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Incident on family game reserve comes years after a crocodile was found under his bed

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Apr-2024Guy Whittall, the former Zimbabwe allrounder, has undergone emergency surgery in Harare after being mauled by a leopard while on a hunting expedition.The incident, which occurred earlier this week, comes several years after Whittall survived another brush with the local wildlife, when an eight-foot crocodile was found to have been under his bed while he slept.Whittall, who played 46 Tests and 147 ODIs for Zimbabwe between 1993 and 2003, now runs a safari business with his family in Humani, in the South East of the country, where it is understood he was tracking a leopard that had previously been wounded by a client.His wife, Hannah Stooks-Whittall, confirmed the incident in a Facebook post, accompanied by graphic pictures of Whittall being treated in the bush after sustaining cuts to his arms and legs, as well as a 5-inch gash to his head.A later picture showed Whittall in hospital with his head heavily bandaged, but giving a thumbs-up to the camera. He lost “a lot of blood” in the attack, Hannah added, but his injuries might have been even more severe had it not been for his “faithful K9″, Chikara, who helped to wrestle the leopard off him.”Chikara [is] coming up tomorrow to the vet after being mauled by the leopard and getting the cat off Guy!” she wrote. “Very special boy.Look what’s under the bed: Guy Whittall had an unexpected guest in 2013•Twitter/Guy Whittall

“Guy and I are overwhelmed by the hundreds of messages of well-wishers after Guy’s run in with a wounded leopard earlier today,” she added. “We are very fortunate that he was stabilized at Hippo Clinic by wonderful staff. He was then Airlifted from Buffalo Range by Ace Ambulance to Harare, then transferred to Milton Park Hospital for treatment.”Whittall’s post-cricket career hit the headlines again in 2013 after he discovered an eight-foot, 165kg Nile crocodile had made its way from the nearby Turgwe river into his bedroom at the game reserve and spent the night there.Speaking at the time, Whittall recalled how he had dangled his feet over the side of the bed before leaving the room, and had only been alerted to the intruder by the terrified screams of the housemaid.”He really is one lucky man,” Hannah told MailOnline. “First he had the crocodile and now the leopard, he really is the cat with nine lives.”

Gillespie took over as head coach at Strikers ahead of the 2015-16 BBL season, and joined South Australia full-time ahead of the 2020-21 summer

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Mar-2024Jason Gillespie will be stepping down from his role with South Australia Cricket Association (SACA) as the head coach of South Australia and Adelaide Strikers at the end of June, the association said in a statement on Thursday. The update comes just over a month after it was announced that Tim Nielsen, general manager – cricket, would be stepping down from his position at the end of the season.”I am incredibly proud of what we achieved together at the SACA, and I will always cherish those memories. I have no doubt that South Australian cricket has a bright future,” Gillespie said in a SACA statement. “I would like to thank everyone for their support during my time with the Strikers and Redbacks, it has been a true team effort. To be able to play and coach in my home State has been a wonderful experience, something I feel honoured to have achieved.”Looking forward, I am excited to explore new opportunities in the sport and pursue the next chapter in my career.”The update came at the end of a disappointing season for South Australia, who finished fifth on the six-team Sheffield Shield table. Strikers, though, made the playoffs of the BBL, won the Knockout against Perth Scorchers, before losing the Challenger to eventual champions Brisbane Heat.Gillespie took over as head coach at Strikers ahead of the 2015-16 BBL season, leading the team for nine seasons. They won the title in 2017-18 – their only win so far – and have made the playoffs four more times. He returned to South Australia full-time ahead of the 2020-21 summer, taking the reins of the Redbacks.”Both as a player and a coach, Jason has always represented South Australia with passion and positivity,” SACA president Will Rayner said. “We are extremely grateful for the dedication he has shown to South Australian cricket over a remarkably long period of time. He has been a genuine leader both on and off the field and we wish him every success in the future.”He will always be considered as one of the legends of South Australian cricket.”

