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Dhanmondi topple table-toppers Abahani, while Rupganj and Gazi Group pick up comfortable victories

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2018In his first game after the gates closed on Zimbabwe’s entry into the World Cup following a heartbreaking loss to UAE, Sikandar Raza’s breezy 90 helped Gazi Group Cricketers to a 34-run win over Kheleghar Samaj Kallyan Samity in the Dhaka Premier League’s Super League.Raza struck seven fours and four sixes in his 84-ball innings that powered Gazi Group to 304 for 6 in 50 overs. Raza built on a solid platform of 108 for 2 in the 21st over, laid by Imrul Kayes (63) and Mominul Haque (47). He put on 55 with Asif Ahmed for the fourth wicket and then added another 71 runs with Nadif Chowdhury, before falling in the 47th over. Nadif struck three sixes and a four in his 35-ball 45.In reply, Khelaghar openers Robiul Islam and Mahidul Islam put together 108 runs for the opening stand. Both batsmen were dismissed in the 60s, but the middle-order couldn’t build on the good work. That meant Mausam Khan’s 44 off 41 balls at No. 7 went in vain as Khelaghar still fell well short. Abu Hider took three wickets, while Mahedi Hasan got two.Unmukt Chand’s second successive hundred helped Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club beat table-toppers Abahani Limited by 26 runs at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.Batting first, Dhanmondi Club reached 256 for 8 in 50 overs, with Chand top-scoring with 101 off 138 balls that included eight fours and three sixes. He shared a 90-run opening stand with Shykat Ali, and an 81-run third wicket stand with Tanbir Hayder, before Dhanmondi went on to lose six wickets for 81 runs.Mashrafe Mortaza, who had just taken three wickets, then went out to open the batting for the first time in his List-A career. But he had a short stay, as did many of the other top and middle-order batsmen. The lower order fared much better with solid contributions but Abahani were limited to 230 nonetheless. Abu Jayed and Robiul Haque took three wickets each.Mohammad Naim’s stroke-filled 88 took Legends of Rupganj to a five-wicket win over Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.Batting first, Doleshwar reached 257 for 5 in 50 overs on the back of Liton Das’ third century in the tournament. He struck nine fours and two sixes in his 126-ball knock. After putting on 69 runs for the first wicket with Imtiaz Hossain, Liton put together a 113-run second wicket stand with Fazle Mahmud (46). Prime Doleshwar lost four wickets in the last 10 overs, but quick bursts from Iqbal Abdulla (42* off 22) and Farhad Reza (29 off 22) ensured it didn’t hurt the finish.Chasing 258 to win, Naim and Abdul Mazid started very well with a 140-run opening stand. Naim struck six fours and five sixes in his 101-ball knock. Mazid was a lot more sedate, collecting 58 off 90 balls. After their dismissals, Mushfiqur Rahim (41) and Naeem Islam (31) took Rupganj closer before they won with eight balls to spare.

A round-up of the WICB Regional Super50 matches played on January 31, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Feb-2017Trindad & Tobago decimated West Indies Under-19s for 58 in the course of their eight-wicket win at North Sound on Tuesday. Having put West Indies U-19 in to bat, Sheldon Cottrell went on to scythe through the line-up, finishing with returns of 7-4-6-3 to pick up the Man-of-the-Match award. Seamer Roshon Primus and left-arm spinner Khary Pierre also took two wickets each during an innings that lasted only 31 overs.West Indies U-19s’ total of 58 was largely down to wicketkeeper Emmanuel Stewart’s 60-ball 30, with none of the other batsmen even reaching double-figures. T&T needed only 10.2 overs to brush past the target, for the loss of their openers. The win helped T&T climb to second place on the table, even as West Indies U-19s languish at the bottom of Group A.An unbeaten 84-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Adam Ball and wicketkeeper Adam Rouse sealed a four-wicket win for Kent, after Calum Haggett (4-59) and Imran Qayyum (3-42) had restricted Windward Islands to 241 for 9.Having been put in to bat, Windward were struggling at 91 for 5, with Haggett and Qayyum having taken four of the five wickets at this stage. Sunil Ambris’ 69-ball 50 – his third fifty-plus score in four matches – pushed the score to 241 with help from the lower order, particularly Windward captain Liam Sebastien (32), seamer Kyle Mayers (37 not out) and Darren Sammy (23). Kent captain Sam Northeast’s 49 and his 60-run partnership for the second wicket with opener Sean Dickson (36) stabilized Kent quickly after the fall of Daniel Bell-Drummond.Windward staged a fightback in the middle overs, claiming three wickets for 18 runs at one stage but Ball and Rouse squashed the opposition’s chances with a rapid partnership that came off 74 balls. Ball was unbeaten on 40 off 46, while Rouse scored 36 off 37 as Kent reached the target with 23 balls to spare.

