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.

The PCB chief selector has taken exception to rumours that he tried to abuse his position to secure his son’s selection in Pakistan’s Under-19 squad

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Sep-2018A meeting between the PCB chairman Ehsan Mani and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq would appear to have ended the uncertainty surrounding Inzamam’s role in a selection controversy that arose over the past few days. The meeting, requested by Inzamam after he took exception to rumours circulating in the Pakistani media he had abused his position to try and secure a favourable selection outcome for his son in the Pakistan U-19 squad. The PCB are understood to have given him full assurance of their trust and support.Inzamam, incensed by the accusation, released a video message categorically denying it was true, saying he would resign if that were proven. At the same time, he challenged the person responsible for the origin of the accusation to do the same if he failed to prove the claim. He is also believed to be assessing his legal options.The origin of the story appeared to be an off-the-record chat between a Pakistani journalist and former international player Abdul Qadir. According to the journalist, Qadir had said the chief selector of the Pakistan U-19 team Basit Ali had been phoned by Inzamam, who requested him to include his son, Ibtasam-ul-Haq in the side. Once the story broke, Qadir stood by this version of events, while Basit denied the conversation, either with Qadir or with Inzamam, ever took place.”I strongly refute this unfounded and malicious claim,” Inzamam wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. “For the record, no one from junior selection committee was approached and there is no truth in this. I am taking this matter quite seriously and will be meeting PCB chairman for an open inquiry on this matter tomorrow.”Nepotism is a particularly prickly issue for Inzamam, particularly in the wake of Imam-ul-Haq’s selection for the national side last year. Imam is Inzamam’s nephew, and there had been questions about whether Inzamam’s influence on selection had played a part in securing a spot for Imam. However, Imam’s bright start to international cricket – he made four centuries in his first nine ODIs, including on debut – have largely dispelled those concerns.

The axed India opener said the selectors had not spoken to him after he was dropped from the Test squad, but MSK Prasad refutes the claim

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Oct-2018Batsman M Vijay is the latest India player to speak about a lack of communication between the selectors and players who have been dropped from the squad.Vijay had made 20, 6, 0 and 0 in the first two Tests of India’s five-match series in England. He was not picked in the XI for the third Test and was dropped from the squad for the last two matches.”Neither the chief selector nor any other person spoke to me in England after I was dropped from the third Test,” Vijay told . “None of them have spoken to me since. I did have a conversation with the members of the team management in England and that’s it.”Vijay was also not picked for the ongoing two-Test series against West Indies at home. His comments came in the wake of Karun Nair saying in the past week that he had “no conversations” with the team management or selectors after he was dropped from the squad without playing a Test in England. Former India offspinner Harbhajan Singh had slammed the MSK Prasad-led selection committee and questioned their methods.”I tend to agree with what Harbhajan Singh has said about parameters of selection,” Vijay said. “I think it is important that a player is told about the reasons for keeping him out so that he knows where exactly he stands in the team managements’ and selectors’ scheme of things.”As a player it is very important that you are going to get more than just one or two games, so that you can plan better. Stability keeps doubts away. Ultimately, one has to perform and contribute to the team’s cause.”Prasad, however, rubbished Vijay’s claims, saying that Devang Gandhi, his fellow selector, had spoken to the opener after he was dropped from the squad. “All these are baseless reports,” Prasad told PTI. “With regard to the non-communication with Murali Vijay after dropping him, I am equally surprised why he has said this while my colleague and selector on call Devang Gandhi had clearly informed him about the reasons why he was dropped.”Prasad also said he had spoken to Nair after leaving him out of the 15-man squad for the West Indies Tests, and told him to keep scoring heavily in the Ranji Trophy and for India A. India captain Virat Kohli , meanwhile, distanced himself from the issue when he was asked about it on the eve of the first Test against West Indies.After being axed from the Test squad, Vijay signed up with Essex to play in the County Championship, and made scores of 56, 100, 85, 80 and 2.India’s next Test series after the one against West Indies is in Australia, and Vijay hoped to make a comeback. “I will be preparing for the Australia series too in my own manner,” he said. “I know the conditions there well, having scored close to 500 runs during the 2014-15 series. I wish to be ready if the chance comes. Ultimately it’s the runs that matter when you are trying to make a comeback.”

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.

