CPL 2021: Faf du Plessis takes over St. Lucia Zouks’ captaincy from Daren Sammy

Former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis has been appointed as the new skipper of St. Lucia Zouks after Daren Sammy decided to hang up his boots for the franchise. The runners’ up from the last season, their best result in the franchise history, Zouks would be led by someone other than Sammy for the first time in the history of the franchise.

“I am excited to announce that Faf du Plessis would be taking over the captaincy of the St. Lucia Zouks franchise,” Sammy said in a video upload by the franchise on its official Twitter handle.

“Having led the franchise since its inception, I want to thank them. I also want to wish Faf, who is known to be a great leader, a great man-manager and a great human being all the best,” added Sammy who led the team in a record 74 games, scoring 898 runs and picking 24 wickets at the same time.

Praising the Proteas international who would be the only in his second stint in the Caribbean Premier League, having previously turned up for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Sammy said, “This is the kind of personnel I think we need to have to take the Zouks franchise forward on the quest to win the title.” Transferring the symbolic cap off his head and offering it to du Plessis, the 37-year-old added, “Good luck and over to you sir, enjoy captaining Zouks as much as I did.”

One of the most successful captains to have led South Africa with 18 wins in 36 Tests, du Plessis is excited for the new role as well. “I am super excited to be joining up with the CPL this year, I will be joining the St. Lucia Zouks team as a skipper. I am an outsider but I expect local legend Daren Sammy to show me the ropes,” said the 36-year-old who has experience of playing 246 T20s in his career.

St Lucia Zouks squad:

Faf du Plessis, Keemo Paul, Wahab Riaz, Matthew Wade, Andre Fletcher, Kesrick Williams, Usman Qadir, Samit Patel, Obed McCoy, Rahkeem Cornwall, Mark Deyal, Roston Chase, Javelle Glen, Keron Cottoy, Jeavor Royal, Kadeem Alleyne, Alzarri Joseph.

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With key Australia & England series in focus, Shakib unlikely to get NOC for CPL 2021

Bangladesh superstar Shakib Al Hasan who signed up for the 2021 edition of the Caribbean Premier League with his former side Jamaica Tallawahs, might not be able to play for them as key series for the national side might be prioritised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. As of now, no decision has been taken regarding the NOC, but it seems that the 34-year-old might have to forget about the franchise-based tournament which begins on August 28. BCB cricket operation chairman Akram Khan informed about the plans. "We have not taken any decision about it (NOC for CPL). When the time comes we can make a decision in this regard," he was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz. Khan further said, "We certainly want to play against them with our full strength squad,” suggesting that Shakib might not be given the NOC in favour of a stronger national side. The left-handed batsman struggled a lot during the recent three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, scoring only 19 runs including a duck. "Of course, my expectations weren't fulfilled during the series. But I have to ensure that these things won't happen next and it's very important," Shakib told reporters ahead of the start of the Dhaka Premier League in which he would turn up for Mohammedan Sporting Club.

PSL 2021: South African players join bio-bubble

The South African players who are going to be a part of the PSL 2021 scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi have entered the bio-bubble. The aggressive left-handed batsman David Miller posted an Instagram story featuring Faf Du Plessis, Rilee Rossouw and Cameon Delport. The PSL was earlier put to a halt after there was a rise in Covid-19 cases within the franchises. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) later decided to host the event between June 1 to June 20 including the final but had to shift it to the UAE after there a request was made by the franchises for the same citing the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country. Miller will be a part of Peshawar Zalmi, Faf du Plessis, Cameron Delport will don the Quetta Gladiators jersey while Rilee Rossouw will play for Multan Sultans in the PSL 2021 after the tournament is resumed. The dates of the tournament are yet to be announced. While the overseas players have joined the bio-bubble, as many 25 cricketers including former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed were earlier denied visa by the United Arba Emirates. According to a Geo news report, apart from Sarfaraz, Mohammad Hasnain, Multan Sultans’ Imran Khan, PCB Media Department Officer Emad Hameed, Multan Sultan’s player and Shahid Afridi’s replacement in the side Asif Afridi, Umar Amin, Muhammad Musa, Zaid Alam, Zeeshan Ashraf, Abrar Ahmed, Imran Randhawa, Mohammad Haris, and Aamir Khan are in the list.

