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Wicketkeeper unbeaten overnight but Warwickshire turn the screw at Edgbaston

Jon Culley at Edgbaston19-Aug-2019Such is the romance that has come to be associated with Somerset’s quest for their first County Championship in 144 years of history that lovers of cricket are cancelling September holidays in the hope of being at Taunton to witness a doubtless tearful celebration.Whether it will be worth it remains in the balance. As things stand, the side they will meet in the last fixture of the season, the 2017 winners Essex, who beat them at Chelmsford in June, are in pole position. Four matches remain after this isolated, mid-Blast round, yet Somerset could do without losing ground at this moment.They might not find it easy to prevent that happening. Having winkled out two important wickets in the final session of the opening day, when Sam Hain and Adam Hose were dismissed before they were able to inflict too much damage, they picked up an early bonus on day two when Rob Yates, whose maiden century had been the thorn in their flesh on Sunday, was out to only the seventh delivery of the morning.Yet their bowlers failed to build on that, gaining only one extra bonus point and, more importantly in the context of potentially taking the 16 points for a win, allowing Warwickshire, themselves casting anxious glances at the one team behind them in the Division One table, the luxury of passing 400 for only the second time this season.Then came a pretty torrid start to their reply, encompassing three wickets lost for 15 runs between the eighth over and the 11th, including a first-ball duck for Babar Azam, their Vitality Blast star, on his red-ball debut for the county.By the close, they had recovered to a degree, thanks in large part to Steven Davies, who showed his adaptability by opening in a rejigged top order and willingness to graft as necessary in finishing 11 runs short of a hundred. Somerset, though, are still 103 runs away from the follow-on target and lost George Bartlett in the penultimate over, a moment of celebration for 19-year-old debutant George Garrett in claiming his maiden first-class wicket.Jack Brooks had made what they had hoped would be a decisive morning breakthrough as Yates, stretching to drive, edged to gully. When the former Yorkshire seamer followed up by having Tim Ambrose caught behind four overs later to claim the second bowling bonus point in the 102nd over, all looked well.Helped by a remarkable gully catch by Roelof van der Merwe as Henry Brookes somehow offered him a leading edge as he shaped to clip Jamie Overton to the short Hollies Stand boundary on his leg side – which he had already cleared with a square cut off Brookes – Somerset had the seventh wicket at 338 in the 107th over and were into the Warwickshire tail.And it did look more like a tail than is customary in a team that generally bats deep, with Oliver Hannon-Dalby making a rare appearance at No. 10 ahead Garrett.In the event, it was a while before they had a look at either, thanks primarily to Michael Burgess, who made it his business to use the aforementioned short boundary to his advantage whenever the Somerset bowlers gave him the opportunity, hitting 52 off 58 balls in a manner that was very easy on the eye.He and his captain, Jeetan Patel, added 66 in 13 overs to claim a fourth batting point and take the total beyond 400, to which Hannon-Dalby celebrated his promotion by making his first score in double figures since he giddily hit 11 not out and 13 against the same opponents at Taunton in May. At the other end, young Garrett manfully survived 22 deliveries to mark his maiden first-class innings with a red-inker and two runs.As if that were not enough to furrow Somerset brows, a positive response in terms of quick runs on the board was rapidly undermined as Tom Abell was bowled shouldering arms and Hannon-Dalby continued to influence the game by gaining the desired reward for bowling into James Hildreth’s pads. He then reaped an unexpected bonus when Babar, who has been drafted into Somerset’s red-ball team in place of his compatriot Azhar Ali, clipped a legside half-volley direct to midwicket.Azhar’s return to Pakistan for a training camp meant a rejigged top order with Davies opening with Abell. Happily for Somerset, he looked comfortable in the roll from the outset, anchoring a 63-run partnership for the fourth wicket that ended when Tom Banton edged behind off Will Rhodes, who was unlucky during an impressive spell when Tim Ambrose was not quite able to grasp an inside edge offered by Davies on 72.

