Over the years, Tottenham Hotspur fans have often voiced their displeasure over the lack of money spent by the hierarchy, which has no doubt restricted them in the Premier League.

However, when money has been splashed on new additions, it has not always been spent in the best way, as seen by their first-team dealings in the summer of 2013.

Gareth Bale’s £85m move to Real Madrid generated huge funds to splash on potential replacements, which led to the arrivals of Roberto Soldado and Erik Lamela.

Both cost a reported £60m combined, but neither managed to fill the void left by the Welshman, with the club growing frustrated by the lack of quality additions made in the market.

Such a feeling has become evident once again in recent years, with one member of Thomas Frank’s squad struggling to match the expectations of the supporters.

The stats behind Rodrigo Bentancur’s decline in 2025/26

Back in January 2022, Spurs paid a reported £22m for the signature of midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur from Italian side Juventus – a deal that was seen as a potential bargain at the time.

The Uruguayan managed to rack up a total of 113 first-team appearances before the start of the 205/26 campaign, but his 18 outings this season have been littered with errors.

He’s so far struggled to meet the demands of the Dane’s various systems in North London, but he’s certainly not been aided by the manager’s selection of partnering alongside Joao Palhinha.

Both are predominantly better out of possession than with the ball at their feet, as seen by their combined tally of just one pass into the final third against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.

However, even before the North London Derby, Bentancur has struggled for the Lilywhites, with his underlying figures in 2025/26 showcasing his lack of success to date.

He has only created 0.6 chances per 90 this season, which ranks him in the bottom 25% of all players in the division – backing up his lack of quality in possession.

Without the ball, he’s been just as ineffective, as Bentancur has also struggled under Frank, only making 0.5 interceptions per 90, which also places him in the lower quarter of all midfielders in England’s top-flight.

The midfielder has also been dribbled past more than 75% of other players in the league, further highlighting his all-round failures in the Premier League this campaign.

The Spurs star who’s become worse than Bentancur

The midfield department at Spurs has been one that has been questioned over recent months, especially given Frank’s continuation of utilising Bentancur and Palhinha together at the base of the side.

The club is home to a plethora of young talents who have previously showcased their talents, but ultimately, they’ve been unable to do so on a consistent basis since the Dane’s arrival.

Lucas Bergvall, Pape Sarr and Archie Gray all started the opening day victory over Burnley in North London, with the trio at one stage looking like the players to take the side forward.

However, it’s the only time they have all operated alongside one another in 2025/26 – a decision that has no doubt taken many of the supporters by surprise.

All of the aforementioned stars racked up over 40 appearances across all competitions under Ange Postecoglou last season, but it remains to be seen if they will reach such numbers under Frank.

New additions have also struggled to make their mark in North London, with attacking midfielder Xavi Simons yet to set the world alight after his £52m switch from RB Leipzig this summer.

The Dutchman arrived with huge expectations, no doubt aided by the transfer fee, but it’s safe to say his move to the Lilywhites has been nothing short of a disaster to date.

He’s featured in nine Premier League matches to date, failing to register his first goal for the club and only providing one assist for his teammates – with such an effort coming on his debut.

One of his darkest moments no doubt came against Chelsea at the start of the month, with the 22-year-old coming off the bench to replace Bergvall, but was later substituted himself amid his lack of impact.

To top off his recent struggles, former transfer target Eberechi Eze netted a hat-trick against the Lilywhites on Sunday, whilst Simons was brought off the bench at the break and only registered 36 touches in total.

His underlying figures from the whole campaign showcase his recent struggles, with the youngster so far being a massive waste of the hierarchy’s money.

xG

0.06

Bottom 12%

Shots taken

0.9

Bottom 21%

Goals

0

Bottom 3%

Chances created

0.9

Bottom 12%

Cross accuracy

16%

Bottom 22%

Assists

1

Bottom 40%

Touches in opposition box

1.5

Bottom 15%

Simons, who’s been “miles off it” according to Jamie O’Hara, has achieved an xG of just 0.06 in the Premier League – a tally that ranks him within the bottom 12% of all players in the division.

He’s also created just 0.9 chances per 90 and registered just 1.7 touches in the opposition box per 90, with both tallies ranking him in the bottom 15% of attackers in the league.

Other figures, such as 0.9 shots taken and a 16% cross accuracy, further indicate his struggles, with many fans undoubtedly wishing a deal was completed for Eze instead.

There’s little denying that at his tender age, he has bags of time to resurrect his career in North London, but it’s safe to say he already has a huge number of supporters on his back.

At present, his £52m transfer fee looks to be a massive waste, with such a deal having the potential to go down as one of the club’s worst-ever signings.

Frank can fix creativity woes with Spurs star who's "impossible to defend"

Tottenham Hotspur have massively struggled within the attacking third under Thomas Frank as of late.

ByEthan Lamb Nov 25, 2025

Longtime first baseman and designated hitter Eric Karros had the Rockies' number over the course of his 14-year career—slashing .320/.380/.619 with 37 home runs and 108 RBIs in just 129 games.

