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The IPL crisis has taken a new twist with Mumbai Police summoning the Chennai Super Kings chief executive, Gurunath Meiyappan, to its Crime Branch for questioning in connection with betting

ESPNcricinfo staff23-May-2013The IPL crisis has taken a new twist with Mumbai Police summoning a top Chennai Super Kings official, Gurunath Meiyappan, to its Crime Branch for questioning in connection with betting. He is expected to appear between 11 am and 5 pm on Friday after the police rejected his request for an extension until Monday.The news is embarrassing – and potentially damaging – for the IPL and its parent body the BCCI, given that Meiyappan is the son-in-law of BCCI president N Srinivasan, whose company India Cements owns the Super Kings franchise. Meiyappan’s exact designation is unclear at this point but his twitter handle says “team principal” and he has been a regular on the team dugout during matches and at the franchise table during the IPL auctions.Television visuals on Friday morning showed Meiyappan leaving Srinivasan’s house in Kodaikanal, a hill resort town where the BCCI chief has been spending the last few days.The summons was affixed to the door of Meiyappan’s Chennai residence and been served to, and accepted by, a manager at the Super Kings office.”We need to verify certain issues raised and claims made by Vindoo Dara Singh during his interrogation,” the joint commissioner of police Himanshu Roy said. “It may be necessary to confront Meiyappan with Vindoo to verify whether there is any truth in the latter’s claims. It is obvious that if Vindoo was merely socialising with him, we would not have summoned Meiyappan.”There was no official statement by the franchise.However, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla did speak briefly on the issue. “The Mumbai and Delhi Police are competent authorities and let them finish the investigations before jumping to any conclusions,” he said, when asked whether Srinivasan should step down from the post of BCCI president accepting moral responsibility for the crisis. “How can you term anyone guilty before the investigations are completed? Let the police report be submitted and then we will be in a better position to talk further.”The development followed reports circulating in the media since Tuesday on the proximity of Virender “Vindoo” Dara Singh, who was arrested that day in Mumbai for links with bookies, to the Super Kings franchise. Those reports, which included pictures of Vindoo watching IPL matches in the company of Super Kings captain MS Dhoni’s wife, were not denied in the 48 hours since.Later in the evening Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s general manager (cricket development), met Mumbai Police’s joint commissioner Himanshu Roy. It was learnt that the meeting was primarily to seek Mumbai police’s cooperation in the BCCI’s internal investigation of the case against suspended cricketers. The Supreme Court had on Tuesday directed the BCCI to complete the internal inquiry within 15 days.The police crackdown on bookies continued in other parts of the country. In Kolkata, ten people, including one bookie, were arrested for being allegedly involved in cricket betting. “We have arrested 10 people, including a bookie last night. We are investigating thecase. They will be produced before a court today [Friday],” deputy commissioner Santosh Pandey told PTI.Initial investigations said they had bet on a match between Mumbai Indians and Super Kings.

The BCCI has said it hasn’t received any information from the franchise owner Sahara regarding the issue

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2013A day after Pune Warriors announced its pullout from the IPL, the BCCI has said it hasn’t received any “direct communication” from the franchise owner Sahara India regarding the issue. The board also confirmed that it had cashed part of the franchise’s bank guarantee.On Tuesday, Sahara had issued a press release saying it was withdrawing from the IPL over financial differences with the BCCI stemming from the valuation of the annual franchise fee it has to pay. It appears it has not formally communicated that decision to the board.Sahara has repeatedly tried to get the board to revise its franchise fees – $370m over 10 years, the highest in the IPL – and had to pay Rs 120 crore (around $21.6m) this year before the start of the season.”Once the 3 April 2013 due date had passed, the Governing Council had two letters sent to Sahara Adventure Sports Limited – one on 12 April 2013 and the second on 24 April 2013 – requesting settlement of the overdue amount,” the BCCI’s release said. “No payment was made and no response was received to the second letter and so, in order to protect its interests, the BCCI was forced to encash the guarantee.”Sahara had also complained that the process of arbitration, which began soon after the franchise initially pulled out in February 2012, wasn’t progressing as the BCCI hadn’t agreed on any arbitrator. The BCCI, in turn, said it was Sahara which was stalling the negotiations.”The BCCI cannot be held responsible since every one of the eminent retired judges suggested by the BCCI was not found acceptable by the franchisee,” the board said. “In order to break this impasse, a letter was sent to Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, proposing that as the claimant to the arbitration, it should approach the court to appoint an arbitrator so that the process could move forward. Again, no response was received to this suggestion.”

