Tag Futebol

A preview of the newly revamped Quaid-e-Azam trophy – Pakistan’s premier first-class competition

Umar Farooq24-Dec-2012Pakistan cricket history is as old as the country itself. The Quaid-e-Azam trophy – the country’s premier first-class competition – has been a testing ground for cricketers in the domestic circuit since 1953. This year, 14 teams including Bahawalpur will compete in a newly revamped structure and is a chance for players to impress ahead of Pakistan’s South Africa tour in January 2013.The new structure promises improved competition among evenly-matched teams. The new regional teams are allowed to recruit five players from the old department sides, of whom four can be part of the playing XI. The 14 regional teams have been divided into two groups of seven, with top four teams from each group progressing to the super-eights while the remaining six would be playing in the plate league. The league toppers will contest in their respective league finals. Either way, each team will at least play eight matches apart from the finalIn a bid to give bowlers exposure to internationally-recognised cricket balls, the board has also made the use of Kookaburra balls mandatory for the tournament.Such measures have been taken by the board to revive national interest in the first-class game. Cricket is the most popular sport in Pakistan, but that interest seldom trickles beyond international matches – a far cry from the eighties and nineties when fans used to regularly flock the venues to watch players like Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, etc. practice in the nets.Team previewsKarachi Whites and Karachi BluesKarachi is Pakistan’s biggest and the most successful regional cricket association having won the trophy 19 times. The city has two teams in the competition – Whites and Blues. The Whites are led by fast bowler Mohammad Sami and boast of prolific batsmen like Fawad Alam, Asad Shafiq, Khalid Latif and Saeed Bin Nasir. The Blues, captained by former Test batsman Faisal Iqbal, have a promising fast-bowling line-up with Tanvir Ahmed, Tabish Khan and Anwar Ali.The Whites, more successful of the two teams with a hat-trick of titles between 1990 and 1992-93, won their last title in 2002 and last year, finished third in Division 2, while the Blues were led to their eighth title by Sami in 2009.BahawalpurAfter a successful debut in this season’s Faysal Bank T20 Cup, Bahawalpur are all set to make a return to first-class cricket after nearly a decade. Bahawalpur were the winners of the inaugural Quaid-e-Azam trophy in 1953 when they beat Punjab in the final. They won their second title in 1958. During the 200304 overhaul of domestic cricket, Bahawalpur were merged with the Multan region.Rehan Rafiq, an opening batsman who has played for WAPDA and Habib Bank in the absence of his native regional team, will lead the Bahawalpur side this season. The squad is relatively inexperienced and the team mainly relies on veteran allrounder Bilal Khilji, seamers Kamran Hussain and Mohamamd Talha.SialkotA renowned Twenty20 side, Sialkot won the 2005-06 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Golden League. Though they failed to defend their title the following year, they came hard to clinch it again in 2009.The combination of 20 players is centered on left-arm batsman Haris Sohail, who made 673 runs at 134.60 with four hundreds in the President Trophy for Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited. He was rewarded with a national call-up when the selectors chose him in the ODI squad for the India tour. Left-arm fast bowler Naved Arif, who immigrated to England last year, has returned to play for his native domestic side as an overseas player.Left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, who has been serving a 12-week ban after testing positive for cannabis during his stint with Somerset, is back in action. Another promising left-arm spinner Raza Hasan was left out due to his career-threatening spine injury, which had also ruled out him from the ongoing tour of India.RawalpindiIt is always difficult to see a Rawalpindi side without Mohammad Amir and the dashing Mohammad Wasim but life goes on. A hugely talented side, Awais Zia, Umar Amin and Mohammad Nawaz are the spirit of the team now. Rawalpindi perhaps never were the favorites and have never won the title but the region is always busy in producing quality players for the national level.Umar Waheed, a promising middle-order batsman from the Under-19 circuit will kick off his first-class career this year while all-rounder Nawaz will have to shift gears after his showing for Pakistan U-19s last year. Zia, who has been desperately waiting for the trophy to start, is ready to take flight. Amin has already asserted his case in the President Trophy. He was the leading run-scorer, with 767 in nine matches at 45.11 and will be put through another test ahead of the South Africa tour.Lahore ShalimarIt has been more than ten years now since Lahore -believed to be the biggest nursery for national cricketers in the country – won a national title. The last time was in 2001. Like Karachi, Lahore also have two teams. They had a poor season last year, finishing second-last in Division Two, and managed to win only one match against Multan, who were glued tightly to the bottom with zero points. Shalimar suffered seven defeats with one drawn game against a depleted Quetta side.This year, they start their campaign after losing key players to the national side for the India tour, leaving Shalimar with the inexperienced lot. In the absence of Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal and Wahab Riaz, Shalimar will have to rely on the veteran batsman Mohammad Yousuf. Along with fast bowler Aizaz Cheema, Zia-ul-Haq and Mohammad Irfan will be the core of the bowling attack.PeshawarPeshawar have retained the core of the side that beat Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited in the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division Two last year. They were the underdogs but finished unbeaten in the division and were supposed to be promoted to Division One if the same structure had been followed this year.Peshawar are mainly centered on their batsmen Akbar Badshah and Mohammad Fayyaz, who were the second and third-leading run-getters in their division. Adding Israrullah to the mix makes it a formidable batting line-up. Their bowling attack is dominated by fast bowlers such as Imran Khan, the President Trophy’s third-leading wicket-taker, and Waqar Ahmed, who picked up 60 wickets last year for Peshawar.This year, they are entering the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with a reputation to carry on. They are certainly the favorites on paper and look good to finish among the top teams before going into the super-eight. They have earlier won the national championship in 1998-99 and 2004-05.

