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Adam Hollioake added to coaching staff after Covid-19 isolation rules hit tourists

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Dec-2021England’s batters have been given a “wake-up call” and an “education” by Australia’s bowling attack in the first three Ashes Tests. That is the view of Graham Thorpe, their assistant coach, who will stand in for the self-isolating Chris Silverwood in next week’s fourth Test at the SCG.The stats from the first three Ashes Tests make grim reading for England’s batters. Their highest team total is 297 and there have been no individual hundreds, while Dawid Malan and Joe Root are the only players to have made half-centuries, or to average more than 30 in the series. The three batters that England have used who are under the age of 30 – Haseeb Hameed, Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley – have made 130 runs between them across 12 innings.Related

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• The opening act: Rory Burns is off, way off

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Thorpe said that the lack of Lions tours and training camps over the last 21 months due to the pandemic meant that England’s young batters were learning “the basic skills” of Test cricket on the job, and suggested that county cricket was not providing adequate preparation.”With some players it’s a wake-up call,” Thorpe said. “It could actually kick-start their careers because they’ve started training in a very, very different way. They actually start to train smart. They don’t waste time hitting half-volleys.”I don’t mean that in a bad way but they actually deal with the actual nitty gritty side of international cricket, playing high-quality spin, high-quality pace bowling and learning how to put pressure back on. If a guy’s bowling well, [they have to] get through it for six, seven or eight overs.”County cricket is what it is. You’ve got to lift players out of there, then educate them into international cricket. There have been no Lions tours and no training camps for our younger players to actually learn the basic skills of the game as well. They’re trying to learn it in county cricket, but the truth is when they come out of county cricket, they have to learn it again, because Test cricket is 10 times harder.”We are still trying to educate some of the younger guys into the rhythm of Test match batting: playing situations in the game and doing it for long periods of time. Some of them haven’t been able to do it yet. Some of our young players are getting an education and if they didn’t know before, they understand how tough Test cricket is now.”Thorpe has been working extensively with Rory Burns, who was dropped for the third Test after making 51 runs across four innings on the tour – including being bowled round his legs by the first ball of the series. After 31 Tests, Burns averages 30.92 with the bat and his idiosyncratic technique has come under scrutiny in Australia.”I told him: ‘you’ve played 30 Test matches and you average 30, so we want you to be doing more, to be better than that as a player,'” Thorpe said. “So we’ve had discussions with him – does he need a major overhaul of his technique or just to tinker with things?”He needs to do the simple things better. So can he calm things down with his movements and everything? We’ve been talking him through that. It’s tough in competition. Everyone says do you work with them? Yes you do, but you can’t pick away at people’s brains too much walking into Test matches. Sometimes they have to come out and then you can reset a little bit.”When players get a little bit of success they then think, ‘My way is the right way’. And there’s a balance to it. You can see certain things. I said to him, ‘The best bowlers in the world are going to analyse your technique and the right-hand column is going to tell you whether you’re getting it right or not’.”We’ve seen he’s got a good fighting character, so I know that. But at the same time you need a technique and temperament at the highest level. I think he can come back again and play for England definitely but he’s very clear those little adjustments are going to help him to stay at the crease longer.”Thorpe is one of only three England coaches available to take training, alongside Ant Botha and James Foster, with Silverwood, Jeetan Patel and Jon Lewis all self-isolating. As a result, they have asked Adam Hollioake – the former England one-day captain and a team-mate of Thorpe’s at Surrey – to travel to Sydney from his home on the Gold Coast to support their coaching staff, though under Cricket Australia’s Covid protocols he is only allowed to work with the players outdoors.