For the first time at Lord’s, the floodlights shone in a Championship match – but they went off for bad light all the same

ECB Reporters Network13-Apr-2018
ScorecardMiddlesex batsman Max Holden dives to regain his ground•Getty Images

Middlesex’s batsmen fought back from a sticky start against Northamptonshire to reach 136 for 4 on a shortened opening day of the Specsavers County Championship at Lord’s.Inserted on a greenish wicket, the home side slumped to 63 for 4 before lunch, with Northants seamers Ben Sanderson and Brett Hutton picking up two wickets each.But Sanderson squandered a chance to cement his side’s grip on the game, dropping John Simpson at fine leg before the Middlesex wicketkeeper went on to share an unbroken stand of 73 with Paul Stirling.Simpson (31*) and Stirling (40*) seemed well set when bad light halted play – despite the Lord’s floodlights being in use for the first time in a Championship fixture.Middlesex deployed an inexperienced batting line-up, with club captain Dawid Malan unavailable and Nick Gubbins, Eoin Morgan and Stevie Eskinazi all ruled out through injury or illness.That left 20-year-old Max Holden – who spent a successful loan period at Northamptonshire last season – to open alongside stand-in captain Sam Robson, with debutant Robbie White coming in at three.Holden managed just eight before he nudged Sanderson (2-30) to second slip – and White left the next delivery, which moved back to flatten his off stump.Australian Test batsman Hilton Cartwright, also making his Championship debut, went on the offensive with a couple of boundaries off Doug Bracewell and then pulled Hutton into the Mound Stand for six.But Hutton, who joined Northants on a permanent basis from Nottinghamshire during the winter, took his revenge with a slower ball that foxed Cartwright after a brisk 30.Having dropped anchor with a gritty 14, Robson also fell victim to Hutton as he was trapped leg before to compound Middlesex’s difficulties.After lunch, Simpson had made only three when his top-edged hook sailed towards the waiting hands of Sanderson, only for the fielder to spill what looked a regulation catch.Simpson made the most of that let-off, beginning to play his shots as the bowlers’ accuracy waned and carved Bracewell through the covers to bring up the 50-partnership with Stirling.Meanwhile, the Ireland international took advantage of the short boundary on one side, hitting seven fours, but Middlesex were unable to build on that momentum as deteriorating light forced the players from the field just before 3pm.They returned briefly towards the end of the day and Richard Gleeson found some movement during the 3.5 overs that were bowled, with Stirling adding a further four runs to the total before play was finally abandoned.

Upul Tharanga, the Sri Lanka batsman, has said that the team had not included the weather in their calculations as they batted on past tea on the fourth day

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle10-Mar-2017Sri Lanka did not take the likelihood of rain into account when they chose the timing of their declaration, Upul Tharanga has said.Rain had washed out almost all of the third session on day three, and would wipe out 12 overs on day four as well, with more afternoon showers forecast on day five. Though Sri Lanka had batted aggressively to take their lead past 400, they let their innings continue after tea. This left Bangladesh with 27 scheduled overs to face in the day – though fading light permitted only 15.”Our planning is not based on weather predictions,” Tharanga said. “We can’t look too much into weather. It could rain tomorrow as well. Our plan was to give them 125 overs. If you take this wicket, this doesn’t have as much turn as other Galle wickets. We did lose about 12 overs to rain.”Tharanga was still confident, however, that the three spinners Sri Lanka had picked could take advantage of a day five Galle pitch. It hasn’t offered the same kind of help as it has been known to over the years, but things could already be changing.”We have 98 overs and the first hour is going to be crucial,” Tharanga said. “In that first hour if we can take two wickets, we can turn the game in our favour. There wasn’t that much for spinners, but we saw towards our latter part of the innings, that it did start to turn a little. Hopefully that will carry on tomorrow.”Sri Lanka set Bangladesh 457 to win – the highest successful chase in Galle is 99 for 3 – with Tharanga making a vital contribution. His 115 off 171 balls was his first century at home, the others coming in Bogra and Harare. The innings helped shore up his place in the team, and may also lead to his getting a longer run in the opening position, where Sri Lanka have recently had problems. Tharanga has also had success as Sri Lanka’s ODI opener in the last few months, after a brief stint in the lower middle order.”In the last two series I batted in the middle order, but here before the series, I was asked whether I liked to open and I didn’t have any issues in saying yes. Wherever I play I want to do a job for the team. It’s up to the management and selectors to decide where they want me. They have used me as an opener since the South Africa tour. If the management is happy, I’m happy as well.”