About 12 overs into the chase in St. Lucia, it seemed like a West Indies win was very unlikely but the captain took the ball because she wanted to change the game, and she did

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Nov-2018About 12 overs into the chase in St. Lucia, it seemed like a West Indies win was very unlikely. South Africa needed 57 runs in 48 balls, two of their most experienced batsmen were still on the field, and they had seven wickets in hand. That’s when the captain Stafanie Taylor, overcoming a neck injury, decided to take matters into her own hands. She bowled the next over and engineered a dramatic collapse starting with the wicket of Sune Luus, and finished with career-best figures of 4 for 12 which eventually gave the defending champions a famous win.”On the good side,” Taylor said, “When we were getting hit, I told [Deandra] Dottin that I’m going to bowl and that drove me I told myself I’m going to take over this bowling and that got me the breakthrough.”Their batting didn’t quite match their bowling though. West Indies endured a collapse of their own as South Africa’s veteran fast bowler Shabnim Ismail ran through their line-up with 3 for 12, restricting them to 107 for 7 in 20 overs, which was only one run more than what they scored in their opening game against Bangladesh.”Our batting is not best at the moment,” she said. “We struggled to reach 107. In the middle with Natasha [McLean] and Kycia [Knight] batted well and we need that partnership and bowling performance topped it off.”We’ve said that in team meeting, we’ve been working hard in the nets and our game. I believe it’s all about application, we need to give ourselves some time to assess the wicket. I don’t think we have given ourselves that time. We are goods batters, we can clear boundaries any time. We are not worried about boundaries, it’s just our application that needs to get better.”Stafanie Taylor finds a reason to smile at a press conference•ICC/Getty Images

South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk had a similar opinion about her batsmen, adding that she had no concerns about the bowling unit. South Africa had showed signs of struggle during their successful 100-run chase against Sri Lanka earlier this week as well, and in the game against West Indies, they lost nine wickets for 28 runs.”Sometimes we find a way to make it difficult for ourselves,” van Niekerk said. “With wickets in hand we saw the bulk of the runs being scored in the back-end on a wicket like this. Our plan was to bat steadily and look for a win in the 19th over types. But it was like panic stations there.””We got ourselves into trouble quite early due to slow starts. A number of soft dismissals cost us. Don’t think a lot of our batters can come out and say they got out to a great balls. We did a great job restricting them. But again, we panicked.”If you want to win a World Cup, you need to convincingly chase down 107 and we didn’t do that. We need to introspect as batsmen. Since our warm-ups our batting has struggled to get 100.”West Indies were also backed by some electrifying fielding on the day. Deandra Dottin was particularly spectacular, and it was her direct-hit to run out van Niekerk that opened the door to West Indies again.”Deandra at backward point is fixed,” Taylor said. “She’s fantastic. Batters fear her. When she’s going towards the ball nobody wants to take a run. When Dane got run out she was caught off guard and that turned out to in our favour.”A display like that usually revs up the home fans. “I think the crowd today was fantastic,” Taylor said. I was really surprised to see that crowd when I look back at CPL, there wasn’t that amount of people. And to see that amount of people that came out to watch our game, it’s just fantastic. And the girls were loving it.”

New Zealand’s bowling coach was pleased with the efforts of the left-arm quick, who took three important wickets on day four at Hagley Oval

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Christchurch29-Dec-2018Pitches in New Zealand tend to flatten out after a roaring start, but even though opposition teams struggle to get wickets in the second innings, New Zealand’s own quicks are generally capable of bowling their team to victory. Why? Because they hunt as a pack, according to their bowling coach Shane Jurgensen.There was evidence of that teamwork as they removed four Sri Lanka batsmen on day four – three of those wickets falling to Neil Wagner. The performance left New Zealand four further wickets from victory, with day five to play. In fact they may only need three wickets, if the injured Angelo Mathews does not bat again.”It’s awesome, because I think the bowlers actually bounce off each other,” Jurgensen said after play. “They all get on with each other – they’re really good mates. You’ve got the two left-handers in Neil and Trent Boult, and then you’ve got Tim Southee and Colin de Grandhomme, when there’s a bit more on offer in terms of seam and swing. You’ve got those four guys – two lefties and two righties. Neil’s ability to bowl those bouncers, it just adds another string in the bow for the group.”One of the big things with our bowling is we want to bowl in partnerships and put pressure on from both ends. I think that’s what we did in the first innings and that’s we needed all our bowlers to do in the second.”Having arrived in New Zealand only six days before this series started, following their three Tests in the UAE, New Zealand’s bowlers have also had to contend with a huge workload, having earlier spent six months without any international cricket on their schedule. Boult – New Zealand’s quickest bowler – has played in all five of those Tests, and Tim Southee has played four.”Trent is really fit,” Jurgensen said. “I think that’s what I’ve been really impressed with our bowling group – it’s our fifth test in six-and-a-half or seven weeks, and it’s a testament to their fitness during the winter, how hard they’ve worked, to still keep trucking in. Neil just provides that extra punch that we need, particularly at the back end of the game, and you saw another example of that today. He’s been doing it for a while now for us.”Perhaps the best on-field battle of day five was Wagner v Dinesh Chandimal. In the past, teams have targeted Chandimal with the short ball, on account of his reputation for being an impulsive hooker. Aware of this potential weakness, New Zealand and Wagner bowled a lot of bouncers at Chandimal, without much success for the first two sessions, with Chandimal routinely ducking or swaying out of the way.It was Wagner who eventually got his wicket. Early in the third session, Chandimal could not get out of the way of a delivery headed toward his throat, and ended up fending at it with his gloves, sending an easy catch to short leg. Wagner was ecstatic at having taken that wicket, letting out an almighty scream.”I was a good battle between them,” Jurgensen said. “Dinesh batted very well, he applied himself fantastically. His hook shot is certainly something that we’ve targeted. But one of the things that I was mentioning in the dressing room is that I don’t think he’s playing the pull or hook shot today, so maybe we need to change our fields slightly to suit that. Eventually Neil got him.”

