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The fast bowler has recovered from the heel injury that has kept him out since the New Year’s Test against India, but will not get any chance to prove his fitness in a first-class game with the Titans leaving him out of their squad for the final fixture o

Firdose Moonda21-Mar-2018Dale Steyn’s chances of playing any part in the ongoing series against Australia have all but disappeared after he was not named in the Titans’ squad for the final fixture of the season, which starts on Thursday. Steyn, who has not played any cricket since injuring his heel in the New Year’s Test against India, has resumed bowling but needed to prove his fitness by playing in a first-class match. He was not ready to play in last week’s round of matches, and has been left out of the Titans squad.Before the series, selection convener Linda Zondi made clear that Steyn, who has suffered significant injuries in the last three years, needed to come through some domestic cricket before bidding for an international return. Faf du Plessis echoed those thoughts when discussing how quickly players should return to action after time on the sidelines.”With a bowler you’ve got to look at the individual,” du Plessis said. “Dale is obviously on the side and we have to be a little bit more cautious. He has been injured, so for him it’s probably a little bit more important to get back and play a game to see that he can bowl quite a few overs. When he gets through that he will obviously be back in the mix.”Should Steyn continue to be sidelined for this series, his next chance of playing international cricket will come in July-August when South Africa tour Sri Lanka. Before then, Steyn may look for a county stint after going unsold at the IPL auction. But there is still hope to see Steyn in action – he was given a new national contract, which will run until April 2019 – and he has expressed a desire to return to the highest level. Steyn is three wickets from overtaking Shaun Pollock as South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in Tests.

It has been an alarming start to the brand new Premier League season for Aston Villa.

Unai Emery’s men remain without a win after their first three drab contests in the tough division, with zero goals tallied up, as their latest defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace sounded the alarm bells even more, considering the Eagles wiped the floor with the Villans on their own patch 3-0.

Still, Emery will know he can turn it around at the Villa Park helm, with a bumper 76 wins under his belt, managing the West Midlands outfit.

He will also be helped by some flashy new additions that entered the building on deadline day, as both Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho now try to boost a forlorn Villa side on loan.

Aston Villa's exciting deadline day additions

After all, Villa have won very recently when it comes to getting the very best out of a loanee from a Premier League rival, with Marcus Rashford linking up with Emery and Co. last season from Manchester United to pick up a hefty ten goal contributions from 17 appearances.

Sancho will be hoping he can have a similar positive impact on proceedings, donning his new claret and blue, having just come off a promising campaign at Chelsea when loaned away from Old Trafford, where he mustered up his own impressive tally of five strikes and ten assists from 42 clashes.

For a star that was once worth £73m when entering the Theatre of Dreams, it will all centre on him trying to salvage his faltering playing days even more under Emery’s wing, with his estimated valuation now sitting at a far lower £27m, as per Football Transfers.

For £8m more, Villa could well welcome Elliott permanently after his initial loan stint is up from Liverpool, with a £35m obligation to buy having been included as part of the deal. That is in line with his current market valuation of around £34m.

This doesn’t feel like an extortionate amount to fork out either, considering the two-time Premier League winner can boast 15 goal contributions in the challenging league, despite only making just 35 starts for the Reds in the division.

Away from the plethora of new buys arriving in the West Midlands, Emery will also know he has some individuals in his side already that can deliver on the big stage, irrespective of his team’s limp opening to the campaign.

The Aston Villa star worth more than Sancho & Elliott

The former Arsenal boss has been a transformative presence for many a Villans star since he arrived at the club in 2022.

Indeed, Morgan Rogers has been turned into a Premier League superstar under the Spaniard’s expertise, with a bumper 17 goals and 17 assists next to his name for the claret and blue half of Birmingham.

Subsequently, the recent PFA Young Player of the Year recipient has been touted to step away from Villa Park for a whopping £100m, amid interest from the likes of Arsenal, despite only joining at the start of 2024 for a meagre £8m.

Amazingly, Ollie Watkins also joined the Villans back in 2020 for a reasonable £28m, with the experienced attacker now a feared Premier League goal machine for Emery’s men when performing to the peak of his powers.

Watkins has never looked back since deserting Brentford, having now amassed a mammoth 75 Premier League strikes for Villa, which has led to the 5-foot-11 marksman being dubbed as “unbelievable” by ex-Villa player Stephen Warnock, on top of being heralded as a “machine” Brentford’s programme editor, Chris Deacon.

Off the back of being consistently red-hot in front of goal, as seen glancing at his blistering numbers above, Watkins’ own estimated valuation now comes in at a mammoth £55m, as per Football Transfers, making him a more pricey asset than his compatriots, Elliott and Sancho, despite their esteemed reputations.

