Category Uncategorized

Notts battle then fade on another night of massive run-making at Trent Bridge

David Hopps17-Jun-2022Birmingham 261 for 2 (Hain 112*, Hose 88*) beat Nottinghamshire 206 (Clarke 86, Moores 40, Brathwaite 3-31) by 55 runsWhat a week. Jonny Bairstow went haywire on this same ground only three days earlier, in a run-strewn Test that might have reinvented the format for a more restive age. Over in Amstelveen, earlier in the day, England had set an ODI record of 498 for 4 with Jos Buttler scoring England’s second-fastest hundred in ODIs.And now this, in the Blast. Birmingham strengthened their hold on a top-four place as they achieved the highest total in English T20 history, their 261 for 2 surpassing Yorkshire’s 260 for 4 against Northants at Headingley five years ago, an unbroken stand of 174 in 70 balls between Sam Hain and Adam Hose, another record for the third wicket. It beat the 171 assembled by Hose, this time with Ian Bell, four years ago. Just seven better scores have ever been made in all world T20 cricket and one of those was by the Czech Republic over Turkey.Amazingly, Notts kept up with the required rate for much of their reply, but Birmingham had crashed 113 from their last six overs and it was in these latter overs where the hosts came to grief. This, on the ground where the Outlaws have strutted for so long. When Carlos Brathwaite yorked Luke Fletcher to end Notts’ innings with 10 balls remaining, it confirmed Notts’ fourth defeat in eight and left them with considerable ground to make up to claim a quarter-final place that, in recent years, has appeared to be theirs by right. They have reached the last eight every year since 2010, except 2015 when they only missed out on net run rate.Hain is surely the best 50-over batter never to play for England and, as his career progresses, his strike rate is quickening in T20, too. His unbeaten 112 (his first in this format) took 52 balls, with 12 fours and five sixes, and unusually for scores of this magnitude, he was not leg-side dependent. His first fifty passed by almost unnoticed, which might be his habit, but it was quite a feat on a record-breaking night like this. Perception is all. He does not quite fit England’s gung-ho image and, if he can’t get a gig on a tour of the Netherlands, it may be forever thus. Still, at least he can point to a T20 average at Trent Bridge of 411.Hose’s 88 from 35 balls, with three fours and 10 sixes, had more of a leg-side emphasis, although not exclusively. Dan Christian’s medium pace was brutally punished, his three overs costing 59, his last two overs conceding six sixes, as Hose smashed 28 from his last of the innings.Even on such an absurd night, Notts’ bowlers claimed little victories. Samit Patel’s first three overs cost only 21, and he claimed the wicket at long-on of Rob Yates, who was standing in because Paul Stirling had withdrawn for personal reasons and who reached his maiden T20 half-century. Luke Fletcher managed nine dot balls. Alex Davies had fallen in Matt Carter’s first over, although Carter’s expression became more morbid as the evening progressed, as if his native county of Lincolnshire had announced prohibition.Trent Bridge was parched, drain lines on the outfield clearly visible, beige advancing upon green by the hour. The outfield was like glass and the boundary on the Fox Road side of the ground had also been brought in to an excessive extent. No hover cover needs that much room. Several sixes plopped roughly where the boundary fielder should have been and the extra jeopardy would have been more interesting. Nottinghamshire will argue that they were merely balancing the boundary distances with the pitch set well over to the other side of the ground, but they were probably happy to take on Birmingham in a six-hitting contest. They lost it 18-9.Since Test outfields improved their drainage a decade or more ago, it only takes a heatwave to last a couple of days for bowlers to feel bereft. The most forlorn sight of the opening overs came from a drone shot from above the ground as Patel set off from short fine lag in hopeless chase of several sweep shots which had crossed the boundary before he had got into his stride. A much-loved figure in green and yellow cast adrift upon a sun-burnished field. Notts generally looked flat in the field, an uncommon sight for the Trent Bridge crowd which began to stream away long before the end.It was not the sort of night for Notts to lose Alex Hales early, but Hain’s contribution was not yet spent and he ran back at cover to hold an excellent catch off Olly Stone. Joe Clarke made a withering 86 from 45 balls in riposte to take the Outlaws to 150 for two, with 112 needed at 14.6 per over. But he fell at long-off and, even when the batters had such a licence to kill, the rate could not ultimately be sustained: the rest crashed in 36 balls. Brathwaite, Birmingham’s Bajan captain, removed Clarke, who struck him off one knee to long off. Two victims for left-arm spinner Danny Briggs included Steven Mullaney, whose despairing loft to long off was his fourth duck of the tournament, the last three of them first ball.Peter Moores, Notts’ coach, was left to respond to those who felt a little sated by the experience. “I take the point that there’s more to cricket than fours and sixes but I’d just say this was one of those nights, far from the usual. And it was great entertainment. I’d say let’s take it for what it is: one of those nights, a brilliant pitch to bat on, brilliant weather to watch it. Not every game will be like that.”

