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Bob Woolmer has confirmed his intention to stand down as Warwickshire’s first-team coach at the end of the season.Woolmer does not wish to extend his contract, and will finish his second stint in charge of the Bears in September.The former England batsman said a major reason for his decision was being away from his family and his Cape Town home for six months of each year.He has offered to maintain his links with Edgbaston on a part-time consultancy basis if required.Woolmer re-joined Warwickshire after a five-year stint as coach of the South Africa national team, and took them to promotion to Division One of the County Championship last season.Last month Warwickshire beat Essex in the last-ever final of the Benson and Hedges Cup at Lord’s. It was the club’s first one-day trophy since 1997.

Somerset Second’s had the better of the final day of their championship match against Gloucestershire that ended yesterday.Starting the day with a first innings lead of 4 runs, Somerset lost early wickets and seamed in danger of being dismissed cheaply until Scott Cunningham hit an impressive unbeaten 110 supported by triallist Rob Sloley who scored 55 to allow the Cidermen to declare on 263 for 9.Batting for a second time Gloucestershire had reached 56 for 1 before the game was called off as a draw.Somerset take 10 points and Gloucestershire 7 points.The Seconds are next in action on Wednesday when they travel to Knowle and Dorridge Cricket Club near Solihull to take on Warwickshire in a 3 day championship match.

Gary Kirsten has declared his interest in becoming head coach of England’s Test team, with Chris Silverwood likely to pay for their Ashes debacle with his job.Kirsten, the former South Africa and India coach, has applied for the role twice previously, in 2015 and 2019. He has not coached an international team since 2013, citing family commitments, but has held roles with various T20 teams including Royal Challengers Bangalore, Hobart Hurricanes and Durban Heat.He was the frontrunner to succeed Trevor Bayliss in 2019 but was beaten to the role by Silverwood after underwhelming at interview. He later revealed that he had believed he was attending a “token interview” and that the ECB had already decided to offer him the job.Kirsten is already on the ECB’s payroll in his role as Welsh Fire’s head coach in the men’s Hundred, and said on Thursday that he would be keen to take over as England’s coach on the proviso that the roles were split between red- and white-ball formats.Related

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“Listen, it [the England job] is always a consideration because it’s a tremendous honour,” Kirsten told the newspaper. “I’ve walked this journey twice now and I’ve always made it clear that I would never commit to doing all formats. And when international cricket boards get their head around the fact that they need to split coaching roles, then it becomes a consideration.”Working with a Test side, or working with an ODI side is great. Listen, the England ODI side is set-up, you’re the best ODI side in the world at the moment. It’s a project that has been well-thought-out. You’ve got consistency in the players that have been picked.”Your Test side has battled for a while but it would be a really lovely project to get that going. I think it’s a great project for someone to come in and take that Test side on. There’s a lot that needs to be put in place to build this Test team out.”Two years ago, Ashley Giles, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket, opted to appoint a single head coach across formats rather than splitting the role in order to ensure “consistency of communication”, with his own experiences as one-day head coach in 2012-14 playing a part in his decision.But Silverwood has regularly been given leave during limited-overs series due to England’s packed schedule, with assistant coaches Paul Collingwood and Graham Thorpe filling in for him, and the ECB are certain to consider whether it is reasonable to expect one individual to have responsibility for both set-ups.

It wasn’t the headline act of the day as Usman Khawaja again stole the show, but for the second year running Cameron Green helped set up an Australia declaration at the SCG with his first major batting contribution of the Ashes.Twelve months ago he scored his maiden Test fifty against India and in this outing his hard work was rewarded as he overcame a nervy start with 74 off 122 balls in an increasingly free-flowing stand of 179 with Khawaja which ensured Australia’s bid for a whitewash remained on track.One of the few head-to-heads that had gone England’s way had been their quick bowlers against Green, who had struggled to get himself into the series with the bat. He was bowled first ball shouldering arms in Brisbane, got a good delivery from Ben Stokes in Adelaide which took off stump before a few cheap second-innings runs, was tied down in Melbourne then pinned lbw by Jack Leach and in the first innings in Sydney edged to slip.Related

