The hosts overcame Ireland pretty comfortably in their opening match and should face a much sterner test against an England side desperately hoping to break their duck in global tournaments

The Preview by Sahil Dutta02-May-2010

Match Facts

Monday, May 3, Providence

Start time 1330 (1730 GMT)West Indies will need Kieron Pollard to recreate his IPL form against England•Indian Premier League

The Big Picture

West Indies overcame Ireland pretty comfortably in their opening match and should face a much sterner test against an England side desperately hoping to break their duck in global tournaments. Ottis Gibson will have plenty of inside knowledge about this England team and has regular captain Chris Gayle back from injury to implement every devious plan he makes.On the stodgy surfaces we have seen so far at Providence, the spinners play a key role and how the West Indies batsmen deal with England’s spinners could prove crucial. Against Ireland they were almost embarrassed by 17-year-old left-arm-spinner George Dockrell, so Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy should feel confident.England will be testing out yet another opening partnership in Twenty20 cricket and with Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb they feel they have finally stumbled on a combination powerful enough to boss the early overs. Quietly England have developed a competitive limited-overs side that, with Eoin Morgan there to finish an innings, appears to have all its bases covered.

Form guide (most recent first)

England LWLWA
West Indies WLLLW

Watch out for…

While Chris Gayle’s performance usually dictates West Indies’ fortunes, Kieron Pollard is another with a brutal ability to clear the ropes. His outings in the IPL were short and severe, clubbing boundary after boundary on his way to 273 runs at a strike rate of 185.71. If he gets hold of England’s medium pacers, the Providence ground may not be big enough.The World Twenty20 is littered with stars, many still swirling in their IPL riches. Michael Yardy is not one of them. Yet in the sticky conditions, his nagging left-arm-spinners have proved a revelation in the warm-up games, taking five wickets over the two games at a meagre economy rate. He could throw sand in the wheels of West Indies’ middle order and chip in with lower-order runs if England get in trouble.

Team news

West Indies expect to welcome their captain after he missed the Ireland game with a stiff buttock, meaning one of hit-or-miss slugger Andre Fletcher or Narsingh Deonarine will drop out from the team that beat Ireland. Sulieman Benn remains doubtful with his shoulder injury as does Jerome Taylor.West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle (capt), 2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Narsingh Deonarine, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Nikita Miller, 10 Ravi Rampaul, 11 Kemar Roach.England are on baby-watch with Kevin Pietersen looking forward to his first-born, but he’ll be available for this opening match and with Lumb expected to keep Ravi Bopara out of the side the top-order is settled. Their fast-bowling options are more muddled with Ryan Sidebottom’s excellent form prompting calls for his elevation into the side, but it would be hard for him to dislodge one of James Anderson or Stuart Broad.England (probable) 1 Michael Lumb, 2 Craig Kieswetter, 3 Kevin Pietersen, 4 Paul Collingwood (capt), 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Luke Wright, 7 Michael Yardy, 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson.

Pitch and conditions

The cheap boundaries that tend to epitomise Twenty20 cricket should be harder to come by on the Providence wicket. In sweltering conditions the ball should grip on a sluggish surface for the spinners and make any maximums altogether more memorable than normal. It’s unlikely the pacemen will have much to draw from the wicket and it will be sweaty work for all the fielders in the heat.

Stats and trivia

• West Indies have an excellent T20 record against England winning three of four encounters, most recently in the last World Twenty20 when they knocked England out of the tournament
• England will try out their 16th opening combination but if Lumb does indeed join Kieswetter there will be the added twist that both openers are on debut.
  

  Quotes

  “I’m sure they come out here with blood in their eyes and want to beat us.”
  
  “Ottis is a very close friend to all of us, but we have a job to do, to go out and win this match.”

