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The controversial slogan associated with white supremacist groups was briefly unfurled on one of the stands

Tristan Lavalette25-Jan-2019Three men who unfurled an ‘It’s ok to be white’ banner during last night’s Big Bash match at Perth Stadium will receive a “first and final warning” from Cricket Australia.The banner was displayed for about five minutes over the railing on the top tier near the Justin Langer Stand during Perth Scorchers’ innings against Sydney Thunder. The men took down the banner shortly after reportedly being spotted by security and were issued move-on notices by police.Perth Stadium’s conditions of entry prohibits oversized banners and flags deemed to cause public nuisance.The slogan is affiliated with white supremacist groups and gained prominence in Australia last October when controversial senator Pauline Hanson put forward a motion declaring ‘it’s OK to be white’.Government senators originally supported the motion, before backing down and voted against it the second time around.A Western Australia police spokesperson said the incident was “currently under investigation by police”, with the trio involved aged 50, 38 and 24. Perth has a history of racial and religiously motivated banners appearing in public places. In 2016 a banner declaring “Go WCE, Stop the Mosques” was briefly unfurled at Subiaco Oval during an AFL fixture between West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers, following a similar banner displayed during another AFL match in Melbourne.Stadium management indicated at the time that the four spectators responsible for the banner would be banned from the stadium for life.Earlier this summer, numerous spectators were ejected from the MCG’s famous Bay 13 during the Boxing Day Test for repeatedly chanting “show us your visa” to Indian members of the crowd. Footage of the chant, obtained by ESPNcricinfo, was passed on to Cricket Australia, who in turn passed the video on to Victoria Police and stadium management.”Three people in question was immediately removed from the venue and they will be issued a first and final warning from Cricket Australia,” a CA spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo in relation to Friday’s incident. “Cricket Australia takes a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour at any of our matches, which includes racial vilification.”Our message to any fan attending a match is that if you display anti-social behaviour you will be removed and risk being banned from any cricket match across Australia, along with police action.”We encourage anybody who may witness this at one of our matches to report the matter to security or a member of staff immediately.”

Set a daunting target of 386, South Australia ended the third day on 5 for 124 with an entire day to spare at the Adelaide Oval

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Nov-2017
ScorecardGetty Images

Captain George Bailey’s 86 and twin strikes each from Jackson Bird and Gabe Bell combined to take Tasmania only five wickets away from victory. Set a daunting target of 386, South Australia ended the third day on 5 for 124 with an entire day to spare at the Adelaide Oval.Resuming on 2 for 79, Bailey had to carry the Tasmania middle order as none of his team-mates could cross 25 on the third day. He scored his third straight 50-plus score – after 106 and 59 against Victoria – to take the lead past 300 before Adam Zampa (3 for 85) took two middle-order wickets and Kane Richardson (4 for 30) wiped out the tail. By the time they were dismissed for 244, Tasmania’s lead had neared 400.Under 10 overs into the chase, 22-year old Bell removed the South Australia openers cheaply before Callum Ferguson and Travis Head stitched a 60-run stand to steer them towards 100. Once left-arm quick Sam Rainbird removed Head for a brisk 31, Bird struck twice in the 34th over to rattle the stumps of Jake Lehmann (17) and Joe Mennie (0). The doube-strike left South Australia five down for 119. Ferguson was unbeaten on 46 with a tall task for the last day.

