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Former Gloucestershire allrounder takes over from Matthew Maynard, who retains red-ball role

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Mar-2023Mark Alleyne, the former Gloucestershire and England allrounder, has been named as Glamorgan’s new white-ball coach.Alleyne, 54, takes over T20 duties from Matthew Maynard, who has retained the red-ball role following Glamorgan’s strong showing in last year’s County Championship, while he will also oversee their 50-over fortunes, with David Harrison departing after guiding the club to the Royal London Cup in 2021.The appointment marks a return to county coaching for Alleyne, who became the first Black British coach in English domestic history in 2004 when he took over the reins at Gloucestershire for three years, initially in a player-coach capacity.Alleyne played a total of ten ODIs for England between 1999 and 2000, but he made his name during a 20-season career at Gloucestershire between 1986 and 2005, including an innovative spell as captain of one of the best white-ball sides of the era.In March 2009 he succeeded Clive Radley as head coach of the MCC, and latterly Marlborough College in Wiltshire. He has also served as assistant coach of the England Lions, including support roles with the senior white-ball squad, and assistant at Welsh Fire Men’s team.”I have always looked forward to travelling over the Bridge to the cricketing cauldron at Sophia Gardens or to a more relaxing holiday in North Wales – both done on numerous occasions,” Alleyne said.”My next trip though, as Glamorgan’s white-ball head coach, will be my most anticipated. This unique splitting of the domestic roles – often reserved for International teams- tells me the club are serious about competing on all fronts.”This is exactly the environment I love to be part of, and I can’t wait to join Matt Maynard who will be leading the Championship challenge.”Working in the white-ball coaching team with England in 2022 has given me the stimulus to make a big mark domestically. I am here unequivocally, to do just that.”Mark Wallace, Glamorgan’s director of cricket, added: “We are absolutely thrilled to bring Mark on board as our white-ball head coach.””Mark brings a wealth of experience to our white-ball sides and a fresh perspective on how we can move forward in both formats. It is an exciting time for the Club, and we are looking forward to Mark putting his stamp on our style of play.”We want to compete across all formats, and with this new coaching setup, I am extremely optimistic about what the future holds for Glamorgan in both red-ball and white-ball cricket.”

Glenn Maxwell had the cast removed off his fractured wrist on Wednesday and has started mobility work with the hope of potentionally playing in the last three T20Is against India

Alex Malcolm09-Oct-2025Glenn Maxwell is optimistic he can still play a part in Australia’s upcoming T20I series against India despite having surgery on his fractured right wrist last week.Maxwell suffered the fracture when he was hit on the wrist by a powerfully struck shot from Mitchell Owen while bowling in the nets in the lead-up to the T20I series against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui.He was immediately sent home to see a specialist and opted to have surgery to try and hasten the recovery time down to four weeks to give himself a chance to play against India.Related

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Maxwell was not named in Australia’s squad for the first two T20Is on October 29 and 31 in Canberra and Melbourne, but speaking in Melbourne on Thursday, he hoped to be fit to play a part in the final three matches, with the third match of the series on November 2 in Hobart, the fourth on November 6 on the Gold Coast, and the final match in Brisbane on November 8.”I think having the surgery last week sort of gives me a little bit more hope of playing some part in that India series, if I can get myself right,” Maxwell said. “The only reason I had the surgery was the options they gave me were miss that series completely and no surgery, or have surgery and it gives me a slim chance to hopefully play a part. And if not, I’ll be ready earlier for the BBL, and I think it leaves me in good stead to get the rest of my body right.”Maxwell said he had a cast removed on Wednesday and will now wear a moulded plastic splint to protect it for a period of time, but he had been given the all-clear to start moving the wrist again. “I only met with a hand therapist yesterday,” Maxwell said. “He only gave me some really basic movements, things that look really boring, but I suppose they’re going to strengthen the wrist.”Returning early for the back-end of the India series is unlikely to come with any added risk in terms of further injury. Maxwell said the main concern will be pain management depending on how it feels when he bats.It is yet another freak injury to add to Maxwell’s bizarre catalogue, that includes a broken leg at a birthday party and a concussion from falling off a golf cart.”I was probably just a bit unlucky with the position that it hit me on the arm,” Maxwell said. “When it hit me, I thought I was lucky that it hit just bone and it wasn’t too much flesh, and it was going to be right.”But, yeah, another unlucky one.”The injury has made him rethink bowling in the nets to power hitters like Owen and some of his other team-mates. “I try to avoid bowling to those guys,” Maxwell said. “Guys like Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Mitch Owen and Cam Green, long levers, strong, it just comes back too quick. It’s not fun, But I should know better. I should know better to bowl into the hip and I’ll be doing that I think come BBL time.”Maxwell was frustrated to miss the series against New Zealand given he was in excellent form. In his last T20I innings in August against South Africa, he steered Australia home to a series win with a remarkable 62 not out from 36 balls in a nail-biting chase. Then in late September, despite retiring from ODI cricket earlier in the year, he played two Australian domestic One-Day Cup matches for Victoria to prepare for the New Zealand tour and smashed 107 off 82 balls against Queensland.Glenn Maxwell pulls behind square•Getty Images

