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Andre Russell Shakib Al Hasan Among Big Names Picked In Psl 2021 Replacement Draft

Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan among big names picked in PSL 2021 replacement draft

Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Usman Khawaja and Martin Guptill are among the players who have been picked in the PSL 2021 replacement draft. While Shakib has been picked by Lahore Qalandars, Russell and Khawaja went to Quetta Gladiators and Islamabad United respectively. New Zealand aggressive batsman Guptill is a part of Karachi Kings.

The PCB held the PSL replacement draft on Tuesday as the franchises would be able to complete their squads.

The tournament was earlier suspended with immediate effect after there was a rise in COVID-19 cases among the players and staff. Though, it will now resume on June 2 with the final scheduled to take place on June 20.

All the matches will be taking place in Karachi while the teams will have to reach the venue on May 23 to undergo a mandatory seven-day quarantine.

The tournament will be without the services of a number of international players. The England cricketers will be busy with the Vitality Blast T20 tournament while the others would be on national duties.

As many 134 players were there in the list of the players for the mini-draft out of which 25 belonged to West Indies and 24 to Sri Lanka.

Apart from this, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa had 10, 12 and 18 players respectively while there were 6 players from Zimbabwe, 16 from Afghanistan, 5 from Ireland, 4 from Scotland, and one each from Nepal and Oman.

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St. Kitts and Nevis to host 2021 edition of Caribbean Premier League

The Caribbean Premier League organising committee announced the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis as the host for the 2021 edition of the league. The tournament would begin on August 28 with all the games being played at the iconic Stadium of Warner Park. Pete Russell, CPL’s COO, said that with the tournament moving to St. Kitts and Nevis, the country would get an ample amount of sponsorship opportunities which will boost the economy, as was the case with Trinidad and Tobago, the hosts of last year’s tournament. “We are delighted to be able to announce that we will be having the Hero CPL in St Kitts & Nevis in 2021 and we would like to thank those involved in welcoming the tournament to this wonderful country,” said Russell. With no Covid transmission recorded in St Kitts & Nevis so far, it is one of the safest places to visit in the Caribbean. Speaking on the opportunity to host such a huge tournament in its entirety, Jonel Powell, St Kitts & Nevis Minister for Education, Youth, Sports and Culture, said, “We are greatly confident that the hosting of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in St. Kitts & Nevis in 2021 will stimulate much-needed economic activity, especially for small and medium-sized local businesses.” Since the tournament is going to be played in August, a lot of players from around the world would be eager to represent different CPL teams to get noticed and picked for their respective national sides for the World T20 which would most probably take place in October 2021. With the influx of players, Covid is in the mid of the minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and he is sure that vigilance would be increased. “As it relates to Covid-19 we will maintain our vigilance to ensure that our health protocols are not compromised and that the country remains protected from any serious spread of the Coronavirus,” Mr Powell said.

RCB rope in Scott Kuggeleijn in place of Kane Richardson

The Royal Challengers Bangalore have roped in New Zealand all-rounder Scott Kuggeleijn in place of Kane Richardson who earlier withdrew his name from the IPL 2021 citing personal reasons. Kuggeleijn was a part of the IPL bubble with Mumbai Indians and has now moved to RCB. The right-arm cricketer has played two IPL matches and has picked up a couple wickets so far. He has represented New Zealand in 16 T20Is and 2 ODIs respectively. Kuggeleijn has picked 13 wickets in the shorter format of the game while has 5 scalped to his name in ODI cricket. RCB’s Adam Zampa and Richardson had opted out of the IPL earlier. While the two players withdrew from the tournament, they are still stuck in Mumbai according to the Cricbuzz report. Australia had suspended all the flights from India provisionally till May 15. But a CA spokesperson has said that the board is having talks with the government to make an exception for Zampa and Richardson. "We are trying to see if the government does give us the go ahead to bring the players back. If we get the nod, it's all pretty straightforward. But if not, we'll be working with the ACA and BCCI to make sure they're in a secure environment," the spokesperson said. RCB are presently sitting at the third spot in the points table after they suffered their first defeat against Chennai Super Kings in the last outing.

Amit Mishra becomes first player to be warned for using saliva in IPL 2021

Delhi Capitals spinner Amit Mishra became the first player in this year’s Indian Premier League to be warned for applying saliva to the ball. The incident took place in the Capitals’ clash against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. When Mishra, 38, came to bowl in the seventh over, he unknowingly applied saliva to the ball to shine it. On-field Umpire Varinder Sharma noticed it instantly and gave a warning to both Mishra and the DC skipper Rishabh Pant, after having applied sanitiser on the ball. While Mishra is the first bowler to be warned for it in the IPL, England’s Ben Stokes and Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz are the other two bowlers to have faced Umpire’ ire over the rule since it came into being in the post-Covid-19 world of cricket.

IPL bubble is the most vulnerable: Adam Zampa

Australia and RCB spinner Adam Zampa has backed his decision of leaving the Indian Premier League midway with the reasoning that he wasn’t finding enough motivation to stay in the bubble. The leggie also went on to say that the IPL bubble was the most vulnerable he had been a part of since the Covid outbreak. “We’ve been in a few [bubbles] now, and I feel like this is probably the most vulnerable,” Zampa was quoted as saying by India Today. Terming the Covid situation in Inda as ‘pretty dire’, Zampa said, “I just felt, rocking up to training and stuff, obviously, I wasn’t playing in the team as well, I was going to training and I wasn’t finding the motivation.” Reasoning that the travel ban by Australia for all the flights coming from India put pressure on his decision-making the 29-year-old said, “[There were] a few other things like bubble fatigue and the chance to get home, once all the news broke about the flights and everything. I thought this was the best time to make the call.” The Melbourne Stars player further went on to express his views on how an IPL in Dubai could have been a preferred option, saying that hygiene and personal safety-wise, Dubai is a better place compared to India. “Personally, I feel like that would have been a better option originally for this IPL but obviously, there’s a lot of political stuff that goes into it,” he said. Saying that World T20 is going to be the next big decision in the cricketing World, Zampa believes that cricket in times of such devastating covid attack in India might not be the right thing to carry forward. “Someone who has a family member on their deathbed probably doesn’t care about the cricket,” said the legging who is still stuck in Mumbai due to the flight ban.