All posts by csb10.top

Javon Searles had Chris Gayle caught with his first ball•Getty Images

Shamsi fined for dissent

Tabraiz Shamsi, the St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots spinner, has been fined 50% of his match fee after admitting to a Level 2 breach of the CPL code of conduct during the final against Trinbago Knight Riders.
Shamsi showed what the match officials described as “serious dissent” when umpire Gregory Brathwaite turned down his lbw appeal against Javon Searles during the 13th over of the Knight Riders innings. Following a prolonged appeal, Shamsi remonstrated angrily with Brathwaite.
“My sincere apologies 2 umpire Brathwaite and the spectators for my excessive appealing. I did apologise 2 him numerous times afterwards,” Shamsi tweeted after the final. “I love playin the game with a passion but this is not the type of behaviour dat should be displayed.”

In a low-scoring thriller, the Trinbago Knight Riders’ tail, spurred on by the home crowd at Brian Lara Stadium, wagged furiously to prevail over St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in a tense chase.Patriots were in charge with their opponents at 90 for 7 and Knight Riders still needed 28 off 13 balls when Kevon Cooper ambushed Sheldon Cottrell and Ben Hilfenhaus in a dramatic seven-ball sequence to clinch victory with an over to spare. It was the Knight Riders’ second CPL title in three years, and the first since they changed their name from Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel.Searles strikes
Patriots, one of the most powerful batting line-ups in the tournament, were kept to a mere 135 thanks in part to an excellent early burst from seamer Javon Searles. He has been one of the unsung heroes for Knight Riders in their run to the final. In multiple matches this year, he has neither batted nor bowled.Given the new ball on Saturday, he struck in his first two overs. He first got the big scalp of Chris Gayle for 1, caught at backward point, and followed it up with the wicket of Mohammad Hafeez, caught at mid-off, for 5. As a result, Patriots slipped to 11 for 2 in four overs.In Lew(is) of runs, Narine gets big wicket
The low scores kept coming early, and often, in a final dominated by bowlers and Sunil Narine was at his remarkable best. The runs off his bat have dried up, but he more than compensated by bowling a masterful spell of 4-1-8-1 on the biggest night of the CPL. The crowning achievement of his 24 balls came when he pinned Evin Lewis lbw for 16. His bowling was so intimidating that he started his last over with a silly point.Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper
Cooper built on the early inroads made by Searles and Narine. As has been the trend through this tournament, a wicket fell in the first over after the drinks break. Cooper took advantage of the batting side’s lapse in concentration, striking first ball to dismiss Brandon King. In his next over, he claimed Devon Thomas to leave Patriots at 65 for 5.Ricky-Nabi shake and bake
If the Patriots had won, their championship DVD might have been called “Tarouba Nights”. Knight Riders struggled to fully cement their early advantage courtesy heroics from Carlos Brathwaite and Mohammad Nabi. Both played crucial knocks late in the innings – and not for the first time this year – to ransack 56 runs off the last four overs of the innings.Brathwaite, whose shirt reads “Ricky”, struck two fours and a six between the 17th and 18th overs to take his side past 100. Nabi arrived at the start of the final over, and what an entrance it was, as he smashed Dwayne Bravo for two sixes and a four in a 21-run over to give Patriots a fighting chance.Sheldon Cottrell sends Dwayne Bravo back with a salute•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / Getty

