Month: April 2020

Mooney urges players to stand by CA in ‘unprecedented times’ (0:51) Wicketkeeper-batter Beth Mooney explains why players should support Cricket Australia through the good and bad. (0:51) 12:17 PM IST Australian cricket’s state associations and players’ union will be presented with Cricket Australia’s opened financial books and forecasts on Thursday, the same day centrally contracted players for Australia’s men’s and women’s team are to be announced. While April 30 had…

Apr 27, 2020 ESPNcricinfo staff Ian Smith, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper and veteran broadcaster, has been honoured by New Zealand Cricket for his “outstanding services to cricket”. He was awarded the Bert Sutcliffe Medal on the first day of NZC’s virtual awards ceremony for 2019-20. Other cricketers to have received this award include Walter Hadlee, Merv Wallace, John Reid, Graham Dowling, Richard Hadlee and Ewen Chatfield. Smith, arguably the…

12:13 AM IST Given that the charge against Umar Akmal dealt with a failure to report corrupt approaches, it was expected that his decision to not challenge it would lead to a relatively light sanction. Akmal, however, was banned for three years for this breach of PCB’s anti-corruption code. This is unprecedented. In similar cases in the past, Mohammad Irfan sat out for six months, while in 2017, Mohammad Nawaz…

11:33 AM GMT Umar Akmal‘s troubled cricket career has hit its biggest roadblock yet, with the PCB handing him a ban from all representative cricket for three years after he pleaded guilty of failing to report details of corrupt approaches made to him ahead of this year’s PSL. More to follow… Source: ESPN Crickinfo

11:20 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Yorkshire have announced that their three overseas signings for the 2020 season – R Ashwin, Keshav Maharaj and Nicholas Pooran – have had their contract terminated by mutual consent. Ashwin, who has previously played county cricket for Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire, had been due to play the majority of the County Championship season, while Pooran was set to re-join the club for the T20 Blast having…

Shine on: Could ball-tampering under umpire supervision become a routine part of the game?  9:19 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff In order to avoid the dangers of rubbing saliva on the ball in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, cricket is deliberating the use of an agreed artificial substance like wax or shoe polish under the supervision of the umpire to facilitate swing bowling. Effectively it is ball tampering under the current…

5:44 AM GMT There remain more questions than answers about how the next Australia cricket season will look due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but Australia batter Beth Mooney believes the Women’s Big Bash could be a success as a domestic players only event if international travel remained restricted. The WBBL would be one of the early marquee competitions if the Australian summer followed the same structure to…

CA could face issue of ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’ (0:50) Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts discusses the current financial situation as staff are stood down (0:50) 2:59 AM GMT Malcolm Speed, the former Cricket Australia chief executive, believes the incumbent Kevin Roberts has “stumbled” in trying to explain how the game’s finances have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and also stressed that any chief executive must work to…

‘I’m my first critic; my best days are still lying ahead’ – Ashwin (1:43) Ashwin speaks to Sanjay Manjrekar about bowling in foreign conditions (1:43) Apr 25, 2020 ESPNcricinfo staff R Ashwin has said that he is “fighting my own benchmarks” because his Test performances overseas are being measured against his heroics in India. Despite being the country’s best long-form spinner in this decade, there has been only one instance…

11:42 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff With the ECB having confirmed the English season will now not begin until July 1 at the earliest, cricket’s options for the summer are beginning to narrow. Here we go through some of the key issues for the game, following a briefing by the ECB’s chief executive, Tom Harrison. Fate of the HundredA decision on this has been deferred, with further discussion planned by the…