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His normal feelings may, in his words, be limited to “anger and more anger” but James Anderson confessed he had never felt so emotional on a cricket pitch after claiming his 500th Test wicket.Maybe it was relief of putting the milestone behind him, or maybe it was a realisation of the enormity of the achievement, but Anderson acknowledged that, for a couple of overs after joining the exclusive club of bowlers to have achieved the feat, he struggled to control his emotions.While he quickly remembered that he was gruff, tough, northern fast bowler – “I wasn’t teary,” he added, with a hint of watery eyes and faltering voice – it was clear that the ovation from the crowd, the response of his team-mates and the realisation that he had become one of just six men (and three seamers) to reach the milestone had unsettled his normal equanimity.”I knew my family were in the crowd,” Anderson said. “My kids, my mum and dad and my Mrs. And knowing they were there made it very special.”And sharing the moment with guys that I’ve played over a hundred Tests with was special, too. It was an amazing feeling to see how pleased they were for me.”The emotion took me by surprise a bit. The emotions I normally go through during a game are anger and more anger. But today was a bit more… I wasn’t teary. But it was emotional. I don’t normally get like that during a game. But I got my focus back after a couple of overs.”It’s not hard to understand why he was emotional. While Anderson has been an automatic choice for England for the best part of a decade, there were times early in his career when it was far from certain he would play more than a dozen or so Tests. While the rest of the world revelled in the 2005 Ashes, he sent much of the summer bowling at a cone, and when he did finally win a first taste of Ashes cricket in 2006-07, he found it a painful experience. He claimed just five wickets at an average of 82.60 and England lost the series 5-0. Amid stress fractures and crises of confidence and form, the idea that he would play 100 Tests and claim anything like 500 wickets would have seemed fanciful in the extreme.”I can’t quite believe I’ve taken this many wickets or played this much cricket,” Anderson said. “For a while I was just trying to get back on the park. They were dark times. I’d had a taste of international cricket and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”But I knew I had the skills and I used to be able to bowl fast. And going through those periods made me stronger. It’s made me stronger as a person and a cricketer. It just made me more determined to improve. I think a lot of players go through periods like that, whether it’s from form or injury. I probably wouldn’t be the bowler I am today without toiling for that period of time.”Anderson has, he admits, “not really” ever been comfortable in the spotlight. He is quite happy to be the man England rely upon with the ball and to revel in the respect that comes with being an integral member of a successful team. But the prospect of talking about himself, of focusing on a personal achievement sits pretty uncomfortably on the shoulders of a man who, for all the grumpiness on the pitch, has remained shy and softly-spoken off it. With the landmark behind him, he can focus on the important business of winning a Test that remains in the balance and then planning for the Ashes.James Anderson acknowledges the ovation•Getty Images

“I’m relieved,” he said. “I just wanted to get it out of the way. Ideally I would have done it on the first day, but Ben Stokes didn’t want me to, so I had to wait.”The location and style with which he reached the milestone were fitting, though. It was here, at Lord’s where he introduced himself to Test cricket with a five-for on debut as a 20-year-old swing bowler in 2003. And it here, at the ‘home of cricket,’ that a 35-year-old with wonderful skills and remarkable levels of stamina cemented his reputation as one of the greats with two wickets that not only took him to (and beyond) the 500 mark, but showcased his enduring ability and admirable desire to keep learning and keep improving.The 500th wicket – that of Kraigg Brathwaite – was taken with one of his relatively new tricks: the ‘wobble-seam’ delivery. Having set Brathwaite up with an over of outswingers, “I thought I’d try a full, straight one,” Anderson said. “It nipped down the slope. Lord’s is a great place to bowl.”So resounding was the impact on Brathwaite’s middle-stump, that a large chunk was taken out of the ball and the umpires were obliged to change it. The original has already been passed on to Anderson for posterity.”Lord’s is such a special place for me,” Anderson said. “To get my first Test wicket and my 500th here will live with me for a long time.”Earlier I saw Kemar Roach after he got a five-for. He was mouthing “I’m on the honours board.” You could see what it meant to him. That’s what it means for people to play here and have their name etched in history at such a special ground. I’m so fortunate to have got the wickets I have here.”Anderson’s 501st Test wicket was even better. Bowling round the wicket, he drew the left-handed Kieran Powell forward only to get the ball to leave him off the pitch, beat the perfectly presented bat’s outside edge and take the top of off stump. It was not only an outstanding piece of bowling, it was reminder that, despite his 35 years and all the miles on the clock, he’s good for a few more wickets yet.”That’s the beauty of the slope,” he said modestly. “I was thankful to that slope for both wickets.”But yes, you’re always improving. I try to soak up as much as I can from coaches and other players and add that to my game. It’s endless how much you can do that.”I just love playing cricket. It’s my biggest passion and always has been since I was a kid. To be able to do it for my country – to be able to play in Test matches at Lord’s – is something I could never dream of doing.”The milestones are nice, but they’re not what drive me.”I want to help England win games of cricket. That’s why I turn up every day trying to improve myself. I’m loving playing cricket. I’m really enjoying playing in this team and hopefully that can continue for a while yet.”

