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Thursday, 15 March, 2018
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Agencies
USTRALIA's global reputation for flakiness with the bat in difficult conditions will be in Chris Rogers' sights after he was formally appointed as the man to mentor the nation's future generations of top-order players as the new high-performance coach at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane. Rogers, who replaces Matthew Elliott after the fellow former left-hander quit for family reasons, became synonymous with thinking his way through challenging circumstances as a batsman, with vast experience of conditions in England and Australia in particular. The 17-year drought since an Australian side last won the Ashes in the UK looms large among the nuts he and others will be trying to crack in future years. Following his retirement from Test cricket in 2015, Rogers played one more season of county cricket as captain of Somerset, before staying on with the club as a batting coach last year. He has also worked as an assistant coach for Australia A, the Cricket Australia XI and the Australian Under-19s team at the World Cup
earlier this year in New Zealand. "We're excited to have Chris on board and know he will be an outstanding addition to our coaching team," the team performance manager Pat Howard said. "Chris brings thoughtfulness, persistence and passion to the role and combines this with a strong intellect. He has a wealth of cricket experience that will be invaluable to the players he will be working with. "He enjoyed a successful career at both international and first-class level,
CoA asks BCCI anti-corruption unit to investigate allegations against Shami
succeeding in Australia and overseas. From a coaching perspective, Chris has already been involved in roles with Cricket Australia's pathways program including as assistant coach at the recent Under 19 Cricket World Cup - and in the English County system. "We're looking forward to having Chris work with Australia's next generation and watching him develop as a coach. We are confident he can have a big impact in moulding our rising stars into
future international cricketers." Back in November 2016, after Australia's fifth consecutive Test loss, against South Africa in Hobart, Howard had identified Rogers as a key voice in the process of rehabilitating Australian batting, particularly with a view towards dealing with the moving ball. "It needs more focus. That's simple," Howard said. "Chris was fantastic. You go back to what he and David Warner did at the Oval [in 2015], I think it was 14 runs off 10 overs, they read the situation really well. "That patience and adaptability to read the situation there. I've really been impressed by Chris' insights and comments, and I was before. He's got a good insight into the game ... we've talked to him about coming and talking to people around that, both technically and mentally, and about a year ago, he worked with our Under-19s. It's a fair comment and something to drive some of our thinking." In also working as a commentator for ABC Radio, Rogers has offered his insights freely. "I think good sides always find a way to fight when they're in trouble, and the Australian side at the moment, when they lose a few wickets, it's just a collapse," Rogers told ABC's Offsiders at the time of the Hobart defeat.
"All 10 wickets have fallen. We've seen it now two Tests in a row, I think for 86 in the first Test, and now 85 in this Test, and you don't see that [often]. "So, there's something fundamentally wrong, I think, with the side. They're obviously lacking confidence. There's no doubt the talent's there, but they just can't find a way to fight, and that's really disconcerting. Speaking to particularly a few of the older guys, past players, there's a bit of a thought that maybe we should push to return to how the Sheffield Shield used to be - just pick the best sides, the best players, and see who wins. We have this system now where we're trying to identify players and push them through. "But we've been doing that for a fair while now, and it doesn't seem to be working. The performances haven't really been there to justify it. I think it's about now finding that winning culture. We've perhaps lost that, and whether we need to find that at the level below, maybe that's the way to go." While Australia have improved substantially in terms of eradicating batting collapses since 2016, there is still a tendency to lose wickets in a hurry when placed under the sort of pressure created by Kagiso Rabada in Port Elizabeth. The middle-order batsman Shaun Marsh conceded this was indeed a problem to address, both for the remainder of this series and into the future. "We've come a long way. We just need to keep working hard," Marsh said. "I think we're all playing well. As a batting group, we just need to make sure that once we get in, we really lock ourselves in and get the hundreds we haven't got in the first two Test matches. We've got a few days now to reflect and work hard, and make sure we're out there and doing the job for the team."