The 29-year-old has fired some uncharacteristic blanks so far this season, but there is hope he can turn it around.

With both Elliott and Sancho through the door, Emery has some fresh, exciting attacking personnel to experiment with, alongside his attempts to get the very best out of the Villa old guard again.

Rogers 2.0: Aston Villa close in on another exciting signing after Sancho

Aston Villa are hunting for deadline day reinforcements

By
Joe Nuttall

Sep 1, 2025

Not long ago, Tharanga was struggling to put bat to ball. Now he’s the first name on the ODI team list

Sriram Veera in Dhaka12-Jan-2010It’s amazing how quietly Upul Tharanga has displaced Sanath Jayasuriya from the opener’s slot. It’s almost a bloodless coup assisted by the team management who want to look at the future beyond Jayasuriya. It wasn’t far back that Tharanga himself was struggling to put bat to ball and was dropped. Interestingly, his exit paved the way for Tillakaratne Dilshan to cement his place as a dashing opener and now it’s his turn to re-establish himself at the top.He looked into his past to redesign his future. In 2005, life was looking up for Tharanga post the dreadful tsunami; he had started to rebuild his house which was washed away during the tragedy, made his debut and became the first batsman in the history of the game to have scored five hundreds in 30 ODIs. Suddenly, the lights went out.It was the common problem that ails a sportsman: fear of failure. Runs trickled in at a premium post the 2007 World Cup and the pressure slowly built on Tharanga. He would scratch around for a while, increasingly looking more and more vulnerable. “I was just trying to survive for five or ten overs and then try get some runs and it obviously didn’t work,” he says. “I had put too much pressure on myself after World Cup and that’s where I made the mistake.”There were people who helped out in pointing the mental error, such as Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, but it was Chandika Hathurusingha who really helped Tharanga turn around. “He was the A team coach then and I worked a lot with him. He is the guy who told me to play a natural game and not worry about getting out,” he says. “He said it looks like I am just going out there to survive and not trying to score runs.”I changed my approach; I decided that I am just going to get out and play my normal game, not get worried about whether I will get dropped now if didn’t score runs in this match. If the bad ball is there to be hit, I will hit it.”It helped that Tharanga could hark back to the memory of doing well at the international arena in the early part of his career to convince himself that he was good enough for this level.”I had played earlier for two years for Lanka, so I knew I was good enough,” he says. “My plan was simple: If I get runs for the A team, I would get a chance definitely. All I had to do was to sort out the mental side of things and my approach to batting. I made runs and then I waited for my opportunity. I didn’t get a look-in for two or three series but then I got a chance in the series against India. And I took it.”It sounds deliciously simple – score runs, get into form and wait for the selectors to call you – but the fact was that he had to wait for either Jayasuriya or Dilshan to lose form so that he can get a look in. And when Jayasuriya started to struggle, Tharanga grabbed his opportunity. It must have been a big deal for a man who grew up watching Jayasuriya bat to displace him from the team but Tharanga doesn’t want to see it that way.”No one can replace Sanath. He is a legend,” he says. “I have got a chance now and I am just focused on my batting. He was also happy when I scored runs in India and congratulated me.”Tharanga also believes that batting with Dilshan has helped him during his comeback. “The bowlers are concentrating on how to get him out and pressure is off me. In fact I think I get more loose balls now as the bowlers are under pressure after bowling to him. So it has become easy for me.”It wouldn’t have hurt that his captain now is Sangakkara, for both go back a long way. It was Sangakkara who helped him by giving SLR 50,000 (US$ 440) and some bats and gloves to get him up and running. “I decided that I can’t do anything about it [the devastation caused by the tsunami],” he says. “Yes, I lost my house and everything but I wasn’t the only one guy who lost things. There were one million people who suffered from that. There was no use sitting and crying about the loss of things and blaming life. We had to move on. It’s like starting a new life.”This is Tharanga’s second coming not only in life but in cricket as well. He has started well but he knows that his future will depend on how consistent he can become.

