Showing posts with label Hampshire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hampshire. Show all posts
Saturday, September 7, 2019

Three Players Who Could Answer England’s Batting Problems In the Future


Although England are the number one team in the world now in the international one-day rankings, their Test performances have suffered as a result. The world champions have tried to covert explosive white-ball specialists into the Test arena and it has not worked.
Here is a look at three players England are likely to be monitoring closely and could get a call-up in the winter and beyond.

Haseeb Hameeb (Lancashire)



It was only a couple of years ago that Lancashire’s Haseeb Hameeb was seen as England’s future opening batsman. He made his debut for the Three Lions at the age of just 19 against India where he scored 82 runs in three matches before being ruled out due to a finger injury. Sadly for the youngster, he has been unable to impress the selectors enough to get a recall back into the Test team. Lancashire, who are now as short as 1/50 incricket betting for the County Championship Division Two, recently revealed that they will be releasing the batsman at the end of the current season, therefore, Hameeb will need to go elsewhere and prove himself again. There is unlikely to be a shortage of offers for the Englishman so don’t rule out him producing his best cricket again in the near future and forcing himself back into the England team.

Sam Northeast (Hampshire)

At the age of 29, Sam Northeast is now in the peak stages of his career and will feel now is the time he should be given the chance to shine in international cricket. The Hampshire batsman has scored three centuries in the Country Championship this season and is very much on course for passing 1000 runs when the campaign is over. Northeast has featured for the England Lions when they faced the West Indies A team in Antigua, so he has been on the selectors’ radar before. Given the season he has had domestically, there is a strong case to be made for him to be given an opportunity this winter when England travel to the southern hemisphere to take on New Zealand and South Africa respectively.

Dominic Sibley (Warwickshire)

No player has scored more runs in the County Championship this season than Warwickshire’s Dominic Sibley. The domestic game is there to support the England team and if statistics like that are used to help the selectors, then Sibley is surely top of the list when it comes to who will be the next man to given a chance in the Test fold. The 23-year-old has had a superb campaign so far and has really excelled since joining Warwickshire. Sibley still holds the record for the being the youngest player in County Championship history to score a double century as he did so as the age of just 18. If needed, the right-arm batsman can bowl leg-break which would give England another option with the ball in the winter.
For now, all the focus will be on the Ashes as England look to come out on top against their old foes Australia, but the selectors are sure to be thinking about what the future of this team is.

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Sunday, May 6, 2012

Shoaib Malik, you bloody liar !

A few days ago, it was reported that Shoaib Malik was hopeful of making a comeback to the Pakistan team for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka; and keeping that in mind he had turned down county offers.

He also claimed that the counties had required that he sign a contract to choose county over country in case he was invited for Pakistan duty.

I doubted that any county contract would have that clause.


Just two days since Malik claimed to have those offers, Hampshire and Essex have come out and said that they never made any offer to Shoaib Malik!

Oh Malik, how you have been caught red handed trying to fool the public, the selectors, and the board.

What a liar.

So its come to this where Shoaib Malik will do anything to get back into the good books of the people that matter? He will resort to lies and dirty tactics to try and win the people's favour, and that of the selectors?

Malik was in miserable form throughout last year. After he was dropped and brought back on Misbah's request for the series in England, he failed terribly.

There is no reason for Malik to be in the Pakistan squad. There is no room for him there either.

No reason because of his utterly shit international form - I really don't think that domestic form counts for anything if you keep failing continuously in international cricket.

And no room because of his continuous lies, manipulation, and politicking.

Every single senior played had a problem with him when he first became captain. Yousuf, Afridi, Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, and even Younis Khan who doesn't generally get involved in petty politics had issues with Shoaib Malik's presence as the team leader.

Not because he was a junior cricketer leading them on the field, but because he was a spineless idiot who became Nasim Ashraf's puppet and almost destroyed the careers of Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq.

It is no secret that he has time and again returned to the international fold on the back of political pressure. Why else would an out of form cricketer be selected repeatedly.

Enough is enough now.

With all this tainted history, and the recent lies in an effort to manipulate the selectors and fans minds, Shoaib Malik needs to be kept away from the Pakistan cricket team for good.

Please!

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Friday, June 17, 2011

How Strong is Shahid Afridi's Political Clout?

This question came to my mind when I read about the settlement that Shahid Afridi and the PCB have come to.