John Wright, the outgoing New Zealand coach, has signed off from his role with the team with stern words for the batsmen

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Aug-2012John Wright, the outgoing New Zealand coach, has signed off from his role with the team with stern words for its batsmen. The New Zealand batsmen, Wright said, have to be “accountable” for their on-field actions.”You have to have self-responsibility and be accountable for your actions in the middle,” Wright was quoted as saying by . “You just can’t come off [after being dismissed] and wave it away with phrases like ‘that’s the way I play’ and ‘I didn’t quite execute’.”You have to be very brutal in your self-analysis and very honest. It’s [also] very helpful if your team-mates are brutally honest with you and if you play an inappropriate shot at any stage, then you know that if you go back into that dressing room you’re going to not exactly get a welcome.”The tour of the Caribbean was Wright’s final assignment with New Zealand, in which they were blanked 0-2 in the Twenty20 and Test series’ and lost the ODI series 1-4. In the one-dayers, none of the New Zealand batsmen aggregated 200 runs, while in the Tests, none of the batsmen, apart from Martin Guptill, touched 130 overall. In what could have been the most embarrassing result of the tour, however, the batsmen struggled in the warm-up game prior to the Tests, against the WICB President’s XI, before narrowly avoiding an innings defeat.Wright had decided not to extend his coaching contract following differences with New Zealand’s director of cricket, John Buchanan. Mike Hesson, who previously coached domestic side Otago and Kenya, takes over as coach for New Zealand’s next assignment – the tour of India that begins on August 23 – and Wright said he hoped Hesson would get “what he needs” to help lift New Zealand.Wright thanked the fans for their support during his stint. “It has been an incredible privilege for me to coach my country and I’ve had fantastic support from the cricketing public,” he said. “I very much appreciate that.”

Seamer Trent Copeland and offspinner Nathan Lyon will make their Test debuts for Australia in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle

Daniel Brettig in Galle30-Aug-2011Seamer Trent Copeland and offspinner Nathan Lyon will make their Test debuts for Australia in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Usman Khawaja edged Shaun Marsh out of the side, and will get his chance to bat at No. 6 in a line-up that was named one day early.Lyon, who won the tussle for the lone spinner’s spot with Michael Beer, is trained as a groundsman, and was seen in conversation with Greg Chappell, the selector on duty, before making a close inspection of the pitch. He extracted useful turn from the practice wickets either side of the match strip, though, appeared no more dangerous than Copeland, who beat the bat frequently.It has been a most extraordinary rise for the 23-year-old Lyon, who until the first day of the tour match against Sri Lanka Board XI had never bowled in front of his captain Michael Clarke. Lyon made his debut for South Australia in the domestic Twenty20 tournament last year, where his performances won him rapid promotion to his state’s Shield team and the Australia A team on the limited-overs leg of a tour of Zimbabwe. To date, he has taken 14 wickets in five first-class matches.While there, he impressed all with his flight, loop and spin, and these aggressive attributes pushed him ahead of Beer, who played his first Test at the SCG at the conclusion of the Ashes. Lyon becomes the 11th spin bowler to be tried for Australia since Shane Warne retired in 2007. He will be used as an attacking, wicket-taking option by the tourists, who have arguably been given that option by Copeland’s emergence as a stingy seam-up type not seen in Australian colours since Stuart Clark’s time was up.Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan said that while the surface will take spin, its dry nature would aid reverse-swing. The breeze from the Indian Ocean is also known to help the fast bowlers. Copeland is likely be used for long, tight spells while Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris tear in at the other end.Michael Clarke acknowledged Copeland’s strengths, which have also been cited by numerous locals, as likely to be exceptionally useful in Sri Lankan wickets. Also central to his thinking is the fact that Johnson and Harris will be more capable of slipping in quick, aggressive spells with the support of Copeland.”The greatest advantage Copes has is his statistics in first-class cricket don’t tell a lie,” Clarke said. “There’s a reason he’s had success there and I’m certain it’ll be the same reason he [will] have success for Australia. He’s got great control. Very rarely do you see too many blokes hitting him with the middle of the bat consistently and I think that’s because he’s got good height and he just wobbles the ball enough. I’m a big wrap for him – I love his control, I love the way he bowled in the first game.”He bowls a lot of overs for not many runs, so that’s a great strength. In these conditions if the wickets are flat, it gives you the option to set fields he can bowl to. Because his pace is a little bit slower, he generally has more control so he can bowl more to a field than someone who is bowling at 150km/h.”There have been 12 outright results from the 17 Test matches played at the Galle International Stadium since 1998, nine of them enjoyed by the hosts. Only when rain intervenes, as it did when the Australians first played here in 1999, do the chances of a firm outcome dissipate.Clarke, in his first Test as Australia’s fully-fledged Test captain, could not help but notice the lack of grass on a good length at either end of the pitch. Whatever excess foliage remained in the middle had been shaved off by the ground staff by the time the Australians returned for their final training session.”It looked dry at the ends yesterday; it looked like they had cut the grass off the ends but left the grass in the middle of the wicket,” Clarke said. “But I got a phone call last night saying when we left the ground they shaved that as well. I don’t know what happened after training but the wicket seemed to have changed.”It’s pretty hard as well; it will definitely spin but I don’t know if it will spin [from] day one or day two. There might be a bit more pace and bounce than what we had in the practice game. It will spin, but it is just a matter of how early or how much.”Australia have misread overseas pitches before, no more disastrously than the dry surface for the fifth Ashes Test at the Oval in 2009, when no specialist spinner was chosen. However Clarke said it was important the tourists did not get spooked by the perceived threat of the conditions, and chose the combination most likely to succeed in the team’s first Test since the horrors of the previous home summer.”I just think with the first match of the series we’ve got to get the right combination,” Clarke said. “If we think the quicks are going to be our best solution to take 20 wickets then we have to go with three fast bowlers no matter what Sri Lanka do, or no matter if we think it’s going to spin. Looking at that wicket yesterday looks quite hard and dry and that will bring reverse-swing into play … if it’s hard there might be a bit more carry into play as well.”Australia XI for Galle: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Phil Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Usman Khawaja, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Trent Copeland, 10 Ryan Harris, 11 Nathan Lyon. (12th man – Michael Beer)

Andrew McDonald produced a Man-of-the-Match display to steer Leicestershire to an eight-wicket win over Yorkshire

