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The ICC and BCB have jointly appealed against the reduction of Mohammad Ashraful’s suspension, and the ruling on five others who were accused in the Bangladesh Premier League corruption case

Mohammad Isam21-Oct-2014The ICC and BCB have jointly appealed against the reduction of Mohammad Ashraful’s suspension, and the ruling on five others who were accused in the Bangladesh Premier League corruption case. The two boards have lodged the appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).”The ICC and BCB jointly appealed against the suspension reduction of Mohammad Ashraful to the Court of Arbitration for Sports,” BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury confirmed. “The last date to appeal against the decision was on Monday [October 20].”He said the appeal was against Ashraful and two other Dhaka Gladiator players, Mosharraf Hossain and Mahbubul Alam, who were found not guilty, as well as the franchise’s chairman Salim Chowdhury and co-owner Shihab Chowdhury. While Shihab Chowdhury had been banned for ten years in the initial judgement, Salim Chowdhury was found guilty and handed a ten-year ban when the case and rulings were reviewed by the BCB’s disciplinary panel chief, Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid. Rashid had also reduced Ashraful’s eight-year ban to five years.Nizamuddin Chowdhury did not name the sixth person involved in the appeal.The ICC and BCB had expressed displeasure at some of the rulings when they were announced earlier this year. The two boards have been coordinating on the matter from the start – it began to be investigated only after the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit had brought to the BCB’s attention the instances of possible corruption in the BPL.

Dinesh Karthik has returned to the national squad almost three years after he last played for India

Amol Karhadkar04-May-2013Ever since he burst on to the domestic scene as a teenager more than adecade ago, Dinesh Karthik has been considered as a prodigious talent with the bat. Add to it his skills as a wicketkeeper and exceptional fielder and he becomes an all-round package.But without consistent performances, talent doesn’t get you too far. As a result, it wasn’t a surprise when Karthik was dropped from the Indian team after an ordinary outing during the tri-series in Dambulla where he scored 33 runs in five innings against New Zealand and Sri Lanka.Similarly, after a season in which Karthik was at his consistent best, nobody was surprised when Karthik returned to India’s squad for the Champions Trophy, to be played in England from June 6. Even the man himself wasn’t surprised.”I am happy about it [selection]. I’ve been batting well and it feels good when your efforts are rewarded,” Karthik said. He has been in exceptional touch while batting at No. 3 for Mumbai Indians during the IPL – 331 runs in 10 matches at a strike-rate of almost 140 – and it has come at the back of a run-heavy domestic season.In the season-opening Corporate Trophy, he emerged as the highest run-getter with 301 runs from three innings for India Cements. Then in the Ranji Trophy, even though it was a disappointing season for Tamil Nadu, Karthik was by far their top scorer with 577 runs at 64.11.Then came the domestic one-dayers. And even though Tamil Nadu failed to progress to the all-India knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Karthik scored at least a fifty in each of his five innings. As a result, despite playing only five games, he finished as the second-highest run-scorer of the tournament.”All along [these three years], I have been working hard in domestic cricket,” he said. “I have been trying to be as consistent as possible. And it feels good enough to score virtually every time I bat these days.”The confidence drawn from such consistency means Karthik wasn’t weighed down at the prospect of replacing an ODI stalwart like Yuvraj Singh. Though Karthik hasn’t yet been spoken to either by the selectors or team management about his specific role in the team, the squad composition hints that he may well be required to bat in the middle order. And he is up for thechallenge. “That is what I have done even earlier, so I am ready to play any role that the team management expects of me – whether a specialist batsman or a keeper-batsman.”Over the last two years, Karthik has been working with his personal coach Prasanna Agoram, the South African national team’s performance analyst. And the efforts have culminated in Karthik being recalled to the national squad, incidentally for a tour to the same country where Karthik made his international debut more than eight years ago.”We had to make minor corrections to my batting techniques,” Karthik said. “That has helped me immensely in order to be good enough to score every time I go out to bat. I would like to thank Prasanna and all my family members who have stood behind me during difficult times.”