Rs. 4.5 million in exchange for an NOC to play for Hampshire in the Friends Life T20 in England.

Not a bad deal I think.

I don't know the worth of Afridi's Hampshire contract, but anything above £32,000 means that Afridi will make a profit at the end of his stint. Hampshire have still got 10 league games to play in the tournament and more depending on how far they qualify. Surely he will make a lot more than £32,000.

What caught my attention the most, however, was the speed with which the settlement was reached.

Sure Afridi left no stone unturned and even reached out to the President's 21 year old son in London. For what exactly, I am not sure but I guess Bilawal Bhutto has some influence over the Pakistan president, who also happens to be the Patron of the PCB.

I think Afridi beat Ijaz Butt at his own game. The one thing Ijaz Butt has had going for him is the support of the Pakistan president.

And Afridi just showed that he's got more of that support.

Younis Khan fought endlessly and silently against the PCB for 10 long months before returning to the team.

Mohammad Yousuf has tussled with the PCB and left the team and returned so many times that I have lost count.

Shoaib Malik's and Danish Kaneria's issues with the PCB are still pending and both players continue to miss out on international duty.

Zulqarnain Haider is another player whose case has been going on forever.

On top, Mohammad Ilyas, the selector who got involved in the Afridi vs PCB war, remains suspended.

And on the other side we have Afridi who refuses to apologise, refuses to play international cricket under the current board and management, yet he got what he wanted - the permission to play for Hampshire.

It cost him Rs. 4.5 million but still he managed to garner support from political figures, as well as, the general public - something that many of his peers could not manage.

So how much political clout does Shahid Afridi really have?

Sure the case with the PCB will continue into the longer term, but with a view on short term gains, Afridi has definitely walked out with the upper hand.

Player ho to aisa!

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Hopes Tops the List in Episode II of the IPL Player Auction

Part II of the IPL Player Auction was held today. I reported yesterday that Misbah and James Hopes were likely to recieve the highest bids in todays Auction and they in fact did. Well kind of.

Hopes was the most expensive player auctioned today as he went to Preity Zinta's Mohali for $300,000.

Misbah was picked up by Vijay Mallya's Bangalore for $125,000. I thought he would have gone for much more but I guess not many were interested in him, which is surprising. Misbah joins Darvid, Kallis, and Chanderpaul in the Royal Challenger's middle order.

A number of other international players, who were not listed in the 18 initially announced to be auctioned, were sold today as well. This had something to do with a list of names provided by the franchises to the BCCI.

The first English player was signed up with the IPL today - Dmitri Mascarenhas was picked up by Jaipur for $100,000 after an agreement was signed between Jaipur and Hampshire, who have released Mascarenhas for the initial part of the county season. Hampshire will reportedly be compensated for the time Mascarenhas is not available to them.

This just goes to show how the counties and boards are willing to oblige to the BCCI for the IPL, actions that are totally opposite to the ones bing shown for the ICL. Its quite obvious that Shane Warne, captain of Jaipur and Hampshire, would have played a role in the negotiations.

The other players auctioned today include:

Jaipur: Shane Watson ($125,000), Sohail Tanvir ($100,000), Morne Morkel ($60,000), and U19 players Taruwar Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.

Kolkata: Salman Butt ($100,000), Mohammad Hafeez ($100,000) and U19 players Iqbal Abdullah and Siddarth Kaul.

Mohali: Luke Pomersbach ($50,000), Kyle Mills ($150,000), and U19 players Ajitesh Argal and Tanmay Srivastava.

Delhi: Brett Greeves ($50,000) and U19 Pradeep Sangwan (Soulberry, your wish of Sangwan in the same team as Asif and Mcgrath has been granted).

(Know anything about Greeves Uncle J?)

Bangalore: Ross Taylor ($100,000), Abdur Razzak ($50,000), and U19 Shreevats Goswami.

Mumbai: Ashwell Prince ($175,000), and U19 players Manish Pandey and Saurabh Tiwary.

Chennai: U19 players Napoleon Einstein, Abhinav Mukund, Viraj Kadbe.

Why did Mumbai pay $175,000 for Ashwell Prince when no one was interested in him the first time round?

Many players still remain unsold, but reports indicate that they will be paid their base prices despite not playing for any team.

Earning money for no work? I am definitely in the wrong job.

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