A section of Zimbabwe players have threatened to boycott the series unless their match fees dating back to their tour of Sri Lanka last year are settled

Firdose Moonda14-Jun-2018Uncertainty continues to cloud next month’s T20 tri-series in Zimbabwe, also involving Australia and Pakistan, which remains at risk of a Zimbabwe player boycott.Less than a day after sources told ESPNcricinfo Zimbabwe’s players “understood,” they would not be paid until at least July but acknowledged the importance of playing in the tri-series, the same sources confirmed the players demand for outstanding salaries to be paid by June 25 remains in place.Zimbabwe’s players are owed two months of salary and match fees dating back to their tour of Sri Lanka last year and a section of players remain adamant they will make themselves unavailable for international duty unless the bills are settled.However, some players have relaxed their view on taking part in the on-going warm-up matches against Kenya and have chosen to use the fixtures as practice in the event the tri-series goes ahead.As reported on Wednesday, Chamu Chibhabha, Elton Chigumbura, John Nyumbu, Richmond Mutumbami, Tendai Chatara, Natsai M’shangwe, Donald Tiripano and Chris Mpofu played in games against Kenya but Hamilton Maskadza, Peter Moor, Brendan Taylor, Kyle Jarvis, Ryan Burl and Sean Williams had not. Former captain Graeme Cremer, allrounder Sikandar Raza, batsman Craig Ervine and fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani were not named in the practice squads.Raza and Muzarabani are currently playing overseas. There were no fixtures scheduled for Thursday but Friday’s matches may reveal more about which players intend to avail themselves for the national side.Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has acknowledged that they are in a financially precarious position and have not been able to meet their commitments. Ten days ago, in a comment to ESPNcricinfo, ZC said it was “top priority,” to settle its bills and would begin processing payments. Since then, the players have received one month’s worth of salary but are still owed another two, as well as the long-overdue match fees.ZC have also since appointed Vince van der Bijl as a consultant to assist in plotting the way forward, while the players are operating through a representative Gerald Mlotchwa. The players are working on reforming an assoication, which became defunct in 2015, in order to negotiate with ZC.The tri-series is due to start on July 1 and then Zimbabwe are set to play five ODIs at home against Pakistan.

The offspin bowler will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Luke Ronchi by attempting to qualify for New Zealand via a new contract with the Auckland Aces

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jun-2018William Somerville, the New South Wales (NSW) offspin bowler, will attempt to follow in the footsteps of wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi by attempting to qualify for New Zealand via a new contract with the Auckland Aces.Somerville, 33, was born in Wellington, and made his first-class debut for Otago before moving to Sydney and performing with distinction for NSW; he was the second recognised spin bowler in NSW after the Test spinner Nathan Lyon. He asked to be released from his contract early to be available for Auckland. Somerville’s first-class record reads: 16 matches, 55 wickets at 26.87.”I appreciate being allowed the opportunity to pursue my professional career in New Zealand,” Somerville said. “It has been a tough decision, but one I hope will be best for me personally and of course my family. Everyone in (NSW) has been great to me as a cricketer and more importantly as a colleague and friend. I shall miss them, but leave with very fond memories. It has been a life changing few years for me.”Mark O’Donnell, the Auckland coach, said Somerville came with a recommendation from Bruce Edgar, the Wellington coach. “Bruce is friends of the family and Will was looking to play,” O’Donnell said, according to the . “Bruce asked if there was any interest. It fits nicely for us in all three formats. We just need a bit of experience going in support of our young seamers. The fact he asked for an early release from his contract (at NSW) just emphasises his desire to play here in New Zealand.”Andrew Jones, the NSW chief executive, said that the state was happy to allow Somerville the chance to pursue international honours across the Tasman. “We would love to have kept Will at NSW, as he is a terrific cricketer and even better bloke,” he said. “He proved himself an outstanding first-class spinner every time he had an opportunity with the Blues. However we want all our players to achieve their potential in the game hence we fully support Will’s effort to play at the next level. We will all be very proud if and when Will makes his debut for New Zealand.”The now-retired Ronchi, who played four ODIs and two T20Is for Australia in 2008-09 after keeping wicket and batting explosively for Western Australia, took a contract with Wellington in 2011 and went on to play extensively for New Zealand in limited-overs formats.

An inexplicable strategic error cost Mumbai Indians the IPL final, and it will haunt them for some time

