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Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati are set to make their T20 international debuts in a packed 2017-18 home season, the BCCI has announced. Between September and December, India will play 23 internationals – three Tests, 11 ODIs and nine T20Is – against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka during the crammed home season.

India’s 2017-18 home season

• Australia: 5 ODIs in Chennai, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Indore and Kolkata; 3 T20Is in Hyderabad, Ranchi and Guwahati.

• New Zealand: 3 ODIs in Pune, Mumbai and Kanpur; 3 T20Is in Delhi, Cuttack and Rajkot.

• Sri Lanka: 3 Tests in Kolkata, Nagpur and Delhi; 3 ODIs in Dharamsala, Mohali and Vizag; 3 T20Is in Thiruvananthapuram, Indore and Mumbai.

Australia will be the first to arrive and are scheduled to play five ODIs and three T20Is in September-October, following which India will take on New Zealand in three ODIs and three T20Is. India’s home swing will then wind down with a full series against Sri Lanka, comprising three Tests, three ODIs and as many T20Is. This is the second season in a row that India will host more than 20 international games after a record 2016-17 season that saw 13 Tests, eight ODIs and three T20Is being played.BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said the dates for the three tours had not been finalised yet. “The dates of the matches have deliberately not been frozen today because the logistics must factor in local factors such as festivals because as you know Durga Puja being what it is in the whole of eastern India and not only in West Bengal and other public holidays and logistics of distance,” he told reporters in Kolkata at the end of a meeting of the board’s Tours and Fixtures Committee.With the final T20I against Sri Lanka is likely to take place in the third week of December, India are likely to have a short turnaround before their full tour of South Africa. While this would mean that the chances of a Boxing Day Test in South Africa – a fixture Cricket South Africa has been pressing for – are remote, Choudhary said the possibility couldn’t be ruled out. As ESPNcricinfo had earlier reported, Sri Lanka will bring forward their tour to India from February as they now host India and one other team in the tri-nation Independence Cup during the period.”Where the question of Sri Lanka’s arrival was concerned, that tweaking has had to happen because Sri Lanka is organising an Independence Cup in Sri Lanka,” Choudhary said. “And, that will be shortly after India’s return from South Africa. Now, Sri Lanka has always co-operated with India and therefore India will actually be making a reciprocal short-version tour only to play the Independence Cup.”There is another reason for the tweaking to take place. That’s because there were six proposed exchange of tours between India and Pakistan which did not happen. So those spaces had to be adjusted with other activities.”While Choudhary said either Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram will host a T20 international against Sri Lanka, Kerala Cricket Association secretary, Jayesh George, confirmed that the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram will stage the match on December 20. The Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati, which has been a first-class venue, will play host to a T20 international against Australia.”Since we have the FIFA Under-17 World Cup matches and the ISL (Indian Super League) [football tournament] in Kochi, this game will take place in Thiruvananthapuram,” George told ESPNcricinfo. “After more than 25 years, an international match is coming to the city. We have to fine-tune a few things because it is a new venue and there will be some hindrances. But, we can sort it out. We have time as well and we will be conducting a Ranji Trophy match before it.”While the stadium has been inspected and given the approval by the BCCI, the ICC is expected to conduct an inspection soon. “The BCCI’s committee visited the stadium about two months ago and they were satisfied with it,” George said. “The ICC inspection should be just a formality because all the [eligibility] criteria have been fulfilled.

ScorecardJos Buttler was one of two big scalps for Callum Parkinson [file picture]•Associated Press