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.

He also made it clear India won’t compromise on their bowling attack just to give World Cup aspirants game time

Deivarayan Muthu in Hyderabad01-Mar-20197:43

IPL won’t impact World Cup selection – Kohli

Virat Kohli made this much very clear ahead of the first ODI in Hyderabad: The IPL will not impact World Cup selection.”I don’t see IPL having any influence on World Cup selection,” he said. “I think that will be a very radical sort of analysis. We need to have a solid team. Before we head into the IPL, we need be absolutely clear of what team we want for the World Cup.”I don’t see anything changing despite how the IPL goes for any of the players. If one or two players don’t have a good IPL season, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the picture for the World Cup. Those things are not going to matter.”ALSO READ: Finch has a ‘balancing act’ on his handsHe also made it clear India won’t compromise on their bowling attack just to give World Cup aspirants enough game time. As such, India’s squad has a settled look with just one or two spots up for grabs. Among them are Rishabh Pant and Vijay Shankar, a batting allrounder who is now in the mix following Hardik Pandya’s back injury.Vijay’s bowling was tested in the second T20I in Bengaluru, where he returned figures of 2 for 38. Bowling four overs in a T20I is one thing, completing 10 in an ODI another. India’s captain insisted that going with one fewer genuine bowler will not be a wise move.”We will have to think about the combinations, I don’t think playing a bowler less is a good idea,” Kohli said. “Because with the extra fielder in till the 40th over, it becomes very difficult to sort of get few guys to chip in with a few overs here and there. We will have to work out the batting combination to try and give game-time to the guys we want to. But, I don’t see the bowling combination changing.”India had rejigged their combination both in New Zealand and in the two T20Is against Australia at home, but Kohli stressed that they have prioritised winning this ODI series over experimentation.AFP

“We are playing to win the series, else I’ll leave the ball to hit the stumps,” he said. “As I said earlier, if we want to see how a few guys play in a certain situation, we’ll make play them again in that situation.”It’s not like if a guy is not playing in a certain situation, he doesn’t have the ability. We could not win the T20 series because in the first match we didn’t play good cricket and in the second match, Australia played better than us.”I think it’s important you understand why we lost. From outside, it’s easy to say, they don’t have the heart to play. We always want to win games for India. If we only had to experiment, we would have got out for 50 as everybody would have got out trying to hit sixes.”Kohli was particularly buoyed by KL Rahul’s return to form following a horrid time of late. He was troubled by inswingers and eventually lost his place in the Test squad in Australia last year. Then, he was suspended for his controversial comments on an Indian chat show.However, he worked his way back into international cricket by finding form with the India A side. Against Australia in the T20Is, he unfurled some sparkling shots, including the lofted drive that he mastered during his stellar run in IPL 2018.”It [Rahul’s return to form] augurs really well,” Kohli said. “When he plays well, KL is operating at a different level, I feel, and we’ve seen him do that in the IPL last year and in patches over the last season we played as a team. Hopefully, he can keep batting like that. It’s very difficult to find a consistent player who can find good cricketing shots and still win you games and strike at over 140 or 150.”He has all the shots and has a solid game as well. Hopefully, he can build on it and get as many games under his belt, playing as much cricket as possible. And then it will be interesting to see what happens in the final World Cup squad. Definitely, he has made a strong case for himself.”Since the start of the Champions Trophy India have tried out as many as nine players at No.4, with Ambati Rayudu getting the most chances there. He has made 431 runs in 11 innings at an average of 53.87 and strike-rate of 89.23. Kohli hasn’t batted at No.4 in this period, but is ready to move down from No.3 if the management wants him to.”If that [batting at No.4] is the requirement of the team at a particular stage in the game or before a particular game, I’m more than happy to do it,” he said. “I’ve batted a lot of times at No 4, so I don’t necessarily need to try it out because I’ve done that a lot of times in the past.”My game doesn’t change from No. 3 to No. 4 because template is quite similar. In any given situation, I back myself to play the game that I know. If the team wants it at any stage, I’m more than happy to do it.”

