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He made the decision after his side, Balochistan, were eliminated from the National T20 Cup

Umar Farooq16-Oct-2020Pakistan fast bowler Umar Gul has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Gul (36), who represented Pakistan in 47 Tests, 130 ODIs and 60 T20Is from 2003-16, made the decision after his side, Balochistan, were eliminated from the National T20 Cup on Friday night against Southern Punjab.After the game, a visibly emotional Gul thanked his family, coaches and team-mates throughout his career, and was given a guard of honour by both sets of players.Gul, from Peshawar, retires as a modern great of Pakistan fast bowling. He was the leading wicket-taker during Pakistan’s run to the 2007 World T20 final, and also the leading wicket-taker in the 2009 edition, when Pakistan won the trophy. He spent much of this time heading the world T20 rankings, with a reputation as the best yorker bowler in the format. His career best, five for 6 against New Zealand at the World T20 in 2009 were, at the time, the best ever T20 bowling figures. Currently, he’s part of PCB’s cricket committee.”It has been an honour to represent my club, city, province and country at various levels for two decades,” Gul said after the game. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my cricket, which has taught me the values of hard work, respect, commitment and determination. During this journey, I have had the pleasure of meeting numerous people who have helped and supported me in some way. I want to thank all those people as well as my teammates and peers for their support.”I owe a big thank you to the fans who supported me throughout my journey. They have been an inspiration, especially at times when the going was not great. Lastly, I thank my family for standing firmly behind me throughout my career and helping me to cherish my dreams of not only playing cricket but traveling across the country and globe. They have sacrificed a lot, while I too have missed their presence and company. I now look forward to spending valuable time with them but it will be difficult to stay away from cricket and I now look forward to giving back to the sport and the country that has made me one of the most fortunate people on the planet.”He began his career on the under-19 circuit and represented Pakistan in the U-19 Cricket World Cup 2002 in New Zealand. He had played just nine first-class matches when he was called up for the national side after Pakistan’s disastrous performance at the 2003 World Cup that saw both Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis fade away. He played 125 first-class, 213 List-A and 167 T20 matches, in which he took a total of 987 wickets.He was a regular member of the national team until a knee injury surfaced in 2012. He took on more responsibility in long-form cricket and became the leader of the Pakistan attack after the spot-fixing bans on Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif in 2010. However, injuries put paid to his hopes of sustaining that spell in his career as he missed large parts of 2013 and 2014, which needed surgery in Australia.He hadn’t been centrally contracted since and was also left out of the 2015 World Cup squad. While he did make a comeback in 2016, it was all too brief as the Pakistan selectors and the team management seem to have moved on.

Feroze Khushi seen trying to avoid beer being poured over him after Bob Willis Trophy win

George Dobell28-Sep-2020Essex have admitted “further work needs to be done” on their approach to diversity after photographs of their celebrations at Lord’s appeared to show a Muslim player being showered with alcohol.Essex lifted the Bob Willis Trophy on Sunday, triggering scenes of jubilation on the balcony of their dressing room at Lord’s. Amid the photographs of those moments, Feroze Khushi, a 21-year-old batsman who played several games in the earlier stages of the tournament, is seen grimacing as beer is poured over his head by another young player on the staff. ESPNcricinfo has chosen not to name that player.While Essex released a statement insisting the club “pride themselves on their work within multi-diverse communities”, they admitted the celebrations “did not meet the inclusive values of the organisation”.”As an organisation, Essex County Cricket Club prides themselves on their work within multi-diverse communities throughout the county and the surrounding areas,” the statement said.”For a substantial period of time, Essex have had a multi-diverse team with players from different backgrounds, religions, and races, where cricket is at the heart of these communities.”The club has worked extremely hard and will continue to bring cricket to anybody and everybody, and educate on diversity, but further work needs to be done across both sport and society in general, to widen people’s knowledge and make them more aware of cultural differences.”Essex County Cricket Club are in regular dialogue with the ECB and the PCA around the education and development in this area.”But the statement left some members of the Muslim cricket community underwhelmed. “I’m not really satisfied with that,” Sajid Patel of the National Cricket League, told ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve been discussing such issues for a long time. I would have thought the answers to these issues had filtered down by now.”I don’t think there’s any benefit in blaming one, young player. Looking at those photographs, it seems the issue is more about ignorance than malice. No doubt the young man will learn from the experience.”But I do blame the whole system. I do blame the team manager and the senior players who didn’t foresee this problem. I do think the PCA should be doing more to educate young players in this regard.”In recent years, England’s Test and ODI teams – which have regularly featured two Muslim players in Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid – have desisted from spraying champagne during their trophy presentations to allow the pair to take a fuller part in the celebrations.”We’ve seen the England team manage their celebrations in such a way that the Muslim players are included,” Patel added. “We should be better than this by now.”

