Flintoff to make comeback by next month

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, June 4 (ANI): England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who retired from test cricket in 2009 after helping England regain the Ashes from Australia, is expected to return to action for his county club Lancashire by July or August.

Flintoff, 32, has been recuperating since undergoing reconstructive knee surgery after the final test at the Oval and is still ambitious to represent England in one-day cricket.

He had initially targeted England’s one-day series in Bangladesh in February for his comeback, but had to abandon that plan while conducting his rehabilitation in Dubai, Stuff.co.nz reports.

“Fred was with us last week and he had a long interview with Mike Watkinson (the cricket manager at Lancashire) and he said he is on course,” Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes told reporters.

“He is full of enthusiasm. It’s amazing that with the time he has been out he is still able to plough on. We are hoping to have him back by the end of July or start of August,” Cumbers added. (ANI)

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Surrey hopes to shine with Younis Khan in current county season

May 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Lahore, May 19 (ANI): Banned former Pakistan cricket captain Younis Khan has been signed by the English county team Surrey for the ongoing domestic season.

Younis, who is Surrey’s second overseas player after Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds, would play for the county side in all tournaments until July.

Surrey’s Professional Cricket Manager Chris Adams hoped that bringing in Younis, who has an impressive average of 50.09 in 63 Tests, would have some positive effect on the team’s performance.

“I am confident that bringing a world class player such as Younus to Surrey will have a very positive effect on the side. As well as benefiting from the weight of runs we hope he will bring, we have a number of young batsman who will doubtless benefit greatly from being able to train and play alongside him,” The Daily Times quoted Adams, as saying.

Younis is expected to join the team in a week’s time. (ANI)

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Surrey takes a gamble on Symonds

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Surrey cricket manager Chris Adams believes signing controversial Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds for the English county’s Twenty20 campaign is a risk worth taking.

Symonds, who boasts a Twenty20 strike rate of 156.79 and batting average of 37.43, joined the club on Wednesday and is set to make his debut against Gloucestershire at The Oval on June 8.

Adams said a phone call about two months ago convinced him Symonds could be the key to bolstering Surrey’s side in the shortest form of the game.

“I guess I’m attracted to the broken souls. If we can provide an environment for him and a place for him to come back and almost repair and reinvent himself then again it’s a win-win,” Adams told BBC radio.

“We’ll get the best out of him and he’ll get the best out of us.”

Disciplinary issues cost Symonds his place on a tour of England last year and ultimately his Australian contract.

But Adams has been impressed by the 34-year-old’s form with defending Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers.

“He enjoys certain aspects of a decent lifestyle but it comes down to performance on the field. That’s the thing I’m most interested in,” Adams said.

“If he joins us and continues to perform like he has in India recently then we’ll be delighted.”

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Ganguly to share Kolkata Knight Riders’ captainship

March 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Mar 25 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders’ cricket manager John Buchanan announced in a press conference on Wednesday that former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly would not be acting as a ‘fixed’ captain for the Shah Rukh Khan owned franchisee in the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“Ganguly and I have talked about it yesterday and decided that there need not necessarily be a fixed captain,” he said. “The team will have four captains.”

Buchanan denied any rift in the team and claimed that the dismissal of Ganguly as a fixed captain had no relation with his performance or fitness.

The team will have a separate batting captain and a fielding captain.

Elaborating the new blueprint, Buchanan said, “I really think in the course of this 20-over tournament we have the capacity to have the team coach, Matthew Mott, running the batting side of things. If we have to change the batting order or change personnel to fit a certain situation, then that is something that could fall under his control.”

“Once on the field, we have some very good leaders there in Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge and Sourav Ganguly. The laws of the game state that you need a captain for certain formal roles, such as the coin toss, but that aside, I see there is scope to challenge the way teams have been run in the past,” he added.

Ganguly too accepted the decision saying, “I am not upset…My goal is to score runs and take wickets”

“This is a unique concept… John has the right to implement his own methods,” he added. (ANI)

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