Fresh purpose invigorates Poynton

Tom Poynton should have been playing this match. He should have been training hard for the coming three days, big days considering how bleak things have been for Derbyshire of late. The India Test team is in town for a tour game, and this is a great opportunity for the county and its players to be in the news for positive reasons. Derbyshire's 24-year-old wicketkeeper, though, sits on the sidelines, dressed in a blue suit and a striped tie with neatly parted hair.

Yet it is an incredibly good news that Poynton is here. Before the start of the season, on April 4, a Ferrari went off Caldwell Road, near Roliston, and crashed into a tree. The car belonged to Derbyshire's chairman, was being driven by Poynton's father, Keith, with Tom sitting next to him. Keith, a local businessman and a coach at junior levels, a popular figure in Derby and known for his colourful socks, did not survive the crash; Tom was injured so badly he was ruled out of the entire season.

"It's like having your world turned upside down in a moment," Tom says of the accident. One moment, a likeable young wicketkeeper looking forward to a season with a young team trying to get back into Division One of the County Championship, the next a severely injured and bereaved man with no prospects of cricket for a year.

Poynton says there was no point wallowing about what he could not do. It was now about what he could do. So he moved temporarily into the club's management, into the commercial and marketing side of the game. One of his projects is centred on the big fixture against the Indians. He is managing the Cricket Derbyshire India Club project, an initiative "to integrate better with the south-Asian community in Derby", which is estimated to be around 25,000-strong. Before this match, the club organised a dinner event hosted by Isa Guha, had Ravi Shastri down as guest, and are now looking forward to a crowd of at least 3000 at the County Ground.

"What can you do?" Poynton says of the days after the accident. "No point in me sitting and getting down about it. You have to put your energies elsewhere. I simply can't play, whatever I do, however much I want to change the fact, I can't. My energy is better directed to use the opportunity in a different way.

"And the club have given me that, by sort of working behind the scenes in the commercial and marketing side of the game. Which has been a fantastic experience. I am not going to play cricket forever. Nobody is going to play cricket forever. There is a life after cricket, and I have got the opportunity to get that experience now. And that's the way I have got to look at it. I have to turn it into a positive in some sort of way."

There could not have been a more deserving recipient of Poynton's services than Derbyshire cricket. "I wanted to give something back to the club," he says. "The club, during the time of the accident, the chairman, the chief executive, the physio, the support staff, were outstanding. The chief executive, Simon Storey, came to the hospital with me on the night that it happened because he lost his father when he was young himself. That says something about the characters involved at the club.

"I know that things aren't necessarily going brilliantly on the pitch at the moment, but I know that the support staff and the management that are involved are absolutely the right guys. Complete credit to Derbyshire as a county and to themselves. I have no doubt that it will be translated on to the pitch in a few years."

The experience been enriching for Poynton. "It has been a fantastic experience," he says. "You now see what goes behind the scenes on a game day. Normally I turn up at a different time, I will train, I will warm up. The passion that the backroom staff show, which I have witnessed now, is quite touching. It is not always that the guys perhaps appreciate or are aware of how much effort goes in on their behalf. I am going to filter the experience down to the younger players of the team. I think it will just make them more rounded."

Talking about "youngsters", about helping them become more rounded, engaging fans who have turned up to watch India practise, Poynton sounds a man much wiser than a typical 24-year-old athlete. Sometimes life leaves you no choice but to become wise.

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Indians prepare for another gentle workout

Just a week ago, Rahul Dravid was a former India captain and a cricket pundit. He was speaking about the need for intense and competitive warm-up games. Although Dravid mentioned only the recent trend of counties putting up their 2nd XIs, it has not helped that India insist on using their whole squad as opposed to picking an XI, robbing these matches of their first-class status. A week later, Dravid is now part of the support staff, a batting consultant in the lead-up to the first Test, which begins in Nottingham on July 9.

Dravid's presence in Derby on the eve of the warm-up game against Derbyshire is unlikely to make the game any more intense. India will play all their 18 players, with only 11 batting and 11 on the field at any given time, and the game is against Derbyshire, who might not need to play a second team to bring the intensity down: they are a place from the bottom of the second division, lost three players last week, and were pummeled by Durham in a Twenty20 on Sunday.

