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Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels are set to play ODI cricket for West Indies after a prolonged absence due to an impasse with the board. Gayle last played an ODI in March 2015, and Samuels in October 2016; both players were selected in West Indies’ squad for the ODI series in England.

The West Indies ODI squad

Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Miguel Cummins, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder (capt), Kyle Hope, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Rovman Powell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor, Kesrick Williams
In: Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor
Out: Roston Chase

Gayle’s call-up follows a relaxation in Cricket West Indies’ criteria in order to be eligible for selection. Previously, in order to play a particular international format for West Indies, players needed to be available for the corresponding domestic tournament. CWI climbed down from that policy in July and offered an amnesty to its players.Darren Bravo was suspended in November 2016 and sent home from the tour of Zimbabwe following a Twitter condemnation of board president, Dave Cameron. Subsequently, both parties released statements of apology but he is yet to return for West Indies. Dwayne Bravo has spent all of 2017 till date recovering from a hamstring injury – for which he needed surgery – that he picked up during the Big Bash League in December last year.”With regards to the selection of the ODI squad, the panel welcomes back Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, who will both add value to our batting and help with the nurturing of the young batsmen in the team,” chairman of selectors Courtney Browne said. “Both Sunil Narine and Darren Bravo have declined to be considered for ODIs in England. Narine has however confirmed his desire to play 50-over cricket again but has asked to play in our Regional Super50 before he is considered and Darren said he was not available for selection. Dwayne Bravo said he is still not 100% fit, but is looking at a possible return to international cricket next year.”Roston Chase was excluded from the squad that played the ODIs against India in June and July – West Indies’ previous 50-over assignment. Fast bowler Jerome Taylor, who last played an ODI in June 2016, was also picked in the squad, having played the one-off T20 international against India.West Indies begin the ODI leg of their tour after the third Test against England at Lord’s from September 7. They play an ODI against Ireland in Stormont on September 13, followed by five matches against England between September 19 and 29.

Henry Blofeld, the veteran BBC commentator, has announced that he will retire from his role with Test Match Special this summer, after 45 years on the airwaves.Blofeld, 77, aka “Blowers”, became a household name at the height of TMS’s reach in the 1980s and 1990s, on account of his distinctive voice, complete with the catchphrase, “my dear old thing”, and his regular digressions into the habits of passing pigeons and London buses.He had been a fine cricketer in his own right as a schoolboy at Eton College in the 1950s, but his prospects of a first-class career came to an end at the age of 17, when he was knocked off his bicycle by a bus and spent 28 days in a coma.Instead he went into print journalism in the 1960s, after an abortive stint in banking, and went on to make his debut on TMS in 1972. He will commentate on three more Test matches this summer, before hanging up his microphone in September, during the third Test between England and West Indies at Lord’s.”All good things come to an end,” he wrote on his website. “After nearly fifty years in the Test Match Special commentary box, I have decided the time has come for the last of the old farts to hang up his microphone.”By his own admission, Blofeld’s deteriorating eyesight has made his recent stints more error-prone than he would wish, and there is a sense in his farewell statement that he wished to leave the broadcasting scene on his own terms.”In all honesty, at the age of almost 78, although I am still rather keener than mustard, I find it harder work than I once did. The one thing I don’t want to do more than anything, is for my incompetence to let TMS down.”I leave, supremely confident that TMS is in the safest of hands, led by the ageless Aggers [Jonathan Agnew]. In the end, I think he will come to be seen as the best of the lot.”Listeners will now be relieved to know that their chances of being told the right name of the fielders at third man and fine leg have greatly increased.”I hope some will be sad that they will now hear less about the lifestyles of pigeons, seagulls, and helicopters although I fear the general feeling will be one of huge relief.”Now, I shall be able to come to the cricket without worrying about who is lurking down at third man. I shall also be able to have a drink without feeling I am being politically incorrect. And hallelujah to that!”