Hobart Hurricanes made amends for an embarrassing BBL opener with a 20-run victory over Brisbane Heat at Blundstone Arena in Hobart

The Report by Tristan Lavalette22-Dec-2015
ScorecardTim Paine anchored the innings with a 58-ball 87•Getty Images

Hobart Hurricanes made amends for an embarrassing BBL opener with a 20-run victory over Brisbane Heat at Blundstone Arena in Hobart. After losing by 95 runs and being steamrolled humiliatingly for 91 against Sydney Sixers just two days earlier, the Hurricanes rebounded with a fine all-round performance against Heat.After captain Tim Paine won the toss and elected to bat on a flat pitch, there was no batting calamity on this occasion with the Hurricanes batting aggressively, yet smartly to notch an imposing 3 for 184. They batted with intent but valued their wickets, with Paine exemplifying this approach by being the mainstay for the Hurricanes throughout. Paine scored an unbeaten 87 from 58 balls, and combined in consecutive half-century partnerships with Kumar Sangakkara and George Bailey.In their chase, the Heat lost wickets at regular intervals despite the best efforts of allrounder Jason Floros who was promoted to No.3 to counterattack Hurricanes’ spin duo of Cameron Boyce and Clive Rose. Floros scored an enterprising 42 from 23 but it was not nearly enough despite some late hitting from Nathan Reardon (41 from 32 balls). Despite teasing on occasions, the Heat fell short at 8 for 164.Dan Christian thwarted his former side with the key wickets of Lendl Simmons and Peter Forrest, but perhaps most importantly, he spectacularly caught danger man Chris Lynn (1) after the ball lingered high in the air. The juggled catch was one of four catches for Christian in the game.The Hurricanes bowlers and fielders backed up a disciplined performance by their top order. Openers Paine and Ben Dunk made a circumspect start in a determined bid to ensure a repeat of the calamity in Sydney was not replicated. They played respectfully, and in a fashion that was notably different to the explosive template of T20 cricket with only nine runs scored in the opening two overs. But Paine soon launched and smashed a couple of brutal pull shots that rocketed out of the small ground.After Dunk was run out by a direct throw side-on from Forrest, Paine combined with Sangakkara to give the Hurricanes the initiative. After his first ball flop in his BBL debut against the Sixers, Sangakkara started cautiously. But it wasn’t long before Sangakkara’s glorious off-side game flourished, ensuring runs were ticking along briskly without doing anything rash.Paine and Sangakkara complemented each other perfectly, with the Hurricanes captain’s brashness a nice juxtaposition to the stylish Sri Lankan. Just when it seemed he was about to shift gears, Sangakkara fell for a 31-ball 43 holing out off a Ben Cutting length delivery, ending the 77-run partnership off 51 balls.While his teammates were getting thrashed around, Cutting was the pick of the bowlers with 1 for 32 from his four overs, but his figures were blighted by a 13-run final over.Bailey, who scored 62 against the Sixers in a lone hand, continued his fine form bashing the Heat attack to all parts. He treated renowned disciplined spinner Samuel Badree with disdain, punctuated by a massive six over long-on after skipping down the track.Bailey (40 off 21 balls) holed out in the penultimate over but the damage had been done. The defeat ensured the Heat, last year’s bottom-placed team, are winless after two matches.