Three-time champions Leicestershire got their latest NatWest T20 Blast campaign off to a flyer by beating Lancashire at Liverpool, chasing down 174 off the last ball.The Foxes have not qualified out of the North Group since their last success in 2011.But they will be more confident of doing so this year having upset Lancashire by three wickets as Colin Ackermann led the way with a measured 62 not out off 41 balls.The South African even hit the last ball of the match for six with two needed.The Lightning, who won their opener at Durham on Friday, posted 173 for 9, having been invited to bat, with Liam Livingstone hitting 48 off 33 balls and Jos Buttler 39 off 21.They shared 72 in 6.1 overs for the fourth wicket, but visiting captain Clint McKay impressed with 3 for 29 as Lancashire struggled in the second half of their innings.Lancashire lost three wickets in the power play, including McKay getting Arron Lilley and Steven Croft in the space of two balls in the fifth to leave the score 40 for three.Pinch-hitter Lilley had hit 30 off 17 balls from number three, but Livingstone and Buttler shared 72 in 6.1 overs for the fourth wicket, both hitting two sixes, to really get things going on a glorious Merseyside day.Buttler hit his third ball over long-on off former Red Rose Academy graduate Callum Parkinson, the left-arm spinning twin of Lancashire’s Matt.Parkinson then got both Buttler and Livingstone, caught at long-off and stumped respectively, to spark the Foxes fightback.All-rounder Danny Lamb pulled Gavin Griffiths for six in the 17th over, but that was the only boundary from midway through the 13th as Lancashire fell from 112 for 3.McKay, an expert when it comes to change of pace, only conceded five off the last over as the Lightning tail failed to regain earlier momentum.The Foxes chase got off to the perfect start as Luke Ronchi lofted the first ball from off-spinner Lilley for a straight six, and he shared 42 inside four overs for the first wicket with Cameron Delport.But the pair fell in the space of three balls at the end of the fourth and start of the fifth. Delport drove Lamb (three for 30) to mid-on for 19 and Ronchi was caught at cover for 17 off left-arm spinner Stephen Parry’s first ball as the score fell to 42 for two.Mark Cosgrove, however, hoisted Parry for six at the start of the ninth over as he and Ackermann settled quickly and put the Lightning back under pressure with a 61-run stand. They helped reach halfway at 99 for two.Not even the loss of Cosgrove for 34 off 21 – caught at wide long-on off Lamb – Ned Eckersley and Lewis Hill could derail the Foxes, who fell to 128 for five in the 15th.With Ackermann still there on 38, they needed 43 off 30 balls. The contest became much closer than expected with some tight bowling at the death, and the visitors made hard work of six needed off the last from Kyle Jarvis.Mat Pilans was run out off the penultimate ball, leaving two needed. But Ackermann hit the last over cover for his second six to clinch a win which had always looked likely throughout the chase.Lancashire’s captain Steven Croft confirmed that overseas all-rounder Ryan McLaren missed the game with a tight hip flexor, while fellow overseas bowler Junaid Khan should arrive from Pakistan in time for Friday’s Roses clash following visa issues.

Sri Lanka 158 for 3 (Tharanga 75*, Dickwella 35, Chatara 2-33) beat Zimbabwe 155 (Masakadza 41,Waller 38, Sandakan 4-52, Hasaranga 3-15) by seven wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLakshan Sandakan celebrated his return with his first four-wicket haul in ODI cricket•AFP

Two days after Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers were crashed around at Galle, two fresh spinners trussed up Zimbabwe’s middle order, before Sri Lanka’s batsmen completed a largely unflustered chase of 156. The heft of this seven-wicket victory – achieved with 19.5 overs remaining in the innings – will put some confidence back to into the Sri Lanka side, following their shock defeat on Friday.Nineteen-year-old legspinner Wanidu Hasaranga made the most dramatic contribution, becoming the third debutant in ODI history to claim a hat-trick, when he wiped out Zimbabwe’s tail with the 14th, 15th and 16th deliveries of his international career. But by that stage, Sri Lanka were already in command, thanks largely to Lakshan Sandakan, who was sidelined for long periods by the selectors but was deadly upon his return here.Zimbabwe’s batsmen tried to sweep him hard, and often, as they had done to Amila Aponso and Akila Dananjaya in the last match, but Sandakan, wise to this plan, switched up his lines when he saw a premeditated shot coming. And in any case, he enacted so many revolutions on the ball that his dip and bounce prompted fatal mistakes. He had Craig Ervine caught behind, before Sikandar Raza top-edged a reverse sweep, and Ryan Burl was bowled attempting one. Peter Moor then edged the ball back onto his stumps, and Sandakan claimed a final analysis of 4 for 52. To Angelo Mathews’ credit, he allowed Sandakan to bowl out early in the game despite a shaky economy rate. All ten of his overs were delivered between the 10th and 31st of the innings.Hasaranga, meanwhile, was required to deliver only 2.4 overs, but was nerveless in that spell, persisting with an aggressive length even when batsmen had hit boundaries off him. In fact, his hat-trick came immediately after Malcolm Waller crunched him down the ground for four. Waller was bowled off the inside edge by an arm ball, before Donald Tiripano and Tendai Chatara were both dismissed by googlies. Like the men who had come to crowd the bat, the packed banks of his home ground also went into a frenzy at the hat-trick wicket. Hasaranga became the fifth Sri Lanka bowler to claim an ODI hat trick, and the third to do so on debut, after Taijul Islam and Kagiso Rabada.Wanidu Hasaranga became the third bowler, after Taijul Islam and Kagiso Rabada, to claim a hat-trick on ODI debut•AFP