New panel will meet on Tuesday to pick a squad for the first two Tests of the home series

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Jan-2021Even before the ink on India’s glorious and eventful tour of Australia dries, the selection committee is set to pick a squad for the first two Tests of the home series against England. Comprising four matches, this series will be played in February, in a bio-secure environment, without spectators, with back-to-back Tests scheduled in both Chennai and Ahmedabad.This selection meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, will be the first of a brand new panel led by Chetan Sharma (chairman) and made up of Sunil Joshi, Abey Kuruvilla, Debashish Mohanty and Harvinder Singh.The England series will mark the return of Virat Kohli to the fold after he left the Australia tour to attend the birth of his first child. With all the games being played in a bubble it is likely that an enlarged squad will be picked – at least 25 players, including net bowlers. The success of several young players over the past several weeks will embolden Kohli and the selectors, but they will will need to figure some key questions.Will it be a five-pronged fast bowling attack?A strong series result for India is a must for them to keep their chances of making the World Test Championship final alive. Consequently, India are likely to favour spin-friendly pitches to assist R Ashwin and co. Still the selectors are likely to pick five frontline fast bowlers in the primary squad. It is understood that Jasprit Bumrah, who was forced to sit out of the Gabba Test, will be fit to play his first home Test series.Related

• WTC: How the Gabba result will affect India, Australia

• Jadeja's replacement: Nadeem, Saxena, Axar in line

• Chennai, Ahmedabad to host England Tests

• Buttler could miss at least two Tests against India

It is understood Ishant Sharma, who missed out on travelling to Australia since he was completing his rehab from an injury picked during the IPL, will bolster the pace attack. Ishant is currently three matches short of becoming only the second Indian fast bowler to play 100 Test matches after Kapil Dev. As on Monday, he had featured in four T20s for Delhi in which he picked up five wickets at an economy of 7.76.Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur and T Natarajan are likely to be the remaining three fast bowlers.As for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is also playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s for Uttar Pradesh, it is learned that the selectors want him to get used to bowling a lot of overs before opening him up to the rigours of Test cricket. Kumar was injured during the early part of the IPL and has not played any fist-class cricket for a while. The pair of Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are likely to be considered for the final two Tests, provided they recover completely from the injuries picked during the Australia tour.Three spinners or more?It is likely to be three spinners in the first squad with Ashwin leading the spin attack. In the absence of Ravindra Jadeja, who could return for the final two Tests, the selectors are likely to pick the left-arm pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Shahbaz Nadeem. Yadav last played for India in January 2019, in the final Test of the last Australian tour, taking a five-for.Despite Ashwin being unavailable for the Brisbane Test, the Indian team management picked a rookie in Washington Sundar over Yadav, who missed out on playing in any of the four Tests on this Australian tour. Sundar, who travelled to Australia originally as part of the white-ball squads, went on to make a fine Test debut but is only likely to be part of the net bowlers for the England series.Three openers or four?It is understood that the selectors are likely to include at least three openers, while also looking at options who can double up as a middle-order batsman. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill will be persisted as the opening pair along with Mayank Agarwal as the back-up. The selectors could also include one of the uncapped Priyank Panchal or Abhimanyu Easwaran as fourth opener with the aim of getting them to spend time with the first team. Both Panchal and Easwaran have been leading run-makers in first-class cricket as well as for India A and the selectors want them to get a higher level of exposure.Prithvi Shaw, who made a century on Test debut in 2018, is is likely to dropped from the squad to allow him the time to strengthen his technique. Shaw was dropped after an uneventful outing in the day-night Test in Adelaide where his technical frailties were highlighted by experts including Sunil Gavaskar and Ricky Ponting. KL Rahul, who sprained his wrist in Melbourne, will be assessed in February before the selectors consider whether to include him for the final two Tests against England.