On Tuesday, Colorado began to return the favor for all the damage the Karros family has done to it over the years.

With two out in the bottom of the sixth inning of the Rockies' game against the Dodgers, Colorado third baseman Kyle Karros—Eric's son—launched his first big-league home run over Coors Field's left-field wall. Eric was in the stands to witness the blast.

Kyle, a rookie out of UCLA, entered Tuesday having played in 11 games with the Rockies. He's slashed .273/.400/.364 with three runs batted in.

Eric, on the other hand, slashed .268/.325/.454 in 1,755 games played with Los Angeles, the Cubs and the Athletics. His 284 home runs rank 189th in history.

Though more of a doubles hitter than a home run hitter, Kyle has swatted six dingers in the minor leagues this year—so it was only a matter of time before he began his pursit of his dad.

The Philadelphia Phillies will have a new-look rotation soon.

On Sunday, the team signed Walker Buehler after he was cut loose by the Boston Red Sox. The 31-year-old will soon join the team's starting rotation. 's Matt Gelb is reporting Buehler will start for the Phillies on September 12 against the Kansas City Royals after one Triple-A tune-up. The team will go with a six-man rotation moving forward.

With Zack Wheeler out for the season, Buehler will join a rotation that features Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Taijuan Walker, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suarez.

Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05 million deal with Boston in December, but it didn't work out. In 23 appearances starts for the Red Sox, the two-time All-Star went 7-7 with a 5.45 ERA, a 1.56 WHIP, and 84 strikeouts against 55 walks in 112 1/3 innings. He posted career-worsts in fWAR (-0.7) and xFIP (4.94).

The Phillies will hope a change of scenery helps Buehler turn things around. With Wheeler out, they'll need some help in the rotation.

Centuries were fewer and 230 v 230 a norm at forgotten venues that threw up a feast

Sreshth Shah in Potchefstroom10-Feb-2020Spin rules in traditionally fast-bowling centresEight of the top 11 wicket-takers at the World Cup were spinners. Four – Rakibul Hasan, Aryan Lakra, Ashmead Nedd and Lewis Goldsworthy – were slow left-arm tweakers, three – Ravi Bishnoi, Shafiqullah Ghafari and Tanveer Sangha – were legspinners while Hamidullah Qadri was an offspinner.While some of them were frontline options, who have or will be regulars for their first-class or franchise setups at home, many were part-timers. It showed that spin continues to a potent wicket-taking option in the white-ball format, and that to win matches, wickets in the middle overs continue to be paramount. The worrying factor for all teams, however, was the gap in skill and temperament that existed among batsmen facing spin bowling.ICC via GettyLearn from the Asian sidesThe Asian sides brushed aside any notion of being slow starters in conditions traditionally known to assist swing and seam movement.Bangladesh toured around the world before coming here, Pakistan thumped the hosts 7-0 in a series before the World Cup, India played a bilateral and a quadrangular in South Africa through December and Afghanistan showed that honing your strengths will reap rewards irrespective of conditions. Sri Lanka were the only team that underachieved, but that goes down, in part, to a tough group that had India and New Zealand.Australia played a fifth of the games that India played between the 2018 edition and now, England played a third while this West Indies squad began playing as a team only from mid-2019. The difference showed in the games and these teams, too, now know what they must do going into 2022.Even bat and ball contestsAt the 2018 edition, there were nine scores above 300, including two 400-plus totals. But at the 2020 edition, there were only six – including five against Japan, Nigeria, Scotland and Canada. The only Test team to concede 300 was West Indies, after they were knocked out from World Cup contention. Scores between 220 and 250 were the norm and they made for fascinating contests.There were fewer centuries, though. In 2018, there were 25 but this time there were only eight, of which five game against Japan, Nigeria and Canada. Whether that’s the fallout from the exposure of these teenagers to T20 cricket, or whether the batsmen were not prepared to play long is something batting coaches will do well to examine.ICC via GettyThe ICC’s efforts are worth itFor Nigeria and Japan, this tournament was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show the world the giant strides they’ve taken at the grassroots. They both played six games, finishing 15th and 16th respectively, but it wasn’t about where they finished as much as it was about them turning up and showing they were here to learn.An extensive qualifying process to get here meant their participation was no fluke, although Japan did get in because of Papua New Guinea’s disqualification. It also inspires teams that have never been on the World Cup roadmap to plan and prepare, showing them that a focused effort behind the scenes does pay off in the long run.Cricket returns to forgotten venuesPlaying games in Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Benoni and (four venues at) Potchefstroom took the game to places which have slowly lost their place in South Africa’s international cricketing calendar. The cricket-starved fans at these grounds came out in large numbers, even as South Africa and England’s senior teams tussled at the big venues.Schoolchildren were invited to all the games, entry was free for the general public, targeted radio campaigns brought people in while towards the knockouts, flyers distributed among the expat Asian population ensured the atmosphere for each game did justice to the occasion.

