Aug
21
ECB quiet over Fred surgery reports
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The ECB have refused to comment on a report that Andrew Flintoff will undergo knee surgery after the Ashes series.
Flintoff, 31, is scheduled to be flying to Belfast next Tuesday with the England one-day squad, having been selected earlier this week.
But a report in the Daily Telegraph claims he will have a major operation which will keep him sidelined for nine months.
An ECB spokesman said: “We are making no further comment on his medical condition. We are leaving him to concentrate on the task at hand, which is on the field.
“As we have said previously an operation remains an option at the end of the series.
“He will be reassessed at the end of this current match.”
Flintoff is due to see specialist Andy Williams regarding his right knee in the near future, after being cleared to play in the Ashes finale at the Oval.
Lancashire all-rounder Flintoff missed the fourth Test defeat at Headingley due to a flaring of the problem, but is expected to play a full part in England’s attempts to defeat the Australians for a second successive home campaign.
Apr
16
Flower can lift England
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The ECB said it had not settled for second best in a man with “potential” but no top-level experience as a head coach.
“As a player Andy became ranked as the number one batsman in the world and the ECB believe he has the vision, the drive and ambition to be just as successful in his new post,” said Hugh Morris, the ECB’s managing director.
“I was impressed with the way Andy handled the West Indies tour in difficult circumstances.
“We had 30 people apply for the post altogether. We narrowed it down to a shortlist. There was a great deal of interest and we were very happy with the standard of candidates and we believe we have the right man to do the job for England.
“Andy was a world-class cricketer. We have every belief he is capable of becoming a world-class coach. I believe he has the ability to take England back to where we want them to be.
“He brings honesty, integrity and has a clear vision where he wants to take England. Andy did a terrific job in the West Indies. He has a strong reputation in the game and we see him as a person to take England forward.”
Stability
Flower also brings vital stability and continuity to the England team after a turbulent 12 last months and with a hectic and high-pressure international season looming large.
Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood resigned as Test and one-day captains last summer. Moores and Kevin Pietersen were then removed from their positions as coach and captain respectively after the India tour.
Due to all the upheaval, it took Flower until midway through the West Indies tour to decide that he wanted to apply for the position.
Flower has been given the toughest possible summer in which to cut his coaching teeth with England facing a return series against the West Indies before the World Twenty20 and then the Ashes.
Ford cited the lack of preparation time for such an important summer as one of main reasons for withdrawing his application for the position.
Flower’s first selection meeting this weekend will thrash out a Test squad but he must also appoint a new Twenty20 captain and decide whether he need to make changes behind the scenes.
Flower to stem England’s decline
High up the agenda at the selection meeting will be the issue of Vaughan and where, if at all, the 2005 Ashes-winning captain fits into England’s plans to regain the urn.
Vaughan started pre-season well for Yorkshire but squandered a chance to impress the selectors after being dismissed for 12 playing for the MCC against county champions Durham.
“There are some big decisions to make. (Michael Vaughan) will be an interesting topic,” Flower said.
“We have a selection meeting this weekend. We will be discussing all sorts of things. That is one of the topics we will discuss.
“This is a huge summer of cricket. It is not going to be easy but the exciting thing is the challenge that presents.
“There is a lot of hard work to be done. I want an ethos of constant improvement. I want us to be physically and mentally tough.
“We will carry on the hard work we put in in the West Indies and take that on.”
Recruitment search
Earlier, Andy Flower was confirmed as England’s new team director after a global recruitment search ended right back on the doorstep at Lord’s.
Flower, 40, was appointed as Peter Moores’ permanent successor after acting as interim head coach on England’s recent 11-week tour of the West Indies.
The England and Wales Cricket Board had engaged professional head-hunting firm Odgers Ray & Berndtson to identify the ideal candidate.
Potential high-profile targets such as Australian Tom Moody and South African Mickey Arthur ruled themselves out of the reckoning while Kent’s Graham Ford withdrew his application.