Electoral officer upholds CoA stand, declares 30 out of 38 board members eligible to vote

Nagraj Gollapudi10-Oct-2019The BCCI’s electoral officer has upheld the decision taken by the Committee of the Administrators (CoA) to disqualify three key state associations from participating in the BCCI elections, scheduled for October 23. On Thursday, N Gopalswami, the board’s electoral officer, removed Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Maharashtra from the final electoral roll, thus taking away their voting rights.In another significant move, Gopalswami disqualified Rajeev Shukla and Rajkumar Imo Singh, the nominated representatives of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) and Manipur Cricket Association respectively.Shukla had met Gopalswami in person on Wednesday, but the electoral officer disqualified his nomination because he had not undertaken the mandatory three-year cooling off since wrapping up as the IPL chairman in August 2018. Shukla had already served 11 years as an UPCA office bearer before taking up the IPL job in 2016.Imo Singh, meanwhile, is a Member of the Manipur Legislative Assembly and politicians can no longer be administrators or an office bearers thanks to the changes made in the BCCI constitution last year.The draft electoral roll, which was announced on October 4, had 38 members including three government-funded institutions: Services, Indian Railways and Association of Indian Universities. All three institutions had originally nominated a representative to participate in the board elections, but as per the new BCCI constitution, only their player associations are allowed to nominate a person.While announcing the election process, Gopalswami had made it clear that if the nominated person was disqualified, the state association could not appoint a replacement. This was a CoA directive as well. So all five of the UPCA, Manipur Cricket Association, Services, Railways and Universities have also lost their voting rights and can’t attend the BCCI annual general meeting that takes place on the day of the elections.What happens now?As they indicated on Wednesday, the TNCA will approach the Supreme Court on October 14, nine days before the BCCI elections, to challenge their disqualification. It is unclear whether Haryana and Maharashtra will follow suit.If the court upholds the CoA and electoral officer’s verdicts, then the BCCI elections will take place on October 23 and will be contested among the nominated representatives that feature in the final electoral roll.The representatives can list out which posts they will be contesting on October 11, 12 and 14. On October 16, a week before the elections, the final list of candidates will be released.Reasons for disqualificationTamil Nadu Cricket AssociationThe CoA originally highlighted 21 points of difference between the TNCA’s constitution and the BCCI’s. But the state association secretary, R Ramasaamy, told ESPNcricinfo that, barring two key points, everything else was pretty much okay.First, the TNCA appointed a second vice-president when the BCCI constitution allows just one.Ramasaamy said they needed the extra person to ensure proper representation for the numerous districts under the TNCA and that, by his interpretation, the Supreme Court had allowed every state association to amend their constitution to best suit their work. So the TNCA elected an extra vice-president and an assistant secretary to represent the districts.The second violation deals with eligibility criteria.As recommended by the Lodha committee, a person can become an office bearer or an administrator if they are under 70 years old. They can only serve a maximum of nine years at the state association or BCCI separately. They cannot be in public office, including being a government servant or a serving minister. Also, they cannot be a member of another sports body or have a criminal charge.The CoA has been always clear that these eligibility norms apply to both office bearers as well as the administrators. The TNCA, however, has cited a Supreme Court observation of last month saying that the norms covered only office bearers and not administrators. This interpretation was not allowed by the CoA as well as the BCCI electoral officer Gopalswami.Haryana Cricket AssociationThe CoA found that the HCA had carried out their elections without changing their old constitution.Maharashtra Cricket AssociationInitially, the CoA found that the copy of the constitution that the MCA had submitted was not registered. The state charity commissioner (the authority meant to register the constitution) explained that the copy that was with him still needed the approval of the CoA. The CoA then found that the copy of the constitution submitted with the charity commissioner was a different one and differed substantially from the BCCI constitution.Despite all that, the MCA went ahead and conducted their elections. Also, the MCA elected their apex council first, which in turn elected the office bearers, which is totally against the BCCI constitution.