Ajmal Shahzad could be in line to make his Test debut against Bangladesh at Old Trafford on Friday, following the foot injury to Tim Bresnan that ruled him out of the reckoning

Cricinfo staff02-Jun-2010Ajmal Shahzad could be in line to make his Test debut against Bangladesh at Old Trafford on Friday, following the foot injury to Tim Bresnan that ruled him out of the reckoning and created a fast-bowling vacancy in the side that won the first Test at Lord’s by eight wickets on Monday.Shahzad faces competition from Ryan Sidebottom, who was called into the squad following the announcement of Bresnan’s stress fracture on Tuesday, but having toured Bangladesh without being given an opportunity to play in either of the Tests at Dhaka or Chittagong, Shahzad is hopeful that this time he’ll get his chance to impress.”I’m ready to go, if the nod is given to me. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” Shahzad told reporters at Old Trafford. “I hadn’t been involved with the England circuit at all, apart from with the performance programme in South Africa, so it was a big hit for me [to be picked to go to Bangladesh last winter] – and I really enjoyed it out there.”It was difficult conditions and made me wake up and think ‘not all wickets are going to be bouncy, quick – and it’s not always going to swing and seam’. You have to put some hard graft in and work at other areas of your game. I’ve learned a lot from being there and in the West Indies. I’ve got stronger shoulders from carrying drinks – but I’ve learned a lot ‘up here’.”If he does get to play, Shahzad is aware that all the focus will be on his colleague, Steven Finn, who ripped through Bangladesh with nine wickets at Lord’s, and seems sure to be promoted to take the new ball alongside James Anderson.”Finny’s come on the scene and performed superbly well,” said Shahzad. “Obviously, with his extra height, he’s got something to offer that Andy [Flower] likes. I’ve seen the boys progress, and what it takes at international level. So I know what I need to do. I think the only way I can really do that is out there on the pitch.”With the notable exception of Finn, Flower was critical of the performance of England’s bowlers at Lord’s, but seeing as many of the squad went into the match straight off the back of their successful World Twenty20 campaign in the Caribbean, a bit of five-day rustiness was inevitable.”We have just come off the back of a one-day competition so it will always be difficult to adjust,” said Shahzad. “There has not been a lot of red ball practice, but we saw Jimmy [Anderson] coming into a rhythm at the end of the first innings at Lord’s and Finny [Steven Finn] burst on to the scene and did very well. Bresnan had a bit of trouble but when he comes back from his injury he will be better for the experience.”One of Shahzad’s early challenges could well be to keep Tamim Iqbal under control, after he lit up Lord’s with a thrilling 94-ball hundred during Bangladesh’s second innings. Shahzad has previous in that regard, having bagged Tamim for a first-over duck during his ODI debut at Chittagong in March, but is under no illusions about the task that could await him.”I like the way he plays, and I would prefer someone to play like that rather than block against me,” he said. “It was nice to sit at home and watch him play. If I get the nod hopefully I can get him out early doors.”Tamim, for his part, credited his coach, Jamie Siddons, for giving him the licence and the confidence to bat in his own unfettered style. “When I started playing Test cricket I was in two minds whether to go slow or go fast – and originally I decided to go slow,” he said.”It was not working for me. My first 10 Tests were not good – I think I only got two fifties. The coaches said to play like I do in the ODIs and enjoy my batting – ‘We will not say anything to you’. I know the way I bat sometimes looks fantastic, and sometimes looks ugly, but I am happy with the way I play my natural game.”

Nicky Shaw, the England fast-bowler, has retired from international cricket at the age of 28

Cricinfo staff10-Jul-2010Nicky Shaw, the England fast-bowler, has retired from international cricket at the age of 28.Shaw was the Player of the Match in the 2009 World Cup final for taking 4 for 34 to help England defeat New Zealand in Sydney. It was the highlight of a career that brought 46 wickets in 70 ODIs, in addition to 11 wickets in five Tests.”Whilst I have enjoyed my time playing, I feel it is now time to retire from the international game ahead of my move to Australia,” she explained. Isa Guha replaced her for the ODI series against New Zealand which began on Saturday.Shaw made her debut in 1999 aged 17 and also featured in England’s Ashes-winning side in 2008 and the team that won the World Twenty20 at Lord’s last year.Yet the 50-over World Cup final was her dream performance as she only came into the side as a late replacement when Jenny Gunn suffered a calf injury on the morning of the match. Her four wickets helped England sink New Zealand and take the title. “I started the day crying, and I finished the day crying,” she said.

