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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has ruled out making a move for Chelsea defender David Luiz, reports the London Evening Standard.

What’s the word?

Ever since the Brazilian dropped down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge, he has been linked with a move away from the Blues.

A recent report in The Express claimed that Arsenal are favourites to sign Luiz, but Wenger has quashed the speculation.

According to the London Evening Standard, the Frenchman told reporters:

“I do not want to speak about any special name but these reports are wrong. We are open in any position for the exceptional player who can give us a plus, therefore of course it depends a little bit on the injuries as well and on the other hand, I must say it depends on extending the contracts of the players who are at the end of their contracts in June. We will have to take the consequences of these decisions and respond to it.”

Luiz was a crucial member of Chelsea’s Premier League title-winning team last season as he formed a back three with Cesar Azpilicueta and Gary Cahill.

At the end of October in the current campaign, manager Antonio Conte dropped the defender, who later suffered a knee injury that he has since recovered from.

Do Arsenal need him?

The Gunners have experienced problems at the back, and at the moment, injuries have affected the defensive line.

Sead Kolasinac is expected to be on the sidelines for two weeks, while Laurent Koscielny is an injury doubt for Wednesday’s league match against Chelsea.

After returning to the Blues from Paris Saint-Germain in 2016, the defender seemed to have cut out the reckless decision-making from his game.

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However, Luiz can still be hit and miss, particularly given the fact that he has fallen out of Conte’s good books.

If Wenger wants to improve his defence, he needs a reliable character, and the Brazilian may be too much of a risk.

It had all started so well.

The start of the summer and the transfer period had Reading fans as excited as they had been for a long while with the arrivals of the Wayne Bridge, Danny Williams and Royston Drenthe.

With the promised addition of one more striker we were set for a promotion push with a decent amount of cover in all positions and according to a lot of fans probably a stronger squad than the one that had started the campaign the season before in the Premier League.

The season is now starting to get into full flow and while it is still early days, Reading have looked far from convincing in picking up two wins, two draws and a solitary defeat away at Blackpool. Not the worst start on paper but it is the nature of the unconvincing performances in the last couple of games had fans including myself convinced that we would see a couple of incomings throughout the last few days of the window, especially upfront where we looked light to say the least. Adam Le Fondre will always score goals, but as we have all seen he is best coming off the bench. Pavel Pogrebnyak has not looked interested this term while Nick Blackman has failed to convince fans in the first month.

Despite this, the first bits of business in the last week of the window were actually outgoings with Jimmy Kebe and Adrian Mariappa leaving for Crystal Palace for a combined total of £5m. Jimmy Kebe has always been a player who divided opinion, unstoppable on his day but most frustrating on others and perhaps after six years with the club it was the right time for him to move on. Adrian Mariappa, despite being many fans choice for player of the season last year has rarely featured in Nigel Adkins starting 11 and perhaps he felt £3m for a player not in his plans was too much to turn down.

After recouping £5m I amongst other Reading fans was convinced there would be at least two or three players coming in on the last couple of days of August. As mentioned earlier we looked light up front and with Mariappa leaving we are left with only three senior central defenders, obviously not enough at this level.

So we waited.

There were a few rumours knocking about here and there but nothing concrete and as the excitement of deadline day unfolded it was all worryingly quiet over at the Madejski. As the evening wore on and deals were being confirmed up and down the country Reading fans took to twitter to vent their frustration. Every fan agreed that at the very least a striker and a central defender was needed, so what was going on? Well, by the sound of it, not very much at all.

So what was it that resulted in the failure to secure any players? A lot of the anger on social media has been aimed at the Director of Football, Nicky Hammond. It was reported that two deals fell through on deadline day and perhaps therefore it does seem correct to lay the blame at Hammonds door. One fan has even gone to the lengths of creating a petition for his sacking which to me seems slightly extreme but it is easy to see why the fans are so frustrated.

When the new owner took over, it seemed the days of having to sell our best players to balance the books were gone. We would no longer need to ship out the Gylfi Sigurdssons and Shane Longs of this world whenever the first club came calling. We had the money to bring in players, such as Drenthe who would be paid big wages. It therefore seems strange that no players were bought in to strengthen areas that it is plain to see need it. I think we must look at Hammonds role and he must be made to answer questions as to what happened, especially with the reported 2 deals that fell through on deadline day.