Shaun Marsh has withdrawn from the Caribbean Premier League because of his selection for Australia A’s tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe which begins July 18

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jun-2013Australia batsman Shaun Marsh has withdrawn from the inaugural edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), as a result of a scheduling conflict that sees him confirmed for the Australia A tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe.The CPL was scheduled to begin on July 30, while the Australia A tour gets underway on July 18. Marsh was the international franchise player for Jamaica Tallawahs.Due to the tour, the availability of Steven Smith and Aaron Finch may also come into question, as they may be drafted to play, and subsequently become unavailable for their respective teams of Antigua and Trinidad & Tobago.”It is very unfortunate this has happened, but this is international cricket. We appreciate that schedules are extremely tight and we need to respect the national cricket commitments these players have,” said CPL CEO Damien O’Donohoe.”We are working with the franchise teams that will be affected and are seeking appropriate replacements to ensure they will be prepared for a competitive tournament come July 30.”

In a frank discussion of what appears a dire medium-term forecast for the national team, Pat Howard defended his decision to sack the former coach, Mickey Arthur

Daniel Brettig23-Jul-2013Australian cricket faces years of difficult times ahead until the nation’s domestic competitions can again be relied upon to provide effective preparation for young batsmen and spin bowlers. This grim view was not shied away from by Cricket Australia’s team performance manager, Pat Howard, as he sifted through the wreckage of the 347-run defeat at Lord’s, which has left many wondering how such a result could be possible two years after the Argus review highlighted many of the problems on display.In a frank discussion of what appears a dire medium-term forecast for the national team, Howard defended his decision to sack the former coach, Mickey Arthur, and replace him with Darren Lehmann a mere two weeks before the start of the Investec Ashes series. He also agreed with an emotional James Pattinson’s assessment that the lack of rest afforded the bowlers by an inept first-innings batting display at Lord’s had contributed to his back stress fracture.But the major conclusion Howard was prepared to draw from Lord’s was that problems in the Australian game will take years to remedy, requiring even stronger alignment between the states and CA to strengthen the club and Sheffield Shield competitions that have been left in disrepair while Twenty20 dollars have been chased with far more vigour than adequate grounding for Test match cricketers.”When Australia and Australia A play over the same weekend and the highest scores were Glenn Maxwell and Moises Henriques getting 60s and 70s [in Zimbabwe], our ability to bat a long time needs to improve,” Howard said. “We need to work with the states to enforce that message around batting for a long time and batting with patience. Making sure Sheffield Shield cricket goes into the fourth day so we start getting footmarks, we start getting spinners bowling more in the Shield so they get used to that as well.”There’s a big process there to get right, and it’s going to take time. I definitely need to work with the states to get this to a point where the Shield prepares players for Tests even better. We would love lots more people scoring big hundreds at home. Only two people got three hundreds in Shield cricket last year, Ricky Ponting and Chris Rogers. One of them is here and one you know plenty about, so the system has got to help provide that.”A minor victory for CA’s high-performance regime in their battle with the marketing and programming side of the governing body’s Melbourne office is a change to the 2013-14 summer, which will see the domestic limited-overs competition played as a whole early in the season, before a run of six consecutive Shield matches leading up to the final two Tests of the summer. The Big Bash League then takes hold until mid-February.”I am happy about the fact it is not going Shield, one-dayer, Shield, one-dayer – there are six games of red-ball cricket in a row at the start of the season,” Howard said. “No interruptions, no trying to hit it over the top, people are going to have to be patient and spinners will get some time to get wickets. I am hoping we will reinforce over that period the discipline of red-ball cricket. It’s an opportunity for the coaches to drill in those messages.”On the matter of Arthur, Howard said he did not retreat for one moment from the call to install Lehmann, on a basis the South African has described as “totally unfair”.”When you sit there and look and have conversations, and there were plenty of articles written about what was right and what was wrong, you knew there was something that needed to be dealt with,” Howard said. “It was dealt with and you make decisions not just for one week or two weeks but you make them for a period and who’s going to best galvanise the side. I don’t want to go into that particularly, but who was going to get the best out of this group, that was a simple decision.”Obviously there is a legal issue going. I can’t comment on that. But it’s never nice when you get moved on. It’s happened to lots of people. It’s never nice. On the ground it’s not affecting the players. They’ve moved on, gone on and feel galvanised with this group. Even though there are two Tests we lost, was one close, the other we didn’t play well enough, clearly … I don’t move away. It was the right decision.”