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Green has the makings of a generational player for Australia but there will be ups and downs, especially with two parts of his game evolving at once. The bowling has been superb in this series – eight wickets at 12.62 a key part of the five-strong attack – but he was looking jittery at the crease.Khawaja offered advice when the going was tougher – he had arrived with the innings wobbling a touch on 86 for 4 – and a brace of boundaries off James Anderson, a straight drive following by a clumping pull, helped to get him going.”Cameron Green is an absolute weapon. He’s a gun batsman,” Khawaja said. “He’s scored so many runs against Queensland. I hate playing against him in Shield cricket. He can do it at Test level, just needs a little time. It’s not easy. It’s tough work.”I was just talking to him as much as I could, about what we are trying to do out there. He was talking about spin and I was saying what options I thought he could take. Just trying to give him reassurance, especially at the start, you could tell he was a bit nervous at the start. Made sure he kept his intent high, because I know like any other batter he plays better when the intent is there. I was just helping guide him through his innings and once he got to 30 he took it over himself.”Khawaja urged continued patience as Green evolves in the early stages of his Test career which so far tallies eight matches all at home. An upcoming challenge will be a first overseas assignment in Pakistan where his ability to be a third quick will be key in allowing Australia to play a second spinner when conditions dictate.Khawaja drew a comparison with Steve Waugh who initially struggled in Test cricket – and after eight Tests Green’s numbers are significantly better. He averages 30.58 with the bat and 27.37 with the ball whereas Waugh’s figures were 17.20 and 31.33. Green’s ceiling with the ball is much higher than Waugh’s”He’s bowling beautifully and that’s just a bonus. Even he knows it,” Khawaja said. “He loves batting. You don’t get players like Cameron Green very often and I think the selectors see that. Need to give this guy opportunity and time, to go overseas, experience different wickets.”If you do that and invest in these players at a young age, something we haven’t done as well in the past, you’ll reap the rewards down the track. We saw that with Steve Waugh, the same can be said about Cam Green.”

Australia captain Meg Lanning has conceded it will be a challenge to fill the void created by Georgia Wareham’s long-term injury which has seen her ruled out of cricket until well into next year.Wareham, the legspinning allrounder, suffered an ACL injury early in the WBBL and will require her second knee reconstruction meaning she will miss the Ashes, ODI World Cup, and Commonwealth Games during 2022.She had become an integral part of Australia’s white-ball sides over the last couple of years with a vital match-winning display in the crunch 2020 T20 World Cup match against New Zealand where she claimed 3 for 17 to ensure Australia made the semi-final.Wareham also recently made her Test debut against India and would have been in the frame for a second cap against England for the multi-format Ashes in January.”Firstly, obviously, it’s devastating news for Georgia, six months or so [out of the game], so really feeling for her and hope the recovery goes reasonably smoothly,” Lanning told reporters ahead of this weekend’s WBBL matches. “From a team perspective as well it’s not ideal. She’s been playing a massive role for us and think she would have done again over the next few months with some really big tournaments.Related