Ellyse Perry played a dominant part in the Southern Stars’ consolation victory over India, in the third match of the women’s Twenty20 series

The Report by Daniel Brettig31-Jan-2016
ScorecardEllyse Perry finished with career-best figures of 4 for 12•Getty Images

Ellyse Perry played a dominant part in the Southern Stars’ consolation victory over India, in the third match of the women’s Twenty20 series, at the SCG.Having chosen to play in the third T20 match rather than appear in the W-League grand final, which also happened to fall on Sunday, Perry made it count by striking 55 from 41 balls then dismantling India’s middle order in a swift and accurate second spell that left her with memorable figures of 4 for 12 – a new personal best in T20s.A pair of successful chases in Adelaide and Melbourne had already given India the series victory, so it was no surprise to see Mithali Raj send the Australians in to bat after a successful call at the toss. Things did not look like improving for the hosts when Alyssa Healy perished to the very first ball of the match from Jhulan Goswami.However the Southern Stars captain Meg Lanning combined with Beth Mooney for a steadying stand, setting down a platform that allowed Perry to launch when she arrived at the crease in the eighth over. While wickets fell regularly at the other end, Perry’s sure eye and considerable power had her clearing the ropes three times to help Australia to a more than defendable tally of 136.A crowd that would build up to 7,169 by the finish was left to wonder for some time whether this would turn out to be a series sweep by India, as Vellaswamy Vanitha, Veda Krishnamurthy and Harmanpreet Kaur all made strong contributions. But none were able to go on from their starts to the sort of substantial score Perry had made, and from 3 for 94 in the 14th over things began to unravel.Rene Farrell had made a key incision by defeating Raj with a perfectly-pitched slower ball out the back of the hand, but the slide was to be largely induced by Perry’s speed and accuracy. She epitomised this with a fast and precise delivery that splayed the stumps of Anuja Patel.Perry’s four wickets more or less decided the contest before Farrell claimed one more wicket when Shikha Pandey skied one for Healy to pouch, and the last two overs played out without India ever looking like reaching the target.

Shane Watson’s 80 off 41 looked threatening at one point but Quetta Gladiators eventually fell short

The Report by Danyal Rasool29-Feb-2020Whatever happened at the 10-over mark in the first innings, Multan Sultans need to patent. After a sluggish start from the hosts that saw them shuffle along to 65 in 10 overs, Rilee Rossouw caught fire all of a sudden, a stunning onslaught resulting in the fastest century in PSL history and an astonishing 134 runs in the final 10 overs that set Quetta Gladiators 200 to win, a target they fell short of by 31 runs.Quetta, as you might expect, gave it as good a go as their capabilities might allow, with Shane Watson at one point looking like he might pull of a heist for his side. But Quetta’s cack-handedness with the ball and in the field left him and his team with far too much to do and much too little time. Even as the sixes flew, the asking rate continued to balloon, and once Watson was dismissed, Quetta’s fate was sealed.Rilee Rossouw celebrates his quickfire century•PCB