Big Picture

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that seven days ago, disillusionment with the Sri Lankan team was greater than it has been at any point in the past two decades. This was a team that had lost a five-match ODI series at home against Zimbabwe, a first in their history. This was a team that was whitewashed across formats by India at home just weeks earlier, losing all nine games; they had lost fewer home games to India in the entire 1990s. This was a team that couldn’t decide on a coach, settle on a captain, or chance upon a victory. They were just about to play a Test match against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, a venue where Pakistan had never lost in the format. It was the first match in a two-Test series against Pakistan, who had never lost a Test series in the UAE.Pakistan-Sri Lanka contests are often unpredictable, but Sri Lanka’s win in Abu Dhabi must still rank as one of the more remarkable in the island nation’s history. Since Pakistan shifted base to the UAE in 2009, England and Australia have combined to play eight Tests against them in the desert, losing seven and never winning one. It is the place Pakistan have sought refuge in after foreign wallopings, relishing grinding opposition to dust in the oppressive heat before spinning them out cheaply. For Sri Lanka to be at their weakest, and even more so playing without their talisman Angelo Mathews, and to match Pakistan and sucker-punch them at the death is an achievement that deserves more attention that it’ll get. But then again, that’s Pakistan-Sri Lanka contests for you.So the second Test in Dubai takes on a particularly fateful air for the hosts. The second day-night Test at the venue could finally see the sun set on Pakistan’s spotless record at their adopted home. If they cannot pull off a win, it will see Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka!) become the first team to win a Test series against Pakistan in Dubai.It could very well happen, too. Pakistan came into the series favourites not due to doing anything special themselves, but because of the turmoil of their visitors. The fifth day collapse in Abu Dhabi – an alarming trend over the past two years – reminded everyone how vulnerable they are in the absence of Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan. Losing the toss and having to bowl first might have made people notice how frequently they’ve been lucky with the coin at home over the past few Tests; they had won the toss in all home Tests against Australia, Sri Lanka, England and West Indies in the past three years. Whether they can bowl teams out cheaply on the first day is very much up for debate.For Sri Lanka, who interim coach Nic Pothas recently said were sick of talking about transition, this is a marquee opportunity to build a solid foundation from the rock bottom they reached in the India series. Captain Dinesh Chandimal, who has often been derided as inconsistent, will have found form and confidence with a gritty unbeaten 155, while the evergreen Rangana Herath continues to lurk in the minds of Pakistan’s batsmen, needing no further invitation to prove his class now that he’s joined the elite 400-wicket club.For both sides, then, this is a rare phenomena. It is a Test that actually really matters.

Form guide

Pakistan: LWLWLSri Lanka: WLLLW

In the spotlight

While the clamour for Fawad Alam’s return to the side has grown to fever pitch, one can hardly overlook that Haris Sohail made a stellar debut in Abu Dhabi. He was the top aggregate run-scorer for Pakistan, scoring 76 and 34 – the only batsman to score more than 20 runs in that disastrous fourth innings. After a lengthy absence from the international stage, he showed the grit and patience required of any cricketer playing a Test match in theEmirates, batting intelligently with the tail in the first innings, and combining with his captain for a 42-run partnership in the second that at one stage looked like it might get his side home. There is a yawning gap in Pakistan’s middle order for reasons well documented, and if Haris wants to slot in there, he has made a good start. Dubai is a chance to build on it.Kusal Mendis, touted as a future Sri Lankan captain, had a poor outing in Abu Dhabi. With Kaushal Silva and Lahiru Thirimanne also disappointing in the first Test, Sri Lanka might be worried about looking to their lower-middle order to continue to bail them out. Niroshan Dickwella had a terrific game, but, he’s also the wicketkeeper, and Sri Lanka might not want to burden him with too many expectations in every game. The point need hardly be made, but Sri Lanka know better than anyone that not all left-hand wicketkeepers are the same.