Zimbabwe had their moments in the match, but unlike on Friday, could not mount pressure on Sri Lanka for sustained periods of time. Tendai Chatara claimed two wickets in his second over, but Upul Tharanga soon becalmed the innings, and very quickly, Sri Lanka were steadily sailing towards the target – Tharanga 75 not out, to follow his unbeaten 79 on Friday.Hamilton Masakadza and Craig Ervine had earlier been involved in a promising 56-run second-wicket stand in Zimbabwe’s innings, but when Masakadza was caught and bowled sharply by Asela Gunaratne, a collapse followed. Zimbabwe lost five of their top six for 52 runs, in the space of 10.3 overs. Malcolm Waller offered the only resistance, slapping six boundaries in his 29-ball 38 – all but one of those boundaries coming off the spinners. While he and Peter Moor were at the crease, Zimbabwe would still have hoped for a score of over 200, but Hasaranga would wipe out the tail faster than anyone would have imagined.Gunathilaka played on attempting to pull Chatara in the third over, and Kusal Mendis edged a leg-side ball to the keeper, but though the early overs remained tense, Zimbabwe could not make enough headway in them to push the hosts. Tharanga was poised early in his innings, pushing gentle singles and twos while Niroshan Dickwella ventured more aggressive strokes, but when Sri Lanka passed 100, he began to flow. He hit two leg-side boundaries to go to his fifth fifty-plus score in his last eight innings, and continued to attack as Sri Lanka drew near the total. At the other end was Angelo Mathews, prodding his team towards their target with characteristic care.Zimbabwe will perhaps feel that they deployed the sweep shot a little too eagerly on this occasion, after that stroke brought them Friday’s success. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, may reflect on the benefits of deploying a wicket-taking spin bowler through the middle overs.