Cricinfo staff26-Apr-2010A couple of moves cost Mumbai Indians the IPL. Both were loaded with nothing but risk. The first was to send Abhishek Nayar at No. 3. If that was not a gamble, whatever Robin Singh and the rest of the think tank thought before asking Harbhajan Singh to walk in to bat next was hard to comprehend especially when Ambati Rayudu, Saurabh Tiwary, JP Duminy and Kieron Pollard, batsmen who had played a crucial role in Mumbai reaching the final, should’ve been given the preference.Even before Mumbai had won the semi-finals against Royal Challengers Bangalore, they were aware that Sachin Tendulkar, their captain and star batsman, was fighting to get fit for the ultimate game. It was only appropriate then that the management put faith in the team’s most trusted lieutenants – a responsibility carried out successfully and admirably by the pair of Rayudu and Tiwary all season. Such has been the importance of that pair that they have easily been the Indian success story of IPL 2010.On numerous occasions, both Rayudu and Tiwary had allied grit with instincts and smart strategy to put Mumbai in a winning position. They couldn’t have asked for a better teacher than Tendulkar, who deserved to win the orange cap, a belated birthday gift. Perhaps, the biggest lesson they seemed to have learnt from the master was pacing the innings.As a fresh example, refer to the semi-final against Bangalore. Mumbai had lost Tendulkar in the second over and though Nayar hung around staunchly to guard any collapse, it was Rayudu and Tiwary who pushed the opposition back and regained control before Pollard slashed ruthlessly. His 13-ball 31 allowed Mumbai ransack 77 runs in the last five overs, easily the biggest turning point in the semis. In the final, Mumbai needed the same vigour.This does not mean that Nayar, a proven allrounder, was not up for the job. But he had his limitations. He was only playing his third match of the season, having spent most of the time recuperating from a wrist injury. Though he hung around tenaciously, Nayar failed to answer to Tendulkar’s call to up the ante in the first ten overs. As a result there were a few airy swings and cheeky singles, but that did not force the issue. Ideally Nayar was suited in the lower order, a role he had managed successfully last year in South Africa.”They tried to push their big hitters down the order so that may be my left-arm spinner can’t bowl with the left-armer at the crease,” was how MS Dhoni read Mumbai’s strategy, but it was not just about big hitting. It was more about playing percentages and then picking the bad ball to get easy runs. Importantly, with Tendulkar in pain, the other guy needed to dominate.That is what Rayudu did as soon as Harbhajan went back swinging his bat wildly. Immediately, he picked the loose balls to hit over the inner circle into the wide gaps and found the ropes easily. His positive approach allowed Tendulkar, who till then appeared cagey, to free his arms. The partnership prospered fast and 27 were scored off 14 balls before Tendulkar’s punch landed in the hands of M Vijay at long-off.Though hopes still lingered with Tiwary and Pollard still to bat, Mumbai’s fightback had started late. The asking rate hovered in the ten-an-over mark which meant the following batsmen were under pressure and the margin for error was minimal. They had to accelerate from the first ball and take chances. Duminy and Tiwary failed, but Pollard nearly answered the rousing calls of the full house and threatened to pay back the (undisclosed) big purse the Ambanis had bought him for in one night. It was also an evening heavy with the uncertainty of IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s future. Pollard’s cameo seemed to lift the gloom pervading the IPL as it enlivened the atmosphere and brought cricket back to the centrestage. Except the miracle never happened, and Mumbai had to pay for their fallacy.Explaining his batting line-up for the day, Robin said Mumbai wanted to play Pollard kin the final overs when he could take on the fast bowlers. Obviously, he did not mention Pollard’s discomfort against spin and hence it was no point exposing him against Chennai’s trio of spinners. But it would have been more viable to put faith in Rayudu and Tiwary in the top order and leave the finishing role to Pollard and Nayar. It was inexplicable strategic error that will haunt the league’s richest franchise for long.

Australia new coach cannot believe how the team culture got to a stage where Cameron Bancroft was put in a position to tamper with the ball

ESPNcricinfo staff10-May-20180:46

Langer: Ball-tampering mistakes can be forgiven

Australia’s new coach Justin Langer cannot believe how the team culture had got to a stage where its youngest and most inexperienced member – Cameron Bancroft – was put in a position to tamper with the ball during the Cape Town Test in South Africa.”When I first became an Australian cricketer, if Allan Border had asked me to tamper with the ball I would have, because I would be too scared not too,” Langer told Channel Nine. “The difference is that Allan Border would never have asked me, and Bobby Simpson (coach) would have killed me. He would have killed anyone who brought the game into disrepute.”What I can’t believe is that Cameron Bancroft walked into the Australian cricket team and he was in a position where he made that decision. In terms of the culture and how it got to that point I don’t know, I am not close enough to say. But I will certainly find out. I will be walking into the cauldron soon and I’ll find out.”Langer succeeded Darren Lehmann, who resigned as Australia’s coach at the end of the tour of South Africa in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal. Lehmann had been cleared by a Cricket Australia inquiry of prior knowledge to tamper with the ball, a plot that was found to involve the captain Steven Smith, vice captain David Warner and Bancroft.CA banned Smith and Warner for 12 months, and Bancroft for nine, and there were additional sanctions on holding leadership positions in Australian cricket as well. All three players accepted their punishments.”They are really tough sanctions, but that said, they should be and the reason they should be is because we have said forever that we don’t bend the rules, we don’t cheat,” Langer said. “[But] there’s not one person who has not made a mistake.”Langer’s first assignment as full-time Australia coach will be the ODI series in England in July.