The MI head coach also says that no decision has been made yet about Rohit Sharma’s future

Abhimanyu Bose18-May-20241:59

A season to forget for Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher said that the fans’ reaction to change in captaincy from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya affected the team’s performance in IPL 2024.On Friday, MI’s season ended with an 18-run defeat to Lucknow Super Giants, which resigned them to a tenth-place finish with just four wins from 14 games. Rohit started the game on the bench, coming on as an impact player for the chase. But that didn’t stop the Wankhede crowd from chanting his name when Hardik came on to bowl.Rohit’s dismissal after entertaining the home crowd with a 38-ball 68 was first met with a hush, followed by applause as he walked off. But as Hardik walked out to the field as MI’s next batter, the boos rang out.Related

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Hardik being jeered has been almost a constant theme from MI’s first game after he was traded from Gujarat Titans – where he led the side to a title and a runners-up finish – before the season.”It wasn’t great hearing all the boos,” Boucher said. “Certainly, I felt sorry for Hardik as well. It’s never nice to go through something like that. So yeah, there are certain things we need to address. And we are going to address them.”Now is not probably the right time. Everyone is very disappointed and emotional, so no good decision will get made in the nearest sort of time. We need to go back. We need to evaluate exactly what’s going on.”Boucher admitted that the team’s performance this season was under par, but hoped the team management would make some “good calls” ahead of the next season.”[There are] things that we need improvement on, whether on the field or off the field stuff,” Boucher said. “We’ve got some great heads within the management team as well, and we’ll sit down and we’ll find a way of how to make it better ultimately for the players to produce the sort of cricket that we know these players can produce, which was under par this season.”There were a lot of things happening, a lot of moving parts this season, which wasn’t great to be a part of at certain times. There are certain things that did affect individuals, which ultimately did affect the team. So those are the sort of things we need to sit down and address and hopefully make some good calls going forward as well to address the off-field stuff.”Hardik Pandya had replaced Rohit Sharma as captain before the season•AFP/Getty Images

Hardik finished the IPL 2024 with 216 runs in 13 innings at an average of 18.00 and a strike rate of 143.04. With ball, he took 11 wickets in 12 innings at an economy rate of 10.75. While evaluating Hardik’s season, Boucher admitted that things off-field things might have “clouded” him, but asserted that this season would help him become a better captain.”I think that if [Hardik] was here, he’d also be disappointed in his performances,” he said. “From a captain’s perspective, I thought he had some good games. There’s a lot of stuff going on around him that maybe clouded his thoughts every now and again, which I said is tough for him as a leader as well.”He certainly had a lot of support within our dressing room but it’s a tough thing to go through as a player. There’s a lot of sympathy for what he’s going through. A lot of the stuff he is going through is, I think, uncalled for. It will certainly be a learning curve for Hardik as he grows in leadership.”While times are tough now, a couple of things will pass and make him a tougher leader and it will certainly grow him in the role as well. I still think there are some fantastic things coming from Hardik Pandya as a leader.”

Boucher on Rohit’s future: ‘He is the master of his own destiny’

There have been speculations that Friday’s game was Rohit’s last for MI, a franchise he led to five IPL titles. Boucher, though, said there was no decision made yet.”To be honest, there hasn’t been many conversations about Rohit’s future,” Boucher said. “I spoke to him last night or the night before, just to do basically a little review of the season. And I said, ‘What’s next for Rohit Sharma?’ and he said to me ‘World Cup’. And that’s perfect. That’s all I need to know about what Rohit Sharma’s future is.”For me, he is the master of his own destiny. It’s a big auction next season, who knows what’s going to happen? We’ll just have to take each day as it comes.”

