T20 World Cup | Star Sports to broadcast India's warm-up games against England, Australia

Ashes 2021 | ECB likely to give go-ahead as Cricket Australia softens quarantine norms

The uncertainty around the fate of the Ashes series is appearing to die as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is all set to give its go-ahead for the series after Cricket Australia’s concession of not putting players’ families under strict quarantine in the country, The Times reported. England players are all likely to arrive in Australia in bunches as many all-format players will arrive directly from the UAE after playing in the T20 World Cup while other Test specialists including the skipper Joe Root will directly reach Brisbane from England. Cricket Australia gave an online briefing to England players and said that they will not be forced to confine themselves in hotel rooms for the whole period of 14 days and instead they will be allowed to move freely around their hotel resort, the report added. After the fresh proposal from Cricket Australia with relatively softened quarantine norms, England players led by Joe Root have committed to the tour and the ECB is all but ready to stamp the green light on the Ashes series. The Times also said in its report that England will have enough players to choose from the first-choice squad to have a ‘strong’ tour to compete with the hosts. The final decision by the ECB is due today and it is all likely that a tour comprising of 30 players including from England Lions will be given a go-ahead and that the squad will be selected towards the end of the week. Earlier, Australia’s Cricket body was refusing to offer a lenient period of isolation to players and their families that had put serious doubts over the future of one of the most iconic and traditional series in the game of cricket.

Warner’s position as opener in T20 WC remains intact despite poor form

Australian opener David Warner is going through a poor form. He didn’t have a great IPL as he could only score 195 runs in 8 innings that he played with an average of 24.37. The figures nowhere seem to justify the stature of Warner. Yet the Australian batsman has the trust of his skipper and will be opening for Australia in the upcoming T20 world cup. Just before leaving Australia, he said, "Yep, absolutely, he's one of the best players to ever play the game for Australia. I've got no doubt that his preparation, while he would love to be playing for Hyderabad no doubt, I know that he's still training away. He'll be good to go." Meanwhile Finch himself has recently recovered from knee surgery. "When I first had the surgery, it was going to be touch and go for those two (warm-up) games," Finch said. "But over the last couple of weeks, my recovery has progressed really well so it's looking more and more likely I will be fit and ready to go for those.” Australia will be facing South Africa in their opening game in the T20 World Cup on 23rd October.

Finch comes out to support Cricket Australia’s decision on Afghanistan test

Australia’s stand to call off a test against Afghanistan if the latter don’t allow Afghan women to play cricket got support from Australia’s white-ball captain Aaron Finch. "It's a really challenging time no doubt, but we're supportive of Cricket Australia's position," Finch told reporters in a media call. Afghanistan Cricket Board said last month that it was committed to women’s cricket though they await the government instructions on its future. Their men’s team is gearing up for the upcoming T20 World cup that is scheduled to begin on 17th October. Earlier, Australia’s test-captain Tim Paine also expressed himself on the issue and said that teams might refuse to play Afghanistan at the world cup. Finch declined to say whether Australia would feel comfortable playing the Afghans at the World Cup where they would not meet unless both teams advance to at least the semi-finals. "That's an ICC decision," he said. "We're hopeful that things can resolve itself and Afghanistan can play a huge part in international cricket. "We've seen how important they are, the development of their game in Afghanistan no doubt is huge," Finch added.

Michael Holding condemns England’s withdrawal from Pakistan

Former West Indies fast bowler came down heavily on the England cricket board for its withdrawal from Pakistan last month. England took this step keeping New Zealand’s decision of backing out from the Pakistan tour amid security threats in September. New Zealand suspended their tour hours before the first match was scheduled, following ‘an escalation in the New Zealand Government threat levels for Pakistan, and advice from NZC security advisors on the ground,’ as a press release from New Zealand’s official twitter handle said. Holding felt that this was a ‘western arrogance’ as England would have never taken such an action against India since the latter is rich and powerful. During an event to honour him with the Peter Smith Award for presentation of cricket to the public at the Cricket Writers' Club annual awards, he said, “I will treat you how I feel like treating you - it doesn't matter what you think, I will just do what I want.” He also mentioned Pakistan’s tour of England when there were no vaccines available for COVID. "They stayed, they played, and honoured what England wanted them to honour, and now you have an opportunity to try and repay them to a small degree," added Holding.