An unreal Kieron Pollard blitz transformed a daunting run rate into a cakewalk for Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando13-May-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKieron Pollard – 66* off 27 balls, 8 sixes•BCCIAn unreal Kieron Pollard blitz transformed a daunting run chase into a cakewalk for Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede, as he tore the match from Sunrisers Hyderabad’s grip in a seven-ball stretch that yielded 36. At the end of the assault, Mumbai dethroned Chennai Super Kings and rose to No.1.Sixes rained down on a delirious Mumbai crowd, whom for much of the run chase may have anticipated the hosts’ first loss at home this season. But with 62 needed from the last four overs, 29 was plundered in the 17th from Thisara Perera, in which he bowled three balls in Pollard’s slot and was duly smashed over the straight boundary three times, after Rohit Sharma had already hit a six earlier in the over.Pollard had had no answer to an intense Dale Steyn, who conceded only four runs in the 16th over, making a turnaround seem all the more unlikely. But Sunrisers’ supporting cast could not muster death-over competence, and the 21-runs off Amit Mishra’s 18th over effectively sealed the match for Mumbai. Having been 9 runs off 10 balls at the end of Steyn’s over, Pollard finished with 66 from 27, ending the match with two massive leg-side sixes off Perera, whose confidence was clearly shattered by then. Pollard bludgeoned eight sixes in all, and one four, and despite Steyn’s final over going for only five, Mumbai reaped 67 from the last 21 balls of the match.The late heroics had followed 16 overs of somewhat meandering batting from Mumbai, who attacked in bursts, but seemed largely content to allow the asking rate to mount – perhaps anticipating a late rally, though even they could not have imagined that Pollard would be so punishing nor Sunrisers so generous. Having been relatively cautious towards the start of his innings, Sachin Tendulkar had looked set to accelerate through the middle overs, but he hurt his bottom hand after striking Karan Sharma over long-on for six, and was forced to retire hurt for 38 off 31 balls. Dinesh Karthik chipped in a 30 off 23 balls, and helped keep wickets in hand, which paid rich dividends in the final countdown for the hosts.Sunrisers’ 178 for 3 had been set up by Shikhar Dhawan, who hit 59 from 41 at the start of the innings, and finished by Cameron White, who blasted 43 from 23. Dhawan prospered square of the off stump, as the Mumbai bowlers continued to indulge him outside the off stump throughout the innings. He found success elsewhere as well, slamming Pragyan Ojha over cow corner in his first over, before reverse-sweeping him powerfully to the fence in his next. He reached his fifty with a open-faced drive through the covers off Lasith Malinga, but was dismissed not long after, yielding the floor to White. However, Sunrisers scored only 33 off their last four overs, while Mumbai doubled that during their surge to victory.Sunrisers must now win both their remaining games to stand a decent chance of making the playoffs.

Pakistan will play two Tests in West Indies in July, while the limited-overs leg of the tour has been deferred to a later date in the Future Tours Programmes cycle for which the dates have not been decided yet

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2013Pakistan will play two Tests in West Indies in July, while the limited-overs leg of the tour has been deferred to a later date in the Future Tours Programmes cycle for which the dates have not been decided yet. The decision was taken by the WICB in a meeting held recently. Pakistan were originally scheduled to play the Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20s in the Caribbean in June and July.The tour has been split because Pakistan plans to host India in August for a series that is yet to be confirmed, and West Indies are to host Sri Lanka and India for a one-day tri-series to be played immediately after the Champions Trophy. In order to avoid a clash in dates, the WICB had asked the PCB to reschedule their tour.In order to accommodate the tri-series with Sri Lanka and India, West Indies also scrapped the two Tests they were scheduled to play with Sri Lanka in May, which was also clashing with the IPL.Pakistan last toured West Indies in 2011 for one Twenty 20, five ODIs and two Tests.

