ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2021 | Pakistan vs Bangladesh to begin search for three 2022 World Cup teams

The International Cricket Council on Tuesday, November 02nd announced that the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2021 will begin from November 21 as previously scheduled in Zimbabwe. All 29 matches will be played across four venues namely, Harare Sports Club, Old Hararians, Takashinga Cricket Club and Sunrise Cricket Club in Harare from November 21 to December 05.

Pakistan and Bangladesh Women teams will start off the 10-team tournament at Old Hararians Club on 21 November. But before the tournament begins, all the teams would be involved in one set of warm-up matches to be played on November 19.

On the very same day as the Pakistan-Bangladesh clash, three other matches would be played concurrently where West Indies will play against Papua New Guinea (Sunrise Cricket Club), Thailand will be up against hosts Zimbabwe (Harare Sports Club) and Ireland will be up against Netherlands (Takashinga Cricket Club).

The 10 teams have been divided into two groups of five each with Group A having West Indies, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Papua New Guinea and the Netherlands while Group B comprises Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Zimbabwe and the United States.

Post group stage, three teams from each group will collide against each other in Super Six and at the end of it, the top three teams in the standing will move on to grab three spots in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 to be held in New Zealand from 4 March to 3 April.

Five teams in Australia, England, India, South Africa and hosts New Zealand have already qualified via their top-five standing in the ICC Women’s Championship (IWC).

The remaining two teams in the top five of the Qualifier will also get a chance to participate in the next ICC Women’s Championship which will now have 10 teams from the upcoming edition.

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Paki is not a banter: Britain Health Secretary Sajid Javid wants ECB to act swiftly on Azeem Rafiq case

The issue of Yorkshire County Cricket Club trivialising an issue as large as racial abuse as mere friendly banter has not sat well with the people in power, especially those related to the representation of minority communities in the British Government. Sajid Javid, Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove & Secretary of State for Health and Social Care demanded that the England and Wales Cricket Board, the highest governing body of the sport in the country, take swift action in the matter saying that ‘Paki’ is not a friendly banter at all. Apart from Javid, Culture Secretary of State for UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Nadine Dorries also called Yorkshire for dismissing a racial slur as friendly banter. "Azeem Rafiq's treatment after the racism he faced was disgusting, and the investigation that followed only makes it even worse. The @ECB_cricket investigation must be swift and fully transparent. Racism must be confronted, and NEVER written off as just 'banter',” she Tweeted. After complaining about racism in a full-blown campaign in 2020, Azeem Rafiq, who even captained England U-19 and Yorkshire cricket teams was offered an investigation into the matter by the Club through an independent committee. The committee took more than a year to come out with the report and even as it did, Yorkshire in August apologised to Rafiq for all that he faced at the club. However, in October the club said that nobody could be held responsible for what Rafiq went through and hence nobody could be punished as such. ESPNCricinfo then published an article quoting a part of the report that has not yet been made public, that mentioned the word ‘Paki’ being used for Raqfiq by many players in the team. After the article, sparks turned into a full-blown fire that might just engulf the entire Yorkshire management in it in times to come.

Watch: Australian TV host ridicules Team India for taking the knee and ignoring caste-based atrocities

Andrew Bolt, a Sky New Australia host who does a show called Bolt Report took on the Indian cricket team for taking the knee against racism. He called it a mere ‘fashion’ show and ridiculed the stand for being blinded to caste-based atrocities taking place in the country since ages. In the segment called One Last Thing, Bolt says, “I laughed yesterday in bitterness as the Indian cricket team took the knee yesterday as is the fashion these days before their T20 World Cup clash against Pakistan.” He then went on to say, “This is from a team representing a country that should first fix its caste system before making big international statements.” In the show, Bolt further goes on to discuss how the Hindu Varna system is discriminatory towards the lower caste Shudras and Untouchables. It was decided by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that the Virat Kohli led side would take the knee in its matches in the World Cup, which was previously not done. Taking the knee has been a big topic debate and not all teams have shared the same sentiment about the matter. Cricket South Africa’s stance on making it mandatory for all players to take the knee the subsequent Quinton de Kock saga brought the topic in further limelight. The senior SA player and one of the best white-ball batsmen in the modern times chose to opt out of a game rather than taking the knee for his fellow team members. However, he issued an apology the very next day explaining himself and then was inducted back into the team.

T20 World Cup | IPL has got nothing to do with India losses, it’s just bad execution: Batting coach Rathour

India batting coach Vikaram Rathour is of the opinion that the Indian Premier League is a great platform that provided the Indian players ahead of the World Cup an excellent opportunity to compete against the best in the world and hence blaming it would be of no good. "IPL does provide you with the platform where you play against or compete against top cricketers all around the world. So, definitely, it is a good platform to practice, so I don't see any issue there,” Rathour said in the pre-match conference ahead of India’s game against Afghanistan. “With us getting into World Cup after playing IPL, the players got lots of games. They had to work on their game, but whether that worked... what happened in the past two games is that we were not really able to execute our plans the way we wanted to and that has been our issue and not the preparation,” he added. Talking about the decision to bat Ishan Kishan at the opening position, Rathour revealed that Rohit Sharma, whose position Kishan took in the game against New Zealand, was very much a part of the management group that took the decision. “Ishan has done really well as an opener in IPL and in the past for the Indian team as well. And about who takes the call - it was the whole management who sits together and takes this call and of course, Rohit is part of that group. Tactically [decision] made sense having a left-hander upfront because we didn't want too many left-handers in the late middle order with Ishan, Pant and Jadeja,” Rathour, the batting coach, who has reapplied for the same position after his contract ends post the T20 World Cup said. Rathour, a former India player himself further said that tacking the Afghan spinners will be a major challenge. “The challenge will be their spinners. If we can bat to our potential, we have a tremendous and skilful set of players with us, who have done well in the past. If we play to our potential, I think we should be able to do well,” he said. After having lost two back to back games, India are now at the mercy of other results and big wins in their own games to get them through to the semi-finals.

T20 World Cup | If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will: Eoin Morgan after hitting form

England skipper Eoin Morgan was happy to be back in whatever little form that he did during England’s clash with Sri Lanka. But he said that he still hasn’t reached his bets in terms of batting. However, the 35-year-old implied what major role confidence plays in any player coming back to form. “Me? No, no!” Morgan said replying to a question on whether he is getting back at his best. “This ground is very challenging. Maybe if I'd have batted second I might have hit the middle of the bat a bit more. (My acceleration) was after facing a lot of balls and they were due to bowl a bad one. But it's good, it’s runs on the board, it's a contribution to winning the game and batting with one of my best mates [Jos Buttler] as well,” he added expressing how difficult it was to get runs in Sharjah batting first. Morgan hit 40 off 36 balls which included one four and three sixes. Talking about belief, Ireland born said, “You sort of always have to believe because if you don't believe, nobody else will. I always do. Today was a bit of a tougher test. It was nice to be out there with one of my best mates enjoying ourselves - although it was quite tough - but just to get a partnership going and put something on the board to try and defend.” Although England had a proper scare when Wanindu Hasaranga and Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka were in the middle and the Lankans needed only 34 off 19 balls. However, the English manage to get both of them out in quick succession and win the game by 24 runs eventually. They are unbeaten in their group and have South Africa to play.