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Restructured Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup to forge ahead despite Australian state border uncertainty

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Two rounds have been cut from the Sheffield Shield while the Marsh Cup is a five-game season plus the final

Alex Malcolm10-Feb-2021Two rounds have been cut from the Sheffield Shield and the Marsh Cup will be a five-game tournament in the restructured Australian domestic calendar, but the completion of all the fixtures hang in the balance because of the uncertainty regarding state border controls around the country. Western Australia remains a major concern for Cricket Australia’s schedule, with the state government maintaining strict Covid-19 border rules for travellers coming in.CA and the state cricket associations ticked off on the new revamped domestic schedule late last week with each state to play eight Shield matches in total, including those already played, and five 50-over Marsh Cup matches with the top two teams in each competition to play off in the finals in April. The Marsh Cup final will be played on April 11 and the Shield final on April 15-19.The Australian Cricketers’ Association agreed to a reduction of games this season on the understanding that it would return to ten rounds and a final next season.The first half of the Shield season took place in October and November in a hub in Adelaide but the rest of the fixtures will now be played in all six states, with teams to fly commercially alongside the general public and arrange their own accommodation as has been the case in previous seasons. The bio-security rules are set to be far less stringent than they were during the BBL.Related

  • Victoria cleared to travel to NSW for domestic fixtures despite Melbourne lockdown

  • NSW and Victoria aiming to still play Marsh Cup opener despite latest lockdown in Victoria

  • Australia seek middle-order answers during T20 mission in New Zealand

  • BBL beats season of uncertainty

  • Cummins named NSW captain for the rescheduled 50-over Marsh Cup

The season recommences next Monday with New South Wales hosting Victoria in a Marsh Cup fixture in Sydney, where Pat Cummins will make his NSW captaincy debut before the two sides meet in a Shield game at the SCG two days later.WA were initially scheduled to face New South Wales in Sydney on that date but the entire schedule was restructured because of WA’s complicated border situation.Travellers entering WA from states where there has been a community Covid-19 case in the previous 28 days are required to do 14-days strict home isolation upon arrival. With the BBL final being played in Sydney, where there has been a recent case, WA and Perth Scorchers’ entire coaching staff, as well as WA and Scorchers players Cameron Bancroft, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kelly, Joel Paris and Corey Rocchiccioli have been forced into home isolation in Perth for the next 14 days, with the period to end on February 21, a day after the first two rescheduled Shield games have been completed. Had the final been played in Canberra, where both the Qualifier and the Challenger were played, none of the coaches or players would have needed to do home isolation.David Moody delayed his return to WA in the hope that borders would open, only for Victoria to report multiple Covid-19 cases in the past week•Getty Images

Shaun Marsh and Hilton Cartwright, who played in the BBL with the Melbourne Renegades and the Melbourne Stars respectively, are currently in home quarantine, having started 14 days earlier than those coming back from Sydney. David Moody, who was with the Hobart Hurricanes, is also starting a 14-day quarantine having travelled home from Melbourne. Moody delayed his return to WA in the hope that borders would open, only for Victoria to report multiple Covid-19 cases in the past week. The remainder of WA’s squad that aren’t in New Zealand with Australia’s T20I squad, including Test player Cameron Green, have been in WA during the BBL, although Green and Australia coach Justin Langer had to serve 14-days quarantine after returning home from the Brisbane Test against India last month.The WACA has secured training exemptions for staff and players to attend three training sessions at the WACA ground next week on the proviso there are no further cases in NSW.WA is set to host three Shield matches and three Marsh Cup matches under the new schedule, including fixtures against Victoria in both competitions from March 23 to March 28. WA is also set to travel to Sydney to face NSW in a Marsh Cup fixture on March 14. If the current WA border rules remain in place, both NSW and Victoria would need to have 28 consecutive days from now without a community Covid-19 case for those fixtures to go ahead as planned.CA executive general manager of high-performance Drew Ginn said CA would remain agile and open to shifting fixtures if and when necessary as it was during the BBL.”Today’s announcement safeguards the integrity of the Marsh Sheffield Shield and Marsh One-Day Cup competitions while managing the physical and mental wellbeing of players, officials, and staff on account of the extraordinary demands placed upon them this season,” he said. “Every person across Australian Cricket has worked incredibly hard to deliver this summer of cricket and should be proud of those efforts. At the same time, the lived experience of operating through the pandemic has provided us all with new appreciation and perspective for the increased workloads required to deliver elite, national sporting competitions.”It is out of this duty of care that, with the input and support of the States and Territories Associations and the ACA, we have elected to shorten the Marsh Sheffield Shield and Marsh One-Day Cup, while ensuring both competitions are of a sufficient length to ensure a high-level of competition for teams and players.”As has been the case throughout the summer, we will need to remain agile and responsive given the public health situation across the country. The health and wellbeing of players, officials, and staff remains the top priority.”