Kraigg Brathwaite and Shane Dowrich struck unbeaten fifties to complete a memorable five-wicket win in clinical fashion on the fifth morning in Sharjah

The Report by Sirish Raghavan03-Nov-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Kraigg Brathwaite became the first opener to be unbeaten in both innings of a Test, as he led West Indies to an absorbing five-wicket win over Pakistan in Sharjah – their first Test win outside the West Indies and Bangladesh since 2007. It was also West Indies’ first win in 14 Tests and their first under the captaincy of Jason Holder.Yet, resuming on 114 for 5, with 39 runs to win, overnight batsmen Brathwaite and Shane Dowrich showed no sign of letting the occasion get to them. Brathwaite opened proceedings with a crisp drive to the cover boundary off Wahab Riaz on the first ball of the day. Dowrich smacked a half-tracker from Yasir Shah to the midwicket boundary in the next over. That set the tone as the pair took just 7.5 overs to knock down the target in clinical fashion on the fifth morning.While neither batsman looked to force the pace, they were not afraid to put away bad balls either. Late cuts and drives through the off side featured prominently as the pair glided past the finish line with minimum fuss. Dowrich sealed the win, slashing a short ball from Mohammad Amir towards the third-man boundary for the sixth four of the morning.Pakistan’s bowlers were unable to create any pressure on a pitch that was still rather placid. Neither Wahab nor Amir got much swing or movement off the surface, and Yasir was ineffective and inconsistent in the two overs he bowled. The batsmen seemed to have little trouble in keeping the straight ones out and punishing anything that was too short or too wide.It was all a far cry from West Indies’ wobble the previous evening, as they slid to 67 for 5 after a rather shaky 29-run opening partnership. But Brathwaite and Dowrich scored unbeaten half-centuries, combining for a nerveless 87-run stand to steer their side to a memorable victory and finish a tough tour of the UAE on a high.

Alex Hales, Zafar Ansari and James Taylor have been named in England’s 16-man squad for the Test series against Pakistan in the UAE

Andrew McGlashan15-Sep-2015Alex Hales, Zafar Ansari and James Taylor have been named in England’s 16-man squad for the Test series against Pakistan in the UAE.Hales replaces the discarded Adam Lyth as the seventh opening batsman to be selected since Andrew Strauss’ retirement in 2012, although it is not a certainty that he will walk out alongside Alastair Cook in Abu Dhabi on October 13.Depending on how England structure their final XI in order to accommodate the extra spinner very likely required in the UAE they could open with Moeen Ali or even the uncapped Ansari who has taken 44 Championship wickets for Surrey this season with his left-arm spin.

England squads to face Pakistan

Test squad Alastair Cook (capt), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Mark Wood
One-day squad Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, James Taylor, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
T20 squad Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Stephen Parry, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Hales has not paid the price for a disappointing one-day series against Australia where he made 53 runs in five innings. Instead the selectors backed his Championship form for the season which had brought 886 runs at 52.11 before the current round of matches, including scores of 236 against Yorkshire and 189 against Warwickshire.Ansari made his ODI debut against Ireland, in Dublin, back in May but the match was abandoned after 18 overs and he did not feature in the remaining limited-overs squads during the season. However, he has made over 700 runs for Surrey in the Championship alongside his wicket haul and scored 99 against a Lancashire attack, which included James Anderson, on Monday.Taylor, who played two Tests against South Africa in 2012, is the other member of the squad who did not feature during the Ashes. He made his maiden international hundred in the third ODI against Australia at Old Trafford and could yet push for a spot in the middle order against Pakistan. He has made 827 runs in the Championship although 291 of them came in one innings against Sussex. He is preferred to Gary Ballance who was dropped after the second Test against Australia.”The challenge we face against Pakistan will be very different and the composition of our squads reflects the conditions we expect to encounter in the UAE,” James Whitaker, the national selector, said. “Zafar Ansari’s potential excites us and he will provide strong competition for Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali in the Test squad after enjoying an excellent domestic season with both bat and ball for Surrey.”Alex Hales has scored heavily for Nottinghamshire in first-class cricket this season, has shown he can play match-winning innings for England in white ball cricket and fully deserves an opportunity to compete for a place at the top of the order in our Test side.”The rest of the squad is as expected with Liam Plunkett taking the additional fast-bowling slot while Jonny Bairstow will contest a middle-order batting spot and act as reserve keeper.Ben Stokes, meanwhile, has been rested for the one-day series against Pakistan – he was the only England player to appear in every international at home this season against New Zealand and Australia – while Chris Jordan and Lancashire’s Stephen Parry have been recalled for the T20s. Jordan has not featured for England since being injured in the one-day series against New Zealand and Parry’s last match consisted of two overs for 23 in the World T20 game against Netherlands in Chittagong which England lost.Stuart Broad continues to be left out of the white-ball squads but Joe Root, who was rested for the limited-overs matches against Australia, returns for all formats while fast bowler Mark Wood, who has been carefully managed due to his injury history, is part of all three squads.”In line with our recent decision to rest Joe Root for the one-day series against Australia, we have opted not to include Ben Stokes in our one-day or T20 international squads,” Whitaker said”Ben has been an outstanding performer for England this summer and this decision reflects a desire to manage his workload across a busy winter period in all three formats of the game. He will come back into contention for the white-ball format when we consider the make-up of our squads for the tour of South Africa later in the year.”Also, as revealed by ESPNcricinfo, Mahela Jayawardene will join the Test squad as a batting consultant for the warm-up matches and first Test while Paul Collingwood, the former England captain, will work with the limited-overs teams on this tour and at the World T20 in India next year.Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, said: “We are delighted that Mahela and Paul will be joining the England management team, supporting our existing specialist coaches in this area. Both will bring a vast wealth of cricketing knowledge and expertise to the team, and in Mahela’s case, extensive experience of batting in the sub-continent which will be invaluable as part of our wider preparations for the UAE tour.”