Hong Kong registered a 109-run victory over Scotland in the historic first ODI played in East Asia on Tuesday

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-2016
ScorecardFile photo – Nizakat Khan boosted the Hong Kong innings with a well-paced 94 off 93 balls•Martin Hunter/IDI/Getty

Rain may have spoiled the maiden first-class match from being played on Hong Kong soil last week, but the weather behaved long enough for a historic maiden home ODI victory by Hong Kong, who defeated Scotland by 109 runs at Mission Road on Tuesday. A total of 259 after being sent in, achieved thanks to a 170-run fourth-wicket stand between Nizakat Khan and Anshuman Rath, turned out to be plenty for the hosts.The win for Hong Kong breaks a four-way tie to move them to the top of the WCL Championship points table. They are now two points clear of Scotland, Netherlands and Kenya, who each have six points.Hong Kong found themselves in trouble at 16 for 2 in three overs as Alasdair Evans removed Kinchit Shah for a second-ball duck before Babar Hayat fended a short ball to wicketkeeper Matthew Cross for 8. Former captain Jamie Atkinson fell shortly after the initial powerplay, slapping Safyaan Sharif to Calum MacLeod at cover for 21 to make it 55 for 3.Nizakat joined the opener Rath and the pair engaged in a dogged resistance of the Scotland attack’s pressure. It took Nizakat 12 balls to get off the mark before the shackles came undone with a lofted cover drive. The right-hander looked increasingly comfortable by the 28th over when he flayed debutant Bradley Wheal behind point for a pair of crisp cuts to the boundary.Rath was on 20 when Nizakat came to the crease but Nizakat overtook his partner in the 31st over with a straight drive over Richie Berrington’s head before flicking the part-time medium pacer through fine leg for his ninth four to bring up a half-century off 59 balls. Rath, whose momentum slowed down in the 30s after being struck on the box, grafted his way to his own fifty off 91 balls four overs later.Scotland’s frustration at being unable to break the stand grew after Rath was dropped on 75 in the 40th over off Josh Davey, when a skied chance produced by a checked drive to a slower ball was spilled by a backpedaling Preston Mommsen at midwicket. Nizakat powered a six over cover off the next ball, then smashed another over midwicket off Sharif in the 44th to break into the 90s. However, Sharif’s commitment to the slower-ball bouncer paid off by the end of the over as Nizakat gloved an attempted pull to Cross behind the stumps to finally end the partnership.At 225 for 4 and with Rath on 86, Hong Kong set out to finish the innings with a flourish but their aggressiveness backfired and they wound up being bowled out with five balls left in the innings. The slide was sparked by Evans in the 47th, who had Tanwir Afzal and Waqas Barkat out caught behind and teamed up with Cross for a third wicket when he chased down a delivery off his own bowling at midwicket before firing to the keeper’s end to run out Rath for 97.Rob Taylor had Aizaz Khan and Haseeb Amjad both caught by Mommsen at long-on in the 49th before Wheal closed out the innings by getting Nadeem Ahmed to slice a drive to Evans at third man. Evans led the way with 4 for 41 but consistent support came from Sharif and Taylor with 2 for 44 and 2 for 38 respectively.A light rain was present throughout the early part of the Scotland chase but the outlook became gloomier for the visitors when captain Afzal struck off back-to-back balls in the fifth to clean bowl Kyle Coetzer for 6 and tease Matt Machan into chasing a rising delivery for an edge behind. The rain increased enough for the players to leave the field at 9 for 2 after seven overs.Any hope Scotland might have had of being saved by rain faded when the umpires brought both sides back on 20 minutes later and before long wickets continued to tumble. Mommsen fell for 5 in the 10th to a superb sliding catch by Aizaz at mid-on after a mistimed pull off Amjad.Afzal, who bowled a near-unbroken 10 overs, changing ends midway through his spell, took one more in his final over to finish with 3 for 20 as Berrington flicked loosely to midwicket. Aizaz struck in back-to-back overs beginning in the 26th when Cross was well caught just inside the rope at long on by Barkat before MacLeod’s resistance ended for 58 in the 28th when he sliced a drive to third man.Nadeem then came on to wipe out the tail and finished with career-best List A figures of 4 for 26. Taylor was claimed at deep midwicket before Sharif was stumped overbalancing on a whiffed drive. The left-arm tweaker induced a leading edge to cover by Evans for his third wicket before a thick edge from an errant drive was sent by Davey to Afzal at point on the first ball of the 40th over to wrap up victory.The two sides are scheduled to play the second ODI at Mission Road on Thursday.