MS Dhoni, the India captain, said he was happy with the experience gained by younger players in the series against Zimbabwe and on India A’s ongoing tour of South Africa

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Aug-2013MS Dhoni, the India captain, said he was happy with the experience gained by the younger players in the series against Zimbabwe and on India A’s ongoing tour of South Africa. According to Dhoni, these performances will hold India in good stead when the team embarks on their tour of South Africa in late November.”The exposure the boys are getting in Zimbabwe and South Africa will help them in the long run,” Dhoni said. “It will help them when they take on a quality opposition like South Africa later this year. They have done really well and the experience will help them in adjusting to conditions better.”India swept Zimbabwe 5-0 in their ODI tour, while India A took the the one-day tri-series, beating Australia A in the final. India A are also playing two unofficial Tests against South Africa A and have dominated the first game so far.Dhoni praised stand-in captain, Virat Kohli for his leadership during the Zimbabwe tour: “I think Virat did well in Zimbabwe. He is an expressive guy and that is important. He has changed a lot in the last one year and his approach is positive. His batting performance as captain is a good sign for Indian cricket.”Focusing on Australia’s upcoming ODI tour, which begins on October 10, Dhoni felt that the toss would be vital in dictating the outcome of the series, given that all the matches will be played into the night. “Around that time there will be a lot of dew, so it will be vital to win the toss. We will still try to give our best in the series,” he said.With former India captains Kapil Dev and Sourav Ganguly presenting their greatest Indian ODI and Test teams recently, Dhoni felt that such an exercise was futile because the game had evolved over the years: “I don’t think I will ever make my all-time greatest India team. You cannot compare one era with another as they will be different.”Whether a player has played one match or a hundred, we should give him respect for what he has achieved and leave it at that. It is like comparing two-stroke bikes with four-stroke. I don’t think you will get a better product by mixing them.”

An unbeaten 161-run fourth-wicket stand between B Aparajith and Manish Pandey helped South Zone overcome a shaky start and reach a healthy 213 for 3

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Oct-2013
ScorecardB Aparajith made an unbeaten 93 to rescue South Zone•ESPNcricinfo LtdAn unbeaten 161-run fourth-wicket stand between B Aparajith and Manish Pandey helped South Zone overcome a shaky start and reach a healthy 213 for 3 in the first day of their Duleep Trophy quarter-final clash against West Zone in Chennai. Only 54 overs of play were possible after the start was delayed by nearly three hours due to a wet outfield.South Zone, choosing to bat, struggled to cope with the seamers early on, and lost the openers Abhinav Mukund and Akshath Reddy off successive overs from Jaydev Unadkat and Murtuja Vahora respectively.KL Rahul, fresh from a series of impressive performances for the Under-23 team in the Emerging Teams Cup in Singapore, was sent in at No. 3 to provide some stability. However, he was trapped lbw for 6 by Yusuf Pathan in the 16th over, leaving South Zone at 52 for 3.But Aparajith and Pandey counterattacked by striking a total of 18 fours between them. Pandey had made successive fifties for India Blue in the recently concluded Challenger Trophy and he continued his good form with the bat on Thursday by hitting a 118-ball 81 that included seven fours and a six. He was given ample support at the other end by Aparajith, who hit 11 fours during a patient 93, seven short of what would be his second first-class century.West Zone captain Wasim Jaffer introduced Rakesh Dhruv, Akshay Darekar and Ankit Bawne all into the mix to break the partnership, but the pair stood firm and survived 38 overs, to give South Zone a solid platform to build on.

