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Rafiqul Alam, the former Bangladesh batsman, has replaced Faruque Ahmed as Bangladesh’s new chairman of selectors, the Bangladesh Cricket Board announced today. Naimur Rahman, Bangladesh’s first Test captain, is the other change in the selection panel and he replaces Athar Ali Khan.The new selectors were appointed by a panel appointed by the ad-hoc executive committee of the board and will begin their duties from September 1. Akram Khan continues as selector. The changes were necessitated as the contracts of Athar Ali Khan and Ahmed expire at the end of the month.”We commended the previous selectors’ work over the past four years but we thought that there was a need for change,” Shafiqur Rahman Munna, the head of the sub-committee that appointed the selectors, told . “I think we have selected two competent individuals for the demanding job because they not only played for the national side but have adequate knowledge of the domestic and international cricket.”We will maintain the same salary structure for the selectors, something that was made by our previous committee, but there will be some changes in the terms and conditions. We met with both the new selectors before finalising their names. We want hundred per cent commitment in the job because now it is no more an amateur duty.”Alam said the focus will be on improving Bangladesh’s Test record. “I would not like to comment on the previous committee. What I must say is that we are quite a handful side in one-dayers now but are far, far behind in Tests and our focus should be on the longer-version.”Alam played two one-dayers during the tour of Sri Lanka in 1986. He is also a match-referee with the board and has been involved in coaching as well.Offspinner Rahman led Bangladesh in its first ever Test, against India in Dhaka in 2000. He played eight Tests and 29 ODIs and was the first Bangladesh bowler to take a five-wicket haul in Tests, incidentally in their maiden Test.

‘You know Chris Gayle already. I like to entertain and be positive and play a few shots’ – Chris Gayle © Getty Images

Post-match press conferences, at the best times, are a good study in contrast, the winners on the day beaming away, chattering excitedly, and the vanquished, heads down, answering in as few words as possible. But the second game of the Champions Trophy saw a particularly bad mismatch, on and off the field. Handed a sound thrashing, the Zimbabwe captain, Prosper Utseya, who might well consider a name change if he stays in his current profession, could only say, “We didn’t apply ourselves when we were batting. We tried to play too many shots early on. And at the same time there was some poor shot selection.”Brian Lara, of course, was meeting questions with a booming bat. “We came here to win this game emphatically, and we did that,” he said. “The bowlers had to get a run and they got five-six overs under the belt and performed well. We did well in the field too. It doesn’t matter what the opposition got – we went out and batted with purpose, which was important.”Lara didn’t have much work to do, only 16 minutes at the crease, but even in that he managed one classy square-drive, and put the last nails in the coffin with two big sixes. “I asked [Ramnaresh] Sarwan if I could have a knock, because I didn’t play in the practice game. I just wanted to hit a few balls with the middle of the bat, and I was happy to do that,” insisting that he didn’t come out to bat planning to finish the game off in style. “It just happened. I just thought I should play each ball on its merit. I took the field into consideration as well. Yes I could have gone out there and blocked a few. But I get more confidence from my innings if I approach it the way I did.”At the same time, Lara was not ungracious in defeat. He did concede that “something like 200-plus was definitely on the cards for a team like Zimbabwe,” on this pitch, but would not be drawn into suggesting that one-sided matches like this took the sheen off this tournament. “I think it’s very important to encourage the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and other lower-ranked teams. They want to get out there and play against the best teams in the world and it’s an opportunity for them to spring a surprise on anybody,” he said. “If Zimbabwe was not here for this tournament you might say Bangladesh shouldn’t be here as well, but they’ve beaten Pakistan and Australia and you have to give them the opportunity. It’s good for cricket on the whole and we just have to accept that.”Sandwiched between the strident Lara and the crestfallen Utseya was a jocular Chris Gayle, the Man-of-the-Match for his breezy 41. “I was feeling a bit weak so I started slowly, and later I tried to be a bit more positive and get it over as quickly as possible,” he said, not trying to be politically correct. When asked why he went for the third big hit, and was caught, despite being dropped twice, he choked down a chuckle and said, “It was a bit entertaining as well. You know Chris Gayle already. I like to entertain and be positive and play a few shots. I wasn’t taking anything for granted, though, just playing each ball on its merits.”But there was little merit in Zimbabwe’s cricket on the day, and Utseya was resigned to this. “It is quite difficult because the morale and the confidence of guys goes down,” he said. “To be honest we didn’t play to the best of our ability today. I’m sure we can do better in the matches to come.”