The mood music at the start was worlds removed from its frenetic, run-heavy conclusion. Shan Masood became the first captain to opt to bat this season, and Quetta looked like they would make him regret that decision when Zeeshan Ashraf fell early and James Vince searched unsuccessfully for the sweet timing he is so coveted for. Mohammad Nawaz stifled the batsmen at the start, while Naseem Shah begun brightly.All of that went to ruin after the halfway mark, though. The moment Rossouw biffed Anwar Ali for a six the first ball of the 11th over, Quetta lost their collective composure. You could count the number of times they hit their spots from that point onwards on one hand, and Rossouw capitalised on the chaos. Just one over between 11 and 18 went for fewer than 12 runs, and while Masood got some of his own hits in, it was all about Rossouw. He would bring up his hundred in the final over; it had taken just 43 balls, including 10 fours and half a dozen sixes.Watson tried his best to match that, and batting alongside Jason Roy, brought up the 50 partnership in the sixth over. But soon after Roy holed out to deep midwicket, it quickly became clear this would be a one-person effort. That Watson took it as far as he did was achievement enough, and it isn’t often a 41-ball 80 is on the wrong side of a PSL result. But this was clearly Rossouw’s game, and Watson was merely playing in it.The supporting actNot many will come away from the game reminiscing about Masood’s 32-ball 46, and why would they, given what else just happened in that first innings? But the value of it becomes clear when you notice it was the one thing Quetta lacked in the chase. Rossouw had, in Masood, the perfect foil on the other end, with his captain ensuring he didn’t give his wicket away or hog too much of the strike. When Masood got the strike, he got away the odd boundary and turned it over quickly to the South African, neither heaping pressure on him nor starving him of the strike. Together, they put together a partnership that totalled 139 runs in 64 balls.By contrast, Quetta managed no partnership greater than Roy and Watson’s 57 at the top, and no other Quetta batsman could even reach 15. That meant the pressure was squarely on Watson’s shoulders, further driving home the point if they were going to take it close, it was all on him. Other batsmen who had helped them win big games this season all failed, with Azam Khan falling early and Ben Cutting holing out for 12. The sort of innings Masood had played was absent from Sarfaraz Ahmed’s side, and it wasn’t a surprise to see the result pan out the way it did.Star of the dayRossouw and Watson may get the hundreds and entertain the fans most, but in a game where 200 was nearly scored and then changed, perhaps the most remarkable numbers were posted by Imran Tahir. While Watson and the rest of the Quetta top order ran riot, Tahir ensured the game wouldn’t run away from Multan. Varying his flight, pace and googly with all the experience any T20 side treasures in him, Tahir kept the Quetta batsmen guessing, and, even more importantly in such a high-scoring game, cautious.It wasn’t like he had all the luck, either. In his third over, as Watson’s charge built up a crescendo, Tahir had him into skying a drive down to long-off, where Moeen Ali stood perched for a simple catch. Moeen somehow grassed the opportunity, but undeterred, Tahir dismissed Azam Khan the next ball. He wasn’t done with Watson, either, coming back the following over and coaxing a nearly identical shot from the batsman. This time, Moeen would make no mistake. In a game where scoring ten an over was the order of the day, Tahir’s figures of 4-0-27-2 didn’t flatter him in the slightest.Multan surged at the top of the table, having swept all three games in their home city. They now have four wins in five, while Quetta sit just below them, with three wins from five matches.

Mitchell Starc’s eight-for in the second innings left NSW with only 57 to get but they made heavy weather of the chase before completing a six-wicket victory

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Oct-2017
ScorecardGetty Images

Mitchell Starc marked England’s Ashes arrival with a devastating, career-best 8 for 73 for New South Wales to dismantle South Australia in the day-night Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval. National captain Steven Smith, however, made another low score before the Blues sealed a six-wicket victory.In a match where ball dominated bat, Starc’s dominance was aided by a pair of wickets for fellow Test bowler Nathan Lyon, as the Redbacks were unable to set NSW a truly challenging target on the third afternoon of the fixture.Starc had never previously taken more than six wickets in an innings, but his fast yorkers were much too good for SA’s lower order, including the Test wicket-keeping aspirant Alex Carey, who was pinned lbw. SA’s captain Callum Ferguson provided most of the hosts’ resistance, but he was fortunate to be dropped by Peter Nevill – another wicket-keeping candidate – off Pat Cummins.Left needing only 57, the Blues made hard work of it, losing Nic Maddinson, Smith, David Warner and Kurtis Patterson before they were able to close the match out. Chadd Sayers, 12th man for the Adelaide Test a year ago, was another bowler to have an excellent match, claiming six wickets without having much in the way of scoreboard pressure to help him.