CSA and the South African Cricketers’ Association announce further delay in signing Memorandum of Understanding, but say it will be sorted by July 6

Firdose Moonda29-Jun-2018Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) have announced a further delay in the signing of Memorandum of Understanding, which expired at the end of April. The agreement, which is negotiated every four years and covers player contracts and commercial rights, was due to be signed by Saturday, June 30, but will now be concluded on July 6. An interim agreement has been in place for May and June.Though the talks had hit several snags, mostly as a result of delays but also because of disagreements with CSA, who initially indicated an end to the revenue-sharing model and then backtracked. Now, it appears, recent discussions have gone smoothly. “A lot of progress has been made since CSA and SACA signed an Interim Agreement at the end of April and we have consensus on virtually all of the key aspects,” Tony Irish, the SACA CEO, said. “We are now in the drafting process and have set ourselves a revised joint target of 6 July to complete that and sign the agreements.”There has been no reaction from the player body over the recent lambasting CSA has taken from three of the eight owners of the Global League T20 franchises, despite SACA’s earlier assertions that a functioning 20-over league is imperative to securing player commitment in the country.

In the opening 50-minutes, Surrey were 31 for 5. The rest of the day? 303 for 2. What happened, you ask? Kumar Sangakkara. Again

Vithushan Ehantharajah at Chelmsford26-May-2017
ScorecardIn the opening 50-minutes, Surrey were 31 for 5. The rest of the day? 303 for 2. What happened, you ask? Kumar Sangakkara. Again. The Sri Lankan, who just last week said he was giving up the game because, ultimately, he is worried success might go to his head, registered his 61st first-class hundred. If it hasn’t now, when will it?This was a fifth hundred in a row, a third in eight days and, without doubt, one of his best for Surrey. He sleeps tonight on his highest score for the club.No other batsman in Surrey’s history has gone five on the bounce. Only seven others have done so in first-class cricket, with Sangakkara the fifth to pull it off in the County Championship. CB Fry, Mike Procter and Don Bradman went on to six. Sangakkara would be no slouch even in such distinguished company.As ever with the 39-year-old, he was playing a different game to the rest. Even Essex seamer Matt Quinn, who had taken Surrey’s top order to the cleaners with 3 for 13 in his opening three overs, was thrown by the mere presence of the man, losing his line with a few down the leg side early on.It was in Sam Curran, a man 20-years his junior, that Sangakkara found adequate support. Their partnership had a festival feel as they put on 191 – a new Surrey record against Essex for the sixth wicket.Sangakkara was the headline act: fans on both sides of the fence cheering appreciatively with each classic stroke they’ve seen time and time again (the century, from 174 balls, was brought up with an on drive that you’d like to take out for a nice seafood dinner). But Curran was more than happy to make the side-stage his own. Those present will have left Chelmsford having learned more about Sam than Kumar.Sam had learned a bit too from the last time he was close to a maiden century. This impressive innings ended on 90 when he skipped down the track and tried to send Simon Harmer out of the ground for a second time. Dip, turn and James Foster behind the stumps for his first Championship start saw him stumped. His walk off was slow, but nowhere near as slow as his departure on 96 against Lancashire last year. Then, he was emotional as he got back to the changing room. Today, he laughed.ESPNcricinfo

“Ah you know,” he began, “last year I was on 96 against Lancs and I got out defending. So this time I thought, well, it’s almost risk and reward, so you know… Obviously I’m gutted but, hey, what can you do?”A rush of blood to the head – let’s face it, he’s 19 – should not detract from a truly remarkable passage of play that he and Sangakkara embarked upon. The pair went into lunch at 67 for 5, with Curran nursing a bruised hand, yet returned to put on 147 in the afternoon session.While Sangakkara did what Sangakkara does, Curran emerged unscathed from a hostile tussle with Neil Wagner to unfurl some sumptuous shots of his own: through wide mid-on and the covers primarily, before he hit Ravi Bopara into the pavilion at square leg for his first six. It is worth remembering that as he came through at Surrey, Sam Curran’s batting was talked about more than his bowling. Today explained why.The frustration for Essex didn’t stop with him. Stuart Meaker (43*), masquerading as a No. 9, came in and hit his highest score in three seasons with such gusto that he shocked Sangakkara into a few shots of rage: twice he charged Wagner and thumped him down the ground. The morning’s carnage seemed a long way awayRory Burns, leading Surrey after an injured toe kept Gareth Batty out of the playing XI, opted for a toss, won it and then saw his side lose five wickets in no time. Mark Stoneman, Scott Borthwick (Surrey’s only other centurions this season) and Burns himself fell to Quinn bounding in from the River End. All were undone by deliveries that went across them and bounced more than expected in Quinn’s opening three overs, which saw him pass 100 first-class wickets. Not too shabby spread across 50 innings for Essex, Auckland and New Zealand A.Then Jamie Porter got involved from the Hays Close End, undoing Dom Sibley with a cracker that took the top of off and coercing Ben Foakes into playing onto his own stumps. Given the disarray Sam Curran walked into, his innings seems all the more remarkable.

