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Alex Hales has denied “any racial connotation” in naming his dog ‘Kevin’ after Azeem Rafiq alleged that the name was used by former Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance “to describe people of colour”.Rafiq told a parliamentary hearing into the Yorkshire County Cricket Club racism scandal on Tuesday that he believed Hales, the former England batter, had named his dog ‘Kevin’ because it was black.In a statement released on Wednesday, Hales said: “Having heard the allegations made against me, I categorically and absolutely deny there was any racial connotation in the naming of my dog.”I entirely respect and have huge sympathy for both the stance Azeem Rafiq has taken and what he has had to endure. His evidence was harrowing.”There is no place for racism or discrimination of any kind in cricket and I will gladly cooperate with any investigation the game’s authorities choose to hold. Neither I nor my representatives will be making any further comment on the matter.”Related

• Live Blog – Parliamentary inquiry into Yorkshire racism investigation

• Azeem Rafiq: Joe Root's comments about not seeing racism at Yorkshire were 'hurtful'

• Azeem Rafiq: 'Before we move forward, the game needs to listen to a lot of people who have suffered'

• Azeem Rafiq feels 'massive weight' lift after giving evidence of racist abuse

Hales’ county club, Nottinghamshire, said it had “commenced the appropriate internal process” following Rafiq’s claims.”Following on from the testimony provided to the DCMS Select Committee regarding Alex Hales, we have commenced the appropriate internal process and will continue to liaise with Alex and his advisers accordingly,” a club statement said.The club also encouraged “anyone who wishes to share concerns or discuss their experiences to come forward and speak freely” either directly or through the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC).”Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club remains totally committed to making cricket in our county, at every level, welcoming and accessible for all,” the statement said. “We have always tried to create positive and fulfilling cricketing experiences for people from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, and we will continue to do so.”We acknowledge that, given the experiences recently being shared within the wider game, individuals may not have felt comfortable in voicing their concerns in the past.”We would encourage anyone who wishes to share concerns or discuss their experiences to come forward and speak freely… it is vital that individuals do so, in order for the game of cricket to learn and move forward together.”Alex Hales says he will cooperate with any investigation into racism claims•Getty Images

During the hearing, before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee, Rafiq was asked by Julian Knight MP, the committee chair, about references to the word “Kevin” in Yorkshire’s controversial report into Rafiq’s allegations of institutional racism at the club.Rafiq replied that it was a derogatory word used by Ballance to describe non-white team-mates. “It was an open secret in the England dressing room,” he said. “Anyone who came across Gary would know that was a phrase he would use to describe people of colour.”Rafiq then alleged that Hales had picked up on the word and named his dog ‘Kevin’ because it was black. “It’s disgusting how much of a joke it was,” Rafiq added.

Kieron Pollard feels that flexibility, game awareness, and the ability to tailor their game to situations while not giving up on their core strengths will define West Indies’ 2021 T20 World Cup campaign, as they look to take home their third trophy.The defending champions, led by Pollard, boast of a mix of players, all of whom have had varied T20 experience over the past three months. While some, like Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Fabian Allen, Andre Fletcher and Roston Chase have had prolific CPL seasons, others, like Pollard himself, Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer are coming off five intense weeks of the IPL in UAE.Related

• Roston Chase is uniquely different from West Indies' other allrounders

• Dwayne Bravo is reinventing himself in T20, age be damned

• Akeal Hosein replaces injured Fabian Allen in West Indies squad

• Fitter and wiser, Ravi Rampaul backs himself to bowl 'tough' overs for West Indies

