Category Uncategorized

The IPL opened its doors a little to players from Pakistan once again, though it was made more difficult for the four players with suspended contracts to take part in the league’s next edition

Osman Samiuddin10-Dec-2009The IPL opened its doors a little to players from Pakistan once again, though ironically it was made more difficult for the four players with existing – albeit suspended – contracts to take part in the next edition of the lucrative league. Non-contracted Pakistani players, however, can enter this season’s auction, a step forward from last seasonKamran Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul and Misbah-ul-Haq, the gang of four who already had existing contracts with franchises, had their visas cleared earlier today by the Indian ministry of external affairs, briefly raising hopes that they may be allowed in after all. But because they missed the December 7 deadline to do so, their contracts remain suspended, according to Lalit Modi, chairman IPL. It wasn’t, however, a total reinforcement of the league’s earlier decision which ruled them out totally; they can, in the right circumstances, still appear.”The current players will be kept in suspension as they have not fulfilled their obligations,” Modi told Cricinfo. “The current suspended players cannot go to the auction. But they will be available to the franchisee for replacement if they have a spot. So their price does not change and others cannot bid for them as it will be a disadvantage for the existing owners.”Essentially this means that Tanvir, for example, can play for Rajasthan Royals only if they decide to free up a spot in their squad by getting rid of another foreign player. This will not be straightforward as the franchises involved – Rajasthan Royals (Tanvir and Akmal), Kolkata Knight Riders (Gul) and Bangalore Royal Challengers (Misbah) – have already replaced their Pakistani players after the contracts were first suspended.This will come as a disappointment not only to the players but to chairman Ijaz Butt and the PCB. Butt has fought hard to get his players back into the IPL after they were prevented by their own government from playing in the second season, a fallout of a deterioration in political ties between India and Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks of 2008. He met Modi in October to begin finding a way back for the players. After confirming that visas had been granted earlier today, Butt intended to speak to Modi to try and get the four back in, despite missing the deadline, which had already been extended twice.Some gains seem to have been made, however, as other non-contracted Pakistani players can enter this season’s auction. “Others who are not with any franchisee can be in the auction. They need to apply by December 31. Once we get their request we will then put them on the list and fix a price,” Modi said, before adding that “all contracts expire after this season and we will then go through new process again.”In an ideal world, Pakistani players such as Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Aamer would be attractive purchases in any auction, given that they won the World Twenty20 earlier this year and are generally considered the leading nation in the format. But franchises may find the red tape and paperwork to get through in getting players over too much.On a day of swift developments, Modi also addressed a press conference after news of the visa clearances came through, but full clarity is yet to be reached; who, for example, will initiate contact between franchises and Pakistan players for the auction; and what paperwork will be required for new Pakistani players to appear in the next IPL.

Tim Seifert and Ackeem Auguste led the chase of 110, as Kings topped the table and ended TKR’s winning streak

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Sep-2025The St Lucia Kings spinners Tabraiz Shamsi, Roston Chase and Khary Pierre shared seven wickets to bundle Trinbago Knight Riders for 109 and set up a commanding seven-wicket win in Tarouba. Victory took Kings into the playoffs of CPL 2025.Tim Seifert, Ackeem Auguste, Chase and Tim David made sure the chase was wrapped up at the start of the 12th over to give their net run rate a big boost with their fourth win in a row that placed them on top of the points table. Their streak also ended TKR’s hot run of five wins in a row as they lost the top spot after the game.Pierre struck on the second ball of the match after Kings opted to bowl. He had Colin Munro caught for a duck off a delivery which kept a little low. In the third over, Darren Bravo chipped Pierre to short fine leg for 11, before captain Nicholas Pooran staged a brief recovery.But once Chase had Hales bowled for 9 to end the powerplay, Kings began to slide. Forty for 2 soon became 59 for 5 by the end of ten overs. Shamsi cleaned up Akeal Hosein with a wrong ‘un first ball while Chase, who ended with 2 for 19, had Pooran caught behind albeit with help from DRS. After Pooran’s knock of 30 off 27, no TKR batter managed to cross 20.Keiron Pollard and Andre Russell were TKR’s biggest hopes if they were to reach a respectable total. But Shamsi had both batters bowled with his deceptive turn to finish with 3 for 12 without conceding a single boundary in his four overs. Nathan Edward and Terrance Hinds took TKR past 100, but Delano Potgieter and Alzarri Joseph wrapped the tail up to leave Kings only 110 to win.Seifert came out firing first ball. He swept Hosein for six, before cutting and punching him for fours in the first over that went for 14. TKR removed Seifert’s partner Johnson Charles for 1 to end the second over; but by then, Seifert had crashed 25 off ten deliveries. Two quiet overs followed before Auguste and Seifert ensured TKR’s momentum was short lived.The two batters doubled the score in the last two overs of the powerplay, which ended with Kings at 66 for 1. Usman Tariq, though, ended the fun for Kings in the seventh over when he had Seifert caught at deep midwicket for 36 from 19 balls. Next over, Sunil Narine trapped Auguste for an attacking 28, but Chase, who hit Tariq for three fours in the ninth over, and David took Kings home with 53 balls to spare.