Military discipline
Sheldon Cottrell took two wickets in three balls and put the hosts under immense pressure. He first claimed Narine with a skied chance for a return catch. When Dwayne Bravo decided to promote himself to No. 3, Cottrell greeted him with an almighty salute, sending him off for a first-ball duck after a full delivery beat the Knight Riders captain for pace.Munro on the money
Brendon McCullum may have left a gaping hole in his absence during the playoffs, but Colin Munro did his best to plug it. Munro moved up to open the batting in the last two games and on this night provided a valuable 29, which wound up as the joint-top score in the chase.Momentum see-sawed back to Knight Riders – after Cottrell’s early wickets – thanks to Munro’s refusal to back down. With the score 29 for 2 after five overs, Munro tucked into Nabi’s offspin, smashing him for two sixes over midwicket and a third straight down the ground – all in the space of five balls as Knight Riders’ title prospects looked much rosier by the end of the Powerplay at 48 for 2. Munro ended the season as the Knight Riders’ top scorer with 366 runs, none more important than what he delivered in the final.How bout that Canadian, eh?
While more heralded colleagues such as the Bravo brothers came and went cheaply – Darren followed Dwayne’s duck by falling for 1 playing back to Mohammad Hafeez – Hamza Tariq provided a crucial 18. Other than Munro’s three sixes off Nabi in the sixth over, the only boundary struck by Knight Riders in the first ten overs came from Tariq. The rest of his knock comprised mainly of back-foot shovels to the leg side. Nothing glamorous, but it did the job.Flying the Coop
Knight Riders lost three more wickets in the first five overs after drinks, culminating in Tabraiz Shamsi’s dismissal of Searles for 2 to make it 90 for 7. Depending on your video-game cartoon of choice, Shamsi looked like he celebrated by doing a sub-zero freeze from Mortal Kombat and Patriots appeared to have thrown ice on the Knight Riders chase.But Cooper provided the initial thaw, before his hot bat totally melted the Patriots bowling away. It began in earnest when he smashed Cottrell for six over extra cover to end the 18th, bringing the equation down to 22 off 12. After a single from Ramdin put him back on strike, Hilfenhaus bowled two wides outside off. Nabi turned a potential four into two with a diving stop at midwicket off the next ball, but there was no saving the following delivery: a full toss smashed over cover that was signaled as a no-ball to boot.A slash over backward point off the free hit brought another four and Cooper made it three boundaries in a row when he smoked Hilfenhaus again over the leg side. Two singles later, Knight Riders sealed a hard-fought victory.

Ravindra Jadeja has overtaken Shakib Al Hasan to become the No. 1 Test allrounder, to go with his No. 1 ranking in the Test bowling charts. Jadeja, who has been suspended for the third Test against Sri Lanka in Pallekele, is the leading wicket-taker in the series with 13 wickets at an average of 28.76. He has also contributed 85 runs, with a highest score of 70*, which came in the SSC Test.Two centuries in the first two Tests against Sri Lanka also helped Cheteshwar Pujara move to No. 3 in the Test batting rankings, climbing up one place, while Ajinkya Rahane broke into the top 10, moving up five spots to No. 6. Rahane has scored 212 runs in two Tests so far, with one fifty and one century.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

A fine all-round display from Moeen Ali in England’s 3-1 series win over South Africa helped him retain his No. 4 spot in the allrounder rankings, while moving up three positions to a career-best 21st slot in the batting rankings. Moeen struck 252 runs and finished the series as the highest wicket-taker with 25 wickets at an average of 15.64, becoming the first player to score 250 runs and take 25 wickets in a four-Test series. His wicket tally in the series included a ten-wicket haul in the first Test at Lord’s.James Anderson’s 20 wickets against South Africa pushed him up to No. 2 in the Test bowling rankings, displacing R Ashwin, while Jonny Bairstow moved to No. 7 in the batting charts, after finishing as the second-highest run-getter in the Tests against South Africa.

Zimbabwe 144 for 4 (Ervine 44) beat Netherlands 142 (van Beek 64*, Chatara 5-34, Mpofu 3-30) by six wickets
ScorecardFile photo – Tendai Chatara removed five of the top six Netherlands batsmen•AFP

Zimbabwe eased to a six-wicket win in Amstelveen after their pacers, led by Tendai Chatara who took his third List A five-wicket haul, skittled Netherlands out for 142 in under 38 overs. That total looked rather unlikely when Chatara and Chris Mpofu – who finished with three wickets – had Netherlands reeling at 40 for 8, but an unbeaten 64 from Logan van Beek saved the hosts some blushes. Still, Zimbabwe got to their target with 19.4 overs to spare as Craig Ervine top-scored with 44.Netherlands openers Wesley Barresi and Stephan Myburgh were the first to go, falling in Chatara’s second and third overs respectively. The score was 22 for 2 then but four overs and six runs later, Chatara struck again, this time twice in two balls to send back both Michael Rippon and Roelof van der for ducks. When Mpofu took out Ben Cooper for 6, Netherlands had lost five batsmen inside 10 overs, and had to wait till the ninth-wicket pair for some semblance of a partnership. Van Beek combined with No. 10 Timm van der Gugten (34) to put on 86 runs to delay the inevitable and remained unbeaten on 64 off 83 balls with six fours and one six.

