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South Africa’s Test captain Faf du Plessis is in a “race against time” to play the opening match against England at Lord’s, which starts on July 6. Du Plessis is awaiting the arrival of his first child, who is expected in the first week of July, and with his wife Imari choosing a natural birth, there is no speeding up the due date.Du Plessis, who will miss the T20 series in anticipation, is hopeful the baby will arrive in the next two weeks, though he left the door open to remaining home for longer if necessary. “I’m pretty nervous, to be honest. It’s now just a countdown for when the baby comes,” du Plessis said at the launch of CSA’s Global T20 league on Monday. “My wife is pretty certain that she wants to go the normal route so that takes longer. It now becomes a race for the first Test match.”Du Plessis, who debuted in November 2012, has not played a Test at Lord’s and admitted it was on his bucket-list. Seemingly, this would be his last chance to take part in one – he is already 32 and if South Africa only return to England in five years’ time (the same length of time between their previous tour and this one) – it is unlikely he will still be playing.If du Plessis is not able to make it back in time for the Test, South Africa will be without a captain and a senior batsman. While the spot in the line-up could be filled with the likes of Theunis de Bruyn, who played in Hamilton and is a regular No. 3, who leads the team will be more tricky.AB de Villiers confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he will not be persuaded to stay on for longer after opting out of the entire Test series to manage his workload. De Villiers will lead in the T20s and will then return home, to prioritise family time. His second child is also due in July.That may mean Hashim Amla, who stepped down from the Test captaincy in January 2016, may be forced into an emergency substitution. Or South Africa may look to senior opener Dean Elgar or even JP Duminy, who has led in the T20s, for leadership.This is the second England tour in which a South African captain has been an expectant father. In 2012, Graeme Smith returned home after the first Test at The Oval for the birth of his daughter and returned in time to play the second match at Headingley.

West Indies could feature a full-strength squad across formats as early as August this year, according to Chris Gayle. Gayle said “things have been steadily improving” with regard to the dispute between the players and Cricket West Indies.”The fans were happy to see me back on the field representing West Indies. Hopefully, things can get better. Hopefully I can play a few more games. I definitely want to play the 2019 World Cup,” Gayle said. “Things are beginning to open up a little more now between players and the board. It’s looking good, and we’ve to try and build from this to get the best players out on the field.”Currently, Cricket West Indies follows a stringent policy of considering only those players who have featured in the domestic 50-over competition, under the regime of Julian Hunte and Ernest Hilaire. In recent times, however, the CWI have been more open to negotiation, which Courtney Browne, the chairman of selectors, too spoke of in May.Gayle said discussions regarding the possibility of featuring in a full-strength squad for West Indies’ tour of England in August were positive. “That’s what is actually in discussion. It’s for them to make the announcement, and make it formal so that we know what is what,” Gayle said. “We’ll wait and see what happens.”I can’t get into specific details, just from the little I’ve experienced since coming back, it’s been good. There’s still more discussion to be done. It’s positive. That’s the good thing about it. We’ve to just look to carry on from here. Once we are guided with the rules, if it is going to change fully, we’ll know how to take things further.”Gayle was also optimistic that investment in a young squad, particularly Evin Lewis, would pay off eventually, even though results in recent times – a loss to Afghanistan and an ODI series defeat to India apart from their failure to qualify for the Champions Trophy – haven’t gone their way.”Two centuries in two T20s against India, it’s fantastic,” Gayle said of Lewis. “He’s a small player but a powerful player. He’s very young and very hungry, he’s one for the future. Once more consistency comes into his play, he will be more dangerous. It was a brilliant innings just the other day to put us into that winning position by batting right through the end was fantastic. That’s what I love to see, especially an opener batting right through to take it till the end and win games.”With our experience, we all try and share as much as we can before we go; 2019 is just around the corner. We don’t want to miss out like what happened at the Champions Trophy. We will try and push hard for that and everyone can work collectively to make sure we’re part of the World Cup.”Gayle also said he was “excited” at seeing young fast bowlers challenge him at the nets, and impressed upon the need to maintain his fitness to take every step possible to put himself in fray for selection. “I’m still being active in the gym, putting in the work. These youngsters are very sharp, they try to take your head off saying ‘he’s old now, take him down,'” he said. “You’ve got to be mindful, got to be ready at all times. I’m trying and looking after the body. There’s a lot of travelling, so I try and monitor [my schedules and training] as much as possible.”