Daniel Bell-Drummond cracks Championship best as bat dominates ball

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Warwickshire produce unbroken opening stand in response to Kent’s mammoth 585 for 7 declared

ECB Reporters Network01-Jul-2019Injury-hit Warwickshire mounted a spirited response on day two of their Specsavers County Championship match with Kent played out on featherbed pitch in Canterbury.After seeing the hosts post a mammoth 585 for 7 declared – courtesy of a Championship best 166 from Daniel Bell-Drummond and Sean Dickson’s season’s best 161 – the visitors countered with an unbroken opening stand worth 142 in the 47 overs through to stumps. Will Rhodes hit an attractive 70 and Dom Sibley provided able support with an unbeaten 60 allowing Warwickshire to cut the first-innings deficit to 443 runs at the mid-point of the match.Kent, resuming on their overnight score of 338 for 2, batted on until an hour after lunch in adding 247 in 48.1 overs for a season’s best total. Third-wicket partners Bell-Drummond and Dickson scored at a healthy lick in the opening exchanges to extend their stand to 197.Dickson’s nicely-timed cover drive against Toby Lester for his 17th boundary raised his individual 150, but Dickson’s 390-minute vigil ended with his score on 161 after a mistimed pull to midwicket off the bowling of James Wainman.The wicket gave Warwickshire their only bowling bonus point and very brief respite before Kent cantered past 400 for maximum batting bonus points and Bell-Drummond notched his maiden century of the Championship summer. Bell-Drummond’s cover drive, again off Wainman the left-armer, dissected the cover field for a 13th four and bring up his 181-ball century. It was Bell-Drummond’s first Championship hundred since April 2016 against Leicestershire.In attempting to plunder quick runs, Kent’s acting captain Heino Kuhn gifted Wainman another scalp when, with his score on 17, he clipped a wide short one straight to backward point.Just before lunch, Bell-Drummond reached his 150 from 236 balls with 21 fours and a six and soon went past 153, his previous best in Championship cricket scored against Hampshire in 2014. The right-hander, who turns 26 next month, eventually went for 166 after 300 minutes at the crease after edging an ambitious drive against Wainman to the keeper.”It’s been a while since my last Championship hundred so it’s been a great day for me personally,” Bell-Drummond said “I want to move forward from here, take all the positives and keep going in this format. I’ve been doing really well in white-ball cricket but it’s been a tough few years for me in this format, which annoyed me quite a bit, because I prefer red-ball cricket to the others. It’s never too late to learn things in this game and I’ll hope to keep looking forward and put these past three years behind me.”I’ve still got the hunger, even more so after today, so I’ll be looking to kick on to enjoy and improve in the four-day game.”After Bell-Drummond’s demise, Ollie Robinson kept the board ticking with a sprightly 78 before his top-edged pull gave Lester a wicket caught in the deep, then Jeetan Patel, having sent down 43 overs of offspin, had Darren Stevens caught off a skied slog sweep to spark Kent’s declaration and finish with 1 for 135.Wainman posted creditable figures of 3 for 112 for a makeshift Warwickshire attack that had toiled manfully for the opening nine hours of the game.