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We will now see what happens in the next week or so in terms of any free transfers and loan deals but I would say that in my opinion it will be nigh on impossible to achieve the clubs ambition of getting promoted this season with the current squad. Time will tell.

Thoughts? Contact me on twitter @JackPeedell

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Liverpool’s owners and manager Brendan Rodgers are set to come to loggerheads again, after the club announced plans to form a “technical committee” in light of the Andy Carroll debacle. The Telegraph reports.

Supporters are still fuming at the decision to let £35million signing, Carroll leave with Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini as the only options upfront.

The Reds were interested in securing a deal for Daniel Sturridge to bolster their attacking options, but were only willing to bring him in on loan whereas Chelsea were keen on a permanent deal.

But the most high-profile failure came after the club could not meet the £6million valuation which Fulham set for Clint Dempsey, resulting in the USA international joining Tottenham instead.

This new proposed committee will be set up to avoid future situations like this, advising both Rodgers and owners John W Henry and Tom Werner about all aspects of the club, including transfer dealings.

It is likely to cause even more tension between owners and management, particularly as Rodgers made it clear he wants total control over all first-team matters, but the owners have since said this so-called British model is unsustainable and costly.

The American owners want to replicate a similar kind of model that is already in place at West Brom, where Dan Ashworth has the role of sporting and technical director and is now wanted by the Football Association.

Under this new model, Rodgers will have to discuss prospective transfer targets with members of the committee, who in turn will advise the manager on the best way forward.

Ian Ayre, the current managing director is likely to hold a key role in the new set-up, along with a chief scout and an experienced football administrator.

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Liverpool fans will hope this goes some way in improving the club’s fortunes, especially as they seem a long way off from competing at the top level in the near future.

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Time away from game offers England seamer – and brother Sam – chance to “refresh mentally”

Alan Gardner14-Apr-2020Tom Curran has admitted that an enforced break from cricket over the last few weeks has come as a “shock to the system”, but said he was trying to use the time off to refresh mentally, hopeful that the game will be able to resume later this summer in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that has brought life to a standstill in much of the world.Curran had been expecting to be at the IPL with Rajasthan Royals right now – his new team’s opening fixture, originally scheduled for April 2, would have brought him into competition with younger brother Sam – but those plans have long been shelved. After a productive winter, in which he played in 10 out of 11 England white-ball internationals, as well as appearing in the Mzansi Super League and burnishing his allrounder credentials with Big Bash winners Sydney Sixers, he has found it odd to have time on his hands.”It is strange to be honest,” he said. “I think we play so much now, you’re just used to rolling on from one thing to the next. Sport is a big part of our lives but in the grand scheme of things it is not the end of the world for us compared to some of the other things going on around the world.ALSO READ: Giles positive as West Indies pin hopes on July“For the last four or five years, it has been cricket non-stop, all the year round. I think for everyone to be stuck indoors and not playing is a shock to the system, everyone is missing it. I’ve had to mute [England media manager Danny Reuben] on Instagram because he keeps posting how much he is missing it. It is a shock to all of us, players, people involved in the sport, fans and lovers of the sport. It is a shock to the system but what we’re going through is nothing in the grand scheme of things.”With Tom having recently moved out of the place he shared with his brothers, a Zoom call arranged by the ECB offered a chance to catch-up – Sam asking, with perhaps a touch of irony, to hear more about Tom’s new dog, which has been making recent appearances on Instagram. Becoming a pet owner, as well as playing games online and trying to practice his bowling action while out running – “pretty village stuff,” Tom said – has helped fill time away from the usual routine of training and playing.”I’m using it as a time to get refreshed mentally,” he said. “It is a terrible time of course, but we seldom get a break like this in what would be the middle of our summer. We’re trying to stay positive so that when we do come back we’re in a good position to kick on mentally and physically for the years to come.”Sam has put some of his energy into launching a fundraiser for the NHS, while both of the Surrey Currans – the third brother, Ben, plays for Northamptonshire – have been involved in a scheme to call the club’s older members and offer support and conversation over the phone.Tom Curran bowls in training•Getty Images

