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Cricket Ireland has announced new coaching consultancy roles for William Porterfield, Ireland’s former captain across all formats, and Gary Wilson, the wicketkeeper-batsman who retired last week.Porterfield, 36, will combine his playing career with a job as consultant fielding coach, working with the men’s and women’s teams and the Ireland pathway system. He has also be named as Wilson’s assistant at the North West Warriors in Ireland’s interprovincial set-up.Recognised as one of Ireland’s best fielders, Porterfield’s last international appearance came in an ODI in January 2020, having stepped down from the captaincy a few months earlier.”I’m really excited about these two roles – both working within the national system and within the provincial system in the North West,” Porterfield said. “I had a bit of a taste of coaching with the Birmingham Bears last year, and am looking forward to working with some of Ireland’s most talented players – being able to pass on knowledge and experience from a coach’s perspective. It will be a bit different being a coach while still playing, but it’s going to be a great opportunity and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”The fielding role with Ireland is something I’m passionate about. I’ve prided myself on my fielding throughout my career, and tried to set high standards, so hopefully I’ll be able to help not only players from the senior men’s and women’s squads, but players from the under-age teams as well.”Related

• Ireland emphasise need for ICC funding and more context as Test drought continues

• Porterfield steps down as Ireland captain

• Dockrell, Porterfield, Rankin dropped for Afghanistan ODIs

• Gary Wilson retires to take up coaching role

Having called time on his professional career to take over as North West Warriors head coach and pathway manager, Wilson has also been given a consultant wicketkeeping role with Ireland, again working across men’s, women’s and age-group teams.Wilson said: “I’m thrilled to be able to support keepers up and down the Irish pathway in this new role. It’s a great opportunity to get back involved in the international set-up so soon after retirement, and it’s a role I’m looking forward to massively.”When I was initially discussing the scope of the role, what I really felt added to it was the ability to share my knowledge and experience with the keepers within the women’s game. Ed [Joyce] has been doing such a fantastic job as head coach, and I’m delighted to be able to work with him on bringing on the senior and emerging talent that we have here in Ireland.”Richard Holdsworth, Cricket Ireland’s high performance director, added: “I’m delighted that we have not only appointed these two roles we have long sought, but to have appointed two world-class players like William and Gary represents a real win for Irish cricket and the players in our performance system.”For any young player to be able to access and learn from two of the best players Ireland has produced is an immense opportunity. I know both William and Gary have a passion for Irish cricket and are keen to help develop and improve Irish cricketers at all levels. I wish them well, but know they need no additional motivation – they are two of the most self-motivated people I have worked with and I look forward to seeing their work in this new capacity.”

Devon Conway has entered the top five among T20I batsmen after playing just 13 matches, while in ODIs, Ben Stokes has moved up to No. 2 among allrounders. Matt Henry is up to third and Bhuvneshwar Kumar up at No. 11 in the list of bowlers.In white-ball cricket, performances in the last two games of the three-match ODI series between India and England, which India won 2-1, the final ODI of New Zealand’s 3-0 sweep of Bangladesh and their first two T20Is were considered in the latest ICC rankings, which saw a raft of changes.Related

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Stokes, apart from moving up in the allrounders’ list – he is at 295 points, well behind Shakib Al Hasan, who has 408 – also got to 24th, a rise of four spots, among batsmen after scoring 99 and 35 in his last two innings in India. Jonny Bairstow’s 124 in the second ODI helped him stay at No. 7 among batsmen, while KL Rahul moved up four places to 27th after hitting 108 in the second ODI, and Hardik Pandya reached a career-best 42nd position after hitting 35 and 64. Rishabh Pant, still relatively new to the 50-over format, scored 77 and 78 in the two matches in question, and entered the top 100 as a result, at No. 91.Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and Rohit Sharma held on to their positions at one, two and three for ODI batsmen.In that series, the returning Kumar was one of the star performers, and his 1 for 63 and 3 for 42 helped him gain nine spots in the bowlers’ table, which is headed by Trent Boult.Ben Stokes is the second-best ODI allrounder at the moment, behind Shakib Al Hasan•Getty Images