'There's a place for emotion on the field' - Anderson on Rabada
MuMbai Agencies
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) supervising the BCCI has asked the board's anti-corruption unit to investigate if Mohammed Shami collected money sent to him by a UK national through a Pakistani woman in Dubai. Shami's wife Hasin Jahan had alleged that Shami made that claim when she confronted him and accused him of committing adultery. Jahan released an alleged recording of that telephonic conversation, and the CoA has taken note of it. Kolkata Police is currently looking into various criminal charges filed by Jahan against India fast bowler Shami and his family, including attempt to murder. Shami has rejected all the accusations and has pleaded with his wife to sort the issues out in private. A day after Jahan first made the allegations, the BCCI withheld Shami's annual contract, choosing to wait for the police probe. Kolkata Police has been in touch with the BCCI, asking the board about Shami's travel schedule after India's recent tour of South Africa, and whether he extended his stay in Dubai, as alleged by his wife, while the rest of the team returned home. The CoA or the BCCI has not made any comment on the issue. However, the recording released by Jahan has led to the CoA calling for an internal probe. In the alleged audio tape, the person claimed to be Jahan is heard asking the person claimed to be Shami why he met someone referred to as Alisba in Dubai. Shami allegedly tells Jahan that he had to collect money from Alisba, money sent by a certain Mohammed Bhai from the UK. In a letter addressed to the head of the BCCI ACSU Neeraj Kumar, which ESPNcricinfo has accessed, the CoA has asked the board to submit a report "preferably" within a week. "The Committee of Administrators is concerned only with such portion of the said audio recording in which the person who it is claimed is Md. Shami is heard saying another person by the name of 'Mohammad Bhai' had sent money to Md. Shami through a Pakistani lady by the name of 'Alisba'," the letter said. The CoA has asked the board to investigate whether Mohammed Bhai and Alisba exist, if any money was sent to Shami, and, if it was indeed sent, why. "Please investigate the above assertions/allegations under the BCCI AntiCorruption Code and submit a report to the Committee of Administrators with your findings as to whether there is any basis to proceed further in terms thereof. The investigation should cover (i) the identity and antecedents of "Mohammad Bhai" and "Alisba"; (ii) whether any money was in fact sent by the said Mohammad Bhai through the said Alisba to Md. Shami; and (iii) if yes, the purpose for which the said money was received by Md. Shami." The CoA has asked the ACSU to restrict the investigation to what might fall under the BCCI's anti-corruption code.
Port ElizabEth Agencies
James Anderson says he recognises the difficulties that Kagiso Rabada is having in controlling his on-field aggression, in the wake of his shoulder-barge on Steven Smith during the Port Elizabeth Test that led to a two-Test ban. The ICC has announced that Rabada is appealing his ban, which was automatically triggered by his accumulation of eight ICC demerit points in the space of 24 months, for offences including an audible obscenity directed at Ben Stokes during last summer's Lord's Test, and "inappropriate and deliberate physical contact" with Sri Lanka's Niroshan Dickwella during an ODI in Cape Town. But Anderson, whom Rabada recently replaced as the ICC's No.1ranked Test bowler, following his
CMYK
11-wicket haul against Australia, has sympathy for his fellow paceman. "There's definitely got to be a place for emotion," Anderson said. "I've certainly been there and done it, the thing is you have to control it the best you can. Sometimes it is hard, especially in the heat of the moment in a big series, if you get an important wicket." Anderson is himself no saint out in the middle. During the Ashes, he was singled out by Australia's captain Steven Smith as "one of the biggest sledgers in the game", and he was at it again today during England's warm-up match in Hamilton, when the umpires had to step in after he offered a few choice words to Kyle Jamieson during his century. However, unlike Rabada, Anderson has not yet been sanctioned by the ICC for his on-field behaviour, and he believes that there is a line that players
should not cross, even if it can be hard to spot in the heat of the action. "Of course, there's a line, bowlers do know what that line is but at times it's such a strange feeling," he said. "I've watched myself back and watched me take a wicket and seen how I've celebrated and think 'what am I doing?' It's literally one of those things, the build-up of emotion where you are trying so hard to get a wicket and win a game and this emotion just comes out as a big release. "It can feel like an out-of-body experience at times. I'm not excusing behaving badly on the field, I'm just saying I can understand what does happen to bowlers when they show that emotion. You see it with fielders, they can sometimes celebrate over the top but we are aware there's a line, but you just hope as you can keep the emotion the check to stay the right side of the line."