• Narine won't be added to T20WC squad despite IPL form

“It [IPL experience] was good, not just for us but all players involved in the World Cup, who got a feel of what is on offer,” Pollard said at a media event on Saturday. “There will be some stats comparison and trends that may have come out of the IPL. We have to take all that into consideration, take the context of the surfaces, atmosphere, and put them into our game plan.”For us, most of our guys got a chance to play recently here, so for us it’s about trying to hit the ground running, start off on a positive note, get those first two points and see what happens after that.”Pollard touched upon why it was important to do the simple things well, and how it was possible to do so without deviating from their tried and tested success formula of hitting big from ball one.”You’ve seen it all around the world, that is how we go about our cricket,” he said of the power-hitting. “Lot of people, analysts at different times, harp on dot balls, singles, ones and twos. Everything is important, but we still have to play to our strengths. I’m not going to say what that is because then the heading will be ‘West Indies just want to hit sixes’.”We need to keep our strengths as strengths and work on our weakness. We have a lot of powerful guys in the line-up, but if the situation warrants, we also have guys who can manoeuvre strike, run between the wickets. We look forward to playing complete games of cricket.”One of those players who has impressed with the very qualities Pollard mentioned is Chase. Two years ago, his game wasn’t deemed good enough for the shortest format. From there to having worked his way up to being CPL 2021’s MVP, the batting allrounder has come a long way. In a line-up full of big hitters, Chase lends calm and solidity with the bat, while also offering handy offspin. His rise up the ranks after having played just five games across six years – 2012 to 2018 – is staggering.”For him it was a matter of evolving his game and trying to be the best he can,” Pollard said. “He got a chance with St Lucia Stars. It’s a matter of putting guys in the right positions, and he has delivered for them for the last two years. It goes to show how every time you get a chance, you want to do well. He’s done well for himself.Roston Chase was the MVP at the recent CPL•Getty Images

“The type of cricket he plays fits right into our balance, right in the middle of our power-hitters. We need a guy who can manoeuvre the ball, hit the occasional boundaries, and keep the run rate going. That’s an area we keep constantly working on, and we thought he was the right fit at this time. I look forward to see what he has to offer. He hasn’t played much white-ball cricket, and teams may not have that much data. Or maybe they do, there’s an archive full of runs and wickets. We look forward to reaping rewards of his form from the CPL.”On the sluggish pitches in the UAE, batting well, power-hitting or otherwise, would be important, but the other 20 overs are equally crucial – Pollard underlined the importance of using spin well and how the IPL experience would be beneficial in terms of knowing how to use them keeping in mind the different boundary dimensions of the three venues.West Indies have two frontline fingerspinners in Allen and Chase, while Hayden Walsh Jr brings in the wristspin variety. At the 2016 World Cup in India, they relied heavily on Samuel Badree’s legspin. He ended as their leading wicket-taker with nine scalps.Pollard’s response followed Virat Kohli’s, when he was asked why the focus has suddenly shifted once again from wristspinners to fingerspinners, while discussing R Ashwin’s return to the fold after a four-year gap. “At one point, wristspinners dominated, but in the recent past, for whatever reasons, don’t know if it is conditions or what, fingerspinners are back in favour,” Pollard observed. “If you want a guy to consistently bowl to a bigger side of the ground, fingerspinners may have more control. We have a couple of them in our armoury and we can hopefully maximise dimensions in whatever spin there is at any given time. Our spinners aren’t the most experienced but sometimes it can work in our favour.”And then there are Pollard’s two trump cards, two men who many thought had played their last World Cup when they stood on the winners’ podium on that emotionally-charged April night at Eden Gardens.At 42, Chris Gayle is among the oldest player in the competition, while Bravo, 38, is making up for lost time, having not played for West Indies between 2016 and 2020. He is now coming off a successful IPL campaign with Chennai Super Kings, where he was their designated death bowler, bringing to the mix his variations of slower deliveries and dipping yorkers to stifle opponents.”I think he has shown time and again what he brings to any team,” Pollard said of Bravo. “For Chennai to go on and win was a fabulous team effort, and for him personally to continue doing what he does at the back and to close out matches for teams was superb. There’s no pressure on him, we’re all looking to ‘sir’ to all that in this campaign.”Gayle, meanwhile, is 97 runs short of becoming the leading run-getter in T20Is. He missed the last stages of the IPL as he left the Punjab Kings set-up owing to bubble fatigue, but Pollard was looking forward to seeing his senior stalwart contribute to another World Cup win.”No words to describe what he has done for us in the T20 World Cups and in T20 cricket around the world,” Pollard said. “The guy with the most sixes, most runs, the fear he instils in bowlers. The main goal is for him to win the World Cup and he is looking forward to that.”He did what he did in terms of taking a break. He needed it. This is another big tournament for him. I hope everyone understood the nature of what transpired. Living in bubbles is difficult. If a guy who enjoys himself in any situation can’t take it, it shows how difficult it can be for some of us. We are backing him to do well.”