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.

After three competitive days, Ireland were overturned on the final day in Belfast as Moises Henriques’ four wickets bowled Australia A to a 93-run victory

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jun-2013
ScorecardMoises Henriques took 4 for 22 in the second innings•Getty Images

After three competitive days, Ireland were overturned on the final day in Belfast as Moises Henriques’ four wickets bowled Australia A to a 93-run victory.The margin of victory threatened to be much wider as Ireland slipped to 112 for 7 chasing 301 to win but Stuart Poynter made 63 at No. 9 to give the scoreboard respectability, which Ireland had earned with a good account of themselves.Poynter, in-form after 172 for MCC Young Cricketers earlier this month, played with a maturity and confidence which belied his 22 years. He struck nine boundaries in a 79-ball stay and, with his former Ireland Under-19 world cup colleague Stuart Thompson, made the Australians work for the final wickets.Poynter and Thompson shared an eighth wicket stand of 70 in 17 overs before Thompson became the third of three wickets for offspinner Nathan Lyon when he was trapped lbw for 23.Lyon had made the initial breakthrough on day four, after the morning session was lost to rain, having Andrew White well caught by Nic Maddinson at short leg off bat and pad.James Shannon followed in identical fashion just eight runs later, and when Henriques removed John Mooney for a duck and Kevin O’Brien for 10 in quick succession, Ireland had lost four wickets for just 20 runs. But Poynter and Thompson ensured Ireland were not embarrassed.They might have hoped to get closer to the target but their chase was hampered on the third evening when they slipped to 38 for 3. Shannon and White managed to take the total to 98 for 3 but the introduction of Lyon put paid to their hopes.Lyon’s potential rival for an Ashes spot, legspinner Fawad Ahmed, took his first wicket in Australian colours when Trent Johnston was lbw for 5 and the match was wrapped up when Poynter’s cameo ended when he gave wicketkeeper Brad Haddin his fifth catch of the innings – Peter Siddle finally getting the reward that his display deserved.

Nick Compton got over the disappointed of not reaching 1,000 runs before the end of May by scoring a century at New Road

Jon Culley at New Road01-Jun-2012
ScorecardNick Compton got over the disappointed of not reaching 1,000 runs before the end of May by scoring a century•PA Photos

