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The EPP suffered a batting collapse on the second day of their match against the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy as they fell from 153 for 1 to close on 235 for 7

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Dec-2012
ScorecardEngland’s Performance Programme squad won their tour match against Dr DY Patil Sport Academy, racing past a target of 228 in just 30.1 overs. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes provided the power, hitting 13 sixes between them, after two declarations on day three set up the chance of a result.The EPP halted their first innings on their overnight score of 235 for 7, still trailing by 42 runs, before Stokes, Toby Roland-Jones and Stuart Meaker helped reduce the Academy to 47 for 4 and then 85 for 5. Prashant Naik and Pankaj Jaiswal put on 100 for the sixth wicket, the declaration coming when Naik fell to Varun Chopra’s occasional offspin for 70.After Chopra and James Taylor opened the first innings, Craig Kieswetter and Gary Ballance strode out second time around. They fell in pursuit of quick runs but Stokes and Buttler cracked on, adding 91 in eight overs.Taylor then joined Buttler in another 50 partnership and although Vishal Dabholkar returned to claim his second and third wickets, the EPP overhauled their target with almost four overs to spare. The win was their second on tour, after an innings victory against the same opponents last week.

Kamran Akmal, the Pakistan wicketkeeper, has said he is in favour of having the PCB check the assets and bank accounts of all of its players every six months to ensure that the players are clean

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Nov-2011Kamran Akmal, the Pakistan wicketkeeper, has said he is in favour of having the PCB check the assets and bank accounts of all of its players every six months to ensure that the players are clean.”I would support any move by the PCB to regularly check player assets and accounts,” Akmal told . “I say it should be a six month exercise. Only such an exercise can clean up our image and end these baseless allegations made against us all the time.”Earlier this month, three Pakistan players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – were given jail sentences after they were found found guilty of conspiring to bowl pre-determined no-balls in the Lord’s Test against England in August 2010. Following the spot-fixing trial, the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit said they were considering new investigations based on information that came out during the trial.”I would welcome any move by the ICC to have a fresh inquiry based on evidence allegedly given in the spot-fixing trial in London,” Akmal said. “I am ready to make myself available to any investigation. Because I want this stigma to go away for ever.”The ICC and PCB cleared me to play for Pakistan but yet the media keeps on mentioning my name in relation to spot-fixing stories.”Akmal has had a controversial time behind the stumps for Pakistan over the course of his career and has been criticised for his shoddy wicketkeeping. He was dropped after the 2011 World Cup semi-final in which Pakistan lost to India, and his place was taken by his youngest brother, Adnan Akmal. He subsequently lost his central contract for the second half of 2011 as well, but said he is determined to prove his worth in domestic cricket and make a comeback.

Brett Lee showed more improvement after injury but it was Stuart Clark and Scott Coyte who claimed the recognition as New South Wales swept past Queensland

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Oct-2010

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsScott Coyte narrowly missed a hat-trick as he collected 3 for 31•Getty Images

Brett Lee showed more improvement after injury but it was Stuart Clark and Scott Coyte who claimed the recognition as New South Wales swept past Queensland at the Gabba. The Blues overhauled the hosts’ 158 in the 33rd over for the loss of four wickets, taking advantage of the powerful performance from their bowlers.Clark was the Man of the Match for grabbing an early victim in both innings and Coyte finished the Bulls off with three breakthroughs in four balls. Coyte, a former indoor cricketer, cut his run-up to help speed up the over-rate and struck in devastating fashion.After dismissing Chris Hartley, he knocked over Nathan Rimmington and Chris Swan, and would have had a hat-trick if Peter Nevill had picked up Cameron Boyce’s legside nick. The return of 3 for 31 was a relief for Coyte, who started with an 11-ball over.Clark collected 2 for 31 off nine overs in the seaming conditions while Lee returned 2 for 43, including the played-on of Lee Carseldine. Lee operated mostly in the 130kphs and moved the ball through the air as he continues to gain confidence after six months of rehabilitation on his elbow.On a difficult night for batting, Queensland were 4 for 89 after 20 overs and needed James Hopes’ late 39 off 34. Phil Jaques (30) helped the Blues to a two-run lead after their first innings while Moises Henriques (36) and Nic Maddinson – the 18-year-old was unbeaten on 39 – steered them home.