This will be the England fast bowler’s first IPL stint

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Mar-2024Mumbai Indians have signed English left-arm fast bowler Luke Wood as a replacement for the injured Jason Behrendorff for IPL 2024.Wood has been signed for his base price of INR 50 lakh.Wood has 147 wickets from 140 T20s, including five matches for England. While he has featured in several T20 leagues like the BBL, PSL and BPL, apart from The Hundred, this will be his first IPL stint.Behrendorff was ruled out of the IPL after he broke his leg in a freak accident while training in Perth last Thursday just before leaving for India.The injury to Behrendorff, who returned 14 wickets from 12 games last season, compounds problems for Mumbai in their fast-bowling department. Sri Lankan left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka picked up an injury during the second ODI against Bangladesh which has likely ruled him out from the initial stages of IPL 2024.Related

• Behrendorff's T20 World Cup hopes dented after suffering broken leg in freak training accident

• Madushanka to miss rest of Bangladesh tour, initial stages of IPL 2024

• Suryakumar Yadav in doubt for Mumbai Indians' season opener

• 'I've been fit since January' – Hardik confirms he will bowl in IPL 2024

South African fast bowler Gerald Coetzee is also recovering from a pelvic inflammation and could be unavailable for Mumbai’s first few matches.Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Madhwal, Nuwan Thushara and Arjun Tendulkar are the other fast bowlers in Mumbai’s roster, while their new captain Hardik Pandya has confirmed that he is fit to bowl in the tournament. They also have Romario Shepherd as a seam-bowling allrounder.Star batter Suryakumar Yadav, who is recovering after two surgeries, is also a doubt for Mumbai’s opening match against Gujarat Titans.

Former Sri Lanka women’s team coach has signed a two-year deal

Mohammad Isam27-Oct-2022Hashan Tillakaratne, the former Sri Lanka captain, has been appointed as the national women’s team head coach for the next two years by the BCB. He will join the set-up in November, with the side starting their build-up for next February’s T20 World Cup in South Africa around that time.”We have spent a long time looking for a coach. Finally we found one,” Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, the BCB women’s wing chairman, said. “We have signed a two-year contract with Hashan Tillakaratne. He will join us in the first week of November.”Tillakaratne’s first assignment will be the tour of New Zealand in December, where the team will play three T20Is and three ODIs – the matches will be played between December 2 and 18.He has some experience coaching women’s teams, having worked with the Sri Lanka national team since July last year. He came on the BCB’s radar when he took Sri Lanka to the Asia Cup final earlier this month in Sylhet. BCB representatives reportedly contacted him and finalised the arrangement during the tournament, where Bangladesh, the defending Asia Cup champions, failed to get into the last four. Tillakaratne had at least another year left on his SLC contract.At the Asia Cup, Bangladesh were being coached by former cricketer Mahmud Emon. Tillakaratne will be Bangladesh’s first foreign coach since early 2020, when former India cricketer Anju Jain left the job.Tillakaratne played 83 Tests and 200 ODIs between 1986 and 2004, leading Sri Lanka in 11 Tests towards the end of his international career. In Tests, he scored 4545 runs at an average of 42.87, and he hit 3789 runs at an average of 29.60 in ODIs.After retirement, Tillakaratne has been an SLC selector and has performed various coaching roles with the men’s senior and Under-19 teams.