ScorecardLast August Yorkshire took the immensely far-sighted step of opening a dedicated multi-faith room at Headingley. Let us hope on the second evening of this match that it will be made available to devout believers in Lancashire.If so, the visiting communicants will not be short of supplications and chief amongst them will be that their side can find someone to copy the self-denial of Adam Lyth and lead their side away from the despond of defeat on the third day of this game.The bookmakers’ odds – if we may shift our gaze from God to mammon for a moment – are weighed heavily against such an escape. After conceding a first-innings lead of 150 runs, Lancashire have already lost four wickets in reducing the deficit to nine.Two of the wickets were taken by Jack Brooks but the crucial scalp of Haseeb Hameed was claimed for the second time in little more than 24 hours by Ben Coad, when the opener played across a ball slanting in at the stumps. And Steven Croft departed to a Lyth slip catch when Ryan Sidebottom moved one across him.Visiting hopes probably rest on Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who will go into Sunday morning on 43 not out, and on Dane Vilas, who has already made good runs for the county in his first season. But the shrieks and yells from the Yorkshire fielders that followed each delivery in the evening session were not merely an attempt to kid the batsman that something was happening. A 150-run lead should prove decisive on this pitch and it may not matter that the weather forecast for Monday is very gloomyThat Yorkshire possessed such a handsome first-innings advantage can largely be explained by Lyth’s remarkable feat of concentration and self-discipline. The opener came into this match with 90 runs against his name in Championship cricket this season at a grimy average of 12.85.To a degree, Lyth’s struggles continued in this innings yet he fought his way through them with seven partners, reaching a half-century in 155 minutes off 125 balls and his 22nd first-class hundred in 314 minutes, having hit 13 boundaries.To judge the merit of the innings one has to realise that Lyth is frequently one of the finest attacking strokeplayers in the game. The ball sings off his blade and he can make even his England team-mates in the Yorkshire side appear pedestrian accumulators. Yet here he was, scuttling the nudged singles and tolerating the less than perfect drives for twos.Adam Lyth’s season came to life with a century that might win a Roses match•Getty Images

Lyth was in the 90s for 17 overs and faced 41 balls before pushing Tom Bailey to midwicket to reach three figures. The deep-throated roar from the ranks massed at the Kirkstall Lane End at once saluted its worth. Lyth is Yorkshire in thew and sinew; perhaps he recalled the winter drives from his Whitby home to the Headingley nets when he was moving through the county’s junior ranks. Maybe any sacrifice seems worth it when you may have set up a win in the Roses match.Mind you, Lancashire’s bowlers did all they could to hobble their opponents’ progress during the first two sessions of Saturday’s cricket. Indeed, they may regard the capture of eight wickets for 180 runs in conditions nothing like as testing as Friday’s to be something of a victory.Predictably, perhaps, Ryan McLaren made the first breakthrough when he came round the wicket and squared up Gary Ballance, Vilas at slip taking the first of his three catches from the resultant edge.That wicket took the sheen off what had been a good first half-hour for Yorkshire, the comical highlight of which had been the four byes resulting from a ball bowled by McLaren which swung past the far side of Vilas with the wicketkeeper Davies sprawling in front of him There are few things a Yorkshireman enjoys more than the sight of Lancashire’s cricketers doing a passable imitation of Fred Karno’s Army; so the glee in the Kirkstall Lane Stand when this tiny piece of chaos unfolded needs little imagining.Yet the morning and afternoon’s cricket revealed a team who were determined to keep Yorkshire’s lead in check. Never was this more clearly in evidence than in the close fielding. Eight catches were taken in the cordon during Yorkshire’s innings with the pick of them being McLaren’s right-handed effort to remove Jack Leaning ten minutes before lunch. That wicket was taken by Saqib Mahmood who also removed Tim Bresnan next ball and enjoyed his best day in a Lancashire shirt.Like Mahmood, Jordan Clark took three wickets and they included that of Lyth who played by far the poorest shot of his innings to the ball after he reached his century, a wild drive nicking the ball to Davies; the wicketkeeper also did the needful to get rid of Coad two balls later. Yorkshire’s innings ended when Brooks swung Bailey to Hameed at deep backward square leg and Lancashire’s second attempt began under bright skies.The day’s cricket concluded, though, with the lights on and with the slips’ falsetto cries forming a curious and slightly histrionic accompaniment to every play and miss and every unevenly bouncing ball.Yet the truth is that if Lancashire get out of this game with even five points for a draw it will seem like a win to them and it will feel like a defeat to Yorkshire. For that to happen, though, Chanderpaul, Vilas and probably a couple of others will need to take root. The effect on the visiting players’ morale would be very great and it may also steer supporters away from apostasy in these dark times.