The IPL will include two more teams from the 2011 season and will auction the franchise rights at a base price of $225 million, the league’s commissioner Lalit Modi announced

Nagraj Gollapudi17-Dec-2009The IPL will include two more teams from the 2011 season and will auction the franchise rights at a base price of $225 million, the league’s commissioner Lalit Modi announced on Thursday. That figure – double of what the most expensive franchise was sold for in 2008 and more than four times the base price in that first auction – is, in an uncertain market, a sign of the league’s confidence in itself and the Twenty20 format.That valuation is all the more surprising given that the franchises will almost certainly be based in relatively small markets – the metros and bigger cities already have teams. The favourites to be host cities for the two teams are Ahmedabad and Lucknow.However, signs of the IPL’s growing net worth were evident in February when Rajasthan Royals, the then IPL champions, sold a 11.7% stake in their franchise for approximately US$15.4 million. That put the valuation of the franchise at around $140m, more than double the $67m paid for it a year previously.The league’s expansion will see a much longer fixture list – 94 games as opposed to 59 in the first two seasons if the format remains the same – and accommodating it in the 45-day window without compromising players’ fitness, and keeping the international calendar in mind, will be a challenge.Modi’s announcement followed a meeting of the IPL’s governing council at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai that was also attended by board president Shashank Manohar and secretary N Srinivasan.He announced details of next season’s league, which will begin on March 12 in Hyderabad – home to the current champions, the Deccan Chargers – with the final and the third place play-off on April 25 at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The semi-finals will be held in Bangalore.Another important decision taken today was to remove the two-player cap on centrally contracted Australian players in each IPL team. The cap had been in response to Cricket Australia’s concern of an exodus from its pool of contracted players when the league started.Modi also said he had received requests from 12 Pakistan players to be part of the auction for the third IPL on January 19. Each team has been allotted $750,000 to make new signings at that auction.The player auction for the fourth IPL will take place after the Champions League in the third or fourth quarter of 2010. The process for the players would be on the same lines as during the inaugural edition but said only “certain” players would be bid without going into much details. “The current franchises would be allowed to keep a certain number of players, the modalities are being worked out.”

From 77 for 2, Zimbabwe collapsed to 108 all out in their chase

Danyal Rasool01-Dec-2024Pakistan saw off a brief scare from Zimbabwe to seal a 57-run win and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series in Bulawayo. A late, unbroken stand of 65 in 34 balls between Tayyab Tahir and Irfan Khan following a bit-part batting effort helped them surge to 165 with 34 runs in the final two overs. Even that appeared like it might not be enough when Sikandar Raza and Tadiwanashe Marumani got the hosts off to a flier, with the hosts sitting pretty at 75 for 2 in eight overs.But the fall of that partnership triggered an immediate implosion as Sufiyan Muqeem and Haris Rauf ripped through the Zimbabwe line-up. They lost their last eight wickets for 31 runs as Pakistan wrapped up a win that looked more comfortable on the scorecard than it was for three quarters of the contest.

Pakistan start brightly

The visitors included Saim Ayub in the T20I squad just before the start of the series, and the in-form left-hander was instrumental in getting them up and running. Omair Yousaf took on Blessing Muzarabani in the second over but was fortunate to be out there, having been dropped in the first over. Zimbabwe’s catching was an issue for much of the innings; in the following over, Usman Khan was put down first ball he faced. Ayub picked up the next ball over point for a glorious six, while Usman helped himself to 11 in the over that followed. By the end of the fifth over, Pakistan had romped to 49, and on a belter of a batting surface, 200 did not seem unrealistic.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The spin squeeze

Sikandar Raza’s consistency is almost boring by this point, but he was at his all-round best on Sunday. Bringing himself on when Pakistan were soaring at the end of the powerplay, he sent down four near-perfect overs, landing barely a ball in the wrong place. Thirteen of his 24 deliveries were dot balls as he allowed just 14 runs during his spell. It was during this time that Pakistan slowed almost to a grinding halt, going 63 deliveries without a boundary.At the other end, Ryan Burl and Wellington Masakadza held the fort down as wickets fell at regular intervals; between the end of the 6th over and the start of the 19th, Pakistan could only score 79 runs in 13 overs. It will invariably leave Pakistan with questions to ask of their middle order that seemed unable to cope with the pressure or keep up the scoring rate, with captain Salman Ali Agha struggling most of all.