Mar
9
Pietersen reveals IPL safety fears
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England batsman Kevin Pietersen said on Sunday that he could pull out of the Indian Premier League on security grounds. 
Pietersen is due to make his decision after talks with England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) officials and his IPL franchise, Bangalore Royal Challengers, after the ongoing fifth and final Test against the West Indies in Trinidad.
The South Africa-born shotmaker was widely praised when, as England captain, he led his adopted country back to India after the Mumbai terror attacks.
But the attack last Monday on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore, which left eight Pakistanis dead while seven Sri Lankan players and an assistant coach, as well as a Pakistani umpire, were wounded, has heightened the safety fears of the world’s leading cricketers about playing in the sub-continent.
And even though the Twenty20 IPL is a highly lucrative event - Pietersen was purchased by the Royal Challengers for 1.55 million dollars, the same auction-topping fee the Chennai Super Kings spent on his England team-mate Andrew Flintoff - the ex-England captain is now considering whether the risks outweigh the rewards of what would be a three-week stint in the tournament.
“I will be consulting as many people as I can but if I don’t think it is right, then I will not be going,” Pietersen told the News of the World.
“After this final Test against the West Indies, I will be speaking to Bangalore, to the ECB, to my agent and to security advisors.
“Then I will be a lot clearer in my thoughts than I am now. Since the terror attacks in Mumbai we are all now more mindful of our own security arrangements.
“Hopefully the security will come right for India but if everybody pulls out of the IPL then it would be a disaster, a catastrophe, and world cricket would really be on a down.
“India is the force behind most of world cricket but there are things we have to go through before we go.”
England returned to India after being promised increased security. But while sportsmen were not the objects of attack in Mumbai, the way that Sri Lanka’s cricketers came under fire in Lahore threatens to make Pakistan a no-go area for touring teams.
Next February is meant to see an England tour of Pakistan but Pietersen said: “I think, at the moment, it is unlikely people will be comfortable travelling there. It is very, very sad - I feel sorry for the Pakistan cricketers.
“I feel sorry for everybody in Pakistan but everybody thought sportsmen were safe, they thought cricketers were safe but obviously they are not.
“I am shocked, it is a tragedy and a catastrophe - not just in sport but in the world. I don’t think anyone would want to travel to Pakistan at the moment.”
Pietersen added: “There has never been an incident like that. Everyone said cricketers were safe but now they are not safe in the subcontinent, so it is very worrying.”
Feb
21
ECB still fighting Stanford fire
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The severing of all ties between the ECB and Allen Stanford has not stopped the criticism of chairman Giles Clarke.
It was announced this afternoon the four remaining Stanford Twenty20 matches in Antigua and three quadrangular tournaments in England - the first of which was scheduled for Lord’s this May - had been cancelled.
The decision followed the charges levelled at Stanford this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in his native America, which accuse the financier of masterminding a fraud totalling US dollars 9.2billion in value.
ECB chief executive David Collier said: “ECB was shocked by the charges filed against the Stanford organisation and personnel earlier this week by the SEC.
“Within minutes of the announcement, ECB determined to suspend any further discussions with Stanford and the board has now agreed to terminate the ECB’s agreements with Stanford.”
Each of the Stanford matches in the Caribbean was worth USD20million, while USD9million was on offer to the countries involved in each edition of the quadrangular tournament.
However, only £3million of Stanford’s cash is thought to have found its way into ECB coffers since the two parties first reached agreement last June.
Each of the 18 counties received £50,000 last year as a result of the Stanford deal, and there were fears over the impact a termination of the agreement could have on the domestic game.
But at a meeting of the Executive Committee yesterday, Collier reiterated counties would not suffer financially.
“Given the uncertainty of the financial markets and the sponsorship dispute between Digicel and the West Indies Cricket Board over the matches in Antigua in 2008, the Executive Committee and board, when setting the 2009 budgets, took a prudent position in creating a contingency in case the Antigua matches did not proceed,” Collier said.
