CHARLES SALE SPORTS AGENDA:
ENGLAND Test captain Joe Root’s desire to prove himself as a top-level T20 cricketer is set to see him squeeze in a brief spell in the Big Bash in Australia in between tours to Sri Lanka and West Indies this winter.
Rather than resting after the trip to Sri Lanka, Root wants to play in Australia after getting married to Carrie Cotterell, mother of his son Alfie, on December 1. England are due to arrive in the Caribbean on January 11.
Root was hugely disappointed to be overlooked twice for the Indian Premier League this year. First he missd out in the auction and then as a replacement player when offering his services to Rajasthan Royals. Little-known South African Heinrich Klaasen was preferred.
The England skipper is pencilled in to line up alongside international team-mate Jos Buttler for Sydney Thunder, who are coached by Shane Bond — England’s Ashes bowling consultant last winter.
RENOWNED ITV Sport reporter and documentary maker Gabriel Clarke has teamed up with former England cricket digital media chief Barney Douglas to plan a sports film about England’s rise to No 1 in the world before that Ashes whitewash in 2013-14. One stumbling block is that Kevin Pietersen (above) — probably the pivotal figure in the story — has still to give his backing to the project.
IT IS understood MCC have a shortlist of six candidates interviewed this week to replace legendary groundsman Mick Hunt, who retires after 49 years’ service at Lord’s at the end of the domestic season. Hunt is famous for preparing his own Test pitches to last five days rather than merely to suit the requirements of the England team. And it will be intriguing if MCC go for a groundsman more prepared to do ECB’s bidding in future. The contenders include Edgbaston’s Gary Barwell, who produced a great pitch helping both bat and ball for the first Test against India, The Oval’s Lee Fortis, and Karl McDermott, from Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl. He is the only Irish head groundsman in first-class cricket.
YOU couldn’t make it up that the Mbargo Night Club in Bristol, where the England cricketers were drinking on the night of the incident which led to the Ben Stokes trial on allegations of affray, used to be owned by former ECB chairman Giles Clarke through the property portfolio of his Bristol-based company Boston Tea Party — a chain of coffee shops.