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Kyle Mayers Bonner Joshua Da Silva Earn West Indies Central Contracts Roston Chase Dropped

Kyle Mayers, Bonner, Joshua Da Silva earn West Indies central contracts: Roston Chase dropped

Emerging talents such as Kyle Mayers, Nkrumah Bonner, Joshua Da Silva, Akeal Hosein have earned reckoning in the Cricket West Indies men’s central contracts for the 2021-2022 season.

Along with recognising the potentials of the young players, Cricket West Indies have also awarded central contracts to experienced players such as Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard for the white-ball formats.

Only Jason Holder has got the all-format contract from CWI while the newly appointed Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite along with Jermaine Blackwood, Rahkeem Cornwall, Shannon Gabriel, and Kemar Roach have got the central contracts for the red-ball format.

For the white-ball formats, CWI has put their money on Kieron Pollard, Fabien Allen, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Alzarri Joseph, Nicholas Pooran and Hayden Walsh Jr.

Despite many winners of the central contract of the CWI, there have been some who have been shown the exit door as well. Former vice-captain Roston Chase has lost his all-format contract while players such as Sunil Ambris, Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd and Oshane Thomas have been shown the door from the contracts for the white-ball formats.

“Contracts offered for the 2021-22 period sees 18 players being retained, a decrease of 4 from last year. Jason Holder is the only player to retain his all-format contract due to his strong Test and T20I performances during the evaluation period. There are several new players offered red-ball contracts earned by their strong performances during the last period. A number of players were not retained because they did not meet the minimum requirements,” said West Indies Men’s Team Lead Selector, Roger Harper in the CWI statement.

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IPL 2021: Pat Cummins feels organisers tweaked with a few things to organise IPL in India

Aussie speedster Pat Cummins who was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League feels that the organisers might have tweaked with a few things to host this edition of the tournament in India despite the second wave of COVID-19 creating a ruckus in the country. The pandemic has taken the Indian medical system off guard with thousands of people losing their lives daily. Cummins stated that the 2020 edition held in UAE was a very well organised one and incredibly well-run. He felt the organisers tried to push it a step further by organising the 14th edition at home, which backfired after the tournament had to be suspended indefinitely after several COVID cases were reported from the respective bio-bubbles. The IPL was suspended after two KKR players, three CSK members and a DC and an SRH cricketer tested positive for the novel Coronavirus. "Last year we had the IPL held over in the UAE and that was an incredibly well-run tournament," Cummins was quoted as saying by Fox Sports. "This year, they tried to push it little step further and have it over here in multiple cities in India. I'm sure looking back they might have tweaked a few things,” he further added. It must be taken into account that Cummins’ statement was made before the league was postponed indefinitely. With Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier from KKR testing positive, it seemed inevitable that the tournament might have to be halted. The BCCI had no other options when it was reported that the virus had breached through DC and SRH bubbles as well after Amit Mishra and Wriddhiman Saha tested positive. Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji and a bus driver also tested positive. Later batting coach Michael Hussey also tested positive for the same. "It's two different worlds. We're lucky, we're safe, we're comfortable and there's people just trying to get basic medical treatment. First thing was to find out whether us playing the IPL was the right thing and basically everyone said, we would be lost without the IPL for three or four hours every night. I'm just trying to do my bit. India's been such a good country to me and cricketers,” Cummins said.

ICC Player of the Month: Nepal’s Kushal Bhurtel competes with Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman

The International Cricket Council announced nominations of the Player of the Month Award and it surprised many as for the first time ever, a member of the associate nation, Kushal Bhurtel of Nepal was among the three nominees. While Bhurtel was the star of the show in the tri-nation T20I series hosted by Nepal in April where they defeated the Netherlands in the final to lift the trophy, Babar and Fakhar hammered the South Africans in both the ODIs and T20Is to record historic series wins against South Africa in both the formats. Bhurtel, 24, scored 278 runs including four fifties in the five games that he played against in the tri-nation series hosted at Kiritpur. The right-hander averaged a phenomenal 69.50 at a strike rate of 140 in the series. The third team in the tri-series was Malaysia. Babar, 26, on the other hand, was brilliant with the bat as well, scoring 228 runs in three ODIs including a century at an average of 76 and 305 T20I runs in seven innings at an average of 43.57. His fellow compatriot Zaman, 30, played a historic knock of 193, the second-highest individual score in an ODI while chasing at Johannesburg. He followed that with another century in Centurion in the very next game helping Pakistan win the ODI series 2-1. The previous three winners of the ICC Men’s Player of the Month have all been Indians and it includes the likes of Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.

Somerset sign up New Zealand batsman Devon Conway for Vitality Blast, County Championship

Somerset have signed up New Zealand explosive batsman Devon Conway for nine matches of the Vitality T20 Blast and a couple of county championship fixtures scheduled between June 23rd to July 18. Excited at the prospect of playing in the England domestic circuit, Conway said that condition during the summer in England pose challenges to players and hoped that he could bring an impact for Somerset in the T20 Blast and County Championship. “Somerset has a very good reputation and I’m excited to be joining the team for a key part of the season. I’m really looking forward to the challenge. England is one of the places where everyone wants to test their skills during the summer and hopefully, I can positively contribute to success in the Vitality Blast and the County Championship,” Conway said in a statement. Notably, the left-hander has also found a place in the New Zealand squad for the tour of England where they will play two Test matches against the hosts and India in the World Test Championship final and Conway is likely to join Somerset post completion of his international commitments. Conway has earned the limelight for his hard-hitting abilities with the bat. He grew into prominence based on his batting in the T20Is at home and also capitalised on opportunities handed out to him in the 50-over format. Devon has played 14 T20Is for New Zealand, averaging 59.12 with a strike rate of 151 and including the highest score of 99 not out against Australia earlier this year. He has also featured in three One-Day Internationals and has amassed 225 runs with an astounding average of 75 and the highest score of 126 runs.

Problem of plenty: Kiwi all-rounder de Grandhomme points India's toughest challenge in WTC Final

Kiwi all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme has said that the immense strength of the Indian team will make the selection of playing XI the toughest task for the team management when they will play New Zealand in the finals of the World Test championship. "With the amount of players they've got they can cover all bases because they've got real good seam bowlers these days and gun spinner, so I think the toughest thing for them is going to be picking the XI," the ICC tweeted quoting Grandhomme. There is a fact in Grandhomme’s assertion as India have many formidable options for almost all roles in the team. If all were to be considered for selection, Indian have to choose two openers among Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal while for all-rounders, the competition will be between Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and R Ashwin. The bowling department has been enriched with the success of newcomers such as Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, who will be joining the settled trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has come back after a long injury lay off and has shown keenness to play the longest format and will pose challenges to other pacers for his skills that can be really handy in England. India and New Zealand will face off in the WTC Final scheduled to take place in Southampton from June 18.