Gary Kirsten has confirmed he would "love to get back into international cricket" despite missing out on the role of England head coach.

While Kirsten said he was "not bothered" by having failed to win the England role, he insisted he was prepared to endure the months on the road that are inherent with international coaching and said he would have accepted the job had it been offered.

Kirsten was seen as favourite for the England job once Alec Stewart pulled out of the reckoning. He has enjoyed successful spells as coach of India and South Africa and, having initially said he would only consider the position in one format of the game (either red- or white-ball coach, but not both), then reconsidered and made himself available for the entire role.

But he is believed to have underwhelmed in his interview. As well as demonstrating comparatively little knowledge of England's current team, he seems to have expressed some trepidation towards the side's relentless schedule. And while he is adamant he was keen on the job, he admitted he was apprehensive about the time he would have been required to spend away from home.

"I wouldn't have flown across the world if my heart wasn't in the job," Kirsten told ESPNcricinfo. "It would have been a great opportunity. I've always wanted to be involved in English cricket. But it is hectic, without a doubt. It means you are probably away from home for 250 days a year.

"My kids are little and I placed a huge importance on being able to see them as regularly as I could. But I discussed it with my wife, we've done it before with India so we know the space, and we said 'we'll make it work if we can'. They [the ECB] said they were going to create [some space for time off in the schedule].

"I'm not bothered by the decision. Everyone makes the call they need to. It's great to be part of the Hundred, actually. I was going to lose that if I got the England job. This will be exciting."

Despite his enthusiasm for the Hundred, where he will coach Welsh Fire, Kirsten hinted he may pursue more international coaching roles in the future.

"I'd love to get back into international cricket," he said. "I've been out of international cricket for six years. I only came over to England because I was excited by the opportunity. I would have accepted the job."

Kumar Sangakkara could return to Pakistan for the first time since the Lahore attacks 10 years ago, this time as MCC president. Sangakkara was part of the Sri Lanka touring team that was attacked by terrorists on the way to Gaddafi stadium for the third day's play in March 2009, an attack that effectively spelt the end of international cricket being played in the country.

He has not made a public return since but in his new role as MCC president, he could do if the MCC decide to send a touring team to Pakistan. "Yes, if the opportunity arises and the tour definitely goes ahead I would be part of it for sure," Sangakkara told ESPNcricinfo.

Sangakkara was not only on the bus that was attacked on the way from the team hotel, but he was injured by shrapnel in the process - one of six players injured. He has since spoken with some humour about the attack and has said, before becoming MCC President, that the decision to tour Pakistan should be down to the individual.

No side toured Pakistan for the next six years, until Zimbabwe broke that drought by playing a limited overs series in May 2015. Since then there has been a gradual increase in the number of high-profile and international games in the country. A World XI played a T20I series in 2017; West Indies did likewise in 2018. The PSL has held its final games in Pakistan over the last two seasons and the PCB wants to play much of the league in the country this season.

Most recently, Sri Lanka - who also played a solitary T20I in Lahore in 2017 - played six international games in Lahore and Karachi, the longest visit by an international side in this last decade. That was a side shorn of a number of leading players but potentially, Sri Lanka could also be playing at least one Test in Pakistan in December

At this stage, a tour by the MCC is far from confirmed, but feedback from Sri Lanka's visit has been good.

"It's great to see Sri Lanka tour Pakistan and the feedback that it was such a great tour, it was lovely, the players really enjoyed it," Sangakkara said. "The security was very, very tight and they provided every single facility for the Sri Lanka team. The MCC has been discussing an MCC tour to Pakistan as well, Wasim Khan [PCB CEO] has been with us in many presentations at the World Cricket Committee and presenting us with various plans in terms of security and otherwise as to how that tour can go ahead.

"So there is a lot of positive chat and conversation around it and if they can manage that, that will be exceptional. I mean Pakistan is doing a huge amount of work to ensure that it is a safe place for countries to tour. I'm sure slowly but surely cricket will go back to Pakistan and players from Pak will be able to play in front of their home crowd."