“It was a lovely little initiative that someone at Surrey organised and got the players and staff involved,” Tom said. “The capped players called about ten members each, the majority of them more elderly who have been associated with the club for a while. There was a small Surrey trivia quiz, where we asked them three questions about the club and if they got all three correct there was a little prize sent out.”It was just a lovely little thing. It was really refreshing to chat and see how life was going for them and just try to put a smile on some people’s faces who are involved in our community at Surrey in these troubling times.”Sam added: “It was quite a cool thing to do because we don’t usually speak to the members much and we focused on the older generation because the club felt they were the most vulnerable and it was really special. A lot of the older members had a lot of opinions on the games we were missing and what formats we should focus on and things like that. It was quite entertaining.”No prizes for guessing which of the formats might have been referred to less favourably (Surrey were one of the frontline rebels against the ECB launching a new competition) but whether the Hundred is played at all this year remains a point of debate. Tom and Sam were both drafted by the Oval Invincibles last year, yet the potential for games to forced behind closed doors or difficulties bringing in overseas signings could see the whole tournament delayed.”It just depends on when we start playing cricket,” Tom said. “It’s just such a hard one to forecast because let’s say we start playing mid-June and things in Australia carry on a lot longer and finish in October, which means the overseas players wouldn’t be able to come. I don’t know the right answer and until we start picking and choosing it’s so hard to predict.”

Rajasthan Royals will be rooting for Mumbai Indians on Thursday night. Here’s why

S Rajesh02-May-2019Ahead of the Mumbai Indians-Sunrisers Hyderabad game, here is a look at how the result of that match will impact the two teams and others as well.Mumbai Indians are on 14 points with two to play, and their net run rate (NRR) of 0.347 is the best among the top-three teams. A win on Thursday will take them to second spot, level on points with Delhi Capitals but with a superior NRR. Obviously, their chances of finishing in the top two will then depend on how things pan out in the last round of matches for all teams.If Mumbai Indians lose on Thursday, they will have to win their last match, against Knight Riders, and then depend on other results going their way to finish in the top two. For a start, Capitals will have to lose their last game against Rajasthan Royals so that they stay on 16. Then, Sunrisers will have to lose to Royal Challengers Bangalore so that they don’t finish on 16 as well, since Sunrisers have a much better NRR than Mumbai Indians.If Mumbai Indians lose both games, then their qualification chances could be in jeopardy all together if Kolkata Knight Riders win both their matches. Currently, Knight Riders’ NRR is 0.1, but if they win both their matches and Mumbai Indians lose theirs, then Knight Riders’ could move ahead on NRR.A win for Sunrisers will pretty much seal their qualification spot. That’s because they will move up to 14 points, and even if they lose their last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, their superior NRR should see them through to the top four. They will also have a chance to finish second, if they beat Royal Challengers and if Capitals lose their last game against Royals.If Sunrisers lose, they will still have a chance to seal a qualification spot with a win against Royal Challengers. Even if Knight Riders win their last two matches by handy margins (say, 50 runs each), Sunrisers’ will still have a superior NRR if they lose to Mumbai Indians by 40 runs and beat Royal Challengers by 5 runs.For the other teams in the hunt for a playoff spot, a Mumbai Indians win will mean that they will still have a chance to qualify without NRR coming into play, as Sunrisers will stay on 12 if they lose their last game as well. Both Knight Riders and Kings XI will still have a chance to grab the last playoff berth if they win their last two. Royals will be in the hunt too, if Sunrisers lose their last two, and Knight Riders and Kings XI win no more than one of their last two matches.If Sunrisers beat Mumbai Indians, Royals will be knocked out of the tournament.