He was asked whether he had a timeline on the end of his T20I career and if the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles were in his mind, but he said he had not thought past December.”I’m literally thinking about round one of the BBL at the moment,” Maxwell said. “Let’s just get there first. If I’m still enjoying my cricket by then… I’m not setting dates or anything.”Maxwell is excited about the upcoming BBL season where he hopes to help Melbourne Stars to an elusive BBL title, having been equal Player of the Tournament last season as they played the finals for the first time since losing the 2019-20 final under his captaincy in heartbreaking fashion to Melbourne Renegades.He said the arrival of former India spinner R Ashwin is going to supercharge the BBL season.”That’s really exciting,” Maxwell said. “It’s great for the competition. I think anytime you can get world-class superstars who have got the career that he has as a part of the BBL is a massive bonus for us. He’s been extremely successful. He’s got a hell of a lot of wisdom in the game. I think he’s going to give back a lot to the players in the BBL. I don’t think it’s just the Sydney Thunder, I think the guys that are playing against him will probably ask him a lot of questions, and he’s certainly going to bring in a lot of fans as well.”

The Capitals head coach says dropping Kyle Mayers early on was a big reason for their loss

Ashish Pant01-Apr-20231:25

Ponting: ‘I don’t think it was a 190-plus wicket’

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting reckoned that dropping Kyle Mayers early on, and the team’s lacklustre fielding in general, was a big reason behind their 50-run loss against Lucknow Super Giants.Mayers was on 14 off 15 balls when Khaleel Ahmed shelled a sitter at short third off Chetan Sakariya in the sixth over. The opener then flicked a switch and clubbed 59 off his next 23 balls. As a result, Super Giants amassed 193 for 6 despite being 30 for 1 after the powerplay. It was the fourth-highest total in Lucknow across all T20s.”To be totally honest, I think they got more runs than they probably should have,” Ponting said after the game. “I don’t think we helped ourselves in the field today. Our fielding after the first four overs was really sloppy.Related

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“A couple of chances went down, a few misfields. One of those chances that went down was Mayers’, who ended up going on a bit of a run after that, which put us behind the game a little bit.”The thing with giving chances in the IPL is you’re giving very good players a second opportunity. And he cashed in. For pretty much from that moment on, he hit everything in the middle. He attacked our spin, which he played really well. So that’s just a good lesson for us.”We know that we have to be really sharp in the field. You can’t afford to put chances down, and if you do, you have to expect that they’re going to make you pay. There are a few reasons why we lost the game, and we’ll address those and hopefully improve for our next game.”Mayers’ knock meant Capitals ended up conceding 163 in the last 14 overs. Another staggering statistic was that Super Giants hit 16 sixes and just five fours in their innings. Ponting suggested that the surface in Lucknow wasn’t one where 190-plus should have been scored.”I think we conceded 16 sixes in our bowling innings. That goes to show that we were a fair bit off with our execution with our bowling,” Ponting remarked. “Whenever you’re giving up 16 sixes, and there’s only five fours, which is quite remarkable. So, whenever you’re giving up that many, it’s going to be hard to drag yourself back into the game.”Looking at the wicket today, I didn’t think it was a 190-plus wicket. There was a lot of dew there. If anything, on that wicket, it was probably better for us batting second.Ponting was also effusive in praise of Mark Wood, who rocked Capitals’ batting unit, finishing with 5 for 14 from his four overs. The Capitals coach, however, suggested that the Englishman’s spell wasn’t totally unexpected.”He bowled the way we thought he would bowl,” Ponting said of Wood. “We know he will run in and bowl fast; we know he will run in and attack the stumps and use his bouncer. That’s what he did.””He got those couple of bowleds and used his bouncer really well. He’s a world-class fast bowler. As this tournament goes on, if he stays fit, you will see him bowl some really fast spells.”

