Australia’s ploy to play two spinners on an SCG pitch that is likely to remain the driest surface in metropolitan Sydney over coming days was vindicated when Nathan Lyon added yet another major milestone to an already extensive career record.
Amid the heavy showers that robbed more than a session of playing time from a day that was contested under heavy skies and banks of floodlights, Lyon bowled almost half his team’s overs and shone with similar intensity.
SYDNEY, Australia (CMC) – West Indies legend Clive Lloyd has made a passionate plea for the international powers to offer more assistance to West Indies cricket.
Lloyd, the captain of the all-conquering team of the 1970s and ’80s, is chairman of selectors and is with the team in Australia for the ongoing Frank Worrell trophy series.
Speaking on a wide range of topics, he argued that the game in the Caribbean was in need of resources to aid with development and progression, and called on the world governing body, the International Cricket Council, to act on its behalf.
“To run cricket you have to have quite a lot of money. We’re not as wealthy as the other countries. We did well in the ’70s and ’80s because we were coming as champions and if you’re coming as champions you can demand something,” the 71-year-old Lloyd told reporters here Friday.
“Happy New Year 2016”, the “Year of the Red Fire Monkey” in the Chinese Zodiac! Per author and religious minister, late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, whose words should have inspired many a cricketer, 2016 could also be seriously upwardly mobile, but only if you believe: “Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. No matter how dark things may seem to be, or actually are, raise your sights and see greater possibilities. Always look for them; see them; for they are always there. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. Without reasonable confidence in your own powers and abilities, you cannot be successful or happy!” Is it not ironic that, amidst revelry starting this searing sporting year, a spectacular conflagration in Dubai occurred at the exact time when excellent fireworks were taking place there? Luckily, no one died, but the “Address Hotel”, like the proverbial Phoenix, will rise again from the ashes! 2016 is already momentous with that authentic “Towering Inferno” which reminds, like the film of that same name, that despite great opulence, anything can still go up, or come down, in flames!
It was a decision a decade in the making: Australia selected Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe for the third test against the West Indies, marking the first time since 2006 that it has named two specialist spinners for a home test.
Captain Steve Smith said Saturday that O'Keefe would replace pace bowler Peter Siddle, who has ankle soreness, in the only change to the team which beat the Caribbean side by 177 runs in the second test at Melbourne, clinching the series.
Australia won the first test at Hobart by an innings and 212 runs.
The test at the Sydney Cricket Ground - the country's most spin-friendly international venue - begins Sunday. The last time Australia employed two spinners in a home test was at the same ground 10 years ago, when Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill played.
The Malaysian-born left-armer O'Keefe played his only test at Dubai against Pakistan in October 2014, when he took four wickets.
SYDNEY, Australia—Selection chief Clive Lloyd believes the exodus of players like Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Lendl Simmons to the lucrative Twenty20 circuit has definitely had a negative impact on the development of the West Indies Test side.
The legendary former West Indies captain said the absence of such players had left the Caribbean side with a vacuum and forced authorities in the region to undertake a rebuilding process.
“You can’t fault them (players who have turned to T20s),” Lloyd told a media conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday.
“The money that is being paid in these shorter games, it’s obvious that players are looking towards their future. And unfortunately we’re missing out, all those guys who we groomed have now left so we’re left with a vacuum and we now have to fill that.”
