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Test cricket’s two leading wicket-takers, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, will face off in the Big Bash League season opener

Brydon Coverdale06-Dec-2012Muttiah Muralitharan could be forgiven for being a little vexed this Friday night. The Big Bash League begins with a cross-town battle between the Melbourne Renegades and the Melbourne Stars. Muralitharan will make his BBL debut for the Renegades, having been lured there by Brad Hodge and Andrew McDonald, whom he got to know during the IPL. Last summer, McDonald was captain of the Renegades and Hodge their star batsman. This season, neither is there anymore.McDonald signed with the Adelaide Strikers, and in any case has now suffered a hamstring injury that will rule him out of the whole tournament. Hodge is playing in the BBL. In fact, he’s playing in Friday’s season opener. It just happens to be for the Stars. A philosophical Muralitharan said he wouldn’t be seeking revenge when the teams meet, because he was happy to have been convinced to be part of the tournament.”When I was playing for Royal Challengers [Bangalore], Hodge and McDonald convinced me to come and play,” Muralitharan said in Melbourne on Thursday. “At the time they were in the Renegades and unfortunately now they’re not there. Still, we have a good side. Thanks to them, because of them I am here.”[Hodge] convinced me to come and play. After that he went to the Stars. I called him [to find out why he left], just a friendly call, that’s all. No revenge as such. We want to play a good game.”The Hodge-Muralitharan battle will be just one of the sub-plots in the Melbourne derby. There is also the much more significant attraction of seeing Test cricket’s two leading wicket-takers on opposing sides, which might not happen again after this tournament. Warne is the captain of the Stars and the BBL is his only playing commitment nowadays, while Muralitharan has suggested this might be his last year of Twenty20.Stars still dream of Bolt

The Melbourne Stars didn’t end up signing Usain Bolt for the BBL this year but the team’s president Eddie McGuire believes there is a very good chance Bolt will join the side next season, after his commitments at the 2013 Athletics World Championships.
“Hopefully next summer he’ll come out here and with a bit of luck we’ll get him to run with Athletics Australia, at a big athletics meet we’re hoping to put together at the new athletics centre in South Melbourne,” McGuire said. “At the same time, with a bit of luck we might get him to roll the arm over or do a little bit of fielding for us with the Stars.”

A week away from the Test series between Australia and Sri Lanka, who play for the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy, the men for whom the prize is named were reflecting on their careers as they prepared for one more contest. Muralitharan joked that given the large Sri Lankan population in Melbourne he might even be more popular in the city than Shane Warne, but he said he had the ultimate respect for what Warne had achieved during his career.”His art is very difficult,” Muralitharan said. “Legspin, I have tried it when I was young, and it was very hard to do. If you can land the ball like him, it’s very hard. Not many people can do it. Once in a hundred years you get a bowler like him. I have a lot of respect for him [now] and in our playing days as well.”Warne said Muralitharan, or “the whirly-twirly man” as he referred to him, would bring a lot to the BBL in his first appearance in the tournament. Warne remembered seeing Muralitharan for the first time on Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka in 1992, when he played for the Sri Lanka Board President’s XI in a tour match, and although the only batsman he dismissed was Tony Dodemaide, he baffled the Australians with his unusual style.”It was a tour game in Kandy when we first saw Murali in ’92,” Warne said. “Allan Border said to Murali ‘what are you bowling?’ He’d played for legspin.”He’s bamboozled batsmen for the best part of 20 years the way he goes about it. Facing Murali is very tough, he does some wonderful things with the ball. For what Murali has done for the game, what he has done for Sri Lanka … and to be still playing and bowling extremely well, it’s fantastic.”Muralitharan won’t be the only Sri Lankan playing in Friday night’s game, with Lasith Malinga set to line up for the Stars. Another Sri Lankan, allrounder Thisara Perera, will also be part of the BBL after joining the Brisbane Heat as a last-minute inclusion following their loss of Dale Steyn and Daniel Vettori.

