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Medium-pacer L Balaji has been named bowling coach and player for Tamil Nadu for the 2015-16 domestic season. Balaji, who was contemplating retirement after last season, has been roped in to play a mentoring role to the team’s seamers. TNCA sources said his vast experience would prove useful for a young bowling attack.Balaji said he accepted the role because it gave him a “sense of direction in his next chapter.””I felt I can definitely contribute on the subject. I have played enough to know how to help the fast bowlers, from my state especially. Whatever role I am going to take, it’s going to be a stepping stone and I am also learning.”Balaji, 33, did not play all the Ranji Trophy games in 2014-15 when Tamil Nadu reached the final, picking up 15 wickets in eight matches. While he is likely to be used in a similarly sparing manner this season on pitches that assist seam bowling, there is also a possibility he might not play at all. Balaji has had some game time recently, turning out for India Cements in the pre-season Moin-ud-Dowla tournament and picking up three wickets in the final against hosts Hyderabad.Balaji cited the examples of Justin Langer, Ryan Harris, Shane Warne and Rahul Dravid as players who performed mentoring roles even while playing competitive cricket. “As a current player you can bring equal chemistry to the players playing alongside you.”This is just a role that has been given, but I have been having a good rapport with these youngsters and pass on my experience from the time I was captain. [But, the] fast-bowling department hasn’t really blossomed, hasn’t really lived up to the expectation in the past 10 or 15 years, so we want to create a good environment for newcomers.”The Tamil Nadu team for their first three Ranji Trophy matches was also announced at Tuesday’s executive committee meeting of the TNCA, with Abhinav Mukund being retained as captain and B Indrajith his deputy.RI Palani was appointed Tamil Nadu’s cricket manager and M Sanjay, who served as WV Raman’s assistant last year, was named coach. The decision ended speculation surrounding the coaching staff after Raman’s contract was not extended. While Palani will decide team composition and strategy, Balaji and Sanjay will be in charge of organising practice sessions.Palani, who is also the joint secretary of the TNCA, was Tamil Nadu’s cricket manager during the 2011-12 season, when they were finalists. “They offered me [the job] one month back,” Palani told ESPNcricinfo. “I took time. There were two reasons. I was not watching too much cricket for a while, so I wanted to know if I would be able to do justice, so that’s why I went with the team to the Moin-ud-Dowla tournament. I had my hernia operation recently as well, so I had to see if my recovery was complete.”I also wanted to check with my sister if she could take care of my father in my absence. Also, I was waiting for an official offer [from the TNCA] which I got only today.”For more than a month, there had been confusion surrounding Raman’s position. It began immediately after he reportedly expressed his interest in coaching the TNCA academy. “Raman didn’t want to continue initially as the state coach and was interested in becoming a match referee,” a TNCA official said. “After that when he said he wanted to come back to coach Tamil Nadu, the TNCA was not interested because members felt he didn’t have the same motivation.”The dominant theory on why Tamil Nadu have not opted for a new head coach is that prospective candidates demanded huge sums as remuneration. “The people that the TNCA approached were quoting too much,” a TNCA insider said. “Also not a lot of people were coming forward from outside Tamil Nadu. [Former Karnataka and India batsman] Sujith Somasundar was discussed, but not much came of it. Nothing went to the final stage.”Another TNCA source said that while money was an issue, they didn’t want to change the core group. “[Apart from Raman], the support staff hasn’t changed. It’s a young team that has been doing well and I feel we didn’t want to disturb it. The dynamics of the new person will definitely be different. We also didn’t get anyone in that time frame.”Tamil Nadu play their opening game against Baroda on October 1 in Chennai.Squad for first game: Abhinav Mukund (capt), B Aparajith, K Bharath Shankar, B Indrajith, Vijay Shankar, R Prasanna, Dinesh Karthik, Malolan Rangarajan, Rahil Shah, DT Chandrasekar, Aswin Crist, L Vignesh, M Mohammad, J Kousik