Ramesh Powar, the former India offspinner, has shifted from his home team of Mumbai to Rajasthan, signing a two-year contract

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Aug-2013Ramesh Powar, the former India offspinner, has shifted from his home team of Mumbai to Rajasthan, signing a two-year contract. Powar played five of the 11 matches in Mumbai’s run to the Ranji title last season, but had little success himself, only managing six wickets at 82.16.Powar said that current Rajasthan captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar had convinced him to make the switch to a team that has won the Ranji Trophy twice in the last three seasons.”The presence of Hrishi would add to [my] confidence,” Powar told . “He understands the game well and is composed and focused. He has become a better cricketer after his stint with Rajasthan. I hope I too will benefit from my decision of playing for Rajasthan.”The stocky Powar said he had worked hard on his fitness so that he could deliver for Rajasthan. “It was a challenge for me to lose weight. I have worked hard because I feel playing for Rajasthan ushers in a new innings for me. I want to contribute in all departments and that is why I wanted to be in best shape.”Having made his first-class debut back in the 1999-2000 season, Powar has plenty of experience. “I want to give back to the game. I would be happy if I am able to nurture a few youngsters in Rajasthan during my two-year stint. I always love to impart tips to upcoming spinners.” Among the spinners Powar will get to work with in Rajasthan are offspinner Madhur Khatri and left-arm spinner Gajendra Singh.It has been nearly six years since Powar last represented India, but even at 35, he dreams of returning to the national team. “I still hope to play for the country. A couple of good performances can turn the things your way. You never know. More over there is dearth of quality spinners in country.”

Danish Kaneria, the Pakistan legspinner, has been barred from playing any official cricket in Pakistan until the outcome of his appeal against a lifetime ban

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2012Danish Kaneria, the Pakistan legspinner, has been barred from playing any official cricket in Pakistan pending the outcome of his appeal against a lifetime ban handed by the ECB last month for corruption. The decision was taken after a meeting of the Pakistan board’s integrity committee on Monday.Kaneria, Pakistan’s fourth-highest wicket-taker in Tests, was handed the life ban by an ECB disciplinary panel hearing the spot-fixing case involving former Essex fast bowler Mervyn Westfield. Kaneria had been found guilty of inducing Westfield to under-perform and of bringing the game into disrepute. He has indicated that he would contest the verdict, though he is yet to formally lodge an appeal.The PCB’s integrity committee, headed by board chairman Zaka Ashraf, said that any final decision on Kaneria would be taken only after the appeal was dealt with. Kaneria had already been barred from playing for the Pakistan national side in 2010, and the PCB has said that it would in principle stand by the sanctions imposed by the England board.So far, he had been allowed to participate in Pakistan domestic cricket, and he was among the highest wicket-takers in last season’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the first-class tournament. He represented Habib Bank Limited, who have written a letter to the PCB asking for clarity on his cricketing status. HBL are set to suspend ties with Kaneria, and are waiting for a formal response from the PCB before taking a call on his job status. Kaneria’s last domestic match was a Twenty20 for Karachi Zebras in March.Although his punishment was handed out by the ECB, the ICC’s anti-corruption code states that decisions based on a domestic board’s regulations should be upheld by boards around the world, including the PCB.