Before the start of the Dharamsala Test, India had a big call to make. They knew their captain, Virat Kohli, was out with a shoulder injury – they now needed to decide whether to replace him with another batsman in a like-for-like swap or to play an extra bowler instead. With Kohli out of the side, India were losing a batsman with 57 Tests and 4497 runs behind him. Playing a batsman in his place may have seemed the safer move, but India went with the fifth bowler, handing Kuldeep Yadav a Test debut.Kuldeep, in the end, was one of the game-changers in India’s series-clinching eight-wicket win. On day one, Australia slumped from 144 for 1 to 300 all out, losing four wickets to Kuldeep’s left-arm wristspin.In his post-match press conference, Kohli revealed that Ajinkya Rahane, India’s stand-in captain, and Anil Kumble, their coach, had made the decision to play Kuldeep.”I spoke to Jinks [Rahane] before the game and he asked me what I feel,” Kohli said. “I said, this is your game, you have to be comfortable with playing four or five bowlers. He instantly said five bowlers, because he understands the workloads of the guys throughout the whole season and to keep pushing two guys to take wickets for you regularly is unfair when the body is tired and it has taken a toll.”So that fifth bowler, that was Anil and Jinks and myself, we all had a discussion. Kuldeep was the X-factor, they hadn’t played him, they hadn’t seen him much, and he turned out to be the difference in the game. I think from 130 for 1 to 300 all out in the same day can really demoralise the opposition.”And I think it was a great call on Jinks’ and Anil ‘s part. Credit to him, he went in with five bowlers and the batsmen took up the responsibility as well. To win Test matches, you need some courage before you start, to take that little bit of risk and play five batsmen, which we’ve done throughout the season on most occasions. It takes more responsibility out of you but that is what it is required of you playing at this level and it was his and Anil ‘s decision eventually to go in with five bowlers and it was the right one in the end.”The first two days of the Test match were neck-and-neck before India pulled away decisively on day three, taking a 32-run first-innings lead before their bowlers combined to roll Australia over for 137. Kohli said he had enjoyed the experience of watching the match from the sidelines, though it had been difficult to sit out.”Well, I jerked my shoulder four times yesterday celebrating outside,” he said. “So that’s how much energy I had and I couldn’t sit in the change room. So it is not nice. I don’t know how many Test matches I’ve played in a row [54]… If it was a strain injury it would have been different, but impact injury really gave me no options. And to start a game at 50% was not fair on the team. That’s the kind of person I have always been and I’ll continue to be.”But yes it was difficult watching from the outside when you have been in the thick of things all the time for the past so many years and seasons. But the most pleasing thing is when you see guys taking the responsibility in your absence and actually going out there to play one of the best ever Test matches that as a viewer you can see. I would call myself a viewer out there. I really enjoyed it. It was not easy to not play this game, but at the end of the day sitting here and having won the series, I have no complaints.”One of the key performers for India was Umesh Yadav, who took out both openers cheaply and finished with three wickets in Australia’s second innings. Those three wickets took his series tally to 17 – the most by any Indian fast bowler in a home series since the turn of the millennium. Kohli was pleased with Umesh’s evolution as a bowler, and said the key factor behind it was how he now understood his own bowling.”I would put him and [Mohammed] Shami together, at par,” when asked if he would rate Umesh as India’s best fast bowler since Zaheer Khan. “On pure pace, striking ability and making dents in the game, he would be at par with Shami.Virat Kohli on Australia: ‘They believed they could win sessions and win situations and that was the most challenging thing for us’•Associated Press