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has called for a complete rethink of Australia’s cricket system after the team’s crushing defeat in the ongoing Investec Ashes series in England. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Chappell said Australia were now worse off than they were before the Argus review of 2011, and he has forecast dark days ahead due to the lack of batting depth in the domestic system.The retirement of Michael Clarke and likely departure of Chris Rogers will leave Australia needing at least two new batsmen in their top six after this series, but their replacements are far from obvious. Chappell said the fact that so many of Australia’s new Test batsmen in recent years were older – including Rogers, Adam Voges, Ed Cowan, George Bailey and Rob Quiney – was evidence of a failing system.”Normally you’d be highly critical of the selection panel for doing that, but you have to have sympathy for the selection panel, because what they would obviously like is a lot of young players churning out runs regularly in first-class cricket, and sadly that’s just not happening,” Chappell said. “That to me is where the major concern is.”I think there are some guys there with a lot of skill. But whether they would do any better against the moving ball than what we’ve seen lately – you wouldn’t want to be betting your house on it.”The Argus review was, in my opinion, from the time it was done, a complete waste of time. We’re now back in the same boat. In fact I think we’re behind the eight-ball because what they did was they added another layer of management. The system is wrong, the Argus report was a waste of time.”Australia’s major failures in recent years have come when the ball has moved, either in spinning conditions or against seam and swing. Chappell said during his playing days, batsmen were exposed to enough variety in conditions during Sheffield Shield cricket that they had confidence in their techniques when asked to tour countries such as England or India, which he believes does not happen now.”Young players are going to be playing with an IPL contract in mind,” Chappell said. “If I can show that I’m a terrific hitter of the ball and I can score at eight an over, that could get me a big IPL contract. So the question you’ve got to ask yourself is, are they developing techniques that make it easier to play in that manner, to score at eight and ten runs an over and be terrific hitters?”Every time I hear people say the batting is better now, I nearly throw up, because the batting is not better. The hitting is better, but the batting is not better. We’ve seen that with Australia. The art of survival is on the way out fast. I don’t blame the young guys.”But this is what the officials, the administrators, have got to work out – is that going to help you in Test cricket? And the answer is no, not unless you have absolutely flat pitches in Test cricket, which I’m not sure we want.”Chappell said one key to improving Australian cricket would be to boost the numbers of 17- and 18-year-olds playing Sheffield Shield cricket and honing their games at that level. However, he felt it could be years before Australian cricket would begin to reap the rewards and in the meantime, the new captain Steven Smith would face some serious challenges with his Test team.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is to send a delegation to Zimbabwe before the end of the year to assess safety and security in the country prior to the 2003 World Cup.The delegation will include the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, as well as representatives from each country due to play in Zimbabwe during the World Cup. The players will also be represented, along with the ICC’s commercial partner, Global Cricket Corporation, and the insurance industry.”There are a number of matches programmed in Zimbabwe, and the ICC will be taking all possible steps to fulfill this obligation,” said the ICC president, Malcolm Gray.”Part of ensuring this is to deal with any real or perceived concerns that any country may have about safety and security issues in Zimbabwe. This visit will provide the ICC and its key stakeholders with the opportunity to make a first-hand assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe.”Six preliminary round matches are due to be played in Zimbabwe, the first of them at Harare Sports Club between Zimbabwe and Namibia on February 10th. Zimbabwe meet England there on the 13th, and India on the 19th. The other three games are at the Queen’s Ground, Bulawayo, where Zimbabwe’s opponents are Australia, Holland and Pakistan.The delegation will report back to the ICC within two weeks of the visit.