West Indies need the drive of someone like Clive Lloyd to really get them going © Getty Images

Given the tough opposition and their recent divisive problems, the West Indies will suffer for the lack of “a father figure” to lead them on their forthcoming tour of Australia, Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain, cautioned on Thursday.”They really need someone like Clive Lloyd at this time, a father figure who can hold the team together and get the best out of them,” Chappell said. Based on what he saw of the West Indies team on the tour of Sri Lanka in July and August, Chappell did not believe Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies captain, could provide that kind of leadership. “Chanderpaul was predictable and reactive in Sri Lanka,” he said. “The only time you felt there would be a wicket was if there was a good ball or the pitch did something, not from anything creative from the captain.”Chappell noted the difference when Sylvester Joseph took over in Chanderpaul’s absence in the one-day series. “Things started to happen because Joseph was proactive,” he said. “The players aren’t stupid. They know when the captain has ideas and is confident enough to put them into practice. It’s a pity he isn’t a good enough batsman to be in the team because he was always looking to make something happen.”Chanderpaul, who was played 88 Tests, took over as captain when Brian Lara opted out of the team before the first Test of the home series against South Africa last April in solidarity with six players who were omitted because they held personal endorsement contracts with former sponsors Cable & Wireless, direct competitors of the new sponsors, Digicel.He led a team of mainly replacement players when ten of the originally chosen 13 refused to tour Sri Lanka because of the ongoing row over tour contracts between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA). The return of most of those players, Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, the reappointed vice-captain, among them, is a potential flashpoint that would test Chanderpaul’s leadership qualities.Chappell acknowledged that the reunification of the West Indies team after the split caused by Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket (WICB) almost 30 years ago was different to the present case in many respects. But he maintained that Lloyd’s captaincy was a major factor in ensuring that there were no residual problems and that the team developed into one of the strongest the game has known.”The West Indies at present don’t have that kind of experience and class and they’re coming up against an Australian team that has regained its confidence after the defeat in the Ashes series and haven’t lost a series at home in ages,” Chappell said. “They need strong leadership more than ever.”

Graeme Smith – recovering well© Getty Images

Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, has started training again following a minor operation on his stomach almost two months ago.”I am starting to push myself, but I might be a bit low on strength because I am behind on my weight-training schedule," Smith told in South Africa. "It was quite sore where they cut through the stomach muscles and I had to go slowly when I started training again. I’ve had to learn to eat more slowly, because the op has made my stomach smaller."Smith had the operation, at Kingsbury Hospital in Cape Town, to reconstruct a defective stomach valve. He has had the defect, which affects his body’s ability to filter stomach acids properly, since birth. While it is not debilitating, the faulty valve had caused him discomfort for several years, particularly during times of stress.”It got uncomfortable at times, especially when I was under a bit of stress. It got quite bad before and during our tour of New Zealand,” he said. “We have had a bit of a break so it seemed the best time to get it sorted out.”Smith will now join the South African squad at the Tukkies High Performance Centre in Pretoria on July 19 for a four-day training camp ahead of their five-week tour of Sri Lanka.

Star spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and middle order batsman Kumar Sangakkarahave been included in an amended squad for the forthcoming quadrangularseries at Sharjah.Both Muraliltharan and Sangakkara had been surprise omissions from a 15-mansquad selected last weekend that was rejected by Johnston Fernando, theMinistry of Sports.Fernando refused to ratify the squad until the appointment of three newselectors, including Aravinda de Silva, who retired from all cricket afterSri Lanka’s World Cup semi-final.The selectors met on Friday evening, agreeing with the bulk of the changes,but including Muralitharan, who has assured the five-man panel of hisfitness, and Sangakkara.All-rounders Hasantha Fernando and Thilan Samaraweera, the A team skipper,were the players to miss out from the original squad.Three players were axed from the World Cup squad, including middle order duoRussel Arnold and Mahela Jayawardene and fast bowler Pulasthi Gunaratne.The squad includes three players without One-Day International experience:batsman Michael Vandort, wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene and leg-spinningall-rounder Kaushal Loukuarachchi.The squad is scheduled to depart for the four-nation tournament alsoincluding Kenya, Zimbabwe and Pakistan on Tuesday morning.Sri Lanka will play their first match against Pakistan on April 4.Squad:Sanath Jayasuriya (Capt), Marvan Atapattu, Hashan Tillakaratne, JehanMubarak, Avishka Gunawardene, Michael Vandort, Kumar Sangakkara, PrasanaJayawardene, Kumar Dharmasena, Kaushal Loukuarachchi, Chaminda Vaas, PrabathNissanka, Dilhara Fernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Buddhika Fernando

