Women's team to receive World T20 prize money by end of this week: Reports

Asia Cup 2021 edition further postponed to 2023

The Asia Cup that was slated to take place in 2021 has now been postponed to 2023 due to Covid-19 situation. The ACC Executive Board in a statement said that it is not feasible to hold the tournament this year and the next year. There is already one edition of the Asia Cup lined up for next year. “The ACC Executive Board, in face of the risks and restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, had made the difficult decision to postpone the Asia Cup 2020 to 2021. Since then, the ACC has been working with its participants and stakeholders to try and ensure that the event is held in the year. However, on account of a packed FTP, it has been concluded that there is no practical window in the year when all the teams would be available to participate. The Board has accordingly considered the matter very carefully and determined that the only way ahead would be to postpone the event. It would therefore only be feasible for this edition of the tournament to be held in 2023 as there is already an Asia Cup in 2022. Dates for the same will be confirmed in due course,” the release said. The tournament that was rescheduled for June 2021 was postponed for an indefinite time earlier. Pakistan had the hosting rights for the 2020 edition which were later exchanged with Sri Lanka citing security reasons after the postponement. The Asia Cup was last played in the year 2018 in UAE where the Indian team emerged as the champions.

Puma comes in support of Ryan Burl after player tweets photo of worn-out shoes

Zimbabwean cricket is going through some tough phase financially and an instance of this was revealed on social media when batsman Ryan Burl made a post seeking sponsorship for the cricketing gears. “Any chance we can get a sponsor so we don’t have to glue our shoes back after every series?,” wrote the 27-year-old on Twitter. Zimbabwe have been struggling both on and off the field for quite sometime now. While they are facing financial constraints, the African country hasn’t produced any impressive performance in recent times barring the one win against Pakistan in the second T20I of the three-match series. After levelling the series in this game, Zimbabwe lost the third and deciding match to suffer a defeat in the series. They were later thumped by Pakistan 0-2 in the two-match Test series in Harare. The visitors won both the matches by an innings. Burl has represented Zimbabwe in three Tests, 18 ODIs and 25 T20Is. He has notched up 393 runs in the shortest format at a healthy strike-rate of 114.2 and has accumulated 660 runs across all formats. He last played for Zimbabwe in the T20I series against Pakistan at home where the left-handed batsman only managed to score 17 runs in two innings while scalped a coupe of wickets in the second encounter.

Saeed Ajmal feels Mohammad Amir should stick to his retirement decision rather than making demands

Former Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has come out hard at his ex-teammate Mohammad Amir and questions his demands of removal of head coach Misbah ul Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis. The left-arm pacer who was touted as the next big think of Pakistan cricket when he burst onto the scene in 2009 announced an untimely retirement in December 2020 citing problems with the coaching duo. He has promised to never return for national duties till Misbah and Waqar is still at the helm. “From what he is saying, it looks like he was dealt unfairly. But I don’t know what happened between him and team management behind the scenes. He is saying that he will only play for Pakistan after Misbah and Waqar leave their post as head coach and bowling coach,” said Ajmal. “It is not right for a player to ask for the removal of a coach. Amir should focus on his performance and cement his place before making such demands,” the off-spinner added. Amir has been publicly questioning Misbah ul Haq and Waqar Younis for their ill-treatment meted out at the players. Amir had earlier said that he would reconsider coming out of retirement only if the coaching duo is removed from their post. However, Saeed Ajmal who was an integral part of the Pakistan unit feels that it is never right for any player to demand the ouster of coaching personnel. During an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan, Ajmal stated that Amir should be focussing more on his game rather than making unrealistic demands. The office felt that Amir’s retirement came more out of compulsion and desperation and he must stick to his decision rather than criticising the coaching group. “Amir had given his retirement out of desperation but now he is thinking of coming back. If he has made his decision to retire, then he should stick to it,” Ajmal said. Making his international debut way back in 2009, Mohammed Amir donned the Pakistan whites in 36 Tests besides playing 61 ODIs. He has a total of 259 wickets to his name in the international circuit.

Runners-up in the 2020 World T20, Indian women cricketers still await prize money from BCCI

The Indian women’s cricketers haven’t received the prize money for the World T20 where they ended as the runners-up in the 2020 edition. The Indian team should have collectively received $500,000 (£350,000). Tom Moffat, the CEO of Fica, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, told Telegraph Sport that the late non-payment of money owing to players is unacceptable for the on-field performance in pinnacle events. "Prize money is payable to players for their on-field performance in pinnacle events and the late non-payment of money owing to players is unacceptable," Mr Moffat said. "We encourage players in India to consider getting organised as part of a players’ association so they, and the game in India, can benefit from collective player representation in the same way that their fellow professionals around the world do,” he added. The International Cricket Council (ICC) had increased the women’s prize pot by 320% in comparison to 2018. The ICC is responsible for paying out the prize money within a week to the respective governing bodies of the team unless the board asks ICC to make the payments directly to the players. The prize money that comes from the ICC should be allocated to the players within a couple of weeks. It is up to the board to decide whether the payment would be made equally among all the players or grade-wise. If the amount that the Indian team had to receive is split between each player, the prize money that all the players would have got would have been around $33,000 each. The Indian women’s team didn’t feature in a single international feature since the World T20 final due to the Covid-19 outburst. The BCCI though had organised the IPL in 2020 and had a four-match tournament for the women players. The BCCI has been facing the heat for not handling the women’s cricket properly and this is another instance of it especially after the governing body generated a revenue of almost $550 million as they held the IPL 2020 in the UAE during the pandemic.