As England's Test squad assembles for their tour of Sri Lanka - in the wake of a multi-format tour of South Africa, with a home Test summer looming ever larger on the horizon, and with back-to-back T20 World Cups offering a more immediate route to further global glory, it would be easy to park the ECB's other stated ambition for the current four-year cycle - victory in Australia in 2021-22 - in the file marked "pending".

And yet, if there's one lesson to be taken from the abject failure of three of England's last four campaigns in Australia - and moreover, from the stand-out success of that one campaign to buck the trend in 2010-11 - it is that a failure to get planning months, and even years, in advance is a plan for further failure, full stop.

England have, after all, lost nine out of their last ten Tests Down Under, including a 5-0 whitewash in 2013-14 - the same scoreline by which they were thrashed in the 2006-07 campaign that preceded Andrew Strauss's stand-out triumph four years later.

And, as Mo Bobat, the ECB's performance director, pointed out in the wake of a more recent - and equally rare - England Lions triumph over Australia last week, the groundwork that gets laid now will be of fundamental importance to any hope of a repeat success in two year's time.

For last week at the MCG, an England Lions team featuring a mixture of the tried and the tyros won by an emphatic nine wickets over Australia A, their first victory in an unofficial Test in Australia after seven blank campaigns.

And just as Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen et al had batted Australia to a standstill in that famous 3-1 win in 2010-11, it was England's weight of first-innings runs that proved crucial to their MCG victory. Dom Sibley, fresh from his breakthrough Test tour of South Africa, made 116 out of 428, while Essex's Dan Lawrence top-scored with 125 - all the while looking as run-hungry as Pietersen himself had been on the England A tour of India in 2003-04 that preceded his own breakthrough year.

For a week earlier in Hobart, Lawrence's 190 had been the highest of three hundreds in an imposing 613 for 8 declared against a Cricket Australia XI. It seems the virtues of batting time, so alien in the modern T20-dominated landscape, haven't been completely abandoned by the coming generation.

"I was slightly alarmed when I saw it was the first time we'd beaten Australia A ever," Bobat said during a briefing at Lord's after his return from Australia.

"I remember briefing the players at our camp in January. I talked at length about what it takes to win in Australia and the way we wanted to approach getting results. It's not rocket science, but we talked quite a lot around making the most of first innings.

"Of the four times we had won in Australia over the last 20 years, I think in three of them we scored 500-plus in the first innings, someone had batted for more than four or five hours, and bowlers had put in something like 40 overs in the game - so it was about framing into context what it actually takes to win in Australia."

Situational experience is a key part of what the England Lions programme has become. As Bobat conceded, their actual playing record in recent years is nothing much to write home about - take the Caribbean tour two winters ago, when a Lions side featuring four members of the current Test squad (Keaton Jennings, Jack Leach, Dom Bess and Saqib Mahmood) were crushed 3-0 in a series that exposed some deep-seated issues with playing and bowling spin overseas.

But as a means of preparing players for the step-up in intensity and expectation that will come at Test level - or to keep them in the bubble between senior assignments, as in the cases of Sibley, Bess and Zak Crawley since the South Africa tour - it offers the sort of finishing school that county cricket, in its current guise, is struggling to provide in its own right, as Bobat himself told ESPNcricinfo back in December.

"In recent years if you purely looked at win percentage, I don't think our 'A' team win percentage would probably be as high as we might have liked it to be," he said. "But a reassuring thing that I've started to communicate this winter, that people have started to get their heads around, is probably moving the Lions from being viewed as a programme that people might pass through on their way to playing for England - which I'm not that keen on as a mantra - to it being a range of experiences and expertise that players can access based on their needs.

"So we might have England players, as we saw this winter, who then drop back down and get a bit more exposure and experience, and then go again.

"Playing a game at the MCG against Australia A felt like something we should try and bank as an experience for them," he added. "Because we wouldn't want to get to the Ashes in two years' time and for them to experience all of that for the first time.

"It isn't just what you get on the 22 yards, it's being on that flight for that amount of time, it's being in that country and dealing with Aussies just in and around the cricket itself. There are a number of things that you get from that that I would put into that relevant experiences category - dealing with the jet lag, walking out of the MCG through the tunnel. All those types of things, to get that first time, when it really matters, is probably asking a lot for a player, so banking some of that earlier is useful."