Former South Africa fast bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe has been charged by CSA for several breaches of its Anti-Corruption Code relating to the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series. He has also been provisionally suspended from any involvement in cricket under the jurisdiction of CSA, the ICC or any other ICC members.The charges include contriving to fix during the T20 tournament and follows the previous bans handed to six players, including former Test wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile and batsman Alviro Petersen.

Significant charges against Tsotsobe

• Contriving to fix or otherwise improperly influence, or being party to a scheme in which attempts would be made to fix or otherwise improperly influence, a match or matches in the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series

• Seeking to accept, accepting or agreeing to accept a bribe or reward to fix or contrive to fix or influence improperly a match or matches in the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series

• Failing to disclose the receipt of a gift or payment that he knew or ought to have known was given to him to procure a breach of the Code or that was made in circumstances that could bring him or the sport of cricket into disrepute

• Failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations to engage in Corrupt Conduct under the Code

“The charges against Tsotsobe follows a lengthy investigation which started around October 2015 by CSA’s Anti-Corruption Unit, and the previous findings and bans imposed on Gulam Bodi, Jean Symes, Pumi Matshikwe, Ethy Mbhalati, Thami Tsolekile and Alviro Petersen for offences under the Code relating to the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series,” CSA said in a release.”To date Tsotsobe has not been under any form of suspension. Under Article 4.7 of the Code, CSA has now provisionally suspended Tsotsobe from playing, coaching or otherwise being involved in any capacity in any match under its jurisdiction or that of the ICC or any other ICC member.”Tsotsobe, 33, played five Tests, 61 ODIs and 23 T20Is for South Africa in a career that began in January 2009. His last appearances for the national team came 2014. He played 61 first-class matches, 144 List A games and 77 T20s over a 11-year career; the last of those domestic games were in December 2015.

Australia’s cricketers are considering the formal payment MOU offer announced by Cricket Australia (CA) on Tuesday, as the board pushes on with its attempt to break up the fixed percentage of revenue share agreement that has existed since 1998.While CA have agreed with the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) to include women in a single MOU for the first time, the remainder of the offer stays broadly in line with the initial pay submission presented to the players late last year. Talks have so far been the most fractious since the ACA was formed 20 years ago. The offer was formally submitted to the ACA this afternoon.

The proposed changes

• Total pay increases to A$419 million for 2017-22, from the current A$311 million

• Average women’s pay increases by more than 125%, to A$179,000 a year from A$79,000 for international cricketers; it is A$52,000 from A$22,000 for domestic cricketers

• Average international men’s central contract to rise to A$816,000 by 2021-22, with match fees up to an average of A$1.45 million from A$1.16 million in 2016-17

• Average domestic men’s payments to rise to A$235,000 by 2021-22, up from A$199,000 in 2016-17

• Minimum and average hourly pay will be the same for men and women domestic cricketers

• Identical match fees for Women’s National Cricket League and Matador Cup

James Sutherland, the CA chief executive, heralded measures such as equal hourly rates of pay for male and female domestic players, an increase for women of 125% next to their current deals. He also outlined the overall increase in player remuneration from A$311 million over the current MOU period (2012-17) to A$419 million over the next MOU (2017-2022).”We are pleased that the Australian Cricketers Association agrees with us that women, for the first time, should be part of the MOU, and we have proposed a financial model that has gender equity at its heart,” Sutherland said.”Under the proposal, women will receive an immediate average pay increase of more than 125%. As a result, our international women cricketers will see their average pay increase from A$79,000 to A$179,000, as of July 1 this year. By 2021, we expect to see our international women cricketers earning an average of A$210,000.”And our state female cricketers, playing both WNCL [Women’s National Cricket League] and WBBL [Women’s Big Bash League], will see their average remuneration more than double from A$22,000 to A$52,000 this year. Under this offer, we will achieve gender equity by ensuring that the minimum and average hourly pay will be the same for state men and women in 2017/18. In addition, match fees for the WNCL and the Matador Cup will be exactly the same: a one-day game for a state cricketer is worth the same to both men and women.”We are also introducing, for the first time, prize money for the WNCL of A$258,000 and the WBBL of A$309,000 this coming summer.”The Australia’s women cricketers’ fees – those who play international cricket – have increased by 125% to A$ 179,000•Getty Images