Jeevan Mendis and Thissara Perera combined to hand Sri Lanka A their first win on the tour of Australia

Cricinfo staff04-Jul-2010
Scorecard
Thissara Perera captured his first five-wicket haul in List A matches•Getty Images

Jeevan Mendis and Thissara Perera combined to hand Sri Lanka A their first win on the tour of Australia. Perera bagged five wickets to help limit Australia to 197, and Mendis’ unbeaten 81 overcame an early Sri Lankan wobble to steer them home with 14 balls to spare.Australia opted to bat, and began soundly before they were pegged back. Perera and offspinner Sachithra Senanayake did the early damage to leave Australia tottering at 66 for 5. But Travis Birt, who fought hard with 54, batted well with the lower order to take his team past three figures. Moises Henriques and Xavier Doherty chipped in with cameos to leave themselves with a score that was competitive.And competitive it proved, as the Sri Lankan top three were inside the dressing-room within the first ten overs. But Mendis then stepped in, forging a recovery with captain Chamara Kapugedera in a stand of 63, and added an unbeaten 96 with Kosala Kulasekara who supported him in a match-winning partnership. Mendis’ 81, which comprised five fours, gave Sri Lanka a 1-0 lead in the three-match 50-over series after a spate of losses on the tour.”We expected that Sri Lanka would be stronger in the one-day format, it suits their game a little better but I know we were close, just a little bit short with the bat today,” Australia A captain Bailey said. “The wicket didn’t play as we expected it would, but Travis Birt and Xavier Doherty batted pretty well towards the end and we had some nice little partnerships. We were probably 30 or 40 short because I think 230 or 240 would have been pretty defendable.”Bailey was happy with the way his bowlers went about defending a smallish target. “The way our bowlers bowled was good, they stuck at it all day and kept trying different things and that was really pleasing the way we fought it out,” Bailey said. “For it to take them 48 overs to get the runs was a good effort by us.”

Jesse Ryder’s disrupted year has continued after a nagging elbow injury ruled him out of New Zealand’s tour of Sri Lanka

Cricinfo staff21-Jul-2010Jesse Ryder’s disrupted year has continued after a nagging elbow injury ruled him out of New Zealand’s tour of Sri Lanka next month. Ryder, 25, spent most of last summer fighting a serious groin problem and only returned for the World Twenty20 in the West Indies.He entered that tournament with hurt ligaments in his elbow and batted five times for 93 runs. Ryder eventually succumbed to the pain, which is particularly bad when he throws, missed the Twenty20s against Sri Lanka in May and has failed to recover during his time off.”Due to the compressed nature of the tour and his speed of recovery so far we feel we have insufficient time to get Jesse fully fit and able to take part in any of the one-day matches,” the coach and selector Mark Greatbatch said. “Therefore we have made the decision to keep Jesse in New Zealand where he will continue his rehabilitation from the elbow injury and return to playing as soon as possible.”A replacement will be named for the tri-series tournament that also involves India. New Zealand will be captained by Ross Taylor at the event, with Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum both on paternity leave.Greatbatch said it would be a huge achievement if New Zealand won the tri-series. “The team is a relatively young side without Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum but it gives other players an opportunity to express their natural talent on the international stage,” he said. “We’re building towards the first one-day international and are confident we will be ready when it really matters.”The squad departs for Sri Lanka on August 1 and the first match is against India on August 10. This week the players travel to Australia for three 50-over practice games against Maharashtra in Darwin to acclimatise.