Pakistan seamer takes 4 for 36 after Daniel Lategan’s 78 lays foundation

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay31-Aug-2025Worcestershire powered through to the Metro Bank One-Day Cup final with a 131-run (DLS) victory over Somerset at New Road.Put in, the home side totalled a solid 275 for 9 as Daniel Lategan struck his List A-best 78 against a disciplined Somerset attack with Jack Leach’s excellent 10-1-28-2 at its heart. Ben Green took 4 for 52.The target looked around par on a good pitch but Somerset’s top order imploded against Khurram Shahzad (4 for 36). The visitors lurched to 108 for 7 from 23.4 overs before rain arrived with them more than 100 runs behind the DLS score.After the resumption they further crumbled to 141 all out as Worcestershire emphatically secured a place in the final at Trent Bridge on September 20.Somerset chose to bowl but were kept waiting for their first breakthrough as openers Lategan and Brett D’Oliveira (45) added 85 in 15 overs. The bowlers gave little away though and, as risks were taken in search of acceleration, wickets began to fall.D’Oliveira drilled Kasey Aldridge to extra cover. Kashif Ali was caught with the greatest nonchalance by Finley Hill on the midwicket boundary off Green. Jake Libby skied Aldridge to mid off.Nineteen-year-old Lategan posted a polished maiden List A fifty but fell lbw, reverse-sweeping, to Leach as the spinner built pressure which also saw him bowl Rob Jones through a failed sweep. After Ethan Brookes was lbw, sweeping Tom Lammonby, Worcestershire needed some late order contributions. They got them from Henry Cullen (32) and Matthew Waite (24) before Tom Taylor (22 not out) clubbed three sixes to hoist the total to 275.Pakistan international Shahzad then began with two wides, one of which went for four, in his first three balls. From the dubious platform of 0.1-0-6-0, however, he built an opening spell of 7-2-36-4. Lammonby and Lewis Goldsworthy were beaten for pace when trying to pull and sent up catches. Archie Vaughan was brilliantly caught by Ben Allison at mid-wicket. Thomas Rew edged to slip.Worcestershire’s other seamers deepened Somerset’s plight. Waite had Joshua Thomas well caught by Lategan on the long-leg boundary and Allison dismissed Finley Hill, caught at slip, and Green, caught at mid-off.Green fell to the last ball before heavy rain arrived with Somerset in dire straits at 108 for 7. They resumed needing another 165 from 14.2 overs and quickly lost Aldridge, caught behind, and Leach, stumped, off Brookes.Last pair James Rew and Jake Ball needed to find 137 runs from ten overs. They managed five before Rew lifted Brookes to long off to trigger loud and long celebrations from the home fans.

Stokes made an OBE and Buttler an MBE for services to cricket in New Year’s Honours list

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Feb-2020England’s World Cup celebrations have continued with Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler collecting honours at Buckingham Palace.The pair were named alongside their World Cup-winning captain, Eoin Morgan, coach, Trevor Bayliss, and Joe Root on the New Year’s Honours list and received their awards from the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William.Stokes, who also won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in December, was made an OBE for services to cricket and Buttler was made an MBE following a remarkable year for the England team, who beat New Zealand to win the men’s World Cup for the first time in the most thrilling of finals at Lord’s.Stokes struck an unbeaten 84 in the final – including two sixes in the last over – to tie the game, and then batted in the Super Over to help England to a memorable triumph. Stokes also hit a stirring 135 not out to hand England victory in the third Ashes Test at Headingley. Meanwhile, it was Buttler who featured in the decisive moment of the World Cup when he gathered Jason Roy’s throw and completed the run-out of Martin Guptill, which meant England won the title on boundaries scored.Jos Buttler poses with his medal after being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) following an investiture service at Buckingham Palace•AFP via Getty Images

The pair were joined at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday by Colin Graves, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who was recognised with a CBE for services to the sport.”Without a shadow of a doubt, it’s two great players and to share the day with them is brilliant,” Graves told the Press Association. “You just have to look at the Sports Personality of the Year awards, Stokesy won the main award, the team won the team award, the team won the moments of the year award.”Morgan is due to be appointed a CBE and Root is to be made an MBE, while Bayliss will be made an OBE.