Dale Steyn has said he is excited to get back on the park after being ravaged by injury during the Champions Trophy in England three months ago

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-2013Dale Steyn, the South Africa fast bowler, has said he is excited to get back on the field after three months away from any competitive cricket. Steyn, who last played against West Indies during the Champions Trophy in June, said at the time that he was carrying no fewer than five injuries. As a consequence, he was forced to miss South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka in July.Steyn’s first assignment will be the Champions League T20, which starts on September 17. He is to fly out on Tuesday to join the Sunrisers Hyderabad, his IPL franchise. “There’s nothing better than a bit of game time,” Steyn said in Johannesburg on Sunday. “Playing a Twenty20 game, you’re still out in the field on your feet. You’re still bowling your overs at high intensity.”After the Champions Trophy in England, people will remember I didn’t play a lot of cricket there. I ended up with about five injuries walking away from that tournament. I had a side strain, groin, glute, neck and a bit of an ankle problem.”Steyn admitted that the first month of rehabilitation involved little more than taking it easy. “The doctors said I had to be off my feet for the next four weeks. I had four weeks where I did absolutely nothing, where I did no running or gyming.”He has since then stepped up his training in anticipation of the Champions League T20, and South Africa’s series against Pakistan in the UAE in October. “I’ve had four weeks where I’ve been training really hard. I’ve [got] back to the gym, running and bowling.”Two sessions a day for an hour and a half in the morning, then get back again in the afternoon. I haven’t been going to bed so early since I was in primary school, so it shows that I’ve been working quite hard.”With the wickets in the UAE expected to offer little in terms of movement and bounce, Steyn chose to take a pragmatic approach. “You always want to play on wickets that are green and moving around. You don’t always get those opportunities. That’s why we play cricket.”We get to play in some of the more difficult places in the world. If you just played at home, you could be a fantastic bowler with great skills on easy wickets to bowl on. It’s nice to go and test your skills somewhere where those skills are rarely tested. There’s not a lot of movement through the air, not a lot off the deck, so that’s nice. It can be frustrating at times, but that’s why we play these games.”With South Africa No.1 in the Test rankings, Steyn said it will be vital to keep the momentum going. “It would be fantastic if we could go there and win because it would hold us up there in that No.1 spot for a bit longer. It would make it difficult for other teams to knock us off that podium.”

West Indies Under-19 crumbled against spin bowling to crash to a 198-run defeat against Bangladesh Under-19 in the Youth ODI series in Guyana

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2013
ScorecardJubair Hossain’s late hat-trick sealed the win for Bangladesh Under-19s•WICB MediaWest Indies Under-19 crumbled against spin bowling to crash to a 198-run defeat against Bangladesh Under-19 in the Youth ODI series in Guyana. Chasing 287, a middle-order collapse saw West Indies reach only 88, giving Bangladesh a 2-1 lead in the seven-match series.West Indies began their chase steadily as openers Leroy Lugg and Jeremy Solozano added 39 runs. However, offspinner Mehedy Hassan and left-arm spinners Nihaduzzaman and Rahatul Ferdous dismissed the West Indies top order in the space of three overs to leave the batting side tottering at 44 for 3. Fabian Allen and wicketkeeper Shimron Hetmyre had a brief partnership of 24 runs, but once Hetmyre fell to Nihaduzzaman, West Indies slid from 68 for 4 to 88 all out in just 13 deliveries. Legspinner Jubair Hossain picked up a hat-trick, dismissing Jofra Archer, Jerome Jones and Bryan Charles for ducks. He finished with figures of 3 for 7 off two overs, with Ferdous also taking three.Earlier, Shadman Islam anchored the Bangladesh innings with a solid 95, after his side chose to bat. Shadman lost his opening partner, Munim Shahriar, early but combined with wicketkeeper Jashimuddin to add 116 runs for the second wicket. Jashimuddin scored 68 off 92 balls with six fours before he was dismissed by Taryck Gabriel. Shadman then added another 60 runs with Mossadek Hossain, and was also involved in useful partnerships with Nazmul Hussain Shanto and Mehedy Hasan, which helped consolidate Bangladesh’s score. Although the side lost three quick wickets towards the end, Shadman’s knock had ensured the side reached a strong 286 for 8.