Shane Jurgensen, the Australian who has been Bangladesh’s interim coach over the past few months, has been given the role full-time till the end of the year

Mohammad Isam09-Feb-2013BCB unhappy with six injured players

The Bangladesh selectors are concerned with the injury situation of six players including Shakib Al Hasan, but what has created more unease in the BCB is the apparent reluctance among these players to take part in rehabilitation.
During the cricket operations committee meeting on Saturday, the six players were identified and it was decided that the board will ask the franchises to rest Shakib, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mushfiqur Rahim, Ziaur Rahman, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah if required. But the board’s concern is with many of these players refusing to take part in proper rehabilitation programs during the BPL.
“The physio has told us that many of these injured players have not taken part in rehabilitation programs,” Jalal Yunus, BCB media committee chairman, said. “If they had done so, the injuries wouldn’t have been as concerning as they are now.”
As for Shakib, the board is still confident that he will be available for tours to both Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, though he would be required to play all formats. “Shakib is not complaining of any pain and he is going to play today’s BPL match. For all these players, the board will inform the franchises if our injured players need rest,” Yunus said.

Shane Jurgensen, the 36-year-old Australian, will continue as Bangladesh’s head coach for the rest of the year. He was the side’s interim coach in their previous international series, against West Indies in which the home side won the ODI series 3-2.The decision was taken by the board’s cricket operations committee during a meeting on Saturday. His 11-month appointment will be formalised once the Bangladesh board approves it next week. Several other coaching appointments are likely over the next week.”Shane Jurgensen was the most suitable candidate among those who had applied for the position,” BCB’s media committee chairman Jalal Yunus said. “The cricket operations committee will recommend his appointment till December 31 this year.”Jurgensen first became part of the Bangladesh coaching set-up in October 2011, taking charge of the bowling, and took over as interim head coach after Richard Pybus quit last October. Bangladesh have been struggling to find a coach for the long term after Jamie Siddon’s four-year tenure ended soon after the 2011 World Cup. Stuart Law was in the job for less than a year, and Pybus lasted only four months.Jurgensen was New Zealand’s bowling coach between 2008 and 2010 and had also recently been a coach on New Zealand Cricket’s high performance programme. He has coached for nearly 15 years at a number of different levels since his first trip to the United Kingdom with Horsham Cricket Club at the age of 21.Stuart Karppinen, the trainer at BCB’s National Cricket Academy, will take over as the national team’s trainer during the tour to Sri Lanka next month. The positions of batting and fielding coach are still being negotiated, and the Bangladesh board are looking to name a local as the assistant coach.”Stuart Karpinnen will be our trainer for Sri Lanka, I won’t mention names but we have lined up candidates for two specialist positions,” Yunus said. “The batting coach is someone from the UK and the fielding coach will be Australian.”We will negotiate with them, and possibly try to bring them before the Sri Lanka series. If we don’t get the specialist positions from our list, we will take local coaches to Sri Lanka.”We wanted a local assistant coach, for which four former national players have shown interest. We will advertise for the position so that others can apply.”Saqlain Mushtaq is also set to return as spin bowling consultant though he wants to do the job for 100 days in a year.

Sean Abbott returned to cricket at the SCG, bowling a bouncer in his first over and collecting two wickets as New South Wales dismissed Queensland for 268

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Dec-2014
ScorecardSean Abbott returned to cricket at the SCG, bowling a bouncer in his first over and collecting two wickets as New South Wales dismissed Queensland for 268. Two weeks to the day after Phillip Hughes was struck by a bouncer bowled by Abbott at the same ground, cricket returned to some sense of normality around the country, with a Test match in Adelaide and three Sheffield Shield games.The New South Wales players wore shirts emblazoned with PJH 707 as a tribute to Hughes, who was the 707th man to represent the state, and wore black armbands. When Abbott was introduced in the 13th over he was applauded by spectators and sent down a bouncer with his fifth ball, which the batsman Joe Burns ducked underneath.Burns and Marnus Labuschagne put on 73 for the opening wicket before Labuschagne was caught off the offspin of William Somerville for 39, and Burns fell to Mitchell Starc for 59. Abbott’s first wicket came when he bowled Nathan Reardon for 6 and in his next over he added another when Ben Cutting was caught behind for 3.Queensland were in trouble at 6 for 132 but James Hopes and Chris Hartley rebuilt with a 105-run partnership that ended when Hartley fell to Somerville for 41. Starc added a third wicket, that of debutant Cameron Brimblecombe, and Hopes was then the last man out for 85 as the Bulls were dismissed in the 84th over.New South Wales batted nine overs before stumps and reached 1 for 17, with Ryan Carters on 7 and nightwatchman Somerville on 8. The one wicket to fall was that of Nick Larkin, who was caught off Hopes for a duck.