The problem CA has is they have tried to sweep it under the carpet and not come out with the full story, says Michael Clarke

Daniel Brettig17-May-2021Cricket Australia’s integrity unit has contacted Cameron Bancroft to ask whether he has anything to add to his recent comments suggesting wider knowledge of the 2018 Newlands ball-tampering plot.Ben Oliver, Cricket Australia’s head of national teams, confirmed on Monday that the integrity unit, which is currently headed by Rebecca Murray, had reached out to Bancroft to see if he was willing to speak further about the affair that led to him being banned for nine months, while Steven Smith and David Warner were both suspended for a year.Related

• Australia, no one cares about your ball-tampering anymore

• Cricket needs a global ball-tampering inquiry to clear the air

• David Saker: 'The finger-pointing is going to go on and on and on'

• Bancroft: 'Self-explanatory' that bowlers were aware of ball-tampering

“There was obviously a thorough investigation into that, to that incident,” Oliver said. “There were actions taken on the back of that and then since that time, everyone who’s been involved in the team has worked incredibly hard to rebuild confidence and to ultimately sort of aspire to make Australians proud of the Australian cricket team. So from that point of view that processes have taken place.”I think we’ve maintained all the way through that if, if anyone had any new information relating to that incident that we’ve encouraged people to come forward and discuss that with our integrity unit. In this particular case, our integrity team have reached out to Cam again extending that invitation to him if he does have any, any new information. We’ll wait to see his response on that, we haven’t had had a response. But in saying that we’re operating on different time zones.”Earlier on Monday, Michael Clarke had spoken plainly about the unresolved elements of the episode. “If you’d played the game of cricket, you would know more than three people know what was going on in there,” Clarke told . “The problem Cricket Australia has is the fact they’ve tried to sweep it under the carpet and not come out and tell the full story.”They go and do that Netflix or whatever it was [Amazon] and show all that, come inside the change room and let’s talk about what happened after Sandpapergate, but the public want to go ‘hang on a second, take me through the few months before Sandpapergate, what led up to that, what happened in South Africa, there’s a TV show for you Netflix, give us that information. It will continue because it hasn’t been finished, so much is left unsaid from the players and even what happened with staff.”You don’t have to have played cricket at the highest level. If you know anything about the game of cricket, you know on that day, on that field, what went down, more than three people had to know about it. Impossible not to… that’s why there’s going to be finger-pointing until, I think until someone writes their book and tells the complete, honest truth. I don’t think Cameron Bancroft should be smashed for what he’s come out and said, he’s tried to say nothing but he’s doing an interview.”Adam Gilchrist had also stated that he felt the issue was not resolved properly because it had not been fully investigated, particularly in terms of global “ball management” in the period leading up to Newlands.”There was an opportunity for CA if they were going to make such a strong statement they needed to do a more thorough investigation to work out where the root of the problem was,” Gilchrist said on . “Anyone would be naïve to think people were not aware with what was going on about ball maintenance. I don’t think Cricket Australia wanted to go there. They did not want to go any deeper than that superficial example of ball-tampering.”They did not investigate to see whether it was systemic had it been going on and on and on. Around the cricketing globe it was widely accepted a lot of teams were doing it. You haven’t seen any reverse swing since that incident as a general statement across world cricket. Very minimal reverse swing. The positive that has come out with that punishment is it seems to have been eradicated from the game because it was getting out of control around the entire cricket world, not just the Australian cricket team.”