Anthony McGrath made a superb century for Yorkshire as their Championship clash with Durham remained finely balanced

17-Aug-2010
ScorecardAnthony McGrath celebrates reaching three figures during his fabulous innings•PA Photos

Anthony McGrath made a superb century for Yorkshire as their Championship clash with Durham remained finely balanced. The home side closed on 207 for 6 in their second innings at Chester-le-Street, leading by 165, after Yorkshire had earlier advanced from their overnight 125 for 7 to reach 255.Former England batsman McGrath went from 28 to 124 not out before running out of partners, as Yorkshire eked out a lead of 42. Durham then looked to be taking command in their second innings when they reached 134 for 1, only for five wickets to go down for 43 runs. Dale Benkenstein grafted for 35 not out to help Durham reach the close without any further losses.After 17 wickets fell on the first day, the batsmen fared considerably better today and Mark Stoneman’s 78, his best Championship score for three years, allowed the home side to pile on the runs in their second innings. Only four wickets fell in the day’s first 70 overs, but the end of the 84-run partnership for Durham’s second wicket sparked a flurry of dismissals.Stoneman’s fluent 78 contained 15 fours, but he edged Patterson to Gerard Brophy almost immediately after Gordon Muchall’s off stump was sent flying by Ajmal Shahzad. Muchall had made 31.Oliver Hannon-Dalby went on to take three wickets as he stood in for Tim Bresnan, who was on England duty. Bresnan is expected back at the ground at some stage tomorrow, providing England decide they will not require his services at The Oval for the third Test against Pakistan.Hannon-Dalby struck in his second over when he pinned Michael Di Venuto lbw for 18 and later had Ian Blackwell and Phil Mustard caught in the slips, both driving loosely. Benkenstein almost played on against Steve Patterson on five and the same bowler found steep bounce to have Ben Stokes held at second slip.Unexpected morning sunshine had earlier worked in McGrath’s favour as he was rewarded for his diligence in reaching 28 off 85 balls overnight. Yorkshire’s last three batsmen survived for 34 overs to add 130 runs, of which McGrath scored 96 himself off 108 balls.He hit 20 fours and a six in his innings, mostly from imperious drives, and can rarely have batted better. The back-foot four through the covers off Chris Rushworth which took him to his century was followed by on and off drives as McGrath hit three successive balls to the boundary for the second time.He had handed the same treatment to Steve Harmison in the day’s third over, when a cover drive was followed by two pulls. Liam Plunkett had Rich Pyrah lbw to make it 143 for 8, but Ajmal Shahzad followed his career-best bowling by providing staunch support with the bat.He made 15 before he was caught behind with Yorkshire still four behind on 209. McGrath was on 85 at the time but raced to his hundred and then blasted quick runs.

Paul Stirling, the 20-year-old Ireland opener, played the innings of his life, smashing 177 from 134 deliveries to set up an easy win over Canada and tie the two-match ODI series

Cricinfo staff08-Sep-2010
Scorecard
Paul Stirling smashed a career-best 177 off 134 deliveries•Getty Images

