SA vs IND | 3rd Test | Day 2: Petersen, van der Dussen resist after India pick early wickets

ODI fixtures between Ireland & West Indies rescheduled

The ODI fixtures between West Indies and Ireland have been rescheduled while the one-off T20I has been called-off due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The second ODI between the two teams will now be played on Thursday, January 13 at Sabina Park while the series will be concluded on Sunday. “The rescheduling occurred following five COVID-19 positive cases, as well as injuries in the Ireland camp leaving the Ireland squad depleted ahead of the 2nd CG Insurance ODI which was originally was scheduled for Tuesday, 11 January,” the Ireland Cricket said in a statement. “As a consequence, the one-off CG Insurance T20 International has been cancelled to allow for this revised schedule and to avoid impact on the West Indies team’s travel plans and subsequent fixtures,” it added. West Indies are presently leading the series 1-0 after clinching a win in the first match by 24 runs. Three members of Ireland’s contingent had tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday in Jamaica while the touring side was already without the services of Simi Singh and Ben White, before Andy Balbirnie, the captain, Lorcan Tucker and David Ripley, the interim head coach, returned positive results.

IPL 2022 | Two new teams given time till January 22 to announce three retentions

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given time till January 22, 2022, for the two new entrants in the Indian Premier League, the CVC Capital owned Ahmedabad franchise and RPS Goenka group owned Lucknow franchise to finalise their three pre-signed or retained players. The eight already existing teams have already given the list of their retained players. They could have retained a maximum of four players. Among the three players that the new franchises can sign prior to the auctions, there can be no more than one overseas player. "They have time till 5 pm on January 22 to complete their signings," a BCCI official was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. Originally the two teams were to be given two weeks after the green light to CVC regarding ownership of the franchise. Bit now, since the dates for the Auction are set at February 12 and 13, the original plan has been tweaked and the teams are now given only 10 days to finalise their list of players. According to the advisory, if the two new teams sign three capped players, they would have to forfeit Rs 33 crore. And if they sign two capped players then, in that case, they would lose out on Rs 24 crore and Rs 14 crore for signing one capped player. An uncapped player would cost them only Rs 4 core, but they can pay him more than that if they want and the extra money would be deducted from their total salary cap of Rs 90 crore. However, the new teams cannot sign more than one uncapped player. The players that are on the minds of the two franchises are Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Kagiso Rabada, Marcus Stoinis and Shahrukh Khan, the free agents, who have not been retained by their previous franchises ahead of the mega auction. Now that Mitchell Starc is thinking of throwing his hat in the mix, he might also be on the radar of the franchises who are looking to pre-sign players.

Series draw against New Zealand will create more awareness about us: Mominul Haque

New Zealand thumped Bangladesh in the second Test of the two-match series in Christchurch but the visitors had put up a solid show in the first encounter after they clinched a win in that particular game. The series eventually ended in a 1-1 draw. Bangladesh Test captain Mominul Haque has said that the drawn series against the Kiwis would create “more awareness” about the side. "A lot of challenges await us as a team this year," Mominul said. "Everyone, including the opponents, had assumed that we wouldn't do well abroad. This series will create more awareness about us. We have Test series against South Africa, Sri Lanka, and West Indies [in the next six months]. It won't be easy for us. We have to accept the challenges and continue well." Mominul further added that the time when he got the Test captaincy was a tough one but he was determined to do well in overseas conditions. "I got the captaincy at a very tough moment. I always dreamed of winning against big teams. But that belief has to be visible. I think winning the first Test match was important for us to believe in our capability of winning overseas. We will one day win a Test series abroad,” he said.

He inspired a generation of kids and I was one of them: Tom Latham on Ross Taylor’s influence

New Zealand’s stand-in skipper Tom Latham felt special to have played alongside his cricketing hero Ross Taylor in the last Test of his career. Latham, who scored the highest score for a New Zealander in First Class Cricket history at the Hagley Oval, said that he has learnt a lot from Taylor. “The fact that he has scored runs in all parts of the world and to learn from him as to how he goes about his things and how he approaches different bowlers, even though we are left and right hand,” Latham said about his learnings from Taylor, who retired from Test cricket with New Zealand’s victory over Bangladesh in the second match of the two-Test series. Talking about the inspiration that the 37-year-old Taylor has been for one whole generation of kids who wanted to become a Blackcaps batter, Latham said, “I guess, those small things that he does and the significant impact he has had on us as a group and also on New Zealand cricket.” “I guess he has inspired generations and inspired me to play cricket. He is someone that I have always looked up to when I was playing cricket and wanted to play with. But to play with him in his final Test is pretty special,” he added. Latham as a captain provide the ball to Taylor in the last over of the day’s play on the third day of the Test and the latter picked up a wicket on every last ball, becoming only the second Kiwi to pick up a wicket with his last ball in Test cricket.