Shammi Silva elected as SLC president uncontested

Shammi Silva has been elected uncontested as the new president of Sri Lanka Cricket for the next three years. Silva also held the post earlier in 2019 and this would be his second term in office.

Jayanta Dharmadasa and Ravin Wickramaratne have retained their positions as vice-president of SLC, the cricket governing body in the island nation. Mohan de Silva will be the honorary secretary while Lasantha Wickremasinghe and Chryshantha Kapuwatte will serve as the Treasurer and Asst. Secretary respectively. Sujeeva Godaliyadda will hold the post of Asst. Treasurer.

Silva expressed his delight at being elected as the president. "I am thankful for the membership for electing me uncontested as the President of Sri Lanka Cricket," said the President-Elect, after his victory was confirmed. "This victory also proves the fact that our stakeholders have understood the yeomen service my previous administration rendered for the development of the game," he further added.

Sports Minister Namal Rajapakse confirmed virtually that Silva had been elected as the president. "I don't get involved in the election process. I will work with whoever gets elected," he had earlier told Cricbuzz.

K Mathivanan and Bandula Warnapurea were also contesting for the posts of president and vice-president respectively. They questioned the authorities over their negligence of serious atters during the election. "A very serious lapse by way of delayed submission of annual accounts and not having obtained the Auditor General's approval as required by the Constitution has been disregarded by the authorities, a major cause of concern is the upholding of trust and impartiality," Nishantha, Mathivana and Bandula alleged in a letter to the Election Committee of the SLC.

Discover more

CA announces full schedule for Women's series between India & Australia

Cricket Australia (CA) has announced the full schedule for the Commonwealth Bank Women's series against India. The three-match ODI series will begin on September 19 at North Sydney with the other two matches scheduled to take place at Junction Oval on September 22 and 24 respectively. The ODI series will be followed by the only Test to be played at WACA between September 30-October 3 while the tour will end with a three-match T20I series. All the T20I matches will be held at North Sydney Oval. The first T20I will be played on October 7 while the second and third on October 9 and 11 respectively. The Test match will be the first between the Australian and Indian women’s teams in 15 years while it would be the first time when the two sides will play against each other since the World T20 final in 2020. Australia captain Meg Lanning expressed her delight and said that the side has always wanted to be a part of more Test matches. "As players, we've said for a long time that we'd love to play more Test matches," Australia captain Meg Lanning said on Wednesday. "It's an exciting prospect and I know (India) are heading over to England to play a Test match pretty soon so it shows they're up for the challenge and really willing to play that format."

Rahul Dravid confirmed to coach India on tour of Sri Lanka: Report

Rahul Dravid is most likely to travel as the coach of the Indian team on the tour of Sri Lanka scheduled for July this year, ANI reported citing an unnamed BCCI official. The coaching staff of the Indian team will be in the UK for a long period of time and Dravid will be tasked to fill in for Ravi Shastri in the island nation. Dravid is currently heading the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and this will be his first stint as a coach for the Indian senior team after coaching India Under 19 and A teams for some time. “The Team India coaching staff will be in the UK and it is best that the young team is guided by Dravid as he has already worked with almost all of the India A boys. The comfort the youngsters share with him will be an added advantage,” ANI quoted an official as saying. India are likely to travel for a three-match long ODI and an equally long T20I series against Sri Lanka. As per an ESPNcrcinfo report, India’s movement in the country will be limited to Colombo and they will play all their games at the R Premadasa Stadium.

Difficult to play World T20 in India: Michael Hussey

Former Australia player Mike Hussey has said that the World T20 which is slated to take place in India later this year should be shifted elsewhere citing the rise in Covid-19 cases in the country. Hussey who is Chennai Super Kings batting coach has opined that it would be difficult to hold the tournament in India. “I think it’s going to be very difficult in my view to play that tournament in India,” Hussey told ‘Fox Cricket’. The former left-handed batsman further added that the cricket boards would be ‘nervous’ about going back to India for the tournament. “I think they’ll have to look some pretty big contingency plans, perhaps looking at the UAE or somewhere like that that could host the World T20. I think there will be a lot of cricket boards around the world that’d be pretty nervous about going back to India for a cricket tournament,” said Hussey. The International Cricket Council is likely to take a call on the event on June 1. Hussey was one of the members of the CSK contingent to have tested positive fo Covid-19 earlier. Talking about the same, Hussey explained that he had started to feeling some of the symptoms. “My initial test came up as a weak positive, and we were sort of hoping the next would be negative and it’d be alright, but unfortunately I got retested the next day and that came back positive,” he said. “To be honest, I had already started feeling some of the symptoms and so I was thinking, ‘I’m pretty sure I’ve got it’,” he added. The IPL 2021 was also suspended on May 4 with immediate effect after there was a rise in Covid-19 cases within the franchise teams. Apart from Hussey, KKR’s Sandeep Warrior and Varun Chakravarthy, SRH’s Wriddhiman Saha, DC’s Amit Mishra and CSK’s bowling coach L.Balaji had tested positive for Covid-19.

WTC final: Cheteshwar Pujara confident of India's chances at neutral venue against New Zealand

As India and New Zealand are gearing up for the big World Test Championship final, there have been numerous references made with the last series between the sides played last year. In that series played in New Zealand, Virat Kohli’s men were thrashed left, right and centre by a dominating team led by Kane Williamson in their own backyard. India’s number three Tests, Cheteshwar Pujara has a different take on this as he believes the factors that helped the Blackcaps in the home series would be limited as the WTC final will be played at a neutral venue—Southampton, England. “When we played the Kiwis in 2020, it was in their backyard. That won’t be the case in the WTC final ... it’s a neutral venue for both the teams. None of the teams will have a home advantage,” Pujara said TOI in an interview. Pujara, however, said that the Indian batsmen have learnt hard lessons from that series in New Zealand and other encounters of the past which will help them be better prepared for the varieties in line and angle of attack of Kiwi bowling line up. “Their bowling attack is very well-balanced. We have faced their bowlers before and have a fair idea of how they operate, the angles they use, and we will be prepared,” Pujara added. Pujara commended the amount of talent in the Indian team and cited the big series win in Australia where they won even in the absence of star players such as Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma. “The amount of talent in the Indian circuit is humongous. The Australia series earlier this year was an example. We had so many injuries, but the backup options did well for us to win the series. Everyone in this Indian team is hungry to do well and that’s the sign of a good side,” Pujara concluded. Indian players are quarantining in Mumbai before they will take off on a chartered flight to the United Kingdom in the first week of June. The World Test Championship final will be played in Southampton from June 18.