Anil Kumble will be in the running once again to be coach of India after he officially re-applied for the post – this despite the BCCI having said there was no need for a formal application as he would be a “direct entry” into a final pool. Kumble is part of a six-man shortlist that includes Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Lalchand Rajput, and Dodda Ganesh, all candidates who will be interviewed by the three-member cricket advisory committee (CAC).Craig McDermott, the former Australian fast bowler had also sent an application but that arrived after the May 31 deadline. The CAC will assess the application and determine his eligibility for the interview.The CAC trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman is likely to meet this week – most probably Tuesday or Wednesday – to finalise the process and interview schedule. The BCCI wants to identify a candidate before the Champions Trophy ends on June 18, as India travel to the Caribbean immediately after for a limited-overs series.Kumble’s one-year contract was always due to end after the Champions Trophy, but instead of continuing a successful arrangement, the BCCI opted to advertise for fresh interviews. In large part, this is thought to be because the BCCI was concerned by player feedback on Kumble: some of the players, including the Indian captain Virat Kohli, have said they were uncomfortable with the “intimidating” style of Kumble’s man management.That has not deterred Kumble, whose application was one of the first to arrive when the application process opened on May 25. As well as his CV, Kumble has sent a detailed roadmap outlining his vision for the future of the Indian team.The BCCI and the Committee of Administrators (CoA) told Kumble in person that fresh applications will be considered once his contract ended when they met on the eve of the IPL final in Hyderabad. That meeting, incidentally, was for Kumble to make a detailed presentation on an upgrading of the contracts of Indian players and coaching staff; it is an issue on which Kumble and Kohli are very much on the same page.On the field, however, a widening of ways has developed in recent months, which makes the task of the CAC that much harder.It was, after all, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman who brought Kumble into the fold despite the BCCI not including him in their original shortlist the last time around. Kumble was appointed despite having no formal qualifications. And the subsequent success India has had in the last year under Kumble will only make it harder still.But the weightiest question they will have to ponder is whether the the relationship between Kumble and Kohli is “so dysfunctional” that it cannot be salvaged and will instead be detrimental to the side. Tendulkar and Ganguly are believed to have spoken to Kohli to assess the situation, though they will not speak to Kumble until the interview. The preferred option, according to an official involved with the process, would be to not change something that isn’t broken, at least results-wise.”If the divide can be bridged, then that is the best solution because you want continuity if the team has done well for a year,” the official said. “You don’t need a new coach then. But it has to be something the two can work with. It cannot be a situation where the captain refuses to listen to the coach. The players will listen to the captain. What is the coach going to do then?”We have asked the CAC to talk among themselves before they pick the best person. There are issues. Are they surmountable with the CAC getting involved and sitting down with Kohli and Kumble and sorting it out? I hope it is possible.”The new coach, whoever it is, is likely to get a two-year contract with the 2019 World Cup as a main target.

