BCCI brings IPL 2021 back to India; tournament to begin on April 11: Report

Sourav Ganguly discharged from hospital

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly has been discharged from the hospital on Sunday. He was earlier hopitalised on Thursday for the second time after reoccurance of chest pain. Sources close to his family revealed that Ganguly complained of pain in his chest on Tuesday night and was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon after it increased. Sources further told Anandbazar Patrika that Ganguly's condition is stable. He underwent a second angioplasty and has been advised a complete rest of the following few weeks. "Sourav Ganguly, 48 years old, male has come for a checkup of his cardiac condition. There is no change in his parameters since his last hospitalization and his vital parameters are stable," the Kolkata hospital had said earlier. “Sourav Ganguly has undergone angioplasty. He is stable now. He will be monitored for 24 hours. He is completely conscious. There are two blockages in his heart for which he will be treated. As of now he is stable, we will have a meeting on Monday and then we will decide what needs to be done further, priority is to let him settle down after heart attack. He is risk-free and he is talking as well,” Dr. Aftab told reporters, according to news agency ANI earlier. The former skipper had decided to stay at the hospital for one extra day when he was admitted for the first time. "Ganguly will be discharged tomorrow as he wants to stay back one more day,” the hospital said then.  

IND vs ENG: Virat Kohli has opportunity to break MS Dhoni's record in Tests at home

Indian captain Virat Kohli is on the verge of some special milestones in the upcoming Test series against England. Kohli is coming back to the Indian team after his paternity leave and he will resume as the leader of the Indian team in the first Test of the series starting February 05. Kohli is just two Test wins behind his predecessor MS Dhoni who has 20 Test wins at home, and if India can win two Tests out of the four-match series, he will overtake Dhoni's record of most Test wins on home soil. Virat Kohli is also nearing a special feat in his batting career as his batting numbers have swelled since the time he assumed charge of the captaincy of the Indian team. He has scored 5,220 runs so far as the captain of the Indian Test team and stands just 14 runs away from surpassing former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd who had amassed 5,234 runs in Test cricket. Once Kohli goes last Lloyd, only Graeme Smith with 6,659 Test runs, Allan Border with 6,523 runs, and Ricky Ponting who had amassed 6, 542 runs in the longest format. Kohli will be hungrier to dominate the English bowling attack after missing the large part of India’s historic series in Australia. He was looking in great touch in the only Test he played in the series at the Adelaide Oval, but he will be short of match practice and hence challenges will be huge to mount in the first Test at the M.A Chidambaram stadium.

Jay Shah becomes the youngest President of Asian Cricket Council

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah has been appointed as the new president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), the body administering cricket in the most populated continent of the World. The ACC made this announcement through their official Twitter handle on 20th January. At 33 years of age, he is also the youngest to be appointed to the post of ACC President. In a series of tweets, the AAC wrote, “The ACC is delighted to announce that Mr Jay Shah, Hon. Secretary, BCCI has been appointed as its new President.” “Mr. Shah is the youngest person ever to be appointed to the office. We look forward to working under his energetic and dynamic leadership to take cricket in Asia to new heights!” the thread continued. Shah replaced Nazmul Hassan, the former Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President. Son of Indian Home Minister and senior leader of the ruling party, Amit Shah, Jay was appointed as the Secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in October 2019. As the Secretary, Jay Shah also announced on 30th January in a letter written to all state cricket associations in India that for the first time in 87 years, Ranji Trophy, the prestigious First Class tournament of India would not be played this season.

Match Report: Vince’s blitz blows scorchers away; glides Sixers into consecutive BBL final

Sixers opener James Vince it seems had saved the best for the last as he brought out his best in the season so far, scoring a brilliant 98* to beat Scorchers comprehensively at Manuka Oval and take his team to consecutive BBL finals. Vince missed out on the opportunity to score the first hundred for Sixers in this year’s league as he was denied the opportunity by an Andrew Tye wide when the Men in Pink needed one to win and, he needed two for the century. With this win, the Sixers have also reserved a right to play at their home ground the Sydney Cricket ground for the first time in BBL10. Chasing a moderate total of 168 set up by the Scorchers, the Sixers got off to a great start as Josh Philippe and James Vince took the team to 92 in just nine overs. They almost got the match away from the Scorchers with the opening partnership and if there was any hope left for Scorchers revival in the game, it was downed by the second wicket partnership between Vince and Hughes. The two added 76 in just 49 balls and got over with the match pretty quick. Earlier in the evening, contrary to the expectations, Ashton Turner, the Scorchers skipper won the toss and decided to bat first. His decision backfired as there was a lot of dew in the second innings, which as apparent from his decision, he and the Scorchers management did not expect. What cost them more was the fact that they were not being able to get to a good total to defend in the second innings when the dew hit in. The Scorchers were hurried on by the pace of Ben Dwarshuis and Sean Abbott early on as they lost wickets regularly. It was only after josh Inglis got together with Colin Munro to get Scorchers out of the mess as they two of them steadied the ship adding 42 of 36 balls before Munro was trapped by Bird via Jordan Silk on the boundary lines. Mitchell Marsh then had a howler of a decision by Umpire giving him out caught behind when he clearly hadn’t touched the ball. Had it not been for the partnership between skipper Turner and Inglis, getting to 150 seemed tough for the Orange brigade at one point of time. Inglis, who has been in great touch in this entire season, scored an important 69* off 41 balls while Turner got 33 off 22 as they added 59 of 34 balls to take Scorchers to a fighting total of 167 in 20 overs. Having lost the Qualifier, Scorchers would now await the winner of the Knockout between Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder to play the Challenger at the Optus in Perth, to be played on 04th February.