With contracts on the line and space in the calendar limited, times are uncertain for county pros

Matt Roller03-Apr-2020At a time when English cricket has never faced as many unknowns, there is one certainty: the game will be hit hard financially. Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, estimates that an entire summer without cricket would cost the game over £300m, while counties are already furloughing staff to ensure they can get through an unprecedented crisis.If and when county cricket is played this year, it needs to make money. That means the T20 Blast will be prioritised, as the main revenue-driver for most clubs, and few will dispute the logic behind that.But that leaves scores of professionals in an uncertain position – those who have made their names wearing whites on chilly April mornings know that they face an entire season without a meaningful County Championship. The competition’s first seven rounds have already been lost, and while the ECB are hopeful that some form of red-ball cricket will be played, the likelihood of fitting a full season in is almost zero.Here, ESPNcricinfo asks three men for whom Championship cricket represents the majority of their season about the prospect of a year treading water: Leicestershire opener Hassan Azad (yet to make his List A or T20 debut), Hampshire seamer Keith Barker (no white-ball appearances since joining from Warwickshire in 2018) and Sussex batsman Luke Wells (Championship stalwart but no white-ball games since 2018).How was pre-season before everything kicked off?HA: It was meant to be in Spain, but it was cancelled two days before we flew out. I spent the winter in New Zealand, and I got back just in time. I was meant to be flying through China on the way back but I had the foresight to change that in January.LW: We were in Cape Town for a few days. It got to a point where South Africa started to put in measures, and we were like: ‘right, let’s get home’. A few of us managed to get home early but the rest were locking down, effectively, in the hotel for a couple of days. Everyone was trying to change flights, but there weren’t that many of them.The ECB have made it clear that white-ball cricket will be prioritised this year. What’s your view on that – disappointing but understandable?KB: It’s a shame that it’s come to this. There will be quite a few lads out there that are red-ball specialists, or on red-ball contracts. It’s going to be a very strange season in general. For clubs – not just in cricket, but in all sports – it’s about trying to make do financially, and making sure you get the most possible out of this season to help start off again next year.HA: They have to look after the finances of the game. Ultimately, that’s going to be beneficial for us in the long term. Let’s be honest, not many people turn up to watch County Championship cricket, and it doesn’t really get broadcast anywhere. At Leicestershire, we aren’t in a particularly great [financial] position, so I’d want to club to secure themselves as best they can.LW: I personally have no problem with the fact they’re prioritising the white-ball game – it earns all the revenue, it needs to happen. It’s the unknowns that I find most troublesome: trying to work out what’s going to happen while knowing you can’t affect anything.It’s compounded by the fact I’m going into the last year of my contract, and there’s still a lot of unanswered questions in terms of what happens. Normally it’s black and white: you’re judged on performance, runs and wickets are your currency. But if we play no red-ball cricket whatsoever, what happens?ALSO READ: ‘If I go through a session without scoring a run, that’s a win for me’ – AzadWhat would you think about a season in which you played each team once?KB: Coming towards the end of a season, certain teams will normally look to set games up, and I think that would happen from the get-go. It would be forced – it wouldn’t be as competitive as it would be over a whole season.HA: I don’t think promotion and relegation can come into it this year unfortunately. If you consider teams like Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire, who worked so hard to get up to Division One – for them to potentially be kicked back out because they lost a couple of games, that would be very harsh.

“When you’re stuck at home and you can’t play any sport whatsoever, you realise why you do it in the first place”Luke Wells