West End and the South Australian Cricket Association today strengthened their decades-old association by announcing a formal sponsorship deal for the next five years.And on the eve of the 2002 Pura Cup, the State team has now been officially named the West End Redbacks in celebration of the sponsorship deal.West End’s association with cricket in South Australia goes back more than three decades. In that time, West End’s support has been far-reaching. From top state level down to local clubs, West End has assisted countless cricket teams with financial and promotional support.SA Brewing Managing Director Bill Wareham said West End looked forward to this support growing over the next five years."Now is a very exciting time to be involved with cricket in South Australia, especially with the fantastic redevelopment of Adelaide Oval set to begin," Mr Wareham said."We’re proud to play an important part in the further development of cricket in South Australia and look forward to supporting our up and coming cricketers in every way we can."The new deal is expected to turn into a multi-million dollar support package over the five years. It will involve widespread support, including pourage rights, marketing campaigns and naming rights for not only the West End Redbacks, but the grade competitions.SACA’s Chief Executive Officer, Mike Deare, said the West End sponsorship was of enormous significance to cricket at all levels in South Australia."The partnership with SA Brewing extends more than 30 years, which is an extraordinary achievement," said Mr Deare. "From district cricket through to the State competition, West End’s support will enable the SACA to continue to develop the game of cricket to the highest standard."We are very pleased that our State team will be known from today forward as the West End Redbacks."

Roddy Smith, the chief executive of Cricket Scotland, has expressed his disappointment at the fact there is likely to be no television coverage of this summer’s ODI fixture between Scotland and England.Smith, who has been working with the ECB in an attempt to secure a TV deal for what he describes as the “biggest match” in his organisation’s history, at the Citylets Grange in Edinburgh on August 18, is now almost resigned to the prospect of the game being ignored by broadcasters, in much the same fashion as Scotland’s newly-completed rugby tour of Argentina.”Sky had first refusal, but they have a lot of other cricket commitments in August, so have decided not to pursue their interest in the game, whilst the BBC are dedicating so many resources to their coverage of the Olympic Games [in Beijing] that they are not able to fit us into their schedules,” said Smith, who further revealed that the cameras will be absent from his country’s meeting with New Zealand in Aberdeen next month.”We are still talking to [satellite company] Setanta, but the SPL will have started again by the time the England team come up here, and the chances in that direction are receding. It is disappointing, because there is obviously an awful lot of interest from the public on both sides of the Border over the Scotland v England contest, and, as matters stand, the only people who will see the game are the [6000] spectators who come to the Grange on the day. We appreciate, though, that the BBC have a massive commitment to the Olympics, and they will be covering all the action on radio, in the shape of Test Match Special, but clearly, it would have been good if they could have shown it on television too.”Smith, ever the diplomat, is entitled to be quietly furious at this turn of events. After all, the BBC screened full coverage of last year’s meeting between Ireland and England, and it seems frankly absurd that they have ruled out any involvement in a match which is certain to generate significant attention from the cricketing sphere and also the wider world. It isn’t even as if the match will clash with any major weekend pursuits, because the likes of Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and possibly Andrew Flintoff will lock horns with Ryan Watson on a Monday, but the decision appears to be cut and dried.Smith also confirmed that the Scotland squad for the triangular series involving Ireland and New Zealand will be announced at the end of this week and he is hopeful that the Scottish trio, Kyle Coetzer, Navdeep Poonia and Calum MacLeod, will be released by their counties (Durham and Warwickshire) to participate in the brace of ODIs.

The USA Cricket Council are taking another step towards forming a nationwide Twenty20 league by holding an event on July 4, Independence Day, called the Freedom T20 Cricket Tournament 08.It will feature players from Connecticut, Central and South Florida, and will be held at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill. Expansion into other states may follow, but the current plan appears to be to consolidate the initial franchises on the Eastern seaboard, and then look to the Midwest and beyond for additional locations. The four teams will be called US Lions, US Giants, US Bears and US Sharks.”We look forward to highlighting the best US cricketers,” said Mohammad Qureshi, chairman and CEO of the Cricket Council. “Indeed the goal of CCUSA is to promote Twenty20 cricket in the US. Showcasing the best national will help accomplish our goal.”The tournament will include four games, with the main Championship Match set to begin at 5.30pm, followed by a fireworks display.