The scare

An onslaught in the final two overs got Pakistan to 165, but Zimbabwe came out of the traps brimming with belief they could chase this down. Undeterred by the early loss of Brian Bennett and Dion Myers, Marumani and Raza took Pakistan on, and took them down, in the powerplay. Marumani plundered 20 off Jehandad Khan’s second over, while three successive fours by Raza off Abrar Ahmed got Zimbabwe to 50 in the fifth over, quicker than Pakistan had managed during their brisk start.But Zimbabwe’s Achilles’ heel has been the lower middle order, and so it proved once more. As soon as a careless run-out put paid to Marumani’s innings, the rot set in once more. Raza was isolated at the non-striker’s end as Pakistan helped themselves to wickets. Rauf had Ryan Burl slap one to mid-off while Muqeem dismissed Clive Madande, and it soon became obvious any effort at victory would have to be a one-man show.But a lovely change of pace from Jehandad Khan and a sharp catch at point from Ayub drew the curtains on Raza’s enterprising knock, and the game was over as a contest. Muqeem struck twice in the following over, while Abrar polished off the win with the final wicket; Zimbabwe had lost their last eight in 43 balls.

Wicketkeeper says future looks bright after ODI debuts for Mahika Gaur, Lauren Filer and Maia Bouchier

Valkerie Baynes11-Sep-2023Amy Jones has credited an injection of energy brought by England’s three debutants in their opening ODI against Sri Lanka with turning the hosts’ results around after their disappointing T20I series defeat.Mahika Gaur, the 17-year-old left-armer who played 19 T20Is for UAE before making her England debut during the T20 leg of Sri Lanka’s visit, claimed three wickets upon being handed her maiden ODI cap in Durham on Saturday.Fellow seamer Lauren Filer, meanwhile, had the visitors just as flummoxed by her searing pace as the Australians were during the Ashes Test earlier in the summer. Playing her first ODI at the weekend, 22-year-old Filer also took three wickets, including two in two balls, as England romped home by seven wickets to go 1-0 up in the series.”It feels like youth often brings energy and we’ve seen that with the girls that have come in,” Jones said. “They’ve really brought a buzz around them and just a real excitement to play for England, which we all have, but it just looks a bit different when you’re a bit younger.”They really pick people up around them as well. I think English cricket’s in a great place and to see all this competition for places is only a good thing.”As a player, when you are given opportunities like this, it can put a bit of extra pressure on you, especially as a young player, thinking, ‘when other people come back, am I still going to have a place?’ and it can be very easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself. So it’s been so pleasing how they don’t seem to be feeling the pressure. Whether they are or not, they seem really cool. They’re just enjoying it and it’s reflected in their performances.”Related

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Jones took five catches in the match, becoming the first England wicketkeeper to do so in a women’s ODI, including three off Filer, as Sri Lanka were bundled out for 106 in 30.2 overs.In reply, Tammy Beaumont and Emma Lamb broke the back of the paltry run chase with an opening stand worth 61 runs and 24-year-old batter Maia Bouchier, England’s third ODI debutant for the match having previously played 22 T20Is, struck the winning runs with a boundary off Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu in a run-a-ball 17 not out.”She’s great fun to keep to with that extra pace,” Jones said of Filer. “It was quite a slow wicket, I thought, a bit of bounce but not particularly fast up in Durham, so I was really excited when she came on to bowl and still found the carry and pushed me back a bit further.”With a bowler like Lauren, you just feel like you’re getting a catch every ball. I really enjoy keeping to her and was impressed. She’s got something that not many people have in the pace that she has, so she’s definitely an impact player.Gaur claimed the prize wicket of in-form Athapaththu in her third over and then bowled opener Anushka Sanjeewani with an excellent inswinger to reduce Sri Lanka to 26 for 2 before claiming the final wicket of the innings.”I thought they were great,” Jones said. “Mahika, until this series, I’ve never faced her or kept to her or anything, so it feels like she’s just shot up out of nowhere. But I’ve been so impressed, as has everybody. Something different being a left-hander and her height, but she swings the ball so well and she’s really consistent for a young player too. I’m really excited to see where she can get to in her career.”Jones was also backing her side to maintain their momentum heading into Tuesday’s second ODI in Northampton, followed by the last match in Leicester on Thursday.”There was a big ask for energy going into the 50-over games, having not played the longer format in a while and at the end of the season,” she said. “There was a real focus from Lewy [head coach Jon Lewis] making sure that when we’re in the field, we’re fizzing the ball back to me and we are just showing so much energy and I think that really helped as a focus.”As a group we were really disappointed with how the T20s went. Going into any series, when you go in as favourites especially, you want to get the job done and convincingly as well. So to lose those two games definitely it was disappointing. It was really key for us to put in a good performance in Durham and stamp our authority onto the ODI series.”