For the 2010-11 squad, a lot of that experience came first-hand - meted out by the likes of Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath in their valedictory triumph four years earlier, and stored away for future reference when Strauss, Cook, Pietersen, Ian Bell, James Anderson et al returned with vengeance aforethought. But it was England's depth of fast-bowling options, every bit as much as their vast experience, that made the difference in that campaign - giving them leeway to cope with Stuart Broad going lame midway through the Adelaide Test, or for Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan to come off the bench for the third and fourth Tests and made fundamental contributions.

"If we fast forward to the Ashes, the period before that we play India twice over five Tests [home and away]. We then go to Bangladesh. Then there's the World T20 in India. If we think someone is going to play all that, I think that we are probably kidding ourselves"

Having been outgunned last summer by an Australian pace contingent featuring, at various points, such quality quicks as Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, England know that they have the raw materials to fight back in style in two years' time, with Jofra Archer and Mark Wood both demonstrating an ability to deliver eye-watering spells of raw pace that can rattle the very best.

But, with both men currently injured, not to mention in high demand in the white-ball formats too, the challenge of broadening England's fast-bowling stocks is one that Bobat knows cannot be left to chance. In January, the ECB handed the first of a new range of pace-bowling development contracts to Olly Stone, Saqib Mahmood and Craig Overton, a man whose temperament as a Test prospect is rated perhaps more highly than his bowling at present, but whose six wickets at the MCG were a key factor in last week's Lions win.

"We are making it a judgment on the quality of their current performance and we're making a prediction on their future potential and all three of those bowlers were deemed to be guys that we thought could add value in the future," said Bobat. "They are all slightly different, as well. One thing we do know, and we've done a huge amount of analysis to understand this, is to be successful all around the world, we need a varied attack."

Whether that variety needs to be augmented by using the Kookaburra ball in county cricket, however, is a question that Bobat isn't entirely sold on, despite Joe Root's recent endorsement of the notion and despite Australia turning to the Dukes in their own preparations for English conditions.

ALSO READ: Technical tweaks the trigger for Dan Lawrence's Lions form

"A personal view is I'm not totally sold on the idea because I don't think we know how it's going to behave in this country," he said. "Our pitches are not as abrasive, so I think we're making a bit of an assumption. I'm slightly mindful that we play half of our games at home so let's make sure we are really strong at home, too. If you start to move away from your own strength, there may be some unintended consequences.

"The Ashes isn't the only thing we plan for, clearly. We've got the World Test Championship and we're very ambitious about what we want to achieve in the two T20 World Cups coming up. "It is my job, though, to help get a broader and richer talent pool, to allow us to be able to select strategically, which will also involve at times giving players a rest."

Increasingly, those rests appear to be coming in the switch between formats, with England's Test and white-ball squads containing a range of increasingly specialised players … with a handful of notable exceptions. Key among those, of course, is the kingpin Ben Stokes, a man who produced two of the greatest matchwinning performances of all time at Lord's and Headingley last summer. On his punishing schedule, Bobat is cautious but clear.

"If we fast forward to the Ashes, the period before that we play India twice over five Tests [home and away]. We then go to Bangladesh. Then there's the World T20 in India. If we think someone is going to play all that, I think that we are probably kidding ourselves," he said.

"I'd almost rather not be quoted on this but if we get to a point where Ben Stokes doesn't have to play in the T20 World Cup because we can prioritise the Ashes that would be a great place to get to." Planning for all eventualities, even the currently unthinkable ones, is precisely why he's in his role.

Mashrafe Mortaza has said that the third ODI against Zimbabwe on Friday will be his last as captain. His announcement comes after the BCB president Nazmul Hassan, prior to the ODI series, had said that they would look for a new captain after this series. Mortaza, however, has said that he will continue as a player.

Mortaza led Bangladesh to the semi-final of the 2017 Champions Trophy and the quarter-final of the 2015 World Cup, after taking over as the white-ball captain in November 2014. This was his third stint as captain, after he was first named as Bangladesh captain way back in 2009. However, he had to give up the role the following year due to multiple injuries.

In all, Mortaza led in 87 ODIs, winning 49 and losing 36. Bangladesh also won 10 T20Is in 28 matches under his captaincy. Interestingly, Mortaza led in only one Test, against West Indies in Kingston in 2009, which Bangladesh won.

More to follow

The Everest Premier League (EPL), Nepal's foremost franchise T20 tournament, has been postponed following a government directive to refrain from mass gatherings amid fears about the transmission of COVID-19 (coronavirus).

The tournament, initially scheduled to start on March 14, was set to feature Chris Gayle, Sandeep Lamichhane and Mohammad Shahzad. The tournament's organisers said in a statement that it would be rescheduled for "the closest possible time whenever the situation is favourable".