Are any of the alternatives you’ve heard a good option?HA: I’ve heard a few different ideas. I heard something about a regional competition. I think that could work – if we got four games with five teams to a region, or three teams to a region and everyone plays everyone twice with six groups… just something to still have a bit of four-day cricket with a little bit of meaning.LW: What would happen for the next year? Is it just a random, one-year special cup, the COVID-19 trophy? It wouldn’t have any prestige to it. Who would care? If it’s not like the Championship, and is just some cobbled-together competition in the hope of playing a bit of cricket, it wouldn’t sit particularly well with me. You should either do it properly or can it.If the season is reduced to white-ball cricket only, would you be pushing to get into that team?HA: Definitely. I spent the bulk of the winter working on white-ball skills. You obviously still work on what your strengths are, but there’s a lot more to be gained working on areas you don’t have that experience in. I had a pretty good season in New Zealand, and found a method for myself. Even if it hadn’t got shortened, I’d have been trying my best to get into those teams. You’ve got to work towards something – otherwise you’re just hanging around, and I’ve never been someone who’s alright with just doing nothing.KB: Yeah, definitely. We’re paid to play cricket: if I can at least put my name in the hat to be in the squads, then 100%. There’s nothing else to be focusing on, so yeah, that’ll be the case.LW: I’ve been trying to get into those teams most of my career! Our T20 team is unbelievably strong at the moment, to be honest. When we’re full-strength, I’d back us to take down almost any team, any franchise, anywhere. It’s unbelievable. I’d love to play if I can, but that’s obviously a very difficult one to break into.Luke Wells last played a 50-over game for Sussex in 2018•Getty ImagesWould you be ready to jump in without much of a pre-season?KB: When it’s announced when the season will start and which formats, teams will be looking to get their lads back in. It is frustrating – you’re building up your fitness, your workloads are becoming more and more intense, you’re building up physically and mentally for the start of the season. We’ll have to start all over again when it does start. It’s going to be intense: you’ll have to hit the ground running, even though we can’t bowl or have a hit currently. It’ll be a bit of a free-for-all.HA: Maybe just two or three full days of training would be alright – it’s going to be the same for everyone. Players are used to moving between formats and it’s a completely different game going from white-ball to red-ball cricket and then back. As long as you have a couple of days getting into the swing of hitting a cricket ball, I think most people would be fine with that.How is training going in lockdown?KB: I’ve been doing stuff in the back garden. We got some equipment from our strength-and-conditioning [S&C] guys, so it’s about doing what you can with the programme that you’ve been given. It’s very limited, but it’s about trying to make do.HA: I’m trying to get into a routine. I got some equipment before the lockdown, so I’ve got a bar and a few weights – a mini home gym going. We’ve been told that we’ll have fitness tests straightaway whenever we get back, so we can’t be resting on our laurels.It’s a bit of a kicker but there are bigger things to worry about. I might not be much of one, but professional athletes are entertainers. This gives you a bit of perspective about what life means in a bigger sense. There are people out on the front line of this, putting themselves at risk, doing jobs that aren’t usually appreciated. If we have to take the backseat for a while and lay low, so be it.LW: Our S&C team have been really good. They’ve sent us through all sorts of programmes. My fiancée and I have been working out together, and I’ve found myself throwing a ball around with my little one, doing a bit of catching. When you’re stuck at home and you can’t play any sport whatsoever, you realise why you do it in the first place. We all just want to get out and run around again.

Also, how did Delhi Capitals bat so freely on that pitch?

Alagappan Muthu17-Oct-2020Is Jadeja the Super Kings’ new finisher?Ravindra Jadeja’s batting has come on big time. So much so that his contributions down the order have been the cornerstones of a few Test match wins for India.But aggressive batting? Being able to walk in and start hitting out? That’s a very difficult skill to pull off.Jadeja was in that zone against the Capitals, smoking Anrich Nortje, the fastest bowler in the IPL, to all parts. After his unbeaten 33 off 13 balls, he has, in total, 136 runs off 63 balls in the 16 to 20 over phase. That puts him behind only AB de Villiers, Rahul Tewatia and Kieron Pollard in this year’s IPL.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhy did Super Kings pick Jadeja over Bravo for the final over?MS Dhoni had hidden Jadeja away all through the chase, presumably because of Shikhar Dhawan and his left-handedness. Because of Dhawan, the Super Kings could use only two overs of spin in the first ten. They could only bowl five overs of spin all innings.And yet, with the match on the line, with 16 to defend off the last over, Dhoni went to Jadeja. Even though death-overs specialist Dwayne Bravo had an over left.In real time, it felt like Dhoni was gambling. But at the presentation he said, “Bravo was not fit. So he went out and he was not really able to come back. That was the reason. The option was Karn [Sharma] or Jaddu so I went ahead with Jaddu.”The Super Kings might have hoped the batsmen would go for big shots and get caught at the boundary. Axar Patel did… and cleared the boundary three times to seal the victory.Was the Sharjah pitch really that slow?Prithvi Shaw fell to a new ball that was holding up in the pitch. An in-form Faf du Plessis found it hard to hit Patel off his length.It felt like, even though the ground has short boundaries, the wear on the pitch might hamper batsmen.The Super Kings certainly worked on that assumption. They touched a scoring rate of seven an over for the first time off the last ball of tenth over – the second-latest for any team in Sharjah in this IPL.But the Capitals, in the second innings, hit 7.71 runs an over, as the powerplay ended and kept ramping it up.Ricky Ponting, in his mid-match interview, said there was some dew on the pitch. Dhoni also said it was easier to bat in the second innings.Why is du Plessis looking so much better than his colleagues?He is one of the few at the Super Kings who like data. One would guess he sits down with the analyst and looks up match-ups and that sort of thing, and he’s the one leading their faltering top order.The reason he has been able to do that is perhaps because he has been looking to attack first.He moves around in his crease to create his own angles. He’s very good at lifting balls over the infield, especially over cover (60 off 35) and midwicket (55 off 27). He’s very good on the slog (47 off 17). He knows these strengths. He’s maximising on them.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat’s the secret to Rayudu’s big hitting?Shane Watson said India missed out by not using Ambati Rayudu as their No. 4 at the World Cup. That was after Rayudu took down Jasprit Bumrah in the opening game of the IPL. And again, against the pace of Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, he looked like a boss.A large part of his success is because he is a batsman who targets the off side for boundaries. He’d hit 17 fours and five sixes before Saturday. Fourteen of those have come on the off side: mid-off – 2 sixes, 3 fours; covers – 5 fours; point – 2 fours; third man – 2 fours.Most teams put three men on the boundary on the leg side when the field restrictions are done, and if anyone makes that mistake against Rayudu, he takes full toll.