Karthik was spotted in the Trinbago Knight Riders dressing room during the inaugural match of the Caribbean Premier League 2019

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Sep-2019India wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik has been issued a notice by the BCCI for violating the guidelines of his central contract. Karthik was spotted in the Trinbago Knight Riders dressing room during the inaugural match of the Caribbean Premier League 2019 on Thursday.As per the BCCI contracts, players are not allowed to participate in or be present at any other sporting activity or sport without prior permission from the board.It is understood that Karthik was issued the notice, signed by BCCI chief executive officer Rahul Johri, on Friday and has been given a week to respond, and the three-person Committee of Administrators will adjudicate on the matter once Karthik’s response comes in.Karthik captains Kolkata Knight Riders, the IPL franchise that shares owners with Trinbago. He was shown on live broadcast during the match in a Trinbago jersey, seated next to coach Brendon McCullum, and personal mentor Abhishek Nayar, who is also on the coaching staff of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. McCullum was also recently handed charge of the Kolkata team for the next IPL season.Karthik, 34, last played for India at the World Cup in England, as a specialist batsman in their semi-final loss to New Zealand. Since then, he has been out of the ODI and T20I squads, and turned up in one Tamil Nadu Premier League match. He was, however, appointed captain of Tamil Nadu for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, which is set to begin from September 24.It has been a far from ideal year for Karthik, who led Kolkata Knight Riders with some success last IPL while also bringing himself strongly back into national team reckoning. However, the multiple IPL winners couldn’t replicate the performance in 2019. Apart from a dip in scoring, Karthik had to deal with off-field issues too. In the second half of the tournament, amid a string of losses, he copped what looked like public criticism from his star player Andre Russell, who suggested he was willing to bat higher up the order days after Karthik had told the press there had been no complaints from the allrounder about his batting position.

Joint head coach ‘not currently part of the business’, say club, as Kirtley takes over

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Sep-2022James Kirtley says that the turmoil behind the scenes at Sussex is “an obvious distraction” to the players, after it was revealed that Ian Salisbury, his fellow head coach, was “not currently part of the business” following a non-cricketing dispute with one of his players.Salisbury had been in charge of Sussex’s Championship and 50-over team since November 2020, with Kirtley taking over the T20 set-up in the same timeframe following the departure of their predecessor Jason Gillespie.However, with the club currently second-from-bottom in the County Championship and battling to avoid defeat in their final match of the season against Glamorgan, it is understood that Salisbury has been placed on gardening leave, due to his handling of the 21-year-old spinner, Jack Carson.Carson, who debuted as a teenager in the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020, was Sussex’s leading wicket-taker in both that competition and the 2021 County Championship. However, having missed the start of the 2022 season following knee surgery, all three of his appearances in the current campaign have come in the past fortnight, since Salisbury’s departure.That includes the ongoing contest against Glamorgan at Hove, but speaking to the BBC at the close of the second day’s play, Kirtley was coy about the circumstances at the club.”We can’t make any further comment on that. There’s a legal process that has to be followed,” Kirtley said. “But it’s an obvious distraction to the lads.”We talk a lot about distractions,” he added. “This is a time of year when contracts are negotiated, and for this young side, it’s very important they understand that this is part of the game, and their ability to rise above those situations is a real skill.”The prospect of losing Carson – a highly-rated offspinner who was born in Northern Ireland but is England-qualified – comes in the wake of several high-profile departures from Hove in recent seasons, most recently the England duo of Chris Jordan and Phil Salt, but before them the likes of Reece Topley, Luke Wells, Danny Briggs, Laurie Evans, Michael Burgess and Harry Finch.It is a talent drain that has come in for scathing criticism from the former Sussex and England wicketkeeper, Matt Prior, who renewed his attack on the club hierarchy – in particular the CEO Rob Andrew and director of cricket, Keith Greenfield – in a series of tweets on Tuesday evening.”Another one the @SussexCCC Chairman, Board, Cricket committee, CEO and Performance Director will want to disappear very quickly,” Prior wrote. “Not sure that’s happening this time. The circle is closing around these people who have done so much to destroy our club.”