Rejuvenated Bell concedes England days are gone

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The last time Ian Bell struck two hundreds in a match his England career was about to begin. This time he recognises his international career lies in the past

Jon Culley15-Jun-2018Not so long ago, probably even at this time last season, had Ian Bell walked off a cricket field after scoring one hundred, let alone two in the same match, there would have been one thought only in his mind:Am I going to get the England phone call I’ve been waiting for?This week he did precisely that, supplementing an unbeaten 106 in the first innings of Warwickshire’s Championship match against Glamorgan with 115 not out in the second, hitting the winning boundary for good measure.This time, though, there was no sense of expectation, of anticipation, even of elusive possibility. Quite the opposite.Struggling for form, Bell has not played a Test match since November 2015 but has never followed the lead of others of his vintage by announcing his retirement from Test cricket, insisting always that adding to his 118 caps remained his goal.Yet this time, even after such a notable achievement – he had managed two hundreds in a match only once before – he admitted that finally he has come to terms with his international career being over.What’s more, he feels so much better for it.”Listen, I’m 36 now,” he said. “I think it has probably gone now. I accept that.”These last couple of years have been tough. I probably didn’t deal with not playing for England as well as I could have done.”With England, towards the end, looking back, I wasn’t enjoying training as much. I was in that burnt-out mindset.”When I was out of the side, sometimes I wanted to play, other times I didn’t want to play. There were a lot of things going on in my mind.”His form for Warwickshire suffered, initially in 2016 but more so last summer as the county were relegated. His contribution was a meagre 596 runs at an average of 25.91. It was the poorest season of his career.Vintage Ian Bell as he unfurls a cover drive against New Zealand•Getty Images

He was dropped from the Birmingham Bears team in the NatWest Blast, which hurt him, and ultimately resigned the captaincy of the four-day side, a job he had accepted with great pride, aware that neither his form nor his leadership were helping the team.”It was hard,” he said. “Not getting the runs was difficult. When you are a captain you want to lead from the front so that was the disappointing thing.”It was disappointing to give up the captaincy but in the end it wasn’t that difficult because I wanted to do what was best for the team and remaining as captain was not helping.”He does not say if he considered quitting the game altogether but he knew he had to do something. He struggled through to the end of the season, his first without a first-class century since 2002, with a view then to taking a long break.”I didn’t pick up a bat until after Christmas, which is something I’d never done before,” he said. “I’d not had a winter where I didn’t do anything since I was 16.”I was not in a particularly good place with my batting and there were things I needed to sort out with that, but I just felt I needed to clear my mind.”It did me the world of good. It gave me the chance to think about things and reset my goals and I came back after Christmas feeling really fresh.”I enjoyed training again, had a really good pre-season and I’ve felt good really since the season began.”I know what I want to do, which is to score runs and win as many games as I can with Warwickshire, and to have as many days like this as I can for the rest of this season and the remainder of my career.”I’m contracted here until the end of 2020 and I haven’t made any retirement plans as yet. We have some good players here and I want to help the development of this team. That’s my focus now.”Two centuries from one player in the same match does not happen frequently, even among the very best batsmen. The only time Bell did it previously – the last time any Warwickshire batsman achieved it, in fact – was at Old Trafford in July 2004, against Lancashire, during a season in which he scored six first-class hundreds and amassed more than 1700 runs.As it happens, three weeks later he was called up for his Test debut against the West Indies at The Oval. This time, he chose the moment to accept that a distinguished England career lay in the past.

Babar, spinners put Karachi on board

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Imad Wasim and Usama Mir kept Islamabad United to 90 in a 13-over game after which Babar Azam made an unbeaten 47 to seal Karachi Kings’ victory

The Report by Danyal Rasool17-Feb-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
4:34

