Bangladesh Cricket Board considers starting a shortened Dhaka Premier League from May 6

Pat Cummins opens up on pressure of big auction money in IPL

Australian pacer Pattrick Cummins has said that pressure plays a big role in shaping the behaviour and overall aspect of a player. He says that a player remains under pressure every game, irrespective of their level of performance in the previous games. “Whenever you play professional cricket anywhere, there will be lots of pressure. If you are coming off a good game, there is pressure to do it again, if you are coming off a bad game, there is pressure to perform,” Cummins said in a chat with the Kolkata Knight Riders website. He has been in the eye of a storm after he was bought for a whopping Rs 15.5 crore in the auction for the last edition of the IPL, and the ace pacer from New South Wales said that the price that teams pay for players bring another dimension of players on them. He went on to say that there is enormous pressure on players to justify the price they were offered but their worth in the eyes of a franchise does not make it any easier for them as playing conditions such as swing in the air, quality of pitch and opponent remain the same howsoever big the player’s worth is. “I guess the auction brings another kind of pressure. We just got to try and manage this. Just because you have gone for more money doesn't mean, the ball suddenly swings more or the wicket is suddenly greener, or the boundaries are bigger. It's the same playing field, so, I just try to concentrate on what I do well. I guess that’s what is going to bring about the best success for KKR while I'm here.” Cummins added. Cummins had made his IPL debut in the 2014 edition for the KKR but featured in only four games across the first two seasons. However, he picked up pace as his stocks in the international cricket started to soar and played two good seasons of the league in 2017 and 2020. The KKR will be eager to have him in a top-notch form in the next edition of the IPL starting on April 09.

Jasprit Bumrah ties knot with Sanjana Ganesan

As it was being widely speculated, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has tied the knot with a sports presenter Sanjana Ganesan. Both Bumrah and Ganesan announced the news on their Instagram handles respectively. Bumrah had taken leave from the India team citing personal reasons and since then it was being speculated in media that Bumrah had taken time off from the game to marry Ganesan who has been a popular face on the Indian television circuit.

Vivian Richards, Richie Richardson, other Windies greats hail India for donating Covid-19 vaccine

India’s goodwill gesture of donating and exporting the Covid-19 vaccine has earned him high praises from various countries, and now many former cricketers are extending their gratitude towards the country for receiving vaccines. Former West Indies greats have extended their gratitude towards India for sending Covid-19 vaccines to the Caribbean islands. “I would like to thank India for the wonderful contribution made to our country which is the vaccine. We thank you so much on behalf of the Antiguan and Barbudan people. We look forward, also that in the future, continued relationship,” said Sir Vivian Richards in a video tweeted by the High Commission of India in Guyana. “Thank you very much, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the High Commission of India. We also thank all of the people in India for such a kind gesture," Richards added. Notably, earlier this month, India had sent 1,75,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia and 40,000 doses of those were donated under India’s 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative. Other former legends from West Indies such as Sir Richie Richardson and Jimmy Adams thanked India for showing great heart in the face of adversity and offering as many as 40,000 of covid-19 jabs. "On behalf of the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, I would like to thank the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi for his kind generosity in offering us 40,000 vaccines. We are extremely grateful to you and your country. Thank you very very much," Richardson said in the video.

IND vs ENG: Eoin Morgan happy being forced to play 'out of comfort zone' in pursuit of World T20

After outplaying India on a surface that offered consistent pace and bounce in the first T20I of the series, England were returned the favour by India on almost a completely different surface in the second game. The pitch for the second T20I of the series offered variable bounce and Indian bowlers picked it quite clear that taking the pace off the ball held the key on such a surface. Hence, they employed tactics of bowling cutters and slower balls to check England’s batsmen in the latter half of the innings. The outcome of the game along with the failure of players to adapt to different conditions on ‘typical Indian pitch’ as the skipper Eoin Morgan suggested could have been disappointing for the tourists who take pride in their standings as the best white-ball side in the world. However, Morgan chose to see the larger picture and underlined the need of playing more and more cricket on similar surfaces as they have their eyes on the big prize of the World T20 slated to be played in India. "I thought the other night, the pitch really suited us because it had more pace in it - similar to a wicket at home, a Cardiff wicket or somewhere like that, that was a little bit uneven and maybe stood up a little bit. But this took us out of our comfort zone and really was a typical Indian wicket that we would play on in an IPL game. Again, your accuracy has to be on, and you're bowling to guys really on their home patch when you talk about a wicket like this. He said that England have to accept the fact of learning to play on such surfaces through harder ways in order to give themselves the best chance when they will return for the T20 World Cup. "To become better in these conditions, the only way you do that is by playing and making mistakes. You tend to learn quicker if you're winning and confident and everything goes reasonably smoothly - you can integrate the learning quite quickly - but equally, if we have to learn the hard way, we're still going through that process of trying to learn game-on-game so when it comes to the World Cup in seven months' time, we can be as best prepared or know more about ourselves and where we need to get better before then." Morgan conceded that India put them under serious pressure and dragged them to out of their comfort zone on a pitch they have not been able to conquer even when the team is on an upward curve in the white-ball formats. He lamented missed opportunities as England had players settled at the crease to go for expansive shots in the last part of the batting innings, but regular fall of wickets made life tougher for batsmen to go big from the word go. "It was quite slow, low, and didn't really turn a great deal - that does expose our weakness," Morgan said. "We don't play a lot on slow, low wickets and the more that we can do that, the better. Posting a total on a wicket like that, I thought we were right in the game… we established partnerships, we got to the point where we tried to accelerate, but managed to lose wickets at different stages. An all-important toss did not go in England’s favour as well on the Sunday night as Morgan realised the balls were coming onto the bat nicely in the second innings which was not the case when his batsmen were batting. India won the toss and sent England under pressure on a sluggish pitch to level the series. But for England Morgan, the loss does not mean as much as the preparations for the World T20 which has been and will be the theme of the white-ball leg of the series.