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“She’ll certainly be a loss, not only her bowling but also her batting and fielding is world class. She’ll certainly leave a bit of a hole but – and it’s something we’ve spoken about over the last few months in the India series – it does present an opportunity for someone else to step up and take it. Hopefully we can see that.”Australia had to manage with a number of key players missing during the multi-format series against India which they ended up winning 11-5 although they were pushed harder than that margin suggests. Jess Jonassen missed the entire series along with Megan Schutt, who was on maternity leave, while Rachael Haynes was ruled out after the ODI series with a hamstring injury.One of the key questions for Australia will be whether they seek a like-for-like replacement for Wareham, in which case Amanda-Jade Wellington, the Adelaide Strikers and South Australia legspinner, would be the frontrunner. Wellington has been capped across all three formats by Australia, playing the 2017-18 Ashes Test, but last appeared in early 2018 since when she has been overtaken by Wareham.”Think there’s some good options out there,” Lanning said. “Whether we go with another legspinner or we do have Jess Jonassen who missed that India series as someone who takes the ball away from the right handers, so we’ll keep our options open as much as we can. There’s a bit of cricket to be played in this WBBL and the WNCL to allow people to put their hands up. The great thing is we have some really good depth and some good young spin bowlers coming through.”Lanning’s immediate priority is to try and guide Melbourne Stars into the WBBL finals after finishing runners-up last season. They currently occupy the fifth position with three wins from eight matches ahead of a vital double-header weekend against Strikers and current leaders Melbourne Renegades.”They are very important games against two very good teams,” she said. “I feel like we’ve really started to get an understanding of the cricket we want to play and individually the roles people will play. It does take a little bit of time sometimes when you get such a new group together and quite a young squad as well.”I feel we are settling into the tournament really nicely now and it is make-or-break. Think it’s pretty similar for most teams, it’s a pretty even comp and after these couple of games we’ll know where we are at and whether we have the capacity to mix it with the best. I’m very confident that we do. We’ve shown glimpses but probably haven’t been as consistent as we’d have liked.”

ScorecardNed Eckersley’s 91-ball hundred was part of a rapid double-century stand•Getty Images

Skipper Billy Godleman led a Derbyshire fightback after Leicestershire had passed 600 on the second day of the Division Two County Championship match at Derby.Godleman marked his 50th first-class appearance for the county with an unbeaten 60 as Derbyshire closed on 154 for 1 in reply to Leicestershire’s 619, still 465 behind.Leicestershire captain Mark Cosgrove top-scored with 188, adding 239 in 38 overs with Ned Eckersley who made a career-best 158 while Sri Lankan allrounder Jeevan Mendis took 6 for 204.It was a question of how many Leicestershire would score at the start of another hot day and the answer was plenty as Cosgrove and Eckersley plundered 100 in the first hour.Cosgrove passed his previous best for the county of 156 at Derby two years ago with a pull for four off Tony Palladino and he launched Mendis for two sixes to bring up the 500 before he was caught at long on.The fourth-wicket stand beat the previous highest for the county against Derbyshire of 207 by Maurice Hallam and Willie Watson in 1959 and there were more records as Leicestershire erased their previous highest score at Derby of 552 for 6 declared 12 years ago.When Eckersley completed his first hundred of the season from only 91 balls, it was only the 13th time in Leicestershire’s history that three batsmen had scored centuries in the same innings and another declaration looked like the only way Derbyshire would get off the field until Eckersley clipped Tom Taylor to deep midwicket.His departure sparked a collapse that saw the last six wickets go down for 38 with Mendis the main beneficiary of Leicestershire’s pursuit of quick runs as he returned the best figures by a Derbyshire legspinner since Kim Barnett, now director of cricket, took 6 for 28 against Glamorgan at Chesterfield in 1991.It was also the most expensive analysis by a Derbyshire bowler in 113 years although he had bowled 52 overs, 24.3 of them in one spell from the Racecourse end broken only be lunch.But the most relevant figure for Derbyshire was 470, the runs required to avoid the follow-on, and Slater and Godleman gave them a solid start although both had some narrow escapes before Slater was caught at short leg off Zak Chappell for 42.Shiv Thakor played and missed several times but hit Chappell for three successive fours although Derbyshire have a lot of batting to do to save the game.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsVirat Kohli and RCB might have to win all their remaining six games to make the playoffs•BCCI

On the heels of collapsing for the lowest total in IPL history, Royal Challengers Bangalore had to endure a washout at home, putting their hopes of making the playoffs in jeopardy.They have only two wins from eight matches so far and might have to win each of their next six games to be among the top four on the points table. Should they pull off such a streak, they will have 17 points. Only four times in the IPL’s past nine years have teams got through to the final four with less than 16 points.Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, are already at third place, might well have enjoyed having an extra night off during a tournament so hectic. The weather soured approximately an hour and a half before the toss and though it was only a drizzle for the most part, it was persistent. The umpires finally called the game off at 11 pm, which meant David Warner’s men continue searching for their first win away from home in 2017.