Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter and his coaching team have agreed new three-year contracts with the club.

Baxter, head coach Ali Hepher, forwards coach Rob Hunter and skills coach Ricky Pellow have all committed to Chiefs until 2023.

Under the coaching team, Exeter have reached the past four Premiership finals - winning the title in 2017.

Baxter, Hepher and Pellow led Exeter to Premiership promotion in 2010, while Hunter joined the club in 2013.

Former Exeter player Baxter has been tipped as a possible successor to England boss Eddie Jones, having ruled himself out of the running to succeed Stuart Lancaster after the 2015 World Cup.

The quartet all had deals that ran out at the end of this season.

Under Baxter and his coaching team, Exeter have established themselves as a force in the top flight.

After clinching their maiden title in 2017, Chiefs have since lost the past two Premiership finals to Saracens, having finished top of the Premiership table in both of those campaigns.

They are currently top of their Champions Cup pool and have won the Anglo-Welsh Cup twice, as well as bringing through England players such as Henry Slade and Jack Nowell.

"Together, we understand the ambitions of the club moving forward - and of how exciting this next period is going to be for the rugby club," said Baxter.

"I think as a group we all feel that everything we want to achieve can be achieved here over these next three years, so it's exciting times for all of us and I'm looking forward to us building on the fantastic foundations we have laid as a collective group."

Somerset have confirmed that they will not be appealing against the decision to dock them 12 points for preparing a substandard pitch for the 2019 Championship title decider against Essex.

The ECB's Cricket Disciplinary Committee (CDC) imposed the deduction last month after rating the Taunton surface as 'poor', noting its "excessive unevenness of bounce". While Somerset accepted the charge, they disputed the suggestion that the pitch was not the best they could have produced.

However, after reviewing the CDC's full report and relevant procedures, the club has decided not to appeal because of the "heavy burden of proof" required to overturn the original verdict.

"This conclusion has been reached because it is clear that, in order to overturn the decision, the club would have to demonstrate conclusively to the Panel who originally implemented the sanctions that they had come to the wrong decision," a Somerset statement said. "Such a heavy burden of proof is extremely difficult for any appellant to discharge.

"The club are very disappointed with the Panel's decision but has concluded that it is in the best interest of all parties to move forward.

"We can now focus on preparing the team and the venue for the demands of the season ahead, with a specific focus on performing successfully, with a highly talented and competitive group of players and a clear focus on developing broader strategies to support this objective through our teams off the field. The club notes the strong message the Panel ruling sends to all first-class Counties."

Somerset finished the 2019 season second in Division One, 11 points behind Essex, after drawing a rain-affected final game - extending the club's wait for a maiden Championship title. They will begin 2020 on minus-12 points, with a further, suspended 12-point deduction hanging over them.

Josh Hazlewood left the field two balls into his second over at the start of New Zealand's first innings in Perth, pulling up in his run-up and then going off after collecting his cap and shades from the umpire. He looked distraught as he slowly made his way to the dressing room.

Pat Cummins completed the over with Australia facing the prospect of being a bowler down to match the loss of Lockie Ferguson in the New Zealand attack.

Australia have played the same side in the first three Tests of the season. They enforced the follow-on in Adelaide, which meant a heavy workload for the quicks, but there was a week between the end of that Test and the start in Perth.

Hazlewood returned to the Test side for the second match of the Ashes in August after having suffered a stress fracture of the back in January.

The injury came amid a dramatic start to New Zealand's innings, as they lost both openers inside two overs. Tom Latham was rushed by Mitchell Starc and got a leading edge back to the bowler, and then the out-of-form Jeet Raval played around a beautiful inswinger from Hazlewood to leave them two down with just one run on the board.

New Zealand came close to losing a third wicket when Ross Taylor just managed to regain his ground after a mix-up with Kane Williamson over a single.

More to follow…

Sri Lanka 282 for 6 (de Silva 87*) v Pakistan

Thirty-two deliveries. That's all the cricket Rawalpindi saw on yet another frustrating, weather-affected day. Overnight rain and a delay in removing the covers wiped out the entire first session of play - the one-hour lunch break for Friday prayers unfortunately falling during exactly the brightest, most cricket-conducive period of the day. Play did eventually begin at 1.10pm, but went on for only 26 minutes, before the umpires deemed the light too poor for cricket to continue.