Nottinghamshire had control for large parts of the day, but a 133-run eighth-wicket stand between Liam Dawson and Kyle Abbott turned the tables

ECB Reporters Network19-Aug-20181:40

Edwards leaves Notts with a headache

ScorecardFidel Edwards produced a blistering evening six-over spell of 3 for 9 to complete an action-packed first day of Hampshire’s Specsavers County Championship fixture with Nottinghamshire.Nottinghamshire were forced to negotiate 15 evening overs having bowled Hampshire out for 277.And Edwards, who now boasts 20 wickets against Nottinghamshire in five innings, blasted through fellow West Indian Kraigg Brathwaite, Jake Libby and nightwatchman Matt Milnes in an incredible fast bowling showcase.Gareth Berg also managed to claim a scalp as the visitors struggled to 39 for 4, a deficit of 238.James Vince’s 74 along with Liam Dawson and Kyle Abbott’s half centuries in a 133 eighth-wicket stand had earlier produced responses after Hampshire suffered three mini batting collapses.Steven Mullaney found three wickets in five balls, before Luke Fletcher lead a spell of three wickets for the visitors without a run and then Matt Henry rounded off the innings with another flurry.Mullaney elected to bowl without a toss but only managed to use the fast-bowling friendly conditions of heavy overcast clouds and floodlights to wrangle a single morning wicket.Having seen play delayed by 45 minutes, Mark Footitt, on his first Championship appearance for Nottinghamshire since last August, found the outside of Weatherley’s bat, with stand-in keeper Riki Wessels completing the catch.It was two overs after lunch, though, when Nottinghamshire sparked Hampshire’s first mini collapse with Mullaney’s nagging top of off-stump length proving awkward to face.Jimmy Adams, Sam Northeast and Tom Alsop will all compare notes of how Mullaney sneaked past their outside edges with just a hint of seam movement to clip the top of their bails. It meant Hampshire fell from 58 for 1 to 62 for 4 inside five Mullaney deliveries, over two overs.Vince had watched the carnage unfold from the non-striker’s end, unmoved with a steely stare after each team-mate moped back to the pavilion. The Hampshire captain sensibly, yet with plenty of aggression, dragged his side away from immediate danger by unfurling a series of off-side glorious shots.Vince’s recovery act saw him score 11 fours in a counter-attacking 74, his fifty coming from 68 balls. He had added 75 with Rilee Rossouw for the fifth wicket before a second crumple which saw Hampshire lose three wickets without scoring a run.Rossouw was the first of the trio of scalps as he drove loosely to Matthew Carter at first slip off Luke Fletcher. Vince’s rearguard ended when his attempted cut flicked up to Mullaney at first slip, who caught on the second juggle. Fletcher pinned Berg on the pads to complete the treble of wickets on 137.But like the first flurry, a large partnership followed, this time between Dawson and Abbott. Dawson had only managed 101 runs in his first seven Championship innings of the summer, with a top score of 34 not out, but maturely batted his team out another sticky situation.An innings built on hard running, with just five fours and a six, Dawson reached fifty in 69 deliveries. He fell for 72 when he charged down the wicket, swung his bat wildly, and was bowled by Carter.Abbott had been the more watchful in the partnership but collected his own half-century in 95 balls. But Dawson’s dismissal sparked another burst of wickets, with Steyn caught at first slip and Edwards run out by fellow West Indian Brathwaite – with Hampshire bowled out for 277.Edwards got his revenge on Brathwaite in just the eighth over when Adams pulled off an impressive catch at second slip. Nash, who had two massive lbw appeals from Edwards turned down, was caught behind off Berg, before Edwards castled Libby and Milnes.

After sleepwalking through to a series win, Pakistan raised the tempo courtesy Fakhar Zaman’s double century. What does Sunday have in store?