ScorecardIf Surrey are to make the title tilt that many consider within their grasp, they will seldom be able to bully teams as they did Warwickshire at The Oval last week. To thrive in a Division One that appears more competitive than ever, Surrey will need resilience, stubbornness, and the savvy to escape from precarious positions with minimal harm. Kumar Sangakkara and Scott Borthwick displayed plenty of such qualities in adding 256 to ensure a draw against Lancashire.Both played magnificently. In recent times Sangakkara’s innings for Surrey have taken on the air of a father playing with children in the park without wanting to be too mean-spirited: he has thrashed the bowling around a little and then generously chipped the ball to the on side, as in his tame dismissal for 46 on the third day.His brilliance for Surrey has been more fleeting than a club would hope from their overseas star; a year had passed since his last Championship century, during which there have been seven half-centuries, each containing wondrous shots yet none leaving an indelible mark on a match. But here, dreamy batsmanship fused with tenacity, as if Sangakkara was piqued by the notion that this game would be defined by another retired Test great, Shivnarine Chanderpaul.After Surrey’s inertia against Lancashire’s spin twins in their first innings, Sangakkara resolved not to let the opposition attack establish such a hold again. Each of his 16 boundaries were hit so sweetly that the fielders themselves seemed inclined to applaud. Three particularly stood out: caressing Kyle Jarvis down the ground, generating ferocious power from nothing more than a nonchalant push; shimmying down the pitch and contemptuously lifting Simon Kerrigan into the second tier; and then slog-sweeping Kerrigan to reach his century, a shot in keeping with the determination to dominate that infused his innings.Borthwick, meanwhile, moved to The Oval hoping to construct innings such as this. He batted rather more austerely than Sangakkara, underpinned by a firm forward stride to inoculate his stumps from harm. If there was less for aesthetes to savour from Borthwick, he was no less effective, sweeping efficiently against spin, greeting any width on the off side by thrashing the ball through the covers, and scything anything short through his favoured leg side, as when he received an egregious long-hop on 99 to reach his century.”It’s something I’ve dreamt of for the last five or six months,” he said. On a day when Durham lost their opening game in Division Two, this, following Mark Stoneman’s debut century for Surrey last week, was another reminder of the talent that Durham has produced and now has lost.It is a little over three years since Borthwick’s solitary Test cap, as a legspinner, and a little under a year since he was primed to be picked against Pakistan as a specialist Test batsman, only for his batting returns to fall away just as the scrutiny increased. On this evidence, the first cap of the new stage of his career might not be far away, though the scramble for England places has seldom been fiercer.Borthwick believes that batting alongside Sangakkara, just as he used to for Durham, will aid his prospects. “Batting with him it’s almost like you’re learning by watching him and the way he’s talking to you. He’s a bit of a batting coach as well, he gives you tips, especially against spin,” Borthwick said. “At Durham you don’t get to play against spin much so it’s good that I did what I did today, and can learn from Sanga – he’s the master.”Yet, as well as Borthwick batted, he knows that honing his legspin, restricted to nine overs so far in 2017, will increase his chances of another England cap.”I don’t want to be a frontline anything – I want to score runs and take wickets and be an allrounder,” he said. “If we get wickets that can turn I might be able to get more wickets. Looking at that wicket there we’ve just batted on, it’ll spin. So hopefully if we do produce wickets like that than myself, Gareth [Batty] and Zafar [Ansari] can come into the game because I think it will definitely spin. Hopefully we can help each other. There’ll be times when it’ll be my day and times when it’ll be their day.”Lancashire’s flag was removed prematurely from the ground in the afternoon, as if preparing the side for an early getaway, and it seemed a recognition that this was not their day. Yet that detracted little from an admirable display in south London, with the return of James Anderson for their next fixture providing a further source of comfort.

Dave Cameron has been re-elected for a third consecutive two-year term as WICB president. Cameron was the lone nominee for the position, and received 12 votes at the WICB Annual General Meeting on March 26 in Barbados. Emmanuel Nanthan, WICB’s vice-president for the last four years, was also set to be re-elected for a third consecutive stint in the position.Despite being an imposing figure within the WICB, Cameron has not been a popular administrator in the West Indies. Throughout his tenure, Cameron’s policies and decisions have been criticised by many former cricketers as well as by fans. The absence of any opposition on the WICB board has been the main reason Cameron has managed to continue as the head of the WICB.Nonetheless some on the WICB board remain sceptical of Cameron. One director, who has been part of the WICB board and observed Cameron closely, felt the Jamaican takes things “personally”, which does allow for constructive discussion.According to this director Cameron needs to focus on improving his relations with WICB board going forward. “He needs to temper himself. It seems to me he still does not have confidence in some directors. The trust is not there. It is also because if some people speak out at meetings, he will feel that those people are against him. But all those people want is the best of West Indies cricket. He takes everything personal, as if they are attacking him.”The director, who wished to remain anonymous, also felt that Cameron “favours” some territorial boards more than others. Asked why the board would elect him for a third successive term, the director said that those who oppose him “prefer to remain silent and go with the status quo”.With West Indies having already missed out on the 2017 Champions Trophy in England, the priority now is to make sure they receive direct entry for the 2019 ODI World Cup, instead of having to go through the qualifier. To achieve that goal, the WICB recently made fresh appointments, hiring former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams and former Australia batsman Stuart Law in important roles. Adams took over as director of cricket from Richard Pybus, while Law was named as West Indies’ coach after the sacking of Phil Simmons last September.It is also understood that Cameron, along with new WICB chief executive officer Johnny Grave, will travel to India to finalise the schedule for the limited-overs series scheduled in July.

