New Zealand cricket fans could struggle for live television coverage of the TelstraClear Black Caps’ forthcoming tour to Sri Lanka.Negotiations are continuing, and may continue right up until the day before the first Test match is due to start on Anzac Day, April 25.SKY Television producer James Cameron said today that heavy expenditure involved in bringing the World Cup in for New Zealand viewers had hit the coverage budget.However, he was hopeful that all was not lost in securing coverage.The cricket budget year ends on June 30.Cameron said there would be live coverage from New Zealand’s tour to India next season, and there would also be live coverage of New Zealand’s tour to England next year.There would also be cricket still available on SKY this year with highlights packages available from England, for the seven Test matches to be played there and for the NatWest Challenge and NatWest Series of One-Day Internationals.There was also a possibility that Australia’s mid-winter Tests against Bangladesh in Darwin and Cairns might also be telecast here.
Grant Bradburn’s started playing first-class cricket in 1985/86, but he says the last three months have been the greatest learning period of his career.First selected for New Zealand in 1990 to tour Pakistan, this year’s Northern Districts player of the year Bradburn had his last international experience when called in as a replacement for the bomb-affected tour of Sri Lanka in 1992/93.Then, in a surprising move by the national selectors, he was recalled for the second Test match against Pakistan last summer.He played in the third Test and was selected for the end of season tour of Sharjah.Since then, with his career and horizons readjusted, he has been working with New Zealand Cricket’s director of playing development Ashley Ross, and also coaches Mike Shimpton and Dayle Hadlee, at the Cricket Academy on aspects of his bowling action and batting technique.”I’ve made a couple of technical changes to my bowling action and there was an area of need in my sweep shot that I have been working on,” he said.The sweep shot had not really been an option for him in the past but the need to be able to play in Sri Lankan conditions meant he needed to work on changes.Since playing the Pakistan Tests, Bradburn has had access to coaching materials not previously available to him.”The access to television footage has been important because it confirms what you think you might be doing, you can put some fact to what you are trying to do.”I’ve also had expert coaching that can really go into the mechanics of what you are doing.”It is quite exciting and I am looking forward to getting the chance to put it to use in match situations,” he said.Having seen his bowling action on film and wanting to keep on bettering it, even at his advanced age of 35, he has been putting in work that he said is starting to pay benefits and which, once he gets used to the changes, is likely to be better in three or four months time.”I still need a little bit of reassuring about it in match situations,” he said.However, players in Hamilton who have been batting to him when he has been bowling in the nets have noticed the changes.The ball is coming to them on a different arc, there is more overspin, there is more dip and there is more spin and bounce than what he had previously been able to achieve.Bradburn said it had been reasonably difficult to make changes to an action he had grown accustomed to over nearly 20 years of play.The changes were not huge or immediately obvious to the eye, but they were significant from his end of the exercise.”I’ve even had one little tip from Dayle Hadlee from a fast bowler’s attitude which has been incorporated.”It has all given me and my career a new lease of life. It is really exciting and while I have played for so long I still believe there is always potential to improve,” he said.
Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta could now consider signing a Premier League star in January amid the club’s injury concerns.
Arsenal's potential transfer plans for January
While most anticipate a fairly quiet window for the north Londoners after they spent nearly £270 million in the summer, the prospect of a fresh face arriving next month hasn’t been entirely ruled out.
Mikel Arteta’s squad has been ravaged by injuries yet again this campaign, with a seismic 17 players out of their 25-man squad ruled out through injury or illness on at least one occasion so far.
They were also without a plethora of key attackers at one point, but Kai Havertz and Max Dowman are now the only attacking casualties, with Gabriel Jesus also back after spending 11 months on the treatment table.
Instead, Arsenal are seriously depleted at the back.
Arsenal set sights on AC Milan duo with 'serious' discussions already held
The Rossoneri pair are attracting real north London interest.
ByEmilio Galantini
Ben White is set to be out for ‘at least’ one month after injuring his hamstring in the dramatic 2-1 win over Wolves last weekend, coming as a blow for the player given he was just getting back to full speed in recent weeks.
Gabriel Magalhaes also remains out with a thigh injury he got on international duty last month, while summer signing Cristhian Mosquera is still sidelined with an ankle problem.
Luckily for Arteta, Riccardo Calafiori has now returned from suspension, with Piero Hincapie and William Saliba also available to fill in at the heart of Arsenal’s defence.
Even with the likes of Mosquera, White and Gabriel out right now, Arsenal are still pretty well-stocked at the back overall, except maybe at right-back where Jurrien Timber is their only available senior option.
