Du Plessis signs up for Hundred as Williamson pulls out
LONDON: Faf du Plessis will captain the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred after replacing Aaron Finch, while New Zealand’s Kane Williamson has also withdrawn, organisers said on Friday.
Several big-name overseas signings have been forced to pull out of the inaugural 100-ball-a-side eight-team competition, featuring men’s and women’s teams, for a variety of reasons including coronavirus travel restrictions, schedule clashes and injury.
One of the biggest changes comes at Headingley, where former South Africa skipper Du Plessis takes over from Australia’s white-ball captain Finch.
Birmingham Phoenix have had to make major changes, with Shaheen Shah Afridi, Adam Zampa and New Zealand captain Williamson all pulling out. Adam Milne, Imran Tahir and Finn Allen have taken their spots.
Williamson, who last month led New Zealand to victory against India in the World Test Championship final, is managing an elbow injury.
Nicolas Pooran and Shadab Khan will not be heading to Old Trafford, with Carlos Brathwaite and Colin Munro taking over at Manchester Originals.
Australia commitments mean Glenn Maxwell and Nathan Coulter-Nile will not be turning out for London Spirit and Trent Rockets, freeing up slots for Josh Inglis and Wahab Riaz.
Manchester Originals will replace the retired Harry Gurney with seamer Ollie Robinson, currently suspended from England duty over historical racist and sexist social media posts.—AFP
Ranatunga blasts SLC over Indian B team tour
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga on Friday slammed the island’s sports leaders for agreeing to a tour by a ‘second level’ India side.
Ranatunga, 57, said the tour undermined the country’s ‘dignity’ as he attacked Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
India’s team led by Shikhar Dhawan arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday to prepare for the three One-day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals that start from July 13.
Top stars Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant were noted absentees. All are preparing for the fivge-match Test series in England next month.
“The Indian squad that came to Sri Lanka is not their best, it is a second level team,” Ranatunga said. “Didn’t our sports minister or cricket administrators know this. Sri Lanka may have gone down (in the rankings), but as a cricketing nation we have an identity, we have dignity, we should not be sending our best to play an Indian B team.”
Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to its 1996 World Cup triumph, said the game’s administration had deteriorated and called for a major clean-up to improve playing standards and skills.
He said authorities had not considered the humiliation Sri Lankan players would suffer. According to Ranatunga, cricket leaders considered only the financial gains.
“The secret behind agreeing to an Indian B team is TV rights,” Ranatunga said. “The board wants to make money from this tournament even if it means pitching our players against a B team.” —AFP
Carey relishing competition for World Cup slot
GROS ISLET (St Lucia): Alex Carey has no shortage of competition to be Australia’s wicket-keeper at the Twenty20 World Cup later this year but the 29-year-old says the race for the gloves is bringing out the best in him.
Australia have picked four wicket-keepers in their white-ball squads for tours of West Indies and Bangladesh before they chase their maiden Twenty20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in October-November.
Matthew Wade is expected to continue behind the stumps in the Twenty20 matches against West Indies in St Lucia before handing over the gloves to Carey for the one-dayers.
Josh Philippe joined them to train under assistant coach Andre Borovec on Thursday, while the squad also includes a fourth wicket-keeper in Ben McDermott.
“I think we would all love to represent the country, but we are a really close group of players and I’m just excited to have three wicketkeepers on tour to work closely with,” Carey said on Thursday. “Sometimes when you go on tour, you’re trying to scrape together someone to help you out, it’s probably more excitement (than rivalry), to be able to work really closely with the other guys and pick each other’s brains.
“We can all hold the bat really well and we’d all be dying to play in the first game, whether it is with the gloves or with the bat ... it’s good competition.”—Reuters
Peshawar to host international boxing event on 6th
PESHAWAR: Peshawar will host an international boxing competition on July 6, 2021 with financial support from the sports department of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
This was stated by Pakistan’s professional boxer Usman Wazir who was addressing a press conference at the Qayyum Sports Complex in Peshawar on Friday.
“Twenty boxers from Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan will feature in the Peshawar event,” the 21-year-old Usman said. “Special players have also been invited to the event.”
Two players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would participate in the 10-point contests, he added.
The Astore-born Usman appreciated directorate general Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for extending its financial support in organising the mega event wherein pugilists from Iran and Afghanistan are coming to Peshawar besides giving chance to Pakistan’s promising boxers to compete alongside international pugilists.—Bureau Report
July 15 deadline for players’ transfer of clubs
KARACHI: The Karachi Basketball Association (KBBA) on Friday announced that all those basketball players who want to leave their existing clubs and want to join any other club must file their applications alongwith NOCs from the respective clubs by July 15 with KBBA Secretary Tariq Hussain.
No applications will be entertained after the July 15 deadline and the players will have to represent their old clubs, added the KBBA announcement.—Agencies
Ziaullah shines
KARACHI: Slow left-armer Ziaullah snared figures of 5-34 as Dawood Sports defeated Islamabad Gymkhana by 156 runs at the TMC Ground to move into the round-of-16 in the All-Sindh Prof Ejaz Ahmed Faruqi Invitation Cricket Tournament here the other day.
Summarised scores:
DAWOOD SPORTS 284 in 44.5 overs (Nadir Shah 57, Ali Shah 56, Munir-ur-Rehman 31, Zakir Malik 29, Noor Wali 24; Kashif Khan 4-42, Waleed Khan 2-33); ISLAM GYMKHANA 128 in 28 overs (Shaharyar Khan 38 not out, Umar Khan 27, Mohammad Shahid 20; Ziaullah 5-34).—Sports Reporter
Published in Dawn, EOS, July 4th, 2021