WTC: Finalists to be decided by percentage points, NZ fancies its chances

In a rare instance, to make sure that the World Test Championship is completed and in its truest form, the International Cricket Council has come up with a plan to decide the two finalists through percentage points. This decision has been arrived at considering that the Pandemic has caused teams to miss out on various series.

The percentage points refer to the percentage of points they have earned from those they have actually contested for. The final decision will be made at ICC's last quarterly meeting of the year, which is scheduled for this Monday.

Another option to decide the finalists was to treat all Tests which the teams couldn’t play as Draws and split points among them. However, it was rejected by the committee members.

This option has given New Zealand a bright chance of making it to the finals of the inaugural championship. The maximum points that New Zealand can get from their home series against Pakistan and West Indies are 240. If that happens, they would end up with 420 points (out of 600 contested) or 70%.

They are currently in the fourth position in the table. Teams ahead of them are Australia, England, and India. For they all play tougher series than New Zealand and not all at home either then getting to 70% would become a bit more difficult. For Australia to go ahead, they would need to win the home series against India comfortably (with less than two losses) to be able to afford two or even three losses in South Africa and still be able to qualify.

For India to be able to qualify, they need to win at least one Test in Australia and rest five against England at home.

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Plane crashes 30 kilometres away from Indian team hotel in Sydney: Report

The India tour of Australia is yet to begin on the field but off-field instances of reckoning have started making headlines as a light plane has crashed at the Cromer Park, situated just 30 kilometres away from the Sydney Olympic Park where the Indian team are reading in their quarantine period. Reportedly, the engine of that plane had stopped working and it crashed at the Cromer Park around 4:30 PM on November 14. A senior Vice-president of the Cromer Cricket Club, Greg Rollins, said that after he saw the smokes coming from the plane, he thought of asking the players to get out of the field. He asked players to run off the ground and all followed the instructions to save themselves from the crash. "I yelled out to the guys in the shed, I just said run. They started running. The plane started to smoke and I thought we had to get these guys out. The plane looked like it was going to blow up. The victims were still conscious but they were ‘not in a good way’. One guy, his face wasn’t good. They hit hard enough to do a lot of damage but they’re alive, that’s the main thing,” Rollins was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz. The Indian team had reached Sydney on Thursday, November 12 and after the players cleared the first round of COVID-19 testing, they have been allowed to train outdoors and prepare for the gruelling tour that will start from November 27.

BBL: Carlos Brathwaite inks deal with defending champs Sydney Sixers

West Indian star all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite has signed a deal with Big Bash League’s defending and two-time champions Sydney Sixers for this season. Brathwaite had earlier represented Sixers in the 2017-18 season when the Sixers could not make it to the Playoffs. In the four games that he played, Brathwaite picked six wickets. The Sixers coach also remembers the West Indian’s contribution with fondness. "We were struggling three seasons ago and Carlos joined as a replacement player and we finished four from four, and he contributed greatly to our rebalance," Shipperd said. The Barbadian who picked 10 wickets for Jamaica Tallawahs in the recently completed Caribbean Premier League will join the likes of Tom Curran, Dan Christian, and Sean Abbot to form a deadly trio of all-rounders and late order hitters. The Sydney team has also signed England batsman James Vince and along with Curran and Brathwaite make the three foreign signings complete for the Sixers. Apart from these foreign signings, the inclusion of Mitchell Starc would also boost the team’s chances. With 1614 runs and 154 wickets in T20s, the West Indian comes with a lot of experience behind and seemed happy to have joined the Sixers. "I have very fond memories of Sydney and have good memories of playing at the SCG in my second Test match and even better memories of playing BBL for Sixers. I remember great times dancing at the games and the times in the dressing rooms with our team," said Brathwaite. Brathwaite, 32 is remembered for his six-hitting heroics against England in the 2016 T20 finals in Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

Mitchell Swepson biding his time, raring to bowl against Virat Kohli

Although he has been selected in the Test team to take on Indian team in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series, leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson is not counting on selectors to pick him in playing XI for the first two Tests of the series. Swepson has said that Nathan Lyon has been the premier spinner or the Australian side for some time now and that his chances can come only in the third Test scheduled to take place on the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). “Gaz is obviously the premier spinner and has been for a while. He's proven himself time and time again in Test matches. I'm not counting my chickens too much there with getting a go above him. But if conditions suit, there may be a chance they play two spinners,” Swepson told Cricket Australia. However, Swepson is not leaving himself ill-prepared in case the chances come his way in the series against India. He is readying himself to take whatever chances he will be presented with both hands. “Given the current times with COVID being around, and illness and things like that, you have to be ready to go no matter what. I'll be preparing to play all four games. If the chance comes, I'll hopefully take it with two hands. And if not, so be it. I'm sure there'll be more chances in the future,” Swepson added. Relishing the prospect of bowling against Indian batting line which he says is filled with ‘world-class batsmen, Swepson said that he can’t wait to challenge himself by bowling to great batsmen. He was more excited for bowling against Virat Kohli in the warm-up games for Australia A against the Indian team. He said that Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s greatness is no secret for anyone. He is relishing the opportunity to test himself against a ‘great cricketer’ that Virat Kohli is. Swepson has been sitting on the sidelines of the Australian squad since the time he was drafted into the squad against Australia in the 2019-20 season and the following scheduled tour of Bangladesh which was later called off due to COVID-19 pandemic.

BCCI paid Emirates Cricket Board $14 million to host IPL 2020 in UAE: Report

The Board of Control for Cricket in India reportedly paid a whopping USD 14 million (approximately Rs 100 crore) to the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) for hosting the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League that ended on November 10, as per a report by Mumbai Mirror. The tournament was spread across three venues-- Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah and the decision by the BCCI to increase to charge franchises more for hosting games from pre-existing Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh may have provided a financial cushion to the board amid the pandemic-hit downturn. This year’s edition of the league was postponed for an indefinite period of time from the first scheduled period of start in the last week of March before the board stepped into finalising UAE as the country to host the league behind closed doors. The 13th edition began with the match between the defending champions Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings in Abu Dhabi on September 19. Over the course for almost two months in the Emirates, probably the best players in the current cricket world provided fans across the world a chance to get a sense back to the normalcy in cricket albeit no fans were allowed into stadiums. The IPL this year also notched unprecedented TV viewership by registering a 29 per cent growth in audience viewership compared to the last edition and it establishes the popularity of the league among cricket fans across the globe.