Paul Stirling, the 20-year-old Ireland opener, played the innings of his life, smashing 177 from 134 deliveries to set up an easy win over Canada and tie the two-match ODI series in Toronto.Put in to bat, Ireland were given a strong start by Stirling and Andre Botha who added 91 in 12.4 overs. Stirling began hitting out in the third over, lofting and driving Harvir Baidwan for fours. He took medium-pacer Khurram Chohan’s fourth over for 14 runs, smashing him over long-on for six and then pulling and steering him for consecutive fours. He reached his fifty off 38 balls in the 12th over, guiding Balaji Rao behind point for four. Botha was dismissed in the next over for 28 and Canada managed to briefly rein in the scoring.Andrew Poynter and Stirling added 73 in 18.2 overs and by the time Poynter was dismissed, Stirling had moved to 96 off 90. A single off Chohan in the 34th over brought up his maiden List A hundred off 97 balls.Stirling warmed up for the Batting Powerplay by taking 14 runs in an over off left-arm spinner Parth Desai. Fifty-three runs came in the Powerplay, 38 of those from Stirling. Desai, who had bowled well in taking 1 for 31 in seven overs, went for 46 runs in his next three. With Stirling on 174 at the end of the 44th over, Sachin Tendulkar’s record ODI score was in some danger. However, Stirling hit a Baidwan full toss straight to point in the 45th over, after having struck 21 fours and five sixes. John Mooney’s late hitting took Ireland to an imposing 325.Canada rarely looked like keeping up with the asking rate, especially after being reduced to 34 for 2 in the eighth over. Despite a 79-run third-wicket stand between Ruvindu Gunasekera and captain Ashish Bagai, the run-rate hovered around five throughout the innings. Gunasekera top-scored again with 59 off 60 but he fell in the 24th over. Bagai followed in the 30th to make it 142 for 5, after which Canada needed a miracle.It wasn’t happening though, as offspinner Albert van der Merwe came up with a career-best performance of 5 for 49 and Canada were bowled out in the 47th over. Stirling was the deserving Player of the Match.

A round-up of the first round of matches in the SuperSport Series

Firdose Moonda05-Oct-2010When Graeme Smith stepped down as South Africa’s Twenty20 captain in August this year, he made a point of speaking about how he had softened as a person over time. When he was first made captain, Smith was cocksure, bordering on arrogant, but once he made it clear that he could stamp his authority, a real personality began to emerge. It was out in full force during the SuperSport Series match between the Cobras and the Lions at the Oppenheimer’s private ground in Randjesfontein.Smith tiptoed on his heels because he was wearing spikes on the pavilion floor. He grinned as he imitated an injured duck and explained, “This floor is probably worth more than my house.” That was the only thing that associated the burly left hander with the bird with webbed feet. He scored a magnificent double-hundred, 217 off 220 balls, in the Cobras’ second innings to take the game away from the Lions.The Cobras were bowled out for 197 in their first stint at the crease, with all the Lions bowlers among the wickets. Cliffie Deacon led the pack with 3 for 41. On a pitch that is known to flatten as the match goes on, the Lions had perfect batting conditions to amass 416 for nine. None of the batsman managed a century in that total. Vaughn van Jaarsveld came closest with 87, followed by Zander de Bruyn’s 76.Then came the magnificent Smith, who shared in a 333-run first-wicket partnership with Andrew Puttick (111). Wickets for the Lions came from unlikely sources, as Neil McKenzie (1/14) dismissed Smith, and Alviro Petersen (1/17) got rid of Puttick. JP Duminy added 69 and the Cobras posted 499 for five declared, setting the Lions a target of 281.Time ran out for a result, but with the Lions teetering on 55 for four, it looked as if the men from the Cape might get it to go their way. De Bruyn’s 55 and van Jaarsveld’s 44 saved the match for the hosts.That was the only draw of the weekend. Further north in Centurion, the Titans earned a nine wicket win over the Warriors. The Eastern Cape side appeared to have quite a hangover from twenty-over cricket and was skittled out for 89. Ethy Mbhalati took five for 33 while Morne Morkel (2/11) and CJ de Villiers (2/16) chipped in with two apiece. The Titans replied with 318 in their first innings. Heino Kuhn was left stranded on 94 and Jacques Rudolph made his bid for national honours clear with 72.Ashwell Prince led the Warriors line-up in their second knock. He scored 144, Jon-Jon Smuts made 78 and Arno Jacobs 71. Morne Morkel took four for 81 as the Warriors were bowled out for 380, leaving the Titans with 152 to win. Vice-captain Blake Snijman scored the bulk of the runs with an unbeaten 78 as the Titans wrapped up the match inside three days.In Kimberley, the newly-named Knights beat the Dolphins by 128 runs. Batting first, the Knights recovered from 76 for three to post 407. Morne van Wyk’s 97 and Ryan Bailey’s 70 were the two biggest contributions. The Dolphins were clearly at sea with the bat and were bowled out for 167 as Victor Mpitsang claimed 6 for 30.The Knights had a lead of 240 and declared their second innings closed on 140 for five, setting the Dolphins 381 to win. Dean Elgar scored 53 in the hosts’ second knock. It was always going to be a tough ask for the men from Durban, and they were bowled out for 252. Ryan McLaren took 5 for 35 for the Knights and earned a call-up to the South African Twenty20 squad to replace the injured Albie Morkel.Batsman of the week: For growing his legendary status, Graeme Smith earns the award for his double hundred at almost run-a-ball for the Cobras.Bowler of the week: He bowled the Knights to victory and earned a national call up, albeit in a different format. Ryan McLaren for his five-wicket hall against the Dolphins gets this week’s accolade.