One of the most hotly-contested aspects of the initial CA submission was that only the top male players deserved a fixed share of the game’s revenue because they helped provide most of windfall from international matches. Sutherland indicated that CA wanted to offer guaranteed minimums to the players while keeping any blue sky amounts over and above projections for funding other aspects of the game.CA’s figures come with the asterisk that the next round of television rights deals, both for Australian and overseas markets, are resolved over the next 15 months. Sutherland indicated that even if the revenue raised by these deals turned out to be comfortably above current projections, only international players would be entitled to a share in the upside.”We have placed the emphasis on increasing the guaranteed amount that the men will receive, rather than rely on any projected increase in revenue,” Sutherland said. “We understand that the ACA prefers the status quo, but CA believes that the model devised in the 1990s, which is based on a fixed percentage of revenue, has served its intended purpose – to make Australia’s cricketers some of the best paid sportspeople in the country.”It was a means to an end, not something that has to hold us back from providing players with financial certainty, a fair deal for all players including women, and the flexibility to invest in the grassroots of the game.”This is a landmark agreement. We are now looking forward to sitting down with the ACA to work through the details and we are confident we will be able to announce a completed agreement before June 30.”Another pillar of past MOU agreements was CA’s provision of an annual grant to fund the ACA, something the board openly questioned in their initial submission. Sutherland declined to indicate whether this was being maintained in the new offer.”That’s something that is in the detail of the proposal, I don’t want to go into that right now,” he said. “It’s something we can talk about later on. In the first instance we see that as a matter for the members and the ACA to consider and we can talk through that detail in the future.”Both Sutherland and the ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson have spent time with the Test team in India in recent days. The players have so far been united in their rejection of any attempts to break up the revenue sharing model, and have also rebuffed CA’s efforts to negotiate directly with the players rather than the ACA.The national captains Steven Smith and Meg Lanning co-signed a letter to Sutherland to this effect in December after talks broke down. While they have resumed in the new year, the two parties remain a long way apart. Nicholson said that the ACA was positive about some elements of the pay offer, but also stated that much of its detail still needed to be digested before the players respond.”There is a lot of fine print to examine and a lot more forecast information still needed by the players,” he said. “Like all such proposals the devil is always in the details. For the moment, what can be said is that this proposal shows a number of promising signs that indicate that CA has been taking the ACA’s lead on various key points from our MOU submission.”However, with a lack of detail in the terms and conditions that underpin this proposal, the ACA will continue to seek clarification from CA and advise the players on this accordingly. The ACA will respond more fully in the coming weeks.”Australia’s looming series decider with India in Dharamsala should ensure that there will be little further jousting until the Test match concludes.

India fast bowler Ishant Sharma, who went unsold at the auction in February, has been picked by Kings XI Punjab as a late purchase one day before the start of the tournament. Virender Sehwag, Kings XI’s head of cricket operations, confirmed Ishant was a replacement for batsman M Vijay, who will miss the IPL because of wrist and shoulder injuries that he played with for a better part of India’s long home season.*Kings XI play their first match on April 8, against Rising Pune Supergiant, the franchise Ishant represented last season.”I share a strong bond with Ishant Sharma as he played under my captaincy in the Ranji Trophy and later in the India team. His addition will most definitely strengthen our squad,” Sehwag stated in a release.Kings XI’s pace attack already comprises Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Varun Aaron, Anureet Singh, Matt Henry and T Natarajan, who was bought for INR 3 crore at the auction.Ishant played four IPL matches last year, taking three wickets at an average of 49.33 and an unimpressive economy rate of 9.86. He struck with his first ball last IPL – trapping Rohit Sharma lbw – but could not maintain the form later on, leaking runs in every match he played. Overall, Ishant has previously represented four franchises so far – Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Supergiant. In terms of wickets, his best season was 2013 in which he played 16 matches for Sunrisers and collected 15 wickets with an economy rate of 7.81.*7.50GMT, April 5: M Vijay’s injury update has been added.