Being big and bad has helped many bowlers to a successful Test career and Boyd Rankin hopes his main selling points can help him become the next

Alex Winter21-Feb-2013Being big and bad has helped many bowlers to a successful Test career and Boyd Rankin hopes his main selling points can help him become the next.At 6ft 7in, Rankin is brushing shoulders with contemporaries whose ability to look down on others has helped them into Test cricket. Steve Harmison, Chris Tremlett and Steve Finn have all recently been picked for England on their height and aggression (at least with the ball in hand) and Rankin also offers those qualities.Alongside focusing on the 2013 season with County Champions Warwickshire, Test cricket is Rankin’s main aim after he ended his career with Ireland following the World T20 in Sri Lanka last September. Rankin, 28 and from Londonderry in Northern Ireland, now wants to play for England.”I’ve always said I’d love to play Test cricket,” Rankin told ESPNcricinfo. “I retired from Ireland to try and concentrate a bit more on Warwickshire. It got to the stage where I was playing all year round with Ireland, Warwickshire and England Lions and I wasn’t getting a lot of rest and I was picking up a few injuries on the way so I thought the best way to go was to stop playing for Ireland and concentrate on county cricket and see from there.”I think I bring something different with my height and my size, there’s not many guys around that can offer that and I think I’ve got a chance that way.”Rankin had a good record for Ireland, with 43 wickets in 37 ODIs at 32.34 and 17 wickets at 21.41 in 15 T20s, but he must prove his red-ball skills are good enough for international cricket if he is to force a way past an ever-lengthening queue for a place in the England bowling attack.His recent returns for Warwickshire have been encouraging. He took 55 first-class wickets at 25.80 in 2011 and was selected for England Lions that summer. He toured with the Lions in Bangladesh before a foot injury checked his progress; his 2012 season was halved and he took 16 wickets at 32.18 on his return.The problem flared up again after Christmas, ruling Rankin out of the Lions tour to Australia and forcing him to stay in Birmingham and work with Warwickshire bowling coach Graeme Welch.”He’s been great with all the bowlers since he’s been here,” Rankin said. “I did quite a lot of work with him up until I picked up this injury. I was changing a few things with my action and that was going really well. I’m looking forward to getting that going again. He’s worked wonders with the likes of Keith Barker and Chris Wright.”Welch was in the running to become Warwickshire’s new director of cricket after Ashley Giles left Edgbaston to become England’s one-day coach but was beaten to the position by Giles’ former assistant, Dougie Brown. Rankin was sad to see Giles go, having been one of his first signings after joining from Derbyshire in 2008, but can see no trouble with Brown’s new regime.”It’s been a very smooth transition over,” Rankin said. “The squad is in a good place at the moment. It’s just a matter of continuing on the work that was done with Ashley. Dougie is his own man and there have been quite a few things already set in place.”With the injury, I haven’t really been involved as much as I would have liked to but obviously Dougie loves the club and wants the best for every player. But the things are pretty settled and it’s been pretty straightforward for him.”Boyd Rankin was speaking from the StreetChance supported by Barclays Spaces for Sports national cricket tournament at the Birmingham NIA. StreetChance is a Cricket Foundation project which uses cricket to engage young people in inner-city areas affected by anti-social behaviour and youth crime. Find out more at www.streetchance.org