“For that reason, ECB was able to confirm immediately to counties and the Recreational Assembly that there would be no impact on fee payments in 2009.”
That news was welcomed by Essex chief executive David East who said: “(Confirmation) that the termination of the Stanford agreements would not negatively impact our fee payments was a great relief to all counties.
“This fact allows counties to move forward with their 2009 budgets given that, for some counties, the ECB fee payment accounts for the majority of their income.”
However, Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson, who earlier this week called for Clarke to quit over the debacle, was not so easily won over and claimed the ECB had failed in their duty of care to the English game.
“My criticism remains of Giles, that he was very much at the forefront of this deal,” Davidson told BBC Radio Five Live.
“If anything, my criticism is widening. I’m beginning to read and understand that the board members who apparently unanimously approved this contract with Stanford, most of them had not read it or not read it in detail.
“They have a duty to protect our interests and, if it is true they didn’t read it, then where was the risk assessment, which is normal corporate governance practice? What were those board members doing? I think they need to look at themselves.”
Davidson agreed the ECB had been correct to end their relationship with Stanford, who was tracked down by the FBI in Virginia last night and served with legal papers.
“It’s the only credible position the ECB could take,” he added.
“I didn’t like the way the whole thing was presented, the image damaged cricket, and that we were contracted with this individual, making us unique in the world of cricket.
“By and large, cricket boards around the world contract with other cricket boards - they know who they’re dealing with and the reliability of them.
“Here we were, contracted with an individual we knew nothing about.”
Further details have also emerged today of the financial turmoil surrounding Stanford’s cricket-related deals in the Caribbean.
The West Indies Cricket Board have revealed they did not receive any of the USD3.5million owed to them following last year’s Stanford Super Series, which culminated with the All Stars defeating England by 10 wickets in the winner-takes-all showpiece.
Clarke said earlier this week all monies from the tournament had been paid to his knowledge.
However, it appears Stanford had held back from settling with West Indies because of the contractual dispute between the WICB and Digicel in the lead-up to the tournament.
Antigua Cricket Association chairman Enoch Lewis also told the Press Association they have only received a quarter of the USD100,000 share due to them for taking part in the domestic Twenty20 competition.
Jan
4
KP: Dressing room unhappy
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Kevin Pietersen said the dressing room atmosphere is far from healthy and the ECB should put the house in order at the earliest.
The England captain Virtually admitting that his working relationship with coach Peter Moores has broken down,
“Obviously this situation is not healthy, we have to make sure it is settled as soon as possible and certainly before we fly off to the West Indies,” the England captain told ‘The News of the World’ tabloid.
“Everything has to be hunky dory, everybody has to have the same aims and pull in the same direction for the good of the England team,” added Pietersen, who prepares to return from holiday in South Africa and meet England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Manging Director Hugh Morris who has been entrusted with the job of brokering peace between Pietersen and Moores.
Morris has already met Moores but the England coach is believed to be on his way out after losing the captain’s trust.
“There is no way Pietersen and Moores can work together, they’re just too far apart,” a ‘dressing-room source’ was quoted as saying.
“The ECB are caught in the middle of this and are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If they back KP, then there’s massive problems among the backroom staff. But if they go with the coach, then the best player becomes disillusioned, they possibly lose a captain and there is a huge fracture.”
Dec
8
Mohali still a doubt for second Test
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There is still some doubt on whether Mohali will be the venue for the second Test of England’s two match series against India.
The BCCI, in a bid to salvage the series chose Chennai and Mohali as the two new venues instead of terror-hit Mumbai and Ahmedabad, but a final all-clear for Mohali is still awaited.
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s security adviser Reg Dickason is expected to make a recce of the stadium and the hotel in Mohali some time this week before a final decision is taken.
Dickason, the ECB’s Managing Director Hugh Morris and the Chief Executive of England Players’ Association Sean Morris were scheduled to visit Mohali tomorrow but the trip has been put off for a later date.