The has only been one confirmed case of coronavirus in Nepal to date, but given the country's proximity to China, the health ministry requested that the public suspend all major gatherings to reduce the risk of community spread.

ALSO READ: Sickness concern means no handshakes for England in Sri Lanka

Growing concerns about the spread of coronavirus has forced sporting events across the globe to review their position including the Tokyo Olympics. Cricket has not been immune, too. The EPL is the second tournament to fall victim to concerns over the outbreak, following a women's quadrangular T20I series in Thailand that was scheduled to feature Netherlands, Ireland and Zimbabwe.

The EPL postponement comes even as cricket is being played in Nepal's neighbouring countries: India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. On Wednesday, the Sindh provincial government ruled out moving PSL games away from Karachi. The BCCI, too, is yet to issue a directive on the measures it is taking even as the IPL is scheduled to start on March 29.

ALSO READ: PSL games to go ahead in Karachi as scheduled amid coronavirus fears

The EPL organisers, though, have decided it is best to be proactive as cases of people being affected by coronavirus escalates rapidly across the globe. "We are naturally all sad at today's announcement of having to temporarily postpone the 2020 EPL, but we simply have to put the health and wellbeing of all Nepalis and our overseas players before everything else," Aamir Akhtar, the competition's managing director, said.

"It was crucial that we announced this decision now at the earliest possible juncture to ensure the minimum possible disruption to all of our stakeholders, who are integral parts of the ongoing success and growth of the league.

"We would like to thank the government of Nepal for their support and counsel through this challenging period, and we support entirely the professional advice throughout. I would like to assure that as soon as we are able to go ahead with the 2020 season, we will be working to ensure that it will be the spectacular event the likes of which Nepal has never seen before."

Jofra Archer has signed a two-year contract extension with Sussex that will keep him at Hove until the end of the 2021 season.

Though hugely in demand in all formats of the game, at international level and in T20 leagues, Archer says he retains a special bond with Sussex, the club where he first put down roots in England after arriving from his native Barbados in 2016.

"Sussex gave me my opportunity right at the beginning of my career, so I am very happy to commit long term to the club," Archer told Sussex's website.

"I really do enjoy playing with everyone here at Sussex and it was really nice to come back down last year to play a few games with the lads.

"It's the same club that I left it as and it's nice to know nothing has changed. Sometimes people sit in my space in the dressing room now, but that's fine!

"It most definitely still feels special to pull on the Sussex shirt."

Jason Gillespie, Sussex's head coach, added: "We're delighted that Jofra will continue to be with us at Sussex. "I'm really looking forward to having him play for us when his England commitments allows. He loves playing for Sussex - he's like a kid in a candy store!

"We all love having him around, and seeing his improvements as a player has been great. Hopefully we can play a role in helping him continue to get better."

Archer made his first-team debut for Sussex in July 2016, and has claimed 196 wickets in 97 appearances across all three formats. In first-class cricket for the county, he has taken 131 wickets in 28 matches.

He made his England debut in May 2019, after the ECB's residency rules were changed from seven to three years. He has since claimed 30 wickets in seven Tests, as well as playing a pivotal role in England's World Cup triumph at Lord's last summer.

He is currently recovering from a stress fracture of the elbow, and is sitting out of England's Test tour of Sri Lanka. However, he hasn't given up hope of being fit in time to link up with Rajasthan Royals for the latter half of this year's IPL.

Extensive research demonstrates the health and well-being benefits that cherries can deliver

Whilst research has already shown that using Montmorency US tart cherry juice increases circulating melatonin and provides improvements in sleep time and quality of sleep in healthy adults, a new meta-analysis study has found evidence that it also improves endurance performance.

The traditional ingredient is gaining a growing reputation for being a versatile source of vitamins, copper and flavonoids with extensive research demonstrating the health and well-being benefits that cherries can deliver.

FIND OUT MORE AT CHOOSECHERRIES.CO.UK

The new meta-analysis study looked at the collective research of 10 previous studies on the use and effect of cherries as a dietary supplement and has been published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

The studies collectively included 147 athletes of different ages, all participants being endurance-based athletes.

“The recovery benefits of tart cherry concentrate are well researched, yet evidence on performance enhancement is scarce and results have been mixed,” said co-author Philip Chilibeck, PhD, professor in the College of Kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan.

“The results of this meta-analysis found tart cherries did help improve performance, and we gained greater insight into the potential mechanism responsible for this benefit.”

After pooling results from the 10 published studies, the meta-analysis concluded that tart cherry concentrate in juice or powdered form significantly improved endurance exercise performance when consumed for seven days to 1.5 hours before running, cycling or swimming.