In the 5.2 overs that were played, Dhananjaya de Silva stroked two confident boundaries - a checked drive through cover off Shaheen Afridi, and a pull through midwicket off Naseem Shah - and moved to 87, having begun the day on 72.

On 81 he was very nearly dismissed, when he under-edged a short-of-a-length delivery from Naseem, and the ball almost deflected into leg stump. Aside from that one scare, however, he appeared comfortable at the crease for the third day in a row, rarely missing out on scoring opportunities, though both Shaheen and Naseem were getting both seam movement and carry out of the pitch.

Dilruwan Perera was far tetchier, having been beaten repeatedly though he faced only 12 deliveries in the day. Sri Lanka, though, did not lose a wicket and inched ahead to 263 for 6.

A result in this Test seems extremely unlikely now. You'd think it would require at least two dramatic batting collapses in the three full innings that are remaining - though if there are two teams that can collectively produce such batting catastrophes, they are Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Britain's Andy Murray is still troubled by a groin injury and has not travelled to Miami for his scheduled December training block.

The former world number one was affected by the problem at last month's Davis Cup Finals.

He is still able to train off court and is expected to start playing again within the next seven days.

Murray plans to represent Britain in the inaugural ATP Cup which starts on 3 January.

He is then expected to compete at the Australian Open in Melbourne from 30 January.

The three-time Grand Slam winner played just one match during Britain's run to the Davis Cup semi-finals.

In October, he won his first singles title since career-saving hip surgery in January, beating Stan Wawrinka at the European Open.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's statue in Sweden has been vandalised again, with saw marks visible on its feet and police erecting a fence around it to prevent further damage.

Ibrahimovic's statue outside Malmo's stadium was set on fire last month, in an apparent reaction to the former LA Galaxy striker becoming a part-owner of rivals Hammarby.

The 38-year-old started his career at Malmo and is Sweden's record goalscorer with 62 in 116 games. He was honoured with a statue in October before it was vandalised in the wake of the announcement he had taken a nearly 25% stake in Stockholm club Hammarby.

A Malmo police spokeswoman told the BBC that vandals had placed a rope around the neck of the statue in the early hours of Thursday morning and tried to saw through its feet.

"There is a risk now it could fall and we have placed a fence around it," the spokeswoman said.

Malmo supporters have started an online petition to get the statue removed and Kaveh Hosseinpour, vice chairman of the club's official supporters group, said following the first attack: "He basically stuck a knife in our backs, and then he came along with a sword and chopped off our heads.

"The statue is completely worthless now, just a piece of junk," Hosseinpour said. "The best way to solve that was if it was removed and put somewhere in Stockholm or something.

"Every game we go to, we are going to pass Zlatan knowing that there is a statue of an investor in Hammarby, not the statue of the football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic anymore."

The former Manchester United, Juventus, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain player is a free agent after leaving LA Galaxy.

During his time in MLS, he scored 52 goals and assisted 17 more in 53 starts for the Galaxy and arguably became the marquee player of the league, winning MLS Newcomer of the Year in 2018 and twice being selected for the MLS Best XI.

Ibrahimovic earned $7.2 million last season, according to the MLS players salary database. He made $1.5 million in 2018.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.

MANCHESTER -- Nicky Butt has a unique way of explaining the role of Manchester United's academy when it comes to turning a young footballer into, hopefully, one of the best in the world.

"I'd describe it as, when you meet the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with, the first thing you are attracted to is looks," Butt, who spent 13 years at United (387 appearances) and is now the head of first-team development for the club, tells ESPN. "Then you begin to learn about the person, you fall in love and then you get married. When you see a young player, the first thing you see is talent. But that can't be all there is, just like in a relationship. You see the talent straight away but the biggest thing then is the character."

"Thousands of players have come through this club that had more talent in their little finger than I ever had, but I got to where I did because of something else. It can't just be talent -- there has to be a lot more."