New Zealand had things go their way for the best part of the home ODI series against Bangladesh, and following their 164-run win in the final ODI, Henry has moved up five slots to a career-best third position among bowlers after returning 4 for 27.The first two T20Is have both gone New Zealand’s way – the second after a fair bit of drama – and Conway played a big part in the first win, hitting 92* in 52 balls in a 66-run win. As a result, he has advanced five positions to No. 4, behind Dawid Malan, Aaron Finch and Azam. Glenn Phillips, Player of the Match in the second win, has also reached a career-best 26th position after scoring 24* and 58*.Tim Southee’s 1 for 34 and 2 for 21 have lifted him two places to seventh, not far from his career-best sixth position in February this year.And following the first Test between West Indies and Sri Lanka, which ended in a draw, Niroshan Dickwella and Nkrumah Bonner made big gains.Dickwella scored his 17th Test half-century – a record for a batsman without a century – and moved up ten places to 29th, while Bonner’s maiden Test century, in only his third Test, put him in the top 50 for the first time, at No. 44. Jason Holder (up three spots to eighth) and Kemar Roach (up from 14th to 12th) were the other West Indians to gain in the rankings.

James Hildreth became the fourth-highest first-class run-maker in Somerset’s history on the second day of the LV=County Championship match with Middlesex at the Cooper Associates County Ground. The 36-year-old batter went past Bill Alley’s tally of 16,644 while contributing 39 to his side’s first innings total of 178 for 4 and now lies behind only Harold Gimblett, Marcus Trescothick and Peter Wight.Earlier, Middlesex had moved from an overnight 308 for 6 to 357 all out, Robbie White falling for 92 and Josh Davey claiming three of the wickets in the space of an over.Related

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There were two victims each for Steve Finn and Tim Murtagh when Somerset replied before an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 80 between George Bartlett and first-class debutant Lewis Goldsworthy left honours pretty even.The day began with White, unbeaten on 70, and Luke Hollman adding 24 before Craig Overton uprooted Hollman’s off stump with his score on 16. White had moved to 81 and the total to 338 for 7 off 108 overs when rain interrupted play at 11.50am. The action resumed at 1.20pm with two incident-packed overs.White took two fours and a three off the first of them, bowled by Tom Abell to put his side within a single of a fourth batting point. But his hopes of a maiden first-class century were dashed when he edged Davey’s first ball of the following over to Hildreth at first slip.The crestfallen White dragged himself off, having faced 224 deliveries and hit 13 fours. Two balls later Finn fell lbw, having survived an equally confident appeal first up, and Somerset had their third bowling point. With one run still needed for a fourth batting point, Murtagh swung two boundaries to third-man, before being caught there to give Davey a third wicket.Somerset’s reply had reached 8 without loss when a lighter shower brought a 15-minute interruption. Then both openers fell quickly as Tom Lammonby edged a catch behind off Finn and Tom Banton was pinned lbw by Murtagh.Hildreth looked in good touch as he and Abell took the score to 86 for 2 at tea, the latter surviving two slip chances in the same Tom Helm over, Max Holden and White the guilty fielders.Hildreth had overtaken Darren Stevens as the leading run-maker among players still operating in the domestic game when fencing at the first delivery after tea from Murtagh and being caught behind. Abell then chipped a full ball from Finn to midwicket and departed for 41. With the floodlights on, Bartlett, on 13, was dropped by Sam Robson at second slip off Martin Andersson.Drizzle and light issues brought a further break at 120 for 4. A 6pm resumption of 15 overs saw Bartlett progress serenely to 43 and 20-year-old Cornishman Goldsworthy move stylishly to 34, an innings rich with promise.