29-Jun-2011
Scorecard
Andrew McDonald produced a Man-of-the-Match display to steer Leicestershire to an eight-wicket win over Yorkshire and keep them on course for a place in the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals for the first time in five years.The allrounder took 3 for 18 as the visitors were bowled out for 144 at Grace Road and then hit a superb unbeaten 59 to guide the hosts to a crushing win with 22 balls to spare. McDonald and Josh Cobb shared an opening stand of 74 in eight overs and then, following the dismissal of Will Jefferson, James Taylor joined the Australian in an unbroken match-winning third-wicket partnership of 63 off 41 balls.Yorkshire, having been put into bat, made a good start and were 73 for 1 by the ninth over. Captain Andrew Gale led by example with an excellent half-century. But he had little support and his side were unable to maintain the early momentum, losing the last nine wickets for 71 runs in the final 12 overs.Gale was the only batsman to offer any real resistance to the home attack, making 67 off 56 balls with six boundaries before being eighth out when he was caught at deep midwicket off Harry Gurney. The left-arm seamer finished with 3 for 26, claiming all his three wickets in his final over.But it was McDonald who created the biggest problems for Yorkshire, picking up the vital wickets of Adam Lyth, Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance. After Gale the next highest scorer for Carnegie was Ajmal Shahzad, who slammed 20 off 11 balls including a massive six off Cobb.On a good pitch Yorkshire’s total never looked enough and Cobb and McDonald gave the Foxes just the start they needed to set up victory. Cobb continued his splendid form at the top of the order, making 46 off 25 balls with six boundaries and two sixes off Shahzad.The Yorkshire paceman went for 43 runs off his three overs and the only successes for the visitors were the two wickets of Cobb and Jefferson – both snared by Richard Pyrah. But McDonald and Taylor ensured victory for the Foxes with a splendid partnership, McDonald finishing unbeaten on 59 off 47 balls while Taylor showed his class with a bright and breezy 33 off 22 balls.It was Leicestershire’s fifth win of the season and they remained second in the north group table.

There are currently two selectors from the west in the panel, including the chair Ajit Agarkar, and none from the north

Shashank Kishore15-Jan-2024The BCCI has invited applications for the post of one national selector for the senior men’s team. However, the board’s advertisement, published on their website, doesn’t specify which of the active selectors would be replaced from the current five-member panel chaired by Ajit Agarkar.The convention has been to pick one selector from each zone (north, south, east, west and central) with the most experienced member – in terms of Test caps – heading the panel. No selector can have more than a combined term of five years (junior and senior panels taken together).Since Agarkar was brought in as chairman to fill the vacancy created by the departure of Chetan Sharma – from the north zone – last July, there are two selectors for the west, belonging to the same association (Mumbai Cricket Association), with no-one from the north. The other members currently in the panel are Salil Ankola (west), SS Das (central), S Sharath (south) and Subroto Banerjee (east).It’s possible the BCCI will want to have someone from the north in the committee, and one of the two men from the west might have to make way. Agarkar, it was understood at the time, was the unanimous choice of the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee comprising Ashok Malhotra, Sulakshana Naik and Jatin Paranjape.Applicants have until 6pm IST on January 25 to submit their candidature. The BCCI will then screen the applications before inviting shortlisted candidates for an interview. Applicants should have played (a) a minimum of seven Tests, or (b) 30 first-class games, or (c) ten ODIs and 20 first-class matches to be eligible. No date has been set for the interviews.The Agarkar-led committee has picked the India squad for the first two of five Tests against England at home beginning January 25, with the squad for the subsequent three Tests likely to be picked after the second Test in Visakhapatnam, ending February 6. India’s next assignment after the England Tests is the T20 World Cup which follows immediately after IPL 2024.