Taking that into account, this latest piece of news from CaughtOffside and journalist Mark Brus today comes as a bit of a surprise.
Arsenal to consider January move for Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi
According to their information, Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi could find himself on Berta’s transfer radar in the winter window.
The England international’s contract expires next summer, meaning he will soon become one of 2026’s most sought-after free agents, and Premier League clubs could either snap him up for nothing later this year or sign him for a cut-price fee in January.
CaughtOffside state Arsenal may consider a January move for Guehi amid concerns surrounding squad depth and injuries, particularly in midfield and defence.
They write that he is a ‘big-name’ option who could come into play next month, alongside highly-rated Rennes youngster Jeremy Jacquet, who they’ve been linked with before.
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Arsenal made contact over a deal for Jacquet in the summer, according to Fabrizio Romano, and the 19-year-old is apparently still being monitored by their recruitment team ahead of 2026.
In terms of Guehi, the 25-year-old would undoubtedly be a stellar addition and a potentially bargain price, but it is difficult to see where he would fit into Arteta’s current squad.
The Palace stalwart would surely want a guaranteed starting place, though with Saliba and Gabriel standing out as one of Europe’s best central defensive partnerships, Guehi would face a major battle to get into their starting eleven.
With rumoured competition from the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Tottenham, who’ve all been linked with Guehi, the defender also has his pick of other top clubs heading into next summer.
Fabrizio Romano: Arsenal without star for at least a month after fresh injury
Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, has assured Malinda Warnapura and Thilan Thusara that they can expect an extended run in the national team. Warnapura starred with scores of 120 and 62 in Sri Lanka’s opening Test win by 121 runs against West Indies last week in Guyana, and Thushara offered steady support to the elite bowling duo of Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan with match figures of 5 for 129 runs from 37.5 overs.”These two guys have played good first-class cricket back home and play a little bit of league cricket in England so know their way around the park,” Jayawardene said. “We can always call them up and say this is your opportunity.”They have waited a long time for this opportunity, and now they will get an extended run – whether they make runs or not, or whether they take wickets or not. So we have not put them under any pressure on this tour, and told them that if they fail that they will lose their place. They will get an extended run, and this is probably why they have responded to the challenge in this way.”The retirements of former captains Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu have left vacancies at the top of the Sri Lanka batting line-up that have yet to be convincingly filled. As a result, the selectors promoted Warnapura, 28, from the middle order to an opening slot on the basis of his consistency at domestic level.He has been a regular member of the Sri Lanka A team and visited the Caribbean two years ago, when illness restricted him to three innings of 2, 8 and 11. But almost a decade after making his first-class debut, he had to wait to make his Test debut against Bangladesh at home last June. His entry into Test cricket was hardly auspicious, as he was dismissed off his first ball, and scored 82 in the second Test.With Vaas admitting he is nearing the end of his career, the national selectors have eyed Thushara as a possible left-arm replacement. He made his Test debut on Sri Lanka’s previous trip to the Caribbean five years ago, but he subsequently faded, and others have overtaken him in the pecking order. This trip provides him with a second crack at international cricket, following strong performances in domestic competitions.Sri Lanka, eyeing a Test series victory for the first time in the Caribbean, lead the two-Test series 1-0, after the Guyana victory handed them their first Test win on Caribbean soil in five matches. The second Test from April 3 in Trinidad will be followed by a three-match ODI series with two games at the same venue, and a day-night affair on April 15 at St Lucia’s Beausejour Stadium.
Adam Hollioake has signed a short-term deal with Essex and will take part in their Twenty20 campaign which gets underway against Sussex at Chelmsford on Friday.Hollioake, the former Surrey captain who played four Tests and 35 one-day internationals for England, proved himself a master of Twenty20 cricket during its first two years before retiring from the game at the end of the 2004 season.He averaged 28.55 at a strike-rate of 147.70 with the bat while his efforts with the ball were even more impressive, claiming 36 victims in 14 matches with a strike-rate of a wicket every 8.36 balls.Since retirement, Hollioake has played one Twenty20, for the Tsunami Fund in 2005, in which he took a hat-trick. He then went back to Australia, where he has been living since retirement. He is now a full-time property developer.”I love playing Twenty20 cricket and this fits in very nicely because, with my business commitments, it’s impossible to commit to the training required to play all year round,” Hollioake told Cricinfo. “With this being the best time of year in England this was an offer too good to refuse. I’m fitter than ever, too.”Hollioake led Surrey to the inaugural Twenty20 title in 2003, and is expected to play all eight of Essex’s group matches, including a tasty fixture against his former team-mates next Thursday. Three of Essex’s four home matches have already sold out.Hollioake returned to England recently to take part in a charity boxing match, where he fought the New Zealand former All Black Eric Rush. The bout, at Old Billingsgate earlier this month, was won by Rush on points. “It was tough.”Hollioake has since remained in the country, as speculation has mounted about his prospective deal with Essex. The move stemmed from Hollioake’s appearance in a beach-cricket tournament in Australia in January which left Essex coach Graham Gooch impressed.