Teams left short on match practice ahead of World Cup after second washout of series

Matt Roller28-May-2024England and Pakistan will head to the T20 World Cup short on match practice after persistent rain wiped out Tuesday night’s match between them in Cardiff without a ball being bowled. It is the second abandonment of the series after the weather ruined Wednesday’s series opener in Leeds, with only 39.2 of the 120 scheduled overs bowled so far.Jos Buttler, England’s captain, did not travel to Cardiff and Moeen Ali would have led their side in his place if the game had taken place. Buttler left the squad on Saturday night following England’s 23-run win in Birmingham and travelled to London to be with his wife Louise, with the couple expecting their third child imminently.Mark Wood was due to play his first match since early March for England, while Sam Curran would also have featured after being left out on Saturday at Edgbaston. ESPNcricinfo understands that Jofra Archer would have been rested, with England taking a cautious approach to his workload after such a long injury lay-off.Buttler is expected to travel to Barbados with the rest of the England squad on Friday, and could even return to the squad in time to play in the final match of the series at The Oval on Thursday night. As things stand, the weather forecast for south London is not hugely promising as both sides hope for a final run-out before they travel, though should at least allow for a shortened match.With neither side due to play an official warm-up match between Thursday and their respective opening group-stage fixtures, they will be relatively undercooked compared to some teams at the World Cup. Pakistan have at least played regularly in this format recently, drawing 2-2 with New Zealand in April and beating Ireland 2-1 earlier this month; Saturday’s match was England’s only T20I since December 21.There was heavy rain early on Tuesday morning in Cardiff, which continued for much of the day. It briefly stopped during the afternoon but returned at around 5.15pm, repeatedly delaying the toss until umpires Mike Burns and Russell Warren abandoned the match at 8.12pm, much to the disappointment of a sold-out crowd.

India’s batters scored an above-par total on a tough pitch, and then their spinners ran through England in Providence

Alagappan Muthu27-Jun-20241:33

Dasgupta: Axar a standout performer from game one

India’s quest for a world title is well on course. It’s been 11 years since they stood on the podium as champions. Now all that separates them from glory is a few hours’ time and a fiery South African team.Rohit Sharma and his men dismantled the defending champions England in the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final, bowling them out for a mere 103 after first whacking them around to make 171 in Providence, Guyana. The mismatch from Adelaide 2022 was turned on its head.

Tactical battle in tough conditions

On a pitch like Guyana’s – where the pace was slow and the bounce was low – runs square and behind the wicket come at a premium. That’s because if a bowling unit is disciplined enough to hit a good length and keep the stumps in play, the batter just cannot force the pace. England planned to shut out half of the outfield to India but they weren’t always successful: 69 runs, including eight fours and three sixes, still came from where they shouldn’t have, at a strike rate of 192.

Rohit and risk

Within the powerplay period, Rohit was scoring at a strike rate of 133 with shots he was not at all in control of. For context, his overall career strike rate in T20Is is 141. This has been the difference India have been searching for. Don’t just bat waiting for the bad ball. Bat as if everything is a bad ball.Rohit eventually settled. Since the fourth over, he was in control of 20 of 26 balls and he used that control to great effect, scoring 40 runs including four fours and two sixes. He’s accepted that risk is a part of T20 cricket and there’s no point being averse to it.

The Rashid recovery

India’s intent manifested in the form of their batters moving around in the crease. Even a bowler of the calibre of Adil Rashid found it hard to cope and that was a triumph because these were conditions where as a bowler all you had to do was hit a length to target the top of the stumps. The England wristspinner was 2-0-17-0. But he recovered. On the other side of the second rain break, which consumed 153 minutes of this game’s time in total, Rashid decided not to worry about where Rohit and Suryakumar were positioning themselves and instead began to hold a line on off stump. His reward was the wicket of the India captain for 57 off 39. Rashid’s final two overs went for only eight runs.Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav put on a 73-run partnership for the third wicket•AFP/Getty Images

Spin is king

With Rashid done by the 14th over, India held Shivam Dube back believing that the quicks would be taking over. So Buttler found reason to press Liam Livingstone to work, trusting his right-arm all-sorts even at the death. The part-timer finished with figures of 4-0-24-0. It was sign. If he was proving to be unhittable, Axar, Kuldeep and Ravindra Jadeja would be as well. India’s spin-bowling allrounders had a hand to play in getting them to 171 as well, alongside Hardik Pandya, as they struck three sixes and two fours in the last two overs bowled by Jordan and Archer.