Quetta failed to make a formal complaint against Peshawar within the 48-hour window

Danyal Rasool24-Feb-2020Peshawar Zalmi will have no case to answer for alleged ball-tampering during their game against Quetta Gladiators, after the PCB confirmed that Quetta had failed to formally make a complaint. Quetta captain Sarfaraz Ahmed’s claim they had reported what they perceived as ball-tampering by Peshawar has been refuted by the PCB, who in a press release stated Quetta had not filed the complaint through the “correctly stated procedure”.Following the conclusion of the match between Quetta and Peshawar on Saturday, Sarfaraz said his side believed Peshawar had altered the condition of the ball, and they were taking the matter up with the match referee and the PCB. “As far as ball-tampering is concerned, we have followed the protocols of [the] PCB and submitted our report on the matter,” he said. Team manager Nabeel Hashmi, who was with Sarfaraz at the press conference, appeared to clarify the comment, suggesting a formal complaint had not been made.The procedure to file a formal complaint was never followed though. Quetta wrote their complaint on the match evaluation form, which is not the platform to lodge formal complaints. Instead, the PCB pointed out, “all Reports must be completed on Form “Rep 1″ (or such other form as may be made available for such purpose by the PSL from time to time). All Reports must be signed and dated by the person lodging the Report.”That needed to be done within 48 hours of the conclusion of the game, which Peshawar won by six wickets. With that time having now lapsed, the window of opportunity available to Quetta to make a complaint has closed.”The Pakistan Cricket Board today confirmed match referee Roshan Mahanama has not received an official complaint from Quetta Gladiators against Peshawar Zalmi for changing the condition of the ball…” the PCB media release said.The PCB made clear they will not recognise Sarfaraz’s public comments as an official complaint, and were not happy with the manner in which Quetta had handled the matter.”We are aware that a statement on changing the condition of the ball has been made without providing any concrete evidence or lodging a formal complaint through the correctly stated procedure,” Wasim Khan, the PCB CEO, said.”In this case, this should have been submitted to the match referee by 6pm on Monday, 24 February. Such irresponsible statements without formal follow-up will only effect the integrity of the event and cast doubts on international cricketers, and, as such, I request the players to use caution and show responsibility.”A source at Quetta Gladiators told ESPNcricinfo that they had no intention to formally complain, insisting Sarfaraz’s comments had been misinterpreted. Quetta merely wanted to raise awareness of the issue, and to ask umpires to pay more attention to the ball’s condition, which would explain why they included their remarks on the umpire evaluation form instead of lodging a complaint to the match referee.The PSL resumes in Multan on Wednesday, where Multan Sultans will take on Peshawar. Quetta next play in Rawalpindi against Islamabad United.

The New Zealander scored 95 and then bagged five wickets in a superb display against Melbourne Stars

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2018New Zealand allrounder Sophie Devine produced a stunning all-round display as she became the first player in WBBL to score a half-century and take five wickets in the same match.She only came up five runs short of a century, clubbing 95 off 60 balls for Adelaide Strikers – an innings that included five sixes – adding 131 for the third with Bridget Patterson before falling to the last ball of the penultimate over.That was far from the end of her day, however, as she then cut off a brisk start from Melbourne Stars in their chase by removing the dangerous Lizelle Lee. The five-wicket bag was completed in her final over when Nicola Hancock was caught behind.Devine’s figures of 5 for 41 were the fourth best in the WBBL. Two years ago she scored an unbeaten 103 against the Hurricanes.In 2015 Grace Harris scored 103 off 55 balls opening for Brisbane Heat before taking 4 for 15 in two overs.

After his fighting first-innings 80, Raza picked up his maiden Test five-for and said he was both proud and humbled by the achievement

Liam Brickhill in Bulawayo31-Oct-2017Sikandar Raza was Zimbabwe’s unlikely bowling hero on the third day at Queens Sports Club. After his fighting first-innings 80, Raza picked up his maiden Test five-for and said he was both proud and humbled by the achievement.

