CPL 2021 | BR vs SLK: It's Royals vs Kings in battle of different objectives

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly to visit UK to discuss rescheduling of Test with ECB CEO: Report

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Sourav Ganguly is likely to visit England this month to discuss the “rescheduling” of the fifth Test that was “cancelled” in wake of Covid-19 cases in the Indian camp. As per an India Today report, Ganguly will travel on September 22 and will meet the top brass of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to discuss the modalities of the final Test that was supposed to be played in Manchester from September 1o. If various media reports are to be believed, the ECB and the ECB were engaged in an intense discussion over the fate of the final game and the series overall before the Indian board offered to reschedule the final game of the series. There are a lot of things at stake for the ECB and hence they are not willing to let India go off with a mere abandonment of the final game. They have knocked on the doors of the International Cricket Council to decided the fate of the final Test while working with the BCCI to finalise the modalities of the rescheduling. The series of events that reached its peak at Old Trafford on September 10 started after the Indian support staff including head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar tested positive for Covid-19 after the third day’s play of the fourth Test at the Oval. The first physio of the team was deemed close contact with them and was isolated. Later, after arrival in Manchester their second physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar tested positive for the virus and his near presence in the last training session right before his test returned positive result raised the alarm bells for the players. Now, Indian players will take off on a chartered flight to UAE where they will spend time in quarantine before joining the biosecure bubbles for the remaining part of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League.

SL vs SA | 1st T20I: Clinical Proteas make winning start against passive hosts

Dinesh Chandimal made a valiant effort to turn the tide of the game but his efforts fell short and South Africa defeated Sri Lanka by 28 runs in the first T20I of the series. With the win, the Proteas, who were led by Keshav Maharaj on his international T20 debut, took a 1-0 lead in the three-match long series. Chasing a somewhat stiff target of 166 runs, the hosts started off on a decent note with the openers Avishka Fernando and Dinesh Chandimal putting a 34-run partnership for the first wicket. However, they were slow to get going in the powerplay and the required rate that was at around 8 runs per over surged beyond 10 runs per over. The pressure of surging required run rate was telling on the middle order and they could not sustain in the middle phase of the game. After the fall of Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksha quickly followed him to the dugout without adding any run to Sri Lanka’s tally. Dinesh Chandimal was the lone man standing for the hots with a well-complied half-century but the rest of the batting line-up floundered under pressure and Sri Lanka were limited to just 135 runs from 20 overs. For the Proteas, all six bowlers tried did their job brilliantly and the five Sri Lankan wickets were shared among five bowlers with Kagiso Rabada being the only bowler without a wicket to his name. Earlier, Keshav Maharaj earned an interesting feather to his cap by leading the South African T20I side in his debut match. He started his captaincy journey by winning an important toss and asked the Proteas batsmen to bat first. The swashbuckling trio of Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram heard the call from their captain and ratified his call by putting on a batting show. The first wicket partnership brought 73 runs for the visitors and although there was a slippery slope for the middle order, the partnership between David Miller and Markram propelled the Proteas to a challenging total for the hosts. Wanindu Hasaranga is refusing to go silent and his stars were shining bright on the night of the first T20I against South Africa as well as he took two important wickets of de Kock and Hendricks. Sri Lanka had won the two-match long ODI series that preceded the T20I series 2-1 and hence a winning start to the T20I series will give a lot of hope and satisfaction to the Proteas.

What is at stake for ECB after 'cancelled' Old Trafford Test against India? Well, a lot