Paul Collingwood has played down England’s growing injury list ahead of the first Twenty20 international on Friday

Cricinfo staff11-Nov-2009Paul Collingwood has played down England’s growing injury list ahead of the first Twenty20 international on Friday following the side’s four-wicket defeat against South Africa A in Bloemfontein.England went into the match without their three frontline quicks with James Anderson (knee), Stuart Broad (shoulder) and Graham Onions (back) all on the sidelines. With Andrew Strauss not considered for the Twenty20 team it left Collingwood only 11 fit players and towards the end of the game Graeme Swann also left the field with a tight thigh.However, Swann’s problem was said to be minor and the medical staff were not overly concerned, while Anderson and Onions are expected to be in contention to face South Africa at the Wanderers. Broad, though, is struggling to recover in time for the Twenty20 matches and is unlikely to be risked before the one-day series begins at the end of next week.”I think he [Broad] is going to be doubtful. I mean it’s pretty much going to take a miracle if he’s going to be fit for the Twenty20s,” Collingwood told reporters. “He has been very sore on the shoulder there, but he’s progressing well, so hopefully he’ll be available for the first one-dayer.”Jimmy’s just a little bit stiff in the right knee, but again he should be fit for Friday and Graham Onions will come back into the reckoning as well. [Swann] came off with a stiff side, but he’s spoken to the medical staff and they don’t seem to be too concerned.”After a promising opening to the tour, with two convincing warm-up victories against the Eagles and Warriors, this is a more familiar feel to England’s overseas expeditions with defeat against a second-string side and a list of injury worries. At the same time South Africa were hitting their stride against Zimbabwe, but Collingwood has his fingers crossed that the team have got their bad performance out of the way.”I’m hoping tonight is just a blip. We’ve done a lot of good stuff so far on this tour,” he said. “Obviously Twenty20 cricket’s a different format of the game – you’re a bit more rushed out in the middle. We’ll obviously come out of this, we’ll learn from it, we’ll discuss it before Friday and hopefully put on a better performance.”I never like losing, but I think sometimes it is going to be a little bit of a reality check as well. Tonight we got one of the disciplines wrong. That’s the area we’ve got to bounce back from and do better on Friday.”

Sri Lanka’s captain has expressed ‘regret’ over his decision not to tour the country for September’s limited-overs matches

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Karachi18-Dec-2019Halfway through the Test series, several Sri Lanka players have expressed confidence that Pakistan is safe to tour. Not only that, captain Dimuth Karunaratne now even regrets pulling out of the ODI leg in September.Pakistan and Sri Lanka had originally been slated to play the ongoing Test series in September, and the limited-overs leg at this time of year. But so intent was the PCB on resuming Test cricket in Pakistan that they switched the series around, hoping that a safe and successful limited-overs tour would convince the holdouts among the Sri Lanka Test side to travel to Pakistan.It worked. Members of the limited-overs side took good reports of the security situation in Pakistan back to Sri Lanka’s senior players. Karunaratne had been among 10 cricketers to opt out of the September tour, but all of those players made themselves available for the Test series.”Now I do regret not coming for the shorter formats,” Karunaratne said, ahead of the Karachi Test. “At that time it was a really hard decision to take, because I had heard and read lots of things about Pakistan on news and social media – not positive things. But the guys who came here before gave really good comments and that’s why all the seniors decided to go and play a good Test series. Now I think I should have come and played the one-dayers.”The PCB took a further step towards normalising high-profile tours of Pakistan on Wednesday, when it confirmed a tour of Pakistan in February 2020 by an MCC team led by Kumar Sangakkara. It is also hoped that Bangladesh will tour sometime in the next eight weeks, but that visit has not yet been confirmed. Another series, with South Africa, is also in the works, while the Pakistan Super League is expected to be played in Pakistan in its entirety next year.”I can’t appeal to Bangladesh about whether they should come, but what I can say is that for me it feels really safe,” Karunaratne said. “The guys who are giving us security, they are giving us not just 100% but more than 100%. That’s why we feel really good. We went out for dinner as well. I can say that Pakistan is now safe for cricket.”The ongoing Test series is the first in the country since 2009, when the Sri Lanka team bus was attacked by terrorists in Lahore. Six security personnel and two civilians were killed in that attack.