A glance at the scorecard will tell you Umesh Yadav’s first spell on day three of the Hyderabad Test fetched the wicket of Monimul Haque. What it won’t tell you is the pressure he maintained during the course of a nine-over spell which Shakib Al Hasan, who made 82, termed “the best spell” he has faced in his career.Shakib said Umesh’s late movement both ways on an unresponsive deck made it hard to lay bat on ball. Although he scored 30 off the 34 balls he faced from Umesh – five boundaries included – just how he made Shakib grope and feel for the ball that he yo-yoed away at pace and got it to reverse, added to the intrigue. He also mixed up his deliveries with cutters. There were bouncers too, mostly accurate.There were moments when it seemed Umesh would run through the batting line-up, but had to settle for just the one wicket. The pressure he built up, however, resulted in a wicket at the other end when Mahmudullah was prised out by Ishant Sharma.”Obviously he was bowling really well,” Shakib said. “It was probably the best spell I have faced in my career. The way he was moving the ball both ways, it was tremendous. All credit goes to him. I was thinking I need to be positive at that time. If there is a ball to hit, I will obviously hit it and the rest I will play with soft hands, and make sure that I don’t nick it.”There was nothing much on the pitch. Because we play at Kolkata Knight Riders, I know him very well. Probably this was the best spell I have faced in my Test career. The way he was moving the ball both ways, some balls were unplayable. I am lucky that I survived his spell.”Umesh actually found reverse swing from the 14th over, which was the last over of the second day. His ability to swing it both ways with the conventional method gives him the advantage of getting maximum out of a ball that reverses.”Ishant bowls slightly back of a length. Umesh’s length allows him to swing the ball with the new ball and also with the old ball,” India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar said. “He’s worked a lot on his wrist positions and balance at the crease Ever since the Delhi Test match against South Africa, you’ve seen him giving the breakthroughs that the team requires.”Our seamers Umesh, Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar), (Mohammed) Shami and Ishant have chipped in with the crucial wickets right at the top or in the middle part of the innings where the spinners were not able to get the breakthrough. So I think the reason for that many Test victories is not only the contribution of the spinners but the small contributions the fast bowlers have made. That’s why someone like Umesh stands out because I believe that he’s the most improved bowler in the last season and a half.”

The Supreme Court, in a significant reprieve to BCCI and state office-bearers, has allowed them to serve separate nine-year terms at central and state level, permitting a total of 18 years in cricket administration. The clarification on Friday contradicted the Lodha Committee’s interpretation of the court’s order on January 2, when the committee said an office-bearer would be ineligible to continue if he had served nine years in total, whether at BCCI or state level or combined.The confusion over tenure arose after the court modified its January 2 order, which had originally said: “A person shall be disqualified from being an Office-Bearer if he or she has been an Office-Bearer of the BCCI for a cumulative period of 9 years.” On January 3, the court modified that to: “Has been an Office-Bearer of the BCCI or a State Association for a cumulative period of 9 years.”The original Lodha Committee recommendation regarding eligibility, which was passed by the Supreme Court on July 18 last year, had made it possible for an individual to serve nine years each at both BCCI and state level. A BCCI office-bearer’s cooling-off period could have been a three-year term at their state association, after which they could once again contest an election for a BCCI position. And if they won the BCCI post, the ensuing three-year term would serve as their cooling-off period from holding office at state level. An individual could therefore have spent 18 years in Indian cricket administration between the BCCI and his state association.Such a scenario was possible once again after the Supreme Court clarified the uncertainty that arose following the order on January 2 and 3, and reverted the terms of tenure to the original recommendation of the Lodha Committee.The purge of the existing BCCI and state leadership may not be as severe as previously thought•PTI