“Obviously, you can’t compare them to Zak [Zaheer] yet because Zak had done it for a longer period of time. But from 2014 to now, Umesh Yadav, the only thing that has changed in him is his mindset. He was always a very fit guy, he probably used to bowl even quicker than he is now, but he has understood his game, become smarter.”He used to bowl 145kph regularly, now he is touching 140kph at odd times but he is very smart with what he wants to bowl in spells. That has been a really, really big difference in his game. Obviously when you give guys confidence, saying, you are my strike bowler, they respond in that way. Then they are not thinking about getting hit for runs or anything of that sort. It is give and take, it takes a combination of a lot of things, but 80% of the credit is Umesh’s for the way he has gone out there and executed it. You can take in all the advice but you have to go out there and do it eventually. Credit to him, the way he has taken his game to the next level. I am really happy for him.”Kohli said he would not get too elated with India’s performance over their home season – 10 wins, two draws and one loss and all four series won – and hoped they could continue to win games consistently overseas as well.”No need to get overexcited with whatever we have done,” he said. “We are very happy with the No.1 ranking in the world, but our main challenge begins now. If we can conquer the overseas season, that’s when you will see a broader smile on my face when I sit down for the press conference. To understand where we are placed and the kind of cricket we have played, and where we stand as individuals at the end of season, it makes me very happy as a captain.”Few had expected Australia to compete as hard as they did through their tour of India, and Kohli said they had been India’s toughest opponents this season.”[India’s planning] was nothing different from what we have done in the past,” Kohli said. “The focus was obviously to maintain our skills, our momentum that we gained throughout the season, and execute that.”I mentioned in the post-match [presentation ceremony], credit to Australia, the way they have played in this series. They have really challenged us really hard and it tested the guys’ character to bounce back from difficult situations many a time.”Especially Jinks, the way he captained in this game was really pleasing to see because it had just been four Test matches since he had come back from his injury and to step up, show that character and lead the side to a win, hats off to him as well. He has really taken the responsibility well and I was really, really happy to see him doing that.”He was also very delighted to be taking that responsibility for the team. These kinds of series, these kind of matches, they build character for the guys. They become very sure of themselves, their games. And when you have seven-eight people in the side who are that sure of their abilities and their mindset, then you become a champion side and you keep that going for a long period of time.”Nothing different from what we have done in the past, it was very similar, but the resistance from the opposition was a lot more compared to the last few series that we have played. Credit goes to the way they played their cricket as well.”Asked why Australia were so competitive, Kohli said they had kept believing they had it in them to win in Indian conditions.”I think they had the belief of making things happen in these conditions, that’s something that I sensed in their body language and the way they played their cricket,” Kohli said. “They believed they could win sessions and win situations and that was the most important thing and the most challenging thing for us. While [other] teams really lose their morale once they lose a Test match in India, they kept bouncing back and they had the desire to compete throughout.”That’s why they are the No. 2 side in the world. You expect that from Australia, once they get a sniff they put you under pressure. But the way we responded, I’m really proud of that as well. I would say their relentlessness and their desire to make things happen in these conditions was probably the reason why they kept giving us a great fight to the end of this Test match. So a lot of credit goes to them.”

With a career-best 5 for 24 to underline his No. 1 ranking in both limited-formats, Imran Tahir seems to have everything he could want at the moment, except maybe one thing.”I wish I could have muscles like him,” Tahir joked, the day before the one-off T20 against New Zealand in Auckland.The person Tahir was referring to was Sonny Bill Williams, the New Zealand rugby player, boxer and signature bad-boy-turned-good, who is a close friend of Hashim Amla. Amla introduced Williams to Tahir and other team-mates including Wayne Parnell two years ago and they make a point of catching up when they’re in the same country, and Tahir is still in awe of Williams’ superstardom.”When I first met him I was shaking because we were walking on a street in Auckland and I could see people’s reaction and I was blown away,” Tahir said. “He stopped for everyone and took pictures. I’ve never seen someone who’s that famous.”Cricketers in South Africa seldom get similarly swamped, not even when they are dominating internationally the way Tahir is, and he knows that a more imposing physique will not change that. “I’m happy with what I am – I’m not jealous of him,” Tahir clarified, amid some giggles. Imagine a Tahir with bulging biceps and thunder thighs.Jokes aside, Tahir’s body will soon come up in discussions about how much longer he will be able to play. He turns 38 next month and has been playing cricket at a high level for two decades but has managed to avoid major injury. Being a spinner, whose action does not cause as much wear and tear as a quick bowler’s would, he is thought to have at least another two to three years, although he has suggested he could keep going for between five and ten. That doesn’t seem so outlandish when considering that Tahir has stayed fit and become more athletic and agile in the field than he was when he first emerged on the international scene.Tahir’s dedication to his craft has only increased as his career has progressed. He maintains that having waited so long to play for South Africa – Tahir moved to the country in the mid-2000s but only become eligible to play for them in 2011, when he was 32 – he wants to hold on to it for as long as he can.And there is maybe one other thing. The IPL auction takes place in three days’ time and this T20 was a last audition for some of the players looking to get deals – though Tahir insisted it was only a passing thought to him. He was released by Delhi Daredevils and has a base price of US$75,000, which is just short of a million South African Rand.Given how well Tahir has been performing recently, he is expected to fetch more than that. So while he may not have the muscles, he could soon boost his earnings by more than a million in one day.