Yet there is an incentive for India to get their intensity up. In their previous tour game, against Leicestershire, who are placed bottom of Division Two, their bowlers conceded 349 for 5 in 62 overs. Two of the five wickets were "retired out". Ishant Sharma and Pankaj Singh were the only two to get wickets. Even as the pressure grows on England after their defeat to Sri Lanka, the focus in the visitors' camp is squarely on their bowlers.

With these quick bowlers, much maligned and missing their bowling captain Zaheer Khan, the intensity was high during India's only training session between the two tour games, on Monday. The lot of them reported at the ground an hour before the rest of the team, along with Duncan Fletcher-led support staff, Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara. There were no batsmen to bowl to, but the purpose of coming early was to put them through an endurance test. All of them had to do five laps of the ground, without stopping to catch a breath or walking in between before picking up again. Times were kept, charts prepared for Fletcher to examine properly. Almost all of the bowlers seemed winded by the effort. There was no respite, though: after a break for lunch and a team meeting, they went through a full bowling session at the nets.

Mohammed Shami, though, was not part of the endurance test as he worked separately with physio Evan Speechly and strength and conditioning coach Sudarshan VP. His workout was not nearly as intense as the others', he didn't bowl much, but there were no injury concerns to report. Shikhar Dhawan, who had taken a blow and retired hurt in Leicester, was back fit too.

After this game, India move to Nottingham for their preferred mode of preparation, four days of intense training sessions, before the series begins.

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Sethi hopeful of huge revenue gains for PCB

Sethi eyes amendment to Amir ban

Najam Sethi, the PCB chairman, has said the Pakistan board stands to gain US$450 million (PKR 44.4 billion approx.) over the next eight-year cycle. Speaking on his return from the ICC meeting in Melbourne, where the governing body was restructured, Sethi said that more than half that revenue would come from the proposed series' with India.

"Until last year, we had been getting $10 million per year on average and in last seven years we got around $70 million from ICC fixtures [World Cup, Champions Trophy, etc]," Sethi said. "But now I can confirm with full confidence that Pakistan will be getting $150 million dollars in next eight-year cycle from ICC events, which is almost double the previous amount, which I think is a big achievement.

"By playing India we will be getting $300 million from just four series in next eight-year cycle, according to which India will only host two series."

The PCB had said last week that it had "binding agreements" with the BCCI to play these six series. However, Sethi now said the boards had agreed to play the series' but were yet to sign documents that would make them mandatory. "With India, we are yet to sign a binding bankable document but we are seeking to transform the present agreement biding into a bankable binding. ICC has given us a sample draft, a sort of agreement between two boards, which will be amended accordingly.

"It was never a must to play each other and if any board pulled out of their commitment there was no penalty at all. But this time we can make it a bankable commitment."

Politics, though, Sethi said, could still prove to be a stumbling block. "It's up to the boards to make up a legal and bankable agreement, but again in case the governments of either country do not want to play, you can't do anything. That's something beyond our control."

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Shortened BBL season announced

The Big Bash League season has been cut by eight days and will run from December 18 to January 28 this season, fitting mostly within the school holiday period. And the Sydney Showground Stadium will host its first BBL matches as part of this season's fixture, with the Sydney Thunder to play two games there in January, while the ANZ Stadium is being used for Asian Cup football matches.

The tournament will begin at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval with the Strikers hosting the Melbourne Stars on December 18, and a week of matches will lead up to Christmas. The tighter schedule this year means that there will be at least one game on every day from December 26 to January 15, and the tournament will not stretch into February as it did last season.

The semi-finals are set for the weekend of January 24-25, with the final to be played on Wednesday, January 28. The only double-header for the season comes on January 11, when the Hobart Hurricanes host the Perth Scorchers and the Brisbane Heat play at home against the Sydney Sixers.

The Boxing Day match will feature the Perth Scorchers hosting the Melbourne Renegades, and on New Year's Eve the Adelaide Strikers will host the Hobart Hurricanes. Mike McKenna, the executive general manager of operations with Cricket Australia, said he hoped the BBL would continue to bring in young fans.