The USA has an abundance of natural talent but its development and cricketing future face several roadblocks, says ICC’s Americas Development Performance Officer Andy Pick

Peter Della Penna13-Oct-2010The USA has an abundance of natural talent but its development and cricketing future face several roadblocks, including funding, that need to be addressed more effectively by the USA Cricket Association (USACA). That’s the opinion of Andy Pick, the ICC’s Americas Development Performance Officer, who is working with the association to streamline things.”I think they have an abundance of natural talent, which is one of the things that is leading to them winning,” Pick told ESPNcricinfo in a recent interview. “If I’m brutally honest, they have at the moment little framework beneath it to continue providing and developing their best players. That is part of my role, to try to work with the US to see if we can help rectify that situation.”Pick, who worked for the ECB for 10 years prior to taking up his current position and also coached Canada at the 2007 World Cup, says that while the USA faces many logistical roadblocks to get players together to train, not much is being done by USACA to deal with them.”My concern would be when that natural talent retires and some of the older players aren’t playing – how they are going to look to replace those players? I went to the Under-19 World Cup and they’ve got some talent in their Under-19 team, a couple of 19-year-olds but also three or four under-17s who will be available for the next World Cup, and it’s disappointing in a way that nothing has been done to develop those players. USACA itself is not doing anything to help develop those players. There are no coaching courses. There are no elite player programs. It’s down to funding.”Pick is concerned that the window of opportunity for developing several of USA’s players for the next U-19 World Cup is closing. Five players who were part of the 2010 squad in New Zealand are eligible to participate in 2012: Salman Ahmad, Abhijit Joshi, Greg Sewdial, Hammad Shahid and Steven Taylor. Joshi played league cricket in England this summer while Taylor spent time training in Jamaica before joining the senior team in Italy for WCL Division 4. However, Pick feels not much else has been done to chart anyone’s progress through a programme.”I don’t doubt for a minute that they won’t put together a programme,” said Pick. “I would imagine that Don [Lockerbie, the chief of USACA] has probably got a draft programme ready to go because he will have given it some thought, because it’s reliant on funding. But you can’t afford for nothing to be happening while you’re chasing the funding. How long has it been since the World Cup, seven or eight months? The young players who starred at the World Cup, especially the Under-17s who could be stars at the next World Cup, have had no coaching. So depending on what they’re getting from home, wherever they live and whatever coaches are available to them there, invariably they could be standing still.””That’s where the USA will lose out next time because in other countries, those 17-year-olds that played in the previous World Cup will have developed and come through and be really dominant players at the next one,” said Pick. “If you don’t do anything to improve your dominant players over that two year period, that’s when you don’t make the progress. That experience in New Zealand will count for nothing unless some work is put in in the meantime.”Pick is also hoping that more of the U-19 players are able to graduate into the senior team in the near future. Opportunities need to be presented to them or else he fears there could be a drastic drop off once the current group of senior players start to exit.The victorious USA team at the World Cricket League Division 4•International Cricket Council

