Sreesanth thanks fans and supporters after return to competitive cricket

'Fed up' Indian players subjected to 'harsh rules' in Brisbane team hotel

After a lot of uncertainties built on the fourth Test of the series, the touring Indian team has reached Brisbane where the fourth and the final Test of the series is scheduled to start on January 15 but looks like they have been subjected to facilities so unlike of any sporting team across the world, let alone the Indian cricket team run by an all-powerful BCCI. Reportedly, their concerns of living lives of animals locked up in zoos are coming true in Brisbane as they have been confined into a five-star hotel just four kilometres away from the Gabba stadium in the city. As per a TOI report, they have to prepare their own beds and clean their toilets in the hotel rooms as well as they are not allowed to use any of the amenities present in the hotel even while the entire hotel is empty. “We are locked up in our rooms, have to make our own beds, clean our own toilets. Food is coming from a nearby Indian restaurant which will be given to us on our floor. We can’t move out of the floor that’s been designated for us. The entire hotel is empty, but we can’t use any amenities in the hotel including the swimming pool and the gym. All the cafes and restaurants in the hotel are shut,” TOI quoted an unnamed member of the contingent as quoting. The members of the Indian touring party are not showing signs of being fed up at giving swab samples too many times and TOI quoted a member saying that they feel their nostrils have flared up due to repetitive testing. Not surprisingly, the team management has asked the BCCI to discuss arranging the arrangement of all amenities to the touring members with Cricket Australia or arranging a flight back home. “They’ve tested us some 15 to 20 times (swab tests) ever since we’ve arrived here (in November). So much so that the nostrils have flared up. Yesterday we were tested. Two days before that we were tested. A week ago, we were tested. It’s got to the point that it’s nauseating,” say those going through the procedure.” The Indian team has suffered so many injuries on the tour of Australia and the Brisbane Test is the last match of the series that is levelled at 1-1. The tourists have a lot of injured players who can’t make it to the playing XI of the Brisbane Test, and it seems that Ajinkya Rahane will have to accept playing the series decider with whatever team he will be left with, come January 12.

SMA Trophy 2021: Siddarth Kaul demolishes Karnataka with hat trick; Vivek Singh of Bengal hits first ton of the tournament

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy's 2021 edition is picking pace with passing days and after two over two hundred scores yesterday, it was a day of some other milestones today. Bengal’s Vivek Singh hit the first century of the tournament, batting against Jharkhand in an elite group B match at the Eden Gardens where the Bengal team registered their second win on a trot, defeating Jharkhand by 16 runs. Along with Vivke’s hundred, the bowling of the Bengal team deserves a bit of praise as well. Ishan Porel cleaned up the tail and ended up with figures of 3/32 in his four overs. Brief Scores: Bengal-161/6 in 20 Overs (Vivek Singh-100 not out, Monu Kumar 3/30) beat Jharkhand 145/9 in 20 Overs (Virat Singh 47, Ishan Porel 3/32) by 16 runs. Check Full Scorecard In Alur, Punjab’s Siddarth Kaul picked up the first-ever hat-trick of the edition as the north Indian state rolled over the defending Champions Karnataka by nine wickets. The 30-year-old Kaul finished with the figures of 4/26 and apart from him, Arshdeep Singh picked two wickets as well. Prabsimran Singh with 89 not out was the star with the bat for Punjab as they lost only one wicket chasing an easy target. Brief Scores: Karnataka- 125/8 in 20 Overs (Rohan Kadam -33, Siddarth Kaul- 4/26) lose to Punjab- 127/1 in 14.4 overs (Prabhsimnran Singh- 89 not out) by nine wickets. Check Full Scorecard Elsewhere, Uttar Pradesh, considered hot favorites before the start of the tournament suffered a second consecutive defeat as it was blown away by the Railways. None among the IPL heavyweights in Suresh Raina, Priyam Garg, or Rinku Singh could fire as the UP team could only manage 133 in their 20 overs which was chased down with ease by Railways who lost just two wickets while doing so. Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh- 133/9 in 20 Overs (Karan Sharma-55, Harsh Tyagi- 2/17) lose to Railways- 137/2 in 17.4 Overs (Mrunal Devdhar-57, Bhuvneshwar Kumar-1/21) by eight wickets. Check Full Scorecard In other games of the day, Jammu and Kashmir notched up an easy win over Tripura while Himachal Pradesh were beaten by Krunal Pandya led Baroda in a low scoring thriller by four wickets. Gujarat also made light work of Uttarakhand beating them by a huge margin of 73 runs. Brief Scores: Baroda-112/6 in 19 overs (Kedar Devdhar- 49 not out, Vaibhav Arora-2/34) beat Himachal Pradesh-109/10 in 20 overs (Prashant Chopra-39, Babashafi Pathan-3/9) by four wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Gujarat 172/5 (Priyank Panchal-46, Dikshanshu Negi- 2/25) beat Uttarakhand 99/8 (Jay Bista-26, Piyush Chawla- 3/12) by 73 runs. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Jammu and Kashmir 94/3 (Suryansh Raina- 33, Manisankar Murasingh- 2/19) beat Tripura 93/10 (Udiyan Bose-28, Aaquib Nabi-3/10) by seven wickets. Check Full Scorecard Vintage Kedar Jadhav turned up for Maharashtra as they chased down 192 of Chhattisgarh with eight wickets in hand. Hyderabad on the other hand notched up its first win by beating Odisha by six runs, after having lost their opening game against Asam by just two runs. The last of the game will be played at the Eden Gardens and it is going to be an evening affair between Tamil Nadu and Assam, starting at 07.00 pm IST. Brief Scores: Maharashtra 196/2 (Kedar Jadhav-84 not out, Veer Pratap Singh-1/23) beat Chhattisgarh 192/5 (Rishabh Tiwari-44, Manoj Ingale-2/43) by eight wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Hyderabad 153/8 (Tilak Varma-44, Suryakant Pradhan- 3/34) beat Odisha 147/4 (Govind Poddar-50, Chama Milind-2/24) by six runs. Check Full Scorecard