"In just three seasons, the Big Bash League has established itself as clearly Australia's most popular summer sporting league," McKenna said. "We hope that the fourth season of the BBL will be a school holiday staple for families across the country this summer. One of the league's key objectives is to bring new fans to the game and the phenomenal numbers from last season showed just how much the public has embraced the great entertainment on offer.

"Last season an average of more than 930,000 people tuned into the BBL on Channel Ten, while crowd attendances averaged 19,000 - of which more than half were families and one in five were attending an elite cricket match for the first time."

Big Bash League 2014-15

Dec 18: Adelaide Strikers v Melbourne Stars, Adelaide Oval
Dec 19: Sydney Sixers v Melbourne Renegades, SCG
Dec 20: Melbourne Stars v Hobart Hurricanes, MCG
Dec 21: Sydney Thunder v Brisbane Heat, ANZ Stadium
Dec 22: Perth Scorchers v Adelaide Strikers, WACA
Dec 23: Hobart Hurricanes v Sydney Sixers, Bellerive Oval
Dec 26: Perth Scorchers v Melbourne Renegades, WACA
Dec 27: Sydney Thunder v Sydney Sixers, ANZ Stadium
Dec 28: Brisbane Heat v Melbourne Stars, Gabba
Dec 29: Sydney Sixers v Perth Scorchers, SCG
Dec 30: Melbourne Renegades v Sydney Thunder, Etihad Stadium
Dec 31: Adelaide Strikers v Hobart Hurricanes, Adelaide Oval
Jan 1: Perth Scorchers v Sydney Thunder, WACA
Jan 2: Hobart Hurricanes v Brisbane Heat, Bellerive Oval
Jan 3: Melbourne Renegades v Melbourne Stars, Etihad Stadium
Jan 4: Brisbane Heat v Adelaide Strikers, Gabba
Jan 5: Melbourne Stars v Sydney Sixers, MCG
Jan 6: Adelaide Strikers v Perth Scorchers, Adelaide Oval
Jan 7: Sydney Thunder v Hobart Hurricanes, Spotless Stadium
Jan 8: Perth Scorchers v Brisbane Heat, WACA
Jan 9: Sydney Sixers v Sydney Thunder, SCG
Jan 10: Melbourne Stars v Melbourne Renegades, MCG
Jan 11: Brisbane Heat v Sydney Sixers, Gabba
Jan 11: Hobart Hurricanes v Perth Scorchers, Bellerive Oval
Jan 12: Adelaide Strikers v Sydney Thunder, Adelaide Oval
Jan 13: Melbourne Renegades v Brisbane Heat, Etihad Stadium
Jan 14: Sydney Sixers v Adelaide Strikers, SCG
Jan 15: Hobart Hurricanes v Melbourne Renegades, Bellerive Oval
Jan 17: Sydney Thunder v Melbourne Stars, Spotless Stadium
Jan 19: Melbourne Renegades v Adelaide Strikers, Etihad Stadium
Jan 21: Melbourne Stars v Perth Scorchers, MCG
Jan 22: Brisbane Heat v Hobart Hurricanes, Gabba
Jan 24: Semi-final, TBC
Jan 25: Semi-final, TBC
Jan 28: Final, TBC

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Jubair in Bangladesh preliminary squad for WI tour

Legspinner Jubair Hossain has been included in Bangladesh's preliminary squad for the tour of the West Indies, the biggest surprise among the 25 players named. Jubair, an Under-19 player, will now report to trainer Mario Villavarayen on July 1, with the rest of the preliminary squad, to begin preparing for the mid-August tour.

Although he didn't play a game in the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, Jubair impressed the Bangladesh management as a nets bowler over the last few months, with several players, coaches and selectors taking an interest in him.

Jubair is of short stature, comes off a few steps and whips up his arms but, deceptively, doesn't bowl quickly. He slows the pace down and lets the ball drift and turn.

He is an interesting choice for two reasons. Firstly, the Bangladesh selectors have been, in recent years, reluctant to pick someone so inexperienced. Secondly, his elevation leaves question marks over what first-class performances mean; someone like specialist legspinner Noor Hossain, who took 21 wickets in this year's first-class cricket, having also taken 20 and 22 in the previous two years, has been leapfrogged. Jubair has not played first-class cricket yet.