“If they go to the World Cup in 2015, how many of these players will be there? They need to have a timeline and look to start drafting some people in.” The perfect example, he said, was Ryan Corns, who beat Ireland’s Paul Stirling to be named Player of the Tournament at the 2009 U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Canada. While Stirling has a contract with Middlesex and is a regular in Ireland’s senior squad, Corns has never played for USA’s senior team. In September, the 20-year-old posted the highest score of anyone at USACA’s 2010 Senior Conference Tournaments with 119 off 77 balls.”Ryan was talked about to me as if he was the next great player coming through yet it worries me to see that he doesn’t make it on the trip to Bermuda and not made it [to Italy]. If he is a quality player, then he should at least be able to find his way into a 14-man squad. You’ve got to play and got to develop because you won’t always have this naturally talented bunch of players and USA, they only have to look as far as Bermuda to see what can happen if a large part of your team all come to the end of their careers at the same time.”Another major issue peculiar to the USA – and Canada – is the geographical spread, making travel difficult and expensive. “Geographically it’s huge and financially to cover that amount of area, if you want to get players together, you’ve got to fly players. It’s not like in England where they get in a car and drive for two hours and everybody gets together. So that’s difficult.”Pick met with USACA CEO Don Lockerbie and the vice-president of operations Manaf Mohamed over the summer in Toronto and says he stressed the importance of outlining and implementing plans to make sure players get the training they need. While there aren’t too many opportunities to bring a team together all at once for a training camp, he feels there are equally effective ways to do it on a regional basis.”If you’ve only got seven players in a region, but they’re all in with a chance of hopefully developing into players that will play at national level, you have to provide them with development,” said Pick. “If you don’t, then you’re just leaving them and they’re not going to develop. So instead of thinking in terms of the bigger picture, where you’ve got to get a camp of 20 players down to Florida, let’s look at it differently. Look at doing the work in the regions initially. By all means, if you can get them to Florida once a year for a camp, great. But because you can’t get everybody down there, that’s not a reason to not do anything.”Pick is hoping to set up two pilot projects in America for this winter, as part of which the ICC will help USACA run an elite player program in two separate regions, based upon which regions are able to supply the most players for the program, making it cost efficient.The junior and senior nationals next month in Florida will provide key preparation for USA’s upcoming international fixtures. USA will be participating in the ICC World Cricket League Division 3 in Hong Kong next January while an U-19 team will be selected to begin the path towards qualification – for the second successive time – for the 2012 ICC U-19 World Cup by playing at the Americas Qualifier.As USA aims to qualify for WCL Division 2 on their rise towards potential World Cup qualification, Pick is hopeful that the team can continue the success they’ve had in 2010 after winning the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 title in Bermuda as well as WCL Division 4 in Italy. However, they need to be prepared to meet the demands of the increased level of competition that they will encounter going forward.”It could be a really exciting time for US cricket. They’ve got a talented bunch of players at the moment who are getting cricket on the map,” said Pick. “As they get bigger and they get to a higher level, they will eventually come up against teams where they’ll get beat more often than they win and that’s when having a structure and a framework underneath it to support it will be critical.”

With four days to go until the start of the 2010-11 Ashes Graeme Swann has admitted he is climbing the walls in anticipation of the biggest match of his life

