T20 World Cup | Mohammad Shami on a roll as India pick team hat-trick, bundle out Scotland for 85

A player pissed on my head: Another Asian origin player alleges racism at Yorkshire

As the Azeem Rafiq racism row picks up the pace with England and Wales Cricket Board cancelling all major games at Headingley, all major sponsors pulling out from their deals with the club and its president resigning, yet another blow has hit the Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Another Asian origin former player has alleged racism at the north England club. He asked to remain anonymous as he does not want his family to know what he endured. Saying that the comments and acts of the white players at the club were ‘both blatant and sly’, during his time at the club in the early 2000s. It was due to his treatment at the club that the player left it disillusioned after being unable to receive the same opportunities as white cricketers. Revealing the treatments the player said, “I experienced racism from fellow players both direct and indirect. Believe it or not, I had a player p*** on my head from the hotel bedroom above, as I was on the phone leaning out of my room window.” “Everyone in the Asian cricketing community has known Yorkshire County Cricket Club is racist, yet somehow they have been able to cunningly continue with their agenda,” he added giving an example of how the Yorkshire management still manages to get the nod of being the largest representer of Asian talent. “I and others were used as a statistic. When people said Yorkshire were racist, their reply was, ‘How can we be — we have X amount of Asians on our books?” he said. While racial slurs were still something that players found hard to deal with it, they were attacked on religious lines as well. Telling another story, the player said he overheard ‘senior players’ — both still involved at Yorkshire —talking about ‘how they “sh**ged a bird” in the hotel room who was on her period and made a mess, and all they could find is a Muslim player’s prayer mat to clean it up. Sick or what. These are supposed to be your teammates and people I looked up to.’ These allegations were made by the player through Sportsmail and when the paper asked Yorkshire to respond, a spokesman said, “This behaviour would be completely unacceptable to the club. It goes without saying we will investigate thoroughly.”

T20 World Cup | NZ vs NAM: Late surge with bat, clinical bowling puts Kiwis closer to semi-final spot

A clinical bowling performance from New Zealand against Namibia helped them attain the second spot in the Group 2 points table after they defended a target of 164 runs on Friday in Sharjah. Namibia were off to a decent start after openers Stephan Baard Michael van Lingen had put 47 runs on the board in less than eight overs but Jimmy Neesham provided the Blackcaps with a much-needed breakthrough as he cleaned up van Lingen for 25 off 25 deliveries. Lingen’s departure saw Namibia losing wickets at regular intervals and they were left tottering at 102/5 in the 18th over only to end up getting restricted to 111/7 eventually. For the Kiwis, it was their bowlers who took the onus on themselves and didn’t let the Namibian batsmen cut loose. While Boult returned with figures of 2/20 in 4 overs, Southee also scalped a couple of wickets as well for 15 runs in his allotted 4 overs. Apart from these two, Mitchell Santner, James Neesham and Ish Sodi picked up one wicket each. The spinners prevented the batters from taking any advantage in the middle overs and the required rate kept rising for Namibia. Earlier, in the day, New Zealand rode on a brisk partnership between Glenn Phillips and Neesham to put 163/4 in 20 overs on the board. The Kane Williamson-led side were reduced to 87/4 in 14 overs before Phillips and Neesham joined hands and provided them with resistance. The two batsmen put up an unbeaten stand of 76 runs for the fifth wicket. While Phillips scored 39* off 21, Neesham remained not out on a 23-ball 35 to help New Zealand post a good total. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said that the track in Sharjah was a challenging one. “I think we all know what we have to expect here (Sharjah), it's a real scrap. We tried to maximise that short side, it was a challenging surface. The guys played well to get us to 160. You need to build those partnerships and try to maximise towards the end. An over or two can crack the game, that was our focus today,” he said in the post-match presentation. New Zealand will now play Afghanistan on Sunday in Abu Dhabi while Namibia will lock horns with India on Monday in Dubai.

West Indies name 15 member squad for Test tour of Sri Lanka, uncapped Jeremy Solozano included

Cricket West Indies announced a 15 member strong squad for the tour of Sri Lanka where they will play two Tests as part of the World Test Championship cycle of 2021-23. The team has kept the nucleus which has been playing test cricket for the Caribbean outfit for quite some time and included a fresh entrant in form of an uncapped opening batter Jeremy Solozano. Solozano, a Trinidadian cricketer who has played 40 First-Class games was picked up on the basis of his showing in the Best vs Best where he scored 74 in the second three-day game at Coolidge. Speaking about the selection of the 26-year-old, West Indies’ Lead Selector Roger Harper said, “Jeremy played for the West Indies ‘A’ Team in 2019 (against India ‘A’) with success and in the Best v Best matches he displayed a sense of application, patience, and composure while looking very comfortable against both pace and spin which encouraged the panel to invest in him at this point.” Harper went in to add about the squad, “The squad is well balanced, with good depth in all departments. The composition is very similar to the squad that brought us success in our last away tour to Bangladesh, with a few changes in personnel. There are a number of players who are familiar with Sri Lankan conditions and most of the others have good experience in the Indian sub-continent, so they know what to expect and are gearing themselves for it.” The Maroon brigade will plate a four-day warm-up match in Colombo from November 14 to 17 before moving for the two Tests which will be played from November 21 to 25 and November 29 to December 3 respectively at Galle International Stadium. West Indies squad Kraigg Brathwaite (Captain), Jermaine Blackwood (Vice-Captain), Nkrumah Bonner, Roston Chase, Rahkeem Cornwall, Joshua Da Silva, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers, Veerasammy Permaul, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Jeremy Solozano, Jomel Warrican

T20 World Cup: West Indies fined 20 per cent of match fees for slow over-rate

West Indies have been fined 20 per cent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate against Sri Lanka during their Super 12 fixture in Abu Dhabi. The sanction was imposed by David Boon of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees. "In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time," a statement from ICC read. There was no need for a formal hearing as West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard accepted the proposed sanction after pleading guilty to the offence. The Caribbean side was eliminated from the tournament after losing to the Lankan lions by 20 runs. Chasing 190 in 20 overs, West Indies were restricted to 169/8 after the batting unit, barring Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer failed to fire. Earlier, in the day, Sri Lanka rode on some fine piece of batsmanship from Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka to post 189/3 on the board. Both the batsmen notched up individual fifties during the course. West Indies will now play Australia on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.