Al Amerat stadium in Oman might become the new adopted home ground for Afghanistan

Afghanistan Cricket Board is contemplating the idea of moving their adopted home venue to Oman for their future international fixtures. After being approved as a Test venue on January 11, the Oman Cricket Academy Ground 1 might well become Afghanistan’s adopted home ground ahead of the pre-planned series against Zimbabwe in February. Whether or not Zimbabwe can travel to Oman for the proposed series remains to be seen as there has been a considerable spike in COVID-19 cases in Zimbabwe especially after stricter rules were imposed by the government in Harare, However, despite this particular dilemma, the Afghanistan Cricket Board is looking to shift the home venue to Oman. As per reports in the Cricbuzz, it is learnt that due to certain visa issues, the series against Ireland is in jeopardy. This is the reason which is actually playing a part in ACB’s decision making for the future. It is also believed that the financial aspects will be much lesser for Afghanistan if they shift their home venue to Oman from UAE. "The gate is open for Afghanistan (to make Oman as their home venue)," Raees Ahmadzai, Afghanistan's director of cricket, was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. "We love to play there because the Oman Cricket Board done a great job during COVID-19 time. So Oman is another option for us in future to play all types of cricket. We have got good options thanks to the Indian board (BCCI) and UAE, and now Oman," he further added. Afghanistan was based in Sharjah before changing two venues in India. While their adopted home ground in 2019 was in Dehradun it was shifted to the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow for all 3 formats of the game. Meanwhile, it must be noted that Al-Amerat complex outside Muscat has been the hosts to many international matches earlier. It is also being considered as one of the best facilities among associate nations and is all set to become the 2nd nation in the Gulf Region after UAE to host a Test match.

Steve Smith beats Kohli on ICC Test Rankings to number two, behind Kane Williamson on top

Australia’s star batsman Steve Smith has tipped Indian captain to become the second on the ICC Rankings for batsmen in Tests on the back of a superlative century in the Sydney Test against India. Smith was battling with bad form and had failed in the three innings of the first two Tests of the series, but his century helped Australia gain the ascendency in the game. Smith has gone up to 900 points while Kohli who has returned home for the birth of his first child is at 870 rating points. Smith’s fellow teammate Marnus Labuschagne consolidated his ranking at the number four position with his highest best career ration points at 866 on the back of scores of 91 and 73 in the two innings of the SCG Test. For India, Cheteshwar Pujara played a crucial role in helping India draw the SCG Test with the fifties in both the innings of the Test match, and his exploits with the bat helped him jump two ranks on the eighth position on the table. On the other hand, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson consolidated his domination on the ranking table with a jump to his and the career-best rating point for any Kiwi batsmen at 919. Williamson has been in sublime form in the home series against West Indies and Pakistan and plundered two double centuries against them over the course of two two-match Test series. Another Kiwi batsman who batted supremely against Pakistan in the last Test match of the series in Christchurch, Henry Nichols has broken into the top 10 batsmen of the Test format. He stands at the ninth position with 747 points to his name. For bowlers, Pat Cummins has consolidated his top position in the ICC player rankings for bowlers in Tests while Josh Hazlewood has jumped three places to fifth position on the table. Mitchell Starc looked off-colour and could get only one wicket across the two innings of the SCG Test and slid three places to number eight on the table. India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah too lost some of their gains and slid two and one places respectively in the latest changes announced by the ICC in the players’ rankings.