United's academy will celebrate a significant milestone on Sunday. When Everton visit Old Trafford this weekend, United will mark their 4,000th consecutive game with a youth team graduate in the squad. It's a run that stretches back more 80 years to Oct. 30, 1937, when Tom Manley and Jackie Wassall played in a 1-0 defeat to Fulham. To put that into context, Everton have the next best record in the top flight with a run of more than 1000 games over 20 years which ended in August.

This unbroken run is something United are so proud of that it formed part of Ed Woodward's call with investors in November. His mission statement is "win trophies, play attacking football and give youth a chance." The last part is one of the reasons Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was chosen as manager when Jose Mourinho was sacked nearly a year ago, but from a broader point of view, players produced by the club form a key part of its history.

In 1968, United became the first English club to win the European Cup with a team that included eight youth players, just 10 years after the Munich Air Disaster killed eight members of Sir Matt Busby's "Busby Babes," seven of which had come through the youth system. The production line was reborn under Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1990s and when United won the Champions League in 1999, the team that beat Bayern Munich in the final included four graduates from the academy class of '92: David Beckham, Butt, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville. There would have been another in the XI had Paul Scholes not been suspended.

The latest batch to make the step up to the first team picture include Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Scott McTominay, Mason Greenwood and Brandon Williams. Each is following in the footsteps of others who have made the same journey like Duncan Edwards, George Best, Mark Hughes, Giggs and Beckham, and this commitment is reflected in the club's record books. Man United's top five all-time appearance makers -- Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton, Scholes, Bill Foulkes and Neville -- are all academy graduates. This season, 31 out of United's 34 goals have been scored or assisted by a former youth team player.

The academy in action

United can register players at the Under-9 level in accordance with Premier League rules. At 16, a select group sign scholarships and go on to train at Carrington every day. The club have a link with Ashton-on-Mersey School in Sale, about five miles from Old Trafford, to ensure young players get a real education as well as a footballing one and between the ages of 16 and 18, the players spend at least one day a week at school. On other days, teachers hold lessons at Carrington. The Monday morning after Rashford scored his first two Premier League goals against Arsenal in February 2016, he could be found playing pool in the sixth form common room.

Their education isn't all about football and the club have had an astronaut and a Holocaust survivor in to talk to the young players. Former first-team stars are also regular visitors to talk about their own experiences -- Roy Keane has been in this season -- and there are reminders of success everywhere in the dedicated academy building at Carrington. The corridors are covered with murals of Rashford, Lingard, Giggs and Scholes while upstairs, there are shirts on the wall with names and numbers of Edwards, Hughes and Beckham. On the noticeboards in some of the dressing rooms there are words of advice written by Gary Neville. No. 3 is: "Always remember why you began to play football. You loved it for its own sake and not as a means to get money, fame, girls or cars."

United's aim is to help youngsters fulfill their potential, whether that's as a first team player at United, at another club or in another industry. They have the resources to buy almost any player they choose, and producing one from scratch to meet their exacting standards is a huge task.

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"It's hard, really hard," says Nick Cox, who took over as head of the academy in the summer. "It's up there with winning an Olympic gold medal or landing on the moon. We have to be realistic with our kids. We want them all to dream. We want them all to have aspirations, but only a handful of players get the privilege of crossing the white line at Old Trafford as a homegrown player."

"What keeps you here is character and commitment"

Butt admits it doesn't always go to plan even with the most talented boys who walk through the door.

"For me, the biggest disappointment at this club was Adnan Januzaj," says the former England midfielder, who was part of the 1999 Champions League-winning side. "I don't think I've seen a player, probably since Ryan [Giggs], who was as good as that. He was unbelievable. In my eyes he should have gone on to be a world superstar. He's still playing professional football [at Real Sociedad in Spain] and he will have a good career. I'm sure he's a millionaire and he won't be going to bed worrying about what bills he's got to pay, but he should have been a superstar.

"Talent gets you through the gate here but what will keep you here is character and commitment."

Butt points to two of the most recent graduates, McTominay and Williams, as examples for other hopefuls to follow.

"With Scott and Brandon, that's just character," he adds. "Character with talent and not talent with character. It's a never-say-die attitude, a will to win. They are both talented footballers, but to get to where they have got is down to their attitude."