The international cricket calendar, particularly one-day cricket, is under serious threat, according to former Australia allrounder Shane Watson. A player who has plenty of first-hand experience of T20 league cricket, Watson said the leagues were doing a better job of providing what the fans want: context.”The reason why the public loves franchise tournaments is because there’s a build-up and there’s an outcome – there’s semi-finals and a final. Whereas a lot of the time with international bilateral series – of course you’re playing for your country and you want to beat the opposition – but if it’s a five-match series and you win 3-0, then no one sort of watches the last two games. For the players the series is over. There’s no reason to play those two games. Whereas in knockout tournaments, like the Champions Trophy or a T20 World Cup or a World Cup, if you lose you’re out, you don’t play another couple of games for the sake of playing the amount of games that has to be there in the tournament.”It might perhaps be impossible to ensure every game played contains a hook for the player and the fan, but Watson was unequivocal in his belief that the primacy of international cricket will come under threat if things stay as they are.”Obviously there’s a lot of politics around the future tours programme (FTP) and how they can’t change the next four years in advance, which seems pretty crazy, they’re going to have to,” he said. “Just by sheer numbers of the people coming along to the Big Bash, for example – it’s the perfect example – it shows there’s a huge shift in what people want to watch and that’s games with context. Tournaments with context. Not just a series that has to be played, like the T20 series that Sri Lanka played at the back end of the Australian summer when everyone thought the cricket season was over. These token games have to stop shortly because the general public is going to be fed up.”They might not be the only ones alienated either. Watson was worried about the impact participating in meaningless series can have on the current generation of cricketers.”Of course, there is the pride and privilege of playing for your country, but when it’s all year round and a lot of gaps [in the calendar] are being filled for boards to be able to continue to make money – which has now come to the players which is great but in the end how much money is enough for a player to earn when they’re getting burnt out, when they don’t have a life outside of just playing and travelling around the world in different hotels, especially with families. For cricketers who’ve got young families, it’s very challenging.”So, is the fact that the ICC is working towards establishing a Test championship and a one-day league some kind of consolation to Watson? Things are not moving quickly enough to make a difference, he said.”These conversations have been talked about for the last five years, at least, that I can remember. There’s been a lot of conversations around providing more context for Test matches, having relegation, having points for your wins, and having a Test championship at the end after two years or something like that. But there’s only been talk. There has been nothing put in place and in the end the players want games with context and most importantly the fans want games with context and I don’t understand why the ICC is taking so long to be able to put these things in place.”A big part of the problem is the ICC cannot unilaterally make decisions. A plan as sizable as changing the way the game is played around the world has to be put forward at Board meetings and then passed by a majority vote. As things stand, the member countries have disagreed to the two-tier Test championship and are instead discussing a model by which the top-two ranked teams play for the honours. A 13-team ODI league is also up for ratification in the next round of meetings in June.The ICC is therefore aware of the need for change, but Watson reiterated it. “If they don’t be proactive with it, before you know it, for the big Test series, there’s going to be no one coming along to Test cricket. Unless its a knockout tournament, there’s going to be hardly anyone coming along to one-day cricket and potentially Twenty20 cricket, international Twenty20 cricket outside of a World Cup. They’ll all be going to franchise tournaments that have got more context.”In Australia, for example, the best players aren’t playing because they’re playing international cricket at that moment when the Big Bash is on, but there’s still 45,000 people coming around to the Adelaide Oval. Every ground is just about sold out, so people love what it’s providing.”

The USA Cricket Association issued a defiant statement late on Tuesday, saying that the organisation “intends to vigorously defend its rights” in the face of possible expulsion from the ICC. It is a strong hint that USACA is prepared to engage in a legal battle with the game’s global governing body after the ICC announced on Monday that a resolution to expel USACA as an Associate Member will be put before the ICC board at the annual conference in June.”USACA is saddened and disappointed at the ICC Executive Board decision to recommend that the ICC membership expel USACA from the ICC,” the USACA statement said. “This decision is manifestly unfair, prejudicial, unlawful, and unreasonable.”In the three-page statement put out by USACA, they also claim that the ICC’s mandate for USACA to accept an ICC-approved constitution, which includes appointing an ICC-approved independent chairperson to lead the board of directors, laid out as one of 39 terms and conditions in order to achieve reinstatement from their current suspension – in effect since June 2015 – is an “anti-democratic straightjacket [sic]”.”The ICC does not want a strong and unified, , US cricket community,” the USACA release said. “It wants one that the ICC will control and dominate.”The USACA statement repeatedly refers to its own approach to formulating a constitution that was approved by members at an April 8 Special General Meeting in New York as “democratic” while railing against certain aspects of the ICC-approved constitution which USACA’s 45 voting leagues rejected at the same meeting.USACA’s statement is also noteworthy for claiming they have “worked diligently and cooperatively with the ICC to achieve reinstatement by satisfying the reinstatement conditions set forth by the ICC.” That stance directly contradicts the ICC’s statement put out on Monday in which they stated that the resolution for expulsion came as a result of a two-year process in which they have attempted to include members of USACA on ICC advisory groups tasked with trying to unify a fractured cricket community.”It has become clear that this is just not possible and, having invested so much time and resources into helping USACA and with little in the way of cooperation from USACA, the ICC Board now felt that the only remaining option was for the ICC Full Council to consider expulsion of USACA as a member of the ICC,” the ICC statement said on Monday.USACA also states that their constitution will “unify the US cricket community”, though their current self-reported membership of 45 leagues places them in a minority position with approximately 150 leagues in operation nationwide.