On a pitch that favoured spinners in the previous match it hosted, Kolkata Knight Riders opted to bowl first against Kings XI Punjab

The Report by Firdose Moonda15-Apr-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Piyush Chawla applied brakes to Knight Riders’ scoring with three big wickets in the middle overs•AFPA triple strike from Piyush Chawla in the middle of the Knight Riders innings and last over heroics from Harmeet Singh brought Kings XI back from the dead to beat their hosts in unlikely fashion. After posting a below par 134 and allowing Knight Riders to canter to 71 for 2 at the halfway stage of the chase, Kings XI relied on a spectacular effort from their legspinner to negate Sunil Narine’s jaw-dropping 5 for 19.Narine’s strangling efforts and Rajat Bhatia and Shakib al Hasan’s supporting efforts kept the lid on Kings XI. Knight Riders were favoured to chase down a moderate target after Gautam Gambhir started with a speedy 22 and Manvinder Bisla and Manoj Tiwary steered the reply with a stand of 43. But, the home side unravelled after Chawla removed three of their key batsmen, Bisla, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib. Debrabata Das threatened to take the match to its expected conclusion with his aggressive innings but a slew of legbreaks from Harmeet ensured Kings XI defended what seemed hard to defend at one stage.Gambhir began in a hurry. The early loss of Jacques Kallis – caught spectacularly by Paras Dogra at point – did nothing to deter him as he collected boundaries at will before offering Dimitri Mascarenhas a simple return catch.Despite the departure of their captain, Bisla and Tiwary continued the task stoically and formed a partnership that would not have been out of place in longer formats of the game. They rotated strike, searched for singles and only targeted the boundary when they got a bad ball. They seemed certain to guide Knight Riders to an easy win but the match turned when Tiwary was trapped in front by Bhargav Bhatt.A tiny wound had been inflicted on Knight Riders and Chawla prised it open. He bowled Bisla with a delivery that did not turn and meted out the same to Yusuf Pathan with a legbreak in the same over. After 14 overs, Knight Riders were 85 for 5. Chawla had pulled them back to exactly the position Kings XI had been in at that stage – 85 for 3. He struck again, with a googly to Shakib al Hasan, to have the Bangladesh all-rounder caught of his own bowling.Das defied the Kings XI charge. He started by smacking a full toss from Chawla for a straight six. As full deliveries were offered to him, he smoked them to the boundary. Ryan ten Doeschate provided some support and the pair took Knight Riders to within 13 runs of victory with two overs left.Praveen Kumar gave away only four of those runs, bowling an over punctuated with yorkers and Harmeet had nine runs to work with in the final over. His seemingly harmless legbreaks had ten Doeschate frustrated as he played on. Harmeet then proved impossible to get away as he made up for Kings XI’s lapses with the bat through cunning bowling.Kings XI saw off 36 dot balls in their innings and allowed Knight Riders’ attack to create pressure and use it to their advantage. Narine struck twice in his opening spell – when Adam Gilchrist top-edged and attempted pull to depart for 5 and by bowling Shaun Marsh with a delivery that turned away from the left-hander.Together with Kallis, he ensured Kings XI crawled to 31 for 2 after seven overs and that they did not score a single boundary in five of them. If not for the half-century stand between Mandeep Singh and David Hussey, they would have not got off the starting blocks at all.The pair settled in on the surface, started to time the ball better and occasionally challenged the fielders, beating them for boundaries and pushing them hard to turn singles into twos. Old-fashioned grit and grind helped them build but just as they were looking to launch, Mandeep slog swept straight to deep mid-wicket.They were never really able to push after that as Hussey was run-out soon after and the dominoes fell steadily after that. Bhatia took two wickets in his final over and Narine also struck twice on being brought back on the attack. Kings XI scored 30 runs off the last two overs which, in the end, proved to be the difference.