Watch – Highlights of Karachi’s rain-disrupted win

In a nutshellKarachi Kings registered their first win of this year’s PSL, beating the defending champions Islamabad United by eight runs (D/L method). In a game severely disrupted by rain at the Sharjah Cricket Ground, Karachi won the toss and elected to bowl. Both teams must have watched the first game, evidenced by XIs replete with spin bowlers to exploit a slow, turning pitch.Barring a couple of sixes that Dwayne Smith muscled over long-on, Islamabad wasted much of the Powerplay and by the time rain returned after 7.1 overs, they were struggling at 34 for 2. With the game reduced to 13 overs a side, Misbah-ul-Haq’s men had no option but to tee off right from the resumption of play. However, they struggled to do so and aside from a poor penultimate over from Mohammad Amir that went for 18, Karachi’s disciplined bowling performance kept Islamabad to 90 for 7.In response, Chris Gayle mistimed the third ball he faced to third man, his early trudge back becoming a familiar sight in the PSL. With no one else in his side getting to double-figures, Babar Azam played a sensational innings, blitzing an unbeaten 47 off 30 balls. Mohammad Sami and Shadab Khan were spanked for 18 and 14 in their solitary overs as the 22-year old opener ensured Karachi were ahead of the D/L par score. When the final, decisive shower mercifully put the day’s cricket out of its misery, Babar had done enough.Where the match was wonIslamabad will consider themselves unlucky to have lost this game. The weather’s unpredictability meant the toss was always going to be important, and it didn’t go Misbah’s way. Put in to bat, they lost the hero of the last match Sam Billings for a golden duck, as an arm ball from Imad Wasim trapped him plumb in front. Brad Haddin’s departure forced Misbah and Smith to consolidate but their work was ruined by another spell of rain. By the time play resumed, they were well behind where they needed to be and a late flurry was exactly that: too late.The men that won itBabar may get most of the plaudits for his sublime innings, but the win was set up by outstanding bowling contributions from Karachi’s spinners Imad and Usama Mir. Imad piled on the early pressure by sending Billings and Haddin back early, while Mir was brave in the later stages of the innings, tossing the ball up and extracting substantial turn with his legbreaks. Combined figures of 6-0-25-4 were a just reward for their efforts.The moment of the matchWith Gayle dismissed cheaply and Karachi’s chase in need of guidance, Kumar Sangakkara was expected to build on the 65 he made against Lahore Qalandars on Thursday. But Mohammad Irfan had other ideas. Lumbering in, he bowled a superb yorker from a release point that must have been close to 10 feet high. It was also close to unplayable, and it snuck under Sangakkara’s bat and crashed into the base of off stump.Where they standIslamabad slip to fourth after their defeat, falling behind Lahore on net run-rate with both teams level on four points. Karachi are at the bottom of the table, with this being their only win in four games so far.

Zimbabwe at least 15 runs short – Masakadza

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Zimbabwe batsman Hamilton Masakadza has said that his bowlers needed a cushion of around 180 runs, instead of the 163 for 7 they ended up getting after batting first

Mohammad Isam in Khulna15-Jan-2016Zimbabwe batsman Hamilton Masakadza has said that his bowlers needed a cushion of around 180 runs, instead of the 163 for 7 they ended up getting after batting first.The combined efforts of an inexperienced bowling attack, led by the legspinner Graeme Cremer, almost snuck one past Bangladesh, who needed cameos from Shakib Al Hasan and Nurul Hasan to get over the line. Zimbabwe got Bangladesh down to six wickets, with 27 runs still left in the chase. However, two gigantic wides down the leg-side, bowled by Brian Vitori and Luke Jongwe, went for fours, tilting the game heavily in the hosts’ favour.Masakadza felt that the batsmen could have scored a few more runs to make it easier for the bowlers. He said that the injured Tinashe Panyangara was missed, but that Zimbabwe wanted to move on with the young attack for the next three games.”I think in the end you can look at little things like [the wides],” Masakadza said. “But I thought if we were defending 180 it would have made a big difference. So I thought it was more of the batting side than the bowling side.”Obviously he [Tinashe Panyangara] is a big loss to us. He is one of the more experienced seamers that we have. There is a bit more responsibility on Graeme’s shoulders but we have to move on with what we have and look at the younger guys to come through for us.”Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda added 101 runs, only Zimbabwe’s second century opening stand in T20s, and their highest so far. It was still going well till the end of the 16th over before the visitors imploded to give away five wickets for just 21 runs. While the lower order failed to fire, Masakadza, on his part, read the wicket early, going for his shots, encouraging Sibanda to do the same.”I thought we missed out on 15-20 runs in the end. From the position we were looking at, at least 180. I thought it was quite a good wicket, the bounce was true and the ball was coming on nicely.”I think the main thing is to keep making sure that I will do my part and whenever you get someone supporting we will get over the line. As long as we keep sticking together I am sure the result will come.”