Durham have suffered a major blow ahead of their Friends Life t20 campaign with the news that Paul Collingwood will miss at least the next month through injury, the club revealed today.

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2012Durham have suffered a major blow ahead of their Friends Life t20 campaign with the news that Paul Collingwood will miss at least the next month through injury, the club revealed today.Collingwood, a former England Twenty20 captain, has become something of a Twenty20 specialist since losing his England place. He played for Rajasthan in the 2010 IPL, scoring 203 runs at 40.60 and also represented Perth in the inaugural Big Bash League, helping them reach the final.But Durham will have to make do without him after revealing that he has suffered a broken hand during their Championship match against Warwickshire at Chester-le-Street last week.A first scan was inconclusive but Durham have now confirmed that he will miss the group stages of the FLt20 after an MRI scan on Monday revealed “an undisplaced fracture of his second metacarpal”. His estimated recovery time is put at four to five weeks.Durham are desperate that their ageing side can find consolation in FLt20 after a disastrous start to the Championship season. Regarded as potential title contenders, they are bottom of the table without a win in eight matches as some of their most famous names, such as Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett, have had a season to forget.

Hampshire old and new will come together as two stands are named after two former famous former players later this season

ESPNcricinfo staff01-May-2012Two larger-than-life Hampshire characters will come together at the county’s ground later this season, to cap off the £48million redevelopment of West End. Former captains Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie and Shane Warne are to be honoured with stands named after them before England’s ODI against West Indies on June 16, the club has announced.Both were much loved and one is much missed – Ingleby-Mackenzie died of cancer in 2006, aged 72. He guided Hampshire to their first County Championship in 1961. Another first of his was allowing women to become members of the MCC – the vote taken during his term as Secretary from 1996-98.Ingleby-Mackenzie, asked what the secret to his success as Hampshire captain was, once said: “Wine, women and song.” Surely there are some training rules? “Yes, everyone must be in bed by breakfast.” That is a mantra quite possibly endorsed by Warne too.Their taste for a flamboyant lifestyle was matched by their aptitude for captaincy. Both men were lauded for their tenure, with the art of declaration becoming a particular specialism. Warne’s time in charge was a demonstration of the skills Australia chose not to employ.Warne led Hampshire to the 2005 C&G Trophy, guided them back to Division One of the County Championship in his first year in charge and engineered title challenges in the next three seasons. He left the club in 2007 and earlier this year the suite named after him was taken over by the ground’s new sponsors, Ageas. But now he has a far grander tribute.”Naming our new stands is a fantastic way for us to acknowledge two legends from Hampshire’s history,” Rod Bransgrove, Hampshire’s chairman, said. “One pre-dates the move to the new stadium while the other is symbolic of the first few seasons at West End.”We consulted our membership and fans to hear their suggestions as to whom they would like to see honoured and I think they have helped choose two very worthy individuals to be honoured by the club.”