Andrew Miller in Brisbane21-Nov-2010With four days to go until the start of the 2010-11 Ashes Graeme Swann has admitted he is climbing the walls in anticipation of the biggest match of his life, but believes that he and his team-mates will be able to channel all of their nervous energy into the daunting task of bearding the Aussies in their very own lair at the Gabba on Thursday.”When we first got over here I daren’t think of the first Test match, because I was like a kid on December 1, with an Advent calendar. I couldn’t wait for the 25th to come along,” said Swann. “It’s really building now, less than a week to go, and I go back to my room at night and I smile like a lunatic and bounce off the walls. It’s going to be amazing come Thursday – I just can’t wait.”Swann’s chirpy demeanour has been a key feature of his cricket ever since he burst back onto the international scene in 2007, and while his left-field humour and subtle disdain for convention has rubbed people up the wrong way in the past – not least the former England coach Duncan Fletcher – the current regime recognises his unquenchable optimism as an asset to be cherished every bit as much as his match-winning spin bowling.To that end, while Australia’s preparations centre around a spinner of their own – the left-arm debutant, Xavier Doherty, who is set to become their ninth specialist slow bowler since the retirement of Shane Warne four years ago – England’s main man is so comfortable with his form and role in the side that he has been passing the time by promoting a new dance craze that has been spreading through the dressing-room.Known as “the Sprinkler”, the dance involves moving an outstretched arm in the juddering motion of a garden sprinkler, with the other one tucked behind the head. It was first raised as a possible wicket celebration during England’s second warm-up game against South Australia at Adelaide, but it was given its first public airing during Swann’s weekly podcast on ECB TV, with several of the squad – most notably Tim Bresnan – strutting their stuff for the camera.”If someone’s stupid enough to give me a camera and let me have free rein with it, I’m going to do stuff like that,” said Swann, although there is a serious subtext to such frivolity, as he himself noted. “There’s a very good vibe in the camp,” he added. “For me, it did show what a good spirit there was – because it wasn’t hard to get anyone to do it. I know three or four years ago I might have tried that and got a couple of punches or got my head ripped off.”Even the Aussie media are finding it hard to frown on such antics. “Buoyant Poms start victory dance a little too early,” was how the Sun-Herald responded, and while it doubted that England would dare to unveil the dance on the field until the Ashes had been won and lost, it added: “It is refreshing to see a side having fun before such a pressurised series.”England’s current demeanour is a marked contrast both with the anxieties in the Australia camp at present, and perhaps more pertinently, those that dogged England’s own campaign four years ago, when they entered the Brisbane Test with doubts in every department, and were duly put to the sword from the moment that Steve Harmison bowled his infamous first-ball wide to second slip. The team bus, noted England’s then-spinner Ashley Giles, was as quiet as a morgue on that occasion. It’s hard to imagine a similar scenario this time around.Australia’s record in Brisbane is nevertheless formidable, with 16 victories in their last 21 matches dating back to 1988-89, and not a single defeat – a run of results that neatly encapsulates their two-decade march to the summit of world cricket. With that golden era now fading from view, however, England genuinely believe that they are the side who can capture the citadel and confirm the end of an era.”I think the team see Brisbane as a really big challenge and whenever we’ve come across these challenges, like not having won at Lord’s for 70-odd years, the guys really like facing things like that,” said Paul Collingwood. “Brisbane is one of them. It is difficult for teams to win there, Australia have been incredibly strong there, but that just makes it more exciting for us and we’d love to make history.”So far, England have hardly put a foot wrong in their preparation, recording handsome wins in two of their three warm-ups while securing invaluable batting practice at Adelaide. The decision to send Swann and his frontline bowling colleagues for early acclimatisation in Brisbane – where they practised with the academy squad and bonded as a quartet under the tutelage of their Aussie bowling coach David Saker – will be best judged in hindsight, but in their absence, England’s back-up bowlers still administered a ten-wicket defeat over Australia A.”We’ve played some excellent cricket over the last three or four weeks,” said Swann.”The acclimatisation couldn’t have gone better really. I think it just showed the strength and the depth of our squad that we could give Australia A such a good beating the other day.”On Sunday afternoon, however, the squad was reunited at the team hotel in central Brisbane, and from here on in, every man’s focus will shift to Thursday morning, as the crowds begin to gather around the Gabba and Ashes fever takes hold of the city. “It’s inevitable,” said Swann. “The intensity is going to be hyped up – the cameras in your face, the people in the street. Any player would be lying if he said you can’t feel it.”