Zimbabwe cricket seems to suffer one blow after another, and the latest has been the news that national team coach Carl Rackemann is to leave his job shortly. The burly former Australian pace bowler’s one-year contract had been due to expire at the end of August, but by general agreement he has done so well in the job that it was hoped he would be able to stay on for longer.Rackemann’s reasons for leaving, he says, are simply “commitments back home, especially my farm”. He feels he has spent too much time away from it, but adds that he hopes to stay involved with the Zimbabwe team in the future in one role or another.There will be those who suggest that the current unrest between players and administrators in Zimbabwe cricket has been responsible for his decision, but Rackemann denies it. He has told the Zimbabwe Cricket Union that he will still be available for the visits by South Africa and England in September and October if they wish to use him.Rackemann’s first contact with the national side was in 1999 when he assisted Dave Houghton, then national coach, as a specialist bowling coach. He was so effective that he was invited back as often as he could make it, and when Houghton resigned last year, for one rare occasion the Zimbabwe Cricket Union and the players were in agreement: Rackemann was the best man to take over.During his time, Rackemann feels that the team has recorded some ‘terrific achievements’; he names the recent victory in the Second Test against India and the one-day series win in New Zealand, Zimbabwe’s first away from home, as two outstanding highlights on the field of play.With individuals, he notes that there is a long list of batsmen who during the past year have recorded their highest scores, most notably in the Test against India at Nagpur. Here Grant Flower fought back with a century after recording a ‘pair’ in Delhi, Alistair Campbell hit his first Test century, and Andy Flower hit his wonderful 232 not out. Rackemann also recalls the 70 scored by the late Trevor Madondo in Wellington, “batting beautifully for it”.The third One-Day International win in New Zealand was a major highlight, coming as it did against all expectations, with a magnificent innings by Heath Streak, and the recent Test win against India was achieved largely through the efforts of Streak and Andy Blignaut, who “bowled so well”. This was largely the result of bowling to a plan, bowling consistently just outside the line of the off stump to the Indian batsmen, and Rackemann rightly feels that one of his achievements has been to have his bowlers bowl a more consistent line and bowl to a plan. Zimbabwe’s bowlers also used to be plagued by problems with wides and no-balls, and he feels he has managed to reduce these to a minimum.Highlights can also be achieved off the field, he believes, mentioning that he has had individual sessions with players, even in the nets, when they have achieved a breakthrough in developing some area of their game successfully. ‘Discipline’ and ‘consistency’ are two words that he mentions often, and he believes he has seen these achieved to a greater degree in many Zimbabwean players.It is not just in the technical areas that he has enjoyed success. He has aimed to add mental strength to the players, “to simplify their thoughts and attitudes, to get them to believe in themselves and have the objectives of results”.”I talk a lot to the team about having more consistency. With each individual playing better cricket more often, then the team will play a higher quality of cricket more often. That doesn’t mean that they will win or be in a winning position every time they take the field, but just that they will play better cricket more often.”The players have a tremendous respect for Rackemann. Andy Flower, always one to tell it straight, says: “I think Carl has added a tremendous amount to Zimbabwe cricket, especially in the area of bringing to a naïve country the Australian influence and all that comes with it.”I think he’s brought a positive but relaxed atmosphere to the changing room and has also shown some positive results since the moment he first started working with our bowlers. Equally, although he is not a specialist batting coach, he has focused the batsmen’s minds on the basics, the consequence of which has been a number of career-best performances from some of them. I’ve loved working with him.”Carl Rackemann has been very good for Zimbabwe cricket, and it is unlikely that his influence will be lost forever. He has managed to identify with the team so greatly that, even when they play Australia, he is able to support them unequivocally. Hopefully he will be back, even if only in his old role as bowling coach, and there will always be room for him among Zimbabwe’s grateful players. In the meantime, the ZCU has the problem with its limited finance of finding a replacement worthy to wear the great Australian’s mantle.