Match abandoned
Chhattisgarh 190 for 6 in 45.4 overs (Harpreet 83, Khare 59, Kulkarni 2-9) v Mumbai 95 for 0 in 11.3 overs (Jaiswal 60*) [Target: 192 in 40 overs]

The inequities of a rain-affected knockout match were brought to the fore as Chhattisgarh's quarter-final against Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20 was washed out on Monday.

Chhattisgarh had finished the league stage with five wins to Mumbai's four, and with number of wins in the league stage being the first deciding criterion in the event of a washout, they found themselves in a first-ever semi-final. Their defeat of Mumbai in the league stage, when they chased down 318, proved to be pivotal.

Excellent bowling by Mumbai, who ensured captain Shreyas Iyer's decision to bowl first was vindicated, meant Chhattisgarh had plodded to 190 for 6 with just 4.2 overs remaining. A sharp downpour meant lunch was taken early and Mumbai's innings was shortened to 40 overs, with the target set at 192 via the VJD method.

Teenage wunderkind Yashasvi Jaiswal then showed how good the surface at the Alur II stadium was - coupled with how outrageously gifted he himself is - as Mumbai clattered 95 without loss in 11.3 overs before the skies opened up once again. Unlike the previous downpour, this one was of much greater intensity, and though it lasted barely over half hour, the ground was soggy, wet and in no condition to complete the 8.3 overs that remained to count as a result.

The first stoppage in play had lasted 88 minutes, but hadn't affected the game's direction. When Mumbai came out to bat, they were expected to do so on a pitch made a bit spicy by moisture - the umpires waited a good ten minutes before calling for the covers even as a drizzle intensified during Chhattisgarh's innings - but someone forgot to tell Jaiswal that.

The 17-year-old who came into this game having hit three centuries in his last four innings, with his most recent knock being a monumental 203, looked on course to make yet another three-figure score. He showed respect for neither age, nor bowler, carting Chhattisgarh's bowlers for five fours and as many sixes. Three of those sixes resulted in stoppages of play because the ball had gone over the boundary wall of the stadium. Ironically, Jaiswal's big-hitting actually meant a few valuable minutes lost while new balls were sought, though of course it was not a serious enough delay to make Mumbai wonder if their opener should have just held back a wee bit and sent the ball merely over the rope.

Jaiswals's opening partner Aditya Tare was progressing niftily at a run-a-ball, but his 31* looked positively snail-like against Jaiswal's 38-ball 60.

Defending champions Mumbai looked primed to saunter into the semi-finals and set up a rematch with Karnataka, but it was not to be.

Earlier, Dhawal Kulkarni had led the way with the ball, returning a first spell of 6-4-3-1, with Shardul Thakur not too far behind with his 6-2-13-1. Chhattisgarh's early loss of wickets and nip off the deck meant they went into extreme caution mode, and the scoreboard read 16 for 2 in 12 overs. That run-rate of 1.33 was still an improvement from being 10 for 2 in 11 overs.

Captain Harpreet Singh was still there though, and he showed the value of biding time on the surface. He found a good ally in Amandeep Khare, as the duo added 135 runs in 143 balls for the fourth wicket, lifting Chhattisgarh from a sorry 40 for 3 in the 19th over.

Harpreet had been on 9 off 46 balls at one stage, but accelerated gradually, before exploding in the 39th over, bowled by left-arm spinner Shams Mulani. The second, fourth and sixth balls all disappeared over the ropes, in the arc between long-on and deep midwicket, as he moved from 57 to 75 in five balls.

Just when Chhattisgarh seemed to have found their finishing gear though, he fell for 83 off 108 balls. Another mini-collapse followed, as Chhattisgarh went from 175 for 3 to 181 for 6, even as Khare held fort on a patient half-century. Taking that clutch of wickets just before rain meant Mumbai had to chase relatively fewer than they could have otherwise, though 192 in 40 overs still felt generous to Chhattisgarh. Eventually, the rain gods proved most generous.