The ground is facing a significant increase in usage this year, and an incident in the soccer at the weekend reignited the debate about cricket’s position

Andrew McGlashan09-Apr-20195:18

What’s the fuss about Drop-In pitches?

The Sydney Cricket Ground is coming under renewed pressure to replace its pitch with a drop-in track to ensure a better surface for the variety of other sports that now use the stadium.The issue resurfaced over the weekend during the A-league soccer match between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory when Victory’s Terry Antonis suffered a knee injury on an area of the surface at the edge of the wicket block.A-league boss Greg O’Rourke acknowledged the surface had passed pre-match inspections but said: “The SCG’s wicket block, though, compromises the uniformity of the field for football in particular.””We appreciate all the work that the SCG Trust has undertaken to accommodate an unprecedented amount of activity on the SCG in recent months and we will continue to work with them in regards to venue usage in the future.”ALSO READ: Everybody loses in Sydney’s turf warsSydney FC’s next match, against Perth Glory, has been moved away from the SCG. The ground is facing a significant increase in usage due to the demolition of the Allianz Stadium next door, meaning both rugby codes and soccer have moved in.However, while the latest controversy has arisen with soccer, it is the AFL that will apply the major pressure to the ground. Sydney Swans are just five years into a 30-year contract with the venue which, unlike the MCG and Adelaide Oval, along with the new multi-purpose Optus Stadium in Perth, have resisted the move away from natural wickets.”With a wicket base on the ground, it’s something we’ve always been mindful of, obviously we’d support a drop in wicket if that was part of the discussion,” Swans coach John Longmire said. “It’s certainly very important to discuss it, it’s a 12 months a year venue.”Clouds over the SCG?•Getty Images

“It gets highlighted now because there’s more traffic here, and every weekend there’s a game where that hasn’t been the case in the past. Ideally, the winter codes would appreciate having just the same turf all over the ground. We understand we’ve got compromises. They play a lot of cricket here.”It is understood the SCG Trust, New South Wales Cricket and Cricket Australia would strongly resist attempts to introduce a drop-in pitch at the SCG.During a typical summer, the SCG will host one match in each men’s international format and is the home for Sydney Sixers in the BBL. Sheffield Shield is still played at the ground but in a limited capacity with late-season matches in the recent campaign being taken to outgrounds at Bankstown and Drummoyne. If New South Wales had hosted the Shield final, it would have had to be played in Wollongong, 100km south of Sydney, due to the unavailability of the SCG which, under the current agreement, is handed over to AFL in mid-March.Last year, NSW confirmed plans to build a new base in the Sydney Olympic Park area but said they still planned to play the majority of their Shield matches at the SCG.Even if the SCG decided it wanted to consider the drop-in pitch route, there would be logistical challenges of how to transport them into the stadium. There also remain concerns about drop-in pitches taking away the natural characteristics of venues and producing sub-standard surfaces.The MCG – the forerunners when it comes to using drop-in pitches – has faced significant challenges over the last couple of years but the development of drop-ins is constantly improving as shown by the generally excellent pitches at Adelaide Oval while the Perth Stadium pitch, while raising a few eyebrows during the India Test and being rated ‘average’ by ICC, produced a compelling Test match and the BBL pitches got better during the season.