Mushtaq Ahmed, head coach at Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy, has suggested that Pakistan could include Shadab Khan in their Test bowling attack even if that meant playing two legspinners. While saying it was “too early” to predict how Shadab would fare in Test cricket, Mushtaq said he had the tools to succeed and would benefit from spending more time with Yasir Shah, Pakistan’s first-choice Test legspinner, and picking his brains.Pakistan have a rich history with legspinners but have only rarely played two at the same time. Mushtaq himself played only one Test alongside Abdul Qadir, against West Indies in Karachi in 1990, two alongside Shahid Afridi, and two – both times against South Africa in 2003 – alongside Danish Kaneria.Kaneria and Afridi, however, featured together far more frequently, doing so in 17 Tests.Pakistan have already unleashed Shadab in T20Is after a productive second edition of the Pakistan Super League. Shadab, only 18, won the Player of the Series award in his debut T20I series against West Indies, picking up ten wickets in four matches, and has found a place in Pakistan’s ODI squad as well. Given he can bat as well – he already has a first-class hundred, having played only four games so far – Pakistan might be mulling playing him in Tests as well, alongside Yasir, who has been a fixture in their side since his debut in 2014.”I think the focus of selection committee and all of us is that why can’t two legspinners play in one match?” Mushtaq told reporters on the sidelines of an ongoing conditioning camp for the Test squad. “If they have different variations and both could become match-winners, then why not? Two legspinners against a western team will have a positive impact, especially in one-day cricket if we have a legspin option in the middle overs who could take wickets.”Like I started my career with Qadir, then Iqbal Sikander and myself played together in the [1992] World Cup, then Shahid Afridi and Danish Kaneria played together.”Shadab has good variations, but 50 overs and five-day formats are totally different. I think he has all the variations. He had a lot of communication with Yasir also during the [pre-tour conditioning] camp [last month]. He’s a good listener and has a good temperament and if he stays with Yasir he will improve more. But it’s too early to predict about Shadab, how he will play in Test matches. Yasir has proved himself over the last two years and he has no match. He [Shadab] could learn from Yasir like I learnt from Qadir and then Danish learnt from me when I was his senior.”As many as 13 probables in contention for Test spots are currently undergoing a conditioning camp at Gaddafi Stadium as the selectors prepare to name a final squad over the next two days. Pakistan have already won the T20I series 3-1. The three-match ODI series – which will be played in Guyana’s Providence Stadium – will start from April 7, followed by three Test matches.Mushtaq, who spent a year and half as Pakistan’s bowling coach before taking over as the NCA head coach, said Pakistan had a good chance of beating West Indies in the ODIs and strengthening their chances of qualifying directly for the 2019 World Cup.”It’s almost like UAE conditions,” Mushtaq said. “Our spinners and reverse-swing will play an important role. West Indies team is establishing itself at the moment, their main players are not playing and we have more advantage. Our focus should be on reverse-swing and spinners, the conditions suit us in West Indies.”Our Test team is quite established, conditions will suit us and our team will do good in the West Indies. But [in the ODIs] Pakistan will be under pressure of qualifiers and Pakistan has to play positive cricket to come out of this pressure. Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik have to perform, Saify [Sarfraz Ahmed] has to perform too along with captaincy. Pakistan should play hard and see that they have to make impact in the Champions Trophy – that they can score 300 runs and can defend 300 runs.”

