NZ vs PAK: Pakistan squad denied permission to train in wake of COVID-19 cases

Steven Finn opens up on mental well being and dark days of his Eng career

England fast bowler Steven Finn, once known for his deadly outswingers and the ability to swing the ball at sheer pace has come out with his side of the story behind a horrific run in the 2013-14 season, which saw him being sent back to England from a tour down under. Talking about it to The Cricket Monthly, Finn said, “I’d I got sent home from [the 2013-14] tour because I found myself down a rabbit hole that was so hard to get out of.” “If I was braver and more confident in knowing what was going on, I'd have probably sent myself home a long time before I did get sent home,’ he added, signifying the amount of trauma that he had been through. The pain and the mental illness started from the time when Finn’s ‘hitting the stumps with his legs’ became too frequent that ICC had to make a law regarding it being a no-ball. It’s often called ‘Finn’s Law’. “It's frustrating that it happened - a knee-jerk reaction from the ICC to change the rules of the game that had a knock-on effect on me,” Finch said about the law. Finn, 31, has been plagued by injuries, and courtesy that he hasn’t played a single game since 2017 having debuted in 2010-11. Talking about the trauma that he went through after the law change, Finch said, “You're in your hotel room in tears, or if someone asks you about your bowling, you get really emotional, because you're in this rabbit hole where you don't see a way out. Every day you're practicing and there are people lining up behind the nets to watch you suffer through the process.” Saying that it was the right decision to send him, the Middlesex bowler also agreed that he wasn’t able to express himself better, mostly because he wasn’t willing to listen to his inner self. “People are aware and willing to talk and be vulnerable [about]. I wasn't willing to be vulnerable and honest about my mental state and that cost me,” said Finch. “You're not selectable because your mental frame of mind is affecting how you're performing, and if you were to go out onto a pitch, you'd be more fragile than you would usually be,” he added. But where did he learn to bowl so close to the stumps and did it ever cause problems in his childhood, did he knock stumps back them as well? Answering such questions, the man with the record for fastest Englishman to 50 Test wickets said, “I loved Glenn McGrath when I was a kid. He was my favorite bowler ever - I'm ashamed to say it but for the '99 World Cup I had an Australia shirt.” “I loved how he and Shaun Pollock and those guys got real tight to the stumps. From watching McGrath get so close to the stumps and have that little dart in, it naturally came into my game as a result of trying to copy him,” added Finn, who has 125 wickets in 36 Tests for the English side. What added more to Finn’s mental pressure was the fact that players couldn’t talk more freely to the Press back then. Finch, who plans to detail his playing career through various talks as motivational lessons in the future said, “We had a wall up around ourselves at that time, and this was part of the regime: you don't say anything to the press that isn't acceptable. It meant the media didn't get a true depiction of what we were like as people.” “Now I think you do interviews with players and they seem more like humans - you know more about where they're at,” he added.

AUS vs IND: Maxwell defends ‘Switch Hit’ as part of the evolution

Glenn Maxwell, middle-order Australian batsman or rather a well-known raunchy hitter of the cricket ball has defended his art of Switch hits as being part of the evolution of cricket. The switch hits have once again come under the attack of former cricketers as being an ‘unfair’ method of play, against a bowler. However, responding to those criticisms, Maxwell, 32, said, "It's within the laws of the game. I think batting has evolved in such a way that it's just got better and better over the years which is why we're seeing these massive scores getting chased down and scores are going up.” Earlier former Aussie captain Ian Chappel had targeted Maxwell and his switch hits saying, "It is very skillful, some of it's amazingly skillful - but it's not fair.” Maxwell, who scored 167 runs in the recently concluded ODI series at a strike rate of 194.18, said that bowlers also need to evolve as batters have, also noting that the process is on with different fieldsets and different kinds of deliveries being invented. "I suppose it's up to the bowlers to try and combat that, and the skills of bowlers are being tested every day. They're having to come up with different change-ups and different ways to stop batters, and with the way, they shut down one side of the ground and what-not,” Maxwell said. Further, the man, who almost took Australia t a 3-0 whitewash courtesy of his 38 balls 59 at Manuka Oval, which invariably included the famous switch hits, added, "I suppose the way that batting is evolving, I think bowling has got to evolve to the same stage, so you see guys come up with knuckle balls and wide-yorker fields and different tactics.”

Kane Williamson’s heartwarming gesture to Kemar Roach wins Twitter

Kiwi captain Kane Williamson was once again on the Twitter trending list and once again for all the right reasons. The 30-year-old not only supported the Black Lives Matter movement of the West Indies team but was seen consoling and comforting Kemar Roach the West Indian fast bowler, who lost his father on the very day of the first Test between the two countries began. On receiving the said news, Roach, 32 was seen being comforted by Williamson. The Cricket West Indies official Twitter handle shared the picture of the two men having an emotional hug. "CWI extends deepest condolences to Kemar Roach and his family on the passing of his father. Both the #MenInMaroon and the @BLACKCAPS teams wore black armbands on the opening day of the 1st Test in his honour," Windies Cricket wrote in a tweet. Earlier in the day, all the players wore black armbands in solidarity with Roach’s personal loss. The Twitter, always a friendly place for Williamson was once again seen showering overwhelming support to the skipper for his actions as well as for the innings that he played on the field. Williamson’s team, batting first at Seddon Park, Hamilton, after having lost the toss, was in a slight danger when the debutante Young, went out for just four runs when the score was 14. It was Tom Latham and Williamson who steadied the ship and sailed it past 150 as they added 154 for the third wicket before Roach dismissed Latham. However, Williamson was undeterred and went to build yet another partnership with senior-pro Ross Taylor. At the end of the first day, the partnership had reached a total of 75 and Williamson was batting not out on 97 while Taylor remained not out on 32.

SA vs ENG: Faf du Plessis won’t be part of the Proteas ODI team

Former Proteas captain Faf du Plessis has been rested for the ODI series against England after playing continuous cricket for the past three months, which included both the IPL as well as the three-match T2OI series against England, which the guests won 3-0. The 36-year-old had already said goodbye to Test cricket having retired from the format last year. Along with him, star bowler Kagiso Rabada too will not available for the selection in the ODIs as he has been ruled out of the series due to injury. Other players including Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, and Pite van Biljon have also been released from the squad, getting its size down to just 18, after it was increased citing the scare fo the positive covid cases in the South African camp. Skipper Quinton de Kock and his young team have a lot at the hands as they are hungry to prove their mettle having been whitewashed in the T20Is. First of the T20Is begin in Newlands, while the other two will be played at Boland Park, Pretoria, and Newlands on 6th and 9th December respectively.