It's not just players that are produced by the academy, either. Kieran McKenna was U18s coach before he was added to the first team coaching staff by Jose Mourinho and then kept on by Solskjaer. Neil Wood, a former United reserve team captain, is lead coach at U23 level. Neil Ryan, son of Jimmy Ryan, a former Busby Babe and assistant to Ferguson, has risen from coach of the U11s to U18 lead coach.

"It's special for me for my father to have been so heavily involved," says Ryan Jr. "That's quite a special thing to have grown up with and to be educated on. I was lucky enough to meet Sir Matt Busby many years ago as a young kid. It's in your blood. It helps me with my job. It also helps me when I'm speaking to the players and the families that we speak to, as well about the special history of this club. One of the first groups I had was Jesse Lingard's group. It's part of my job to educate the players on the history of the Busby Babes. We've had a lot of success with young players who we have been able to pass onto the first team.

"You work your way through the age groups getting valuable experience. Not just on the pitch, but off it too. Just moments when you sit round a table with Sir Alex Ferguson and talk -- those are priceless moments that you don't forget."

United make no secret of their desire to sign the best players in the world, but their goal is to supplement the imports with their own players and, hopefully, create a few superstars of their own.

"It's a tradition we're very proud of and it's in our DNA to give young players a chance," says Solskjaer. "I like to give young players a chance, they can only surprise and impress you when you give them a chance. It will definitely be more than 4,000 games. We have a great academy and it's something we're proud of."

Everything you need to know about this weekend's Premier League action, all in one place.

Jump to: Have Arsenal found some magic? | Can Man United succeed against lesser teams? | Man to watch | Game not to miss | Stats of the weekend | Team that needs a bit of luck | One thing that will definitely happen | Predictions

The weekend's big questions

How will Manchester City approach the remainder of the season?

With the gap now at 14 points, barring a miracle wrapped in a miracle the Premier League title is gone for Manchester City. All of their focus, intentionally or otherwise, will surely be on the Champions League now. So how will they now approach domestic affairs? Can they possibly play with the same intensity?

This might well be Pep Guardiola's greatest challenge of the last few years, to motivate a team now used to sitting astride the Premier League and get them to play at the same levels when they know, realistically, the top prize is gone."You can't stop competing and that's what Guardiola instils in us every day, that every game is a final," said Rodri this week, almost sounding convincing.

Perhaps this will actually free City, playing with nothing more to lose, and they will start performing more like the team of the last two seasons. Either way, we will see a glimpse of what is to come when they face Arsenal on Sunday.

Can Arsenal extend nine minutes of brilliance into the rest of the season?

Watching Arsenal beat West Ham on Monday was a slightly surreal experience, because of what a shock the nine-minute spell in which they scored their three goals was. There was no build-up of pressure, no promising spell eventually rewarded with breaking the deadlock. They went from abysmal to exhilarating at the flip of a switch, which was enough to beat a poor West Ham side, but the question now becomes whether they can spin those brilliant nine minutes into something more tangible for the rest of the season.

Starting that against Manchester City isn't ideal on paper, but it's a potentially vulnerable City after their recently acquired habit of dropping points like an uncertain waiter dropping crockery. Might this be the start of something better for the Gunners?

Can Manchester United do well against one of 'the rest'?

The curious nature of Manchester United's season continued last week when they beat Manchester City and Tottenham, despite drawing with two of the promoted teams in the two games before that. Their style of play, able to soak up an amount of pressure before lightning counter-attacks, explains their good record against "big" teams to an extent, but there must be an element of altered mentality at play too.

Is there something about this Manchester United side that, tactically and psychologically is less suited to playing theoretically inferior teams? Or were their results in those last two games actually indicative of a change, and their overall form will improve now? We could get the answer to that when they play Everton on Sunday.

Man to watch

Duncan Ferguson

The first game is easy. Well, perhaps that's a bit unfair. But the first game is when the shock of the new, the advantage of simply not being the other guy is at its most potent. And the reason Everton looked so different against Chelsea is that they were playing with the sort of enthusiasm and aggression and gumption that they had been missing in the last days of Marco Silva's reign.