A major row has broken out in English cricket, with T20 freelancers claiming they have been blindsided by a new ECB policy on No-Objection Certificates (NOCs). Players have requested an emergency meeting next week as they work out the implications of changes that ECB chief executive Richard Gould says are designed to “protect the integrity of our sport”.A group of England’s leading T20 freelancers – players without national contracts who are on white-ball-only deals with their counties – feel the move is designed to restrict their opportunities, with a handful of them said to have reacted furiously to the new policy. They are discussing their options both with the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), and among themselves in a WhatsApp group chat.These could include a legal challenge, citing restraints of trade. “The PCA’s legal team is currently completing a thorough check of the implementation of the policy,” Daryl Mitchell, the PCA’ s interim chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo. “The PCA is continuing to source considered opinions and potential consequences of this policy from players and player representatives.”The PCA was aware of potential changes in how counties and the ECB would approach the granting of NOCs, but Mitchell said there was “clear frustration at the lack of time given for consultation, discussion and debate” before the ECB published the policy on Thursday. He added that players had “strongly expressed their concerns” over elements of the new NOCs policy, including “the inconsistencies [at the way] in which players are likely to be treated.”The ECB’s new policy, which was granted board approval on Wednesday, comes in response to the proliferation of new franchise leagues during the English season. The most significant among these is Major League Cricket (MLC), but English players have also featured in the Lanka Premier League (LPL), T10 competitions in Zimbabwe and the Cayman Islands, and the long-established Caribbean Premier League (CPL).Next year, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) has shifted its usual dates and will be held in April-May, clashing with the early months of the County Championship season. The ECB’s move is designed to avoid a significant talent drain away from English domestic competitions, and players with standard all-format county contracts will not be granted NOCs to play in the PSL.Most significantly, the ECB’s new approach will be to deny NOCs for any league that overlaps with the T20 Blast or the Hundred on the basis that granting them could “compromise the predictability, stability and consistency of the ECB competitions.”The move would affect players such as Jason Roy and Alex Hales, who skipped parts of the Blast in 2024 to instead feature in MLC and the LPL respectively. One UK-based player agent told ESPNcricinfo: “The problem is that everything clashes with the Blast, because it’s so bloody long.”Some players feel as though the changes are designed primarily to protect the Hundred during the ongoing sales process, with the tournament’s salaries seen as uncompetitive. The ECB is planning significant wage hikes in the 2026 season once deals to sell stakes in the eight teams to private investors are fully signed off, with smaller increases expected ahead of the 2025 edition.The IPL will retain its outlier status, with the ECB continuing to issue NOCs for English players unless they are centrally contracted and having their workloads managed. Twelve England players were signed in last weekend’s mega-auction, including two — Moeen Ali and Jamie Overton — without any form of ECB contract, while others could yet sign replacement deals.Several players who either went unsold in the auction, such as Adil Rashid and Tymal Mills, or did not register for it, like David Willey and Dawid Malan, could instead play in the PSL, though players are awaiting details over the recruitment process for the 2025 season. These could be determined at an upcoming meeting in early December.The ECB also intends to avoid granting NOCs in situations which it feels could compromise the integrity of overseas leagues, under their new policy. ESPNcricinfo revealed earlier this year widespread concerns around the scenarios emerging during the packed franchise calendar in February, which saw some players standing to earn more money if their teams were eliminated early than if they reached the knockout stages.Players without England contracts must have NOCs signed off by both their primary domestic teams and the ECB. Under the new policy, the ECB will not grant an NOC if it has “any concerns that the [relevant] overseas tournament poses or may pose a risk from a corruption perspective, or may put… the integrity of the game at risk.”Gould said: “There’s never been a better time to be a cricket player, with more opportunities than ever for players to compete in competitions around the globe and be well paid for it. But we need to protect the integrity of our sport and the strength of our competitions in England and Wales as well.”This policy gives clarity to players and professional counties around our approach to issuing No-Objection Certificates. It will enable us to strike the right balance between supporting players who want to take up opportunities to earn and gain experience, while also protecting the integrity of cricket globally, ensuring we don’t undermine our own ECB competitions, and managing the welfare of centrally contracted England players.”There are also concerns that several players will seek to renegotiate their county contracts as an unintended consequence of the new policy. Some players may consider moving from all-format deals to white-ball deals which contain a ‘pay-as-you-play’ red-ball element to them – similar to those signed by Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood at Lancashire.

Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium has been busier than usual since the resumption of cricket after the Covid-19 hiatus around the middle of last year. It has hosted 81 ICC-approved games in the last 11 months, including franchise T10s and T20s, and there is a lot more lined up.It’s a lot of pressure on one cricket facility. As a result, Abu Dhabi Cricket (ADC) has had to expand, and has thrown open Tolerance Oval, a floodlit, broadcast-ready stadium, with five playing surfaces. The ICC accreditation isn’t there yet, but the authorities expect everything to be in place soon, in time for some of the 31 remaining matches of IPL 2021 in September-October, and then matches of the men’s T20 World Cup between October 17 and November 14.Related