There is a lot at stake for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in the aftermath of the “cancellation” of the Old Trafford Test and a lot of its fate lies in the hands of the International Cricket Council (ECB) ECB CEO Tom Harrison has made public the view of the ECB that the final game of the series has not been due to Covid-19 problems and instead it arose due to “serious concerns over the mental health and well-being of one of the teams”. As things stand now, the Old Trafford Test stands cancelled and Harrison categorically explained the “tangible difference” between forfeiture and cancellation of the Test. However, he did not downplay the issues of mental health and conceded that the Covid-19 situation can accelerate quickly for the worst as soon as it enters an environment. "There is a tangible difference between those things [forfeit or cancellation], Harrison said. This is not a Covid cancellation. This is a match cancelled because of serious concerns over the mental health and well-being of one of the teams. There is a difference,” Harrison said. "You can't be flippant about issues of mental health, and this is what this is about. India have been wonderful tourists, but they have been here for a long time. Playing at this level, week after week, is difficult. Even if we feel we are emerging from the pandemic, life is different for the players. When Covid creeps into an environment, it can accelerate very quickly." Harrison has confirmed that the matter will be adjudicated and a final call on the fate of the Test and series will be taken by the ICC. He also acknowledged the “good news” of a rescheduling offer by the BCCI but concedes a lack of clarity on the nature of the rescheduled game. "We have to just take a breath and ask the ICC to formally adjudicate on the result of this. The BCCI have offered to reschedule the match, which is good news. But whether that is part of this series, a fresh one-match series or the first match of another series, I don't know yet,” Harrison said. As per the playing conditions of the ICC for the ongoing edition of the World Test Championship, Covid-19 can well be a valid ground for abandonment of a game. If the global governing body of the game will see the Old Trafford Test as an abandonment due to Covid, the series will end at the scoreline of 2-1 and India taking home the Pataudi Trophy. However, if the ICC buys into the perception of the ECB that the game was called off not due to an actual Covid-19 outbreak but due to the fear of the Indian players of what might happen in the near future, the game will be awarded to the hosts England and the series will end at the scoreline of 2-2. Apart from the series and cricketing achievements, there are financial implications for the ECB for any of the two results the ICC will come up with. If it adjudicates that the game was cancelled due to Covid-19, the ECB will lose out on redeeming its financial losses from the cancelled Test as it is not covered by any insurance for such scenarios. However, if the ICC concludes that India could have played the game and that actually it was their apprehensions that derailed the game, the ECB will be able to claim insurance approximately of USD 41.6 million. The ECB has also promised that all the spectators who bought tickets for the game will be refunded their full amount and hence the insurance money will come as a cushion for the host board. This confusion about the fate of the series and financial chaos for the ECB continues to linger from the morning of what was supposed to be the first day of the Test. As soon as there were words of discontent from the Indian dressing room leading up to the start of the fifth and final Test against England, there have waves of confusion and chaos over the fate of everything attached to the series, the teams and other aspects of the game. At first, the ECB released a statement confirming that the visitors have “forfeited” the match due to the fear of Covid-19 spreading among the remaining, unaffected members of the squad. The announcement created quite a bit of buzz as it mean that the series that was poised at 2-1 with one game would have ended as a draw with a scoreline reading 2-2 in favour of both sides. However, even before the fans and the watchers of the game could accept the reality of the Old Trafford Test being offered to England, the ECB amended its statement and omitted the point about forfeiture from the previous statement.

ECB CEO Tom Harrison attended Ravi Shastri's book launch event in London: Report

The Chief Executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was “gutted” after the cancellation of the fifth and final Test of the series slated to take place in Manchester also attended the book launch of India’s head coach Ravi Shastri’s upcoming book. The event took place two days before the start of the fourth Test at the Oval and now is being under the scanner for becoming a spreader event for the Indian side. As per a UK-based newspaper Evening Standard, Harrison was also there at the launch and he had received the invitation for the event from Shastri himself. However, the report suggests that he was in full compliance with the Covid-19 norms such as wearing masks Harrison was asked if the Indian team members should not have organised such an event after the Old Trafford was “cancelled”, and he refused to issue any mandate on the part of the ECB to the touring Indian team. “The position we have had is for people to make decisions on what they think they are able to do or not. It’s not for ECB to say, in the context of trying to let people live more freely, we’re not influencing how they live their lives in the constraints of those living standards. That’s not how we operate,” Harrison said. The final Test of the series that was interestingly poised at 2-1 with a match to go at Old Trafford has been postponed indefinitely with both the ECB and BCCI working together to “reschedule” at some point in the near future.