But that will only last you so long: Duncan Ferguson might not be in charge of Everton in the long-term but he will be for their trip to Manchester United on Sunday, and the new manager glow will already be starting to wear off a little. It will be fascinating to see what Ferguson comes up with.

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The game you're not planning to watch but should

Southampton vs. West Ham

Uncertainty abounds in this one, as a team who looked like they were starting a revival only to lose last time out, face a side whose manager is reportedly hanging on by his fingernails. Southampton had gone three games unbeaten (which doesn't sound like much, but is for them) before losing to Newcastle, while West Ham's abject performance against Arsenal has left Manuel Pellegrini on the brink. Both sides are dysfunctional, one might be on the upswing and the other down: there are so many dynamics at play in this one that it could be sensational.

Stats of the weekend

Information courtesy of ESPN Stats & Information group.

- Liverpool return to Anfield after a midweek win in Austria in the Champions League and will look to extend their unbeaten streaks against last-place Watford. Liverpool won their last three Premier League home matches vs Watford by a combined score of 16-1.

- Tammy Abraham is looking to score in his third straight home Premier League match. The last Englishman to score in three consecutive Premier League matches at Stamford Bridge for Chelsea was their current manager Frank Lampard, who did it in 2010.

- Leicester City are in second place in the Premier League this season on 38 points and trail first-place Liverpool by eight points. It's the club's best 16-game start to a league season, three points better than at the same point of their 2015-16 title-winning season.

The team that needs a bit of luck

Bournemouth

Eddie Howe tried not to blame Bournemouth's poor form on their injury problems last weekend, and losing five straight games when you still have your best defender, central midfielder and striker available is concerning. But Bournemouth really need to catch a break with their fitness issues: the Liverpool game saw two of those key players, Nathan Ake and Callum Wilson, limp off. If the latter isn't available for this weekend's trip to Chelsea then their only fit striker is Dominic Solanke, scorer of exactly zero goals since his £20 million move from Liverpool in January. They basically have an entire team on the sidelines, so we'd probably let Howe off if he does want to use that as an excuse.

One thing that will definitely happen

One of Liverpool's fringe players will do something special

At the moment the Liverpool squad seems to be thriving on one giant sense of "fear of missing out," everyone absolutely straining to get in on the act of what is shaping up to be an extremely special season. In the last couple of games we've seen Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri, to that point Liverpool's forgotten toys left under the bed to gather dust, both score and excel, so you wonder who will be next.

A match-controlling show by Adam Lallana? A towering defensive performance by Joe Gomez? A Rhian Brewster hat trick? Liverpool need these fringe players to excel in this insane period of the season, and they are doing just that at the moment.

Predictions

Liverpool 4-0 Watford
Burnley 1-1 Newcastle
Chelsea 3-2 Bournemouth
Leicester 3-1 Norwich
Sheffield United 2-0 Aston Villa
Southampton 2-2 West Ham
Wolves 2-3 Tottenham
Manchester United 1-2 Everton
Arsenal 1-3 Manchester City
Crystal Palace 2-0 Brighton

Ishank Jaggi, the Jharkhand batsman, was resting his sore back in the dressing room when PN Singh, the team manager, sat beside him and quipped, "Eden Gardens ka repeat ho jaaye (Should we have a repeat of Eden Gardens)?" Jaggi, as he later told ESPNcricinfo, replied: "Kabhi Kabhi ho sakta hai, baar baar nahi (It might happen once in a way, not always)."

The comparison was apt. Tripura had scored 289 at home in Agartala and then bowled Jharkhand out for 136, enforcing the follow on with more than two days left to play in Agartala. Singh's reference was obviously to that Kolkata Test of 2001. It seemed hopeless then, and it did now, and little did Jaggi know that he would be at the centre of this "kabhi kabhi ho sakta hai" turnaround.

Jharkhand went on to win in dramatic circumstances, with the final wicket claimed in possibly the last over of the contest, Tripura bowled out for 211 after Jharkhand had declared on 418 for 8.