“It was a bit of a headache for us to decide who it was going to be,” India captain on Axar-vs-Kuldeep debate

Alagappan Muthu24-Jan-20244:30

‘When there’s a headache to make your playing XI, that’s a good sign’ – Rohit Sharma

Kuldeep Yadav or Axar Patel? India know who they want in their XI to play the first of five Tests against England starting on Thursday, but they would prefer to keep the opposition guessing.Both players offer compelling reasons to pick them. Kuldeep has “X-factor”, India captain Rohit Sharma said on the eve of the game in Hyderabad. While Kuldeep has played only eight Tests since making his debut in March 2017, he has worked on his bowling in the recent past and showcased the very ability that India value in all their bowlers – keeping the stumps in play – even if it has been in limited-overs cricket.”Kuldeep gives you a certain X-factor with his bowling,” Rohit said. “You’ve seen how well he’s been bowling of late. Especially the wicket if it has bounce, or if it doesn’t have bounce, Kuldeep becomes a factor in those types of conditions as well because he has got superb variations.”He is also a much more mature bowler now. He has not played a lot of Test cricket in India because of [R] Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja clearly. But that is what happens. Like with our middle order, all of us got an opportunity really late. But that’s the reality of it. You can’t hide from it. But Kuldeep being the bowler he is now, from what he was a couple of years back, he is much more improved and he is a very tempting option without a doubt.”Kuldeep played a Ranji Trophy match in the lead-up to this series; it was his first in over seven years and his first since becoming a Test cricketer. In that game, against Kerala, he bowled 26 overs across two innings and picked up four wickets, including the opposition’s highest scorer. The reason he is back in the picture is because Axar didn’t really go all that well in India’s last home series, against Australia in February-March 2023. Axar bowled only 13 overs each in the first three Tests, but he did end up as one of the team’s highest run-getters.Axar Patel was more impressive with the bat than the ball against Australia in February-March 2023•BCCI

“Axar with his all-round ability, giving us that batting depth, the consistency that he has shown playing in these conditions in Test cricket also is an important factor for us,” Rohit said. “It was a bit of a headache for us to decide who it was going to be. I’m not going to say who it is but it was a challenge for us to make that decision. We know we’ve got quality around our spin-bowling department, which is a good sign. When you’ve got quality around your team, when there’s a headache to make your playing XI, that’s a good sign.”Axar’s prized weapon is the ball that doesn’t turn. Exactly half of his 50 Test wickets are either bowled or lbw, and most of them involve the left-arm spinner beating the right-hander on the inside edge. The reason he kept doing that is because he was also getting the odd ball to turn. Against Australia, he seemed to have lost that a little bit. But now, after recovering from a quadriceps injury that forced him out of the ODI World Cup, Axar looks like he’s getting back to his old self. The left-arm spinner comes into these Tests having picked up ten wickets in seven T20Is against Australia and Afghanistan played over the last two months.Related

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The Hyderabad pitch will turn. Rohit, when asked about it in the pre-match press conference where he was happy to talk at length about various other topics – like the health of Test cricket, the value of blooding new players in, and the strength of his side in home conditions – gave a curt answer: “Looks good”.Rahul Dravid, on Tuesday, expected that it would take turn. England are certain to the extent that they’re going in with three frontline spinners and only one fast bowler. Kuldeep remains a prospect, especially against an opposition that will not hesitate to attack. Success in ODIs and T20Is has taught him how to cope with batters coming at him. It was just that his Test game was lacking a bit of control and he has since worked on that, getting quicker through the air without really losing any of his other assets – turn and bounce.But Axar brings that and batting ability, and with India missing Virat Kohli, they will probably want to shore up the XI with as many all-round options as possible.