Against Zimbabwe, he had played a tremendous innings before falling at the final hurdle; but in Mirpur, he finished things off with a thumping six

Mohammad Isam11-Oct-2011Very few men get a shot at redemption within just two months of a disappointment. Virender Sehwag needed four years and 175 runs to restore his pride against Bangladesh while Jason Gillespie had to wait a year and look to his batting to provide salvation. Sehwag had been dismissed for 2 in India’s loss to Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup, which ended up eliminating them from the tournament, so his swashbuckling hundred in Mirpur in the 2011 edition was revenge of sorts. Gillespie had been hit for a six in the last over of Australia’s embarrassing loss to Bangladesh in Cardiff, in 2005, so he would have felt glad that his first double-century, which came in his last Test, in Chittagong, was against the same opponents.It is hard to find cases where a Bangladesh player has achieved similar redemption. There are very few shots at glory and the propensity of the board to drop those who flounder under pressure means comeback-stories are a rarity.Mushfiqur Rahim, Bangladesh’s new captain, was lucky to be presented with a similar situation to the one he bungled up in Harare in August. This time, he finished the job in style, hammering the penultimate delivery of the Twenty20 international against West Indies high into the stands at midwicket.In Harare, Mushfiqur had fallen at the final hurdle after playing a tremendous knock. Not many Bangladesh batsman can guide the side through a stuttering innings with the ease with which Mushfiqur did in that game. He knocked around the ones and twos and pulled out the big hits when necessary during his 101, and could have kept Bangladesh alive in the series against Zimbabwe. However, with six runs needed off five balls, he skied one to long-on and was the last man dismissed, giving Zimbabwe the win.At the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday evening, it was a similar situation though the conditions were warmer and the crowd larger. Mushfiqur walked in after Bangladesh had lost three wickets for three runs after a brisk start to their chase of 133. The added burden of being captain must have weighed heavily on the 23-year-old, who is known to take personal failure very seriously.He hammered the ones and twos this time, given that it was a Twenty20, and only launched into a big hit after he found confidence in Nasir Hossain as an able partner. With 13 to win off nine balls, Mushfiqur guided one between short third-man and the wicketkeeper for four. The calmness with which he played that shot bore no shadow of the ghastly form he endured during this year’s World Cup. There were calls for his head, especially when one of his competitors for the wicketkeeper’s slot, Dhiman Ghosh, struck a few hundreds in first-class cricket, but Mushfiqur was persisted with.His latest resurrection began against Australia, when he hit 81 not out in the second ODI but his effort was overshadowed by Shane Watson’s 185 off 96 balls later that afternoon. This time though, no giant could eclipse the Mighty Atom who started celebrating the victory even before the ball had crossed the rope.Mushfiqur’s 26-ball 41 was the key to Bangladesh’s second Twenty20 win over West Indies but what was also significant was that the recently sacked captain Shakib Al Hasan and vice-captain Tamim Iqbal both remained heavily involved in Bangladesh’s performance. Shakib and Tamim combined to give Bangladesh their first dismissal of the match, that of Adrian Barath. Shakib continued to impress as a Twenty20 bowler while Tamim was energetic in the outfield.With Shakib’s every move being cheered by the capacity crowd, Mushfiqur used his key bowler cleverly, spacing out his four overs. Mushfiqur remained busy in the field and only looked slightly flustered when Marlon Samuels started attacking the bowlers, pounding sixes at will. The short spells Mushfiqur used his best bowlers in suggested he had a plan despite Bangladesh’s lack of Twenty20 experience. And after his bowlers had done half the job, he completed it himself.

The action reverted more to type in Abu Dhabi following the opening day clatter of wickets as MCC built an imposing 410-run lead against Nottinghamshire