The Ranji match between Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is being billed as a clash between UP’s strong bowling and Tamil Nadu’s formidable batting

Siddarth Ravindran in Meerut20-Nov-2013Meerut may have a reputation as a crowded industrial place, but the sprawling Victoria Park adds a much-needed expanse of green to the town. It houses the Bhamashah Stadium, which is surrounded by more open spaces for Meerut’s young cricketers to train in, much like the city’s two most famous cricketers, Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, did over the past few years.Several knots of cricketers – in full whites and with proper equipment – are practising there on the day before the Ranji match between Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. A short walk past them takes you to the main ground, where next to a whitewashed wall that serves as one of the sightscreens, several dozen spectators are watching the two Ranji teams train.This is the biggest match of the year for Meerut, and signs of that are all around. The ground itself is surrounded by temporary billboards, advertising everything from real estate to fertilisers, and also includes tributes to Sachin Tendulkar as well as notable Meerut cricketers. The boards denoting the scorers box, the media enclosure and the teams’ dressing rooms, all sport a distinctive logo with the words ‘Ranji Trophy cricket match’.A wide, white, single-storeyed building – the O’Donnell pavilion, named after a former principal of Meerut College, which owns the ground – is a hub of activity as the organisers try to ensure everything is in order for the match.Just ahead of the pavilion, some of the UP players are practising taking high catches. It’s a nippy, winter morning and the cold isn’t making training easy. ” (it’s stinging),” says one of the fielders, wringing his hands after snaffling a skier. The weather will take even more adjusting to for the visitors, with maximum temperatures in Tamil Nadu still well above 30 degrees.The match itself is being billed as a clash between UP’s strong bowling and Tamil Nadu’s formidable batting. Tamil Nadu have scored in excess of 450 in the first innings of both their matches this season, with B Aparajith and S Badrinath both having scored double-hundreds, and UP captain Piyush Chawla knew what his side was up against. “They have got one of the best batting sides and we have got one of the better bowling sides in Ranji Trophy circuit,” Chawla said. “It should be a good contest.”It doesn’t help UP, though, that both of Meerut’s finest bowlers are not available for this game. Praveen is out with a shoulder injury and Bhuvneshwar is away on national duty.Chawla and his bowlers are coming off a rough game in Rajkot, where Saurashtra piled up a mammoth total. Chawla bowled 51.5 overs in one innings. Little wonder then that the only time he got animated, during a short press conference, was when he spoke about the state of pitches in the country.”Wickets are quite flat these days, and if it is not flat, then it is seaming, so it becomes really difficult for the spin bowlers. Even if you see the list of highest wicket-takers in the last few years in Ranji Trophy, you won’t find many spinners in that, hardly one in top 10 or something. So that is a challenge, for a spinner to come on these sort of wickets and bowl your best and try to pick up something out of these nothing tracks.”Neither captain wanted to elaborate on how they thought the Meerut track would behave, but the surface generally favoured quick bowlers in the three matches held here over the past four years.

A spectacular collapse by Zarai Taraquiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), after taking the first-innings lead, has shifted the momentum completely in favour of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Dec-2011
ScorecardA spectacular collapse by Zarai Taraquiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), after taking the first-innings lead, shifted the momentum completely in favour of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on the third day at the National Stadium. The PIA seamers began a demolition job after their team conceded a lead of 37, reducing the opposition to 70 for 9. It left ZTBL with a lead of just 107 and a wicket in hand.The ZTBL wickets were shared by the pace trio of Anwar Ali, Ali Imran and Najaf Shah, who took three wickets apiece. Anwar got the first breakthrough, when he had Imran Nazir caught with the score on 12. Imran then got rid of Sharjeel Khan with the score on 32 and that sparked off the collapse. Shahid Yousuf went without scoring and Yasir Hameed, who made a start with 19, perished shortly after. The fast bowlers continued to make inroads and nearly sealed the innings before stumps. Only two batsmen, Hameed and Haris Sohail, managed double figures.Earlier, PIA looked to build on their overnight score of 119 for 4, with Fahad Iqbal within reach of his fifty. He went on to score 61 before he was trapped lbw by Rao Iftikhar Anjum. Shoaib Khan snr and Sarfraz Ahmed put PIA on course to match ZTBL’s 337 with a stand of 98. Shoaib also made 61 before he was caught and bowled by Rehan Riaz. Sarfraz made 70, and when he was trapped lbw by Sohail Tanvir, PIA were still 70 in arrears of ZTBL’s score. The tail brought the deficit down to 37.ZTBL appeared to have the edge, until the PIA seamers swung it their way.