Archive May 1, 2025

Batter Cameron Bancroft says he is still motivated to earn a recall to Australia’s Test side but has never spoken to head coach Andrew McDonald.

Opener Bancroft, 32, played the last of his 10 Tests against England in 2019.

He was dropped after four failures at the start of that summer’s Ashes series, having been recalled following his nine-month ban for his role in Australia’s ball-tampering scandal the previous year.

Asked if he believes the scandal is a factor in McDonald’s thinking, Bancroft told the BBC’s Stumped podcast: “I would like to think not.

“I have just been outside of that environment.

“The coaches have been focused on the team and the players involved.

McDonald became Australia coach in April 2022 in place of Justin Langer.

Under McDonald’s leadership, Australia won the 2023 World Cup, retained the Ashes in England in 2023 and won last winter’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India.

Bancroft said he has spoken to Australia’s selectors – head selector George Bailey chairs meetings – in that time.

The Western Australian was the leading top-order batter across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 Sheffield Shield seasons when David Warner and Usman Khawaja were secure as Australia’s openers and then Steve Smith was promoted following Warner’s retirement.

With Smith moved back down to number four at the start of the last Australian summer an vacancy became available but Bancroft had a poor run of form and was overlooked for Nathan McSweeney and then 19-year-old Sam Konstas.

“Timing wasn’t great,” Bancroft said.

“Also the reality is form comes and goes, runs come and go. That’s just cricket.

“I have never spoken to Andrew McDonald.

“He has never spoken to me either. Understandably his focus is with the Australia team and that absolutely makes sense.”

Bancroft is currently captaining Gloucestershire in the County Championship and began the season with 163 against Glamorgan.

Konstas impressed with 60 on his Test debut against India in December but was overlooked for Australia’s most recent Test series in Sri Lanka, leaving doubt around who will partner Khawaja when Australia play South Africa in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June.

“Of course that [an Australia recall] is something that motivates me,” Bancroft said.

“I just try and go about my business and enjoy playing wherever I am, giving 100% to each ball and moment.

American ice dance brother and sister Alex and Maia Shibutani are set to return to competitive figure skating, ending a seven-year hiatus during which Maia was diagnosed with cancer.

They took a break after winning bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics, before Maia had surgery to remove a tumour from her kidney.

The pair, known as the Shib Sibs, have written four childrens ‘ books in their time away from the sport, but return with an eye on the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina.

“These past seven years have challenged and inspired us in ways we never expected”, 30-year-old Maia said.

Aged 20 and 16, the Shibutanis won bronze at the 2011 World Championships, making them the youngest ice dancers in almost 50 years to win a world medal.

They also won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2017 and are two-time US champions.

They won bronze medals in the ice dance and the team event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, making history as the first athletes of Asian descent – their parents are Japanese – and only non-white team to earn an Olympic ice dance medal.

“Our experiences and the new skills we’ve developed during our time away from competition have brought us different perspectives and created some exciting new possibilities”, said 34-year-old Alex.

“We don’t take any of this for granted. We’re really enjoying the process and look forward to performing and competing together again”.

Justin Dillion, US figure skating’s senior director of athlete high performance, said it was “incredibly exciting”.

“They are strong ambassadors for the sport, both on and off the ice”, he said.