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“If you speak to the best groundsmen in the world, they wouldn’t want more than five international matches on each of their surfaces. Our main stadium is now broadcast-ready for seven strips, and the Tolerance Oval is broadcast-ready as well with five strips. So we have 12 broadcast-ready strips, that’s 60 games,” Matt Boucher, ADC chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo. “Tolerance Oval is another international venue in the Emirates. It’s not a 20-25,000 capacity ground. We have modelled it on the English county grounds and the Hagley Oval [in Christchurch]; we have grass banks around the perimeter, so 12,000 people at the most.”At the moment, the UAE has the three main international venues, including the Dubai and Sharjah stadia. That aside, there is the ICC Academy ground, which, however, is not a night-playing alternative. Which makes Tolerance Oval, if approved by the ICC, the fourth night- and broadcast-ready ground in the region.”I can’t speak on behalf of the ICC, but from our perspective, we wanted to increase our infrastructure. Our business was very different two years ago. We were hosting a lot of junior sport, junior football and junior rugby, in our outer ovals. We made a dedicated decision at the beginning of this year that we wanted all our cricket facilities to return to cricket and be fully focussed on cricket,” Boucher said. “So we have overhauled everything, and it should be ready by the end of August.”It’s not with an event in mind, but for Abu Dhabi to offer a higher class of playing surfaces and dedicated cricket surfaces for the domestic community here and the international community too.”As such, Abu Dhabi has played its part well. No one venue has hosted more ICC-approved games than it has since June 2020 – though Dhaka’s Shere Bangla National Stadium has been marginally busier, having also been the primary venue for Bangladesh’s domestic matches.Sheikh Zayed Stadium has hosted 81 ICC-approved matches in the last 11 months•BCCI

“It has been an incredibly busy season since August last year. It’s all moved pretty smoothly, approvals have come in quickly, the ground has been in great shape, and yeah, it’s gone pretty well for us,” Boucher said. “Hopefully some more big months coming up with the remainder of the IPL and then the men’s T20 World Cup and then the Abu Dhabi T10 again. It’s been an exciting period.”Obviously, without the pandemic, we wouldn’t be hosting many of the events we just discussed. Around 18 months ago, we were generating our own events and conceptualising products with public and private stakeholders, because we were not reliant on the international events coming in. That sort of flipped on its head because of the pandemic, and all the international events we have hosted, in the most stringent and secure atmosphere we possibly can.”It will be interesting to see next year, how the bilateral season works at the end of the men’s T20 World Cup, there are a lot of countries, even a lot of Associate countries, who need to catch up on their cricket, who are behind on their FTP.”Tolerance Oval is not new to cricket. It has hosted a variety of cricket, and cricketers, but mainly as a training facility, for the UAE national team, English counties on their pre-season travels, as well as ‘A’ matches featuring Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia, etc. It’s got a facelift now, but that doesn’t count as guarantee for anything when it comes to the ICC. It might continue to be a training facility for the teams playing in the IPL or the T20 World Cup, in terms of the immediate future, while games of the Abu Dhabi T10 league could well be played there.”We will wait for the lights to go in, probably some lights’ testing, probably some dimensions’ testing… and hopefully in six weeks’ time we will have the accreditation for that oval, and then it’s over to the decision-makers if they want to use it for any upcoming tournaments or whether we use it for practice,” Boucher said. “Either way, it’s a brilliant new facility. And just to have it for IPL practice and T20 World Cup practice alleviates some space on our other surfaces.”

The New Zealand contingent arriving in Dhaka on August 24 will have most of the elements of the bio-secure environment that the BCB provided Australia with, according to chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury. The only major difference will be that the New Zealand squad will not get the direct tarmac-to-hotel ride that Australia got from the airport – Australia arrived by chartered plane, while New Zealand will be on a commercial flight.”They [NZC] have requested us to give them the same bio-bubble environment that we ensured for Australia,” Chowdhury said. “Keeping everything in mind, we will do as much as practically possible to put together a complete bio-bubble environment to have a successful series. They will be travelling commercial, so their airport procedure won’t be exactly like Australia’s arrangements. But we will try to minimise public contact on their way to the hotel.”The contingent will undergo a three-day in-room quarantine on getting to the hotel. Once that is over, they will start to train at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, where all five matches of the series will be played.At the airport, New Zealand are likely to go through the usual VIP channel and have their immigration process done separately, as is usually the case for cricket teams travelling to Bangladesh these days.Chowdhury also said New Zealand were not inclined to play the tour match scheduled for August 29, in the lead-up to the five-match T20I series that begins on September 1, to avoid bio-bubble complications. “They were offered [a practice match] but since it means an additional bio-bubble in another venue, they [NZC] have discouraged it,” Chowdhury said. “They also want minimum movement during the series.”The Bangladesh players, meanwhile, have been instructed by the BCB to be conservative in their movements ahead of joining the bio-bubble for the series. “They will enter the bio-bubble when it is ready,” Chowdhury said. “Our players have been instructed to keep their movements restricted, and told to be within the family environment. They have been discouraged from attending public functions.”Chowdhury also confirmed that the games will start earlier than usual, keeping New Zealand audiences in mind. “We plan to start the matches at 4pm (local time) after speaking to the team management. We have kept in mind the viewership in New Zealand.”

