England interest rekindled and injury substitutes arrive as county cricket returns
With more of a sparkle in its eye than for years, the County Championship shimmies into life on Good Friday, coat done up, gloves fastened.After years of wrangling, the schedule has been settled (for now), and the three-year Kookaburra ball trial, which had seam bowlers weeping into their Weetabix, dumped, but there is still place for a regulatory tweak, and it’s a substantial one.This year, the England and Wales Cricket Board is trialling substitutes, allowing a player to be replaced by a fully playing sub, rather than just a covering fielder.And the terms of reference have broadened too: the system will cover sickness and significant life events – such as the birth of a child or a family illness – as well as injury.“Most seasons we get three or four questions about a player being replaced to witness the birth of a child,” said Alan Fordham, the ECB’s head of cricket operations, “and the answer has been no.
Now the answer will be yes.“There are also unexpected life events.There was the incident around Blair Tickner, whose wife was taken ill during the game.It was a tough message to say: ‘Sorry, you can’t have a replacement player, you have to play with 10.’” In 2024, the New Zealander found out his wife had been diagnosed with leukaemia during a match and played on rather than leaving Derbyshire a man short.
The change in regulations has come about because the International Cricket Council asked countries to trial the scheme in their domestic competitions, before possibly bringing a similar rule into Test cricket,By permitting replacements for illness or life events, the ECB has gone further than authorities in India, Australia or South Africa,Replacements will have to be like for like and, in order to try to prevent any funny business, any player replaced for illness or injury will have to serve an eight-day “stand down period”,This has not totally convinced everyone,Derbyshire’s head coach, Mickey Arthur, is supportive but wary.
“There are lots of little areas open to manipulation,” he said,“The eight-day break doesn’t take bye weeks into consideration,Or the last game of the season,Or your red-ball bowlers going into the white-ball season,”The ECB says it is alert to any mischief.
After an Ashes winter England want to wipe from the database, the Championship feels like it has renewed importance,Rob Key, the managing director, has indicated that England players are no longer shoo-ins, and the ECB hierarchy appear to be working hard to reconnect with disillusioned county coaches and players,Brendon McCullum, the England head coach, was on message during a Zoom call to the counties early on Wednesday evening, stressing how much his setup values the championship,He reiterated the sort of players England are looking for – good against high pace and spin – as well as (re)introducing Troy Cooley, the bowling whisperer for the 2005 Ashes squad, now back with the ECB as the pace-bowling lead,Ben Stokes has backed McCullum up, stressing that there are England places up for grabs.
The Test captain said: “I think it’s a great opportunity for a lot of people around the country … The first six or seven weeks of championship cricket I think it’s going to be a very big one and people should use that as an opportunity to push their case as far forward as they possibly can.I hope they’re giving themselves the best chance of coming up for selection when we get together to do that.”And there does seem to be a genuine enthusiasm around the grounds.At Cardiff, where Glamorgan are in Division One for the first time since 2005, the mood is buoyant.Kiran Carlson, Glamorgan’s captain, is ready to “show England and the England management how good we are” and keen to play two spinners, even against the big boys.
Lancashire, down in Division Two, are firing for promotion, despite the late withdrawal of Mitch Perry.Surrey, Notts and Warwickshire count their heavy artillery while players such as Haseeb Hameed, Dom Sibley, Asa Tribe and James Coles dream.Even the most forlorn – promoted Leicestershire, whose spring has been dogged with injury and the late withdrawal of their captain, Peter Handscomb, and Sussex, docked 12 points before the season has even begun – have everything in front of them.They meet on Friday at Grace Road, one of a full set of nine games.Bring it on.
Labour challenges Farage over cost of private jet trip to Maldives
Labour has queried Nigel Farage’s claim that a return trip to the Maldives on a private jet linked to a billionaire donor cost as little as £25,000 as the Reform leader attempted to reach the Chagos Islands.Farage initially recorded his two-day trip to the Maldives as costing £12,500 funded by Thailand-based Reform megadonor Christopher Harborne, before upgrading this to £25,000 in the latest register of interests.The Guardian reported that ownership of the private jet was linked to Harborne, who has given the party more than £12m.However, Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, wrote to Farage on Thursday arguing that chartering a private jet of a similar size would cost many times more than the sum declared.“According to publicly available flight logs, this was an 11,000-mile round trip, lasting just over 23 hours, using a model of plane that is currently advertised on multiple private jet websites as costing at least $11,500 (£8,500) per hour to charter,” she said
Starmer must call energy summit akin to 2008 crisis response, Labour MP says
Keir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said.Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran.The MP for East Thanet said the impending energy crisis caused by the war was “as big as the financial crash” and required “a response of equal magnitude”. She said the increase in prices would not be temporary or regional, and that “economic pain, falling living standards and social anger create fertile ground for extremist politics”.While she said the government’s convening of 35 countries to discuss the reopening of the strait of Hormuz was a good step, a bigger global response was needed on energy
Drip-feed of Reform UK controversies puts party’s policy drive in shade
It was a week that started with a candid admission from Nigel Farage. When asked if Reform UK’s vetting process was finally up to scratch, the party leader said: “I accept that at the last general election basically there was no vetting really.” He was speaking after the latest of what a senior colleague had described as a “series of abhorrent incidents”.That latest incident had involved a Welsh Senedd candidate, Corey Edwards, who was forced to step down last Friday after a picture of him appearing to do a Nazi salute surfaced online.Yet while Farage went on to tell reporters at a Heathrow press conference on Tuesday that they would find Reform was “doing pretty well now”, just two days later another frontline party member was in hot water
UK politics Q&A, as it happened: Andrew Sparrow answers your questions on Starmer, Reform and more
Reform UK’s housing spokesperson has been sacked from his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”.The NHS is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”.Nick Candy, the honorary treasurer of Reform UK and a major donor, has sold his mansion in the Chelsea district of London for a reported £275m.Thank you for the questions everone. Happy Easter
Reform donor Nick Candy sells Chelsea mansion for reported £275m
Nick Candy, the honorary treasurer of Reform UK and a major donor, has sold his mansion in the Chelsea district of London for a reported £275m.The property developer declined to comment on the transaction, which was first reported by Bloomberg, but it is believed to be the most expensive on record in London and one of the biggest in the world.Providence House was the location of a fundraising event for Donald Trump in 2024, attended by the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr.The buyer of the Grade II-listed mansion, located in the grounds of Royal Chelsea Hospital with a lake and a swimming pool, has not been made public.The Land Registry records its current owner as Providence House LLP, a partnership controlled by Candy
Reform housing spokesperson sacked after Grenfell ‘everyone dies’ remarks
Reform UK’s housing spokesperson has been sacked from his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”.Keir Starmer had called on Nigel Farage to sack Simon Dudley, a former head of Homes England, after comments which were condemned by Grenfell families and others.Dudley announced in February that he was joining Reform, as Nigel Farage said he was planning to bring more “experts” onboard to advise the party.He was embroiled in controversy on Wednesday night after he gave an interview to Inside Housing magazine in which he described building safety regulations introduced after the 2017 Grenfell tragedy as “regulation which is not working”.After Reform initially appeared to stand by Dudley, Farage said at a press conference to announce Reform policy on pensions that Dudley had “gone” as a result of his “deeply shocking” comments
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