Colin Munro has retained his place in a New Zealand squad where the majority of the names were very settled

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Apr-20192:03

Blundell picked because of his superior keeping – Stead

Ish Sodhi and Tom Blundell have claimed the two uncertain spots in New Zealand’s World Cup squad with the 15 names being confirmed in Christchurch on Wednesday.The roles of second spinner and reserve keeper had the most debate attached to them with Sodhi being preferred to fellow legspinner Todd Astle and Blundell, who is uncapped in ODIs, earning a late call-up following an injury to Tim Seifert.The rest of the squad, the first for the ten competing nations to be confirmed, is very much as expected with the shape of the World Cup party having largely taken shape since Gary Stead took over from Mike Hesson as coach.ALSO READ: How the World Cup squads are stacking upColin Munro keeps his place although is likely to find himself as the reserve batsman with Henry Nicholls slated to open alongside Martin Guptill. Jimmy Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme have taken the seam-bowling allrounder spots with Mitchell Santner, who has recovered from knee surgery, set to be the main spinner.”As with any squad named for a major tournament, there’s had to be some tough calls and there will be some disappointed players,” coach Gary Stead said. “The key for us was finding the right balance for the squad and making sure we had our bases covered for what is going to be a very competitive World Cup. As a one-day unit we’ve been pretty consistent over the past few years and possess a very experienced group of core players, proven at the top level.”The World Cup is the pinnacle of cricket and to be the first nation to name a squad for the tournament is really exciting. I’d like to congratulate all the players selected. To represent your country at a World Cup is a huge honour and I know the entire squad and support staff are looking forward to the challenges ahead.”The squad will have a series of two-day training camps in Christchurch later in April before heading to Australia for a trip that includes three unofficial one-day matches. A large number of the World Cup squad won’t be present for that tour as they are at the IPL so a collection of reserve players will be included.”We will have three training camps through April which will involve many players who are not in this squad as it’s important they’re ready on stand-by should we lose anybody in the lead up to or at the tournament,” Stead said.Squad Kane Williamson (capt), Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Colin Munro, Tom Blundell, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult

SACA claims the cricket board has violated terms between the two bodies

Liam Brickhill13-Apr-2019The South Africa Cricketers’ Association (SACA) has refuted Cricket South Africa’s claim that it was consulted about the sweeping changes proposed to restructure domestic cricket in the country.Presenting a united front at its second press conference in a week, CSA insisted that SACA had been brought up to speed with the details of the domestic revamp. Corrie Van Zyl, the head of cricket pathways, even went to the extent of saying, “I sat personally with SACA and consulted on the restructuring.”SACA, however, remains adamant that it had not been adequately consulted, stating further that the cricket board had ignored agreements between the two bodies. It further countered CSA by citing its chief executive Tony Irish’s ban from attending a meeting while the restructuring was being discussed.SACA’s words contradict CSA’s statements to the media. According to van Zyl, SACA has been engaged by CSA in the formulation of the strategies it will implement in the face of massive forecasted financial losses.”I sat personally with SACA and consulted on the restructuring, explained what it would look like, and in principle they supported that and understood where we are going,” van Zyl said. “But they did also say that they need to understand a lot more.”They were also part of other interactions – a joint financial committee, and also a cricket committee which SACA is part of – where we discussed the restructuring again, and at that stage no objection was raised to the restructuring. So we have consulted, and secondly we have been working together to make sure that we come up with a sustainable restructuring exercise.”Irish, however, argued that the Memorandum of Understanding signed by CSA and SACA last year contained clear guidelines on how the consultation process on a matter such as the restructure should happen, but that CSA “has simply ignored that agreement”.”I wish to again confirm that CSA has not properly consulted with SACA on the domestic restructure,” Irish said. “The fact that I was present at certain meetings when the issue of possible restructure was raised does not constitute consultation.”There has been no discussion with us on how any restructure would actually work and I have consistently stated to CSA that SACA cannot make any decision on this at least until we understand the financial position and the ‘human impact’ on the players.”Omphile Ramela, the domestic veteran and president of SACA, also confirmed the body hadn’t received a reply from CSA over concerns raised. “We have addressed our specific, constructive concerns to CSA in writing but have still had no reply,” he said. “The statements made have given us no further clarity on this. SACA has yet to agree to any restructure.”CSA stated yesterday (Friday) that it will continue to engage SACA going forward, yet SACA’s CEO was at the same time banned from a meeting of CSA’s Chief Executives Conference, of which he is a member, when the domestic restructure was being discussed.”While SACA is clearly at loggerheads with CSA, chief executive Thabang Moroe insisted that CSA had the full backing of the key stakeholders for the revamp. Moroe said, “We’ve just had a very successful two-day workshop with our CEOs, and all of the CEOs have asked me to quote them in saying that they are in full support of the plans that Cricket South Africa has put in place.”