Phoenix, Invincibles make new signings after Matthew Fisher, Saqib Mahmood ruled out

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2022Tom Helm and Gus Atkinson have signed contracts in the Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix and Oval Invincibles respectively.Matthew Fisher and Saqib Mahmood, the fast bowlers who made their Test debuts for England in the Caribbean, have both been ruled out of the competition with stress fractures of the lower back, leaving both teams seeking replacements.Phoenix have brought Helm back as Fisher’s replacement. He was expensive for them last year, conceding more than two runs per ball and taking five wickets in seven appearances, but was considered unfortunate to miss out on selection at April’s draft.Related

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“Whilst we’re naturally disappointed to lose Matt Fisher, we’re very pleased to have re-signed a talented pace bowler who we know well in Tom Helm,” Craig Flindall, Phoenix’s general manager, said.Helm impressed in the early rounds of the County Championship season for Middlesex this year, bowling with good pace, but took 1 for 56 in four overs in his comeback from a minor injury in the T20 Blast on Thursday night.Atkinson, meanwhile, was an unused member of Southern Brave’s squad last year, signing halfway through the tournament as a replacement. He has not featured for Surrey in the Blast this year due to their seam depth but is highly rated by their management and is likely to play when they lose Reece Topley and Sam Curran to England’s ODI tour to the Netherlands.Each team in the Hundred – both men’s and women’s – signed an extra overseas player in Thursday’s wildcard draft, and men’s teams will add a final domestic wildcard player in early July.

Rizwan’s 51 goes in vain as other batsmen let Pakistan down

Firdose Moonda13-Feb-2021South Africa broke a losing streak that stretched back five T20Is to last February and stayed alive in the ongoing series in Pakistan by successfully chasing 145 in foggy conditions in Lahore.They laid the groundwork for victory after choosing to field for the second successive match and restricting Pakistan to a below-par total, thanks to an outstanding performance by Dwaine Pretorius. He claimed the best bowling figures for South Africa in T20Is with 5 for 17, beating Ryan McLaren’s 5 for 19.Pretorius took a wicket at the start and returned to take four in the last quarter of the innings to keep the hosts to a chaseable total. Reeza Hendricks and Pite van Biljon’s 77-run third-wicket stand set South Africa up for victory, and David Miller sealed it with 22 balls to spare.The final T20I of the series takes place at the same venue on Sunday.The Rizwan showHaving struck an unbeaten 104 in the first T20I, Mohammad Rizwan once again anchored the Pakistan innings with his 51. Again, his innings made up a significant proportion of Pakistan’s total. Rizwan scored 61.54% of their runs in the first match and more than a third of their total in this match.Rizwan was off the mark by slog-sweeping the first ball of the match for four. Then he cashed in on Glenton Stuurman’s first over in international cricket, which was littered with overpitched deliveries onto the pads, and punished his slower ball, and made Lutho Sipamla pay for anything full. Rizwan’s fifty came up off 39 balls and he only faced two more before holing out to long-off off a Pretorius slower ball in a bid to up the scoring rate in the last five overs.Shamsi gets the squeeze onSouth Africa gave away just 50 runs in the nine overs between the end of the powerplay and the start of the last five, thanks largely to their wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi. He bowled ten dot balls in his four overs and did not concede a single boundary as he flighted the ball and varied his pace to keep the Pakistan batsmen guessing. Shamsi was only rewarded with one wicket, which came off his second ball, when Hussain Talat tried a second successive reverse sweep off him but sent the ball straight to van Biljon at backward point.Pite van Biljon and Reeza Hendricks add 77 for the third wicket•AFP