The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), which will host the second Test between India and Australia starting Saturday, has told the BCCI that it will boycott the MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture and the annual BCCI awards to be held on March 8 in Bengaluru. ESPNcricinfo understands there is also a danger of other state associations following suit in protest.In an e-mail sent last week, BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri had invited state associations for the fifth Pataudi Lecture, to be delivered by former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer, and the board’s annual awards with the last paragraph saying: “Kindly note that the committee of administrators is constrained to convey that only those office bearers who are qualified as per the Supreme Court orders are expected to attend the function.”The KSCA, in a reply dated March 3, said it would not even “remotely think” of attending the function, to be held on the last scheduled evening of the second Test. The KSCA further said it would be a “humiliation to the very cricketing fraternity” to accept the invitation with constraints and restrictions, and also accused the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) of showing “prejudice” against “various people who have served the game of cricket over decades”. The two-page e-mail, accessed by ESPNcricinfo, was signed by KSCA’s current president Sanjay Desai and secretary K Sudhakar.Although the KSCA is the first state association to lodge the protest, many other BCCI members may not attend the March 8 event. “Though courtesy demands and it is customary to thank you for the subject invitation, it is unfortunate that we do not intend to even acknowledge leave alone, thank you for the invite,” the KSCA’s e-mail said. “It may seem very rude and un-diplomatic, however, looking at the last paragraph of your invitation, constraining you from certain acts, we would like to also ascertain that we are also constrained not to acknowledge, thank or even remotely think of attending this function.”This is the second time in three days that the CoA has come in for strong criticism from the state associations. On Thursday, many state associations, barring Vidarbha and Tripura, sent the CoA separate e-mails saying they would not comply with its directives till they got clarification from the Supreme Court on aspects like eligibility of an office bearer. They also told the CoA that they were “alarmed” it was “overstepping” the role defined by the court.Two days later, the KSCA adopted the same blunt tone. “The fact [is] that the Committee of Administrators who have blatantly overstepped their roles far overreaching the direction of the Supreme Court do not understand the very meaning of an annual awards function pertaining to Cricket and an invitation to the same.”Administrators and Cricketers who have contributed their time and energy and also have sacrificed immensely for the development of game over decades are being treated so shabbily by the Committee of Administrators as though all of them are of doubtful integrity.”According to Desai and Sudhakar, the KSCA was one of the most “transparent” and “well run associations” in the country. They stated that many Karnataka players had achieved the distinction of being a cricketer of “impeccable character” because “the same has been inculcated” in the KSCA. “Under these circumstances, if in the wisdom of the Committee of Administrators, they feel that people who have contributed over decades are not worthy of attending a cricketing award function, then it demonstrates the prejudice they are carrying in this matter about the various people who have served the game of cricket over decades.”They concluded the e-mail by saying: “Debarring personnel who have contributed immensely over decades from being part of a cricketing function of the BCCI which has been built brick by brick by the sweat and sacrifice of these personalities in our view is an absolute aberration on the wisdom of the learned Committee of Administrators.”

ScorecardFile photo – Israrullah hit his third List A hundred•PCB

Opener Israrullah’s unbeaten 153 off 148 balls helped Peshawar to a narrow win over Karachi Blues and put his team in the final of the Regional One-day Cup against Karachi Whites.Israrullah struck 12 fours and five sixes and contributed just over half of Peshawar’s runs. The next best score from was wicketkeeper-batsman Gauhar Ali’s 45 off 51 balls, but a series of cameos from the middle order pushed the total to 303 for 5.Karachi Blues made a steady start to the chase with Khurram Manzoor, who last played for Pakistan in the Asia Cup T20 in March 2016, and captain Khalid Latif adding 59 for the first wicket. The stand ended in the 17th over when Latif was lbw to left-arm spinner Khalid Usman. Manzoor, though, went on to bring up his 28th List A fifty off 73 balls.He then became part of a middle-order slump as the chase spiraled out of control. From 155 for 2, Karachi Blues were reduced to 211 for 7. Jaahid Ali, coming in at No.7, counterattacked his way to 53 off 44 balls, but ran out of partners in the end. Karachi Blues were dismissed for 280 in 47.4 overs, left-arm seamer Taj Wali taking care of the tail and finishing with 3 for 32.