He maintains that Test cricket is still the pinnacle and is currently not fully swayed into the pull of franchise leagues

Vithushan Ehantharajah15-Feb-2023The eve of the first Test of the home summer is rarely the best time to be addressing cricket’s existential matters. But here was Tim Southee at the Bay Oval, just two matches into his captaincy, talking about the players not here – one in particular – and what it might mean for the game beyond Thursday’s first Test against England.In terms of the members who were present, all of the squad had finally congregated on Wednesday after Cyclone Gabrielle eased in the Bay of Plenty. Marooned members of the original squad – Tom Blundell, Blair Tickner, Will Young and Henry Nicholls – made it through after their travel plans were disrupted. The reinforcements Jacob Duffy and Scott Kuggeleijn arrived on Tuesday evening to swap in for the injured Kyle Jamieson and the expecting Matt Henry. Both uncapped bowlers – Kuggeleijn also offers something with the bat – will be vying for the final spot in the XI. Southee confirmed 29-year-old Tickner will make his debut.”He’s been around the group for a while now and had a taste in the one-day and T20 formats,” Southee said of Tickner’s international experience so far, which amounts to 9 ODIs and 17 T20Is. “It’s exciting for him and his family for what should be a very special occasion.”Related

• Ben Stokes' homecoming gives England chance to 'show the world how good they are'

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• Boult overlooked as Jamieson's replacement; Stead defends Kuggeleijn inclusion

Tickner will be something of an unknown, having played a second-string England team twice during a white ball series at the end of 2019, taking 2 for 25 in the third T20I and 0 for 50 in the following game. Ben Stokes, however, remembers him from a small stint of domestic cricket in New Zealand while suspended by the ECB at the end of 2017 after his streetfight in Bristol.”I played out here for Canterbury a few years ago and played against Tickner, he’s a big fella. Runs in and hits the deck hard. Yeah, I think he loves to get into the contest.”It did not take long for the conversation to turn to Trent Boult. Head coach Gary Stead revealed on Tuesday that no approach had been made to the fast bowler despite the fact he has returned home after a stint in the ILT20. Having stepped back from his national contract last August, New Zealand Cricket’s understandable approach has been to give preference to domestic players, at least until Boult shows some willingness to return to the longest format.Stead was unequivocal in his belief that this is not the end of Boult’s career. But the fact that hosts go into this two-match series with an inexperienced seam attack when one of their best players of the modern era is 20 minutes up the road speaks of a problem. Even Stokes, who usually keeps out of opposition matters, saw the advantage England carry as a result: “Any team without Trent Boult playing against you gives you a little bit – we know he’s a quality performer.””I think if you ask the majority of people they still see Test cricket as the pinnacle,” Southee said. “Credit to Ben and Brendon (McCullum) and the way they’ve turned things around and made it exciting for people to come and watch and be part of it.”Just look at the ticket sales for this series, there’s still plenty of interest in Test cricket and that’s exciting. For me it’s still the pinnacle of the game. Times are changing with franchise cricket and short-format cricket, but the majority of players still see it as the pinnacle.”The 34-year-old is no stranger to the franchise world, particularly in the IPL where he has enjoyed stints at five teams and is currently with Kolkata Knight Riders. Perceivably he, too, could follow Boult’s move and fill up the rest of his time while keeping a toe in international waters. That, however, does not appeal to him just yet.”It’s something most people are looking at and weighing up, there’s so much cricket. The times are changing and more tournaments popping up around the world, but for me at the moment I see Test cricket as the pinnacle. I’m loving it and as far as I’m concerned my focus is solely on the two Test matches coming up and trying to perform for New Zealand.”By Thursday at least, there will be actual cricket to talk about. Even England have found themselves a bit stir-crazy. “I feel we’ve been here for ages,” Stokes said, raring to go having been in New Zealand for the last three weeks. As for the hosts, a challenging build-up in more ways than one is something they’re happy to roll with.”[It’s been] A little bit disjointed,” Southee said. “But like we have done for a long time, in true Kiwi style.”

Sidharth Monga, Vishal Dikshit and Kaustubh Kumar get together on the latest episode of Stump Mic

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2023How can fan experiences be improved in India’s stadiums? What has changed in cricket with the addition of the Impact Player rule? Which players should India field in their T20I XI based on the tournament?Sidharth Monga joins Vishal Dikshit and Kaustubh Kumar to discuss the broader talking points that have emerged from IPL 2023.