India are more comfortable with chaos than the hosts, but they have a highly skilled batting line-up to contend with this time

Ian Chappell25-Oct-2020After much haggling Cricket Australia has finally cobbled together a schedule for the summer series against India. However, there are still lingering doubts over an MCG Test and the BCCI is yet to sign off on a proposed schedule that has the appearance of a first draft.In these weird pandemic times there is a heightened sense of chaos surrounding the upcoming tour. Which brings to mind the words of respected Indian broadcaster Harsha Bhogle: “Indians can navigate through chaos and thrive in it, while it unsettles Australians.”Harsha issued this warning in January 2008, following the Monkeygate drama and a devastating Indian loss at the SCG. The implication was that Australia had played into their opponents’ hands. What followed was the most unlikely of Indian victories at the pace-friendly WACA ground in Perth.On Harsha’s reading of the two rivals, Australia should be wary of the upcoming series with the probability of sudden last-minute disruption. In fact, uncertainty over the schedule at this late stage of preparations is reminiscent of what visiting teams have to contend with in the lead-up to an Indian tour. In other words, India will be right at home in this chaotic atmosphere.ALSO READ: India tour of Australia gets government green light; Sydney, Canberra to host white-ball legHowever, they shouldn’t rely totally on uncertainty to ensure they replicate the feat they pulled off last time, of a series victory. Australia possess a highly skilled pace attack ideally suited to home conditions. And this time round they won’t be missing the valuable services of Steve Smith and David Warner, and the batting has been further bolstered by the meteoric rise of Marnus Labuschagne. Even a diluted Australia were no pushovers last time – they won the Perth Test – and on paper at least, they are a far stronger combination this time.India’s chances for a repeat series victory will depend to a degree on Virat Kohli’s ability to take charge against the Australian pacemen and set an example for the other batsmen. On the last tour it was Cheteshwar Pujara who stubbornly resisted the Australians, eventually wearing them down so other Indian batsmen could prosper.In the intervening period India have blooded a number of fine young batsmen who have showcased their talents in different forms of the game. There will be no shortage of competent players for the Indian selectors to choose from.Nevertheless, key to another Indian success will be how quickly the less experienced batsmen adapt to the vastly different conditions in Australia. Producing worthwhile totals, especially in the first innings, is an important part of competing down under.The other half of the equation is producing a bowling attack capable of claiming 20 wickets on what, at times, can be soul-destroying pitches. On the last tour the Indian fast bowlers performed at a level above and beyond in achieving this feat. The challenge this time will be to replicate that performance with a similar attack but against a vastly improved Australian batting line-up.Recent battles between these two teams have provided riveting entertainment. They are currently the top two teams in the World Test championship and this aspect will add a further edge to the rivalry. For either team, a series loss to the other will be damaging to their prospects with the final of the World Test championship in June 2021.Adding to the intrigue, the border restrictions and isolation regulations brought about by the pandemic mean that the impregnable Gabba is not now the first but the last Test match. This will add to Australia’s frustration, especially as Adelaide – a venue better suited to India’s skill sets – is now slated for the opening Test.On the last tour India started with a victory in Adelaide but Australia will be slightly appeased by the knowledge that this time it will be a day-night Test, which will favour the home side.In light of the surrounding unpredictability it’ll be fascinating to see if the kings of chaos prevail.

A rare opportunity to win in India may have been squandered for want of a plan against spin

