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“I’m never going to apologise for getting into the final,” he says

Firdose Moonda02-Jan-2025Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s Test coach, has hit back at criticism of his team reaching the World Test Championship (WTC) final after a cycle in which they faced neither Australia nor England, and played only 12 Tests. They were the first team to book a spot at Lord’s after they reeled off six successive wins and qualified with a game to spare.”I’m never going to apologise for getting into the final,” Conrad told ESPNcricinfo at Newlands, ahead of the second Test against Pakistan. “It’s the biggest thing in this team’s existence. It’s the biggest thing for South African cricket at the moment. It’s the biggest thing for Test cricket, for world cricket, where the right noises are going to start being made.”Former England captain Michael Vaughan on Fox Cricket said South Africa got to the final “on the back of beating pretty much nobody” and that they don’t “warrant being in the World Test Championship final with whom they have played over the last two years”, while former Australia spinner Kerry O’Keeffe called South Africa’s run “like making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed on the way”.Related

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For Conrad, that is both incorrect and an insult to the opposition South Africa faced. “One of the nobodies we beat won a Test match in Australia – West Indies beat Australia in a Test match,” Conrad said. “They are not nobody. New Zealand beat India: three-zip in India. New Zealand is not a nobody. Sri Lanka won Test matches [against England and New Zealand]. I don’t buy this thing about us beating nobody. You tell any side to go and win six on the bounce, in places you haven’t won in a decade and with a young side, with a decimated bowling attack and when you do that, you come back and tell me that we’ve beaten nobody.”Because of South Africa’s paucity of fixtures – and because they sent an understrength side that lost 2-0 to New Zealand last February – every Test since their tour to the West Indies in August was almost a must-win. South Africa won that series 1-0. Then, they went to Bangladesh where captain Temba Bavuma could not play after an elbow injury, which resulted in them fielding the eighth and 11th least capped teams in the cycle, but they won their first series in the subcontinent in a decade.The home summer has been marred by bowling injuries with seven frontline quicks out of action – two (Wiaan Mulder and Gerald Coetzee) mid-Test – and South Africa have had to dig deeply into their reserves. Still, they came up with teams that beat Sri Lanka 2-0 and have now taken the lead against Pakistan.Michael Vaughan has questioned South Africa’s qualification for the WTC final•Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

While Conrad is proud of that, he understands his team is not the finished product and has repeatedly pointed out areas of improvement. He also acknowledged that “the format is not ideal” because not only do all the teams in the WTC not play against each other in a cycle but teams also don’t play the same number of matches. Each team plays six series in a WTC cycle – three home, three away – which means there are at least two teams on the points table they will not play.The number of matches in each series is also agreed on by the individual boards. While India, Australia and England scheduled five-Test series against each other, Cricket South Africa chose only two-match series for this cycle as a cost- and time-saving measure and Conrad hopes that will change.”Hopefully, the ICC is going to take control, whoever is going to take control, make it more even or more fair. But I’m not going to sit here and apologise.”The uneven number of fixtures is also why the WTC table is based on percentage points rather than actual points. As things stand, South Africa have won seven of 11 Tests in the cycle and have a winning percentage of 66.67%. Even if they lose the New Year’s Test to Pakistan, their percentage of 61.11 will be enough to see them finish in the top two. Conrad believes this is as fair a way of ranking the teams as there can be.”What do I say to the people who are jumping up and down? Look, with the little bit of math I did, percentages are probably the ideal way of working it out. Let’s assume we play 12 [Tests] now and we win six, then we end up with 50%. Because some other teams play 20 Tests, is it okay for them to lose ten and be the same? You still have to win more than you lose and get your percentages up, irrespective of who you play against.”Vaughan also concluded that South Africa “decided Test match cricket wasn’t quite as important” when they took a second-string team to New Zealand and insisted their frontline players fulfilled contractual obligations to the SA20. At the time, Steve Waugh wondered if South Africa’s actions would be a “defining moment in the death of Test cricket”, but Conrad viewed it pragmatically.”The SA20 has to happen because it is the lifeblood of South African cricket,” he said last January. “If it doesn’t happen, we are not going to have Test cricket anyway. We’ve got to find a way to coexist with the league, we’ve got to co-exist with leagues around the world to ensure the sustainability of the game.”The third season of the SA20 will begin on January 9; the tournament has turned a profit for the last two years. CSA, as majority shareholders, has been paid dividends in the tens of millions of Rands and that is only expected to grow.This year the scheduling of the SA20 means that South Africa will not have their strongest side available to them for an ODI tri-series in Pakistan ahead of the Champions Trophy. CSA has promised there will not be any further clashes with the SA20 and bilateral cricket, which includes England’s inbound tour in the 2026-27 season.That Test series will form part of the 2025-2027 cycle of the WTC, in which South Africa will play both England and Australia (also at home) in three-Test series each, after travelling to Pakistan and India later this year.

“Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting,” says the England captain

S Sudarshanan31-Jan-20250:53

Butller: Rana for Dube wasn’t a like-for-like replacement

There was scrutiny around India’s move to bring on Harshit Rana as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube during the fourth T20I against England, with England captain Jos Buttler saying after the match that this did not fit the definition of a like-for-like replacement. The television commentators who were on air at the time of the substitution – Kevin Pietersen and Nick Knight – had also questioned the swap. Dube did not take the field in the chase, after taking a blow on the helmet on his way to 53 off 34 balls.”It is not a like-for-like replacement. We don’t agree with that,” Buttler said after India completed a 15-run win. “Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting. It’s part of the game and we really should have gone on to win the match, but we disagree with the decision.”There was no consultation [with us]. That’s something I was thinking as I came out to bat – who is Harshit on for? They said he is a concussion replacement, which I obviously disagreed with. It is not a like-for-like replacement. They said that the match referee had made the decision. We had no say in it or any part of it. But we’ll ask Javagal [Srinath] some questions just to get some clarity around it.Related

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“Like I said, it was not the whole reason why we did not win the match. We had our chances to win the game which we could have still taken. But I’d like to have a bit more clarity on that.”As per the ICC’s playing conditions for men’s T20Is, “The ICC Match Referee should ordinarily approve a Concussion Replacement Request if the replacement is a like-for-like player whose inclusion will not excessively advantage his/her team for the remainder of the match. In assessing whether the nominated Concussion Replacement should be considered a like-for-like player, the ICC Match Referee should consider the likely role the concussed player would have played during the remainder of the match, and the normal role that would be performed by the nominated Concussion Replacement.”Dube scored a half-century after walking in at 57 for 4 and stitched an 87-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Hardik Pandya. It allowed India to post 181 for 9. On the penultimate ball of the innings, Dube was hit on the helmet by Jamie Overton’s 141.5kph bumper.India had batting allrounder Ramandeep Singh on the bench, who might have better fit the definition of a like-for-like replacement for Dube. For a short while, Ramandeep came on as a substitute for Varun Chakravarthy.3:48

How allrounders test the limits of concussion sub rules

“He [Rana] is not the like-to-like replacement for Shivam Dube,” Pietersen had said on air. “You ask anyone in the world, and they will say the same thing. Dube is not a genuine pacer, but Rana is.” Knight also echoed these thoughts.India’s assistant coach Morne Morkel said: “Shivam came off the field in the innings break with mild headache symptoms. We took a name forward to the match referee in terms of a suitable substitution, and from there it is up to the match referee to make the decision. When the decision was made, Harshit was having dinner. So we had to get him ready as quickly as possible to go on the field and bowl.”It goes to the powers above me – match referee makes the decision. We can only take the name forward and from there it is out of our hands.”Rana, who was playing his first T20I, was brought into the attack in the 12th over and he struck with his second ball. He got a short-of-good-length ball to bounce extra to take the outside edge of Liam Livingstone, who had looked to guide it through third. Rana bowled his full quota of overs and picked up three wickets. He also was at short third to catch out England captain Jos Buttler, who walked back fuming and had a few words with head coach Brendon McCullum, perhaps regarding the approval of Rana as the concussion substitute.”Two overs into the chase, I was told [about being the concussion substitute],” Rana said after the match. “I have been preparing for a while, not just for this series. I have been waiting for this moment [his debut] to prove myself. When I got the chance, I did not think of the circumstances and just thought about delivering. I have experience of bowling at the death [for KKR in the IPL] and relied on that.”