At the heart of the Bangladesh players' discontent that led to the boycott, is their financial situation: Six out of the eleven demands made by the players are for better pay in some form or level of cricket. The BCB, the players feel, has squeezed their income through salary caps, drafts, and other restrictive practices.

There are three major sources of income for the professional Bangladeshi cricketer - the Dhaka Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League and the National Cricket League. The fourth source, the BCB's central contract for the national team, is the most lucrative, but it is only for a handful. Here are the key financial demands made by the players, and their rationale for those demands:

Open market transfer in DPL

The DPL is the highest level of the four-tiered Dhaka league structure. Originating in the early 1960s, it provides opportunities to the maximum number of players and is considered the country's top domestic competition. It had always operated in an open market system for the players' inter-club transfer, meaning a player was free to choose which club they wanted to play for and to negotiate their pay for the season.

Since Nazmul Hassan became BCB president seven years ago, though, apart from one season, the BCB has used a draft system in which clubs have chosen their players, with a salary cap for each category. For the 2018-19 season's Dhaka Premier League, the board had set a draft with different categories that paid cricketers between BDT 3.5 to 35 lakh (approx. USD 2,700 to 27,000). Seven years ago, the market was - at a conservative estimate - between BDT 5 to 60 lakh (approx. USD 5,900 to 70,000).

Hassan's board agreed with the clubs' complaints that players were demanding too much money, even though the board already subsidises the clubs' operations. Most of the BCB's members and directors are from these Dhaka clubs, which hold a huge say in the board's matters.

Return of the franchised BPL

The BPL, which began in 2012, has had its share of difficulties with payment but it was a godsend for domestic players at a time when the DPL clubs were already applying the squeeze through BCB. Even though salaries were delayed in the first couple of seasons, there was a measure of regularity since 2015.

The problem here is the difference in salaries between Bangladeshi and foreign players. Most overseas players get a much higher valuation in the draft, even though local cricketers like Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah and Mashrafe Mortaza have been the BPL's top performers.

In the 2019 BPL, Mushfiqur earned between USD 47,000 to 88,000 after being put in the A+ category. The same category for the overseas players - which included Shahid Afridi, Imran Tahir and Evin Lewis - was for USD 200,000. The rest of the categories, too, see huge differences - up to five times - between the domestic and foreign players.

The demand, read out by Mushfiqur, was for domestic players' payment to be closer to that of overseas players. Also for every player to be able to decide which category he wants to be in, like other franchise-based T20 leagues.

First-class squeeze

One of AHM Mustafa Kamal's last contributions as BCB president was to fix a monthly stipend for 105 first-class cricketers. The salary was paid in three categories, in which players got between BDT 15,000 to 25,000 per month. This salary remains the same even today, while they have reduced the number of players from 105 to 70.

Match fees are a bargain too, as they get BDT 35,000 (approx. USD 413) per match, and the daily (BDT 1,500 = USD 17) plus travel allowance (BDT 2,500 = USD 29) is not enough.

Shakib said on Monday that the match fees should be at least BDT 100,000 (approx. USD 1,180), while cricketers must be given more money for food and assurance of an airline ticket rather than find bus and train routes to reach first-class venues.

More players, better pay in central contracts

The sixth point, read out by Enamul Haque jnr, was to increase the number of centrally contracted players to 30, and for the retainers to be hiked. Currently, the best-paid player in Bangladesh, in the A+ category, earns USD 52,500 per year after tax. It has been the same since 2017 when the salary was increased for the last time.

The amount, as reported two years ago, remains one of the lowest player central contract in world cricket. Bangladeshi cricketers are paid less than that of Zimbabwe's and Ireland's, leave alone Sri Lanka, West Indies or other Full Members.

Interestingly, the players didn't demand a percentage of the BCB's revenue, sponsorship, broadcasting or the amount provided by the ICC each year, as happens in some other countries.