Australia’s players have been threatened with unemployment by the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland, in what amounts to a declaration of war on the Australian Cricketers Association.In a letter forwarded to all male and female contracted players on Friday and seen by ESPNcricinfo, Sutherland stated that the board and state associations plan to present contract offers to CA and state players before the expiry of the current MoU on June 30. Terms of the contracts are to be in line with the current pay proposal, which was rejected by the ACA two weeks ago.Should no MoU agreement be reached by the deadline, Sutherland wrote, the board will not be offering payment to players under any alternative model, whether it be a rollover of the current MoU or the use of tournament-by-tournament contracts.Delivered to the ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson on the same day its president Greg Dyer requested independent mediation to end the present stand-off, Sutherland’s message constitutes a major escalation of the conflict between the board and the players, heightening the likelihood of industrial action. Australia are scheduled to tour Bangladesh and India, prior to next summer’s Ashes series, after the MoU expires.”In the absence of the ACA negotiating a new MoU, players with contracts expiring in 2016-17 will not have contracts for 2017-18,” Sutherland wrote. “Players with existing multi-year State or BBL contracts that expire after 2017 will be required to play in 2017-18 and will be paid the retainer specified in their contract, regardless of whether a new MOU is in place; and in the absence of a new MoU, the Australian Women’s World Cup Squad will be paid in advance of the June/July World Cup and will be employed until the end of the event.”To be very clear, in the absence of a new MoU, CA is not contemplating alternative contracting arrangements to pay players beyond 30 June if their contracts have expired.”Also attached to the letter is a list of CA rebuttals of the ACA’s alternative pay proposal, which featured a “win/win” split of the game’s revenue with 22.5% to go to the players, 22.5% to go to the game’s lower levels, and the remaining 55% left to CA to run the game. Sutherland wrote the ACA response “seeks to inappropriately expand its role as a players’ representative body into that of a de-facto administrator”.In maintaining CA’s view that the current MoU model is outdated and limiting the board’s ability to adequately fund the development of the game around Australia, Sutherland also claimed that some players have expressed unease about the ACA’s unwillingness to look more closely at the new pay offer. On Thursday, fast bowler Mitchell Starc stated that none of the nation’s top players would contemplate a contract offer until an MoU deal is reached.”In its defence of the status quo, the ACA’s narrative about the history and supposed sanctity of the existing pay model has unfairly placed current players in a difficult position,” Sutherland wrote. “I understand that some have been made to feel that accepting the relatively minor but necessary changes to the existing pay model, while being paid more, would somehow be ‘letting the side down’.”This is nonsense. Nothing decided by today’s players binds future generations, just as nothing decided by past players should govern current players’ decisions concerning their own careers and welfare. Future players will have their own opportunities to negotiate an MoU that suits them and the circumstances of the game at the time.”Relations between the board and the ACA have been deteriorating for some years, dating back to the 2014 departure of the former chief executive Paul Marsh to take up the equivalent role with the AFL players association. The AFL is set to announce its own pay deal, placing pressure on cricket to reach a similar point of agreement.”For at least five months, Cricket Australia has been unambiguously clear that the twenty-year old pay model needs to be adapted in the next MoU to reflect the changing landscape of the game,” Sutherland wrote. “In particular, CA has identified the need to significantly boost funding for grassroots cricket.”CA firmly believes that the proposal is a fair deal for all players. It is therefore surprising and regrettable that the ACA is yet to engage in negotiations on any element of it. Instead, the ACA spent weeks developing a response which merely seeks to defend and entrench the status quo.”It is clear to me that the only way forward is for the ACA to engage in focused and constructive negotiations based on the proposal put forward by CA in March. With 30 June now only weeks away, the ACA is fast running out of time to engage with CA’s proposal and optimise the outcomes for players.”

ScorecardSussex, weakened by injuries, short on experience with bat as well as ball, were likely always to find the going tough here but just how tough may have taken even them by surprise. The only consolation in losing to Nottinghamshire inside two days is that they will not face as formidable an attack again this summer.Indeed, it is quite possible that no one will, which is something Nottinghamshire may have suspected would be the consequence of James Pattinson’s contribution to their three wins from three.The combination of Pattinson, Stuart Broad and Jake Ball had older Trent Bridge members recalling the days of Hadlee and Rice, even Larwood and Voce, in trying to assess where it might be placed, given their pedigree, in a pecking order of Nottinghamshire attacks, yet the recall of the 26-year-old from Melbourne to Australia’s one-day squad may limit their appearance together in the county’s scorecard archive to this match only.Pattinson’s selection for Australia’s Champions Trophy squad means that, instead of playing nine four-day matches, his stint at Trent Bridge will probably be limited to the three he has completed. Nonetheless, he will sit impressively among Nottinghamshire’s overseas players even if he never plays another first-class match, his contribution amounting to 20 wickets at an average of 11.12.There is a possibility that he might be allowed to return to face Leicestershire and Kent in late June but it is difficult to imagine, somehow, that England’s management of player workload would also allow both Broad and Ball to be available too.Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores was philosophical about losing Pattinson so soon.”It is disappointing, of course, because with bat and ball he has been outstanding,” he said. “He gives everything he has got and that’s appreciated by the members and certainly by his team-mates.”But you accept these days that players are pushing to play at the highest level. Playing for your country is what everybody strives for and we knew when we signed him there was always a chance Australia would want him back because he is a high quality, exciting player.”You just have to enjoy having players like him when they are able to play for you. And having seen the form he is in I think Australia made the right decision. He would have been unlucky not to have got in.”Nottinghamshire have up to 12 names on their list of potential replacements for Pattinson, the majority offered by agents rather than identified by the county. They may decide to pursue none of them, although Moores is keen not to lose the momentum Pattinson has given their early-season form.”It will have to be the right kind of player but it is a busy period during the Champions Trophy with a lot of Championship cricket and hopefully the later stages of the Royal London Cup so we will be looking to get somebody in,” he said.Sussex, still shaken by Nottinghamshire’s extraordinary Riki Wessels-inspired recovery from 88 for 5 on the opening day, were in bad shape when they resumed, having been reduced to 11 for 3 on the first evening. Spectators had barely settled when Delray Rawlins, one of five players in the Sussex line-up with 13 first-class appearances or fewer, gave Pattinson his third wicket of the first innings, feathering a catch to wicketkeeper Chris Read, his 500th dismissal at Trent Bridge.Laurie Evans quickly provided Pattinson’s fourth, edging to second slip, where Samit Patel held a sharp catch. Stiann van Zyl and Luke Wright tried to fight back but with none of the four Nottinghamshire seamers, Luke Fletcher included, content merely to play a supporting role, there was no break in the pressure. Ball ended the resistance of both, and Fletcher quickly dealt with Ben Brown.Still 288 runs behind when the last wicket fell, conveniently giving the bowlers the lunch interval in which to recharge, Sussex were inevitably asked to follow on. They did a little better, Chris Nash grafting to a half-century and Wright as ever on the front foot, but wickets fell at a similar frequency.Jofra Archer, a bowler who can clearly bat, was wonderfully disrespectful in the way he went for his shots in both innings, scoring 40 off 29 balls the first time, when he struck Ball for a six and two fours off consecutive deliveries, and 47 off 32 in the second. He looks a prospect, but otherwise it was an experience Sussex on which Sussex would be wise not to dwell.