Team news

Pakistan are set to continue with their 3-1 quicks-spin combination, with Wahab Riaz replacing Hasan Ali, who misses the game with a back complaint. No other changes are expected.Pakistan (probable): 1 Sami Aslam, 2 Shan Masood, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Babar Azam, 6 Haris Sohail, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 8 Mohammad Amir, 9 Yasir Shah, 10 Wahab Riaz, 11 Mohammad AbbasSri Lanka were dealt a blow when Angelo Mathews was ruled out of the second Test as well. Lahiru Thirimanne joins him on the sidelines with a back injury. Sadeera Samarawickrama is likely to make his debut in Thirimanne’s place.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Kaushal Silva, 3 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Dinesh Chandimal (capt), 6 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 7 Dilruwan Perera, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Lakshan Sandakan, 11 Nuwan Pradeep

Pitch and conditions

Dinesh Chandimal reckoned the pitch was similar to Abu Dhabi’s in its dryness. Humidity levels will be high, something Sarfraz thought would assist the quick bowlers. How the pink ball plays under lights is, to a large extent, still an unknown quantity.

Stats and trivia

• Pakistan will slip to seventh in the rankings if they fail to win this match. That will be their lowest position since October 2010. This time last year, they were No. 1
• If one can consider India’s Harbhajan Singh done with Test cricket – which he isn’t, officially – Rangana Herath is the only active spinner with 400 wickets. The only other active bowlers overall who have crossed the mark are England’s James Anderson and South Africa’s Dale Steyn