Has Brad Haddin played his last one-day match for Australia? Matthew Wade is not allowing himself to think that way

Brydon Coverdale at the MCG05-Feb-2012Has Brad Haddin played his last one-day match for Australia? Matthew Wade is not allowing himself to think that way, but it is a scenario that becomes more likely with every game Wade plays. Two Man-of-the-Match performances for Australia in the past week have confirmed Wade as a player of international standard, and it would be a brave selection panel to drop him later in the series.For now, Wade, 24, has been picked for the first three matches of the tournament. The national selector John Inverarity said when announcing the squad that Haddin, 34, was rested, but Haddin took issue with that wording and said he felt as if he had been dropped. Either way, Wade is doing his best to make the limited-overs wicketkeeping position permanently his own.His 67 in Australia’s win over India at the MCG was the sixth-best score by an Australia ODI debutant, and he showed no nerves facing the reigning World Cup holders. That followed scores of 72 and 32 in the two Twenty20 internationals, but despite his strong form Wade insists he is looking no further ahead than the three matches for which he has been chosen.”I think that would be a bad option for me,” Wade said. “I just want to do as well as I can in the three games for which I’ve been picked. If you look too far ahead you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a pretty fickle game that we play. From day to day it changes. You’ve just got to live in the moment and concentrate on the next ball. It’s pretty clichéd but that’s what I’m doing.”The environment that I’m in, the Australian cricket team, no one is talking about what will happen down the road. Everyone is just focusing on the next game; all our planning, all our meetings, all the stuff we do is pretty much for the next game that we’re going to play. It’s all about what we can do in the present moment.”For Wade, that means making runs and taking catches. Given the chance to open alongside David Warner, he anchored the innings either side of a long rain delay, displaying impressive concentration and temperament. He does not have the power of Warner but rarely gets bogged down, and he has looked comfortable at international level. It has not all been easy, though.”The intensity,” he said when asked what was the major difference from domestic cricket. “When Mike [Michael] Hussey walked out and started running between the wickets like he was there was definitely a step up in intensity. I think that’s the major thing. Everything is just a bit faster. When you have to run with Mike it’s even harder.”He did not have much trouble keeping up with Hussey, although twice during his innings he needed to dive full length to make his ground. At 170 centimetres, he does not have the stretch of some of his colleagues. That has not hurt his effectiveness with the bat, nor with the gloves. In Friday’s T20 he took a terrific catch diving to his right to get rid of Virat Kohli.In the first ODI he pouched a pair of catches and one of them, Gautam Gambhir’s edge to a rising ball from Mitchell Starc, came through with surprising bounce at an awkward height. Effortlessly, Wade switched his hands from facing downwards to skywards, and he gloved the ball with no problem. His critics have questioned whether his glovework is up to international standard, but Wade believes he has never been in better form behind the stumps.”I definitely feel like I’m keeping as well as I ever have,” he said. “To be in the environment of the Australian cricket team, I’m catching more balls every day. Things are going really well. I feel on top of my game.”For now, he has two more matches to present his credentials. After that, it’s up to Inverarity and Co. to decide whether he wins the job permanently. Haddin will be watching on nervously.