Bangladesh have never picked a specialist legspinner in Test matches while only Wahidul Gani, famous for mentoring Mohammad Ashraful and Shahriar Nafees as a youth coach, played a solitary ODI in the 1980s.

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Ishant heckled as Robson, Smith flay rusty Indians

Indians 333 for 4 dec (Dhawan 60 [ret hurt], Pujara 57, Gambhir 54) drew with Leicestershire 349 for 5 (Robson 126, Smith 101, Redfern 58)
Scorecard

Angus Robson, the younger brother of England's new opening batsman Sam, and Greg Smith hit run-a-ball centuries as their 221-run second-wicket stand ensured a chastening time in the field for the Indians' seven-strong fast-bowling attack on the final day of their first warm-up match against Leicestershire.

Both batsmen played with gusto and freedom to allow Leicestershire to dominate the day which saw the morning session curtailed to just 13 overs after rain interrupted play after an hour, but it did not matter to the Robson-Smith combination as they scored at almost six runs an over. The pair added 178 runs in the middle session comprising 30 overs.

It has been a fine week for the Robson family with Sam registering his maiden Test century at Headingley exactly a week ago against Sri Lanka. This was the younger Robson's highest score of the season which had previously included six fifties. He expects a phone call from his brother ahead of the Test series - for the odd bit of information about the Indian bowlers - and his only regret was that this was not a first-class fixture.

"It's been a pretty special day," he said. "Mum and Dad have been here. It's funny how it works out, two Saturdays in a row they've seen us make hundreds."

Ten days ago Smith scored a century at his home ground in the T20 Blast against Nottinghamshire. He also has a Championship hundred this season and reached the landmark today with consecutive sixes against the left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. Both straight hits went crashing into the sightscreen at the Bennett End with the first one even creating a dent.

But a deeper dent was created in the opposition bowling camp. The Indians might say it was the first day on the job for the bowlers, but at times it became embarrassing. Ishant Sharma, one of the three players from the current squad to have played Test cricket in England, and the bowling captain by default in the absence of Zaheer Khan, failed to make any impact and effectively became a figure of ridicule for a group of Indian fans at the Bennett End, who endlessly heckled him each time he walked back to his bowling mark.

Ishant, who had taken consecutive five-wicket hauls in the two-Test series in New Zealand in February, India's previous series in the longest format, was listless for most of his three spells. He started with a no-ball in the morning session which had to be immediately called off as the rain arrived and upon returning he delivered two further no-balls as his first over went for 11 runs. His first spell of four overs leaked 41 runs and he overstepped six times.

As he retreated to long leg Indian fans were not afraid to offer some advice. "Put some effort. Bend down," one fan shouted. As he lined up to deliver another over, Ishant would not have missed the annoying scream coming from the crowd: "How many fours are you going to give this over?"

It might have been amusing to the ear, but the Indians may have found the impatience of their fans a little bit irritating. Barring Ishant, none of the other quicks had ever bowled with the red ball in England. And it showed straightaway.

It was overcast right through Saturday and the Indians might have fancied taking advantage of what they perceived as helpful conditions. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, whose primary strength is swing, struggled to find the right length throughout his solitary spell of seven overs which went for 46 runs including ten fours, all of which came at the hands of an aggressive Robson.

Later Robson said that he took advantage of the fuller lengths Bhuvneshwar bowled while attempting to swing the ball. He felt the Indians started with intensity, but grew "tired" as he and Smith stretched the partnership. He also felt that while the bowling attack was inexperienced, it was their lack of knowledge of him that played into his hands.

"The lengths they bowled this morning were fullish and I was looking to drive as I usually do," he said. "After I faced the first couple of overs of Kumar I felt he was a skiddy sort of a bowler and the best way to take him on was to drive him and hit him for a few fours. He swing it around a lot and I felt that If I was stuck around in my crease I was just sitting ducks."

