India along with seven nations qualify as cricket makes comeback to Commonwealth Games

Cricket became the first discipline to announce their qualifying teams for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022. The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) announced the list of six nationals and one spot confirmed for one nation from the Caribbean for the multi-sport event scheduled from 28 July to 8 August next year.

Along with hosts England, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan made it to the list based on the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings on 1 April 2021.

Once a team from the West Indies is decided then the last participating team will be decided through a qualifying tournament to be held by 31 January 2022. West Indies participates as one team representing a cluster of nations in the ICC tournaments, but in a multi-nation medal vent such as the Commonwealth Games, only individual nations could take part.

The iconic Edgbaston Stadium will host the games which would involve eight women teams. The tickets are set to go on sale later this year. This would be the second time in the history of the Commonwealth Games that cricket would be a part of the games. An only men’s ODI event was held during the 1998 Kualalampur Games where South Africa won the Gold medal.

ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice, while speaking on the occasion of the announcement of the decision said, “We are incredibly proud and excited to be part of Birmingham 2022 and it is a fantastic opportunity for us to continue to grow the women’s game globally.”

India T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur was also excited about cricket coming back to the global event and said, “It’s great to be confirmed a place in the Commonwealth Games.” We are raring to go, confident of doing well after having made the final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia last year,” she added.

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IPL 2021: Rajasthan Royals seek loan from other teams after window gets activated

Rajasthan Royals who are currently dealing with a scarcity of players have written to the other IPL franchises seeking player loans. It must be noted that the Rajasthan Royals who recently defeated Kolkata Knight Riders has been badly affected. While some of their main players including Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer has been forced to return to their country after injuries, some of the players including Liam Livingstone and Andrew Tye has left the team bubble citing fatigue issues. Hence they are currently left with only four foreign players and they are in urgent need of some players to fulfil their duties atleast for this season. Jos Buttler, Chris Morris, David Miller and Mustafizur Rahman are the only four foreigners available for selection at the moment. Royals are currently ranked 6th in the points table with two victories in five matches. A sense of tension has crept in after the second wave of COVID-19 has taken India off guard and the players are also feeling the tension. Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Ravichandran Ashwin among others have also pulled out of the tournament. While Ashwin hopes to come back if the situation improves, both Zampa and Richardson has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament. The IPL playing condition states that the loan window will start at 9 am IST on the day after the completion of the 20th league game. It will end on 12 noon IST on the day following the conclusion of the 56th match, which is the final group game of the competition. " It means the window got activated at 9 am on Monday (April 26) after the doubleheader on Sunday night. "We have received a request from them a couple of days ago and we have not decided on it. The team management will take a call," a CEO of a southern-based franchise was quoted as saying by the Cricbuzz. "We will consider if we can loan them a player or two from our surpluses," another CEO confirmed. As per the IPL regulations, a player at the start of the loan period played either in the XI or a concussion replacement must have been part of the XI in less than two matches of the season to get loaned to another team. A player can be loaned only once in the season and it has to be for the remainder of the tournament. However, the rules don’t allow the player to take the field against his home franchise. The rules also suggest that "each franchisee may loan no more than three of its players to the same franchisee during the season."

IPL 2021: Thanks Pat becomes #1 trend on Twitter as Australian donates $50k in Covid relief

Kolkata Knight Riders and Australia’s star cricketer Pat Cummins has decided to donate $50,000 to the PM Cares fund, a Govt. of India initiative to fight the deadly spread of the Covid-19 in the country. The donation according to Cummins has been made mainly for the purchase of more oxygen cylinders that India is facing a shortage of. Cummins is the first foreign cricketer to become part of this initiative which was launched by the Indian government last year to accumulate funds to cater to the demands of the people including employment generation, healthcare facilities etc. Posting an emotional letter on his various social media profiles, Cummins, 27, urged all other cricketers part of the Indian Premier League or otherwise who love the indomitable spirit of cricket shown by the Indians, to donate generously in India’s fight against the deadly virus. All this comes in the face of many cricketers including those from Australia, leaving the IPL midway and returning back to their country. His donation has also come at a time when the discrepancies regarding the accountability of the PM Cares Fund is at their peak. The KKR play their sixth game of the season tonight against the Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Bangladesh to play Australia and New Zealand ahead of T20 World Cup

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Monday confirmed the fact that they are trying to reschedule the upcoming home series against Australia and New Zealand. Both the neighbouring nations were scheduled to visit Bangladesh for a three-match T20I series which will be part of preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup slated to be held in India in October-November 2021. As per the original schedule, New Zealand was supposed to visit early for the three-match series followed by Australia. But now BCB is trying to accommodate the Australia series earlier followed by the New Zealand series. The Aussies are expected to arrive in Bangladesh first, exactly after their tour of West Indies. Meanwhile, the Black Caps is expected to reach Bangladesh in early August. Talks have been going around to make the series against Australia a five series rubber rather than a three-match affair. Former Bangladesh captain and currently the chairman of Bangladesh’s cricket operations, Akram Khan announced their plans during an interaction with Cricbuzz. "Australia will come to Bangladesh after playing with West Indies in late July or early August while New Zealand will follow them later," he said. Meanwhile, it must be noted that both Australia and New Zealand had cancelled their two-match Test series against Bangladesh owing to the pandemic. Both the series was part of the ICC World Test Championship. Coming back to the change in schedule, it looks highly unlikely now that a Tri-nation series also involving Australia and England can be materialised. Following the three-match T20I series against Australia and New Zealand, England will visit Bangladesh for a three-match ODI and T20I series. Meanwhile the Bangla Tigers is also slated to travel to Zimbabwe in June for a full series including two Tests, three ODI’s and three T20Is.

IPL 2021: Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa pull out of the rest of the tournament

In what comes as another setback to the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League, two more players have pulled out of the ongoing edition citing the current worsening situation in India. Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson join Andrew Tye and Ravichandran Ashwin in the list to pull out of the current tournament and given the situation in India it won’t be a surprise if the list keeps on increasing. Both Zampa and Kane Richardson who was part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore made the revelation on Monday. Both the Aussie players will be unavailable for the rest of the tournament. After the conclusion of the match between the Delhi Capitals and SRH "Adam Zampa & Kane Richardson are returning to Australia for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of IPL season. Royal Challengers Bangalore offers complete support to them in all the possible way we can," the franchise said in a statement. The second wave of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc in India and the whole country is trying to stand up and fight against this deadly virus. Amidst tension growing all over the country, the players are also feeling the heat and that might have prompted them to take the decision in a haste. Meanwhile, the Royal Challengers Bangalore who was at the top of the points table suddenly dropped down to the 3rd position after getting a hammering at the hands of the Chennai Super Kings. They will like to consider it as more of an aberration and try to return to winning ways in the upcoming games.