Scorecard
Gautam Gambhir plays through the off side•AFP

Gautam Gambhir became the third centurion in as many days of Delhi’s Group A Ranji Trophy clash against Karnataka at the KSCA Ground in Alur. But the home team’s bowlers, for the first time in the match, ensured relative parity between bat and ball. Delhi made a determined response to Karnataka’s monumental 649, but lost four wickets in their bid, ending on 277 for 4 before bad light forced stumps 11 overs early. Importantly, though, Gambhir, their seniormost batsman, was still around, having looked steadfast for his unbeaten 135.Gambhir was assured in his footwork and solid in defence as he set about trying to blunt the new ball. He had to double down, with Unmukt Chand nicking behind after Stuart Binny replaced R Vinay Kumar for the 10th over of the morning, and got one to nip away just enough to break the opening stand. Gambhir was intensely focused as he left deliveries away from his body before gradually beginning to lean into his drives.The first session itself did not exactly make smooth progression owing to numerous delays, with people walking around behind the sightscreen despite repeated requests from Karnataka’s fielders. As a result, only 12 overs were sent down in the first hour.The heat of the past few days subsided to make way for a more misty and breezy morning, and the sun came out only an hour into the session. Shortly thereafter came the first arrival of spin as Shreyas Gopal replaced Vinay after an expensive second spell for the captain. Gambhir got his fifty with a neat push through midwicket off the legspinner.He was his usual skillful self against the spinners, stepping out to them confidently and rocking back to cut with ease. Dhruv Shorey was an able ally, and together they hauled Delhi to 126 for 1 at lunch.Shorey raised his fifty in the first over after the break, but Mithun then went past his defences. Shorey, who had looked assured until then, indecisively brought his bat down to a pacy delivery. That marked the end of a neatly and diligently-compiled innings, and the start of a riveting passage of play.Nitish Rana was dropped first ball, flicking uppishly to midwicket, where Manish Pandey was caught napping. That only fired Mithun up more as he steamed in and hit the deck forcefully. Gambhir, however, was unshaken, sussing out the lengths early and comfortably leaving outside the off-stump.At the other end, Rana made up for his first-ball lapse with two pristine cover-drives. Mithun sent down some more chin music; Gambhir responded by pulling boldly, first uppishly behind square, barely dissecting keeper and leg slip, and then a more controlled shot through midwicket. Karnataka squandered a chance to run Gambhir out when he set off for a single after Rana tapped to point. R Samarth was in position but failed to pick the ball up. Gambhir was on 76 at that stage, and Karnataka 166 for 2.Mithun followed up his fiery spell with a spectacular catch at the deep square leg boundary, running to his right after Rana top-edged a pull and getting down just in front of the ropes. Rishabh Pant lived up to his erratic reputation, trying to sweep his first ball – a length delivery – and nearly losing his stumps. Pant kept Karnataka on their toes, checking a pull to a short delivery from Binny but wide enough of midwicket.Gambhir, meanwhile, showed he had oodles of time to respond to pace, and handled the short balls without fuss. Pant then switched modes to put his head down and wait for the bad balls. Gambhir earnestly pursued the hundred, stepping down the track on 98 and finding the fielder, before unleashing a cut off Shreyas to the point boundary. In a reinforcement of his popularity, his effort was acknowledged by the heartiest of cheers for a non-Karnataka player.With Gambhir and Pant settling into a partnership, Vinay decided to rest his frontline bowlers and turned to the part-time offspin of Karun Nair. He nearly shaved Pant’s outside edge when the batsman came forward too early, but was deposited over midwicket for six next ball. Pant saw Delhi through to tea with Gambhir, taking them 234 for 3.He flicked Mithun for another six in the third over after the break, before poor shot selection cost him his wicket. Having been narrowly beaten outside off by K Gowtham off an attempted cut, Pant repeated the same stroke to a delivery that came in with the arm and flattened his middle stump.Milind Kumar survived an appeal for a bat-pad at silly point, shortly after Delhi raised their 250. Karnataka even went so far as to celebrate only for umpire Stephen Harris to merely return Gowtham his cap.Gambhir, meanwhile, continued to middle the ball magnificently. Perhaps the only drawback from his knock was his placement, as he often found the fielders at the covers with well-timed punches and drives. Nevertheless, he continued to grit it out tenaciously.With the sun having only occasionally peeked through the clouds, the umpires drew their light meters out at 4.20pm. Ten minutes later, they strolled off with Delhi 372 behind.