Bopara shines as Kent slump continues

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Essex claimed their second Twenty20 victory over Kent in the space of three days, this time by a margin of 62 runs

09-Jul-2013
ScorecardRavi Bopara joint top-scored for Essex before taking the first three Kent wickets to fall•Getty Images

Essex claimed their second Twenty20 victory over Kent in the space of three days, this time by a margin of 62 runs, when the sides met in their Friends Life t20 Group South match at Chelmsford. Replying to a total of 180 for 8, the visitors could only manage 118 all out in 17.3 overs, a failure that condemned them to their fifth successive defeat in this season’s competition.The Essex total was built on fluent rather than explosive batting, with their top six batsmen aside from Graham Napier all putting together useful contributions.Openers Mark Pettini and Hamish Rutherford shared in a partnership of 59 in five overs, the former gathering 33 from only 17 deliveries before giving a return catch to Mitchell Claydon. Napier fell first ball in the same manner while Rutherford became an lbw victim of James Tredwell for 27 made from 14 balls .That paved the way for Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah to gather 78 in just under 10 overs. Both made 39, Shah striking three sixes in his 32-ball effort while Bopara twice cleared the ropes in an innings spanning 30 deliveries. The pair were removed by the nagging accuracy of spinner Tredwell when they each holed out to Alex Blake at deep square leg.Ryan ten Doeschate weighed in with a useful 27 but Essex had looked set for a far bigger total after moving beyond 100 in the 11th over. Tredwell emerged with figures of 3 for 19 from his four overs but Bopara bettered that.He followed up his effort with the bat by taking 3 for 12 in three overs with his brisk medium-pace. He removed Rob Key, Sam Northeast and Sam Billings in the space of 10 balls at a personal cost of five runs and they were blows from which Kent never threatened to recover.Reece Topley saw to that as he went on to destroy the middle order with an impressive performance of left-arm pace that brought him figures of 4 for 26. In a sorry display, the visitors who were 73 for 2 at one stage then stumbled from one problem to another as their innings disintegrated in the face of accurate bowling backed up by superb work in the field.

Warwickshire fail to take full advantage

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Warwickshire failed to take full advantage of their strong position on day one at Edgbaston against Surrey

George Dobell at Edgbaston27-Jul-2012
ScorecardJim Troughton was unbeaten on 74•Getty Images

A glance at the scorecard might suggest that Warwickshire enjoyed a pretty good opening day against Surrey. Up to a point that was true, too: they have claimed three batting bonus points and have the power to add more on day two.But Warwickshire will also know that, from the platform they had established, they failed to take full advantage. They will know that, having won first use of a fine batting track, they might have squandered a chance to bat Surrey out of this game and that, despite all their admirable cricket so far this season, they could have made further progress towards their first championship title since 2004.At one stage here they were well placed on 130 without loss. Then they lost four wickets in the afternoon session before a fifth-wicket stand of 98 put them back on track only for Surrey to capture two more wickets before the close. It left Warwickshire with their noses in front, but it could have been far more.To increase Warwickshire’s frustration, they will know that several of their batsmen played more than a small part in their dismissals. Varun Chopra, who has the class to press for a position in the Test side in due course, compiled a typically elegant 60 before, partly through a lack of foot movement, played on as he reached to drive. For a man who had just been left out of the Lions squad, it was a frustrating dismissal. William Porterfield, who has scored only two championship centuries in his career and none in division one, then helped a legside longhop into the hands of the keeper. Ian Westwood and Darren Maddy both played fell playing across straight deliveries, before Richard Johnson’s admirable innings ended when he drove uppishly and Rikki Clarke was well held at point after thick-edging an attempted drive. Had Jim Troughton been held at short-leg on 23, a sharp chance to Rory Burns off the deserving Stuart Meaker, Warwickshire would have been 197 for five.Perhaps Chris Jordan deserves some credit. The 23-year-old fast bowling all-rounder, out of contract at the Oval and wanted at Hove, made the breakthrough in an expensive post-lunch spell of six overs for 45 runs. He forced Chopra on the back foot with a barrage of short balls and, while many of them were pulled to the boundary with disdainful ease and 14 more runs were donated from no-balls, perhaps his pace was responsible for Chopra’s reluctance to come forward to the full ball that dismissed him.But Meaker was, by some distance, the best of Surrey’s bowlers. Both openers were fortunate to survive leg before appeal in his first spell – he had Westwood on his hands and knees after digging out an inswinging yorker at one stage – and his pace and swing rendered him a tough proposition throughout the day.The Surrey attack was profligate, though. Their contribution of 43 extras – 22 of them no-balls – tells its own story. The bowlers were largely responsible for the large tally of no-balls, too, while Jordan’s surfeit of long-hops cannot have done his hopes of a new contract offer at the Oval much good.Having survived the opening spell, Chopra and Westwood batted well. While Chopra was the more pleasing, leaning into some delightful drives, cutting neatly and pulling with grace, Westwood also chipped the spin of Gareth Batty over mid on for a couple of boundaries and looked increasingly comfortable.He enjoyed one major let-off. On 10, Westwood clipped Murali Kartik’s first delivery straight to Burns at short-leg only to see the fielder, over eager to celebrate the catch, drop the ball in his excitement. The umpires conferred but agreed that Burns had not had the ball under his control.Warwickshire were grateful for the contribution of Troughton and Johnson. The latter, recalled from his loan spell at Derbyshire due to a thigh injury to Tim Ambrose, looked a well organised player in moving to the brink of his maiden championship 50 with a pulled six and six pleasing fours. Troughton, meanwhile, who registered only his second championship century since the start of 2010 in the previous game, appeared notably more solid than he had at the start of the season.There were some notable absentees. Chris Tremlett missed the game – and may not play again this season – after undergoing a scan to ascertain whether he required surgery on his right knee. Having managed just one game since his return from back surgery, such a reverse would represent a crushing blow.Chris Adams was also absent. Surrey’s director of cricket has, somewhat controversially, opted to take a quick holiday. While some will criticise his timing – there are, after all, many months out of season in which to take a holiday – it is worth remembering that Adams, like many of his team, has been through a great deal in recent weeks and that the bulk of his coaching work is done pre-season. Still, the timing seems slightly unusual. Ian Salisbury, who is first team coach, and Alec Stewart deputised.Warwickshire, meanwhile, rested Chris Wright and brought in Boyd Rankin for his first game of the season following a ‘stress reaction’ in his foot.