Crystal Palace have been known to dip into the loan market every now and again to bring certain players to the club on a temporary basis, the most recent of which seeing Conor Gallagher arrive until the end of the current season from fellow Premier League side Chelsea.

One previous player that the Eagles brought in on loan from Chelsea was another midfielder in the shape of Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Signed during the 2017 summer transfer window, the 26-year-old made 25 appearances in total for the south London club across the Premier League and Carabao Cup.

In those appearances, the Englishman, who has been likened in his style of play to Yaya Toure by Rio Ferdinand, managed to score two goals and provide five assists along the way, showing just how useful he could be in an attacking sense from midfield.

As well as his prowess in terms of scoring and creating goals, his overall performances earned him a solid season rating of 7.08 from WhoScored, making him the sixth-highest rated player in their squad for the 2017/18 league campaign, showing that he certainly made the most of his time with the Eagles.

In terms of what he offered Palace on the pitch, the Chelsea loanee racked up a pass success percentage of 82.4%, the third-highest of any player that started at least one league game, as well as an average of 1.3 shots per game, three dribbles per game and 1.1 key passes per game, putting him in the top five for each of those statistics in the squad.

Since leaving Selhurst Park, the midfielder had another London loan spell with Fulham during the 2020/21 season before making 27 appearances across all competitions back with Chelsea in this current campaign.

Shortly before he joined Palace on loan, Transfermarkt rated Loftus-Cheek’s market value at £4.5m in June 2017, whereas it now stands at £18m, showing a massive increase of 300% based on what he’s done in his career since then.

Labelled as a “special” player by Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, there will undoubtedly be some regrets from the hierarchy at Selhurst Park that they were not able to secure the midfield talent on a permanent deal after his decent loan spell with them, despite their reported interest in doing so.

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Moving forward, having started just 11 of the 27 games he’s played in for the west London club this season, Palace should definitely explore the possibility of signing him again if Chelsea have the ability to sell him from a business point of view. In doing so, they may just find the next Yaya.

In other news: Parish must avoid Crystal Palace disaster on “popular” £25k-p/w gem as report emerges

The tickets for the World Twenty20 are likely to go up for sale by the end of this week, with the BCCI saying it doesn’t think it is too late for the tickets to be made available.The first qualifier starts on March 8, but the Indian board is happy to have the tickets up for grabs a little under two months from the first match of the “main” tournament on March 15. However, when the schedule of the World Twenty20 was announced, the ICC insisted that the qualifying part of the tournament be called the first round of the tournament.At any rate, India have set the record for putting the tickets up for sale with least amount of planning time available for the fans when it comes to world events.For the World Cup co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in February-March 2011, tickets went up for sale on June 1, 2010. In 2012, Sri Lanka offered World T0 tickets six months before the event. The West Indies provided a five-and-a-month notice for the World T20 in 2010. Bangladesh, who hosted the World T20 in March 2014, started the sale of tickets on November 7, 2013. Even South Africa, who hosted the first World T20, put up tickets for sale three months in advance.The ticketing process is always the host board’s responsibility. In an emailed response, the ICC has refused to be drawn into any criticism of the ticketing process. “It will be inappropriate to compare the ICC WT20 India 2016 with any previous event as the preparation for every event is different,” the ICC said.However, a source in the ICC, closely involved with the organising part of the event, told ESPNcricinfo that everything from announcing venues to making tickets available has been handled in the usual ad-hoc manner. “The BCCI pays no heed or provides reasons for delays,” the source said.That the venues were announced only three months before the event were already a source of frustration for the travelling fan who usually looks for bargains by booking air tickets and accommodation well in advance. The fans looking to travel to India will be left even more frustrated because the tickets are not readily available, especially for an event in India, and you ideally don’t want to make travel plans before securing tickets for the matches you wish to attend.The BCCI, though, doesn’t feel it is late. A BCCI official said the dynamics of hosting an event in India were different, and it shouldn’t even be compared with the 2011 World Cup, which was co-hosted by three nations. “There is still two months to go,” he said, “The first match of the main tournament is on March 15. And it works differently in India anyway. The anticipation in the public only builds up closer to the event, but if the tickets are made available well in advance, those asking for complimentary passes make your life difficult.”Tickets in India generally go up for sale less than a week before international bilaterals or smaller tournaments. A huge chunk of the tickets is anyway not put up for sale with local associations handing them out for free to their members and influential people in their constituencies.