The BCCI is set to finalise what it calls a “balanced” schedule of bilateral commitments in cricket’s new international calendar, one that will protect players’ interests as well as board revenues. That schedule will be the focus of an ICC members’ workshop in Singapore on December 7 and 8, called to finalise the details of a new Future Tours Programme (FTP) spanning 2019-23.In the last two months, Indian players led by captain Virat Kohli have been open in their criticism of an increased workload. Kohli and MS Dhoni, have argued that for the team to perform better and consistently over longer periods, the players needed to have enough break in between commitments. After winning the Test series at home against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, Kohli once again stressed he was desperate for a break.Since the start of the 2016-17 home season in September, India have played a total of 60 international matches across all three formats.However, the BCCI, which is shepherded by Committee of Administrators (CoA), has decided to balance the player workload. “In the last one-and-a-half years, we have played mostly at home” a BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo. “In the next 18 months, we are going to play mainly away. But in the new FTP, we have kept a balance between home and away series every year. Secondly, there won’t be longer tours with both long and short formats combined.”The new FTP will comprise the Test and the ODI Leagues, which commence in 2019 and 2020 respectively. In the Test League, every country plays six opponents home or away in a two-year window which will start immediately after the next 2019 World Cup.Talks to sketch out a new schedule have been ongoing for a while now, and BCCI officials believe that the influence of their board on the eventual FTP will be clear soon. The Indian board has been busy discussing the finer points of the scheduling with a number of Full Members; in November, the board called ICC general manager of cricket, Geoff Allardice – who is overseeing the creation of the new calendar – to explain to him their thinking moving ahead.Earlier this year, BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri met his counterparts from ECB and Cricket Australia (CA), Tom Harrison and James Sutherland, to discuss the scheduling ahead of first round of ICC meetings in Auckland. It was in Auckland in October where the ICC Board approved in principle the Test and ODI Leagues.”The new FTP is a BCCI document,” the official said. “BCCI has already put in what, who and when it wants to play, leaving the rest of the world to work around it.”According to the official, India will play longer Test series of three to five matches against Australia, England and South Africa and stick to the minimum two Tests against the rest of the members. “We have taken advantage of the fact that we have to play six countries in two years at home or away. The word ‘or’ is important because that shows we can balance the series.”Playing the top-ranked teams will also have a “positive impact” on broadcast rights for home series, which are up for renewal from April 2018. Considering India played a lot of international cricket at home in this rights cycle, the BCCI derived optimum income from broadcasting rights and sponsors. However, that will be slightly offset over the next 18 months when India start travelling overseas from January with tours to South Africa, England Australia and New Zealand. “We play the good teams more as it will have a positive impact on the media rights,” the official said. “The wide fluctuations would not be there which can affect the revenues eventually. Balancing the needs of the players too has been addressed.”To protect its home season, the BCCI has split it over two windows: India will play at home between October-November and then host another opponent during February-March before the IPL. The BCCI also alerted the ICC that India will not play any international cricket 15 days prior to and after the IPL.In a note to the its members – the state associations – the BCCI distributed an FTP proposal detailing the matches India will play between 2019-23. This will be presented at a special general body meeting on December 11. As per the table, India are listed to play 84 days of international cricket in 2019-20; 68 in 2020-21; 77 in 2021-22 and 47 in 2022-23. These matches only comprise the Test and ODI leagues and any further bilateral series India will engage in outside of the FTP. Importantly, this schedule does not include matches played in global ICC and Asian Cricket Council tournaments.According to Vinod Rai, the CoA chairman, Kohli and the players have been made aware of this new schedule. In the past few months Rai, along with Johri, has met Kohli, Dhoni and India coach Ravi Shastri to discuss player compensation as well as the team management’s needs. “We have made a presentation to the players where the number of days per year is mentioned clearly in the new FTP,” Rai told ESPNcricnfo, and said Kohli and the rest had accepted the plans. “So the workload is manageable.”One significant point the players wanted was an end to long tours. Going forward the BCCI wants any bilateral tour to comprise only Tests, or only ODIs. Other requests made by players included not to have a single-match limited-overs series especially after a Test series. The players also wanted Twenty20 matches to be played before a Test series. “After the Tests, the players said there is no interest left,” Rai said.

Dolphins will play Titans in Saturday’s Ram Slam final after the semi-final between them and the Cobras in Durban was washed out on Thursday night. Intermittent drizzle meant not even a toss was possible and with no reserve day, Dolphins advanced by virtue of their higher position on the league table. They finished second with 23 points, one more than Cobras, who had more wins than Dolphins but fewer points.Cobras will feel particularly aggrieved at their fortunes because they squandered the chance to host this semi-final when they lost to Warriors in the final round of the group stage on Sunday. A victory for Cobras in that game would have put them above Dolphins. Instead, they were defeated by 18 runs and Dolphins smashed the table-topping Titans – who had already qualified for a home semi-final and fielded their reserves – by 69 runs to earn a bonus point. That point proved all the difference.The weather has worked in the Dolphins’ favour. Four of the five home matches were no results because of rain – with no play possible in three of them – which helped them climb up the table. Irony has played its part too: the match that started and was then rain affected was against Cobras, who posted 172 for 4 and had Dolphins 8 for 1 in the third over when rain stopped play. As if that was not enough, rain ruined Cobras chances of playing in the final too.Dolphins and Cobras are the only two teams to beat Titans in this year’s campaign but it must be remembered that the team Dolphins defeated was without several internationals. Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram, AB de Villiers, Farhaan Behardien, Chris Morris and Dale Steyn were all rested but Titans still had international presence in Dean Elgar, David Wiese and Morne Morkel. They were bowled out for 79.Whether Dolphins can repeat that on Saturday remains to be seen. Titans are the heavy favourites, given the array of superstars they can pick from and their selection will provide an interesting point of discussion.