Avishka Gunawardene, the former Sri Lanka opening batter, has been appointed the Afghanistan men’s team’s batting coach for the forthcoming ODIs against Pakistan. The Afghanistan Cricket Board announced this on August 17 via Twitter. ESPNcricinfo understands the ACB had wanted Gunawardene for a longer stint, but Gunawardene has only confirmed his involvement in the ODI series – which is to be played in Sri Lanka – for now. This will be Gunawardene’s first major assignment since being cleared of corruption charges relating to alleged breaches of the Emirates Cricket Board’s anti-corruption code during the T10 tournament in the UAE in 2017. An independent tribunal cleared Gunawardene in May, following an investigation, leaving him free to resume his coaching career. Gunawardene has served as the Sri Lanka national men’s team’s batting coach, and has also coached the Sri Lanka A and Emerging teams.Related

• Avishka Gunawardene appointed Sri Lanka Under-19 coach

• Afghanistan-Pakistan ODI series postponed indefinitely

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• Afghanistan vs Pakistan ODIs shifted from UAE to Hambantota

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The appointment comes at a time of major upheaval in Afghanistan with the Taliban taking back the political reins following the withdrawal of US troops from the country. It remains to be seen how cricket is affected by these events, though ACB CEO Hamid Shinwari has been quoted saying he expects the sport to carry on as before.”We will resume our office from tomorrow and the national camp which was underway ahead of the Pakistan series in Sri Lanka will also resume after a two-day break with the change in regime,” Shinwari told PTI on Monday.It is as yet unclear when the Afghanistan side can fly to Sri Lanka for the series (expected to be played sometime in September), as Kabul airport remains closed following the Taliban’s takeover of the city. It is hoped the team can fly over the next two weeks.All three ODIs against Pakistan will be played in Hambantota.

Alyssa Healy is looking towards Rohit Sharma for a formula to find cross-format success opening the batting as she prepares for the multi-format series against India that will include a pink-ball Test.Healy, who has played four previous Tests, admitted it will be a challenge to prepare for the format amid the condensed series with the additional elements of the game being day-night plus a venue they haven’t played at before in Metricon Stadium adding to the uncertainty. There has already been an emphasis on the Test with Australia’s first post-quarantine training session being against the pink ball.Australia were part of the previous day-night Test, against England during the 2017-18 Ashes, where Ellyse Perry made a double century at North Sydney Oval during which Healy was part of a 102-run stand.For her first three Tests, including that game against England, Healy batted in the middle-order but the last time Australia took the field in the format, during the 2019 Ashes, Healy was promoted to open which brought her a maiden Test half-century and it appears likely she will continue in the role.In that game Healy opened with Nicole Bolton who is no longer part of the set-up so a new opener will need to be found with either Rachael Haynes or Beth Mooney the likely options.Related

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“It’s a tricky one because I’ve only played four Tests so I wouldn’t say I’m overly comfortable with how to play or how to approach a Test,” Healy said at a Fox Cricket launch event for the series. “From my point of view, I don’t think it’s going to change too much from my one-day international batting. I think the ability to give yourself more time is such a blessing.”I look at the modern Test game and see how it’s changed quite a lot. I watch a lot of the men’s cricket and I look at someone like Rohit Sharma who is one of the most devastating white-ball batters in the world and yet he’s a really successful opener in Test cricket. So for me, I said look at somebody like him and think about how he translates those skills across all the formats, could I potentially replicate that somehow?”Healy, who has faced some spicy pre-season nets against her New South Wales team-mates Stella Campbell and Maitlan Brown, is prepared for the need to adapt quickly during the multi-format series, both in terms of the conditions on offer at Mackay (ODIs) and Metricon (Tests and T20Is) and in terms of what India will throw at them.Alyssa Healy made her maiden Test fifty opening the innings against England in 2019•Getty Images