Another UAE player has been suspended in relation to the corruption scandal that hit the team last week. Just before the start of the T20 World Cup qualifiers, the ICC charged three of their senior members with 13 breaches of its anti-corruption code. On Monday, the Emirates Cricket Board placed Ashfaq Ahmed under provisional suspension. The 34-year old is not facing any official charges yet.

Five days ago, the ICC provisionally suspended captain Mohammad Naveed and senior batsman Shaiman Anwar, charging the two players with attempts to "fix" or "improperly influence" matches in the ongoing Qualifiers. Allrounder Qadeer Ahmed was also issued the same penalty for allegedly disclosing inside information to people who were betting on cricket.

Ashfaq has played 16 ODIs and 12 T20Is for the UAE and was part of the UAE's squad in the qualifiers. He played the team's first two matches but not the third, which took place on the day the Emirates Cricket Board sent out a press release with details of his being pulled out of the tournament.

"Further to the ongoing investigations led by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit, Emirates Cricket Board has today provisionally suspended Ashfaq Ahmed with immediate effect," it said. "No formal charges have been laid against the player, and the Board will wait for the conclusion of proceedings before making any further comment."

Both Naveed and Qadeer have spoken out since they were charged, admitting fault only for not reporting corrupt approaches made on them and nothing else. Qadeer refuted the other charges and said he was looking to appeal.

Former Miami and Georgia coach Mark Richt said he had a heart attack early Monday but anticipates a quick recovery.

Richt, now working as an analyst for the ACC Network and ESPN, tweeted that he plans on returning to work later this week.

I am assuming word travels fast. So I wanted to be able to inform everyone that I did have a heart attack this morning. I am doing fine. As I went through the experience I had peace knowing I was going to heaven but I was going to miss my wife. I plan to be at work this week.

— Mark Richt (@MarkRicht) October 21, 2019

The 59-year-old Richt joined the ACC Network in April and has appeared on shows throughout the season. He retired as Miami's coach in December after going 26-13 in three seasons at his alma mater.

Richt spent 15 seasons as Georgia's head coach, going 145-51 with two SEC championships and five division titles.

He was fired following the 2015 season and returned to Miami, where he had played quarterback from 1979 to 1982. Richt coached Miami to its first ACC Coastal Division title in 2017

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There isn't much Michigan State has yet to accomplish under Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo, from Big Ten titles and Final Four trips to winning a national championship.

The Spartans can add another milestone to the list: They are No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball preseason poll for the first time in program history.

The Spartans were the overwhelming choice with their veteran returnees, led by star Cassius Winston. They topped 60 of 65 ballots in voting results released Monday, easily outdistancing No. 2 Kentucky and No. 3 Kansas, the only other teams to receive first-place votes.

Duke was fourth, followed by Louisville, Florida, Maryland, Gonzaga, North Carolina and Villanova to round out the top 10.

Michigan State had been ranked No. 1 for 12 weeks in the AP poll before Monday. But none had come in the preseason poll, with the Spartans starting at No. 2 four times in the past decade.

"It's almost bizarre to me because I would've thought Magic's team was No. 1,'' Izzo said in an interview with the AP.

Nope, the Magic Johnson-led bunch that beat Larry Bird and Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA title game started at No. 7.

The Spartans won 32 games last season and reached Izzo's eighth Final Four before falling to Texas Tech. They return Winston with fellow starters Xavier Tillman and Aaron Henry from that run, and they get back another starter in Joshua Langford after he missed much of the season with a foot injury.

That nucleus is good enough that only one voter picked the Spartans as low as third, with four others picking them second and the rest at No. 1. They will be tested right away, too: The Spartans open against Kentucky in a 1-vs.-2 matchup Nov. 5 in New York.

"This is a program deal and it's the players in the program, and I'm really proud of them for that,'' Izzo said. "Unfortunately, what you are at the beginning of the year doesn't help you at the end of the year, but I think it does say something about the program and what we've done over these years.''

The top tier

Roughly half the voters (33 of 65) chose Michigan State, Kentucky and Kansas in some order atop the ballot. Kentucky received two first-place votes, while Kansas received the other three.