The Zimbabwe batsmen could have simply emulated what Bangladesh’s experienced duo of Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal did in their approach to chasing 217 runs, according to Kyle Jarvis. Instead, they were bowled out for 125, which left their path to the tri-series final in the hands of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Shakib and Tamim added 106 for the second wicket, spending half of the length of their partnership without boundaries. The pitch wasn’t conducive to stroke-making as was evident by more boundary droughts throughout the game. But Zimbabwe lost four wickets in the first 10 overs, after Sikandar Raza tried hard to single-handedly bring the chase back in order. When he was eighth out, the chase was effectively over.Jarvis said Zimbabwe would now have to rely on the home side to beat Sri Lanka by a certain margin to ensure that Zimbabwe go through, and that this wait for someone else to do their job wasn’t desirable.”The way Tamim and Shakib batted, hitting the ball along the ground and gave themselves a chance. They got some runs. That’s what we needed,” Jarvis said. “We needed two or three batters to get in and give themselves a chance. We let ourselves down big time, we should never have been bowled out for 125.”The moment you lose three early wickets, it is going to be really difficult to get those runs especially with the class of bowlers Bangladesh have. I think few guys will be asking tough questions of themselves.”It is going to go down to run-rates. Hopefully Bangladesh can do us a favour in the next game. We shouldn’t have left it in someone else’s hands. We should have done it ourselves. We wish Bangladesh good luck in the next game.”Jarvis, who took three wickets in Zimbabwe’s impressive bowling display, said that if, on January 25, Zimbabwe get knocked out of this tournament, they have to look forward to five ODIs against Afghanistan before they launch the World Cup qualifiers at home in March.”For us, it is about getting in the groove again,” he said. “This is going to be a good building block, especially going to Dubai next to play five games against Afghanistan. We have to try to get better as a squad.”The win against Sri Lanka showed glimpses of what this team can do, so we have to take whatever positives we can get out of this and just keep building. It is a good group of players despite what we have shown out there.”

Getty Images

Four second-innings wickets from Mitchell Starc were the highlight of the third day’s play in Benoni, where the Australians wrapped up victory over South Africa A by five wickets. Resuming on 55 for no loss, South Africa were bowled out for 248, leaving the visitors a target of 140 that they chased down in 29.3 overs.Each of Starc’s wickets was of a top-five batsman. His wicket of Pieter Malan, in the fourth over of the day, ended an opening partnership of 62 with Zubayr Hamza. There were two other significant partnerships in South Africa A’s innings – 60 for the fourth wicket between Khaya Zondo and Senuran Muthusamy, and 81 for the eighth between Malusi Siboto and Shaun von Berg. Seven batsmen got to 20 but only Von Berg, who smashed 52 off 43 balls, got to a half-century. This reflected a larger trend across the match – it would continue through the Australians’ chase as well – which saw 24 scores of 20 or more but only two half-centuries.Shaun Marsh top-scored in the fourth-innings pursuit of 140, scoring an unbeaten 39 to guide the Australians home. Cameron Bancroft (22) and Smith (25) also spent decent lengths of time in the middle, but Peter Handscomb failed for the second time in the match, bowled by Duanne Olivier – who picked up four wickets to go with two in the first innings – for 5.

The BCB is awaiting final confirmation from former South Africa batsman Gary Kirsten on his availability to work with Bangladesh as a consultant. He is expected to get in touch with the BCB over the same after the IPL, which ends on May 27. BCB director Jalal Yunus said that although the two parties haven’t made the deal “full and final”, Kirsten is likely to take up a long-term role with Bangladesh.”Our president had earlier mentioned Gary Kirsten,” Yunus said. “We are awaiting his response after the IPL. He is being considered as the team consultant, although we haven’t finalised anything with him. We are waiting on him to do a final agreement with us after IPL. Let’s see how it goes.”He will work not only with the men’s senior team, he will work with the Under-19s, Bangladesh A team and the rest of the structure. He will be with us as a full-time, long-term consultant. If he agrees, we will hold talks here.”Yunus said that Kirsten’s role will be similar to that of the late Eddie Barlow, who was appointed in August 1999 as head coach and director of development. However, this time, the BCB will appoint a separate head coach.”Head coach is a must,” Yunus said. “Gary Kirsten won’t be in the field all the time. He will give us ideas about the infrastructure. He will have an advisory role. There will definitely be a head coach and other coaching staff.”He added that Kirsten will also continue in his other coaching roles in the Big Bash and the IPL. “He will be here on assignment. If he is busy with other assignments, we won’t be able to stop him.”Kirsten comes with experience in coaching two internationals teams; he is one of the few coaches to have taken two teams to the top of the ICC Test ranking – India in 2009 and South Africa in 2012.Meanwhile, the BCB is also looking for a batting consultant and fielding coach. “We wanted Neil McKenzie as our batting consultant but that hasn’t worked out,” Yunus said. “He remains under consideration but, at the same time, we are also looking elsewhere. We also need a fielding coach for which we are looking for a foreign recruit.”

