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Essex County Cricket Club (Essex CCC) and Feroze Khushi have been charged by the Cricket Regulator with breaches of Regulations 3.2 and 3.3 of the Professional Conduct Regulations following the use of an oversized bat during the Vitality County Championship match against Nottinghamshire on 06 April 2024.

The Cricket Regulator brought charges against both the Club and Khushi, alleging misconduct in relation to the size of the bat used in the match.

Essex CCC submitted an appeal, raising concerns of significant and material procedural irregularities that impacted upon the sanction, which was supported by the Cricket Regulator.

Concerns about inconsistencies with the compliance of bat gauges in line with the relevant MCC Laws of Cricket was also highlighted, however despite these concerns, the appeal was unsuccessful.

The Club has been in regular contact with the bat manufacturer, Gray-Nicolls, who supported the appeal process and raised concerns themselves about the inconsistent variance across bat gauges.

An independent Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) panel has found Essex CCC and Feroze Khushi liable for the charges and has imposed the following sanctions:

• For Essex CCC: a 12-point deduction from the 2024 Vitality County Championship; and a further penalty, suspended for two years, of a deduction of half the available match points (which should include any available bonus points) in any competition in the event of any Essex CCC player committing the same offence within 2 years.

• For Feroze Khushi: a reprimand.

Essex CCC regrets the outcome and, although disappointed with the appeal decision and subsequent sanctions, accepts the charges of the CDC panel. The Club remains fully committed to upholding the integrity of the game and ensuring strict compliance with all relevant regulations moving forward.

In light of the concerns raised during the appeal, the Club will be writing to the CDC, Cricket Regulator and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to formally highlight the matters which arose during the process, such as those raised by the Club in relation to the bat gauges.

Essex CCC hopes that these concerns will prompt action to address inconsistencies and enhance the fairness and transparency of future regulatory processes. It is committed to working closely with the ECB to ensure improvements are made for the good of the game, both domestically and internationally.

Essex CCC have also supported Feroze Khushi throughout the process and the Club understands the joint responsibility regarding testing playing equipment and therefore, no further action will be taken against the player.
 

Essex Women’s postponed showcase T20 against Kent Women that was due to be played on Wednesday 07 August has been rescheduled for Monday 02 September, 6:30pm.

Ticket holders will be able to attend the rescheduled fixture with their existing tickets and Essex Members can enter with a valid Membership card.

The Battle of the Bridge Showcase T20 will be the last time Essex Women take to the field in 2024 and their final appearance before Tier 1 cricket in 2025.

Tickets for the game cost just £5 for Adults and are free for Juniors and Essex Members. Spectators can enter the ground from 5:30pm.

Sussex Sharks v Essex

Metro Bank One Day Cup

The 1st Central County Ground, Hove

Wednesday 14 August, 11:00am

Team News

Sussex Sharks: Tom Haines, Tom Clark, Charlie Tear, John Simpson*+, Oli Carter, Zach Lion-Cachet, Henry Rogers, Archie Lenham, Bertie Foreman, Henry Crocombe, Jack Campbell

Essex: Robin Das, Luc Benkenstein, Tom Westley*, Noah Thain, Nick Browne, Feroze Khushi, Ben Allison, Jamal Richards, Aaron Beard, Simon Fernandes+, Jamie Porter

Match Details

Umpires: James Tredwell & Christi Viljoen
Match Referee: Phil Whitticase
Scorers: Graham Irwin & Paul Parkinson
Toss: Sussex Sharks won the toss and elected to bat first
Result: Essex won by five wickets

Scorecard: View here

Match Highlights

Match Report

Essex eased to a five-wicket win over Sussex Sharks at Hove to claim their third win in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.

The early damage was done by Jamie Porter who picked up four wickets with the new ball as Sussex collapsed to 50 for 6. Skipper John Simpson led a lower-order recovery with 69, but 226 for 9 never looked enough despite a slow pitch at the 1st Central County Ground being used for the third successive game.

After opener Robin Das wafted at a wide one from left-armer Jack Campbell, Luc Benkenstein and skipper Tom Westley broke the back of the chase with 94 for the second wicket at a run a ball before Benkenstein (49), who had struck two sixes off leg-spinner Archie Lenham in the previous over, was run out by Tom Haines’ direct hit.

But by then Westley was well into his stride. He reached his third fifty in this season’s competition with a six off Lenham and had made serene progress to 76 with 12 fours when he was beaten by Zach Lion-Cachet’s brilliant pick-up and direct hit from the leg-side boundary coming back for a second run.

But Essex only needed 63 from 21 overs at that stage and although leg-spinners Bertie Foreman and Archie Lenham took further wickets, Nick Browne and Ben Allison saw them over the line with 28 balls to spare.

A seventh defeat left Sussex bottom of Group B for the second season running. They have won just twice in the competition since reaching the semi-finals in 2022.

Sussex won the toss but after openers Tom Clark and Haines put on 25 with few alarms they lost four wickets in 16 balls.