John Blain, the former Scotland seamer, has been added to Scotland’s performance coaching team and will be responsible for the development of young fast bowlers in Scotland

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Apr-2016John Blain, the former Scotland seamer, has taken on a part-time role to groom the country’s young fast bowlers. Blain had previously worked with Yorkshire in English county cricket and is currently the head coach of Eastern Knights in Scottish domestic cricket.”I’m delighted to accept this role and be a part of the newly formed performance coaching team,” Blain said. “To be given the responsibility of developing the next generations of pace bowlers in Scotland excites me. I see this as an opportunity to put into practice my experiences at both playing level and my formative years at Yorkshire as club bowling coach and through my Level IV. “The 37-year-old will combine the role of lead pace bowling coach with overseeing the Eastern Knights and coaching at Grange CC and Loretto School, near Edinburgh.Andy Tennant, the Cricket Scotland performance director, welcomed Blain’s appointment. “We are delighted to have John on board in a coaching capacity,” he said. “He is an outstanding young coach and we are looking forward to putting his skills to work in identifying and developing our best young pace bowlers, while supporting the development of the Eastern Regional Performance Programme as head coach.”Blain made his Scotland debut as a 20-year old in the 1999 World Cup against Australia. He took 41 wickets at an average of 28.60 in 33 ODIs and 143 wickets in 102 List A matches, as well as more than 80 first-class wickets in England during spells with Yorkshire and Northamptonshire.His international career spanned a decade but came to an abrupt end when he walked out on Scotland on the eve of the 2009 World T20 following a serious fallout with then captain Gavin Hamilton.

Former West Indies offspinner, Lance Gibbs, believes the current West Indies team need to build around their most experienced player, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, if they are to continue to achieve success at the Test level

Renaldo Matadeen 09-Oct-2013Former West Indies offspinner, Lance Gibbs, believes that the West Indies need to build their current team around Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies batsman, if Test success is to come into the frame once more, as November’s India tour looms.Gibbs indicated that Chanderpaul’s experience and talent are the right ingredients to nourish younger batsmen such as Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo in the subcontinent. “Chanderpaul is one of our premier batsmen – the premier [one] actually,” Gibbs said. “We need to bat around him and mature these inexperienced players in his presence. That maturity is not there right now but, as with many teams, we all have our ups and downs, but now we need to turn that proverbial corner which everyone always speaks of, every time we do well.”He backed Darren Sammy as Test skipper but noted that for Dwayne Bravo to continue the strides of West Indies’ T20 world title last year, and in hopes of improving their results in the 50-over game, Bravo needs to improve as limited-overs skipper. “Dwayne tries to do too much. He needs to focus on certain areas and not try to do so much. We saw his death bowling exposed in the CPL, but I have faith in him as much as I know Sammy will deliver in India. The squad’s a good mix. Hungry and young too.”With the likes of Kirk Edwards and Narsingh Deonarine impressing during the present A team tour in India, Gibbs reiterated that there was a good blend of youth and experience in the Sammy-led 15-man squad, which also faces New Zealand in a hectic run-in to end 2013.”We haven’t played Tests in a while but the state of our cricket and Test team isn’t too bad. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh were good to practice against in the last year, and we did improve. Each nation goes through these motions in the sport and we as a team need to move from strength to strength. Let’s play good cricket and get the fundamentals right. You can see a team like England and say they’re the best, but it’s only in the past few years they’ve stepped up so I’m confident in the Windies.”When asked if T20 cricket had hampered the progress and development of the region’s youngsters, and even star players such as Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, he said that players should play all disciplines. With the aforementioned players still to make Test waves in recent months, Gibbs added that he didn’t think the lore of Tests or romance of ODI cricket had dissipated. “It’s an evolution of the game. Test cricket is the ultimate, but we have to roll with the times for the sake of the crowds. T20 has given exciting cricket as seen in the IPL and CPL, but remember, Test cricket stands on its own.””We all start off in the Caribbean playing 10, 20 or 40-overs, then we develop our 50-over game, our county cricket and as first-class players. Things change and we can’t look back, only forward. Players make a living from this now and back in the day, footballers, cricketers, boxers and such were barely making money but now, all kinds of sports are lucrative once you have the talent.”He indicated that once the talismans of the sport gave back to the game, things would bode well. He referenced the CPL’s youngsters rubbing shoulders with various West Indies and international stars, which acted as a nursery to their learning and growth earlier this year. “CPL had stars from Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Zealand come over so I think we’re well-prepped for what’s to come ahead.”West Indies will play two Tests and three ODIs, with the first Test match set to start on November 6.