Umar Farooq21-Jul-2018

Big Picture

After sleepwalking to a series win, Pakistan blew life into a dull series courtesy Fakhar Zaman’s record-breaking double-century. This sparked tremendous interest momentarily on Friday afternoon in Pakistan. There’s little to suggest the joyride won’t continue on Sunday, but only a performance of Fakhar’s kind again can elicit the same level of interest.Zimbabwe have shown no fight whatsoever. If 67 all out wasn’t the nadir, they were blown away in the fourth ODI by 244 runs – Pakistan’s second-biggest ODI win in terms of runs. The batsmen have shown little resolve, and the bowlers have lacked consistency or potency. About the fielding? Less said, the better. Whatever can go wrong, has.As such international fixtures are few and far between for Zimbabwe. Finances don’t allow them the luxury of staging multiple home series. That said, this year has been a bumper one, but even so, the hope with which they began the World Cup Qualifiers has long dissipated. The walloping in the T20I tri-series against Australia and Pakistan has spilled over, and there’s a pall of gloom around the state of cricket, as it has been for a better part of the last decade and a half. On Sunday, they can’t erase the pain of the home summer, but at least try and put up a fight and give the 500-odd faithful that turn up every match day whether or not there’s something to cheer about.

Form guide

Zimbabwe LLLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WWWWL

In the spotlight

Usman Khan went onto to play the entire tri-nation series and all four straight ODIs without aggravating any injury. This has been a longest streak for him in international cricket since he made his debut in 2013. He had been battling against injury, but every time he bounced back, some part of his body broke down again. He is back to full fitness now, and looks stronger than ever. He is the joint leading wicket taker with 9 at a strike rate of 16 in four games so far. He has made the most of his opportunities while Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali are being rested, and will have an eye on nailing down a World Cup spot as soon as possible.Usman Khan celebrates a wicket•AFP

Tarisai Musakanda was tipped to be captain for the tri-series and this bilateral contest against Pakistan. While in the end the job went to the vastly more experienced Hamilton Masakadza, Musakanda has shown glimpses of what he could offer Zimbabwe in the long term. Frustratingly for Zimbabwe, most of his contributions have been in the form of cameos; he has reached double figures in all but one of the last eight innings, but only once crossed 40. You could chalk it down to inexperience, but Zimbabwe desperately need a standout performance to have a chance of pushing Pakistan in this final game, and have something positive to take away from a nightmare series.

Team news

Zimbabwe don’t have too many options on the bench that are likely to make a difference, or they’d have tried them out by now. They have lost with each combination they tried, evry game more convincingly than the last. They may make one or two changes, but a change in the result would be one of the upsets of the year.Zimbabwe (possible): 1 Hamilton Masakadza (capt) 2 Tinashe Kamunhukamwe 3 Tarisai Musakanda 4 Ryan Murray (wk) 5 Peter Moor 6 Elton Chigumbura 7 Donald Tiripano 8 Liam Roche 9 Wellington Masakadza 10 Blessing Muzarbani 11 Tendai ChisoroPakistan played two combinations across four games, and have played nearly every batting reserve on the bench other than Mohammad Hafeez and Haris Sohail – who had to return home after his daughter’s illness. Mohammad Nawaz is the only bowler unused throughout the ODIs. There is a chance Hafeez and Nawaz could be given a chance, but Pakistan are doing so well anything they do looks like it might come offPakistan (possible): 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Shoaib Malik/Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Asif Ali, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Yasir Shah, 10 Junaid Khan/Mohammad Amir, 11 Usman Khan

Pitch and conditions

The weather remains cool in Bulawayo, but the pitch has dried out since the first game, and another runfest could be on the cards, particularly if Pakistan bat first.

Stats and trivia

• Fakhar Zaman is 20 runs away from becoming fastest to reach 1000 runs in ODIs. If he does so tomorrow, he will have reached there in 18 innings. The fastest at present are five players who got there in 21 innings: Viv Richards, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Quinton de Kock and Babar Azam.

Quotes

“It’s not like the guys (Pakistan) are bowling anything amazing, it’s about us not applying ourselves,” Donald Tiripano thinks the reasons for his side’s underwhelming batting come from within”It does hurt me quite a lot and it’s very disappointing to see. I see a lot of guys putting in their best efforts but when you lose half of your team, especially with the resources that Zimbabwe have, it’s hard to be competitive against a very good Pakistan side at the moment,” Pakistan coach Grant Flower takes no pleasure from his country’s struggles

The Mumbai Indians head coach said he can’t get too emotional about the team’s performance, and wanted time to reflect on it before deciding on a future course of action