“The visit of ECB security advisor Reg Dickason has been postponed and the exact schedule of his visit has not been received. Therefore the press conference which was fixed for December 9 stands cancelled,” the Punjab cricket Association said in a statement, without giving any reason for the postponement.
A full-strength England team will reach Chennai tonight in two batches and will play the first Test at the M A Chidambaram stadium from December 11, which means the players will get just two days to acclimatise to the conditions.
But doubts have risen over Mohali as the venue for the second match mainly because of logistical problems. Bangalore and Delhi are in line as alternatives, and both would allow an easier passage home for the squad.
“It’s purely a time-frame thing. Once the players are in Chennai the security guys will be doing all of the checks (in Mohali). There are a couple of small details we need to sort out. Then hopefully it will go ahead,” Sean Morris told Sky Sports News. The series, which had become uncertain in the wake of the Mumbai carnage, got the final nod late last night after the players were briefed about the security assurances given by the Indian authorities.
“We took players through security advice and now they are looking forward to getting down and playing cricket now. My role was to make sure they have the accurate information”, Morris said.
“They asked some great questions and it was great to see the room come together. I spoke to every player over the last few days. They had a lot of questions and needed them all answered,” he said.
The BCCI officials, on their part, are confident that they have met all the ECB’s requirements for extra security, which will be at unprecedented levels during the two Tests.
There were reports that some senior players like former captain Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison may back out of the tour but apparently Dickason’s security briefing has allayed their apprehensions.
Two new faces were added to the squad earlier on Sunday, with Kent’s Amjad Khan replacing the injured Ryan Sidebottom and Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid being taken along for exposure.
Nov
29
The fate of England’s Test tour to India lies in the hands of the players themselves, according to their captain, Kevin Pietersen, as the team prepares to fly home from the country in the wake of the terrorist atrocities that have rocked Mumbai over the past two days. 
Officials from both England and India are adamant that the Test series will go ahead, particularly after the BCCI agreed to shift the second Test from Mumbai to Chennai on a request from the ECB. But according to Pietersen, the situation is not so cut-and-dried. If his team-mates have reservations about taking part, he will not be forcing them to re-join the tour.
“We need to make sure the security’s right - but if it’s not safe then we won’t be coming back,” Pietersen told Sky Sports. “People are their own people, I’ll never force anyone to do anything or tell them to do anything against their will. On the field I may ask people to do things in a certain way but people run their own lives. We’ll have to see how the security is.”
Despite the postponement of the final two ODI fixtures in Guwahati and Delhi, England are still scheduled to take part in a planned warm-up match in Baroda on December 5-7, which effectively means that the players will have no more than five days to reach a concensus and return to the country. However, a senior BCCI official admitted that the Indian board is aware that the fate of the series now lies in the hands of the England players.
“Both the boards are in complete agreement on going ahead with the Test series,” the official told Cricinfo. “But it seems the stand adopted by the England players will be crucial. At this point, I doubt whether even the ECB can confirm what their [players] position will be. The next few days will be important, but that issue is for the ECB to resolve. As far as the BCCI is concerned, there are absolutely no doubts about the Test series.”
“We’re going to London to re-evaluate the situation but the Test series is still in place,” Hugh Morris, ECB managing director, said as England left Bhubaneswar for Bangalore to catch a connecting flight to London. “This is a tragic event and the players feel desperately sorry for all that are caught up in the events in Mumbai. They’re very disturbed by it as we all are.
“To get back to a home environment will be a good thing,” said Morris. “It’s been an awful tragedy that this has happened in Mumbai and the players have felt very close to it because they have been in the hotel and in the rooms and the restaurant only a couple of weeks ago and getting back home for a few days will serve them well.”
Sean Morris, the PCA chief executive, said any decision would be based on reports from the players’ security advisors. “They will look at it in the cold light of day and ask, is it safe to return or not?” he was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. “They will go with that advice assuming the situation in India does not deteriorate further. The players have full faith in Reg Dickason [England team security officer] and will be guided by him.”