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Mar-2011
ScorecardSteve Davies played a positive innings to help MCC into a commanding position•Graham MorrisThe action reverted more to type in Abu Dhabi following the opening day clatter of wickets as MCC built an imposing 410-run lead against Nottinghamshire. Rahul Dravid finished the day unbeaten on 81 and added 121 for the fifth wicket with Steve Davies after earlier half-centuries from Stephen Moore and Stephen Peters.Dravid made up for his first-innings duck and 72 of his runs came from boundaries as he spent plenty of time assessing conditions against the pink ball being used for this match. It will have been useful first-hand experience for Dravid who is also a member of the MCC Cricket Committee which is pushing forward with experiments into day/night first-class matches.Nottinghamshire were well behind the game when they resumed on 86 for 8 and it didn’t take long for MCC to wrap up the innings. Hamid Hassan bagged the final two scalps, bowling with lively pace, as he finished with 4 for 45 and will take on a more senior role in the second innings after Steve Kirby was forced out of the match with a foot injury. Kirby was replaced by Paul Muchall, an MCC Young Cricketer, and will fly back to the UK for treatment ahead of the Championship season.MCC set about adding to their 110-run lead in solid fashion as the bowlers started to find success harder to come by. Chris Rogers (18) completed a quiet match when he was lbw to Luke Fletcher but a third-wicket stand of 106 from Moore and Peters set a strong platform.Peters hit the first six of the match before Nottinghamshire struck back with debutant Jacob Ball taking three quick wickets including Dawid Malan for a 0 as MCC slipped to 157 for 4. However, Dravid took time to play himself in while Davies opted for a more aggressive route in a productive partnership.Davies had hit ten boundaries when he became Fletcher’s sixth wicket of the match late in the day but Dravid remained firm until the close alongside Mohammad Nabi.

Mohammad Ashraful has been dropped from the Bangladesh squad for the second Test against Pakistan, which begins on December 17

Mohammad Isam15-Dec-2011Mohammad Ashraful has been dropped from the Bangladesh squad for the second Test against Pakistan, which begins on December 17. The decision follows Ashraful’s poor showing in the Chittagong Test, where he lasted fourteen balls in two innings.Shafiul Islam, meanwhile, returns to the national setup, after being ignored for the first Test. He had missed out on the West Indies Tests in October-November, because of a foot injury.There was confusion surrounding Bangladesh’s squad for the second Test, with regards to the status of Ashraful. He had checked into the team hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday and was among the fourteen players who practiced at the Shere Bangla Stadium on Thursday morning. Also, coach Stuart Law had said Ashraful was, to his knowledge, part of the squad.However, the selection panel’s list, which was yet to be approved by BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal as is mandatory, did not include Ashraful’s name. Eventually, Kamal approved the squad on returning to Dhaka after the ACC meeting in Singapore late on Thursday evening, but the delay raised questions of professionalism.The amount of time the coaching staff spent working on Ashraful during the training session, and Law’s statements, served to add to the confusion. “As far as I know, he [Ashraful] is in the squad,” Law said. “That’s why he’s here at practice. We haven’t been told anything different. Maybe it is speculation, that sort of thing goes on in this part of the world.”Later on Thursday, the BCB’s cricket operations committee asked Ashraful to leave the hotel while he was signing up with a new club for the Dhaka Premier League on the last day of the inter-club transfers. Shafiul Islam arrived at the hotel in the evening from Bogra, his hometown. The coaching staff wasn’t informed of the switch and got to know of it only after it was reported on television channels and news websites.Squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), Mahmudullah (vice-capt), Tamim Iqbal, Nazimuddin, Shahriar Nafees, Shakib Al Hasan, Naeem Islam, Nasir Hossain, Elias Sunny, Shahadat Hossain, Sohrawardi Shuvo, Robiul Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Shafiul Islam.

Roy Dias, the former Sri Lanka batsman, has confirmed he will take over as Oman’s coach

