Former Australia U-19 cricketer alleges sexual harassment on India- SL tour by team official

The Ashes | Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley tests Covid-19 positive

Amid lingering threat over the fate of the ongoing Ashes series due to Covid-19 cases in both Australia and England camps, Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley has tested positive for Covid-19 and has isolated himself at home. Thankfully, for the sides, he did not have any direct contact with any squad members and hence his infection will not affect the schedule of the series. However, his positive RT-PCR test will confirm the fear and apprehension about the viability of the series amid rising cases of Covid-19. Australia had to leave out their skipper Pat Cummins after he came in close contact with a Covid-19 infected person in Adelaide. After that minor scare, England camp was hit with Covid-19 with as many as six cases among support staff and family members including their head coach Chris Silverwood. Following on, Australia were rocked with the infection to their middle-order batsman Travis Head, who has been ruled out of the fourth Test of the series. Hockley was confident about completing the series despite covid-19 cases however he had said that Cricket Australia was handling the issue on day to day basis rather than charting a long-term path to manage the issue. Australia have been dominant in the series and have taken an unassailable lead over England with wins in all the first three Tests of the series.

BCCI starts compensating domestic players for Covid hit 2020-21 season

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) started to compensate the domestic players, both male and female for the Covid hit 2020-21 season. For the state associations that have sent in the duly filled forms, the players have got 50% of their regular earnings while a number of players are yet to receive payments because of procedural delays. It was the Mohammad Azharuddin-led seven-member working group that formulated the compensation for the Covid-19-affected season by the BCCI. And according to that formula, a player who featured in eight games in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy would receive INR 11.20 lakh in coherence with what he would have received had the season not been marred with Covid. Similarly, those players who were in the squad but couldn’t play a game in the 2019-20 season would also get compensation equal to the correspondence fee. All the players are to be compensated ahead of the start of the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy season which begins from January 13 and would go on till March 17, with matches taking place at seven different venues. The Covid cases are on a rise in the country once again with third-wave eminent. The Vijay Merchant Trophy which is played by U-16 boys was cancelled citing the non-vaccination of players. But it seemed that Ranji would go on as players taking part in the tournament are already double vaccinated. The match fee for players has been increased with the season and a player with experience of more than 40 First Class games would be getting INR 60,00 per day. Earlier all senior men’s players in the playing xi would get the same amount of INR 35,000. But now a player who has played matches between 20-40 would get INR 50,000 per day while those having played below 20 Games would EARN INR 40,000 per day. Similarly per day fee for women cricketers was also raised from INR 12,500 to 20,000. However, along with the perk has also come the side effect as BCCI has reduced the number of games to five at group stages from eight played during the last season of the Ranji Trophy. Players hope that from the next season or whenever the Covid threat subsides, and the format returns to home and away basis, then the teams could play the same eight games as earlier.

The Ashes | Things are challenging but it's an opportunity for us to come tightly as a group: Root

England have had a pretty tough time in the on-going Ashes tour in Australia. The Joe Root-led side has already lost the five-match series after suffering defeats in the first three games. Not just on the field, but the England team has been on the back foot off it as well. Four coaches including the head coach Chris Silverwood have been in isolation. But the skipper Root has said that it’s an opportunity for the players to come tightly together. "With the amount of coaches we've had missing, it's made things slightly disjointed and challenging," Root said. "But it's an opportunity for us as a group to come tightly together, help each other prepare as well as we can do, and stand up in a bit of adversity and use that in a positive way when we get out there.” Talking about his future as captain, Root insisted that he would rather think about it after the tour and wanted to focus on the remaining fixtures. "I'll look at my future beyond this tour at the end of it," Root said. "Don't think that's a distraction that should be around the group or I should be wasting energy on right now. I need to make sure I'm throwing everything I can into these next two games, I owe that to this team and the players." The fourth Test is scheduled to begin on January 5 in Sydney.

South Africa team management 'pretty shocked' over Quinton de Kock's retirement from Test cricket

Right after the conclusion of the first Test against India, Quinton de Kock announced a sudden retirement from the longest format and it wasn’t only the followers of the game who were left in a state of shock with that abrupt decision. South Africa’s team management including both the head coach Mark Boucher and skipper Dean Elgar have expressed their “shock” over de Kock’s decision to walk away from the longest format of the game. Elgar termed de Kock’s decision a “disappointing” one considering the state of South Africa cricket but empathised and respected the reasoning that the wicketkeeper had to offer for his decision. He expressed hope that de Kock will find it worthwhile to remain committed to the longer version of the game. Quinton de Kock was anyway set to miss the last two Tests of the series against India but his decision to move away from Test cricket altogether has reignited the debate around the health of the game, especially the format in South Africa. It has also raked the debate about the relationship between Cricket South Africa and players which could come to affect other players’ performance against India. Elgar, however, expressed his expectations that players will be professional enough to not allow the noise surrounding de Kock’s decision to affect their performance. “I was pretty shocked. I wasn't aware this was going to happen, but sitting down with Quinny that evening and him explaining to me the reason, I very much respect his decision and fully understand the space he is in," Elgar said in the press conference before the second Test of the series against India. "Hopefully it doesn't come back one day and he still wishes he was part of our red-ball set-up." "It's disappointing. Not having Quinny around is disappointing for me," he said. "It's something I need to get over because I know there's other talented players within our system that I need to give a lot of attention to now and that's perfectly fine. As tough as it is, it's one of those things you need to crack on with and get over as quickly as possible. The players respect the environment, we've realised we've had quite a few setbacks over recent times and this is just another one we need to be clever around and we need to get over because the game moves on. I don't see this affecting the players and them still being shocked about his retirement." India have taken a lead of 1-0 in the three-match long Test series and the hosts South Africa are pushed against the wall to stage a comeback and deny the men in blue their first series win in their home conditions.