Box office Axar

Guyana is spin-friendly. The schedule, as soon as it was announced, suggested India would play there in the semi-final. They packed their squad with spinners. Three of them found place in the XI. Each of them took turns bowling jaffas.Axar was the game-changer. He came on immediately after Jos Buttler had whacked Arshdeep Singh for three fours in an over and with his very first ball took out the biggest threat. England’s captain went down to reverse-sweep the left-arm spinner because really in these conditions you couldn’t just sit in and play straight-bat shots. Rohit found the boundary when he took that gamble earlier. Buttler only found a toe-end to Pant.Each of Axar’s first three overs had a wicket off the first ball. Jonny Bairstow once again choosing to stay leg side and getting bowled, and Moeen Ali’s England career potentially ending with him unsure of where the ball had gone only to realise it was right there in Pant’s hand as he broke the stumps.

Kuldeep’s redemption

England were 49 for 4 when Kuldeep got into the act, bamboozling Sam Curran, and then outsmarting Harry Brook. England were the team that took him down so hard he went off into white-ball wilderness after the 2019 ODI World Cup. Here, against a batter coming after him, and with unconventional shots to boot, he didn’t panic. Kuldeep saw Brook going down to reverse-sweep, so he shifted the line onto leg stump, and left him in a tangle, the flatter trajectory and the quicker pace also playing a part in ball evading the swing of the bat and crashing into the stumps behind.As further sign of their impending defeat, England’s last recognised batter, Livingstone, was run-out after a mix-up with the lower order. The defending champions yielded their crown, with six of them making single-digit scores and none of them going past 25.

The 36-year-old played 59 Tests, 25 ODIs and two T20Is picking up a total of 202 wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Aug-2024West Indies fast bowler Shannon Gabriel has retired from international cricket, ending a career that began in 2012. The 36-year-old played 59 Tests, 25 ODIs and two T20Is picking up a total of 202 wickets.”During the past 12 years,” Gabriel said on Instagram on Wednesday, “I have dedicated myself to playing international cricket for the West Indies. Playing this beloved game at the highest level has brought me immense joy, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Today, I am announcing my retirement from International cricket.”Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to God for the numerous blessings and the opportunities my family and I have received during my time playing for the West Indies. Secondly, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Cricket West Indies administrators, coaches, and staff members. Words cannot adequately convey the appreciation I have for your hard work and support over the years. Last but not least, I am grateful to my teammates and all those who have stood by me and supported me along the way. You have made my journey to the top truly special.”Moving forward, my plan is to continue representing my country [Trinidad and Tobago], club, and franchise teams around the world with the same love and passion I have shown throughout my career.”2:31

Archive: What’s the big deal about Shannon Gabriel?

Gabriel was at his best in Test cricket, where he used his height and his strength to great effect, sometimes even on lifeless pitches. He holds the fourth-best match-figures for a West Indian – 13 for 121, which he picked up at home against Sri Lanka in June 2018. His ability to generate pace and bounce were impressive enough that West Indies fast bowling legend Courtney Walsh compared him to Patrick Patterson and Ian Bishop. It took a while for him to tap into these gifts consistently but by 2017 he became a regular member of the team and was part of famous wins like the one against England at Headingley.The other big moment of Gabriel’s career came with the bat, when he took strike in Dominica with West Indies nine down against Pakistan. There were only seven balls left to draw the Test, and with it, the series. He went for a big slog and got bowled. This was 10 days after he put in a Player-of-the-Match performance to help West Indies to a bounce-back victory.Gabriel ran into further trouble in 2019 when he was banned for four ODIs after making an apparently homophobic remark at Joe Root. He accepted the sanction and apologised for his behaviour but did insist, later, that the incident was blown out of proportion.Gabriel last represented West Indies in July 2023 but has since been active in domestic cricket, playing for Trinidad and Tobago. Last year, he was part of the Abu Dhabi T10 as well.