Johan Botha has said he is enjoying having time to build an innings in his role as a top-order batsman for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL

Tariq Engineer04-May-2011Johan Botha was offered a rare gift two days before Rajasthan Royals’ opening game in the 2011 IPL – the gift of time. With Shane Watson in Bangladesh on international duty with Australia, there was a vacant spot in the top order and captain Shane Warne and coach Jeremy Snape thought Botha could be the man to fill the gap.The South Africa offspinner typically bats down the order for his country, where the need of the hour tends to be quick runs. But he has a reputation for being a resourceful and intelligent limited-overs cricketer, and some of his performances have hinted at more potential with the bat. It was this potential that Snape and Warne sought to unlock.”They both approached me at the same time and we had a general chat and they said ‘are you keen to do it?'” Botha told ESPNcricinfo. “Obviously, I was keen. I always watch guys bat. It is not great coming in with just a few balls to go.”Botha was confident he could handle the responsibility of coming in at No. 3, given his experience of doing it in four-day cricket in South Africa early in his career. That he would be doing it in Twenty20 in the subcontinent, which is always a good place to bat, only made the offer more tempting. But the biggest draw was the time to build an innings.”You have a few balls to have a look,” he said. “The field is up at the start too, so you can get off to a bit of a flier and have 10, 15, or 20 runs before the field is spread out, so that makes quite a difference. Normally, when you come in at the end, it is a few balls to go and one or two of the best bowlers on again, so that is not easy.”The move surprised many but so far Botha has looked like he has been batting up the order all his life. In Rajasthan’s opening game against Deccan Chargers, he made a fluent, unbeaten 67 from 47 balls to lead his team to a comfortable eight-wicket win. He backed that up with 39 from 32 balls, also unbeaten, against Delhi Daredevils as Rajasthan chased down 151.”I’ve really enjoyed it. Most of the time we have chased when I have batted at three and then the game dictates how you must play. It’s pretty simple.”He was also quick to praise his team-mates for making his job easier. “The guys I’ve batted with have been great also. Rahul Dravid, Shane Watson a few times, Ross Taylor … they can hit the ball out of the ground if they want to and that’s taken a little pressure of me.”Botha played in Rajasthan’s first loss to Kolkata Knight Riders but missed the next few games with a finger injury and Rajasthan went into a bit of a tailspin in his absence, despite the arrival of Watson. They lost two of three games in that spell, with the game against Bangalore rained out. Since Botha returned for the seventh game against Kochi, the team has promptly embarked on a three-game winning streak that has taken them into the top four.The streak includes a crucial win over then table-toppers Mumbai Indians on April 29. Botha masterminded his team’s chase of Mumbai’s total of 94, a target made tougher by a two-paced pitch, and his 45 was the highest score on either side by miles. More importantly, he blunted the threat posed by Mumbai’s human-yorker-machine, Lasith Malinga. Following the game against Pune, Botha’s average stands at a lofty 94.50 and his strike-rate is 121.93. Not too shabby for a makeshift top-order batsman.Botha’s unexpected success with the bat has overshadowed his day job, but he has been no mug with the ball either, as the confidence he has gained with the willow has trickled down to his bowling as well.”It has taken a bit of pressure off me. It does make me relax a little bit. To do something for the team is always good. It might not always be bowling. It is nice to contribute in a way. Hopefully, now I can keep doing both.”Warne has used him in every conceivable situation – to open the bowling, control the middle overs and bowl at the end of the innings. His best performance came against Mumbai, when he was introduced in the 16th over, a gamble which paid off spectacularly as Botha took the wickets of Mumbai’s twin towers, Kieron Pollard and Andrew Symonds, on his way to figures of 3 for 6. He has taken five wickets in all to this point in the tournament, and has an economy rate of 6.40, forming a potent spin combination with Warne that can take wickets while simultaneously keeping the run-rate down.Botha said he is happy to bowl whenever he is asked, though it is obviously easier to bowl once the field is spread out. “If you are bowling in the first six, you want to bowl early, in the first or second over because after that the batsmen get in and you are off for a hiding to nothing.”The key to opening the bowling, according to him, is to make sure you practise with the new ball, which is quite slippery when the shine is still on it, and to remember that there are only two guys outside the 30-yard circle in the first six overs. At the same time you want to be aggressive and try to take wickets “because that stops the other team from scoring”.”You are bowling to quality players so you might go for the odd boundary in the first few overs, but I think as long as you stay aggressive and want to take wickets, things will go your way more often than not.” Botha said he relies on changes of pace to keep the batsman guessing and while he may not be the biggest turner of the ball, he is very accurate, which makes it tougher for batsmen to get after him.His recent good run with bat and ball has him thinking perhaps there is an allrounder lurking somewhere inside that is ready to step out on the world stage, though it is still early days. “In the IPL, you can say that. In international cricket, I haven’t performed that well with the bat, or that consistently. I’ve had a good last few months. Yes, I would like to be [an allrounder].”There were many raised eyebrows when Rajasthan spent $950,000 on Botha in the January player auction, but it has already proved to be money well spent.

Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, has placed the blame for the current crisis in the IPL squarely on Lalit Modi, for he was entrusted with the running of the league

Nagraj Gollapudi26-Apr-2010Apart from the obvious issues relating to the fate of Lalit Modi and the charges against him, there was one key question surrounding Monday’s press conference following the IPL governing council meeting: What was the council’s responsibility in overseeing the working of the IPL, and what was the extent of its culpability in the current mess?The response of Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, was three-fold: first, the council was not informed of most of the chairman’s work; second, that it was not the job of the council members to scrutinise the work anyway, and, third, that there was a full-fledged secretariat – and the hired help of IMG – to ensure things were run in a professional manner.”An institution functions on trust,” Manohar said. “If I have to do all the jobs, I don’t need executives. Why do I need a secretary? Why do I need other people? Because even in your institution your managing director does not look into where you’re going, what you’re doing and if you commit something wrong, your managing director is not responsible for that.”If you are expecting every governing council member to come here every morning at 10 and leave at 10 in the night to look at what is happening everywhere, then we don’t need the other staff which is there. Then we don’t need to pay IMG Rs 27 crore [approx $6 million] and we don’t need a CEO to running the IPL. It is their job to do all these things.”He expanded on the theme, essentially saying the council entrusted Modi with running of the league and left it at that. “Any public organization functions on trust because each and every person can’t go and check every aspect or each and every document in an organization. There are huge companies that are run by people and those people, once a decision is approved, don’t go and look at the document whether it is properly executed or not. It is the job of the professionals and the executives who are appointed by the institution to do that job.”An allegation is being made and the media is saying all the members of the governing council are party to all the decisions. Now most of the contracts have been entered into without the consent of the governing council and they’ve been brought to the governing council after the contract was signed. So the governing council has no other option and are presented with a fait accompli,” Manohar reason, before citing an example.”I came here [Mumbai] three days in advance to look into all the documents and contracts in view of the ongoing controversy. I called Sundar Raman [the IPL CEO] because on that day in the evening there was an IPL awards function. I asked for the contract of that function and I was told ‘Sir, there was no contract. The contract terms were finalised last night.’ And this he informs me at 3 in the afternoon when the function is going to be held at 7 in the evening.”Thereafter, if this issue comes before the governing council, what do you expect the governing council to do? Do you expect the governing council to say, ‘No, we reject this contract and we’re going to cancel this function’, when the function is already over,” Manohar asked.Manohar’s apportioning of the blame squarely on Modi, absolving the governing council of its responsibility in the matter, is at odds with the views of MAK Pataudi, a council member and now one of the three former cricketers entrusted with working out a mechanism for the next IPL season. Pataudi had last week said the governing council had been a failure because the members should have been more aware of what was happening.Manohar was also questioned on the issue of professionalism within the IPL, in answer to which he pointed to the appointment of IMG to help run the tournament. “As far as the IPL is concerned, we knew that this is a huge and valuable property. Therefore we appointed professionals like the IMG, who conduct tournaments like Wimbledon and the FIFA world cup. And we are paying them a huge sum of Rs 27 crore for all operational things.”It the duty of IMG, because they are the corporate entity and their job is to look after the professional things and the normal functioning of IPL games. We also appointed a professional CEO, Sundar Raman, for the IPL who is also paid a huge salary. We have a separate staff for IPL and so I don’t understand what media means by saying `professional people’ for running the event,” he said.