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Aug-2011Roy Dias, the former Sri Lanka batsman, has confirmed he will take over as Oman’s coach. Dias, who played 20 Tests and 58 ODIs in the eighties, has plenty of experience supervising upcoming nations, having spent the past decade in charge of the Nepal team.”I am eagerly waiting to take charge of the Oman national team. The exact terms [of the agreement with Oman Cricket] are being worked out. But as of now, my immediate assignment is to get the team ready for the ACC Twenty20 Cup, which will be played in Nepal in December,” Dias told . “Once I take charge, I would like to get the boys to undergo a proper camp in Nepal in the build-up to the ACC tournament.”Oman won the ACC Twenty20 Cup in 2007, and progressed enough to make it to the qualifying tournament for the 2011 World Cup. However, they fared poorly in that event, finishing 11th to be relegated to the third division of the ICC’s World Cricket League.Dias, 58, said he was familiar with Oman cricket since he had watched the team in various competitions during his time as Nepal coach. “Coaching in Nepal is quite different from coaching in Oman, I am well aware of it. But I will focus on the system that I work in – training the national team while working on building a solid supply line.”I focus a lot on junior cricket, that’s where you get good cricketers from, who you can groom. I tried this method in Nepal. I focused on age-group cricket, and over the years the country began shining in tournaments.”Oman Cricket is expected to formally announce Dias’ appointment next month.

Irfan Pathan has said that Delhi Daredevils’ performance in IPL 2011 has been a big disappointment but the team “atmosphere is still very good”

Tariq Engineer10-May-2011Irfan Pathan has said that Delhi Daredevils’ performance in IPL 2011 has been a big disappointment but the team “atmosphere is still very good”. He also credited his captain Virender Sehwag for keeping the squad together despite the struggles. Delhi were eliminated from the race for a place in the playoffs after losing to Mumbai on May 7.Sehwag, who will miss the last three games of the season to have shoulder surgery, was one of the few consistent performers for Delhi. It was because of two breathtaking innings from him that the team stayed in contention for as long as it did. With him sidelined, and James Hopes set to lead the team, Irfan told ESPNcricinfo they needed to “play our hearts out in the next three matches and show things aren’t that bad. Then we can take all the positives to next year’s tournament.”A lot was expected of Irfan after Delhi signed him for $1.9 million but it has been a tough season for the allrounder as he made his way back from a serious back injury that had kept him out of competitive cricket for over eight months. He started poorly with the ball, picking up only three wickets in his first six games, and while he admitted he would have liked more success, he said he expected to need some time to find his groove.”Some really good cricketers are there at this level,” he said. “I knew I had to give myself some time. The team really helped me out. They played me in back-to-back matches and that got my rhythm going.”Over his team’s previous five games, though, he showed flashes of the Irfan of old, getting the ball to swing in to right-hand batsmen and going past 130 kph on the speed gun. His figures also reflected the improvement over the same span – 1 for 16 against Kolkata Knight Riders, 2 for 27 against Kochi Tuskers and 1 for 23 against Mumbai.”I need to take it one step at a time. Just go one step by one step. I need to make sure first, I get my rhythm going, running well. Bowling in the right areas. Then swinging the ball. I should make it my second nature. The good thing is, I am not thinking about it. It is just happening.”Still, Irfan wished his results had been better this season but said he was “very happy with the process” so far, and credited assistant coach Eric Simmons, whom he described as “fantastic”, for aiding his recovery. Irfan also said he was feeling good about how his body has held up after his long layoff and believed his rehabilitation gave him a better understanding of how to manage the demands of fast bowling. “I feel like I am in control of my body. I feel in control of my action … This is the best I am feeling in last three years.”He is also still hoping, “like all cricketers hope,” that he will get the call telling him he is part of India’s touring plans later this year. But if not, he would like to play Twenty20 and one-day cricket in England once the IPL is over, as long as the BCCI gives him permission. “If I get to play some more cricket, it will be good.”

England’s bowling options for their five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka have been given a boost following Tim Bresnan’s recovery from a calf strain