ScorecardDawid Malan’s century guided South to a thumping victory in Dubai•Getty Images

Dawid Malan made a high-class century and shared an unbroken opening partnership of 205 with Daniel Bell-Drummond as the South crushed the North by ten wickets in the first game of the new North-South Series in Dubai.The North were dismissed for 202 after winning the toss and choosing to bat, with three wickets for Tom Curran and two each for Toby Roland-Jones, Mason Crane and the especially impressive Liam Dawson in a fine all-round bowling performance by the South team.Malan and Bell-Drummond made short work of the modest target, with more than 16 overs remaining when the Middlesex left-hander sealed victory with his 16th four.Malan, who was included in an England T20 squad last summer after impressing with the Lions against Pakistan A in the winter of 2015-16, also hit a six as he ended unbeaten on 109 from 103 balls, while Bell-Drummond hit two sixes and 11 fours to reach 92 from 98.The match was watched by England coach Trevor Bayliss as well as selectors James Whitaker and Mick Newell, with assistant coach Paul Farbrace enjoying an initial triumph over fast-bowling coach Ottis Gibson – whose North team now need to win the second match, also at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, to stay alive in the three-match series.Malan and Bell-Drummond survived a searching new ball examination from Mark Wood and Tim Bresnan, Wood bowling a total of seven overs in two spells in his first competitive action since an ankle operation last autumn, and Bresnan having Malan dropped in his third over.But after that they were rarely troubled, although Northamptonshire left-arm spinner Graeme White claimed the small consolation of bowling the only maiden of the match in the penultimate over.The North suffered an early blow after their captain Keaton Jennings chose to bat first, when Curran claimed the scalp of Ben Duckett, edging a drive to Ben Foakes.Curran took one for 16 in his opening burst and Roland-Jones kept up the pressure in an excellent seven-over spell in which he earned the key wickets of Jennings and Liam Livingstone.Jennings steered to Malan at slip, and Livingstone, after launching Lewis Gregory into the stands for the first six of the series, was brilliantly caught by Curran running back from mid-off as he aimed for another big hit.Sam Hain survived a couple of dropped chances to make 33 from 55 balls until he was undone by the introduction of Crane, lbw sweeping against the spin.Then Jack Leaning ran himself out trying to take a second to Crane at deep cover, leaving the North in deep trouble at 91 for 5.Bresnan joined Joe Clarke in a counterattacking sixth-wicket stand of 63 in 10 overs, striking three sixes in making 40 off 41 balls. But the Yorkshireman was bowled behind his legs trying to reverse-sweep Dawson, the Hampshire allrounder who bowled his 10 overs straight through to earn the excellent figures of 2 for 29.Clarke, who struggled for runs in the England Lions’ recent one-day series in Sri Lanka, made a welcome return to form with a 49-ball half century including five fours and two sixes off Crane.But he was bowled for 57 aiming an ambitious ramp shot at the first ball of Curran’s second spell, triggering a lower-order collapse as the North’s last four wickets tumbled for nine runs inside three overs.Durham allrounder Paul Coughlin was Dawson’s second victim, lbw for 19 which included two cleanly-struck leg-side sixes.Then Curran deceived White with a change of pace to take a return catch, and finally Crane returned to have Harry Gurney snapped up at slip by Malan.”It’s nice to do it in front of the England selectors,” said Malan afterwards. “That’s what these games are designed for: it’s a sort of second chance for guys to push their case and show the selectors what they have been missing out on. I’m pleased with this knock and hopefully I can continue in the next two games and follow up on it. It’s nice to have the runs on the board and get the win too.”