George Dobell24-Feb-2021England sent Zak Crawley to fulfil their media duties after the first day’s play in Ahmedabad.Crawley, to be fair, had batted very nicely earlier. He times the ball as very few can and clearly has the potential to be a significant player.But he made 53. And it is not innings of 53 that define Tests. Certainly not in the first innings. Even in conditions like this, where scores may be somewhat lower than average. So to focus on Crawley’s attributes on a day as grim as this would be like attempting to mitigate the loss of Titanic by pointing out the vol-au-vents served on-board earlier in the day had been terrific.For the truth is, short of the team bus crashing on the way to the ground, this is a day that could hardly have gone worse for England. If you go into a Test having chosen to play the extra seamer, you don’t want to have lost nine wickets to spin within the first 50 overs of the match. You win very few games in which you lose 8 for 38. Or where the second highest score in the first innings is 17. It was the lowest first-innings total England have ever made in India. Really, it would have been more appropriate to send an undertaker to fulfil England’s press conferences.England’s selection will, no doubt, be the focus of much criticism. And that’s fair enough: even if we accept they required four seamers – and that’s quite a stretch – the choice of Stuart Broad ahead of Dom Bess or Chris Woakes left them with an unwieldly tail. Although he was clearly sent out to dead-bat media questions – he’s 23 and making his way in the game, for goodness’ sake, he’s hardly going to lampoon those who select him – Crawley couldn’t stop his self-deprecating response to a query about the ease with which he batted compared to his colleagues from showing up the fault in the selection.”It was easier to bat against the seamers,” he said before, perhaps, realising the implications of his words. It was true, though. Crawley faced 35 balls from India’s two seamers and took them for 33 runs; the other 10 members of Crawley’s side faced 31 balls in total from seam bowlers.But the selection of the bowling attack really wasn’t England’s primary problem. No, the issue is that England’s batsmen had no answer to the turning ball. Or, to be more specific, a ball that sometimes turned and sometimes skidded straight on.To be fair to them, it was tough. This is an excellent spin attack and, with natural variation appearing to account for the unpredictable behaviour of the ball, there were no obvious clues as to which ones would spin and which ones would skid. Many sides would have struggled. Whether they would have struggled much, however, is debatable.For England have now succumbed to scores of 112, 164, 134 and 178 in their four most recent innings on this tour. And while it’s true they have faced some challenging conditions and fine bowlers during that sequence, eventually, if something keeps happening, you have to accept it’s not the pitches or the umpires or the presence of Jupiter in the House of Taurus that’s the problem. It’s that you, as a team, have serious issues against spin bowling.’Wait there,’ you may be crying. ‘England made 578 only five innings ago; this is just a blip’. And it’s true they did. It helped them complete a run of six successive Test victories in Asia. That’s an impressive achievement whatever the result of this series.India belt out an appeal on a track that offered turn from day one•BCCIBut that innings was made when the Chennai surface was unusually flat. And it was disproportionately reliant upon Joe Root’s contribution. Only two other men reached 35. Indeed, nobody else, across five-and-a-half Tests on this tour, has registered a century. Only three England players (Root, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow) average as much as 30. Only one more (Ben Foakes) averages as much as 25.None of this should come as a surprise. Anyone with even a passing interest in English cricket knows the domestic schedule has been altered to ensure the prime months of (what the English laughingly call) summer, are dominated by white-ball cricket. This, it is argued, is popular with players, who can specialise on specific white-ball skills during this period, and broadcasters, who can build narratives and hope it will ensure the presence of more exciting overseas players.All of which sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?But there is a downside. And that is, England’s domestic first-class competition is played in conditions in which spin bowling is barely relevant. This year, eight of the 14 rounds of County Championship cricket are scheduled to take place before the end of May (four take place before the end of April) with four more rounds (and the Bob Willis Trophy final) taking place in autumnal September. That leaves just two rounds – eight days of cricket, in other words – scheduled to take place in July or August when surfaces might be expected to provide most assistance to spin bowlers.Combined with the usage of a Dukes ball, it means most counties are able to rely almost completely upon their seamers. Really, if you’re a young spinner with aspirations of playing first-class cricket, you may as well give it up and become a wheelwright or court jester; those, by comparison, are trades with a future. When an experienced spinner does appear in the county game – the likes of Jeetan Patel or Simon Harmer – they clean up against batsmen with little of the technique or temperament required to resist them.All this means young batsmen in England do not face enough quality spin bowling to develop an effective game against them. And on the rare occasion a county might provide surfaces which replicate those found in recent days in India, the ECB punish them for it. Related

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This issue was probably relevant to England’s selection, too. While the team management would be reluctant to confirm it, it would appear their decision to pick the extra seamer was based at least as much on on a lack of belief in their second spin option as it was in any belief in how the pink ball would behave. Put simply, it seems they felt the extra seamer would provide them more control than a spinner who had difficulty with his length in his most recent appearance. Again and again, England’s problems in developing spin bowling in the county game are coming back to hurt them.But you know this already. Everybody, including the ECB, knows this already. It was obvious on the last tour of India in 2016. And if Test cricket really was their priority, they would act – as they did after the humiliation of the 2015 World Cup – to change things.But they don’t. Because white-ball cricket – and the money it brings in – is their No. 1 priority. Look at the full-strength squad they have named for the T20I section of this tour; look at their decision to allow players to miss Tests against New Zealand to play in the IPL; look at the white-ball window that dominates the prime weeks of summer in the domestic schedule. Whatever they say, there is little evidence that Test cricket is their priority.And while that is the case, England will continue to struggle in these conditions.This match – this series, even – can still be won by England. But they will have to bat far better against the turning ball in their final three innings of the campaign. At this stage, that runs of low scores is looking more like the norm than the exception.

During the course of the series, Da Silva has been part of many crucial partnerships to help West Indies out of the woods