A round-up of the semi-finals of the Faysal Bank One Day National Cup Division One

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2011Habib Bank Limited eased past Water and Power Development Authority at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore to seal their place in the tournament final. A collective bowling effort, four bowlers including Danish Kaneria, bagged two wickets each, while Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar, the openers, struck half-centuries to ensure a seven-wicket win. Sohaib Maqsood top-scored for WAPDA with 87 but was short of support from the other end; only one other batsman went past 20 as WAPDA were bowled out for 204. A 143-run opening stand between two players who’ve represented Pakistan shut out WAPDA from the game and HBL completed their win – their fourth in five games – with 34 balls to spare.A lower-order revival led by Sarmad Bhatti and an all-round effort from Mohammad Talha handed National Bank of Pakistan a 32-run win over Pakistan International Airlines at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. Bhatti rescued his team from a precarious situation at 79 for 5 and then 114 for 6, adding 70 with Talha followed by 64 with Uzair-ul-Haq to set the opponents a challenging target of 249. Bhatti top-scored for his team with 73, while Talha chipped in with a quickfire 49 that included three sixes. Uzair rattled PIA in their reply, picking up four wickets to reduce them to 95 for 6 at one stage. Shoaib Khan snr and Sarfraz Ahmed, though, helped the team recover with a 108-run stand but it proved unsustainable. Talha returned to bag two wickets as the innings closed on 216, sealing NBP’s place in the final.

Michael Atherton, the former England captain, has won the UK’s top honour for a sports writer, being named Sports Writer of the Year for 2009 by the Sports Journalists’ Association

Cricinfo staff09-Mar-2010Michael Atherton, the former England captain, has won the UK’s top honour for a sports writer, being named Sports Writer of the Year for 2009 by the Sports Journalists’ Association.Atherton, cricket correspondent of , was acclaimed for his coverage of the 2009 Ashes, with one of the judges, a sports editor, describing him as “peerless in his own sport, entertaining, thought-provoking and challenging on any other subject,” and another saying “his elegant style, thoughtful but incisive opinions were, in an Ashes-winning year, indispensable.”In a good evening for Atherton, he was also named Sports Columnist of the Year, highly commended in the Specialist Correspondent category, and took some credit for his commentary work as Sky Sports’ Test cricket coverage won the TV Sports Programme award.Atherton was in Chittagong covering England’s tour of Bangladesh when the awards were announced at a gala dinner in London.Cricket also featured in three other awards, with Gareth Copley winning Sports Picture of the Year for his photo of Jonathan Trott being run out at The Oval, while Lawrence Booth, writing for the , won the online award for a Regular Blog or Column and the BBC’s Tom Fordyce took the best Live Blog award.

Captain suffers another in-match injury as batting collapses in his absence

Firdose Moonda07-Sep-2025Temba Bavuma has suffered a left calf strain in the field in the third ODI against England and will only bat if required. The severity of the injury is yet to be determined but the niggle may cause some alarm bells for South African cricket. There are five weeks until they begin their World Test Championship title defence in Pakistan.This is Bavuma’s second in-match injury this year, after he strained his hamstring early in his innings during the World Test Championship final in June. On that occasion, he continued batting and made 66 in a match-winning 147 run third-wicket partnership with Aiden Markram. However, he missed South Africa’s Tests in ZImbabwe in July as he recovered from the injury.”It is a little bit sore now. I will know properly when I get home,” Bavuma said, when asked about the seriousness of his injury.Bavuma returned to action in the ODI series against Australia last month, where he played two of the three matches as his workload was managed. That was due to continue in this series but Bavuma has started all three matches. He is not part of the T20 squad and will next be in action in the Tests in mid-October.The latest setback will also be a concern for Bavuma as he looks to build towards the 2027 home ODI World Cup, where he hopes to lead South Africa. Bavuma will be 37 at the time of the tournament and, given his history of injury, may not be fit enough to play through the event. Bavuma had a hamstring injury at the 2023 World Cup and again in Tests against India later that year. He also has a long-standing elbow injury and bats with heavy strapping.In his absence, South Africa collapsed to 72 all out and a record 342-run loss in the third ODI, with Wiaan Mulder – Bavuma’s replacement at No.3 – falling for a duck.