Allison made the breakthrough when Clark spliced a pull to mid-on then Porter ripped through the Sussex top order. Haines square drove to backward point, Charlie Tear was beaten by one which straightened just enough in the same over and Oli Carter had two stumps flattened by an inswinger.

Lion-Cachet’s limp pull to midwicket gave Porter his fourth victim and when Henry Rogers played round a straight one from the impressive Jamal Richards the innings was in tatters.

Simpson, though, determinedly put conditions into perspective and he got good support from the lower order.

He added 27 with Lenham for the seventh wicket before Lenham padded up to Westley and then found another reliable partner in 20-year-old left-hander Foreman, who has been one of Sussex’s best performers in a disappointing campaign. They put on 54 for the eighth wicket with Simpson making his tenth List A fifty.

He progressed to 69 with ten fours before driving loosely to cover. Foreman spliced a pull in the penultimate over with a maiden List A half-century in his sights after adding 66 for the ninth wicket with No10 Henry Crocombe, whose unbeaten 43 at least gave Sussex something to defend, the last three wickets having put on 138.

School’s out, cricket’s in: 50-over cricket in Chelmsford this summer

Don’t miss out on a family day out in the middle of the city by securing your seats to next week’s clash.

Wednesday 14 August, 11:00am: Essex Women v Sussex – buy here

Notts Outlaws v Essex

Metro Bank One Day Cup

Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Sunday 11 August, 11:00am

Team News

Notts Outlaws: Ben Slater, Jack Haynes, Freddie McCann, Haseeb Hameed*, Lyndon James, Matt Montgomery, Tom Moores+, Liam Patterson-White, Calvin Harrison, Rob Lord, Luke Fletcher

Essex: Nick Browne, Feroze Khushi, Tom Westley*, Robin Das, Luc Benkenstein, Noah Thain, Simon Fernandes+, Ben Allison, Shane Snater, Jamal Richards, Jamie Porter

Match Details

Umpires: Anthony Harris & Paul Mustard
Match Referee: Dean Cosker
Scorers: Anne Cusworth & Helen Hyde
Toss: Essex won the toss and elected to bowl first

Scorecard: View here

Match Report

Essex pulled off a crushing victory by seven wickets at Trent Bridge over Notts Outlaws thanks to Robin Das, opening and still unbeaten, posting a maiden white-ball century off the last ball of the match.

The 20-year old Jamal Richards, one of five in the Essex side raised like Das in north-east London, earlier claimed 5-31 with wholehearted, bustling pace.

His best figures in all cricket halted an Outlaws surge to 96-1 and later helped induce a plummet from 163-4 to 218 all out despite Ben Slater’s 47 and 52 from South African Matt Montgomery.

Other youngsters then saw Essex maturely home as Das and Noah Thain, neither of them yet past his 23rd birthday, put on 185 for the third wicket. Das finished with 100 from 119 balls whilst the teenage Thain fell with victory five runs away for 83, his best in Essex cricket so far.

If they could not quite match Essex’s partnership record for the third wicket (268 by Graham Gooch and Keith Fletcher, both veterans at the time) the elder statesman would dearly have relished their stand.

Chasing 219, Luc Benkenstein soon went to a spectacular catch on the mid-wicket boundary as Jack Haynes, running back, caught the ball, threw it up, went over the rope but skipped back to grab it a second time. And Rob Lord made it two wickets in his opening 13 balls when Tom Westley lost off stump to one that kept low.

But as Das and Thain went forward with a calm judgement that belied their inexperience, the asking rate, initially 4.38, remained between 4.19 and 4.55 throughout the reply’s first 35 overs. At this point they raced forward as the match was claimed with 39 balls to spare.

The Outlaws, put in, had earlier built a 40-run platform from the day’s first eight overs before Haynes, reprieved on five and 14, edged a slash to fall finally for 17.

In his 64th first-team match in all formats, Feroze Khushi at last saw his off-spin called up for a maiden outing but it was Richards, the sixth bowler of seven employed, who ended a 56-run stand when Slater was held by Khushi at backward point off his third ball and Haseeb Hameed was bowled for nought by his fifth, a beauty.

When Richards, one of seven men aged 25 or under in the line-up, ended an impressive 33 from teenager Freddie McCann, Nottinghamshire, losing three in six overs, were 123-4 in the 26th.

Tom Moores revived things with 33 from only 28 balls but fell in the deep attempting a second successive six over mid-wicket before Lyndon James, Liam Patterson-White and Calvin Harrison all came and went cheaply in a disastrous half hour.

The last of the trio was wonderfully caught by the leaping Khushi to bring Richards his fourth success at the start of his second spell and he ended things when Montgomery, flailing, miscued to deep cover with 16 balls unused.

School’s out, cricket’s in: 50-over cricket in Chelmsford this summer

White-ball action in Chelmsford is not finished for 2024, with The Cloud County Ground set to host one more Women’s London Championship match during the summer holidays.

Don’t miss out on a family day out in the middle of the city by securing your seats to next week’s clash.