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jun-2011England’s bowling options for their five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka have been given a boost following Tim Bresnan’s recovery from a calf strain. He has been included in the squad after completing a successful rehabilitation, and will be available for selection for Tuesday’s first match at The Oval.Bresnan was a key member of the team that won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean last May, but he really shot to prominence during England’s Ashes and World Cup winter in 2010-11. He played a pivotal role in the decisive Test win over Australia at Melbourne, and went on to claim five cheap wickets in the thrilling tie against India at Bangalore.However, Bresnan missed the ODI series in Australia due to his calf problem, and underwent a further scan prior to England’s ten-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka in the World Cup quarter-final in Colombo. Since returning to England, he has been dogged by the problem, and was ruled out of the Test series against Sri Lanka after suffering a tear while bowling for Yorkshire against Hampshire in mid-May.”We always had the intention of bringing him back when he was fit. We wanted him to play for Yorkshire so we didn’t take any risks,” Alastair Cook, England’s one-day captain, said. “I saw him a couple of days ago and he looks in good shape. To have a proven performer back in the side is great for us.”Bresnan’s nagging accuracy and deceptive pace, not to mention his confident lower-order batting, make him an invaluable member of England’s one-day set-up. After England’s toothless display in the one-off Twenty20 at Bristol on Saturday, there will be a strong temptation to pitch straight back into the starting line-up.

Phillip Hughes is determined to play his own way against Sri Lanka, having learnt that even the best-intentioned coaching advice can lead to muddled thoughts and meagre scores

Daniel Brettig in Colombo24-Aug-2011Phillip Hughes is determined to play his own way against Sri Lanka, having learnt that even the best-intentioned coaching advice can lead to muddled thoughts and meagre scores.As he prepares to partner Shane Watson following the traumatic removal of Simon Katich from the list of Cricket Australia contracts, Hughes is honing more or less the same technique he took into his debut against South Africa in early 2009.That series, in which Hughes topped the Australian aggregates and blazed two centuries to help a young side to an unexpected series win, did not dissuade observers from tinkering with the idiosyncratic technique that reaped those rewards.He has cut a more orthodox but less-convincing figure at the international batting crease ever since, starting with the Ashes series later that year in which a couple of hot spells from Andrew Flintoff were enough to see Hughes jettisoned after only two Tests.”Through that time there were a lot of people who came in to try to give advice, but I just had to go back to my game and play the way I’ve always played,” Hughes said. “I might’ve gone off it a little bit, but that’s all part of learning and the experience of it all. There are things I’m going to have to tinker with, with my technique, but as a whole I’ll keep it how I’ve always played.”During the last Ashes series Hughes was chosen to replace the injured Katich, and retained for three Tests, when clearly short of runs and confidence. Picked when he should have been dropped, and dropped when he should have been picked, Hughes sought solace in the advice of his first mentor, Neil D’Costa, who is now employed at a cricket academy in Nagpur.”I worked even harder in the nets – the Ashes series was disappointing, so I went back and just worked harder and Neil D’Costa flew from India back to Australia and we spent time together,” Hughes said. “We got down to the nets basically every day for two weeks, a couple hours a day, worked as hard as I’ve ever worked, and things turned around.”I hadn’t seen Neil for a fair few months – he’d been in India – and it was just good to have someone there who’s been there [for me] the whole way; [and for me to] to come back to Australia and work as hard as possible with Neil. He knows my game quite well now and he’s been coach/mentor the last five or six years for me, so getting back was good and beneficial.”The balance seems finally to have been redressed ahead of the Test series between Australia and Sri Lanka, for Hughes enters the tour having carved out a handsome tally of runs for New South Wales and Australia A since the Ashes. Reflecting on the last summer, Hughes agreed he might have been helped by more runs behind him when he walked out to bat in the third Test in Perth.”It would’ve been better, but I was excited when I did get selected, and to play the last three Ashes Tests was a huge thrill, but also disappointing … it would’ve been nice to get more runs, no doubt about that,” Hughes said. “I wasn’t in the best form then, I was in better form towards the back-end of the season, but that’s cricket; especially opening the batting you knick off a few times and you get a few starts and you want to make those into big scores. It wasn’t to be in the Ashes series.”While extremely angry about the manner of his exit, Katich bore no ill-will towards Hughes, and the pair remain on good terms in a relationship that began when the younger batsman was a teenager in the NSW squad.”My debut game for Australia [in South Africa] was with Simon, and I’ll always remember the time Simon gave me back in NSW when I was only 17-18, going into the squad and what he did personally for me,” Hughes said. “I did [feel sorry for him], that was a while ago now, decisions that people have got to make, and I’m not one of those, I’ve just got to control what I can control, but it was disappointing and I was feeling for Simon at the time.”Sorrow for Katich had been preceded by some shock, for Hughes had fully expected Katich to regain his place at the top of the batting order following an Achilles injury. He publicly stated that his goal was to be the reserve batsman on tour.”I’ve said that for the last couple of years when I got dropped,” Hughes said. “I’ve always wanted to be that spare batsman on tour and be that next guy in. I’ve been lucky enough the last couple of years on tour to be that spare batsman, and now comes the opportunity I’ve always wanted. [After] getting dropped I’d get itchier and more keen to get back in there, knowing I’ve had a taste of Test cricket.”That hunger will now be sated, although in conditions far removed from anything Hughes has encountered at Test level before. He has spoken a lot to Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and the assistant coach Justin Langer about handling spin, seeking out the kind of advice that will help, not hinder, his latest tilt at international batsmanship.”I’ve played on the subcontinent before but not for Australia. I’ve been to India a lot but it’s different – it’s Test cricket, and it’s going to be tough, we all know that,” Hughes said. “But that’s why we’ve got guys like Pup [Clarke] and Punter [Ponting] in our team.”They faced spin bowling beautifully in the one-day games so I’ve spoken to them as much as possible … but it’s about getting out there and doing the work. I’m a huge fan of Justin, he’s a great coach, so I’ll just go out and do as much work as possible, and hopefully it pays off.”