The teams have had some see-sawing battles in recent years, most notably at the 2017 ODI World Cup where India dumped Australia out in the semi-final and then last year’s T20 World Cup where India took the opening match, on the back of Poonam Yadav’s spell, to throw the group stage wide open before Australia claimed the historic final with a huge victory.Yadav did not play the Test against England earlier this year and was not at her best in the limited-overs matches although found more rhythm as the series went on.”Sometimes a bit of the unknown and the unpredictable nature of India makes them incredibly dangerous. They’ve picked a few new players that we haven’t seen before on this tour,” Healy said. “So they always love throwing something new at us, even if it is Poonam Yadav, she always has something new to throw at us, just to kick us off track again.”The Test match will be just the second between the teams in 30 years – the previous one came back in 2006 – and with an Ashes Test to follow in January, Healy hoped the format could find a regular place in the Australia calendar.”The boys have their designated Test match spots every summer,” Healy said. “Look at the Boxing Day Test, we know it’s going to be on December 26 and everyone goes to the Test. I would love to see the same thing happen for us every summer. Imagine, November 1, Australia are playing a pink-ball Test at North Sydney Oval against whatever the opposition might be.”Obviously it’s a pipe dream and I’ll do whatever I can to keep pushing that point forward, but at least for the minute it’s great that the conversations are being had and that there’s three international sides that are willing to play the Test game because I think it’s a great thing for us.”Australia will play an intra-squad game on Thursday – “one of the most competitive games of cricket that you’ll ever find,” Healy said – before facing India in a warm-up match on Saturday ahead of traveling to Mackay.

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead has cautioned captain Kane Williamson against “over-hitting” in the nets after his elbow complaint flared up during the warm-up fixtures in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup. Williamson captained the side and fielded during New Zealand’s most recent warm-up against England on Wednesday, but didn’t bat in their pursuit of 164.Williamson missed New Zealand’s first warm-up, against Netherlands, with a niggly hamstring. He then came back in against Australia, top-scoring for New Zealand with 37 off 30 balls, but aggravated his elbow, a problem that he has been managing in the recent past.”I think we’re still pretty hopeful and confident that if we get the rest right, initially here now, and get that balance right then he should be right to play,” Stead said. “I mean Kane is a prodigious hitter of balls, he loves to prepare that way as well, and in some ways that’s probably the worst thing he can do, is over-hit at times. So, it’s really [about] getting that balance right, between feeling ready and feeling prepared to go, and making sure we don’t aggravate anything any further.”Mark Chapman also missed the game against Netherlands with a hamstring niggle but slotted into the middle order against England, although he was dismissed for 1 off 5 balls. Meanwhile, Tim Seifert, who had suffered an abdominal strain, returned to his dual role of opening the batting and wicketkeeping on Wednesday.”Good to have Tim [Seifert] back, he just had a very minor abdominal strain and so he’s recovered well,” Stead said. “Played full part today and no issues at all. Mark [Chapman] had his first run back for a while as well and got through the games nicely, so again we will see how he scrubs up tomorrow morning when the physio looks at him; just to check over where he’s at. Kane’s elbow has just flared up a little bit after the last match and so it was more precautionary than anything. We just feel if we can get his preparation right in terms of not over-hitting and aggravating it through training, then it gives him the best chance to be right through the tournament. I think on the whole we’re tracking pretty well.”Stead was particularly wary of the Sharjah pitches that were relaid ahead of the UAE leg of the IPL. He admitted that Sharjah tracks could pose a greater challenge to the batters than the ones in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. New Zealand will open their T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan in Sharjah and will play one more match, against a qualifier from the first round, at the venue.”Yes, it looks that way from what we’ve seen,” Stead said. “Look, they [teams] haven’t played there since the semi-finals of the IPL, so there’s probably about a ten-day period there where, who knows, it could be better and even through the IPL we saw, I think, where KKR scored 170 there in one game as well. So sometimes you don’t want to overthink what it might be, but you do want an idea at the back of your mind how you believe it will play. And we have that in our mind now, we just have to make sure we’re really clear on our strategy around how we get there and adapt if we need to.”Stead wasn’t too perturbed by New Zealand’s back-to-back defeats in the official warm-ups against Australia and England, reckoning his side got the game-time they needed.”Certainly not the result of them – hasn’t [affected us] at all,” he said. “We had the game against Australia that went down to the last couple of balls. I think from our perspective we didn’t bowl out all of our bowlers we thought would bowl at the time and I know Australia sent in an opening batsman to come in at No.9 as well, which you normally wouldn’t see in that situation.”Versus England, I think it was little bit more of bowling… we wanted to make sure [Daryl] Mitchell and [Glenn] Phillips had an over, for example, and just making sure they were ready if they do get the opportunity further down the track. So, there’s a lot of things: we retired Daryl Mitchell in one of them as well, so it’s really about us trying to get the best out of the warm-up games – what we felt that we needed. And overall, we got that, which was really good.”