Mohammad Isam12-Feb-2021When he was asked about the key factors behind their stunning win in the first Test in Chattogram, West Indies coach Phil Simmons highlighted the importance of partnerships, among the first things he mentioned. Certainly, the batting partnerships have been West Indies’ biggest weapon in this series, and the common name in many crucial stands has been Joshua Da Silva.Da Silva added 99 for the sixth wicket with Jermaine Blackwood in the first innings in Chattogram, which helped West Indies get past the follow-on score.After Kyle Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner stitched together 216 in the second innings, Da Silva and Mayers added 100 for the sixth wicket to take the side to the cusp of victory. One might say that Da Silva’s contribution was only 20, but with Blackwood having got out shortly before, a wicket at that stage would have brought Bangladesh back into the game.On Friday, in the first innings of the second Test in Dhaka, Da Silva top-scored with 92, and as much as he felt miserable to miss out on a maiden Test century, he once again showed the way of combining with other batsmen to put the pressure back on the opposition. He was involved in an 88-run sixth-wicket stand with Bonner, which again got West Indies out of the woods when they had been reduced to 178 for 5 on the first day.But what has perhaps changed the complexion of the game was his 118-run seventh-wicket stand with No. 9 Alzarri Joseph. A developing allrounder, Joseph contributed 71 runs in the partnership and as much as that hurt Bangladesh’s footing in the game, Da Silva’s presence at the other end ensured the bowlers had nowhere to go for a considerably long time on the second day.Joseph offered an interesting insight into how Da Silva guided the partnership, by breaking down their task into the blocks of ten runs. According to Joseph, Da Silva has been a seasoned presence at crease despite playing only his third Test.Joshua Da Silva and Alzarri Joseph mixed caution with aggression in perfect measure during their stand•AFP / Getty Images”[Da Silva’s] encouragement to build partnerships, to look at small totals, every ten runs, start over from zero again to score another ten runs, and again another ten runs, and in a matter of no time, we had an 80-run partnership.”When I came to the crease, it was just to bat some time and support Josh at the crease. Josh has been batting really well. It is only his third Test and he is showing real maturity with the bat and also behind the stumps. His game is coming along really well.”At least during the course of this tour, Da Silva has improved from a rookie who was dropped from the ODI side after two single-digit scores to a reliable batsman in the Test side.Things that have stood out in his batting are his soft hands while defending the ball, as well as the use of the depth of the crease while cutting or pulling the spinners. Da Silva said that he has been working on this aspect with the batting coach Monty Desai.”I have always been a good player of spin, so I adapted my game to lower wickets. It is a little similar to home but in a different situation, so I am playing my part. I try to pick the line and length as early as possible. I worked with Monty, our batting coach, on moving forward and back positively and making that decision early.”Resuming the day on 22, Da Silva hit several punches off the back foot through the off side, as well as collected plenty of runs by gliding the ball behind point. It forced the Bangladesh spinners to bowl more at the stumps, and that gave Da Silva the opportunity to play the pulls and sweeps. He even brought out the reverse sweep a couple of times.Da Silva is among a group of young cricketers that the West Indies team management has been carrying around during the pandemic. He went to England to play the two practice matches, and even kept wickets during the Manchester Test after Shane Dowrich got injured. He made his Test debut in the subsequent New Zealand tour, where he showed his temperament with a second-innings fifty.Da Silva gives West Indies an interesting little conundrum when Dowrich becomes available in the near future. Certainly, a competition for the wicketkeeping spot will strengthen the Test side.Da Silva’s batting improvement also means he has a chance of playing only as a batsman, too. His ability to put together partnerships, particularly in a tour where he had to learn on the fly, is going to work in his favour in the coming months.

While Australia’s transgression was by far the most brazenly egregious, ball-tampering had been a global issue