“He’s bowling with full rhythm today, too. He’s also putting work in the gym and isn’t complaining of any pains”

Danyal Rasool18-Feb-20252:13

Rizwan hopes to see more ICC events in Pakistan soon

Pakistan have been handed a boost ahead of the Champions Trophy opener, with fast bowler Haris Rauf expected to be “fully fit” against New Zealand, according to their captain Mohammad Rizwan.”Haris bowled 6-8 overs a couple of days ago, and bowled a fair bit yesterday too,” Rizwan said at the captain’s press conference on the eve of the tournament. “He’s bowling with full rhythm today, too. He’s also putting work in the gym and isn’t complaining of any pains. We think he’s fully fit.”Rauf sustained a muscular sprain in his chest while bowling in the opening game of the tri-series against New Zealand on February 8, and was in a race against time to be fit for the start of the tournament. He did not play the remainder of the series, though ESPNcricinfo understands that was more out of an abundance of caution than an indicator of the injury’s severity.Related

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After the press conference, Rauf was seen bowling in the nets during Pakistan’s final practice session before the tournament at the National Stadium. It clears Pakistan up to play what they view as their first-choice bowling lineup, one that features Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Rauf. The three played together in an attack that ultimately ended up on the wrong side of a result against New Zealand in the opener of the tri-series. They play the same side tomorrow in the Champions Trophy curtain-raiser as Pakistan prepare to host their first ICC tournament since 1996.”We suffered for 10 years when no side came here,” Rizwan said. “But Pakistan still produced solid results. So we have no doubts about our ability.”However, it is hard to escape the idea that Pakistan go into their first game as relative underdogs. New Zealand beat them twice in the tri-series, going unbeaten across the tournament to lift the title. They went on to demonstrate their all-round ability, defending a total against Pakistan in one game before easing to two chases in games against South Africa and Pakistan. At the same time, they brushed aside injuries to fast bowlers Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears, retaining their fast-bowling threat, while reigning Pakistan in through the middle overs with a varied array of spinners.”There are ups and downs and certain deficiencies in our side,” Rizwan said. “We are aware we need to bring about certain improvements in our professionalism and consistency.0:57

Urooj: Huge responsibility for Pakistan to defend the title at home

“We tried to learn from the tri-series, which is why we batted first in the final to work out where our weaknesses lie. We used that series as a training experience. We hope we’ve learned enough to cover for those weaknesses tomorrow.”But along with the usual cheery optimism, Rizwan’s statements were laced with a kind of naked hunger he has rarely let slip in the past. Wearing his religion on his sleeve, he tends to resign himself to “the will of Allah” as he often says. It can take the pressure off, a valuable skill for a Pakistan captain, but today, Rizwan seemed to teeter on the edge of fantasising how much he wanted to win an ICC event, and how good it would be to win this one at home.”We’ve come so close a few times,” he said. “We need to work out how to get that extra one per cent to win those big matches. No one can guarantee that success, and we’re still in search of that final step where we lose big games or tournaments.”Every player is desperate for this title. And we’re doing everything we can to work out how to win. I don’t think any country works as hard as we do.”It’s uncommon to hear Rizwan speak with that kind of edge. Soon enough, he was back to his usual gregarious self, talking about how “all 15 players were captains” and the value of team performances over individual brilliance. But then again, perhaps that is the “extra one per cent” Pakistan, and Rizwan, are so desperately hunting for.

