Australia expected to name new bowling coach this week

Cricket Australia is expected to name its new bowling Coach this week, with Allister de Winter and Craig McDermott among the leading contenders.

The former Australia pacers, Andy Bichel and Jason Gillespie are already out of the race to become Troy Cooley's successor.

It has also been reported that at least one high-profile overseas candidate is still among the short listed candidates.

The 46-year-old McDermott, who was appointed by Cricket Australia as the assistant at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, is supposed to the most fitting replacement for Cooley.

The Queenslander was also given a chance to press his claims to replace Cooley by sending him with the team to Bangladesh last month.

McDermott made his Test debut in December 1984, against West Indies at Melbourne. He went on to play 71 five-dayers before bidding farewell to the Test format in 1996.

His last Test appearance was against Sri Lanka in January 1996. In his 71 Test appearances, McDermott scored 940 runs and picked up 291 wickets.

The right-armer debuted in the One Day International format of cricket in January 1985 and that too against West Indies at the same Melbourne ground.

His last ODI was against Kenya on February 23, 1996. During his 11-year-long ODI career, the former Queensland speedster played 138 One day Internationals picking up 203 wickets at an average of 24.71 and an economy rate of 4.03.

Whilst McDermott is the front-runner for the coveted role, the former Tasmania all-rounder, de Winter, has also made it through the first round of interviews and could be a surprise appointment.

The 43-yaer-old De Winter never played an international game. However he played seven seasons with Tasmania Tigers from 1986 to 1983. He was a fringe player of Tigers and picked up 35 wickets from 21 First-class matches.

He had also coached the Tigers and was part of Cricket Australia's coaching development programme in South Africa in 2009.

Last summer, he mentored the Tasmanian attack and it helped the state a lot as they secured their second Sheffield Shield title.

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PCB STILL AWAITING AN ICC RESPONSE ON JAMES SUTHERLAND’S STATEMENT

The Pakistan Cricket Board's Chief Operating Officer, Subhan Ahmed said on Saturday that they were still waiting for International cricket Council’s reply to the letter the board sent to the apex body over Cricket Australia CEO, James Sutherland’s statement. Sutherland had blamed Pakistan for not doing enough to curb corruption in the international sport.

"The ICC has still not sent us a reply to our letter in which we asked them to inquire into the statement made by James Sutherland recently," told the senior PCB official today.

Subhan said that PCB avoided direct interaction with its Australian counterpart on the matter and wanted the governing body to look into the issue.

The board official reckoned the delay in ICC’s reply might be because of Easter holidays. He said that the Pakistan Cricket Board have taken the comments seriously and have asked the world body to look into the matter.

The Cricket Australia Chief Executive, in a recent interview to a leading Australia newspaper, said he did not believe that the Pakistan Cricket Board had done enough to execute the suggestions proposed by Justice Malik Qayyum and his committee in 2000 on match-fixing in Pakistan cricket.

Sutherland said that, had the Pakistan Cricket Board taken enough measures to root out corruption from its national set-up, the spot-fixing scandal embroiling three Pakistan cricketers, Salman Butt, Mohammad Amirand Mohammad Asif, could have been avoided.

The PCB official said that the Pakistan Board wanted the International Cricket Council to inquire from its Australian counterpart about the comments and find out on what grounds the CA Chief Executive had given the statement.

He said that the PCB had been the most allied ally of ICC in its fight against corruption, so Sutherland’s statement came as a surprise to them.

"The PCB has been in the forefront of fighting corruption in cricket and we have taken measures to discipline players. So Sutherland's statement came as a surprise to us," he said.

The PCB COO said that the board will also take up the matter at ICC’s next meeting scheduled to be held inHong Kong in June this year.

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BCCI refuses to allow Indians to play in the Australian Big Bash

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has disappointed Cricket Australia (CA), by not allowing their players to participate in the Big Bash.
Now, Australian cricket will have to rely on the services of the West Indian cricketers for the T20 based tournament.
CA did not ask for the Indian World Cup winning players but they were willing to hire some limited-over specialists for the Big Bash, scheduled to be played from mid December to the end of January.
The chief administrating officer of the Indian Board, Ratnakar Shetty said that the board will continue with its policy of not allowing domestic players to go since the Indian season will be played between October and March.

"In fact last year some teams wanted Indian players and they were not available because of [the] domestic tournament," said Shetty.
The chief also added that the new Indian coach has nothing to do with the policy decision of the board because players can’t be allowed to play overseas when the domestic tournament is on.
Shetty said that Sri Lanka will have their league matches in July, which does not clash with their domestic tournament so the players willing to play can participate with prior permission.
Overall schedule of the teams revealed that England players can participate in the first half of the Big Bash; while Bangladesh, New Zealand and Pakistan would enter the tournament in second half.
At the moment 35 Australian players, including the legendry Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist, are playing in the Indian Premier League’s fourth edition.
Warne is playing a dual role for the Rajasthan Royals, serving them as captain and coach. He has been successful in both the roles to a considerable extent as his team is currently third on the table.
Gilchrist on the other hand, is leading the Kings XI Punjab, who are languishing at the 7^th place.
IPL has been gaining popularity globally and it’s fourth edition is currently going on.

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Michael Clarke glad that Ricky Ponting and Australian team accept him as a captain

Michael Clarke said that he was happy with the way the former skipper Ricky Ponting and other team-mates accepted him as captain during the recently concluded One-Day tour of Bangladesh.

The tour was Ponting’s first international series under another captain in seven years. During his tenure, he led his side to two consecutive World Cup wins and in his third mega event campaign as a captain, he failed to clinch the title. In the tournament, the Aussies faced an ouster at the hands of India during the quarter-final stage.  As a result, the veteran stepped down from the post, and his deputy Clarke took over the responsibility of the captaincy.

In Clarke’s view, Ponting has still much to offer the Australian team with his batting and experience. The newly appointed skipper also said that Ponting handed over the post to him with a large heart.

"Both of us spoke openly daily, we enjoyed it and I certainly see Ricky playing a big part not only in my captaincy, but the other guys in the team and their development," Clarke said.

Clarke also stated that Ponting did not have the stress of leading the team on his shoulders and can fully concentrate on his batting and helping his team-mates. He has had significant performances in the three-match one-day series against Bangladesh. After 30 years, Ponting is the first Australian skipper, who has continued playing even after standing down from the captaincy.

The Bangladesh series was Clarke’s first as a full-time captain, where he led his side to 3-0 victory over Bangladesh. Almost all the players proved productive under Clarke’s leadership and gave useful performances.

Clarke had earlier led the Australian team 43 times in all formats of cricket, before taking the full-time responsibility as captain. The 30-year-old said that he did not feel any risk at consulting Ponting during matches.

"You're always asking other players for ideas and what their thoughts are on the field. He was there in Bangladesh when I needed him,” said Clarke.

Clarke said that he advised his team-mates to feel free to ask anything or to give ideas in favour of the team. After the Bangladesh tour’s success, the skipper said that he wanted to use the long off-season break to make the Australian team mentally and physically prepared so that they could turn out to be a top ranked team. He also added that he will utilise this time in evaluating his own and the team’s performance for the past 12 months. He also showed his interest in giving ideas to Cricket Australian in their review, which was planned in the wake of the 2010 Ashes defeat.

The Australian team will tour Sri Lanka in August, which includes One-Day matches as well as Tests.

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