"We were just beginning to get a little nervy, but eventually managed to hold on because we were determined to not be denied after having come that close. It would've been cruel to not win after that kind of a comeback" Ishank Jaggi

"It was around 4pm, and just an over earlier the umpires got together to take a light reading," Jaggi, who had hit 107 (retired) - with Saurabh Tiwary scoring 122 not out - in the second innings, said. "We knew it was a race against time. We possibly had six balls to take the last wicket, or else it would have most likely been a draw, because once we went out, there was no way we were coming back on."

When Ashish Kumar, the senior-most bowler in the Jharkhand XI, trapped Rana Dutta lbw, the camp went crazy. They had become the first team since Sourav Ganguly's Indians to win a first-class game in India after following on. Astonishingly, Jharkhand also became the first side in Ranji Trophy history to come back from a follow-on and win. "It's unbelievable," Jaggi added.

Victory was even more special as it had come without a number of their first-XI players. Ishan Kishan, Varun Aaron, Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Shukla were all out due to niggles. Ashish, with 30 first-class games under his belt, and Ajay Yadav, slightly less experienced, had 19-year-old debutant Vivekanand Tiwari as the third fast bowler. The trio picked up all ten second-innings wickets between them.

Before that, Jaggi and Tiwary got together in the first session on day three, with Tripura having reduced Jharkhand to 138 for 5 in the second innings, still 15 runs behind. Jaggi, a veteran of 84 first-class games, hit his 19th first-class century, before retiring because of that flared back. Tiwary was still there when Jharkhand declared.

"We batted for a bit on the final day, just to tire them out even more," Jaggi said of the plan. "I don't think anyone in Tripura's position would have expected the turnaround after picking up five wickets in the second innings. In going all out for a win, they kept attacking with their main bowlers, we kept playing them out and eventually they were tired.

"Later when their second set of bowlers came on, we started picking the runs. Once the partnership between Saurabh and me crossed 100, we decided to slowly try and push the runs, so that even if we get bowled out, there is some sort of a total to defend."

There was a small issue, though. Jaggi's back was beginning to hurt. He has a left-side disk compression in his spine, a problem he has had to manage for seven years now. His left leg is also a tad longer than his right, leading to issues. This even forced him to pull out midway through the white-ball season.

"As I got tired, I decided to attack the new ball in search of quick runs," Jaggi said. "But once it got to a stage where I had to go off, we decided having a new batsman with fresh legs in Anukul Roy was the best way forward, since they at one stage had nine fielders at the rope, and I wasn't able to run."

Roy contributed a quickfire 25 to set up the declaration.

This gave their bowlers a little over two-and-half sessions to defend 265, and victory was very much in sight when Jharkhand reduced Tripura to 41 for 5 at lunch.

"We briefly switched off after picking five wickets, but Manisankar Murasingh played a fabulous knock to make a century. We were just beginning to get a little nervy, but eventually managed to hold on because we were determined to not be denied after having come that close. It would've been cruel to not win after that kind of a comeback," Jaggi said.

Were there any celebrations afterwards? "No restaurants, no entertainment, no food outside," Jaggi laughed. "We stayed put at the hotel, enjoyed a quiet dinner, and all of us went to bed early."

Now, they have to wait. The Assam v Services game in Guwahati had to be abandoned because of political turmoil in Assam, and that's where Jharkhand are scheduled to travel next. The situation hasn't improved, and the match might well be rescheduled.

Glenn Maxwell has admitted he was suffering the effects of "four or five years" of near constant travel until his partner Vini helped convince him to step off the international treadmill for a mental health break in October, and has resolved to be more careful about how he plans his schedule in the future.

The start of the Big Bash League and his role as captain of the Melbourne Stars always loomed as a likely moment for Maxwell to return to cricket, though he has been around the Victorian set-up for several weeks now and made himself available for the state's final Sheffield Shield game before going on Twenty20 hiatus. But he is a much fresher and wiser man for the time away from the game, having re-acquainted himself with home, family and life not lived out of a suitcase.

That had been Maxwell's lot for most of the past five years, culminating in close to eight months of continuous travel this year as a key component of Australia's white ball teams, plus stints with Lancashire in English county competition and the beginning of the domestic season for Victoria.