De Leede leads fight for Durham with hard-earned four-wicket haul

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 22-Jun-2025A resilient unbeaten century from Sussex’s James Coles defied an excellent bowling performance from Durham’s Bas de Leede on day one of their Rothesay County Championship clash.Ben Raine struck early to give Durham a dream start, but they were pegged back by half-centurion Daniel Hughes, however he was dismissed after lunch to hand Durham the early initiative.Coles remained calm and composed to steady the ship in the afternoon and he along with captain John Simpson put pressure on the Durham bowlers. However, the hosts bounced back after tea thanks to de Leede (4/83), who bowled well on his first appearance of the season.Coles remained at the crease and continued to frustrate the hosts and reached his hundred just before close, with Sussex finishing the day on 322 for nine..Sussex got off to a bad start at an overcast Banks Homes Riverside as Raine removed the in-form Tom Haines for four as he chopped on to his off-stump.Hughes responded with a lovely boundary through the covers from a Matthew Potts delivery, but the Durham opening bowlers limited Sussex’s run-making opportunities. That pressure nearly told as Raine dropped a catch from his own bowling when Hughes mistimed an aerial drive on 15.At the other end Tom Clark took a while to get going, but he played a glorious cover drive for four in Sam Conners’ first over of the season. Hughes continued to take opportunities to score as he slammed a George Drissell ball down the ground for four.Drissell struck back for Durham shortly before lunch as he bowled Clark for 30 with one that found the Sussex man’s off-stump.Hughes then reached his half-century, with it coming from 101 deliveries, but the Australian was bowled for 60 by de Leede, who produced a beauty to dislodge the off-stump.Coles started nicely to thwart Durham’s bowling attack, but the hosts struck back with Conners picking up his first County Championship wicket of the season as Ibrahim was caught behind for five.Durham continued to pile on the pressure and they very nearly had their fifth when Ollie Robinson dropped a regulation catch down the legside after Coles nicked a Raine delivery when he was on 35.Sussex skipper Simpson started well as he launched a Drissell ball down the ground for six.Coles continued to tick along, taking scoring opportunities whenever they presented themselves, with him playing a lovely shot through the covers from the bowling of England man Matthew Potts. The Sussex man then passed fifty for the third time this season, but Simpson was dropped on 17 by Drissell at slip off the bowling of Potts.Coles then pulled a de Leede bouncer to the boundary, while Simpson flicked the first ball after tea to the legside boundary. The impressive Conners struck back with Simpson edging behind to Robinson for a well-made 40.Coles continued to motor though as he caressed a Conners ball through the covers for four and he whipped one through the onside soon after.Wickets kept on falling at the other end though as de Leede got Fynn Hudson-prentice for five after he chipped one up to Emilio Gay at cover and the Dutchman struck again as Jack Carson was caught behind for two.Ollie Robinson came to the crease and hit two boundaries, but he was LBW for nine when Raine caught him plumb in front of his stumps.That brought Jofra Archer to the crease, playing his first red ball game since 2021, and he hit Potts for four through third region.Coles, on 95, nearly fell short of his ton when a leading edge from Raine found its way to de Leede at backward point, but he was dropped for the second time. He then well and truly made Durham pay for their sloppy fielding when he reached his fifth First Class century from 169 balls.Archer looked in good touch with the bat as he slammed a Raine delivery through the covers for four and he then hit de Leede for six, but he was dismissed for 31 from the next ball as he pulled one to Conners on the boundary.Coles remained unbeaten on 117 at close, taking his side to 322 for nine.

“I can’t see this being the same top three for the Ashes,” Stuart Broad says of the Khawaja-Konstas-Green combination currently in action in the West Indies

Andrew McGlashan10-Jul-20250:31

Konstas chops on for a duck

Stuart Broad is wondering how Australia can go into the Ashes later this year with the top three currently on show in the West Indies, terming it the most “muddled” combination he has seen from them, although he backed Sam Konstas to be in the side come November.While England have three more Tests to play against India, Australia’s pink-ball outing against West Indies in Jamaica, which starts on Saturday, will be their final Test before the Ashes begins in Perth in late November with the likelihood of another selection race early in the season.Having given Marnus Labuschagne one match as opener in the World Test Championship final, Australia recalled Konstas for this series and Cameron Green has had the No. 3 spot since Lord’s following his return from injury. Konstas has made scores of 3, 5, 25 and 0, while there are continuing questions about Usman Khawaja’s form, although there were encouraging signs from Green in Grenada, where he scored a half-century.Related

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“I can’t see this being the same top three for the Ashes,” Broad said on the . “I’m trying not to look that far ahead, particularly with English cricket, but the Aussie selectors generally get it right and they can’t be watching the top three currently in the Caribbean going, ‘That top three is amazing’.”I’m not out of place in thinking it’s the most muddled top three in my lifetime. I’ve grown up with [Matthew] Hayden, [Justin] Langer, [Ricky] Ponting, [David] Warner, [Shane] Watson,” Broad added. “But I think Usman is struggling. Cameron Green at three, he’s a six, isn’t he? Five or six.”Konstas is young and learning his way. Those pitches in the Caribbean have been quite tricky, so I imagine he’ll get a run. I watched him net before the World Test Championship at Lord’s where he didn’t play, the crunch off the bat that you hear… but you get a couple of low scores and you start to question yourself a little bit. But I think he is there to stay.”Getting under the skin of the Australians was a trademark for Broad as a player, and when asked about the comments batting coach Michael Di Venuto had made about being comfortable with the batting line-up, said dryly: “Oh, that’s good… is he a selector?”However, di Venuto conceded the team’s batting had not functioned collectively for a period of time, but he reiterated the challenging nature of the conditions in the West Indies.”We don’t hide behind the fact that we haven’t functioned as a unit for the last couple of years,” he said. “Take out the Sri Lanka series where we were outstanding in the spinning conditions, apart from that it’s been really hard work and we’ve relied on individual brilliance to get us totals. Batting averages have come down, so too have the bowling averages. The bowlers have had some fun in the last couple of years and that’s just the way it is.”