Openers reach close without loss after Gleeson’s 3 for 32 help skittle Durham for 180

ECB Reporters Network08-Aug-2020Lancashire finished on top at the end of day one of their Bob Willis Trophy match against Durham after bowling out the home side for 180 at Emirates Riverside.Richard Gleeson was the standout bowler for the visitors, claiming figures of 3 for 32, while the rest of the wickets were shared around the attack. Alex Lees provided the only meaningful resistance for the hosts with a patient half-century, while Ben Raine was left stranded on 24 not out at the end of the innings.The Red Rose had a tricky spell to negotiate before stumps, but they closed the day 33 for 0, trailing the home side by 147 runs heading into day two.Despite their struggles in the first innings against Yorkshire last week, Durham skipper Ned Eckersley opted to bat first on a glorious summer’s day. However, the home side’s top-order problems continued, with Sean Dickson falling to a fine one-handed catch from Alex Davies behind the stumps from a swinging Tom Bailey delivery.Cameron Steel was then pinned lbw, leaving a straight delivery from Luke Wood. David Bedingham scored an impressive half-century against the White Rose, but on this occasion he gave his wicket away, playing a loose cut shot to a wide delivery from Gleeson and Davies claimed a simple catch behind the stumps.Resistance came from Lees, who displayed the same patience at the crease as he did scoring a century against Yorkshire. The left-hander and Gareth Harte put on 52 for the fourth wicket, which was only ended by a run out. Harte’s hesitation cost him his wicket when George Balderson connected with a direct hit from backward point. Lees maintained his poise and notched his half-century from 151 deliveries.After Lees reached his milestone, a clatter of wickets ensued. Jack Burnham fell lbw to Gleeson after narrowly surviving an outside edge that bounced short of Keaton Jennings. Lees was put down by Jennings on 61 after Wood found his outside edge, but it only cost Lancashire five runs as Lees became the second run-out victim of the session, Dane Vilas and Davies combining for the dismissal.Eckersley then knicked off to Balderson for 8, leaving Durham seven down before the 150-run mark.Raine provided aggression before being penned back by the Lancashire attack. His attempt to cut loose off Liam Hurt resulted in an edge that just looped over Liam Livingstone at second slip. Hurt’s persistence paid off when Brydon Carse pulled a short ball straight into the hands of Vilas at square leg.Gleeson’s return from the Finchale End yielded the wicket of Matt Salisbury lbw for 1 before Livingstone wrapped up the Durham innings by removing Chris Rushworth caught behind.Lancashire enjoyed a solid start to their reply with Jennings and Davies blunting the new-ball attack of Rushworth and Carse, who struggled to find his rhythm following his return from England’s white-ball squad earlier this month. It allowed Jennings and Davies to settle and leave the visitors unscathed from a nine-over burst at the close.

Drawn two-day warm-up gives few clues for Test line-up after senior bowlers miss contest

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Dec-2019England XI (Root 72, Denly 60, Sibley 58) drew with SA Invitational XI 289 (Snyman 79, Rosier 70, Sekhukhune 65)James Anderson picked up a wicket in his first competitive work-out since August, but England’s hopes of fine-tuning their bowling attack ahead of next week’s Boxing Day Test were undermined by illness as their opening warm-up finished as a draw in Benoni.Anderson, who had not bowled in a match situation since aggravating a calf injury during the first Ashes Test, claimed the respectable figures of 1 for 37 in 11 overs, as the SA Invitational XI were bowled out for 289, in reply to England’s first-day total of 309 for 4 declared.However, with three of England’s front-line bowlers – senior seamers Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer plus first-choice spinner Jack Leach – all laid low by an illness that has hit the camp, the team’s resources were stretched thin, even allowing for the non-first-class nature of the match.Ben Stokes was also unable to bowl, having arrived late on the tour following the Sports Personality of the Year Awards in Aberdeen on Sunday (although he did field). Mark Wood, who is still recovering from a side strain, was also unavailable, leaving the seam bowling in the hands of Anderson, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes.”A few guys have gone down a little bit ill, so obviously they’re back in the hotel trying to steer clear of everyone,” said Woakes. “Hopefully it’s not too bad, hopefully it’ll be a couple of days out and they’ll be back on their feet.”Root ended up bowling himself for 13 overs – more than any of his quicks – while the bulk of England’s workload was carried by the legspinner Matt Parkinson, who claimed two late wickets to improve his figures after some rough early treatment in his 20-over spell.After England had declared on their overnight score, Curran gave England an early boost with two new-ball wickets, including a well-directed outswinger that bowled the left-hander Isma-eel Gafieldien for 2 in his first over.But the SA XI’s innings was built around a trio of half-centuries from Kabelo Sekhukhune, Jacques Snyman and the captain Diego Rosier, as England’s threadbare attack was made to work for further breakthroughs.Anderson ended a 133-run stand for the third wicket when he had Sekhukhune caught behind for 65, and then, 20 runs later, he was in on the action in the field as well, taking the catch that ended Snyman’s stay on 79, to give Woakes the first of three wickets in the space of 11 balls.Later in Woakes’ same over, Kyle Simmonds picked out Stokes for a duck, before Sizwe Masondo was caught behind for 4 to leave the SA XI uncomfortably placed on 175 for 6.They regrouped, however, with Rosier to the fore in a well-crafted 70 from 88 balls, and by the end of an underwhelming day’s work, Root and Parkinson were bowling in tandem to save England’s quicks from further effort.Both men duly picked up two wickets, Parkinson bringing the match to an early-afternoon conclusion when No.11 Stephan Tait missed a sweep to be adjudged lbw for 0.”It’s a good run-out for us,” said Woakes. “Obviously in the last couple of weeks, we flew back from New Zealand, [had a] week at home in a different climate, then came back out here, so it was a pretty pleasing couple of days for us. It was good to get a run-out, overs in the legs, the usual pre-tour sort of stuff really. We’ll take a few positives from it.”On a fairly unresponsive deck, Woakes regularly turned to the short ball in a bid to force a breakthrough, and felt pleased with how he had fared as he continues his recent upturn in fortunes with the Kookaburra ball.”I’d like to think I’m a bit different bowler, obviously more experienced,” he said. “We’re always looking at ways to develop skills with the Kookaburra ball, trying to find ways to get it moving. I think in South Africa you might be able to utilise a bit of reverse, particularly in the longer games, so I think I’m a different bowler.”

