Night curfew in Maharashtra won’t affect the last IND-ENG ODI and IPL games

Jimmy Neesham is the new foreign recruit for T20 Blast; joins Essex

With counties on a spree to sign foreign players for their key positions, Essex too got into the race by signing New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham for the upcoming T20 Blast, the premier T20 tournament of England and Wales. After plying his trade in the Indian Premier League from early April till May, Neesham, 30, will join the county in June and would be available throughout the group stage of the tournament. Essex head coach Anthony McGrath believes that a true all-rounder was the need of the hour for the side, especially after Ravi Bopara left to join Sussex. "We sat down at the end of last season and concluded that we needed to add another allrounder to the T20 squad, and with all of his talent and experience, Jimmy fits the bill perfectly," said McGrath. "He's excelled with both the bat and the ball on the biggest of stages for his country, as well as in the global franchise competitions and it's a great match for both the player and the club," he added enumeration the importance of Neesham in the squad. The Auckland born has previously had county stints with Derbyshire and Kent and is looking forward to playing with the 2019 Blast champions. "I am really looking forward to joining up with Essex Eagles for this year's Vitality Blast. I'm excited about linking up with Ryan ten Doeschate again, having played with him for a few seasons when he was with Otago, and hopefully, we can replicate the success of 2019," Neesham said. The right-handed bowler and left-arm medium-fast bowler has so far played 143 T20 matches. In them, he has scored 2001 runs at a strike rate of 138.76 and taken 132 wickets with an economy of 9.14.

After Tendulkar, Yusuf Pathan also tests positive for Covid-19

Former India all-rounder Yusuf Pathan has tested positive for the Covid-19. This news comes in the wake of Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar testing positive for the dreaded virus. Confirming the news, the senior Pathan tweeted that he is quarantining at home with all necessary precautions and asked those who came in contact with him in the past few days to get themselves tested as well. Earlier today, Sachin had posted a similar tweet that he had contacted Covid-19 and was isolating himself at home and wishes poured in for the legend. Both these players were part of the Road Safety World Series which took place in Raipur, Chhattisgarh just recently. India Legends one of the six teams part of the tournament were crowned champions beating Sri Lanka Legends in the finals in a fully packed stadium with an estimated crowd attendance of more than 40,000. Kevin Pietersen, the skipper of the England Legends team, which also participated in the competition tweeted saying why do stars need to confirm that they have Covid and his tweet wasn’t considered to be in a good taste, especially because it came after Sachin’s confirmatory tweet.

BCCI do away with soft signals for IPL 2021

The Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) has decided to end the system of soft signals for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. The BCCI took this decision after amending the law in Match Playing Conditions (MPC) of the IPL. Now, according to Appendix A in Clause 5.10, the definition of the soft signal is removed from MPC and further the updation of Appendix D in Clause 2.2.2 state that there is no need for soft signal in the IPL and it has hence been removed. Now if the on-field umpire has doubt while making any decision, he/she can directly consult the third umpire without providing any consult as to whether it is out or not out according to him. The soft signal became a debatable topic after debutant Suryakumar Yadav was caught at deep fine leg by Dawid Malan during the fourth T20I between Indian and England at Motera, Ahmedabad. Although there was no conclusive evidence to tell that it was a clean catch by Malan off the bowling of Sam Curran, the third umpire had to go by on-field umpire’s call of out as he did not have conclusive evidence to overturn the decision. Earlier on Thursday, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah during an ICC Board meeting had said there was a need to change the protocol regarding the soft signal. Another major change in the MPC is the inclusion of 20th over in the 90 minutes playing. Earlier the rule under MPC mandated that the 20th over must be started by 90 minutes excluding the five minutes of the Time Outs. Now according to Clause 12.7.1 in the new guidelines, the “20th over is included in the 90 minutes.”

Amicable resolution leads to Chaminda Vaas withdrawing his resignation as bowling consultant

Chaminda Vaas the celebrated fast bowler of Sri Lanka has once again joined Sri Lanka Cricket’s position as Fast bowling consultant. This comes after he and SLC seemed to have amicably resolved a storm that saw Vaas resigning from his position of Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach, just days after being appointed. The dramatic event occurred just when the Sri Lankan team was to leave for its West Indies tour. "Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to inform you that pursuant to a meeting that was held between Mr Chaminda Vaas and the Management Team of Sri Lanka Cricket, the matters which led to his resignation were amicably resolved," a media release from SLC said. The board further said that Vaas has been a great servant of Sri Lanka Cricket and it recognises his contribution. "Sri Lanka Cricket acknowledges the valuable services rendered by Mr Vaas to SLC and the significant contribution he has made to the sport as an iconic player and wishes him well," the media release read. This release is in total contrast with the last release which the board had released just when Vaas had stepped down from his earlier position. The board had alleged the great fast bowler of keeping the game ‘at ransom’. Vaas, 47, on his part, had tweeted after his resignation saying, "I made a humble request to SLC and they turned it down. That's all I can say at the moment. Justice will prevail!" Although Vaas is no longer the fast bowling coach, he would help the fast bowlers of the national team as well as those coming through the ranks. Sri Lankan team is currently in West Indies and having lost the T20i series 1-2 and ODI 0-3, have drawn the first Test and will be playing the second Test and the final game of the tour in two days’ time.