‘We’ll put more miles on their legs’ – Powell

West Indies opener Kieran Powell believes it is “definitely advantage Windies” after they ended the third day with a lead of 48 runs in Bulawayo.
“If we could stretch this to a 100-150 run lead, that would be massive,” Powell said. “We’re only 48 runs ahead now, but we’ve put lots of miles on their legs. We’re going to come back tomorrow with two set guys as well, put some more miles on their legs and stretch out that lead as much as possible. Any lead is a good lead on this pitch. Tomorrow we don’t know if the pitch is going to start going up and down, so we’ve got to get as big a lead as possible that will help us push for a result.”
Powell played a significant role in pushing West Indies ahead. With Kraigg Brathwaite for company, he ground Zimbabwe down on Monday afternoon before upping the tempo on day three.
“It was just the flow of the day’s play,” Powell said. “Obviously, yesterday they bowled a bit tighter, and they bowled better lines. Today they gave us more scoring opportunities, and as the day progressed we had guys lower down the order to push the score along as well.”

“It’s quite a humbling and proud feeling, especially seeing your team do well as you take five,” Raza said. “It’s one of the roles you have as an allrounder. We always knew that missing [Kyle] Jarvis and Sean [Williams] would be tough. The way that [Graeme] Cremer bowled it could have been him as well.”I still like to think that I’m a batter who can bowl, but being an allrounder it becomes a responsibility that you need to step up whenever you are given an opportunity. We are spending a lot more time as a spinning unit working on our bowling compared to six months ago, so to see the rewards like this is certainly humbling.”Raza finished the day with 5 for 82 from 43 overs. He might easily have had a sixth wicket when he trapped Jason Holder in front of the stumps when he had scored just 11, but Umpire Kumar Dharmasena disagreed with the appeal and Zimbabwe had already used up all of their reviews. Indeed, it was Raza who had used their last review attempting to dislodge Kieran Powell.”It is what it is,” Raza said. “I said to the captain that I think I deserved it because we went for a review on Powell when we shouldn’t have. Kumar said he heard an inside edge. We didn’t. But a few go your way and a few don’t. The [Roston] Chase decision could have gone either way. You win some you lose some.”Holder went on to strike an unbeaten 71, putting on 144 for the eighth wicket with Shane Dowrich and extending West Indies lead to 48 at the close. “We wanted to be 48 ahead,” Raza said. “If the decision against Holder had gone our way then that could have happened. But we tried everything, we bowled well, we fielded well, our energies were up. Sometimes you’re going to have to raise your hand and say that we tried everything and it didn’t work because the opposition have batted well. Credit to them for batting that well.”A natural optimist, Raza reminded the press corp that Zimbabwe were just a few overs away from the new ball on Wednesday morning. Only half joking, he also said he would be willing to open the bowling in West Indies’ second innings.”The last hour was easier [for West Indies] because there wasn’t much turn and what turn there was, was slow,” Raza said. “But we’re 10 overs away from a third new ball, so that’s a positive. I think if Cremer refuses then I’ll pick up the ball and take the first over [in the second innings]. But the way the body is feeling right now, I might make sure he uses all the utilities before he comes to me.”With two more full days to go in the second Test, Raza suggested that Zimbabwe would be happy defending 270 to 300 runs on a pitch likely to break up in the next two days.”Hopefully, we come back fresh tomorrow with all three spinners and two seamers and have a plan how we’re going to go about our business,” he said. “First we have to look at how we get these three wickets and then how we bat second time around. Depending on the time, I think 270 to 300 would be a good total to defend.”

Legspinner Amit Mishra has said he was very pleased with his showing on a difficult track in India’s warm-up game against West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI in Basseterre