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Apr-20181:27

We played thinking there’d be demons – Jayawardene

Mahela Jayawardene was careful to avoid knee-jerk reactions after Mumbai Indians sank to their lowest-ever IPL total, but the head coach was stern, nevertheless, in asking his players to take more responsibility. Having lost four out of five matches, Mumbai needed to start doing what they do best – rack up the wins after a bad start – at the earliest. Instead, they put up their worst batting performance of the season, at a venue where they had never previously lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad.”We have put ourselves in this situation, there is no one else to blame,” Jayawardene said. “Some of the matches we lost, I thought we played good cricket, they could have gone either way. (But) today was very disappointing. We just probably played the wicket thinking there is going to be demons out there. We just had to knock it around. We did not take any responsibility, so that part was quite disappointing. The dew came in as we expected, after 10 overs. No one took responsibility; that is quite sad.”Just how badly Mumbai struggled was best illustrated by Hardik Pandya’s pained stay at the crease. Burdened by a mounting asking rate on a slow pitch, Pandya’s situation was worsened by the loss of wickets at the other end, which eventually required him to bat with the tail. It resulted in a maiden for Rashid Khan in the 17th over, with Pandya either refusing the single or failing to find gaps. Then, in the 18th over, Siddarth Kaul offered up similar lengths to Pandya three times in a row. Pandya swiped across the line on each occasion, missing twice and getting a leading edge to third man the third time around.”That is how we have worked with him (Hardik) from beginning of this season and pre-season as well,” Jayawardene said. “We knew that there will be people bowling with different level because we analyse other opposition, we do anaylse our guys, and we give them information.”Every year you can’t bat the same way. If people don’t evolve and improve, there is no progress. Young guys like Hardik will learn that and need to work harder; the talent alone will not get you, leading the game and thinking about the game, that’s the part they need to keep learning, and especially with international good bowlers coming and doing various things, you have to evolve. Otherwise, you won’t be able to be consistent.”Pandya may have been inconsistent with the bat, but he has come good as a bowler on a few occasions. Kieron Pollard’s case is worse. He hasn’t contributed with the ball this season. In fact, since the 2016 IPL, Pollard has totaled 7.5 overs. With the bat, he rarely comes out with more than five or six overs remaining. This season, Pollard has cobbled together 63 runs off 57 balls at 110.52 – a poor strike-rate for someone who usually bats in the death overs.”He is struggling a little bit, but we trusted with the system,” Jayawardene said. “You need to trust your players, you can’t chop and change just because you don’t fire. You have to go with that structure, and yes, eventually as a coach, I will have to make some calls, which I have to think about. It is too early for me; I need 24 hours to think about what happened today and not be emotional about it.”

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Aug-20171:46

The ups and downs in Umar Akmal’s career

Umar Akmal responded to the PCB’s show-cause notice in a defiant manner, urging the cricket board to form a committee of “well-reputed senior players and government officials” to establish whether Mickey Arthur was guilty of “derogatory remarks” against the player.In a letter that repeated many of the allegations he had made against the Pakistan head coach in a fiery press conference last week, Akmal promised to apologise to Arthur should the proposed committee find him guilty, but also made clear he expected the same from Arthur if the verdict was in his favour. Calling himself a national cricketer who had “produced excellent results for Pakistan”, he said that the law did not allow any person to hurt the feelings and self-respect of another individual. He concluded by expressing full faith in the PCB to resolve the matter efficiently, as it was one “of respect, dignity and pride of Pakistan and its nation”.Akmal was sent home from England after failing two fitness tests leading up to the start of the Champions Trophy – despite initially being included in the squad. Akmal had previously been dropped from a tour of the West Indies in April for similar reasons. He was excluded from that squad after he was the only player, out of 31, to fail the fitness test during a camp held at the National Cricket Academy in March.”He [Arthur] shouldn’t be swearing at me like that, it is like he’s abusing all of Pakistan,” Akmal had complained last week. “You look at any cricket match, and you’ll see he’s swearing at one player or the other. I want to reveal this to the public and to all my fans. I request the [PCB] chairman [Najam Sethi] to take this issue very seriously. When the head coach is allowed to swear at someone whenever they wish, that is unacceptable. As a Pakistani, I could not stomach it.”