Tarun Nethula’s all-round show – a match haul of nine coupled with a brisk half-century – helped defending champions Auckland trump Northern Districts by 71 runs, despite resilient counterattacks with the bat from HR Cooper across both innings.Nethula waltzed to a run-a-ball 52 in the first innings, after five other Auckland batsmen scored in excess of 45 to post 461, validating captain Rob Nicol’s decision to bat. Robert O’ Donnell (75) shared a 115-run stand with Nicol (46) for the third wicket, before a 139-run tenth-wicket stand between Mitchell McClenaghan – who remained unbeaten on a career-best 73 – and Rajvinder Sandhu – who hit a 94-ball 82 in only his second match, the record for Auckland by a No. 11 – propped them up further.Nethula, along with Sandhu, then ran through the opposition line-up, claiming four wickets each to bowl out Northern Districts for 334 in 106.4 overs in the first innings. Cooper stood out with a 101, ensuring his third-wicket stand with Corey Anderson (80) took his side close to 300.Having conceded a 127-run lead, Northern Districts medium-pacer James Baker removed the Auckland openers for 68, but found little support from the other bowlers, as 20-year-old Glenn Phillips scored 109, his maiden first-class century in only his second Plunket Shield match and third first-class innings – he became the first player in New Zealand’s domestic history to score tons across all three formats – first-class, T20 and List A one-day – in a single season, with all three of his hundreds coming on the same ground, the Eden Park Outer Oval.Phillips, who peppered 16 fours and a six in his knock, was also involved in a 130-run stand for the third wicket with Nicol, who scored 47 before declaring on 202 for 4.Chasing 329, Cooper backed up his first-innings century with a fighting 83 to keep Northern Districts in with a chance of victory, but Nethula bettered his first-innings returns with a five-for, the 11th of his first-class career to bowl out the opposition for 258 in the final session of the match.Auckland, by virtue of this victory, have earned maximum bonus points from round seven of the Plunket Shield and trail top-ranked Canterbury by one position, while Northern Districts are placed third.Ajaz Patel is the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 38 scalps•Getty Images

Central Districts, on the other hand, were knocked out of the tournament after a dramatic second-innings collapse. They did just about enough to salvage a draw against Wellington in a last-over thriller at McLean Park, but that was not enough.Chasing 199, Central Districts raced away to 150 for 3 in 29.1 overs, after captain Will Young coupled his first-innings century with a 37-ball 38 alongside George Worker, who plundered 85 off 100 balls, smashing nine boundaries and one six. The duo added 71 for the third wicket off only 68 balls, but Young’s dismissal in the 32nd over triggered a six-wicket collapse, with his side capitulating to 190 for 9 in the second ball of the 39th over. The last pair of Ajaz Patel and Blair Tickner, however, ensured they played out the remaining four balls, denying an outright victory to Wellington.During Wellington’s second innings, Patel’s 5 for 106 from 49.2 overs was pivotal to Central Districts’ bowling them out for 336, after captain Michael Papps (116) and Tom Blundell (51) put on 73 for the fourth wicket to guide Wellington to 183. Patel, the offspinner, thwarted any possibility of the opposition nearing 400, taking his tournament tally to 38 wickets while ensuring his side had a target under 200 to overhaul in less than two sessions.Earlier, Central Districts responded to Wellington’s first-innings total of 245 with 382, with Young’s 124 and Jesse Ryder’s 61 helping Central Districts take a lead of 137. Matt McEwan returned the best figures for Wellington, picking up 6 for 81, while Brent Arnel scalped four in the second innings, as Central Districts hung on to end the final session on 191 for 9.

England Under-19s will be without Matt Fisher for their four-day series against India in Nagpur which starts on Monday as they take a protective attitude to a fast bowler in whom they have invested considerable expectations.The Yorkshire fast bowler is still struggling with the groin problem he picked up during the one-day series in Mumbai – although England privately stress that he has not suffered a recurrence of the hamstring problems that bedevilled him last seasonFisher will stay with the Under-19 squad for another week to make the most of his first sub-continental experience as a member of England’s leadership group, while continuing to receive treatment from the medical staff. He will then return to Yorkshire to join their pre-season preparations at Headingley.Max Holden, the Middlesex batsman who has been loaned out to Northants for the start of the season, will take over the captaincy as planned for the four-day series.