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2016Legspinner Amit Mishra has said he was very pleased with his showing on a difficult track in India’s warm-up game against West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI in Basseterre. Mishra, who took four wickets in the one innings India bowled in, said the pitch was very slow, making it easier for the batsmen to cope with whatever he threw at them, but he persevered with varying his deliveries and that worked for him.”I am happy with my performance as bowling on this track was very difficult,” Mishra told . “To get my bowling rhythm back on a slow batting track is a good sign. I was trying to vary my speed and was looking to confuse the batsmen. I didn’t want them to know at what speed I was bowling. I was also mixing up my deliveries, bowling straighter ones in between and turning the rest. I am very happy that on a slow wicket I could dismiss four batsmen.”Mishra’s 4 for 67 included the wickets of opener Rajendra Chandrika and No. 4 Jermaine Blackwood off consecutive deliveries after the pair had added 122. Mishra said working with India’s new coach, Anil Kumble, a legspinner himself, also helped him deal with the conditions. “Anil is with us and his experience is going to matter a lot. He has played here and he kept telling us about the conditions. We will utilise his experience and form a strategy together.”There were many things that he told me, like my bowling technique, landing and finishing. Looking at the wicket, he told me what are the areas where I can bowl, and the kind of fields that I could set on a slow wicket.”Mishra also had words of praise for the way captain Virat Kohli functions. “Virat Kohli is a positive person and he has created a similar positive environment within the team. He always supports me. There are no boundaries. Whenever I want to share something with him, I am free to express my opinion. He tells me, ‘You’re a wicket-taking bowler and that is what you must do. You stay positive and stick to your strengths. Do not think about anything else.'”India are scheduled to play one more warm-up match against the WICB President’s XI, a three-day game at the same venue, which starts on July 14. That will be followed by the first Test which begins on July 21 in Antigua.

Durham needed only 43 minutes to wrap up a six-wicket win over Worcestershire at New Road which takes them top of the Championship Division One table

ECB/PA27-May-2015
ScorecardMichael Richardson saw Durham home after Paul Collingwood’s 127 paved the way to victory•Getty Images

Durham needed only 43 minutes to wrap up a six-wicket win over Worcestershire at New Road which takes them top of the Championship Division One table. The result was largely influenced by Paul Collingwood’s highest Championship score for 10 years, and although the captain was out for 127 in the third over of the final day, Durham knocked off the remaining 48 runs with a minimum of fuss.Having been watched by his parents in reaching 111 not out on his 39th birthday, Collingwood was in celebratory mode when taking 13 runs off four balls from Joe Leach on the fourth morning. A cover drive for four completed a century partnership with Michael Richardson and this was followed by a six, which landed alongside the pavilion, and then another crisp off-side shot for three.However, Collingwood was caught behind in the next over from Charlie Morris, sparring at a lifting delivery outside the off stump.In a throwback to his best years, Collingwood brought authority and calmness to what could have become a tricky run-chase. In all he faced 183 balls, picking off 17 fours and two sixes while breaking the back of the task in stands of 108 with Keaton Jennings and 112 with Richardson.For Richardson, who took over the gloves from regular wicketkeeper Philip Mustard, it was a particularly good match, with seven catches and a third half-century of the summer after dropping one place in the order as a concession to the additional workload. Up until Collingwood’s departure he had not added even a single, but thereafter he comfortably assumed the leading role and moved up to an unbeaten 66 after scoring 25 of the last 32 runs with Gordon Muchall.Worcestershire’s fourth defeat in five games since winning promotion would have been a sobering experience and, not for the first time, they competed strongly for two-thirds of the match but failed to carry their performance through.Collingwood admitted Durham were looking “down and out” after losing nine wickets for 103 in the first innings, and to win from there made this one of the best victories of his time as captain. “We had to show a lot of spirit,” he said. “Full credit to Worcestershire, they pushed us really hard. I said in the dressing room that we needed some big performances. Thankfully the boys did that.”With his side now at the top of the table, having recovered from away defeats to Middlesex and Warwickshire, Collingwood added: “We are delighted with the position we are in but we need to continue improving. We are not really playing our best cricket but we are managing to get over the line.”Director of cricket Steve Rhodes was left to analyse another match that slipped away from Worcestershire. “Well, there have been a few this year,” he said. “Why is that? Is it because we are not recognising those key moments? I don’t think that is it because we talk about it a lot when we get chances in the breaks.”But ultimately some credit goes to Durham. That fightback for the 10th wicket [in the first innings] was crucial in that match. We missed a chance or two in that little period and then it became tough. This was possibly the best position we have been in to win a game apart from against Somerset.”