ScorecardAbhishek Nayar rattled Hyderabad’s top order•PTI

For large parts of the day, there wasn’t much to choose between Mumbai and Hyderabad, although the defending champions enjoyed the first-innings honours on a topsy-turvy day in Raipur. Towards the end, though, they steered clear of choppy waters courtesy an unbroken 50-run fourth-wicket stand between Praful Waghela and Aditya Tare, the captain, to end with a lead of 116.Hyderabad, who resumed on 167 for 3, needing another 127 to wipe out the deficit, came within 15 runs of the lead. A lower order collapse resulted in them slipping from 255 for 5 to 280 all out. K Sumanth, the wicketkeeper, battled through to make 44; he was the last man to be dismissed. Vijay Gohil, the left-arm spinner, picked up three of the five wickets to fall. Abhishek Nayar, who made 59 in the first innings, took 4 for 60.Mumbai were rattled early as they slipped to 52 for 3, with Mohammad Siraj dismissing Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav. They had Waghela and Tare to thank as they steered them to safety.
ScorecardSamit Gohel’s third first-class ton put Gujarat in a commanding position•ESPNcricinfo

Gujarat continued to gain a foothold after their strong comeback from 71 for 6 on the first day, as they finished day three with a lead of 310 runs in the second innings with seven wickets still in hand.Odisha’s first innings ended early on the third day, with Jasprit Bumrah adding one wicket to his overnight burst through the middle order to complete his second five-wicket haul of the season. He finished with 5 for 41, as Odisha were shot out for 199 in response to Gujarat’s 263.Gujarat capitalized on their 64-run lead through an opening stand of 149. Priyank Panchal, the season’s top-scorer, got 81 of those before he was dismissed by left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh. His opening partner, Samit Gohel, built stands of 49 for the second wicket with Bhargav Merai, 40 for the third with Rujul Bhatt, and batted through to stumps with Manpreet Juneja with a career-best unbeaten 110 off 291 balls. Gujarat finished the day on 246 for 3.
ScorecardIshank Jaggi (in pic) and Virat Singh helped build Jharkhand’s lead•K Sivaraman

Virat Singh’s second first-class century steered Jharkhand to a comfortable first-innings lead before they were bowled out for 345. In reply, the Haryana top order wiped out the deficit and ended the third day with a lead of 59 runs for the loss of two wickets.Ishank Jaggi, the other overnight batsman apart from Virat, could not score on the third day when he was bowled for 77 by Harshal Patel, and Ishan Kishan and Kaushal Singh fell for ducks. However, Virat batted with the tail to nearly take them to 300 in the company of Shahbaz Nadeem (34) and Rahul Shukla (28). Once Virat fell for 107, Jharkhand added another 45 to the total.Haryana openers Nitin Saini (41) and Shubham Rohilla (43) put on a strong stand of 79 but Samar Quadri dismissed both before Shivam Chauhan (22) and Chaitanya Bishnoi ended the day unbeaten on 22 and 33 respectively.

ScorecardMarnus Labuschagne made a fighting 70 (file photo)•Getty Images

Victoria cruised to victory by an innings and 81 runs over Queensland on the third day at the MCG, where Marnus Labuschagne’s fighting 70 for the Bulls went in vain.Queensland had resumed on 4 for 50, needing an unlikely 230 more runs to make Victoria bat again, but the early loss of Michael Neser to Scott Boland left the Bulls in even more trouble at 5 for 53.Labuschagne found some assistance from Jack Wildermuth (25) and Chris Hartley, who finished unbeaten on 34, but it was only a matter of time before Victoria finished the job.Queensland were bowled out for 199, with spinner Jon Holland finishing with 4 for 46 and eight wickets for the match.