CEO James Sutherland said the Australia board remains intent on breaking up fixed revenue percentage model that is at the core of its disagreements with the players’ association in the ongoing pay talks

Daniel Brettig05-Mar-2017James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has stated that the board remains intent upon breaking up the fixed revenue-percentage model that sits at the core of disagreements with the players’ union during the current round of pay Memorandum Of Understanding negotiations, and will again take its case to the players when submitting a formal offer in the next few weeks.While saying CA was “absolutely committed to a partnership” with the Australian Cricketers Association, Sutherland said this did not mean a continuation of the revenue percentage agreement that has stood in various forms since the ACA was founded in 1997. He paralleled the players with other partners in the game, such as the long-time international television rights holders Channel Nine.”A partnership by definition isn’t necessarily a share of revenue agreement,” Sutherland said on in Bengaluru. “We have lots of different agreements that are partnerships – for example with Channel Nine. We’ve been in partnership with them for 40 years, but it’s not a share of revenue arrangement.”But it’s an understanding about what’s good for Nine, good for cricket, and we work together on that basis. Similarly at a moment in time, our views are that perhaps that share of revenue arrangement is not so appropriate for the future. We’ll go into some detail around that with the players.”We’ve certainly had discussions and the next stage is for us to put a proposal on the table. We’ll do that in the next little while and we’ll formulate the basis for the next stage of discussions. We’re absolutely committed to a partnership with the ACA, and our players.”Last month ESPNcricinfo revealed that Australia’s Test captains Steven Smith and Meg Lanning had co-signed a letter to Sutherland asking that CA respect the ACA as the players’ chosen collective-bargaining agent, and encouraged the two parties to get back to the negotiating table after talks broke down last December. Up to that point, CA had sought to take its case directly to the players, inviting Smith and his deputy David Warner to dinner in Melbourne while also sending email communications to all contracted players.In the midst of Australia’s bid to unseat India in a home Test series, Sutherland said the ongoing talks were not going to be allowed to become a distraction for the touring team. “We don’t think so. We’re in the flow with the discussions that are going on back home,” he said.”I think from the players’ point of view, it’s the furthest thing from their mind, they’re absolutely ingrained in this contest here. And I think for them it seems a long, long way away. Things will bubble away back home, we will, I’m sure, make progress over the next little while. Bits and pieces will be written in the newspapers and they’ll pick up snippets from there, but it won’t be any sort of distraction for them.”Alistair Nicholson, chief executive of the ACA, responded to Sutherland by saying that the union was still seeking more detailed financial information from CA, and also that he would be speaking to the Test team in India after the second Test. “Contrary to reports in the past 24 hours, the players are keenly interested in the MOU negotiations as witnessed in my recently completed visits with each State playing group and with the national women’s team,” Nicholson said.”And at the end of the second test I will be speaking to the Australian male players to provide them with an update to the current situation of negotiations. The ACA continues to ask for detailed financial information to inform this negotiation which is still being withheld by CA.”The players remain committed to the Revenue Sharing Model that has served the game for the past 20 years and that must be extended to include all female players. Steve Smith, Meg Lanning, Dave Warner and Alex Blackwell wrote to CA in December requesting that CA deal directly with the ACA in the negotiations and stop writing to the players directly. I think we all expect that this wish be respected.”Among other things, Sutherland said that the Test squad’s pre-tour preparations in Dubai at the ICC Global Academy may well be replicated for future assignments, given the array of facilities available there that comfortably outstrip the capacity of host countries to provide for the performance needs of Smith’s team.”I think we’ve learned a lot from that, and full credit to all of those involved in stepping it through – thinking about exactly what was required,” Sutherland said. “I think for us looking ahead, certainly coming to this part of the world it will be hard to avoid in the future.”For us it really does create an environment where even the best laid plans or best intentions of a host board here can’t be matched with our needs and expectations. The ICC Global Cricket Academy were able to provide great conditions for us there, perfectly suited to the conditions that we anticipated we’d get here. Our players turned up, not only ready to play but ready to play in these conditions.”