When he finally did elect to step back, following the start of Australia's T20 series against Sri Lanka, Maxwell was described as "not enjoying his cricket" by the national coach Justin Langer, and he spoke to the likes of Moises Henriques, Australia's team psychologist Michael Lloyd and the noted sports psychiatrist Ranjit Menon on his way back to a better balance.

"I was pretty cooked when I decided to take the time off," Maxwell said. "Big reason why I did take that time away is I was pretty mentally and physically ruined. I think it was eight months on the road, living out of a suitcase and that probably had been going on for four or five years, just constantly on the road and it all just caught up with me at that time. I really want to thank Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria and the Stars for giving me that space and allowing me to have that time away from the game and get myself right.

"It was actually my partner who suggested I speak to someone, she was the first one who noticed it, so I should probably thank her as well. Once I had that initial conversation it was a big weight off my shoulders. My girlfriend was probably No. 1, it wasn't an easy job for her to deal with me going through my mood swings for the first few weeks, but Michael Lloyd was the guy I had the initial conversation with, he's been someone who I've confided in since back in the academy days, so I've known him for well over a decade now."

"Guys like Moises Henriques, I think he was my first phone call after everything sort of calmed down. He was brilliant for me, giving me something. He has gone through it as well, giving me an idea of what I would expect to see over the next few weeks and he was unbelievable. You go through a lot of waves of emotions over the first few weeks [of the break] and especially that first week, that was probably the hardest, and as I took the time away to get myself right and speak to the right people and have that amazing support network behind me was pretty key."

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It's clear that Maxwell had looked upon 2019 as a year of much opportunity, but after the World Cup ended in a semi-final appearance and he found himself playing for Lancashire and watching the Ashes rather than playing in them, he is mindful of managing his playing commitments and his self-expectations a little more carefully over the remainder of a career that, at the age of 31, may still have his very best days ahead of him.

"I did put a bit of pressure on myself to try and play as much as I could this year and, rightly or wrongly, I didn't come out of it the way I thought I was going to. I'll have a look at that next year," Maxwell said. "A holiday was actually spending time at home. I spent as much time at home as I could with friends and family. I tried to stay fit, and I still watched a fair bit of cricket over that time, but pretty exciting to get going now.

"I look at it a little bit differently, a little bit more respect for taking care of myself in all aspects of the game and not losing sight of taking care of myself in those times where you're in a hotel room pretty constantly and being able to have that time to myself and refresh."

Contrary to many assumptions, Maxwell said that social media criticism had not been a part of his problems. "I have been a pretty bad victim of social media and a fair bit of abuse but I have become pretty accustomed to it," he said. "It slides off my back.

"I think I have been pretty hard on myself, I have been my own hardest critic for a long period of time. That can wear you down and it is more the stuff you put on yourself, not so much from the outside. I suppose being able to relax a bit more and enjoy playing the game. I probably look at things a little bit differently but a little bit more respect for taking care of myself in all aspects of the game and not sort of losing sight of taking care of myself in those times where you're in a hotel room pretty constantly and being able to have that time to myself and refresh."

As for his return to the game, Maxwell has clearly enjoyed being back with the Stars, now coached by his former state teammate David Hussey, an environment in which the allrounder described as "home" for him. "It probably took a bit longer than I thought it was going to take, it was an interesting six weeks, away from the game and there was probably times I thought I was going to come back earlier," Maxwell said. "Once I got back into club cricket, the cycle started to feel a bit more normal again and I feel like I'm back at home.

"I've been getting back in the swing of things for a while, I've been around the Vics change rooms for the last two or three weeks now, so I've sort of been floating around and watching a few of the one dayers and just trying to get back into the change room atmosphere again. Coming back here with the Stars feels like home again, a new coach, a bit of familiarity as an ex-player, but it's a great change room to be a part of, it's very welcoming."

As for a return to Australian colours, Maxwell was notably cautious to ensure he did not think about it before concentrating on the fortunes of the Stars, who under his leadership came within a few overs of scooping last summer's BBL title. "I'll always put my hand up to play for higher honours for sure," he said, "but first and foremost I've got to perform well for the Stars and lead by example."