She as been ruled out of the T20I series starting Friday against Sri Lanka after the re-occurrence of a groin injury

Liam Brickhill31-Jan-2019Allrounder Chloe Tryon has been ruled out of the T20I series starting Friday against Sri Lanka after the re-occurrence of a groin injury. It is hoped that Tryon, who is the vice-captain, will recover in time to return for the ODI series starting on 11 February in Potchefstroom.Tryon’s absence has given Suné Luus a lifeline who has been recalled to the team after she was dropped from the original squad. She rejoins a squad that is playing the three-match series as a televised double-header alongside the men’s games against Pakistan starting this Friday at Newlands.Tryon, 25, has played 52 T20Is for South Africa, in which she has struck the ball at 137.86. Captain Dane van Niekerk said that her team would miss Tryon’s big-hitting ability, but she hoped the youngsters being trialled in South Africa’s top order would step in to fill the gap.”It’s a massive blow,” van Niekerk said. “We know how explosive she’s been, and she can hit the ball as far as anyone in the world at the moment. It is a massive blow, but it’s also an opportunity for us, for people within the side to stick up their hands and put some pressure on Chloe as well – to say ‘hey, I can do this job’. We’ve got some powerful hitters – that’s one thing we pride ourselves on, that we’ve got some big hitters, some of the biggest in the world.”Faye Tunnicliffe, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk and Lara Goodall were drafted into the set-up for the three T20Is against Sri Lanka. Saarah Smith also makes a return after recovering from a fractured finger suffered during the World T20.”[Tryon’s absence] doesn’t change things a lot, because we have a lot of batting power within the side, and with the youngsters coming in I’m really excited to see what they do,” van Niekerk said.

Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal is almost certainly out of the second Test in Pallekele after it was confirmed that his groin tear will take up to two weeks to heal