The key to succeed in England has always remained the same: pitch on lengths that make the batsmen play and move the ball enough to bring the slips into play. Today the Indians created just a handful of such opportunities. One of them was plucked spectacularly by Ajinkya Rahane early in the morning session when he intercepted an outside edge from Leicestershire captain Matthew Boyce who was troubled by some away movement from Pankaj Singh.

Pankaj, along with Mohammad Shami and later Varun Aaron, were the pick of the Indian bowlers as the trio bowled at a good pace and created some doubts for the batsmen.

With another three-day match against Derbyshire starting on Tuesday, the Indians will ideally want to get an idea of their lead pack of bowlers for the first Test at Trent Bridge on July 9. They did, however, get a late boost when Ishant took two wickets in three balls in an aggressive over he was allowed to bowl in fading light.

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Solanki helps lay foundations

Surrey 68 for 1 (Solanki 44*) v Hampshire
Scorecard

Whether county cricket affords its paying customers sufficient regard is oft debated. The turgid pitches used in T20 are a particular current concern and The Oval, despite the huge crowds it attracts, is not immune to these charges: the top first innings score in the last nine T20s at the ground is 152.

So it was unfortunate that cricket should show itself in such unflattering light again today. After a scheduled start of 12, owing to the T20 match between the sides the previous night, rain delayed the start further. At 1.20, the covers were removed. Play looked all ready to start. Alas not: the umpires had already announced that lunch would be taken at 1.30. So the best weather of the day was totally bereft of play. With utter inevitability the showers then returned 20 balls later.

Still, that period was enough for Hampshire to showcase the prowess of their pace attack. Kyle Abbott and James Tomlinson have a strong claim to being the best opening pair on the county circuit: prior to this game, they had snared 63 Championship wickets at 20 apiece this season. Tomlinson needed only ten balls to add to that tally, trapping Zafar Ansari lbw for one. Umpire Stephen Gale raised his finger almost before Ansari had missed the ball.

Abbott and Tomlinson continued to bowl admirably when play resumed in melancholy skies almost four hours later. But they encountered sturdy resistance that hinted at further proof of Surrey's renewed steeliness. Rory Burns was typically resolute at the crease, while Vikram Solanki showcased his elegance after surviving Abbott's testing spell.

Given the grim attrition that marked much of Surrey's effort, there was an incongruous quality to Solanki's six off Danny Briggs. It sailed over long-on but it seemed like only a flick. After a delayed start to the season owing to personal problems, Solanki has blossomed this season: his 316 runs to date have come at 63 apiece.

Alec Stewart, Surrey's director of cricket was understandably impressed. "Vikram has been positive since he's come back in. He's a fine player, experienced and very good in the dressing room," he said. "His scoring shots were very very good. They've got through the hard work today and hopefully we can get through the hard work tomorrow and build a big first innings total."

Solanki might have some new company at the crease tomorrow. Tillakaratne Dilshan is the next man in, making his Championship debut at 37. There is also another, and rather more surprising, Surrey first-class debutant in Kevin O'Brien, who was previously assumed to have been a specialist T20 signing.

But O'Brien has been an important part of Surrey's impressive T20 campaign, mixing parsimonious seam-up bowling with the batting belligerence for which he is renowned. He also has a solid record in first-class cricket for Ireland, averaging 34 with the bat and 29 with the ball, and became the 700th player that Surrey have used in first-class cricket.

His selection also shed light on Surrey's strategy for handing Hampshire a first Championship defeat of the season, and adding further purpose to their own promotion berth. Surrey seem to be hoping to repeat the tactics that led to their victory against Leicestershire at The Oval on Wednesday: on a turning pitch, Ansari and Gareth Batty shared seventy overs - and nine wickets.

Hampshire responded with spin twins of their own, as 17-year-old offspinner Brad Taylor came in alongside Briggs for the second Championship match of his career. That Surrey withstood their five overs with ease before the close added to the sense of optimism that now pervades The Oval.

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Fletcher's yorkers dent Yorkshire's hopes

Nottinghamshire 143 for 9 (Taylor 52*, Sidebottom 3-24) beat Yorkshire 121 for 9 (Lees 37) by 22 runs
Scorecard

Roy keeps his supporters thrilled

Yorkshire's decisive week of T20 cricket - five matches in eight days - has not begun well: a washout in the Roses match to do further damage to their precarious finances and defeat at Trent Bridge less than 24 hours later as they came to a sticky end on a glued pitch.

