2nd Test: West Indies v England at St George's

West Indies opener Devon Smith is excited and focussed as he prepares for the second Test match against England at the Grenada National Stadium. The 33-year-old left-hander is set to become the first Grenadian to play a Test match on home soil when the game bowls off on Tuesday.

Smith played well in the first Test – with a defiant 65 off 175 balls in over three hours — in the second innings as West Indies showed resilience to earn a draw at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua.

“I’m feeling relaxed and ready as I look forward to Tuesday. I will become the first Grenadian to play a Test match at home so for me this is something special. I will be confident when I walk down the steps to take that first ball and I know the people here will back me and the entire West Indies team,” Smith said. “This will be a dream for me. My entire family will be here to support me. I grew up dreaming of playing for the West Indies, and to play a Test match in Grenada is something I will remember for a very long time.”

Three other Grenadians have represented the West Indies in Test cricket — wicket-keeper Junior Murray; Rawl Lewis, the leg-spinnng allrounder; and fast bowler Nelon Pascal.
dominicanewsonline.com

(Reuters) - Former fast bowler Matthew Hoggard has accused England of being too "timid" and is urging his country to follow Australia coach Darren Lehmann's lead by encouraging a more positive and aggressive approach.

England are without a managing director after Paul Downton left his job this month and Hoggard believes the new man, who will assume a restructured role with a new title, must revamp the domestic game and instil a fresh brand of cricket.

"We've seen with Darren Lehmann that he tells his players to go out and entertain and to have the freedom to go out and play," former Yorkshire paceman Hoggard told Reuters in an interview.

"You don't see any timid cricket from Australia since he's taken over. England's performances at the moment are very timid, very English in the way they approach their cricket.

"I think that needs to change and I think the (new) director of cricket needs to give the players the freedom and confidence to play the cricket we all know we are capable of but are just not producing at the moment."

Hoggard, England's ninth highest test wicket-taker of all-time with 248 victims in 67 matches, believes sweeping changes must be made to the domestic game.

"I think an English Premier League would be a fantastic idea, to get some world stars over to play Twenty20 cricket," said the 38-year-old.

"We saw in this year's World Cup how far we are behind the rest of the world in one-day cricket so to get an Indian Premier League equivalent would be fantastic in our country.

"To get a window of opportunity to let our players go over to the Indian Premier League would also be fantastic but there's no magic wand," said Hoggard.

"There are only so many days in the year and we don't really have the time to create a gap in the schedule so it's going to take a lot of reconstruction of county cricket and England international cricket."