Sri Lanka were quick to lose six in their second innings, but took their lead past 450

Mohammad Isam01-Apr-2024Asitha Fernando put Bangladesh on the backfoot with a four-wicket haul, as the hosts collapsed to 178 all out on the third day in Chattogram. Sri Lanka themselves slipped to 102 for 6 with debutant Hasan Mahmud picking up four of those wickets. But the visitors’ lead stands at a formidable 455 runs at stumps after they didn’t enforce the follow-on on Bangladesh.The Sri Lankan fast bowlers attacked in pairs and benefited greatly from captain Dhananjaya de Silva’s innovative field placings. Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Prabath Jayasuriya took two wickets each as Bangladesh slipped from 96 for 1 to be bowled out in the next 35.5 overs.It was also their fifth successive sub-200 score in Tests, as their batting crumbled on either side of the lunch break on the third day.Bangladesh started the day confidently. For the first time in the series, two home batters – Zakir Hasan and nightwatcher Taijul Islam – looked in some control. Zakir, unbeaten overnight on 28, struck two confident fours in the first two overs. He reached his fourth Test fifty with a streaky four but looked mostly in control.Sri Lanka had a few whiffs of a wicket but Zakir and Taijul kept them at bay for an hour and 19 minutes in the morning session. That changed spectacularly when Vishwa burst an inswinger through Zakir sending the leg-stump for a cartwheel. Soon after, Prabath got Najmul Hossain Shanto to chip one to short midwicket.Bangladesh lost a third wicket in three overs when the left-arm quick Vishwa got another of his fast in-duckers ripping through Taijul’s defences. The nightwatcher, sent in at No. 3 on the second evening, resisted for an impressive 61 balls.Sri Lanka continued the pressure after lunch when Asitha set up Shakib Al Hasan with a two-card trick. After bowling a series of short balls, he surprised the left-hander with a full ball that struck his front pad plumb. Shakib in his first Test innings in almost 12 months fell for 15.Three balls later, Asitha removed Litton Das. The wicketkeeper-batter, under fire for his careless shot in Sylhet last week, struck a nice cover drive before edging a straight, slightly wide delivery from Asitha. Kumara then got Shahadat Hossain to edge one to second slip.Sri Lanka dropped two catches around this time, while Mominul Haque became the fourth Bangladeshi batter to reach 4,000 Test runs. The experienced left-hander batted confidently on the ground where he has seven Test centuries. But Asitha’s yorker resulted in his lbw dismissal, for 33. Khaled Ahmed fell in Asitha’s next over, another yorker, giving the fast bowler his fourth wicket of the innings.Hasan Mahmud took four Sri Lanka wickets on the third day•AFP/Getty Images

The pacers’ domination continued in Chattogram when Mahmud and Khaled rocked Sri Lanka with six wickets.Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis were cleaned up by Mahmud and Khaled respectively. Mahmud then removed Nishan Madushka, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya in consecutive overs in his second spell.Madushka struck one to extra cover while Shahadat Hossain finally caught one in the slips, removing Chandimal for 9. De Silva was caught behind for 1, as Mahmud was rewarded for his off-stump channel consistency.Khaled rounded up the day with Kamindu Mendis’ wicket, edging one behind the wicket for 9. Captain Shanto took the timely review which showed the edge. Bangladesh’s fielders enjoyed the wickets; at one stage, five fielders from the slip cordon chased an edge to the boundary much to the tiny crowd’s glee. The players walked off slightly happier than earlier in the day although they have a mountain to climb in the fourth innings.