Slowly but surely the preparations for next year’s World Cup in the West Indies are falling into place. A significant deal has been struck between ten members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), to enable tourists to move between the islands without stopping for passport processing.Inter-island travel is one of the biggest potential pitfalls of the tournament, given that each sovereign state requires its own immigration controls. But from January 15 to May 15 of next year, all nine World Cup host nations plus Dominica will be treated as a single entity, following a meeting in Basseterre, St Kitts.The deal is part of an unprecedented regional security plan, incorporating the United States advanced passenger information system, which will help improve the passenger flow and overall experience of up to 100,000 cricket fans.”It is a framework that gives us comfort that we can therefore extend to all persons travelling in these 10 countries during this period of time,” Mia Mottley, the Barbados deputy prime minister, said. “[It is] a level of freedom of movement that has not [previously] existed.”Chris Dehring, the tournament director, was also pleased with the measures agreed upon.”As someone who travels the Caribbean often,” he said, “the thought of being able to simply get off the plane, go through the airport and not wait in an immigration line for processing is mind-blowing. This is a historic day for the region.””It speaks volumes about the importance which our leaders place on the Cricket World Cup and the fact that they recognise the need to extend tournament uniformity to areas such as security and immigration. It also demonstrates the catalytic effect which hosting this event has on structures and institutions which had probably needed revamping for some time.”Under the conditions of the deal, visitors will be pre-cleared and information will be shared among a pool of more than 400 police and military personnel. The travelling public will not be required to have their passports stamped at any stage after their initial arrival in the Caribbean. However, all fans would still be advised to carry their passports for identification purposes.
South Australia 1 for 21 & 254 lead Victoria 223 (Rummans 63, Joseland 51, Tait 5-39) by 52 runs ScorecardShane Tait collected five wickets as South Australia took first-innings points on day two of the Pura Cup match against Victoria at Adelaide Oval.Victoria were dismissed for 223, 31 runs short of South Australia’s total, after Tait grabbed 5 for 39 and the debutant spinner Dan Cullen chipped in with two wickets. Graeme Rummans top scored with 63 for Victoria while the opener Brendan Joseland made 51.At stumps South Australia were 1 for 21 with Greg Blewett unbeaten on 11 and Ben Cameron not out seven.
There has been plenty of discussion about contracts and payments for Indiancricketers in the last few weeks and fancy numbers have been bandied aboutin various news reports. In all likelihood, the central-contract system will be in place by June and around 20 players will be selected for this purpose. Sadly for the domestic cricketers, however, the news of their impending pay rise was an exaggerated one.Professor Ratnakar Shetty, the joint secretary of the board, clarified this in Mumbai and said: “We had planned to implement the contract system before the Australia tour, but it didn’t work out. Then we went to Pakistan and there was no time.”The BCCI and the players have agreed on some basic principles,” added Shetty. “There will be not more than 20 centrally contracted players, in three grades, and the match-fee structure would be that those in the playing XI would get ‘X’ amount and the others would get half of that. The contracts will be valid for a year. If a player is injured in the period in which he is contracted, he will be protected by the contract.”If everything has already been agreed, then why hasn’t anything been implemented? “The legal document is yet to be drawn up,” explained Shetty. “This takes time because the lawyers from both sides have to put in their contributions. At the moment the contract that was presented by the players has been vetted by the Board’s lawyers and they have raised a few issues for discussion. We are at a stage when we are nearing the completion of thisprocess.”During India’s last tour of England, in 2002, a contract crisis of a different kind erupted with the players having to sign ICC contracts in which certain clauses required them to break existing personal contracts. At the time the lack of a player’s association was a moot point, as the original association was defunct, and this gave birth to the Indian Cricket Players’ Association.But, has this association actually played a part in sorting out the central contract system? “I don’t think they [ICPA] have had a role to play because it has been a direct interaction with the players,” said Shetty, who has been associated with the contract process for the last three years.”Initially we used to discuss only with Anil [Kumble], Sachin [Tendulkar], Sourav [Ganguly] and Rahul [Dravid] but, at the last meeting, which was held in October 2003 in Delhi, we invited Virender [Sehwag], Harbhajan [Singh] and Zaheer [Khan] also. Mr Dalmiya wanted to speak to the players and find out what the common points of interest were with regard to the contracts. So, it was these seven cricketers