Ross Taylor has said he was surprised by the timing of his losing the New Zealand captaincy but not by the decision itself, declaring he felt he never had the support of the coach Mike Hesson

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Dec-2012Ross Taylor has said he was surprised by the timing of his losing the New Zealand captaincy but not by the decision itself, declaring he felt he never had the support of the coach Mike Hesson. Taylor, who on Friday was replaced as leader by Brendon McCullum, was told after the ODI series in Sri Lanka that there would be a change of captaincy after the end of the Sri Lanka tour.On Friday, Hesson stressed that what he meant at that meeting, which was also attended by assistant coach Bob Carter and team manager Mike Sandle, was that there would be a change to the limited-overs captaincy, not the Test leadership. However, Taylor said he had been told his captaincy was not good enough and it felt clear to him that Hesson and the team management did not want him in charge at all.”They told me I wasn’t good enough as a captain, wasn’t good enough for this team,” Taylor told the . “To hear I wasn’t good enough was disappointing. It was interesting … I was offered the Test captaincy a couple of weeks [after the Sri Lanka meeting], when it was clear to me from conversations, they didn’t want me at all.”Taylor said he was not surprised by the course of events after Hesson took over from John Wright as head coach in July. “It wasn’t huge shock,” Taylor said. “Hesson never supported me through the whole time I’d been captain, but I was surprised by the timing.”Since taking on the captaincy full-time last year, Taylor led New Zealand to four Test wins from 13 matches, including rare victories in Australia and Sri Lanka, two wins from eight ODIs, and four victories from nine Twenty20 internationals. He conceded that he was still developing as a captain but said he had learnt a lot under Wright’s coaching.”I know I had areas to work on,” Taylor said. “I was far from the finished product, but I lacked a lot of support from the management in a lot of areas, which was disappointing. Under Wrighty I was learning a lot; under Hesson, the relationship was pretty poor. I didn’t think he supported me in that role.”After declining the Test captaincy this week, Taylor declared that he offered his full support to his replacement McCullum, but intended to take a break from the game. Taylor said he did not believe he could put in a complete effort under the circumstances and would return when the time was right.”It’s still fresh and raw,” Taylor said. “It’s been a pretty difficult five months for me. It’s a chance to get away from it, spend some time with the family and have a Christmas. I don’t believe I can give 100% to the game at this time. Cricket is my life and my passion. I love the game and I love playing for my country. But taking a break is the right thing for me right now.”