There needs to be a proper balance between bat and ball - Sanjay Manjrekar bashes modern rules

Sanjay Manjrekar is someone who doesnt mind mincing his words and yet again he has come hard against the modern-day rules and regulations of cricket which has been highly tilted in favour of batsmen. In a recent column for the Hindustan Times, Manjrekar has questioned the balance between bat and ball which has been constantly in favour of batsmen, especially in the modern generation. The invention of helmet as mentioned by Manjrekar has allowed the modern-day batsmen to play a fearless brand of cricket and employ 360-degree shots. Manjrekar felt that a batsman from the yester years wouldn’t have dared to play those shots against express pace without having helmets. “Would a batter go down on one knee against a big fast bowler, his face perfectly in line with a ball coming at 90 mph, to play a Dilscoop if he wasn’t wearing a helmet? When we gave batters helmets, we should have felt obligated to give something significant back to the bowlers too,” Manjrekar wrote in his column. The evolution of cricket bats has also done wonders to even top edges going over the fence quite consistently. The broadness of the bats have meant that the batsmen always have an upper hand against the bowlers especially in the white-ball formats. Manjrekar is not in favour of the easy sixes which the tail-enders often tend to get in the death overs through top edges despite not getting the middle of the bat. With so much in line, Manjrekar feels that bowlers need to be rewarded more in order to ensure a balance between bat and ball. “For the game to stay absorbing and meaningful, especially to the discerning viewer, one must keep ensuring that there is a proper balance between bat and ball and it all makes sense in the end,” Manjrekar said. “It pains me, especially in T20 cricket, to see the bowler being penalised 6 runs when he has bowled a superb short ball, bouncing at a legitimate height which a No.11 batter has slogged with eyes closed. The ball flies off the edge over the keeper, crashing into the sight-screen,” Manjrekar added. Referring to baseball where a batter only gets points when he nails the ball out of the park or from the middle of the bat. No points are awarded if het gets an edge. However, in cricket, batsmen are rewarded despite the bowler actually winning the battle by deceiving him. “In baseball, the batter gets no reward if the ball flies off his club behind him because he has not made a good enough connection. Baseball rewards success while cricket rewards failure; no wonder the batter in cricket has a sheepish smile every time this happens,” Manjrekar quipped.

Laws are written in favor of batsman: Ian Chappell

The 2018 sandpaper gate controversy surfaced once again after Australia’s Cameron Bancroft made few bold statements regarding the matter. Bancroft suggested that the bowling unit had the idea about what was happening on the field in Newlands. The bowling attack consisting of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and off-spinner Nathan Lyon later issued a joint statement denying the claims made by Bancroft. The former Australian cricketer Ian Chappell has now suggested some alternatives that can help in preventing the players taking such action. “I think about 20 years ago, I said what they should do is go to the captains of every country and you get a list of things that they think will help the ball swing. Then you send us all these lists, we’ll go through them and we’ll come up with one thing and it will be a sensible thing, not using a bottle cap to scrape the ball. It’ll be viable but we’ll give you one thing that’ll help you swing the ball and everything else will be illegal,” Chappell said during a discussion on ESPNCricinfo. He further went on to say that the laws generally favour the batsmen more than the bowlers. “Let’s look at the way the laws are written. They are pretty much always written in favor of the batsman and if you go right back to underarm bowling to sidearm bowling… to body line and ball-tampering – they all come about because the balance is too much in favor of the batsmen and the bowlers eventually say ‘we have had enough, we are mad as hell and we are going to do something about it’,” he further added. Bancroft was earlier banned for nine months by Cricket Australia while the then captain Steve Smith and opening batsman David Warner were slapped with a one-year ban each.