IPL 2021 has been postponed not cancelled: Rajeev Shukla

BCCI looking for September window to resume IPL 2021

The IPL 2021 edition was suspended with immediate effect on Tuesday after there was a rise in COVID-19 cases among the franchise teams. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is now looking for a September window to resume the tournament according to a Cricbuzz report. "A September window is being considered. By then the England-India series would be over and the foreign player would be ready for the T20 World Cup. That small window is being explored," said a franchise official. The Chairman of the IPL British Patel has also said that the board is looking for a window in September. Now we have to look for a window. If we get one, we will explore holding it. We'll have to see if it is possible in September. We need to examine the plans of the ICC and other boards,” he said. SRH’s Wriddhiman Saha, DC’s Amit Mishra and KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrior and CSK’s bowling coach L. Balaji had tested positive in a span of two days. In an exclusive chat with One Cricket earlier in the day, DDCA President Rohan Jaitley has said that the board had suspended the tournament as a precautionary measure. “As a precautionary measure, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to suspend the IPL for now. Health of the players and everyone is primary and the most important thing,” Rohan said. SRH were slated to play MI in Delhi on Tuesday while RCB were scheduled to take on KKR on Monday in Ahmedabad.

Mandhana, Jemimah, Harmanpreet and Deepti to be part of The Hundred, get BCCI NOC

Four Indian women’s team players who represented various teams in the now-defunct Kia super League, the domestic T20 tournament for Women in England, would now be part of The Hundred. The up and coming tournament is a first of its kind and would be played between eight franchise teams in England and Wales. These four players are likely to fill up the spaces in Southern Brave, London Spirit, Manchester Originals and Northern Superchargers, each of whom have a slot for the foreign player left. Each side is eligible to sign three foreigners and three England centrally contracted player in tier roaster. The Indian women would be in England in June where they would be involved in three series f three formats, which include a one-off Test at Bristol on June 16. The tour concludes with the third and last T20I on July 15. The Hundred kicks off July 21 with the women teams of Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals meeting at the Oval in London before their male teams meet the next day at the same venue. India Women getting permission to play in foreign leagues is a welcome event as they were not allowed to take part in the last year's Women's BBL.

Ross Taylor suffers grade one calf strain ahead of England tour

New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor has suffered a grade one calf strain ahead of the England tour. The right-handed batsman limped away after playing just six balls during the net session at the High Performance Centre in Lincoln. "Taylor will return to batting and running next week before linking up with the Test squad ahead of their departure for England next weekend," a NZC statement said. New Zealand coach Gary Stead admitted that he was a little worried about the batsman’s injury. "You are always worried when any injuries happen, but someone of Ross's standing and calibre as a Test player, you always have a little bit of a concern," he told reporters. Stead further added that they had time but the final call will be made by the medical staff. "Fingers-crossed... everything is good and we still have time on our side, but we'll just have to wait and see what the medical team say," he added. Taylor had earlier suffered a hamstring niggle during and had to be ruled out of the two ODIs against the Bangladesh side. The blackcaps are scheduled to fly to England for the two-match Test series in the mid of May. They will begin the Test series on June 2 which will be followed by the WTC final in Southampton against India.

PSL 6: Franchises want tournament in UAE after spike in Covid cases in Pakistan

The Covid-19 which forced the postponement of the Pakistan Super League’s sixth edition has once again come back before the restart of the same season to haunt the franchises and the board. With more than 4500 Covid-19 cases being reported daily for the past week, the country is now seeing a new surge, which might be the second wave. Due to this rise in the Covid cases, the franchises have asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to relook its decision of holding the league in Karachi and given the United Arab Emirates as the alternate choice, as reported by ESPNCricinfo. The PSL is to resume on June 2 with 16 league-stage matches slotted between June 2 to June 14 at the National Stadium in Karachi. All the players have been asked to assemble by May 23 for mandatory seven-day quarantine. The playoffs are scheduled for June 16 and June 18, and the final on June 20. The problem in taking league is not only financial but the heat of June is almost intolerable in the Emirates and not at all fit for playing sports. The sixth edition of the PSL was postponed due to a rise in covid cases in the bio-bubble. A total of 14 league matches were played between February 20 and March 3. Recently, PSL held a draft and picked new foreign recruits to fill in the loopholes of the teams as most of the foreign stars earlier part of various teams are now busy in County cricket and international duties.