FIND OUT MORE AT CHOOSECHERRIES.CO.UK

Farag stops Coll from claiming a trio of Egyptian scalps 
By SEAN REUTHE – Squash Mad Correspondent

Egyptian duo Ali Farag and Nour El Sherbini have been crowned champions of the 2020 Windy City Open, presented by the Walter Family, after they achieved thrilling five-game victories over men’s World No.5 Paul Coll and women’s World No.1 Raneem El Welily in the University Club of Chicago’s stunning Cathedral Hall in the early hours of this morning.

The luxurious setting of the glass court, surrounded by stained-glass windows and chandeliers, provided a fittingly dramatic backdrop as each final unfolded.

Farag’s mission was there for all to see as he completed an astonishing comeback from two games down against Coll.

It was a different story for Sherbini, who managed to deliver performances of the highest quality while concealing an illness that could have let her down at any point of the tournament.

Farag was delighted as he captured his first Windy City Open title courtesy of a 12-14, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6 11-1 victory in 77 minutes.

The result sees him extend his winning streak over Coll to 12 matches. He also makes it back-to-back titles in Chicago after winning the 2018-19 PSA Men’s World Championship crown in the city last season.

Coll had ended a five-match losing streak to World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy and a three-match winless run against World No.4 Karim Abdel Gawad en route to the final, and shot out of the starting blocks to take a one-game lead, while he held firm to take the second after initially squandering a 7-3 advantage.

But Farag’s resurgence in that second game looked to drain Coll’s energy and confidence, and the Kiwi never looked quite the same player over the course of the next three games as Farag absorbed everything his opponent threw at him and slowly took control of the encounter.

For Farag, it’s a first PSA World Tour title since the U.S. Open back in October 2019 and represents his first title win following the death of his nephew shortly after the 2019-20 PSA Men’s World Championship in November.

“I was telling Nour [his wife Nour El Tayeb] after the second that I still had it in me to win the last three games,” said Farag following the 19th PSA title of his career.

“I could have been the one that was 2-0 up but all credit to Paul, after beating Mohamed and Karim, and I was out of it after the second. I tried to hang in there and at least if I didn’t win it then I had put some work into his legs. It has been a great week for myself and I could not be prouder.

“First of all, I would like to thank my brother and his wife for staying so strong. I take inspiration from them every day and this one is for them. Karim Darwish for always letting me believe in myself. He keeps telling me that I am the best player and that pays off. My parents, they are up every morning to watch matches, and last but not least, Nour has been a great inspiration.”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sherbini shakes off illness and injury to beat El Welily 

World No.4 El Sherbini matched Farag in both making it successive title wins in Chicago and winning her final clash in five games as she followed up her title win at the 2018-19 PSA Women’s World Championship with victory over compatriot El Welily.

El Sherbini was a losing finalist to El Welily in the 2016 and 2017 finals but got her revenge over the three-time winner in a week which saw her brave both illness and a persistent knee injury to win this tournament for the first time.

El Sherbini has shown a remarkable ability to win titles despite not being at her best physically, as evidenced by her World Championship win over El Welily in front of the iconic Great Pyramid of Giza in November, which was her first tournament after undergoing knee surgery.

And El Sherbini made it 12-12 all on the head-to-head record against the world’s leading female player to win 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9 in 59 minutes.

“Finally I got to win this tournament,” said El Sherbini after winning her 21st PSA title. “Every year I try very hard and I think Raneem is the favourite here. She has won it three times before and she plays her best here, but I am glad it was my turn this time. This is one of the few tournaments I had not won so it was very important for me to win this title.

“I am really grateful that the tournament is over because I have been suffering the whole week [with illness], and it was very hard for me physically and mentally to prepare for every match and try to be fit and ready.

“I wasn’t feeling very well and I was dealing with a lot, but I am really glad that I made it to the last day and that I kept digging in until the last point in the match.”

The Windy City Open is the most lucrative PSA World Tour event outside of the PSA World Championships, with a total prize fund of $500,000 split equally between the women and the men, and both Farag and El Sherbini will each take home in excess of $35,000 for their efforts in Chicago this week.
 
2020 Windy City Open presented by the Walter Family, Cathedral Hall, University Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Men’s Final:
[1] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [5] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-2: 12-14, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-1 (77m)

Women’s Final:
[2] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt [1] Raneem El Welily (EGY) 3-2: 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9 (59m) 

Pictures by STEVE LINE courtesy of PSA and University Club of Chicago