Skipper says domestic players can stake claims ahead of T20 World Cup and the Ashes

Matt Roller19-Apr-2024Heather Knight, England’s captain, has challenged her squad to “go out and dominate” in regional cricket this summer and hopes domestic players will stake strong claims for selection ahead of the T20 World Cup and the Ashes later this year.The 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy begins on Saturday with a full round of games and while many of England’s centrally-contracted players will miss the opening weekend to attend Tammy Beaumont’s wedding, they will have some opportunities to feature for their regions ahead of England’s T20I series against Pakistan, which starts on May 11.”It’s never a closed door, if people are performing well,” Knight said at the ECB’s launch of a national tape-ball competition. “The standard of those regional games has gone through the roof in the last couple of years, so those performances are worth more. It’s a really exciting time and obviously we’ve got huge competition in the squad as well.”You want to see England players go and dominate, and really put their name forward to keep being in that England side. It’ll be an individual basis as to who plays what… most of us will miss the first round at least. But I always keep a close eye on what’s going on, what young talent is coming through, and it’s going to be no different this year watching those games.”Related

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There is substantial competition for places in England’s T20 set-up ahead of the World Cup in Bangladesh later this year, and Knight took confidence from the recent 4-1 series win in New Zealand. “We’ve got Mahika Gaur [who missed the tour due to school commitments] and Freya Kemp coming back from injury as well,” she said. “We’ve got a real depth of players we can pick from.”It’s super exciting. It makes selection a lot of tougher and sometimes you have more unhappy players – which is completely fine. It’s a really good place to be. With that World Cup in October, it’s really important that we keep moving forwards… Bangladesh is a tough place to go and play, so that’s the focus of the summer: trying to get in a really good place, ready for that tournament.”England were without four first-choice players for the first three T20Is in New Zealand due to their Women’s Premier League commitments, which gave them the opportunity to test their depth. With the chance to bat in the top three, Maia Bouchier was the tour’s breakout star and finished the T20I series as the leading run-scorer with 223 in five innings.Knight bats at the ECB’s launch of a national tape-ball competition in Birmingham•ECB/Getty Images

“She had a really good tour, particularly in the T20s off the back of a really good summer last year,” Knight said. “She’s always had the talent, but she’s just starting to work out how to manage herself in the middle and how to convert her talent into performances. That has been pretty cool to watch. She’s someone that you watch and think, ‘how does she play that shot?'”It’s remarkable, some of the shots she’s played. Obviously she had a brilliant tour, and now for her it’s about building on that and having that consistency. She’ll get a bit of a run in the team, particularly in that T20 opening spot which we haven’t quite nailed on so for her to grasp that [means that] she’ll get a little bit of a run. Hopefully, she continues the form that she’s had.”Edgbaston have already sold more than 10,000 tickets for England’s opening match of their T20I series against Pakistan, and Knight believes that the ECB’s joint marketing campaign with the men’s series against the same opposition can help build on the commercial success of last summer’s Ashes series.”It was a really awesome summer to be involved with: you felt the support and momentum for cricket around the country,” she said. “It’s obviously slightly different to an Ashes summer, but the amount of people that came along and – anecdotally – have said, ‘we want to come back, we want to come watch you guys’ has been pretty cool. Hopefully we can put on a show.”

Batter set for county cricket after Australia A’s tour to Sri Lanka

Matt Roller18-May-2022Nic Maddinson has lined up a stint in county cricket to further his prospects of an Australia recall in time for the 2023 Ashes.Maddinson, 30, struggled in his three Tests in late 2016 but made 71 for Australia A against England Lions in December and is part of the squad that will shadow the Test tour of Sri Lanka next month.He has set his sights on a return to Test cricket and is closing in on a deal with Durham to replace Keegan Petersen as their overseas player for the second half of the County Championship season. He may also feature in the Royal London Cup.”It hasn’t been announced but I’m looking to go over to Durham,” he told RSN Breakfast Club. “They’ve got a South African, Keegan Petersen, over there at the moment playing for them for the first half of the season and then he has to head off.”We’re just in the final stages of getting that signed off and hopefully it’s all smooth sailing from here and I can get over straight after Sri Lanka.”Related

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Maddinson has been a consistent performer in red-ball cricket in recent years and was the sixth-highest run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield this season, averaging 54.50 for Victoria with two hundreds in seven appearances.”I’ve been very open in the last year to going over and playing in England,” he added. “I think with the stage of my career I’m at, I’m really prioritising four-day cricket.”I feel like Test cricket is the ultimate goal for me still so I want to get as much experience in that around as possible and playing in England definitely ticks that box.”With an Ashes coming up next year I felt like it was a pretty good opportunity to try and make it over there and get some experience in those conditions as well.”