Asanka Gurusinha, the former batsman and member of the 1996 World Cup winning team, has been appointed as Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) new Chief Cricket Operations Officer. SLC hopes this move will bridge the gap between the national team and its talent production line.

SLC earns LKR 940 million profit from Nidahas Trophy

Sri Lanka Cricket has announced record profits of LKR 940 million (USD 6 million approx.) from the recently concluded Nidahas Trophy tri series. The rights for the series, which also included India and Bangladesh, was negotiated by SLC outside of the Future Tours Program (FTP) and was seen as testing ground of sorts for the Lanka Premier League later this year as well as a welcome boost to SLC’s coffers.
“The tournament in total generated a net income of Rs. 940 million for the SLC, with the total revenue achieved standing at Rs. 1.38 billion,” an SLC release stated. “Out of the total revenue, Rs. 1.26 billion was derived by selling the international media rights and sponsorship deals, while the rest being the revenues generated locally with significant ticket sales revenue running up to Rs. 80 million.”
Ninety percent of the funds had been collected prior to the start of the tournament, the release concluded. Barring a full tour involving India, this was Sri Lanka’s most profitable tour, an SLC official confirmed.

Gurusinha will relinquish his duties as manager of the national team and take charge of SLC’s High Performance Unit and Brain Centre Operations, as well as international and women’s cricket affairs. He will fill the High Performance role vacated by Simon Willis, who stepped down due to personal reasons. Willis was originally set to finish his term on June 30, 2018 but will now leave within a month, with Gurusinha set to officially take over on May 15.”With the High Performance Centre we were having a lot of problems, where when we got players to the national team they were not ready to play a game,” Gurusinha told ESPNcricinfo. “The intensity levels were low. So [Head Coach] Chandika [Hathurusinha] was struggling when the replacements came in. It took him a couple of extra weeks to get them up and running.”We’ll seriously review the High Performance Centre, because I believe if we do the same thing that we did in the last two years we will not produce cricketers, and that’s the main thing for us. We need to start producing cricketers.”Gurusinha also hopes his working relationship with Hathurusingha will ensure a more productive line of communication between the HPU and the national team. “Even though I wasn’t directly part of [setting up] the Brain Centre, I was working with them a lot very closely to get data,” he explained. “One of the things for me is that I know exactly what Chandika needs data-wise. I can train these Brain Centre staff to focus on getting that information to give Chandika and his team.”The short-term focus will be on player management. To win the World Cup we need our best players fit. Hathuru and I will be spending more time on better managing the players. We have 14 Test matches and about 25 ODIs before the World Cup. If we don’t manage workloads correctly then we won’t have bowlers.”[In the long term] we want more [depth]. Right now, we have five fast bowlers injured (Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Pradeep, Shehan Madushanka, Asitha Fernando, and Suranga Lakmal), and we don’t have too many replacements coming in, so we seriously need to look at what we’re going to do and build something. We’re not going to find too many, but if we can even find a couple of young guys we can do something, because there’s so much cricket to play.”SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala echoed Gurusinha’s sentiments, while confrming the board was also in the process of appointing a new cricket manager for the national team. The scope of the role is now likely to be more administrative in nature.Despite being brought in a managerial capacity initially, Gurusinha had seen his responsibilities grow from being part of the selection committee to having a more hands-on approach in team affairs. However, with Hathurusingha’s appointment, that level of responsibility had been deemed redundant.”We’re comfortable with Hathurusingha and so we need an administrative manager, whereas Gurusinha is a level 3 qualified coach. His technical knowledge is so good that we feel he would be better used in the high performance field,” Sumathipala explained.”There are people at the national level getting injured, they take longer than we expect to recover, so our rehabilitation situation is not ideal where some guys take three-four months to come back. In High Performance we need a top qualified coach and we’re happy Gurusinha has agreed to take over.”