Nottinghamshire secure home quarter-final

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Nottinghamshire became the first team to qualify for the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals by clinching a 10-run victory over Worcestershire at New Road

05-Jul-2011
ScorecardNottinghamshire became the first team to qualify for the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals by clinching a 10-run victory over Worcestershire at New Road.With a crowd of little more than 1,000 in the ground on a gloomy evening, the hosts had looked on course to cause a surprise after dismissing the north group leaders for 152.This was Nottinghamshire’s lowest total in 10 attempts when batting first in T20 matches this summer, but it proved to be enough as the Royals stumbled after an eye-catching half-century in 35 balls by Moeen Ali.Samit Patel halted the flying start on his day release from England’s one-day squad. The alrounder had Jack Manuel stumped for 21 while conceding only 21 runs in four overs and then ran out Moeen for 51 after the opener had hit 10 boundaries.Manuel, deputising for the injured Vikram Solanki, and Moeen put on 69 by the ninth over, but Worcestershire’s challenge petered out when Alexei Kervezee (21) and Shakib Al Hasan (20) departed in the space of four balls from Andre Adams and Steven Mullaney.Nottinghamshire also lost momentum after a opening stand of 69 in eight overs by Tamim Iqbal (35) and Alex Hales (39). As soon as the first pair had fallen to Moeen’s off-spin – Tamim stumped by Ben Scott and Hales caught at deep midwicket – the innings went into gradual decline against Worcestershire’s trio of slow bowlers.Shakib’s dismissal of Adam Voges, the Australian trapped leg-before for 16, was the first of eight wickets to tumble for the addition of 50 runs in 46 balls. Saeed Ajmal continued to make an impact on the competition, bowling Patel for 11, and the Pakistan off-spinner went on to take three for 28, giving him 15 wickets in six games so far.Worcestershire’s fielding was strewn with errors at first but after Tamim and Hales had survived chances in the same over from Shakib, the home side lifted their levels in the rest of the innings. James Cameron held three well-judged catches in front of the pavilion and also ran out Adams with a smart return from deep extra cover to the bowler’s end.

Mumbai and Chennai in favour of player retention

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While the majority of the franchises want all the players to go into the auction, Cricinfo has learnt that the BCCI, along with the Mumbai and Chennai franchises, would like the teams to retain seven players

Nagraj Gollapudi and Tariq Engineer24-Jun-2010Interim IPL chairman Chirayu Amin might have his hands full over the issue of player retention ahead of next year’s tournament. While the majority of the franchises want all the players to go into the auction, Cricinfo has learnt that the BCCI, along with the Mumbai and Chennai franchises, would like the teams to retain seven players.According to one franchise official with knowledge of Thursday’s meeting between the BCCI and franchise owners, the board announced that seven players – four Indian and three foreign – would be retained by the teams. However, most of the franchises immediately objected to the decision, arguing that in an earlier meeting in Bangkok last year they made it clear they did not want any retention. Therefore the IPL couldn’t unilaterally go against the majority of the franchises. Chennai and Mumbai are in favour of retention because they apparently want to retain their respective icon players – MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar.The BCCI responded to the franchises concerns by saying it would review the situation and get back to them. If the teams were to retain seven players, the two new franchises would be at a big disadvantage as presumably the top 56 players would then be unavailable to them.