And Pretorius scoops the biggest prizes Pretorius made the first incision into the Pakistan line-up when he had Babar Azam trapped lbw with the second ball of the second over of the match. The ball nipped back in from a length as Babar played around his front pad and was struck in front of middle stump but the Pakistan captain, whose form has been wretched since his return from injury, reviewed to no avail. Despite that success, Pretorius only bowled one over in his opening spell as Heinrich Klaasen rotated his bowlers early on.He brought Pretorius back to replace Shamsi in the 14th over, with Pakistan yet to bring up 100. Pretorius piled on the pressure when he had Iftikhar Ahmed skying an offcutter into the lights, and David Miller at midwicket took an outstanding catch. He then got rid of Rizwan and returned to take two wickets in three balls in his last over, to pick up a five-for. Khushdil Shah and Mohammad Nawaz were both unable to deal with the yorker, with Shah slicing an edge to Klaasen and Nawaz was castled.Taking on the spinAfter a tentative and confused approach to spin in the first match, South Africa were much more aggressive and confident in this game. Hendricks and van Biljon scored 31 runs off 17 balls from Usman Qadir and 20 runs off 19 balls from Nawaz to break the back of the chase.Hendricks got the ball rolling when he made room to hit Nawaz’s first ball for six over long-on, immediately after Shaheen Shah Afridi delivered a wicket-maiden, and then showed no fear against Qadir. Hendricks dispatched a full toss for six before van Biljon sent him over long-on to take 13 runs off Qadir’s first over. Hendricks also picked the googly, and hit it for six, but two balls later Qadir had van Biljon stumped, charging down the track, except that he had overstepped.The Pakistan spinners got the last laugh when Qadir had Hendricks caught at mid-on to break the stand and in the next over, Nawaz drew a leading edge from van Biljon and completed the catch in his followthrough. Qadir found significant turn in his final over but South Africa had done enough to ease their way to a win.

The position was created following South Africa’s horrific World Cup 2019 campaign

Firdose Moonda09-Nov-2019Graeme Smith, South Africa’s former captain, is in line to be their first director of cricket, a position created in the aftermath of their 2019 World Cup exit. Smith confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he was interviewed by the board this week.Suspended interim director of cricket, Corrie van Zyl, and former national selector Hussein Manack were also interviewed for the job, which is expected to be filled inside two weeks, leaving enough time for the appointee to settle in before the home series against England that begins on Boxing Day.The director will be responsible for overseeing all cricket played under CSA’s ambit, which includes the national teams, high-performance teams, age-group structures and the domestic set-up as well. While similar to the ECB’s post – first occupied by Andrew Strauss and now Ashley Giles – it also requires skills in human resources, financial management and managing CSA’s transformation strategy. The CSA’s advertisement required interested candidates to have a qualification in sports management and at least 10 years experience either working in sports or media management, coaching or playing at a first-class level or above.Smith, van Zyl and Manack were interviewed by a five-person panel which included CSA board members Jack Madiseng, Shirley Zinn, Tebogo Siko, and Dawn Makhobo, along with board CEO Thabang Moroe.Smith has the highest profile among the three candidates. He had more-than-a-decade-long playing career with South Africa and was both their youngest and longest serving captain. Since retiring in 2014, he is best known for his commentary but has also dabbled in the business of cricket as well.Six months after quitting the game, Smith joined financial services company Momentum – who were sponsors of South Africa’s ODI team at the time – as part of their corporate social responsibility team. He was involved in the setting up of a cricket sixes event, the proceeds of which went to a conservation charity involved in saving the much-poached rhino. Later in 2014, Smith was named ambassador of the Ram Slam T20, South Africa’s domestic 20-over competition, which was attempting to attain the same status as some of T20 leagues around the world. The tournament no longer exists and has since been replaced by the Mzansi Super League.While Smith would appear as the frontrunner, both van Zyl and Manack have adequate experience and credentials which will leave the panel with a tough decision to make, one that may ultimately come down to how much money CSA is able to spend on this position. The board is forecasting debt of R654 million (approx USD 44 million) over the next four-year cycle and has put cost-cutting measures in place, including a proposed restructuring of the domestic system that is being challenged by the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) in court at the moment.ALSO READ – ‘The financial thing is a hurdle,’ says Faf du Plessis as ex-players stay away from CSAVan Zyl, who has served as general manager to CSA since May 2009 – which included a stint as head coach during the 2011 World Cup. He has extensive knowledge of how the board works and was appointed as interim director of cricket post the 2019 World Cup, only to be suspended late last month for alleged dereliction of duty.Van Zyl’s suspension did not prevent him from being interviewed though. Apart from his experience with CSA, van Zyl was also head coach of Free State from May 1994 to April 1998 and of the Eagles and now Knights franchise from September 2003 to April 2009. He also has a Certificate in Sports Management from Royal Holloway, University of London.Manack has significant experience in the South African system as well, having most recently served on the selection panel whose tenure ended after the World Cup. Hussein was a national selector for seven years from 2012 to 2019, was the convener of selectors at the Lions franchise from 2011 to 2014 and served on the Gauteng Cricket and Lions board. He has both a Level 3 coaching certificate and UK National Cricket Association coaching qualification, a new Manager’s Programme in Business Administration and Sport and Event Management from the University of the Witwatersrand and has worked as the Managing Director of a manufacturing and retail company for more than a decade.Manack is a regular voice on radio commentary in South Africa and also has a long playing career behind him, the bulk of which fell during the Apartheid years, which denied him the opportunity to progress through the ranks in the same way van Zyl and Smith did. Still, he was part of history when he was selected as a non-playing member of the South African squad that toured India on the original Friendship Tour in 1991.No international candidates were in the mix for the director of cricket role.South Africa are also expected to confirm a men’s team director soon. Enoch Nkwe occupied the position on the recent tour to India and though they lost the Test series 0-3, he remains the leading candidate after assurances he would not be judged on the results of that series.CSA has also conducted interviews for a new convener of selectors and Linda Zondi was among those under consideration. Despite a successful tenure which brought through players like Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj and elevated Faf du Plessis to the captaincy, Zondi is understood to have had a falling out with members of CSA and may not be reappointed.