England have finally relented from 15 years of opposition to the use of floodlights in Ashes matches in Australia, as both nations push the message to the ICC to ensure maximum possible playing hours be completed over the five Tests this summer

Daniel Brettig07-Nov-2013England have finally relented from 15 years of opposition to the use of floodlights in Ashes matches in Australia, as both nations push the message to the ICC to ensure maximum possible playing hours be completed over the five Tests this summer.Floodlights have been used in Tests in Australia since 1997, but, prior to this series, England had not agreed to their employment in Ashes matches down under, despite allowing floodlights to extend the playing hours in home Tests. As recently as 2010-11, the ECB had refused to permit the use of lights, forcing players off the field the moment the umpires deemed conditions to be unfair.However, both the English and Australian boards are currently preaching a message of intolerance for the unnecessary loss of play, following the farcical finish to the fifth Test of the previous series at The Oval, when the hosts’ chase for a fourth-innings target was stymied by the umpires on the grounds of safety despite no England batsman looking in any trouble. The ECB chairman Giles Clarke called the decision “totally unsatisfactory” and the result of “clearly unacceptable” regulations.While the ICC’s playing conditions around the use of lights and the umpires’ discretionary powers over bad light and safe circumstances for play have not changed, the appointed officials for the Ashes will be strongly encouraged by Cricket Australia and the ECB to ensure the maximum number of overs are delivered. This includes permitting play to continue under lights and also to be stricter on the enforcement of reasonable over rates, which slowed to glacial speeds at times in England.”Umpires need to take into account safety issues, that’s a priority, but ultimately we have to play more,” the CA chief executive James Sutherland said last month. “If the ground’s a little bit slippery or the clouds happen to be coming over, you’ve got to keep playing. There are millions of people watching on TV, lots of people listening on the radio and heaps of people who paid good money to come into the ground.”We’ve got to keep playing, that’s our obligation to the public, and our umpires need to push the envelope and the players need to understand that we’re playing the game, we’re getting on with it. Today it might be unfair to you, and it might be an unfortunate situation that you feel disadvantaged with, but the tide will turn and the next time it happens it may well be that it’s good for you.”The broad principle is we need to play more and we’ve been pushing that with the ICC, and we’ve been in discussion with the ECB about this summer playing under artificial light. In previous Ashes series, there’s been no suggestion of playing under artificial light, when we’re off, we’re off. But we’ve been talking to the ECB about that and it’s just a matter of getting the playing conditions right and giving the umpires the terms of reference to use consistently.”

Wasim Jaffer, the Mumbai captain, has said his team’s batsmen didn’t have it in them to play out time, after they were bowled out for 121 to lose to Karnataka