Champions League 2008 payments to be discussed

The issue of payment of roughly Rs 22 crores (US$4.75 million) to the Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings following the cancellation of the 2008 Champions League T20 was also raised. The remaining franchises wanted to know why these two teams were paid such a huge sum for not playing. The other six franchises were also promised a share of US $1 million from the inaugural Champions League, but have apparently not received them. The BCCI has said they it will look into the matter.

The board also sought the teams’ opinions on the number of matches to be played because it is concerned about player fitness after India’s disastrous performance in the ICC World Twenty20. In this regard, the franchises were unanimously committed to retaining the present system where each team plays home and away against all the other teams. “The IPL is not cricket,” a franchise official said. “IPL is commerce. If the player is tired or unfit somebody else who is fit and fresher would play. You can’t play around the business model for that.”Another franchise official expressed the hope that the situation would be resolved in the next few days because the board understands these issues affect all the teams. Each franchise had one-on-one meetings with the three-member committee of Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, which will then present the IPL governing council with its recommendations for the league.

Abhimanyu, Harshit Rana, Reddy picked for India's tour of Australia

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Kuldeep Yadav was unavailable because of a groin injury, while Mohammed Shami had not yet regained full fitness

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Oct-202411:45

‘Bold move to pick two youngsters in Reddy and Harshit’

India have named three uncapped players – opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, fast bowler Harshit Rana and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy – in their squad of 18 for the five-Test tour of Australia starting on November 22.Fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who hasn’t regained full fitness since his ankle surgery earlier this year, was not included while wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav was also not available for selection because of a “chronic left groin issue” according to a BCCI release. Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed are part of the travelling reserves.Rohit Sharma leads the squad with Jasprit Bumrah as his vice-captain. But with Rohit set to miss one of the first two Tests for personal reasons, it’s likely that Abhimanyu, 29, will make his Test debut on the tour. He has been part of India’s Test squad previously – in Bangladesh in 2022 – and has been in superb form this domestic season, scoring two hundreds in the Duleep Trophy, another century in the Irani Trophy, and beginning the Ranji Trophy season with a ton for Bengal.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

India have picked three spin allrounders R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, who marked his return to the Test team after more than three years with a ten-wicket haul against New Zealand in Pune. Reddy, 21, is the only seam-bowling allrounder in the squad for Australia. He will have extra time to acclimatise considering he is part of the India A team that will be playing two four-day games in Mackay and Melbourne. Reddy made his T20I debut against Bangladesh earlier this month and was a reserve player in the Test squad for the home series against New Zealand; he is already in Australia. He is seen by India’s selectors as a promising allrounder who could improve with more experience and exposure.Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Rana are the other fast bowlers in the squad apart from Bumrah. Prasidh, who has played two Tests previously, has just started playing again after recovering from a serious back injury, while 22-year-old Rana has played only nine first-class matches. Rana, who represents Delhi, took two four-wicket hauls for India D in the Duleep Trophy in September and has 36 wickets at an average of 24.75 in first-class cricket. With Khaleel in the reserves and no Yash Dayal, India don’t have a left-arm quick in the main squad.India begin their tour with a warm-up match against India A in Perth from November 15 to 17, after which they play the first Test against Australia at he Perth Stadium from November 22 to 26. They then travel to Canberra for a tour match against the Prime Minister’s XI on November 30 and December 1, before heading to Adelaide for the second Test, a day-night fixture from December 6 to 10. The third Test in Brisbane is from December 14 to 18, followed by the traditional Boxing Day Test in Melbourne starting December 26 and the New Year’s Test in Sydney from January 3.India are the holders of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and have won their two previous tours of Australia by a 2-1 margin, in 2018-19 and 2020-21.

India squad for tour of Australia

Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington SundarReserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed