County season arrives with fresh hope of domestic displays paving path to international stage
Not everyone is optimistic it will be the case, but players should start the season believing performances will be noticed by the England setupPeter Moores could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at England’s backing for Brendon McCullum after four years as head coach and that bleak Australian winter,Moores was afforded barely three during his two spells in the job, neither of which included an Ashes series,But as his Nottinghamshire side begin the defence of their County Championship title away at Somerset on Friday, Moores is keen to look forwards,During his Ashes mea culpa, the England team director, Rob Key, said he wanted better communication with the counties on selection, music to the ears of the leading domestic coach,“If I was a county player, I’d be more excited about starting this season than the one before,” says Moores, whose captain, Haseeb Hameed, should be among those aiming to state their case.
“It feels more likely there’s a route into the England team now,I liked the thought when I played that, even though you might be a million miles off, you’ve still got the dream that if you go well, you’re a chance,“It doesn’t guarantee anything because there should be loyalty to some of the players there already,But I hope England will start to genuinely engage more with the county game because since the start of international cricket that’s where the players have come from,”While Moores is optimistic, Paul Farbrace, his equivalent at Sussex, sounds less so.
On TalkSport last week, Farbrace said “you just know McCullum isn’t interested in county cricket” and that his contact with the clubs is minimal.And so in turn, he went on to lament, the counties are not fussed about how England fare.In an attempt to fix this disconnect, Key has established a County Insight Group that will hold quarterly meetings with four county representatives (two from each division).He and McCullum are also due to address the county directors of cricket this week, the first such meeting for two years.One coach said these latest moves are welcome, clearly, but that county cricket “almost feels more professional” than the England setup these days.
Key’s public explanation for any perceived indifference was a reluctance to meddle in county business, something many took to be contempt for the cricket they play,The underlying aspect is the difference between domestic and international cricket,As Farbrace acknowledged, the former is a front-foot game due to the slower pitches and medium-fast seamers, the latter challenges techniques above the waist,England, therefore, have felt the need to look beyond domestic numbers,Supporting the theory is Jacob Bethell, who is yet to score a century for Warwickshire, but in the space of six months made one in each of the three international formats.
As McCullum said last year, an England squad picked to win the County Championship would look very different to the one chosen for the Ashes.Even if selection must continue to be nuanced, dissolving the sense of them and us that has built up will be one of the themes of the season.There may only be a couple of vacancies come the first Test against New Zealand in June, but players should start the season believing performances will be noticed.Unless Zak Crawley embarks on a hitherto-unseen early season rampage at Kent, his spot as opener certainly feels ripe to be reassigned.If not then Key’s recent admission that England have been far too loyal in selection will look empty.
Matt Henry – six cheap dismissals from six when they last met in New Zealand – will be licking his lips,Much like a recent Australian tradition, there may well be a “bat off” for opener,Hameed is the fully blossomed option, racking up runs with a new level of intent, while Glamorgan’s Asa Tribe and Durham’s Ben McKinney are two promising youngsters already in the Lions,Ben Duckett had one poor series in Australia, but, unless his scores with Notts are binary, he seems likely to partner one of them,Thereafter, it will be a case of assessing Jamie Smith’s recovery from a torrid winter, with Somerset’s James Rew in the wicketkeeping wings.
Jordan Cox is another in contention, but misses Essex duty for the Indian Premier League.Bethell, Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse are also there.Ollie Robinson and Sam Cook can push to fill the new-ball berth left empty since Chris Woakes took a tumble.Spin is still the biggest quandary and where spring conditions muddy the thinking most.Shoaib Bashir’s fresh start at Derbyshire will be followed closely.
Although as much as selection dilemmas feature in the opening rounds, the County Championship also stands alone as a competition of great interest and having finished eighth in 2024 Nottinghamshire’s title win should demonstrate that upward mobility is possible.Surrey remain stocked to the gills with talent and will want to show last year’s second place was a blip.Warwickshire, their first opponents, could also mount a decent challenge, boasting nine seamers with a claim to be first-choice picks and Woakes back among them.Bar Sussex, hit with a 12-point penalty for financial shortcomings, the remaining 17 teams in the two divisions start out on zero.As the upbeat Moores puts it, this is the time of year to dream.
‘They feel true’: political deepfakes are growing in influence – even if people know they aren’t real
Online content creators are not just building fake images and videos of prominent public figures, they are also fabricating people and using them in military contexts, which can make them money and even serve as effective propaganda, according to artificial intelligence researchers.Some of these online avatars are sexualized images of women wearing camouflage garb that have generated a significant audience and helped create an idealized image of political figures like Donald Trump, even if the viewer knows the content is not real, according to experts.“We are blending the lines between political cartoons and reality,” said Daniel Schiff, an assistant professor of technology policy at Purdue University and co-director of the Governance and Responsible AI Lab (Grail). “A lot of people feel like these images or videos or the stories they convey, feel true.”The amount of political deepfakes has increased dramatically in recent years, according to a Grail database
Sony to hike PS5 prices by $100 as AI and Iran war push up memory chip costs
Sony is raising global prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles, including a $100 increase in the US, marking its second hike in less than a year as the entertainment giant grapples with rising costs of key components such as memory chips.The tech industry’s race to build out artificial intelligence infrastructure has pushed memory makers to favor higher-margin datacenter chips, tightening supply for consumer devices like the ones Sony sells.The updated US prices, effective 2 April, will put the standard PS5 at $649.99, up from $549.99
Wikipedia bans AI-generated content in its online encyclopedia
Wikipedia has banned the use of artificial intelligence in the generation or rewriting of content for its voluminous online encyclopedia.In a recent policy change, Wikipedia said that the use of large language models (or LLMs) “often violates” its core principles and will not be allowed. The English language version of Wikipedia has more than 7.1m articles.The use of AI has been a contentious issue among Wikipedia’s community of volunteer editors but a vote among the site’s editors supported the ban, according to 404 Media
Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says
AI models that lie and cheat appear to be growing in number with reports of deceptive scheming surging in the last six months, a study into the technology has found.AI chatbots and agents disregarded direct instructions, evaded safeguards and deceived humans and other AI, according to research funded by the UK government-funded AI Security Institute (AISI). The study, shared with the Guardian, identified nearly 700 real-world cases of AI scheming and charted a five-fold rise in misbehaviour between October and March, with some AI models destroying emails and other files without permission.The snapshot of scheming by AI agents “in the wild”, as opposed to in laboratory conditions, has sparked fresh calls for international monitoring of the increasingly capable models and come as Silicon Valley companies aggressively promote the technology as a economically transformative. Last week the UK chancellor also launched a drive to get millions more Britons using AI
‘Accountability has arrived’: dual US court losses show shifting tide against Meta and co
In the span of just two days, the most powerful social media company in the world faced a more severe public reckoning than it has in years.Jurors in California and New Mexico gave back-to-back verdicts this week that for the first time ever found Meta liable for products that inflict harm on young people. For years, lawmakers, parents and advocates have raised red flags over how social media can hurt children, but now the tech firms are being held to account via court rulings that could set long-lasting precedents.A jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375m in damages on Tuesday over claims that its products led to child sexual exploitation, among other harms. The following day, a jury in California ordered Meta and YouTube to pay $6m over claims that both companies deliberately designed addictive products to hook young users
New York City hospitals drop Palantir as controversial AI firm expands in UK
New York City’s public hospital system announced that it would not be renewing its contract with Palantir as controversy mounts in the UK over the data analytics and AI firm’s government contract.The president of the US’s largest municipal public healthcare system, Dr Mitchell Katz, testified last week before the New York city council that the agreement with Palantir would expire in October.He said at the hearing that the contract, which focused on recovering money for insurance claims, was always meant to be short-term, and that there was an “absolute firewall” preventing Palantir from sharing information with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said that the agency had “not had any incidents”.The contract and related payment documents shared with the Guardian by the American Friends Service Committee and first reported by the Intercept, show that NYC Health + Hospitals has paid Palantir nearly $4m since November 2023
Mounjaro maker wants NHS drug price rises in return for more investment in UK
Pessimism takes root in UK as shoppers struggle to afford essentials
Millions of boomer small business owners will soon retire. Will their companies just disappear? | Gene Marks
One in five UK hospitality businesses fear collapse as costs surge
Oil on track for record monthly surge as Iran war disrupts markets
War in Iran erodes the chancellor’s headroom and exposes our fragility | Heather Stewart