Wednesday 14 August, 11:00am: Essex Women v Sussex – buy here

Essex v Surrey

Metro Bank One Day Cup

The Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford

Friday 09 August, 2:00pm

Team News

Essex: Nick Browne, Feroze Khushi, Tom Westley*, Robin Das, Luc Benkenstein, Noah Thain, Simon Fernandes+, Shane Snater, Jamal Richards, Ben Allison, Jamie Porter

Surrey: Dom Sibley*, Ryan Patel, Ben Geddes, Cam Steel, Josh Blake+, Ollie Sykes, Adam Thomas, Conor McKerr, Nathan Barnwell, Yousef Majid, James Taylor

Match Details

Umpires: Simon Widdup & Bilal Shafayat
Match Referee: Jason Swift
Scorers: Paul Parkinson & Debbie Beesley
Toss: Surrey won the toss and elected to bat first
Result: Surrey won by 89 runs

Scorecard: View here

Interview: Jamie Porter

Match Highlights

Match Report

Josh Blake registered a sensible run-a-ball century to carry Surrey to only their second Metro Bank One-Day Cup victory of the season at Chelmsford.

The left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman survived a life on 40 when Luc Benkenstein floored a chance at deep square leg, but having come in at 53-3 after 14 overs, had doubled his previous highest score and was still there on 100 not out when Surrey closed on 306-4.

Blake put on 98 in 20 overs for the fourth wicket with opener Ryan Patel (83 from 106 balls) and then an unbroken 155 in 16 pulsating overs for the fifth with the hard-hitting Ollie Sykes, who hit five sixes in an unbeaten 87 from 56 balls.

Defeat meant neither team could qualify for the knock-out stages and Essex never looked likely to record their second win of the tournament. Only captain Tom Westley offered much resistance with 78 from 84 balls as dispirited Essex fell 90 runs short of their target with more than three overs unused.

Surrey elected to bat and got off to a slow start, meandering to 39-2 in the first powerplay. But they upped the tempo in the second half of the innings when they added 192 in 25 overs, 117 of them in the final 10 as Blake and Sykes smashed the toiling Essex bowlers to every corner of the Cloud County Ground.

Patel had held things together early on, but his innings was comparatively sedate by what came later. He reached his fifty from 68 balls with his seventh four, a cover drive off Tom Westley. He followed that with No8, cutting Jamal Richards to the longest boundary on the ground, to bring up Surrey’s 100. But by that time he had lost three partners before forming the alliance with Blake.

Jamie Porter, with a white ball in hand for the first time in a year, took two of that trio, bowling Dom Sibley shouldering arms to one that swung in and took oft-stump, and claiming a second when Cameron Steel moved across to give himself room and was lbw to a straight delivery. In between, Shane Snater had Ben Geddes pinned in front, playing down the wrong line.

Though the boundary to the Pavilion side was less than 50 yards from the wicket, Essex defended it resolutely and it was not until the 33rd over that Blake pierced the field with a reserve-sweep off Westley. Next over, though, brought the downfall of Patel as he drove Noah Thain uppishly to wide mid-off where Westley took a diving catch.

Sykes had scored eight in his List A debut on Tuesday, but eyed up the shorter side where he deposited Thain twice for sixes in an over that cost 15. He added a third off Richards before lofting Porter over the longer midwicket boundary. A fifth over midwicket off Snater took the 19-year-old to a 34-ball fifty.

Blake was not hanging around either, and lifted Snater over cover point for his only six to sit alongside nine fours before a single in the last over took him to three figures from 100 balls.

Essex’s pursuit of 307 never really got going as wickets fell regularly. Nick Browne slashed Conor McKerr to slip, Feroze Khushi swung at James Taylor to be caught behind, and Robin Das was stumped by the alert Blake off a legside wide from Patel.

Benkenstein pulled Nathan Barnwell to deep square leg with the floodlights now on and the run-rate rising. Noah attempted to reverse-sweep Cameron Steel and fell lbw, Simon Fernandes tickled McKerr behind, while Westley’s two-hour knock ended when he slashed Steel to short mid-off. Snater lasted three balls before he was bowled by Yousef Majid, Richards was stumped, Ben Allison lofted the only six of Essex’s innings in a career-best 32 not out before Steel claimed his fourth wicket for 50 when Porter hammered to long off.

School’s out, cricket’s in: 50-over cricket in Chelmsford this summer

White-ball action in Chelmsford is not finished for 2024, with The Cloud County Ground set to host one more Women’s London Championship match during the summer holidays.

Don’t miss out on a family day out in the middle of the city by securing your seats to next week’s clash.

Wednesday 14 August, 11:00am: Essex Women v Sussex – buy here

In light of planned protests on Wednesday 07 August, the fixture between Essex Women and Kent Women at The Cloud County Ground has been postponed.

The safety of all spectators, players and staff is paramount to Essex Cricket and the decision to postpone the fixture follows a period of consultation with Essex Police, the ECB and the diverse workforce at Essex Cricket.

Fans will be notified when a new date has been arranged for the fixture and ticket purchasers will be contacted by the Club via email with more information.