Raman, who played 11 Tests and 27 ODIs, has had coaching stints at Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders apart from the NCA

Annesha Ghosh in Mumbai20-Dec-2018WV Raman has been appointed the India women head coach after a day-long series of interviews conducted by a three-member ad-hoc committee set up by the BCCI for the purpose. Raman was one of three names, along with Gary Kirsten and Venkatesh Prasad, recommended by the committee to the board after interviewing nine applicants on Thursday in Mumbai.Raman, the former Tamil Nadu opening batsman, played 11 Tests and 27 ODIs in an international career stretching from 1988 to 1997. He has since transitioned into an extensive coaching career, which, ESPNcricinfo understands, strengthened his case. He has served as the head coach of state teams Bengal and Tamil Nadu, been assistant coach of Kings XI Punjab (2013) and the batting coach of Kolkata Knight Riders when they won their second IPL title in 2014. Later, he was named the batting coach at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru in 2015.
What also worked in his favour vis a vis Prasad was the panel preferring a former international batsman to a bowler in the role of head coach. Raman, however, is understood to have suggested that the board consider appointing a bowling coach for the team’s benefit.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Kirsten was the most high-profile candidate but his role as coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore will mean a potential conflict of scheduling with the women’s team. The BCCI release confirming Raman’s appointment also mentioned that this could have been a possible conflict-of-interest situation as per the new BCCI constitution.It is also learnt that the panel suggested to the CoA the possibility of having Kalpana Venkatachar, the former India Test batsman and current coach of the Meghalaya women’s team, and the only female candidate to have been interviewed, hired as a deputy.Anshuman Gaekwad, one of the three members on the ad-hoc committee alongside Kapil Dev and Shantha Rangswamy, said the panel had done its “job in the best manner” it could and that the decision would be taken by the board.”[Three names were recommended] for any last-minute changes, who’s available or not,” he said. “The interviews were conducted only for the head coach and not any deputy or assistant role or any other support staff.”ALSO READ: How the Mithali-Powar mudslinging saga unfoldedThe position has been vacant since Ramesh Powar’s term expired on November 30.

ODI, T20I squad selection on Friday

The ODI and T20I squads for the upcoming limited-overs tour of New Zealand are likely to be selected on Friday afternoon in Delhi. ODI captain Mithali Raj is likely to be in attendance, while T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur is expected to join in via Skype, although she is scheduled to play for Sydney Thunder against the Hobart Hurricanes in the WBBL starting 8.20am IST. India are scheduled to play three ODIs and as many T20Is against New Zealand starting January 24. The three T20Is will be double-headers along with the men’s T20Is in February.

Powar had reapplied for the role after not being handed an extension amid controversial circumstances; he was among the three candidates, including Raman and Manoj Prabhakar, to be interviewed in person at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai but was not among the final three candidates recommended by the ad-hoc committee.Five other applicants from the shortlist, including Kirsten, were interviewed via Skype.While Kirsten has coached the India and South Africa men’s teams before working with Delhi Daredevils and now with RCB, Prasad was the India bowling coach with the victorious India men’s team during the inaugural World T20 in 2007. Prasad then became the coach of the domestic team Uttar Pradesh before taking over as the chairman of India’s junior selection committee, a position he relinquished earlier this year to become the bowling coach of Kings XI Punjab.Raman will now be the fourth coach in 20 months, a timespan that also involved the controversial ousters of two head coaches – former India women captain Purnima Rau in April 2017 and, her replacement, the former Baroda spinner Tushar Arothe in July this year, both of whom had to vacate the position on the demand of seniors players.Before it came to a fractious end, Powar’s tenure saw India clinch limited-overs series victories in Sri Lanka in September, and beat Australia A in an unofficial T20I series in Mumbai where India fielded their regular side. Before the semi-final loss to England – his last match in charge – the team enjoyed an unbeaten run at the World T20, notable for victories over New Zealand and Australia.Powar, the first of the three applicants to have arrived at the headquarters for the interview, had made it to the initial shortlist from a longlist of 28 candidates after the position opened up in the wake of the non-renewal of his contract.Both Powar and Prabhakar are understood to have impressed the panel. Despite his formidable credentials, including coaching India to their first World T20 semi-final in eight years, Powar failed to make the cut largely owing to the controversies that preceded his reapplication.Much of the focus behind selecting the head coach, it is understood, had been on gauging the potential of the candidates at managing the personnel in the team and the sussing out the needs of the support staff.