Nottinghamshire's 143 for 9 felt a touch off the pace, but only Alex Lees, with a mature 37 at a run a ball, came close to matching the composure of James Taylor's excellent half-century for the home side. Yorkshire's challenge foundered with 42 needed off four overs when Adil Rashid was bowled for 21 by the broad-framed Luke Fletcher as he drifted in an excellent yorker.

Two long-on catches by James Franklin, the experienced New Zealander, off Harry Gurney, rounded things off for Nottinghamshire, who strengthened their hold on third place and left Yorkshire facing the likelihood of a scrap for the final qualifying spot with Warwickshire.

"I thought they were 20 runs below par, but batting wise we were not good enough," said Yorkshire's captain Andrew Gale. "The pitch was a bit slower than we anticipated, but it was a good wicket and we didn't take it to the opposition enough. Luke Fletcher nailed his yorkers at the end - he must have bowled 12 out of 12 - but we had left ourselves too much to do by then."

Fletcher is old school: reliably hitting the blockhole, and sweating up profusely on a relatively cool afternoon. He completed the job efficiently , building on strong spells by Samit Patel and Steven Mullaney. Mullaney's offcutters were perfectly suited to such a surface and Patel also turned in an inexpensive shift as Yorkshire lost their way in mid-innings. "They have been outstanding for a couple of years now," said Taylor, who also regarded Nottinghamshire's total as 20 runs short.

The NatWest Blast is working well in Nottingham: an attractive team, a well-appointed ground and healthy crowds. With Yorkshire in town, even without the presence of England's withdrawn Test players - under instructions to rest with the first Test a fortnight away - the game had enough quality players to have widespread appeal.

Perhaps a dozen counties at most can hope to match the same standards. If the ECB remains forever resistant to franchises, believing that county cricket should value its traditions, then it needs to debate the advantage of two divisions based on merit so those counties providing the product England's T20 needs can gain maximum benefit.

It was Taylor, shrewd both as captain and batsman, who assembled an innings of note for Nottinghamshire. This was not the usual 180-par surface normally seen at Trent Bridge and Taylor reassessed his team's needs intelligently as wickets fell around him.

His first 16 came in singles, in 20 deliveries,as he adapted wisely from the outset, rarely needing to display any weight of stroke to increase his tempo as his innings progressed. His half-century came up from the final ball of the innings, a full toss bashed down the ground, a landmark hard earned. He keeps delivering in all forms of the game and, if he continues in this vein, there will come a day when England's limited interest begins to look illogical.

Around him there was a whole lot of head shaking going on: Phil Jaques fell for nought, trying to guide Ryan Sidebottom to third man, Riki Wessels, one of the leading runmakers in the tournament, sliced high into the offside and Patel misjudged the length against Azeem Rafiq and was bowled trying to cut. But the most impressive dismissal fell to Tim Bresnan, who showed rifle-crack reactions in his follow through as Alex Hales battered back a return catch.

When Taylor despatched Rashid's last delivery to the cover boundary, Notts had raised 100 with five overs remaining, but visions of a late charge to 150 were unfulfilled. Franklin has strengthened Nottinghamshire's overseas resources in T20 after the impending return to Australia of Peter Siddle, who was on a Championship-only deal, but when Bresnan claimed him for 27 at long off, Taylor had to settle for a total that proved to be more competitive than he dared hope.

Runs came no more easily for Yorkshire at the top of the order. Aaron Finch fell rather weakly at short fine leg, Gale's unimpressive stay ended when he carved to third man, Jonny Bairstow self-destructed at long-on and when Mullaney brilliantly ran out Adam Lyth off his own bowling, demands proved too much for Lees.

Yorkshire are left needing to win at least two of their three matches next week in a run of five games in eight games. You could debate long into the night whether such a rush of fixtures is a good or bad thing, but it is not a level playing field. Even allowing for a congested fixture list (a problem of their own making), surely the ECB, which claims to have brought sanity to the fixture list, can do better than this?

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