The content of that report will be eagerly awaited. A spokesman for AKE Group, a leading UK-based security firm, told Cricinfo that the level of risk faced by the England team “should not be overstated”. He did, however, concede that the high-profile nature of the team, coupled with the fact that their itinerary is widely publicised, could be a justifiable cause for concern. “India is not Iraq, it is not a naturally hostile environment,” said the spokesman. “But Britain is a front runner in the war on terror, and therefore an attack on one of their sporting teams would be high political capital, and a fair strike, so to speak.”
In the opinion of Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, there is little chance of England feeling safe enough to return to India in the foreseeable future. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Vaughan - who has been in Bangalore with the England performance squad - told how he might well have been staying in the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai on the night of the attacks, had it not been for a late change of itinerary. He underlined the proximity of the attacks by pointing out that England’s white kit for the Test series is all being stored in a room at the hotel, which was partially gutted by fire on Thursday morning.
“It’s getting closer,” Vaughan wrote. “I remember watching on TV a few weeks ago as the lorry-full of bombs went off at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, where England were due to stay for the Champions Trophy, and thinking crikey, it’s getting close. Now it’s Mumbai, where the Middlesex players were due to stay on Thursday night. There seem to be these triggers, or warnings, that it is getting closer to cricket.
“I didn’t think we were under threat in Bangalore,” Vaughan continued, “and history to date says cricketers are safe. But our security man said we couldn’t go in our England kit to the hotel where we eat 60 yards across the road from the stadium, and we’d have to go in cars, we couldn’t walk. We were told we couldn’t go to any of the hotels in Bangalore that westerners use.”
Another former England captain, who preferred not to be named, told Cricinfo that he believed that the Test series would have to be postponed in the wake of the atrocities, although he predicted a tricky round of negotiations between the English and Indian boards before the matter could reach a conclusion. If previous political stand-offs were anything to go by, the two boards were likely to present conflicting security reports, with the players caught very much in the middle.
One significant voice in support of the tour, however, is Michael Atherton, another former captain, who wrote in his Times column that he intended to travel for the series unless the Foreign Office advice changed in the meantime. “While it may seem inappropriate to say so right now, I hope the Test series in two weeks’ time can still go ahead,” he wrote. “One thing is for sure, however: since 9/11, much of the fun and spontaneity of watching sport has disappeared beneath an avalanche of security requirements. Sadly, sport, long regarded as a playground for those who want to abscond from the grim realities of daily life, is no longer immune.”
Nov
28
England fly home but Tests go ahead
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England have cut short the ongoing one-day series against India following Wednesday’s terrorist strikes in Mumbai and will fly back home on Saturday morning. However, Lalit Modi, the head of the BCCI’s fixtures committee, and Hugh Morris, the ECB’s managing director, both confirmed the Test series would still go ahead. 
“The Test series will go ahead, and there is no problem with that,” Modi told Cricinfo. “We are sure the first Test will go ahead as scheduled in Ahmedabad [from December 14]. But there is a problem over hosting the second Test in Mumbai [from December 19]. The ECB wants the Test to be shifted to southern India, we are exploring all options.”
Bangalore and Chennai are among the venues being considered and Modi said a final decision would be taken in the next 24 hours after discussions with the ground authorities.
However the England cricketers’ association chief Sean Morris said the players will take a decision based on reports from their security advisors. “They will look at it in the cold light of day and ask, is it safe to return or not?” Morris was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. “They will go with that advice assuming the situation in India does not deteriorate further. The players have full faith in Reg Dickason [England team security officer] and will be guided by him.”
The decision to postpone the remaining two ODIs of the seven-match series was taken during a meeting between BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, England’s managing director Morris, and the Indian team management in Bhubaneshwar. England did not travel to Guwahati on Thursday as scheduled and will remain in Bhubaneshwar overnight before flying to Bangalore, where they will spend Friday night, before boarding a plane home on Saturday.