It also announced an expansion in the number of teams in the Women’s T20 World Cup to 16 from 2030

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jul-2024The ICC has confirmed that a review into the conduct of T20 World Cup 2024 will be carried out after the global body set up a panel with three of its board directors – Roger Twose, Lawson Naidoo and Imran Khawaja – to oversee the review and submit findings later in the year.ESPNcricinfo had reported earlier that there was scrutiny on the extent of expenditure on the US leg of the tournament and the organisation of the Caribbean leg. The decision to appoint a review panel was taken at the ICC annual conference in Colombo from July 19 to 22, which was attended by all 108 members. The three-man panel will engage an independent consultancy to carry out the review, before reporting back to the board.The ICC also approved the expansion of the Women’s T20 World Cup to 16 teams in 2030. Eight teams had taken part in the inaugural tournament in 2009 and that number rose to ten in 2016. Ten teams will also take part in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in October. The 2026 edition will have 12 participating teams, for which the cut-off date for qualification is October 31, 2024, before the expansion to 16 in 2030.For the next Men’s T20 World Cup in 2026, the ICC said the allocation of the eight regional qualifying spots would be as follows: two teams each from Africa and Europe, one from the Americas, and three from Asia and East Asia Pacific (EAP) combined. Previously, Asia had two spots and EAP one.The ICC also announced that USA Cricket and Cricket Chile have been “formally put on notice” because both organisations are not compliant with ICC membership criteria. They have 12 months to make rectifications.”Neither member is considered to have in place a fit for purpose detailed governance and administrative structure and systems,” the ICC said in a release. “The ICC Americas office will work with Cricket Chile to support them in remedying their non-compliance. The board agreed that a normalisation committee comprising of board and management representatives will be set up to oversee and monitor USA Cricket’s compliance roadmap and the ICC board will reserve its right to suspend or expel the member for continued non-compliance.”

He has led Delhi in 12 T20s in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Tournament, and has been with KKR since 2018

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2023Nitish Rana has been appointed interim captain by Kolkata Knight Riders, while their regular leader Shreyas Iyer recovers from a back injury that is likely to sideline him for at least the first half of IPL 2023.Rana was one of two candidates for the interim captaincy along with Sunil Narine, who joined the franchise in 2012 and has been with them ever since. Narine had recently led Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the inaugural edition of the International League T20, where they finished last among six teams with one win and eight losses.Rana has led his state team Delhi in 12 T20s in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, with eight wins and four defeats. A 29-year old middle-order batter, he was bought by KKR ahead of the 2018 season and has been retained by the franchise ever since. He’s played 74 matches for them, scoring 1744 runs at a strike rate of 135.61.”While we are hopeful that Shreyas will recover and participate at some stage in the IPL 2023 edition, we feel fortunate that Nitish, with the captaincy experience of having led his state side in white-ball cricket and the IPL experience he has had with KKR since 2018, will do a great job,” KKR said in a statement. “We are also confident that under head coach Chandrakant Pandit and the support staff, he will get all the support needed off the field, and the highly experienced leaders in the squad will provide all support that Nitish may need on the field. We wish him the best in his new role and Shreyas a full and speedy recovery.”Rana was KKR’s second highest run-scorer last season, behind Shreyas, with 361 runs at a strike rate of 143.82. It was a disappointing year for the team, as they finished seventh in the league with six wins and eight losses.With Rana taking over as captain, KKR will be under whole new leadership this season, with Chandrakant Pandit replacing Brendon McCullum as head coach and Bharat Arun appointed bowling coach.