As Great Britain is represented in the Olympics, Scotland and England players could join forces in Los Angeles

Matt Roller13-Aug-2024The ECB and Cricket Scotland have opened talks about plans to field men’s and women’s Team GB cricket teams at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.Cricket will return to the Olympics for the first time since 1900 after its inclusion was ratified late last year. Details are yet to be confirmed but the ICC has proposed six-team T20 tournaments for both the women’s and men’s competitions, which are both expected to last around a week and will likely be played consecutively rather than simultaneously.Related

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Qualification details are also yet to be confirmed but the ICC’s T20I rankings will be used in some capacity. Most countries will compete in their usual guise but if England qualify then they will play as Great Britain, in line with the rest of the Olympics. It opens up the possibility of some Scottish players competing, such as Brandon McMullen or Sarah and Kathryn Bryce.The ECB and Cricket Scotland have held preliminary discussions about working together on proposed Team GB cricket teams. Cricket Scotland are pushing for active involvement in their running and are keen to contribute players and staff, but the ECB will be the teams’ nominated governing body.”With the Los Angeles Olympics four years away, it’s very early stages, but we’re talking to Team GB and Cricket Scotland about the next steps we need to take,” an ECB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo.”Once again Great Britain’s Olympians have captured the national imagination with their exploits in Paris this year, and we look forward to working together to compete when cricket returns to the Olympic stage in 2028.”Along with England and Wales hosting Women’s and Men’s [T20] World Cups in 2026 and 2030, it’s another great opportunity to grow the game and inspire more people to develop a love for cricket.”Andy Anson, the chief executive of the British Olympic Association, said on Monday: “We’ve got good experience in golf, in rugby and in women’s football, of how the Four Nations [England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland] can come together and nominate one country to be the main governing body and work with the other countries. So I think cricket will be the same.”Anson, who is also Lancashire’s chairman, added: “The ECB will be at the centre of that. They’ll have to work with Cricket Scotland to make sure that happens properly. We will help them sign agreements to come together and create a single national governing body, as we have done in those other sports. We are working very closely with the ECB to make them become the fully fledged National Olympic Committee member.”Team GB is officially the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, and athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to compete for either Team GB or Ireland. But since cricket is organised on an all-Ireland basis, leading Northern Irish cricketers such as Mark Adair and Paul Stirling are highly unlikely to nominate themselves for Team GB.The venue for the cricket events at the 2028 Olympics is yet to be confirmed. Los Angeles Knight Riders and Major League Cricket have plans to build a stadium in Great Park in Irvine, while the Oakland Coliseum has also been mooted as an option.West Indies’ potential involvement also raises some complications, though there is recent precedent from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. West Indies’ T20I ranking ensured they qualified for the women’s cricket event, and they were represented by Barbados as the winners of the most recent edition of the Women’s T20 Blaze.Involvement in the Olympics – which will take place in the second half of July – will add to an incredibly busy 2028 summer for England’s men, which is already due to feature six Tests and white-ball tours from Australia and India.

Low jeopardy with Nottinghamshire safe from relegation as batter ends campaign on a high