“It’s very, very real and emotions are very high. It’s a sensitive time. The home environment is where the players should be for a few days,” Hugh Morris told Sky Sports News. “The Test matches are in place and, unless we get security advice to the contrary, they will be going ahead.”
The Indian team, which had a meeting mid-day, was informed by the BCCI about England’s position. “We have been told England are going back home. So we are going to our homes,” Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, told Cricinfo. As of now, the Indian team has been asked to assemble in Ahmedabad on December 8, three days before the scheduled start of the first Test start against England.
The ICC said they had “no role to play in the current situation” regarding the England tour of India. “The arrangements for the tour itself is strictly a bilateral matter,” an ICC spokesperson said. “The only time we would play a part is if there is a disagreement between the boards about whether the tour would proceed or not. In that case there would be a security assessment binding with the two boards.”
England’s High Performance squad’s tour has also been called off and the players, currently training in Bangalore, will travel home immediately. The squad, which includes Michael Vaughan, Monty Panesar and Andrew Strauss, was scheduled to reach Mumbai on December 3 to play a practice game and train with the England Test side.
The strikes, including blasts and shooting incidents, were spread out across the city but the majority of them were in south Mumbai, the main tourist hub. In the early hours of Thursday morning, a major blaze was sweeping through the Taj Mahal hotel, a city landmark and the scene of one such attack, which was to host the two Test teams and was where the England side stayed during their warm-up period in Mumbai.
It is also where Middlesex were set to check-in on Thursday for their Champions League fixtures. Middlesex were due to leave London for Mumbai at 10am on Thursday to prepare for the Champions League but postponed their departure by 24 hours after being told that matches scheduled for Mumbai would be switched to Bangalore.
The Brabourne Stadium, venue of the second Test and scheduled to host three Champions League games, is in the middle of the area where most attacks have taken place. It is also the vicinity where most foreign tourists are likely to stay.
Nov
20
India win Kanpur ODI by D/L method
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India won the Kanpur ODI by 16 runs according to the D/L method. Sehwag, Yuvraj and Dhoni batted beautifully to help India go 3-0 up.
India win by 16 runs (D/L)
India played smart cricket to ensure they went 3-0 up in the seven match ODI series against England. Sehwag scored a blistering 68 while Yuvraj continued his explosive form to blast 38. Skipper MS Dhoni alongwith Yusuf Pathan made sure India did not suffer any setbacks in the crucial last overs to end at 198 for five in 40 overs,
The action now shifts south to Bangalore where the two teams meet for a day-night encounter.
Nov
15
ECB officials to meet Modi regarding IPL
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ECB officials Giles Clarke and David Collier will meet with IPL commissioner Lalit Modi on Saturday to try and resolve a fixture clash that is hindering the participation of England players in the league’s next season in 2009.
England’s cricketers haven’t signed their central contracts with the board yet, and are awaiting the outcome of the meeting before doing so. “The guys are keen to get the central contracts signed and we are 99% of the way there,” Sean Morris, the Professional Cricketers’ Association chief executive, told BBC Sport. “We are just waiting on a few little details. We are basically waiting for Clarke and Collier to get back from India.”
“Most England players have had discussions with IPL franchises,” Morris said. “But the IPL haven’t announced their fixtures yet and we don’t definitely know England’s commitments.”
At the moment England are scheduled to play four Tests and five one-day internationals in the Caribbean, a tour which ends on April 3, 2009, after which they host Sri Lanka from May 7. The series against Sri Lanka will clash with the IPL, which is expected to be held between April 10 and May end. There are doubts over the availability of several Sri Lankan players for the tour of England though, because of their IPL commitments, but even if the tour is cancelled, the ECB have lined up West Indies as back-up.
England cricketers had to be available for the majority of the IPL for them to be part of the next players’ auction in January 2009. “That does not work for us,” Modi said. “They have to be available for a substantial period for them to be in the auction over the next two years. That’s what the next contract period will be.”