who were actually involved in the modalities of finalising the contract.That done, the time will soon come to decide which grade each player is to be awarded. “The selection committee will choose the 20 players who willbe awarded contracts,” said Shetty. “Then there will be another committeethat decides who fits in which grade. The value of a players, in terms ofhis performance in the previous season and his seniority would be taken intoconsideration when deciding which grade he falls into.”With no international cricket on at the moment, the players and the boardhave a window of opportunity to sit down and sort this matter out once andfor all. And, it’s likely that India will have centrally contracted cricketers for the first time in its history, by June, well in time for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, the senior team’s next assignment.Shetty also clarified that the recent news about domestic cricketers getting a massive pay hike – upto Rs 52,000 per match – was just a false dawn. Shetty said that player would recieve Rs 4000 per match day, an equivalent amount would go into his benevolent fund account.Therefore, someone playing in a four-day Ranji match would recieve a paymentof Rs.16,000. The same amount would also go into his benevolent fund account, and this sum accrues till his retirement, when he gets his total dues.”The board took a decision last year that 26% of the gross income of the board will be used for payment of cricketers. Of this, 13% will be used for domestic cricketers and 13% for international cricketers. Accordingly the payment scheme for domestic cricketers has already been implemented,” explained Shetty. “Of the 13%, 10.4% will be used for senior cricket and the remaining for junior cricket.”The formula that has been worked out for domestic cricket is Rs 4000 per player per match day. This they get in cash and an equal amount goes to the benevolent fund. This is a formula which has already been implemented.”Recent media reports suggested that senior players stood to gain more than their less-experienced counterparts, but Shetty put that myth to rest. “There is nothing like graded payment for domestic cricket. All members of the playing eleven – irrespective of seniority – will get the same amount and the non-playing members of the squad will get 50% of this.”
After losing by an innings and 77 runs to Barbados in their opening match of the Carib Beer Cup, India ‘A’ bounced back in their second game, thanks largely to their batsmen, who saw them to a first-innings total of 450.Although the game is unlikely to be won by the tourists, who batted two whole days out of four, the runs are likely to boost confidence in the batting line-up ahead of the four games remaining before the semi-finals.Leeward Islands, surprisingly, asked India ‘A’ to take first strike at Grove Park, Charlestown, Nevis. They would have regretted their decision at the end of the first day, when their rivals reached 164 for one after rain interrupted play several times and finally ended it with only 47.4 overs bowled.The position was due in large part to openers Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra. Chopra hit 79 and was the first wicket to fall, caught behind off fast bowler Carl Simon. Gambhir continued into the second day with Connor Williams for company and was unlucky to miss out on his century, bowled by Adam Sanford for 98.Captain VVS Laxman, who made a duck in both innings against Barbados, did not do much better here, managing just four. When he fell, shortly after Williams did for 41, India ‘A’ looked to have squandered the advantage. But young tyro Ambati Rayudu hit up 84 of the best and brightest, and Abhijit Kale made 80, holding the lower middle order together.India ‘A’ were bowled out for 450, made in 139.5 overs, towards the end of the second – also rain-interrupted – day. For Leeward Islands, Simon and offie Omari Banks picked three wickets apiece.
Lanky pace bowler Chris Tremlett, who finished school only two weeks ago, celebrated his home Championship debut with a decisive spell of four for 34 as Durham, chasing 211 on a difficult Rose Bowl pitch, fell to defeat by 47 runs.Tremlett, getting pace and bounce from a lively wicket, finished with creditable match figures of seven for 77 leaving Durham to regret an important missed catch early in the day. Neil Johnson was only 34 when he was put down behind the wicket by Andy Pratt off a straightforward chance.Johnson took full advantage to go on and make 86 not out, dominating partnerships with Shaun Udal, Alex Morris and Tremlett which produced 125 for the last three wickets.Simon Brown and Nicky Hatch each took three wickets as Hampshire were eventually all out for 230. At one stage they were 105 for seven, just 85 ahead, but Durham began their second innings in positive fashion fearing that a target of 211 may be beyond them in the unpredictable circumstances. So it proved once the in-form Martin Love had been superbly caught by Johnson diving at first slip for nine.Jon Lewis resisted bravely for 38 and Nicky Peng hit eight fours in a brisk and belligerent 49 before being caught at long leg. Tremlett dismissed Pratt and Ian Hunter in the same over, the 45th of the innings, and wrapped up a personally satisfying day by having Brown and Hatch caught at the wicket off successive balls. It was Hampshire’s third win of the season.