Graham Thorpe, England men’s assistant coach, will head up the advance party’s preparations for the Ashes, when the Test specialists and Lions arrive in Australia this weekend.Thorpe will stand in for head coach Chris Silverwood while England’s white-ball squad complete their T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE, with the tour party due to undergo 14 days of quarantine on the Gold Coast, before moving to Brisbane to play two intra-squad warm-up matches later in the month.The extended squad, including the 15-man Lions party, is due to arrive in Australia on Saturday, a month in advance of the first Test at the Gabba, starting on December 8. They will undergo three days of hard quarantine, but have been granted an exemption to undertake socially distanced training at Carrara’s Metricon Stadium from November 10-20.Thorpe will be assisted in this initial period by Jon Lewis, the ECB’s elite pace bowling coach, along with Carl Hopkinson (fielding coach), Bruce French (wicketkeeping consultant) and Jonathan Trott (batting consultant), all of whom will remain with the Lions squad. Kent’s Min Patel and Nottinghamshire’s Ant Botha have also been seconded from the county network to assist with the tour.Related

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England’s former bowling coach, Troy Cooley – who played a key role in honing England’s pace attack ahead of the 2005 Ashes – is understood to have been recruited to assist with the squad’s build-up to the first Test, with an announcement expected in the coming days.The coaching staff will be completed once the white-ball squad has completed its own quarantine period, with Silverwood due to be joined by Paul Collingwood, Jeetan Patel and James Foster, all of whom are currently in Sharjah preparing for England’s final group match against South Africa on Saturday, with their place in the semi-finals all but certain.Speaking from England’s white-ball camp in the UAE, Collingwood welcomed the chance to get stuck into the next leg of their winter campaign.”We’ve got two exciting parts of our cricketing history and that’s the T20 World Cup and the Ashes,” Collingwood said. “I’m very much looking forward to being a part of it.”I’ll be 100% honest, I’m not great with bubble life, I don’t really enjoy it that much, but I’m hoping Australia is going to have a little bit more freedom out there to go and enjoy the country and the cricket, because to be successful out there is hard work but it’s very satisfying if you do well.”The ECB and Cricket Australia, in consultation with Australia’s state and federal governments, agreed to a number of measures to enable the Ashes to take place this winter in spite of the country’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions, including an allowance for families to join the tour. While Collingwood was grateful for the concessions, he warned that the use of bio-secure environments for international tours could not last indefinitely.”I think world cricket has done really well so far, in terms of how much bubble life we’ve done,” he said. “We all cope in different ways. It’s tough. Being very honest, I’m not sure how much more bubble life world cricket can take – not just the England team, I’m saying world cricket here.”We’re going to have to look closely at mental welfare moving forwards. I don’t think it can continue for too much longer,” Collingwood added. “I think a lot of players and management around the world are close to capacity in terms of how much they can take with this. Hopefully the hierarchy look into it and in the future we find ways that we’re not so restricted.”It puts a lot of pressure on, not just individuals, but families as well. It can be tough at times but we’re here to help each other out in these environments and hopefully have some good friends in here that help you out when you have some dark days.”England Ashes Coaching Team
Head coach: Chris Silverwood
Assistant coaches: Paul Collingwood, Graham Thorpe
Elite pace bowling: Jon Lewis
Elite spin bowling: Jeetan Patel
Wicketkeeping consultant: James FosterEngland support and Lions Coaching Team
Elite Fielding coach: Carl Hopkinson
Batting consultant: Jonathan Trott
Wicketkeeping consultant: Bruce French
Coaching consultant: Ant Botha
Spin-bowling consultant: Min Patel