Daniel Brettig17-May-2021In July 2018, a couple of months after the Newlands fiasco that sent Australian cricket into a flurry it has never quite escaped, the ICC’s most senior figures agreed on levying harsh new penalties for ball-tampering under its code of conduct.Where the Cape Town episode itself had played out with a farcical distance between the sanctions applied to Cameron Bancroft (a 75% match fee fine), Steven Smith (a one-game ban) and David Warner (no penalty) by the ICC and then by Cricket Australia (playing bans of nine months, one year, and one year respectively), these subsequent rulings closed the gap.Notwithstanding the millions of dollars it cost them, Smith and Warner ultimately missed eight Test matches because of the bans imposed by CA. As per the updated ICC code, a player found to have transgressed in a similar manner could be suspended for a maximum of six Tests.Dinesh Chandimal transgressed for Sri Lanka in June 2018, missing one Test, but there hasn’t been a single ball-tampering offence listed in the ICC’s code of conduct breaches and penalties register since. At the same time, there has been next to no reverse swing, a state of affairs that has helped plenty of batting sides and deprived the long form of the game of some of the more dramatic passages of play it has ever witnessed.Those frenzied half hours, orchestrated by the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Simon Jones, Andrew Flintoff, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, James Anderson and Mitchell Starc, were brilliant for broadcasters. All the more ironic then, that so many of the ball-tampering instances of the past 20 years were uncovered and prosecuted so aggressively by those same broadcasters. Test cricket might be cleaner now, but it is less likely to twist on a rush of wickets on an unhelpful surface.What this change in the game’s officiating should have reflected was the fact that, while Australia’s transgression was by far the most publicly obvious and – by using sandpaper – most brazenly egregious, ball-tampering had been a global issue, the scale of which had grown enormously over many years prior to the fateful week at Newlands. Between 2000 and 2018, no fewer than 13 instances saw sanctions imposed.The slightly more open words offered this week by Bancroft and Australia’s former assistant coach David Saker have underlined how public fascination, and in many cases cynicism, about the Newlands episode and what led up to it have scarcely cooled over the course of more than three years.David Saker: “The finger-pointing is going to go on and on and on”•Getty ImagesWhen Bancroft told the that it was “self-explanatory” other members of the team had to have known about the benefits of using sandpaper to rough up the ball in pursuit of reverse swing, plentiful antennae went up. When Saker followed this by stating, among other things, to the “there was a lot of people to blame. It could have been me to blame, it could have been someone else. It could have been stopped and it wasn’t, which is unfortunate” the swirl of questions only grew.An initial investigation, conducted by CA’s then head of integrity Iain Roy in a hotel room in Cape Town in the company of two ICC anti-corruption officials, was focused on events at Newlands and took place over 48 hours. Interviews featured 10 of the 15 players on tour and six of the 12 support staff.The measure of the investigation was to be speed as much as thoroughness: Australia needed to select a team for the final match of the series in Johannesburg and needed to know how many new players had to be flown in. But CA also needed to find a way to put a cap on the issue as quickly as possible, not least because it was at that stage deep into negotiations for the broadcast deal that would ultimately see the game move to Foxtel and Seven for AUD 1.18 billion. When none of the banned players pushed back via the means of asking for a code of conduct hearing, as was their right, the process was seen to have been successful.Next, CA had an overall cultural review, conducted by Dr Simon Longstaff of the Ethics Centre, that was released in October 2018 and heralded the end of David Peever as CA’s chairman a matter of days later. But this was an exercise in examining the broad strokes of the organisation over the preceding few years rather more so than the specifics of what had happened within the Australian team over the same period. So it was that CA had two separate reviews of events around Newlands without satisfying all possible questions.Those close to Roy’s investigation have long maintained that it did its job in the sense that ultimately, any sharp practice on the part of the team could only be stopped by the captain alone, and Smith had chosen to walk past it. It also gave the rest of the team and staff such a fright that they would never dare try anything even close to that ever again.CA have, of course, never retreated from a public position that any “new information” about the affair should be brought forward to them, and if enough were to be tabled, an investigation would re-commence. That line has maintained a veneer of openness about wanting to know more, while at the same time not showing anything like the sort of zeal for the truth that would be required for a broader inquiry to ever actually take place.Without volunteering an offer of amnesty to potential informers, or stating flatly that the sanctions meted out to Bancroft, Smith and Warner will be the only ones CA will levy, there is very little chance of any player, coach or member of support staff ever coming forward. They may, as Bancroft and Saker have done, offer a little more insight into the state of things under media questioning. They may also, as most suspect Warner and Smith will do, deliver a franker recollection of events in their post-playing autobiographies.James Anderson put an exhibition of reverse swing during the first Test in India earlier this year•BCCIBut apart from those sorts of avenues, there is too much to lose in terms of career or reputation for those who have managed to escape the formal humiliations that Bancroft, Smith and Warner faced in 2018. Everyone working with CA at the time, from the top tier of executive management down to Bancroft himself, is still playing or working in some capacity, whether in cricket or corporate Australia, and will not want to face the possibility of being ruled out of future employment.The former head coach, Darren Lehmann, resigned a few days after Newlands having seen Bancroft and Smith make their emotional early returns home, but served out his contract with CA and has since been rejuvenated as the coach of the Brisbane Heat. Saker, meanwhile, is a prominent contender to return to his former post as head coach of the Melbourne Renegades.Players and less senior support staff all live on year-to-year contracts that have only been made sparser by Covid-19 and related spending cuts. Even the likes of Bancroft, Peter Handscomb and Usman Khawaja still hold out hope of returning to the international scene one day. Survival is, in many ways, the name of the professional game, something that goes beyond how one might bat or bowl to how they might choose, or choose not, to speak.Related

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That’s why the only feasible re-opening of investigations into ball-tampering would need to be done on a “truth and reconciliation” basis that applied no fresh penalties to those who speak out. It’s also why the scope would need to be broader than that of Australia alone. Saker said it rather well in recalling the Australian “bubble” view: “We all know that we made a monumental mistake. The gravity wasn’t as plain until it all came out.”In other words, Australia’s creep towards a move as obvious and outrageous as Bancroft trying to apply sandpaper to the ball in the middle of a session of play was pushed as much by a sense that everyone else was cutting corners in “ball management” as by the decay of the culture in the team and CA more widely. That sense had been enhanced by the sorts of meagre penalties applied to previous transgressors in numerous other countries, before the code of conduct changes made later in 2018.Cricket, then, should be having a wider discussion of reverse swing and how it has been attained in the past and may be again in the future. Undoubtedly the only way to coax out a fuller picture of what happened in the Australian team leading up to and during the Cape Town Test would be a review of ball management practices around the world during the same period. A deep dive into how the ICC came to view ball-tampering as a problem requiring a global remedy, not just an Australian one.Once that has been done, the cricket world can decide once and for all whether or not reverse swing is an ailment for the game or one of its most entertaining subplots.