Australia’s captain Tim Paine has pointed to his side’s mauling in Johannesburg – their second heaviest of all time – as a harsh reminder of exactly how much the rest of the team will have to step up without the batting skills of Steven Smith and David Warner for at least the next 12 months.Even after accounting for the emotional turmoil of the past week, and the extraordinarily rough preparation saved for Matt Renshaw and Joe Burns, who flew in from Australia to South Africa with only 36 hours between landing and playing, their performance on the final morning at Wanderers was ignoble in the extreme. The whole thing took just 16.4 overs, the biggest partnership worth 19 between the last pair of Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.It was the capstone on a series where Australia’s batting utterly failed to cope with the pressure imposed by South Africa. This was the second series in succession against South Africa that they suffered a similar fate. In each instance, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj were central to proceedings.This time, they dominated so much that Australia went through the entire series without a single three-figure partnership. Techniques and minds were all over the place on the final day on Tuesday, ensuring there was plenty for the Australians to ponder in terms of performance as well as culture.”I think the performance was still concerning, no doubt about that. As we’ve spoken about so much, we had a really tough week. But from the Durban Test match if we’re completely honest, South Africa just outplayed us purely on skill,” Paine said. “Maybe today and this Test match, you can take what you like about our performance, but there is certainly some areas of concern.Brad Haddin is in contention to become head coach•Getty Images

“But we’ve also got some guys here who have played some very good cricket at an international level for a long time who will need to step up again now that we’ve lost two of the best players in the world. A lot of us have got to step up and take the slack. I think Australia has got the talent. We’ve just got to be able to harness it properly. If we do I think we’ll be okay.”Apart from the injured Mitchell Starc, this was more or less the best XI Australia could have chosen when shorn of Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft. Glenn Maxwell flew into Johannesburg alongside Renshaw and Burns, while other players back home likely to figure in discussions will include Travis Head and Kurtis Patterson. The cupboard is far from fully stocked.Equally there will be questions around Australia’s support staff in addition to the change from Darren Lehmann to a new coach, with the likes of Justin Langer and Jason Gillespie considered the frontrunners. The fielding coach, Brad Haddin, has been discussed as a possible option for the now vacant New South Wales job, while the assistant coach David Saker and the batting coach Graeme Hick will also be looked at. Overseeing it all is the team performance manager Pat Howard, who will doubtless be a key interviewee in the “culture review” being planned by the Cricket Australia Board.Whoever is chosen, they will become part of the cultural shift articulated by Paine from the moment he took over from Smith midway through the Newlands Test. South Africa’s players noted universally how different the Australian team had been to play against in Johannesburg, with the opening batsman Dean Elgar going as far as to say the match was the most “docile” encounter with the men in the baggy greens he had ever participated in.South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said it remained to be seen how Australia could sustain the attitude of change from a deeply ingrained way of playing and behaving, particularly if the wins did not arrive.Tim Paine hopes Australia would embrace a culture shift under a new coach•AFP

“Obvious this Test match had a different feel to it, there was not as [much] competitiveness and other stuff as the other Test matches before it,” he said. “It’s something we can only talk about in time, how it will change and what sort of things will happen, how it will happen. I don’t like to really comment on stuff not in my control. Their culture is something they’ve spoken about that they would like to change, and that’s good that they believe … if they’ve said it it means it needs to change. Time will tell what sort of effect that will have on their dressing room.”For Paine, the process of evolution has already begun. “I think it was probably evident in this match that we’d changed somewhat. That will continue to happen,” he said. “We’ve obviously got a new coach coming in at some stage who would have huge say on how that is. But from my point of view we’ve now got a fine line between being really respectful of opposition and the game and also being at a level that is really competitive as you should be in Test match cricket.”It’s going to be a different style to what a lot of the guys have been used to but I think we’ll find it pretty quickly. As I said once the new coach comes in and lays down the way he wants us to play as well, has his say on it, I think we’ll go for it straight away. I suppose the positive for us is that we really do potentially, in the next series, have a clean slate.”We’ve got to learn our lessons from this series and where we can improve, and if guys aren’t already thinking about that I’d be surprised. It’s an exciting time. We’ll have a new coach, a new brand or culture or whatever you want to call it and guys are going to have a chance to have an input into that. As well as with the guys being out at the moment there are opportunities for guys to step up during that period of Test cricket. It will be good to get home, have a rest and think about it.”