Leicestershire have signed Robbie Williams from Middlesex on a one-year deal

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Sep-2012Leicestershire have signed Robbie Williams from Middlesex on a one-year deal. Williams, a right-arm seamer, had been on trial with the club in the closing weeks of the 2012 season and appeared in the Second XI Championship final defeat by Kent.Williams, a product of Durham MCCU, is relatively inexperienced for a 25-year-old. He has played only nine first-class matches and none since 2009, taking 23 first-class wickets at 32.82, with a best of 5 for 70. On Middlesex debut, Williams opened the bowling with England seamer Steven Finn and picked up 5 for 115 against Essex.Leicestershire chief executive, Mike Siddall, said: “Robbie impressed whilst playing for the second XI. He adds to the selection opportunities within the seam bowlers and we hope that he will make his mark at Grace Road.”

A round-up of the action from the final day of the Emerging Players Tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Aug-2011A battling century from captain Ryan Carters helped Australian Institute of Sport force a draw against India Emerging Players at Endeavour Park No.2 in Townsville. However, India finished on top in the points table, thereby capping a successful series for them – they were also victorious in the Twenty20 tournament that preceded the three-day games.Australia ended the second day at 93 for 2, still 236 runs adrift of India. Carters, who was unbeaten overnight on 56, continued to look solid. He and Glenn Maxwell had added 65 before stumps on day two, and they carried on the good work on the final day, adding a further 55 before Maxwell was dismissed for 73. Any hopes that India might have had of causing a collapse were dented as Tim Armstrong joined his captain and the duo put on 87 for the fourth wicket. Carters was finally dismissed for 115, but Armstrong (75) featured in handy partnerships for the fifth and sixth wickets to deny India a win, as Australia ended the day on 328 for 7.Reeza Hendricks completed his double-century and Richard Levi reached a century but South Africa Emerging Players were not left with enough time to bowl New Zealand A out at Endeavour Park in Townsville. South Africa’s only hope of notching up their first win of the three-day leg of the tournament was to score quickly on the final day and then hope for a New Zealand collapse. But Hendricks and Levi took their time, and South Africa used up 54.2 overs in the day to get 177 runs, which put them 169 runs ahead. New Zealand lost two wickets in the 34 overs they had to bat.Hendricks’ 218 was his second double-century of the tournament and his 566-run aggregate earned him the Batsman-of-the-Tournament as well as the Player-of the-Tournament awards. India’s Iqbal Abdulla was named Bowler of the Tournament for his nine wickets.

Legendary West Indian batsman Brian Lara could be Zimbabwe Cricket’s next high-profile signing, according to reports in a local newspaper

Cricinfo staff11-Sep-2010Legendary West Indian batsman Brian Lara could be Zimbabwe Cricket’s next high-profile signing, according to reports in local newspaper the . Lara, who was guest of honour and keynote speaker at the recent ZC annual awards ceremony, could take up a player/coach role with one of Zimbabwe’s domestic franchises.”The season is long, discussions are taking place, let us wait and see. You might see me coming back here,” Lara is quoted as saying. Ozias Bvute, ZC’s managing director added: “We are talking but its early days to say whether he is coming back to play or coach here.”The report suggests that Lara could play in the domestic Twenty20 competition and may also be called upon to help coach the national side’s batsmen and claims that a source close to ZC has revealed that an offer has already been made.Former South Africa fast bowler Allan Donald and Australian Jason Gillespie have already taken up coaching contracts in Zimbabwe, while Sean Clingeleffer, Andrew Hall and a handful of English county players have also been linked to domestic franchises.