ECB Reporters Network29-Sep-2024With all potential relegation permutations happily off the agenda at last, Warwickshire calmly settled down to avoiding defeat against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on the final day of the 2024 Vitality County Championship. Saving the follow-on with five wickets down effectively saved the game.The draw, for which the pitch was probably intended from the start, thus duly arrived with ease, Notts taking 14 points to the visitors’ 13. Sam Hain signed off the season with an unbeaten 153 and his overnight partner Ed Barnard made 81 before Michael Burgess struck 56 from 71 balls in an eventual 373 for 7 after the resumption on 143 for 4.It was not until the 13th ball after lunch in fact that the fifth-wicket partners were finally separated after adding exactly 150. The wunderkind off-spinner Farhan Ahmed switched to bowling over the wicket for the first time in the day and Barnard, who had passed 5000 first-class runs on the way, immediately top-edged a sweep to the deep.The catch was well judged by the 21-year old substitute Sam King, yet to gain a first-class debut, with Brett Hutton briefly off the field. But only 84 more runs were then needed to avoid the follow-on, reduced to 58 by the time Hutton returned to take the new ball five overs later.In a challenging summer during which personal reasons and concussion had seen him miss six games, Hain had completed a heartening second hundred of the season from 202 balls just before lunch. As Ahmed shared the new ball, he remained the anchor while Burgess proved typically combative.The follow-on target of 333 was passed with 43 overs remaining but the match, bonus points aside, long since academic as certain to be drawn. Burgess entertained with four sixes in all until he swiped at Lyndon James 21 runs later and failed to clear mid-on. Ahmed came off next over with three for 93 from 33 overs, good figures on this pitch.A second substitute, James Hayes, also without first-class experience, then took a gentle catch at cover off Rob Lord as a loose cut undid Danny Briggs without score. After tea taken at 361 for 7, however, just four bonus-point overs remained, neither side adding to their tally. Notts brought Ahmed back on but he found no further success and bad light conveniently ended play at 3.50.Warwickshire could reflect on a season of just one win but the boon of no fewer than 33 batting points, a total bettered only by Surrey and Essex in Division One. Added to the reinstated increased reward of eight points for each of their nine draws, it served them very well.Nottinghamshire too benefited from eight draws and Lancashire would no doubt rue the fact that they arguably had a marginally better playing record than both their rivals but could muster just 15 batting points along with their four draws. They ended with three wins and six losses, compared to Notts’ two wins, four losses and Warwickshire’s one win also with four losses.

India are already aware they are in for a fight with New Zealand 143 ahead in difficult batting conditions in Mumbai

Alagappan Muthu02-Nov-20245:05

Gill rates Mumbai innings as ‘one of my better knocks in Tests’

A see-sawing Test match in difficult batting conditions in Mumbai is approaching a thrilling end. New Zealand have a lead of 143, which is already approaching the highest successful total chased down at the Wankhede Stadium. India have one more wicket to take and they are already conscious of getting it as quickly as possible because they realise they are in for a fight.”Any run saved in this innings is going to be much more when we chase it down,” R Ashwin told the host broadcaster on Saturday. “It’s not going to be easy. We’ll have to bat really well to get this score.”Ajaz Patel, who picked up a five-for to go with his 10-for in 2021, is still out there batting and he knows that whatever he can scrounge up with the No. 11 Will O’Rourke could be telling on a pitch that has produced 16 single-digit scores and encourages hope that one wicket could bring a whole bunch.Related

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“It’s really important, every run out there counts and I guess I’m still at the crease now so my job is to try and put 10, 15, 20 whatever I can on the board because I know that getting those 10, 15, 20 could be hard work at the back end of that other innings.”Ajaz also pointed out another trend that’s been seen over the course of this Test match. “I think if we have seen the pattern in terms of the wicket, I guess, over the last couple of days, in the morning it probably doesn’t do as much as the afternoon.”There were three wickets in the first session of day one, and 11 thereafter. Similarly, there was one wicket in the morning on day two and 14 thereafter.Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant put up a solid stand for India•AFP/Getty Images

“Whether that’s due to the rolling or whether that’s due to the heat and the wicket drying up throughout the day, I’m unsure,” Ajaz said. “So it’ll be interesting to see how that wicket plays tomorrow morning, whether it kind of reacts the same way or whether it’s a little bit different. So yeah it’s certainly I guess in the morning if it’s not doing as much, trying to bat as long as possible so that we can wait for it to dry out and start turning again.”Whatever target that is put in front of them, India are backing themselves to get it.”I mean it’s all about one good partnership,” Shubman Gill, who top-scored for them in the first innings with 90 off 146, said. “When you are chasing the total which is around 150-160, if you have one good partnership of 70-80 runs, the match is done and dusted. So that’s what the conversation will be among the batters, to have one good partnership.”And then when you know, even for the fielding team, once there is a 70-80 run partnership, even when we saw today, then when you are chasing 150, the body language of the opposition also drops.”Sunday dawns with one team pushing for a historic whitewash and the other desperate to re-establish their winning ways.