Pro-Israel comments from former Under-19 captain draw CSA into choppy waters

Firdose Moonda15-Jan-2024David Teeger’s removal as South Africa’s Under-19 captain, a week before the home age-group World Cup being held here, has popped the cork on the connection between sport and politics at a high-octane moment for the country.Officially, Teeger was stood down over concerns for his and other players’ safety after he expressed views in support of the Israeli army at an awards ceremony in October last year. Complaints against him dedicating his Rising Star trophy to “the young soldiers in Israel” were lodged by the Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (PSA) and several stakeholders in South African cricket, including sponsors, clubs and concerned citizens, who demanded his removal from the national team. CSA appointed an independent advocate, Wim Trengrove, to determine whether Teeger had breached their code of conduct and it was found that he had not. But the story did not end there.Since Teeger’s comments, the South African government has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on a charge of genocide, and pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrations have taken place countrywide. In almost all instances, these protests have been peaceful, including at Newlands on January 3 on the first day of the New Year’s Test between South Africa and India, and a mass march on January 13, though there have been occasional instances of police involvement. Several sources confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that they expect picketing at the Under-19 World Cup to be organised, non-violent and outside the stadium, with no access to the players. The PSA confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that they have applied for the right to protest and expect no objections.CSA’s official reason for Teeger’s removal as captain, however, was to mitigate the risk of “conflict or even violence” during the tournament. CSA’s CEO Pholetsi Moseki told ESPNcricinfo that the decision had been taken to “lower the temperature”, even though a recently concluded Under-19 triangular series between South Africa, India and Afghanistan was played at a club ground in Johannesburg, Old Edwardians, without any obvious security concerns.Instead, it seems there is an ideological reason for Teeger’s removal, which is not so serious that he cannot be part of the squad but serious enough that he is considered not fit to lead it.When Trengrove was appointed, on November 26, it was to determine whether Teeger’s acceptance speech had breached the code of conduct of either CSA or his provincial team, Lions. His report referenced Teeger’s constitutional right to freedom of expression, and concluded that he had not participated in any unbecoming or detrimental conduct. On December 7, CSA confirmed that Trengrove’s findings had been “received, considered, and accepted” and Teeger was cleared to continue as Under-19 captain. Five weeks later, that changed.In the time since, South Africa presented their arguments to the ICJ. On the same day as their submission, CSA’s board met and, the following day, it was announced that Teeger would be removed as captain, citing the security threat. That rationale was immediately met with suspicion. “It was political” were the words used by the Afrikaans weekly on their front-page lead, while a spokesperson for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) criticised the move as “shameful”.In Teeger’s response to Trengrove, submitted in November last year, he had stated: “My personal and honestly held view is that Israel and its soldiers have not committed genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.” His view, he added, was “held by many people and democratic governments around the world”, and could not be construed as support for genocide, “because in my view Israel is innocent of all these allegations”.On Tuesday last week, South Africa’s sports minister Zizi Kodwa addressed the Under-19 team, handed over the national flag and in a seemingly impromptu speech said: “Whatever you do now, you are no longer yourselves. You are ambassadors for South Africa.”It’s not unthinkable that, with the knowledge of the ICJ case and Kodwa’s words, CSA was forced to consider whether Teeger would be the best captain for the national Under-19 side in the current circumstances. One could imagine a similar upshot if, say, an England captain had been stood down for making homophobic statements, given the UK’s stated advocacy for LGBTQI+ rights.It has been learnt that Teeger was asked to stand down last week and refused. He has also privately rejected requests for a retraction or an apology for his statements. At a CSA board meeting on Thursday night, it was decided to remove Teeger as captain and the message was communicated to the team on Friday morning.Where CSA messed up – not for the first time – was with their messaging and timing. Instead of communicating the debate around Teeger as captain, they issued a statement on security threats that appears to be disingenuous, and have since refused to comment further despite it leading to damaging accusations of anti-Semitism. They could and should have been honest about the reasons behind their decision, for themselves and for Teeger.Far from turning the spotlight away from Teeger, it has now been shone directly onto him. At the age of just 19, he has become – at least in some circles – the face of an issue that ought to be way beyond the remit of a national captain of any age. Ultimately, there is a duty of care that CSA has failed to discharge in allowing this row to escalate in such a fashion. Teeger is young, and hopes to forge a long career in cricket. This does not preclude his statements from scrutiny beyond the boundary, but he does not deserve to be the symbol of this situation.