David Dwyer, Pakistan’s new fitness trainer, has said that he expected his team to reach its peak fitness level in time for the tour of India. “The current fitness level is okay and I have been watching enough to know that I can see what their levels probably are, and the target is to reach the top level before the important series against India,” he said.”Basically we work with these guys so that we improve the area that they are weak in, trying to get rid of the limitations that they may have,” Dwyer said, adding that he would adopt a tough rugby-style fitness regimen.”The idea of having a rugby coach is not new in cricket, things are quite the same but they are put in a different way so that these guys get something new which they have not done before.” Dwyer, who has previously assisted Geoff Lawson, Pakistan’s coach, vouched for the regimen’s effectiveness. “I have worked with Lawson at the University of New South Wales cricket club in the year they made the grand final and won the one-day series, so the rugby style training has worked before.”Dwyer is on a two-year contract and has replaced Murray Stevenson, the South African trainer whose contract was not renewed after Pakistan’s first-round exit from the World Cup.

‘Fantastic. You can’t ask for more’ – Maharoof © AFP

When Carlton Baugh was trapped in front of the stumps by one of those typical Farveez Maharoof deliveries – a ball that just failed to come on a touch as the fingers had been dragged on it – Maharoof fell to the ground. It’s not clear whether he was touching his forehead to the ground, as devout Muslims sometimes do, or whether he was kissing the turf, as devout cricketers often do, but any which way, the message was clear – thank you for this pitch, thank you for these wickets.But it wasn’t as though the pitch was madly up and down and batsmen were forced to take extreme measures to survive. Maharoof admitted as much in the post-match press conference. “It was a good pitch,” he said, and why wouldn’t he, after picking up career-best figures. “It didn’t do a lot. It’s just that we bowled well as a group. There were some bad shots as well, but overall we bowled well. I don’t find any bad things about the wicket, it was a good track.”Maharoof was no doubt helped along by some bad West Indian shot selection, but he chose not to dwell on the manner in which the opposition played. “We don’t know what their gameplan is. We had to bowl to our strengths and wait and see what happens. Luckily we bowled well and it paid off.”In the last game, life was not quite so easy for Maharoof. Zimbabwe took him for as many as 37 runs from four overs, at close to 10 runs per over. But Maharoof was sensible enough to learn from that game, and he explained how. “I just assessed my bowling with respect to the wicket. I thought in Ahmedabad I gave a bit too much width, and got driven through the off side,” he said. “Here I set a goal for myself to bowl wicket to wicket. Mahela and Tom [Moody] spoke to me before the match and really backed me up. I just went out there and kept it simple.”Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, was quick to praise Maharoof for the manner in which he turned things around. “He worked with Tom on his run-up, looked at videos of his bowling, worked hard and today bowled nice and straight,” he said. “These guys know that it’s their responsibility to improve themselves.”Ironically, it was always as a batsman, and now as a bowler, that Maharoof caught the eye as a young cricketer. That he had potential with the bat was unmistakable – he batted at No. 4 for Wesley College, and scored 1000 runs in a season twice in succession, including a highest of 243 – but would he turn out to be another of those bits and pieces cricketers that Sri Lanka tried and discarded?It was not quite the search for the next Ian Botham, but there was a certainly a concerted effort to find a first-or second-change bowler who could bat a bit and shoulder Chaminda Vaas’ burden. For a time Suresh Perera seemed to fit the bill, but with his action coming under increasing scrutiny, Sri Lanka had to look elsewhere, and they found Maharoof. And on the day – some people are already referring to it as a coming of age – he returned with 6 for 14, the best-ever figures in the Champions Trophy. “Fantastic. You can’t ask for more,” said Maharoof. “I’m just overjoyed with my performance. I didn’t have a good time in the last match but my hard work paid off and I’m really happy for my team.” Sterner tests await, and though he is yet to make that one big score with the bat, he has at least ticked off the bowling department.