It marks the ninth straight year that John Calipari's Wildcats have been a top-five preseason pick and seventh in a row for Bill Self's Jayhawks, who open the season with the program facing NCAA charges tied to a federal corruption investigation into the sport.

Kansas and Duke open against each other on the same bill with Michigan State-Kentucky.

Champs at 11

Virginia has gone from facing questions about how it would respond to an unprecedented tournament loss against UMBC to how it will build on its first NCAA title. Tony Bennett's Cavaliers are 11th after losing De'Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome and Final Four Most Outstanding Player Kyle Guy to the NBA draft. It is the lowest preseason ranking for a champion since UConn was 17th to start the 2014-15 season.

Conference watch

The ACC, Big Ten and SEC each had four ranked teams to lead all leagues.

The ACC ended last season with four top-10 teams, then picked back up with four teams ranked in the top 11.

No. 18 Ohio State and No. 23 Purdue joined Michigan State and Maryland for the Big Ten's quartet, while the SEC had No. 22 LSU and No. 24 Auburn -- fresh off its Final Four run -- joining Kentucky and Florida.

The Big 12 (three), Big East (three), Pac-12 (two) and West Coast Conference (two) also had multiple ranked teams.

The watch list

The Pac-12 could quickly add to its total with Washington and Colorado as the top vote-getters among unranked teams. Washington twice appeared in last season's poll at No. 25. But it's been a much longer wait for the Buffaloes, who haven't cracked the poll since January 2014 but have five starters back and are picked to finish second in the Pac-12 behind No. 15 Oregon.

Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield has agreed to a four-year, $94 million contract extension, league sources told ESPN.

The deal includes $86 million in guaranteed money, $8 million in exceedingly reachable bonuses and another $12 million in incentives that could elevate the deal to $106 million over its term, league sources said.

Agent Brandon Rosenthal of Landmark Sports and Kings general manager Vlade Divac finalized details on the rookie-scale extension late into Sunday night in Sacramento, just hours ahead of the 6 p.m. ET Monday deadline for players from the draft class of 2016 to complete a deal.

This deal allows the Kings and Hield to avoid restricted free agency next summer.

Hield has been at the forefront of a Kings revival that started with him as the centerpiece of a DeMarcus Cousins trade to New Orleans in 2016. No player in NBA history has converted on more 3-pointers (275) in his first three seasons than Hield.

Hield has been a favorite of owner Vivek Ranadive, who was the driving force in wanting to acquire Hield in his rookie year with the Pelicans. Hield is coming off his best NBA season -- 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. He also shot 43% on 3-pointers.

Hield and De'Aaron Fox make up a backcourt that's considered one of the NBA's elite. Sacramento has a young core that includes the guards, No. 2 overall pick Marvin Bagley Jr. and Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Hield was the sixth overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft out of Oklahoma.

CONCORD, N.C. – Fresh off his first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway, Spencer Boyd has landed sponsorship from ORORO Heated Apparel.

The 24-year-old racer will carry sponsorship on the No. 20 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet from ORORO in Saturday’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

“It was a crazy week,” reflects Boyd.  “There were a lot of media appearances and just as many sponsorship calls.  One of those calls was with Mark from ORORO and we were able to put a primary sponsorship at Martinsville together. With fall finally here and winter around the corner, I could think of no better sponsor than the most trusted heated apparel brand in the USA.”

ORORO’s product line-up includes heated vests, fleeces, jackets, hoodies, parka and gloves.

“We grew up in the Midwest just like Spencer,” said Mark H., co-founder of ORORO. “The weather is always changing there so we wanted to create something that made staying warm and comfortable easier. We saw Spencer’s win and thought he would be a great spokesperson for our brand. Plus, didn’t it snow at a Martinsville race recently? I invite all NASCAR fans to leave the layers at home and use BOYD20 for 20 percent off ORORO heated clothing at www.ororowear.com for a more comfortable race weekend.”