Vishal Dikshit in Bangalore25-Dec-2013After Mumbai’s first ever loss to Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy in 22 games, an irked Wasim Jaffer said the batsmen in his side didn’t have it in their nature to spend a long time at the crease. Mumbai were set a target of 282 from 83 overs, but were bowled out for 121 in just over 50 overs.”In their [youngsters’] nature they are very aggressive,”Jaffer said. “The perception of batting whole day like [KL] Rahul. That’s what I asked a lot of my youngsters, to bat whole day and show me they can bat 90 overs and show me 120 runs or maybe a hundred. But it’s a bit difficult for them as it’s not in their nature nowadays.”When asked what he would attribute this to, pat came the reply.”T20,” he said. “You are playing so many T20s, one-day cricket, so it’s going to be difficult. Kaustubh [Pawar] was capable but he didn’t last long. He got a bad decision in the first innings, but he was the one who could do that and obviously I got out cheaply.”A lot of players just want to play IPL as obviously you get a lot of recognition and lot of money involved there. To be honest it’s a lot of hard work playing first-class. To bowl for four days or bat whole day and get a hundred. T20 or IPL is a lot easier. So obviously the minds have changed. The generations coming would probably think why put so much hard work when they can just play three hours of cricket and go home.”Jaffer conceded that his decision to field first after winning the toss had backfired. Mumbai restricted Karnataka to 251 and took an 18-run lead, but Karnataka rallied in their second innings to set a competitive target.”We actually misread the pitch,” he said. “We should have batted first and we needed to score more than 350, or probably more than 300 runs, so a lot of ifs and buts. But I thought restricting Karnataka to 250 we did a good job, but we didn’t bat well in our first innings.”The target might have seemed within Mumbai’s grasp, but with an asking rate of 3.40, Jaffer stated they had decided right at the start they were not going to go for the win.Sharath cherishes match-winning figures

Man of the Match HS Sharath was ecstatic after Karnataka’s win and his eight wickets in the match.
“I didn’t know this was our first outright win against Mumbai. I’m very happy,” he said. “We just wanted to keep it simple and bowl in the right areas. Vinay and Mithun gave us good breakthroughs. That was the turning point for us and after that it was easy for me to bowl and pick up wickets.
“When we bowled in the first innings there was assistance from the pitch. We utilised it by bowling in the right areas, but in the second innings the ball was keeping low so we bowled wicket-to-wicket. Also there were cracks in the pitch in the second innings.”
Sharath said he cherished his third five-for more than his first one on debut because “the performance has come against a top team like Mumbai.”

“We were never going for the chase,” he said. “We wanted to bat till lunch and tea time and then see how we end up. There are a lot of inexperienced players so they might have messed it up. So I didn’t take a chance saying ‘let’s go for the chase’. If we were in a good position we might have gone for it otherwise we wanted to save this game. I thought the wicket would be better for batting as the day progressed. I didn’t see it cracking like that and staying so low. I thought it would get better.”While this was Jaffer’s 219th first-class match, the second-most experienced batsman in Mumbai’s ranks was Hiken Shah, who was playing his 34th game. The inexperience, in the absence of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar, was on display when the batsmen struggled to get starts and the longest partnership of the innings, between Shah and Siddhesh Lad, produced 43 runs.”It’s a very young side,” Jaffer said. “I have played about 110-120 [Ranji] games and the next probably would have played 15-17 games, that’s the maximum. There are some talented players but they will take time.”After winning three of their first four matches, Mumbai conceded three points to Jharkhand and, against Odisha, failed to take eight wickets on the last day, after enforcing the follow-on. Both of those had been at home. Jaffer said this was because the Wankhede Stadium pitch had turned flatter of late.”I think the Wankhede wicket has become a lot flatter than what it was,” he said. “It’s a bit hard to get outright victory there because after the first day it becomes a bit difficult for the bowlers. It doesn’t get a lot of spin like it used to and the team is very inexperienced. We played [Pravin] Tambe, he played his first game, Vishal [Dabholkar] is playing his 10th-11th game. It becomes a lot more difficult.”Last couple of games we couldn’t win. We lost to Jharkhand in the first innings, couldn’t get the full points. We couldn’t hold on to the three points here, that’s what went wrong.”With their final game against Gujarat starting December 30, Mumbai and three other teams – Gujarat, Punjab and Delhi – will fight for two knockout berths. “Hopefully, if we stay positive, we can win that game,” Jaffer said. “Then there is a chance.”