test cricket.We started this journey … we all know we had … people were wondering whether we would play this tournament. We had a lot of issues, we felt disrespected by our board, Mark Nicholas described our team as a team with no brains. All these things before the tournament just brought this team together. I really want to thank these 15 men, the ability to just put all those adversities aside and to come out and play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans, it’s just tremendous.I personally also want to thank the coaching staff, coach Phil, he’s been through a lot, and to come here and the way he’s coached the team, he’s just brilliant. All the other coaching staff, who have done their part. We had a new manager in this tournament in Rawl Lewis, he had never managed any team before. He came here, we were at a camp in Dubai, but we had no uniforms, no printed … he left Dubai, went to Kolkata, that’s where he started. The trouble he went to, to get us in this uniform … I got to give credit to the entire team here, it was us in our own little circle, this win we dedicate it to all our fans in the Caribbean.Lastly I really want to thank the heads of CARICOM, throughout this tournament they have been supporting the team, we’ve got emails, we’ve got phone calls, Prime Minister [Keith] Mitchell [from Grenada]. He sent a very inspiring email for the team this morning … and I’m yet to hear from our own cricket board. That is very disappointing.For today, I’m going to celebrate with these 15 men and coaching staff. I don’t know when I’m going to be playing with these guys again because we don’t get selected for one-day cricket. We don’t know when we’re going to be playing T20. So this win, I want to thank you my team, I want to thank you coaching staff … everybody know West Indies are champion!

Alex Ross scored an unbeaten 97 to deliver South Australia a place in the Matador Cup final against New South Wales

Brydon Coverdale23-Oct-2015
ScorecardAlex Ross made a career-best 97 not out•Getty Images

Three weeks ago, the Matador Cup squads changed dramatically with the influx of Test players after the cancellation of Australia’s tour of Bangladesh. South Australia, without any players in the national side, were the only team whose squad was unaffected. But the young Redbacks group has defied the odds to see off a much-fancied Victoria and book a place in Sunday’s final.It is quite an achievement for a team featuring only two players – Callum Ferguson and Kane Richardson – who have played for Australia in any format. Their final opponents, New South Wales, have at times in this tournament had 11 international players in their team. But in the elimination final it was the young batsman Alex Ross who set up the victory with his unbeaten 97.Victoria’s line-up was so imposing that Cameron White was made 12th man, but chasing 251 their batting order failed to fire. A direct hit from Jake Lehmann had Aaron Finch run out for a duck in the second over and the No.3 Marcus Stoinis laboured for 102 deliveries for his 56 before he was bowled trying to slog sweep the spinner Tom Andrews.Rob Quiney had plenty of luck on his way to a half-century. On 47 he was given two reprieves, when Daniel Worrall’s delivery clipped the off stump but the bail stayed on, and when he skied a chance that the South Australia captain Travis Head put down at mid-off. Quiney moved on to 71 but when Adam Zampa got rid of him, South Australia were on top.The required run-rate kept ballooning and Victoria’s decision to send Peter Handscomb in ahead of Glenn Maxwell failed, when Handscomb checked his shot and was caught at mid-off from the bowling of Richardson for 6 off 16 balls. Maxwell had to go hard and was caught at deep point off Joe Mennie; Richardson picked up two more wickets as Victoria were dismissed for 194 in the 47th over.The final margin was 56 runs; Mennie and Ross had compiled an invaluable 64-run stand late in the South Australian innings after the top-order batsmen failed to go on with their starts. Mennie struck 33 at a run a ball and Ross struck 10 fours and one six in his unbeaten 97 off 104 deliveries; he missed the chance for a maiden century but did enough to get his side into the final.Ross had taken his time and did not get off the mark until his 20th delivery, but he had come in at four down in the 17th over so some caution was advisable. Once he was set he made the most of it; his half-century came from 70 deliveries and he was still there at the end. Tom Cooper (32) and Head (29) had made top-order contributions, but Ross was the key.Regardless of what happens on Sunday, reaching the final has been a fine achievement for the Redbacks, in the first season under the leadership of captain Head and new coach Jamie Siddons.