Facing protests from other state associations, the BCCI has revoked the special allowance granted to Puducherry concerning outstation players

Nagraj Gollapudi20-Sep-2018Facing protests from other state associations, the BCCI has revoked the special allowance granted to Puducherry concerning outstation players.Puducherry is one of the nine new teams that the BCCI inducted into domestic cricket as per the Lodha Committee recommendations approved by the Supreme Court. Keeping in mind the unique challenge the Union Territory faced in terms of recruiting local talent, the board relaxed the rules that defined who a local player is.Originally, it was one who had a birth certificate from that state, or was an employee of an organisation in the jurisdiction of that state in the last one year, or a student of an institution in the jurisdiction of that state since August 2017. But the BCCI, with the approval of the Committee of Administrators, gave special allowance to Puducherry, permitting the registration of even those players who have only been working or studying there since August 2018.Some of the other new states objected to Puducherry being given special privileges. For several decades, the BCCI has put a cap of three outstation players, known as professionals, per team. Most times, these professionals are senior players who move out of their native state to play/mentor/coach weaker teams.Puducherry had filled their quota with the appointments of Abhishek Nayar (former Mumbai captain and allrounder), Pankaj Singh (former Rajasthan captain) and Paras Dogra (former Himachal Pradesh batsman) but still went ahead and bought more players who, until recently, had been involved with other states. Many of them were part of Puducherry’s first-ever game on Wednesday in the Vijay Hazare Trophy against Manipur, with media reports suggesting there were no local players in the XI.One of the objections came from Ratnakar Shetty, former general manager, game development at BCCI. Currently the convener of the cricket consensus committee at Uttarakhand Cricket Association as well as part of the committee of administrators at Hyderabad Cricket Association, he said eligibility rules ought to be uniform for every team participating in any tournament.”I was shocked to hear that BCCI has given special permission to include more than the (cap on the) number of outstation players in the team,” Shetty wrote in an e-mail to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri which was published by the . “This kills the spirit of the game and the rules of level playing field that was aimed when the eligibility rules were framed.”It also raises the question as to why only Puducherry has been given the special status. I am sorry to say that this decision is not in the interest of domestic cricket and will lead to lot of corrupt practices in future. It also puts all the other states where there was strict compliance to a disadvantage.”The entire purpose behind the Lodha Committee recommending that every state in India have its own cricket team was to encourage local talent to come to the fore. It is understood that though not everyone in the BCCI was convinced about allowing more than the permissible number of outstation players to Puducherry, the CoA pointed out that, for this season, the eligibility norms could be relaxed.The BCCI inducted the Cricket Association of Pondicherry as an associate member last month and told them to start registering players who fulfilled the board’s criteria – employees or students of the state since August 2017. But having just taken root, the CAP requested for more time and was told by the BCCI that it was willing to relax the rules. Accordingly, some outstation players enrolled themselves in local educational institutions or organisations in August to become eligible to play for Puducherry.However, with objections mounting, the BCCI seems to have changed its mind, revoking the special allowance to Puducherry, starting from their next match on Friday. A CAP official confirmed that a “request” had come from the board, asking them to pick only those players registered before August 31, 2017 in the XI and that they would oblige to it.