Like many before him, Joe Root was plunged into muck the moment he took the England captaincy.Unlike his predecessors, Root’s issues were much more tangible and resolvable. He was changing his new son’s nappy when he took the call from Andrew Strauss offering him the job. Others inheriting the role would have loved such easily solved problems.For Root inherits a more harmonious environment than the majority of his 79 predecessors; certainly the recent ones. There are no rivals slighted in their ambition for the captaincy, no senior players with a damaging relationship with the coach or team-mates and no obvious cliques in the dressing room. Yes, there are some concerns about an ageing James Anderson and a brittle batting line-up, but it is a trifle compared to the problems facing Strauss in 2009 or Alastair Cook in 2012.As Strauss put it: “We’re in a good place. Often when there is a change of leader it’s at a time of crisis one way or another. Certainly when England captains have resigned in the past it’s often been on the back of times when the team or they are in turmoil and we are not in that place at all.”It’s fantastic that Alastair has been able to go out on his own terms and that Joe and Alastair have a really close relationship and that Alastair will continue playing.”Instead Root inherits, in his words, “a great blend of experience and raw talent” and “a core group that have played 20-30 games.”I’m very lucky to have inherited an exciting team who are ready to take some more responsibility,” he said.With six months to plan and plot before England’s Test program resumes, Root is sensibly non-committal about many details. He hasn’t decided where he is going to bat; he wouldn’t be drawn on potential differences between his team and Cook’s and he wants to “speak to the lads first” and makes sure they don’t hear of any changes of direction “in the media.”There were a few hints, though. While much has been made of the flair of the younger England players, Root clearly wants it combined with grit when required. Asked if he wanted to be an entertaining captain, he replied that he has to be “a captain that wins” and asked whether he could retain his “cheeky” image he suggested it had been “over-played” in the media. “I want us to be tough to play against,” he said several times.That’s not to suggest he wants England to be inhibited. He just wants it channelled. As both he and Strauss noted, the last couple of years have been marked by inconsistency in England’s Test cricket. Now, with the young and inexperienced team not so young or inexperienced, expectations are increasing.”I want the guys to enjoy playing cricket,” Root said. “You have 10 to 15 years, you have to enjoy being at the pinnacle of the sport and the more I can get that across to the lads, the more we can have that environment the better.Joe Root undertook his first official duties as England captain at his home ground•Getty Images

“I think that suits the make-up of our squad. And it’s important for the game too. I just want to be very natural, instinctive and find something that naturally works.””We’ve been very inconsistent,” Strauss agreed. “We’ve had some fantastic results and some fantastic series wins, and then we’ve had some times when we’ve got ourselves into good positions in series and we haven’t been able to get over the line.”I don’t know if it’s about stagnation, but it’s certainly about players developing. I think we’ve got to the stage now where you can recognise we’ve got a number of world-class players in that team. Now we’ve got to put it together more often and more consistently than we have done. We need to be more consistent and we need to be harder to beat.”Many of the questions directed at Root concerned his own form. While he could hardly be expected to admit to fears over the potential effects of captaincy, he did point out that the examples of Virat Kohli and Steven Smith suggested that the added responsibility could benefit his batting.”I do look at what they have done, yes,” Root said. “And that excites me.”This is an opportunity for me. It’s a great motivator to make sure I do everything I can to get my batting in the best place possible and set the example for the rest of the guys in the team.”I like to think that, in the past, the more responsibility I’ve been given I’ve stepped up to that and taken it in my stride. Looking around the world, other guys in a similar position to me have taken similar responsibility and taken their game to the next level, so I’d like to think if I go about it the right way I’ll be able to do the same thing.”Strauss, too, was optimistic about the effects on Root’s batting. Pointing out that the captaincy – described as “the biggest honour in the game” by Root, who declined the invitation to have a few days to think about the offer before accepting – could be “incredibly energising,” Strauss expects few downsides in “the next 18 months.””You walk a bit taller,” Strauss said. “And you are passionate about taking the team forward. You want to contribute to winning games of cricket, and we’ve seen a lot of captains that it’s had a really positive effect on their game generally. There’s no reason why that wouldn’t happen to Joe for the next 18 months.”There is no immediate prospect of England appointing one captain to cover all three formats, though. Even if Eoin Morgan had not led the white-ball sides’ improvement over the last 18 months, Strauss is inclined to believe that the demands of leading across formats is too demanding to be sustainable.”When I started this job I saw great value in us having separate captains for the different formats,” Strauss said. “And the reason behind that is because it allows that person to spend every waking hour thinking about how to take the team forward in that particular format.”When you have a captain for all formats, it’s very hard to be able to do that consistently. You almost inevitably start sleep-walking from one format to the other, so I still think there’s great value in having those two captains.”Eoin has done a fantastic job as one-day captain, and we’ve seen the change of method and philosophy in white-ball cricket – and how successful that’s been. There’s certainly no reason why I’d want to upset that apple-cart at this stage.”Either way, it seems nobody within the ECB is going to try to shape Root’s captaincy. He will be encouraged to find his own way and”The advice everyone gives you when you take over as captain is to do it your way,” Strauss said. “It’s got to feel right for you.At the same time, you should always listen to people that have been in that position before and understand how to manage yourself a bit and how to manage others.”But I think if you have a depth of character about you, and you have a realisation that you only get this chance once in your life, you pretty much get to the stage where ‘I’m going to do what I think is right, and I’ll be judged on that.’ And certainly that’s how I anticipate Joe will go about doing things.”