The Supreme Court also put off finalising the committee of administrators (COA) to supervise the BCCI to January 24. The court had asked amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium and senior legal counsel Anil Divan to nominate people for the COA, which they did by submitting nine names in a sealed envelope on Friday. The court asked the parties not to disclose the names, and pointed out a nine-member panel was “too big”.Upon studying the names, the court asked Subramanium if any of the candidates were over the age of 70, because the Lodha Committee had recommended that BCCI and state office-bearers should be under 70. Subramanium said a few names were over 70 and that the reasons for their inclusion were also listed.On January 2, the court had dismantled the existing power structure of the BCCI by removing the board’s president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke for impeding the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. The court said the board would be supervised by a committee of administrators until new office-bearers were elected once the BCCI implemented the recommendations. The court had directed the COA to supervise the administration of the BCCI through its chief executive Rahul Johri.The COA’s other key function was to ensure that the Lodha Committee’s recommendations passed by the court order on July 18, 2016, were implemented by the BCCI and state associations.Last week RM Lodha, the former chief justice of India and chairman of the Lodha Committee, said the COA would issue a fresh set of guidelines for the BCCI and state associations to adopt the new constitution in accordance with the recommendations. “There has to be [fresh timelines], but that will be done by the administrators. We said we don’t have that much of time, and that there has to be layers of administrators,” Lodha said. “The changes will happen. We will be there to supervise and guide the administrators.”The Lodha Committee was formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for some of the officials involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and also to propose changes to streamline the BCCI, reform its functioning, prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest.In January 2016, the committee released its report, which recommended an exhaustive overhaul of the BCCI’s governance and administrative structures. On July 18, the Supreme Court of India approved the majority of the recommendations and directed the Lodha Committee to supervise the BCCI’s implementations of the same. However, despite the Lodha Committee laying out timelines and other directives, the board did not cooperate because it said that its state associations objected to the recommendations. This impasse eventually led to the Supreme Court removing Thakur and Shirke from office on January 2, 2017.

Edgbaston, Dubai, Sharjah, Christchurch, Hamilton, and now Melbourne: Pakistan’s rise to the No. 1 Test spot and subsequent fall has been punctuated by a series of spectacular batting collapses.On the final day at the MCG, on a still-pristine pitch on which Australia had added 159 runs in the morning in under 30 overs, Pakistan lost their last eight wickets for 100 runs. That sealed their 11th successive Test defeat in Australia and, with it, a chance to go to Sydney with the series still alive.Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, had his own future on his mind, but he struggled to explain how his side ended up losing a Test which they had begun by declaring on 443 by an innings and 18 runs.Pakistan had to bat out a minimum of 67 overs when they began their second innings in a Test in which three days were almost half lost to rain.”There is no explanation,” he said. “Once you are under pressure, from a position when you score [443] in the first innings and are dominating the game, then on the last day you are saving the Test, that pressure sometimes does things like that. And it was sheer pressure. Full credit to Australia, the way they batted and put us under pressure.”Though he acknowledged his side’s batting in pressure situations “is not what it should be”, he did also point towards the limitations of a bowling attack that twice wilted under pressure from Australia’s batsmen.The first time was on the third day when, after a tight opening spell, David Warner and Usman Khawaja rattled along at such speed that they punctured whatever momentum Pakistan had built from Brisbane and their first innings here.Then, on a final day which began with Australia 22 ahead and six wickets down, Pakistan allowed the lead to balloon to 181 half an hour before lunch.”Those two sessions took the game away from us almost,” he said. “From a winning position, you are on the back foot. We just gave the momentum back to Australia. They were a bit lucky they played well, took their chances, and after that we were in no position to attack.”Even today, in the morning session, we could’ve taken a couple of wickets. [Mitchell] Starc played well and that was a big blow for us. If we had taken one more wicket, wrapped the tail up, maybe 50-60 runs deficit, it could have been easy for us to handle the situation.”The taking of wickets has been a particular problem. When Steven Smith declared today, it was the sixth time in the last five Tests Pakistan have played in Australia that the hosts have had the luxury of declaring.Yasir Shah conceded over 200 runs in an innings for the second time this year, continuing a tour in which he has bowled mostly to fields set for run-saving, rather than wicket-taking.”I think as a bowling unit, we couldn’t put pressure,” Misbah said. “When the opposition is playing well and you’re not bowling well, then it is difficult to implement any sort of plan, any sort of strategy. That has been happening to us.”Yasir is a bit low on confidence at the moment. That sometimes doesn’t give you control as a captain. When you have no control, you struggle with your strategies. And it looks to those sitting outside, watching, what’s going on? That’s where I think everything went wrong for us in this Test.”