The latest snippets from around the English game including the arrival of the world’s biggest cricketer, how Yorkshire got it wrong and a match that Allan Donald could do without
Paul Bolton19-Jun-2018Spare a thought for South Africa batsman Theunis de Bruyn who faces the unenviable task of trying to replace Virat Kohli when Surrey play Somerset at Guildford this week.Advance ticket sales for the match were brisk when it was first announced that Kohli would be making his county debut for Surrey in the County Championship fixture.But Kohli was forced to withdraw from his short-term contract because of a neck injury sustained in the IPL leaving de Bruyn as a late and low-profile replacement.Kohli has played 66 Tests with 21 centuries and a highest score of 243, 208 one day internationals and 57 T20 internationals. De Bruyn has played five Tests – 130 runs and a top score of 48 – and two T20 internationals.So, no pressure there then for the 25-year-old Knights right hander.
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Don’t be surprised if Allan Donald, Kent’s new assistant coach, wanders into the wrong dressing room during the County Championship Division Two top-of-the-table clash against Warwickshire at Tunbridge Wells this week.The former South Africa pace bowler had a long and distinguished career as an overseas player with Warwickshire between 1987 and 2000 and then returned to Edgbaston for two spells on the coaching staff.Having resolved the visa issues which prevented him from joining Kent last season, Donald is a familiar face in unfamiliar surroundings and he admits that facing Warwickshire for the first time as a player – he played six matches for Worcestershire in 2002 – or a coach will be a something he never envisaged.”I have probably taken the John Terry approach: I don’t want to play against Warwickshire,” Donald said. I will try to treat them as just another team but I know that I played for Warwickshire for many years. I have lots of fond memories and they will never go away.”Donald spent Saturday afternoon at the Worcestershire home of Ashley Giles, his former Warwickshire team-mate and now the county’s Sports Director, watching the England v South Africa rugby international on television. No doubt Donald will reciprocate the hospitality when Giles visits Tunbridge Wells this week.Such fraternisation would have been unthinkable on the only occasion Donald played at the Nevill Ground in 1991 when Kent’s coach Daryl Foster banned his players from speaking to the opposition. The Australian’s snarling approach created tension between the teams and led to an ill-tempered contest.
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The world’s biggest cricketer is in England and coming to a county ground near year you (well, if you live in the East Midlands).Rahkeem Cornwall, the corpulent off-spinning, ahem, all-rounder from Antigua, is in the West Indies A tour party who are here for a triangular series against England Lions and India A.Cornwall, who is 6ft 5ins tall and weighs in at a whopping 22 stone, first came to prominence when he biffed a half century for a West Indies Board XI against England in a one day match in St Kitts in February 2017.Cornwall, a dead ringer for Forest Whitaker’s Idi Amin in , will be in action against England Lions at Derby on Saturday. The Lions play India A in the series opener at the same venue on Friday.
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Not many players get a second chance at Yorkshire, but Jonny Tattersall has done just that and it seems to be working out remarkably well.Tattersall’s career-best 89 against Hampshire in the Royal London Cup semi-final passed largely without comment as James Vince’s superbly-crafted 171 ensured a heavy Yorkshire defeat, but it further rewarded his refusal to take no for an answer.Tattersall was first released by Yorkshire in 2015 but rebuilt his career with two winters in Australia plus spells with Lincolnshire and Derbyshire 2nd XI before undertaking what he has described as “a cheeky career switch” and following his father and brother by taking up wicketkeeping.Now with Jonny Bairstow “never here,” in the words of Yorkshire’s coach Andrew Gale and the well-liked Andrew Hodd retiring at the end of the season, Tattersall has a great opportunity to make strides, too, in the red ball format which he regards as his strength.Tattersall follows Azeem Rafiq as a recent example of a player who has caused Yorkshire to have a rethink. Clearly the county’s reputation for never admitting they are wrong is becoming more outdated with every year..
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Essex have given James Foster, their former England wicketkeeper, permission to miss three weeks of the county season to develop his coaching career in the inaugural Canadian Global T20 League.Foster has been appointed assistant coach of the Vancouver Knights where he will link up with former Essex bowling coach Donovan Miller.The Vancouver squad includes Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Tim Southee and Bermuda left-hander Kamau Leverock, who has been trialling with Nottinghamshire recently.Foster, who spent time coaching in the Bangladesh Premier League during the winter, will be in Canada from June 28 to July 17.
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When is a British-qualified player an overseas player? The answer is when they play Premier League club cricket.Ryan Sidebottom, the former Victoria seamer, plays county cricket for Warwickshire as a domestic-qualified player on a British passport but different registration regulations apply in league cricket. As Sidebottom is not qualified to play international cricket for England he can only play club cricket as an overseas player.This anomaly came to light recently when Sidebottom wanted to play some club cricket to speed his recovery from a side strain but was told that he could only sign for a club that did not already have an overseas player. Barnt Green of the Birmingham & District Premier League were able to accommodate him.