AB de Villiers has made a “wise decision” in the “best interests of South African cricket,” by sitting out of Test cricket for most of the rest of 2017, according to Ali Bacher, the former South Africa captain and veteran administrator.Bacher met with de Villiers on Tuesday, shortly after de Villiers had ruled himself out of the New Zealand Tests in March, and told ESPNcricinfo he thought de Villiers had done the right thing.”AB is an extraordinary individual and the amount of cricket he has played has taken its toll on his body. If he had to play all formats, his body will break down,” Bacher said. “He has made a wise decision to go about things cautiously and get his body ready to take on the world again.”De Villiers has spent the last six months on the sidelines as he recovered from an elbow injury that required surgery. He is due to make a comeback in a T20 against Sri Lanka on January 25, with a view to playing in the five-match ODI series that follows, and hopes to lead South Africa to the Champions Trophy and ultimately the 2019 World Cup.Fifty-over cricket is his focus and Bacher believes de Villiers will not rest until he has his hands on an ICC trophy. “He is extremely passionate about South African cricket and about winning that World Cup,” Bacher said.Bacher also brushed aside concerns that de Villiers’ extended time out of the Test arena will see the team move on without him.”He is one of the greats and I would think that, when he is fit and ready, he will be an automatic pick.” He asked the South African public to be patient with de Villiers because “he has given 100%”, and has served them “non-stop”.De Villiers had played international cricket for 12 years, including 98 Tests in succession from his debut to July 2015. He missed South Africa’s series in Bangladesh on that occasion, because of paternity commitments.”It is vigorous. The practice schedule and the playing. And he has been going like this since 2004. He has done so much and if he is not wise he will break down again. I have seen no difference in the way he feels about playing for South Africa.”Bacher was interviewing de Villiers for his television series at de Villiers’ old school, Affies, where Bacher also read out a message from Sachin Tendulkar in praise of AB.”I got hold of Sachin Tendulkar, who was my first interviewee for the show in 2010, and I asked him to send me a few words about AB. He holds AB in such regard for the way he has changed the context of the modern game. AB is a special person and a special cricketer. South Africa must not forget that.”

Former South Africa opener Sid O’Linn died in Randberg on Sunday at the age of 89. An obdurate left-hand batsman and stand-in wicketkeeper, O’Linn had played seven Tests for South Africa between 1960 and 1961.He also played 92 first-class matches for Transvaal, Western Province and Kent, scoring 4525 runs at 35.62. A sharp fielder in most positions when not keeping, he took 97 catches to go with six stumpings. His Test call up came in mid-1960 for a tour of England, after a season in which he scored 619 runs at 68.78 for Transvaal. On the tour, he scored his best of 98 – made over five and a half hours – at Trent Bridge. The following year he played two home Tests against New Zealand, before being dropped on form.O’Linn’s sporting skills extended beyond the cricket field: he played top-flight football for English football club Charlton Athletic, and even represented South Africa in football in one game in 1947.