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle09-Nov-2018Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal is almost certainly out of the second Test in Pallekele, after it was confirmed that the injury he sustained during the first Test was a grade one tear in the groin, which will take up to two weeks to heal.Sri Lanka’s team management will give Chandimal every opportunity to heal before the second Test, which starts on Wednesday, but have said they would not risk putting Chandimal into the XI if he is not 100%. Kusal Perera and Lahiru Thirimanne were the standby batsmen when the Test squad was named in late September, and may now enter into the squad proper as injury cover.”Chandimal’s injury is grade one tear, and it will take ten to 14 days to recover, so it will be touch and go for the second Test match,” Chandika Hathurusingha, Sri Lanka’s coach, said. “We’ll wait and see how his body recovers before we make the call. If he is not 100% fit, he may not play. We have to look at a replacement or stand by player for him.”If he misses the match, it would be the fourth Test out of Sri Lanka’s five most recent matches that he would have been unavailable for. He was suspended for the third Test of the West Indies series in June, and the two home Tests against South Africa in July, due to a ball-tampering offence and the spirit of cricket breach that followed it.He had also missed the second Test Sri Lanka played after he became captain in August last year, due to pneumonia on that occasion.Suranga Lakmal, the senior fast bowler, is likely to lead the team in Chandimal’s absence.

The doors of Indian cricket remain shut on Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandila, after BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said the penalties imposed would not be lifted

Gaurav Kalra and Nagraj Gollapudi27-Jul-20154:16

Anurag Thakur: “I haven’t received any representations from these players, so as of now the ban stays.”

The doors of Indian cricket remain shut on Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandila, after BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said the penalties imposed by the board on the three former Rajasthan Royals players for their involvement in spot-fixing in IPL 2013 would not be lifted. Thakur’s comments came on a day when the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) appealed to the BCCI to lift the life ban on Sreesanth, who hails from that state.Though a Delhi trial court had dropped the charges against the players levied under the MCOCA act, a law passed by the Maharashtra government to tackle organised crime syndicates, on grounds of insufficient evidence, Thakur said the BCCI’s decision had been made after an independent investigation.”Criminal proceedings are entirely different to the disciplinary proceedings. The decision has been taken by the BCCI’s disciplinary committee, not by a court of law,” Thakur told ESPNcricinfo. “Action has been taken against the players on the report of our anti-corruption unit. As per the BCCI rules and regulations, the ban on these players will stay.”Sreesanth and Chavan were banned for life by the BCCI, while Chandila’s penalty is still pending because he failed to face the disciplinary panel due to personal reasons, though he too was found guilty for the same breaches as his team-mates.Immediately after the court dropped the charges, Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila had expressed relief and hope of returning to play cricket, and there was support from players’ home states.On Monday KCA president TC Mathew told ESPNcricinfo that he had written to the BCCI asking Sreesanth be given permission to play for Kerala. “Based on the judgement of the Delhi court, we have written to the BCCI asking them that his ban be lifted. He has given his best while playing for India and if the court has exonerated him, the BCCI should also reconsider its decision.”However, Thakur said the BCCI would not change its mind, though he said the players were free to approach a higher court to challenge the ban. He also made it clear that no player had approached the board directly. “Any Indian citizen can go to a court of law if they are not happy with any decision. Delhi police will go to the higher court to challenge the lower court verdict. I haven’t received any representations from these players, so as of now the ban stays.”Thakur said the BCCI had faced turbulence in recent years with corruption scandals taking up most of the administrators’ time. “In the last few years there were certain decisions that had been taken for which the board has to pay. The image of the board has been tarnished in the past few years.”One of those issues was the 2013 IPL betting scandal, which resulted in the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Panel suspending the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals – India Cements and Jaipur India Pvt Ltd – for two years. In an immediate response, the BCCI set up a working group to make recommendations on the way forward for the IPL to the board’s working committee within six weeks.Thakur, who is part of the five-member working group, said the BCCI wanted to study the Lodha panel order and did not want to arrive at any decision in haste. “We have made it clear that we will implement the verdict in toto. The working group has been formed so we can take a well-informed, well-thought decision, for the well being of cricket. The Mudgal commission took a year to come out with their report. Lodha committee took six months. We have sought only six weeks to speak to various stakeholders before implementing the report.”When asked specifically whether there was enough evidence established by the Lodha panel to terminate the Super Kings and Royals franchises, Thakur said the BCCI’s primary concern was the welfare of the players involved. “The Lodha committee has looked into each and every aspect of the situation. They have suspended the teams for two years. At the same time BCCI working group is looking into the details of how to implement it so that our players, especially the domestic players, should not suffer because of this verdict.”