He got there in the end, if a day too late. Denied ultimately by the weather, although typically blaming himself for missed opportunities earlier in the journey, Nick Compton may have failed to reach 1,000 first-class runs before the end of May but has the consolation of becoming the earliest to reach the mark since the man who last achieved it.Compton’s third Championship century of the summer – and his fourth in an almost-historic sequence of 13 first-class innings that also includes a 99 – took him to 1,049 runs for the season. He is the quickest into four figures by date since Graeme Hick completed his 1,000 on the same ground on May 28, 1988. That distinction had been held for the last eight years by Rob Key, the Kent and former England batsman, who passed 1,000 on June 2 in 2004.It had been Compton’s bad luck to be stranded on 9 not out when rain halted play less than an hour after lunch on the second day. He had waited for three hours subsequently, either staring at the covers on the square from the players’ balcony or inquiring with the umpires as to why they were not being removed at moments when it seemed the drizzle had stopped. But to no avail.At the start of the third day, delayed for 35 minutes by more rain, it was as if he had determined that he would at least get there no more than one day in arrears. The core of his batting philosophy these days is never to sell his wicket cheaply but seldom can he have applied it more rigorously.Bizarrely, he scored a boundary off the fifth ball of the day, with something of a loose stroke, by his standards, to a ball from David Lucas outside off stump that he played some way from his body. It would be the last moment of anything that could be remotely likened to indiscretion.The shot took him to 13 not out from 27 balls. He had faced 77 more before his next boundary advanced his score to 25. Even by his own risk-nothing policy, this was extraordinarily cautious stuff, so patient that in one particularly watchful period he saw off 30 deliveries in a row without taking a run.Then, as if he were suddenly sure of the outcome, finally certain beyond any inkling of self-doubt that he had the measure of the situation, he began to identify chances he could take. From 21, he reached 59 – the magic number – in only 36 more balls.It came at around 10 minutes to three – 24 hours later than he would have preferred, for sure but with no sense of failure in his reaction. Having cracked Gareth Andrew for a superb drive through the covers off the back foot, bringing him his 10th boundary to that point, he dabbed the next ball to third man for a comfortable single. As he ran, he celebrated with a clenched fist and a shout of “yes”, then dropped to one knee and pumped his right arm, getting up to embrace his partner, Jos Buttler, and acknowledge the warm applause from the home spectators.Clearly relieved to have the burden of expectation lifted from him, delighted with himself for having maintained his concentration despite the disappointment he had felt the day before, Compton steadied himself, content to play second fiddle again, if not quite so quietly.He and Jos Buttler added 167 in 34 overs for the fifth wicket, enough to banish the possibility, briefly suggested that the Somerset innings might have crumbled when James Hildreth and Craig Kieswetter fell in consecutive balls to Jack Shantry before lunch.Hildreth, whose innings Compton had made to seem freakishly quick, hit 52 off only 76 balls before Shantry pinned him in the crease. Their partnership for the third wicket put on 75 in 25.1 overs, to which Compton contributed 17. It rewarded a spell of tight, disciplined bowling from Shantry and Gareth Andrew. Shantry followed it up with an equally good ball, one that moved away enough to find the edge as Kieswetter reached forward.Buttler matched Hildreth’s aggressive approach, gathering 14 fours, plus a six off Moeen Ali’s offspin. He had an escape, on 23, when Lucas could not hold a return catch but clearly felt he had missed an opportunity when, on 85, he lofted a leg side stroke off the same bowler and was caught by Matt Pardoe at deep midwicket. He whacked the bat against his pad as he walked away.Compton completed his century half an hour after tea, before the second new ball, at the first sight of which Peter Trego gave a catch, well held, to Pardoe at extra cover; his defences beaten at last. It gave a fourth wicket to Shantry, the left-arm seamer, who moved one away a little to beat his upright bat and clip off stump.There was disappointment again, but rather less, one suspected than the evening before, when he realised his sleepless nights had come to nothing. He will not yet sit alongside Bradman and Hammond and Edrich and Grace in the record books but he is a fine batsman regardless of that, worthy of the family name. There is probably not scope, from here, to forge a result in this match but it has been an uplifting occasion, nonetheless.

Unofficial approaches have been made to Cricket Australia to join the AFL in helping to fund the Adelaide Oval redevelopment.

Daniel Brettig20-May-2011An embryonic proposal for cricket to match Australian football’s financial contribution to the Adelaide Oval redevelopment has been passed on to Cricket Australia.The AFL has stated its intention to make a significant financial investment in the Aus$ 535 million Oval upgrade, and CA are understood to have been informally asked for a similar investment in the project. However the prospect of CA providing money to help take the Oval’s capacity to 50,000 has been met with little enthusiasm by cricket administrators.Unlike the AFL, CA have never taken on a responsibility to invest in the upkeep of grounds around the country. Its board comprises representatives from the state associations who are each responsible for the maintenance of their own venues. Money earned from the game at a national level is funnelled back into the states, while CA’s coffers are committed to the development of the national team and the growth of the game around the country.”Cricket Australia doesn’t make capital investments in venues. Our charter is based around organising and implementing cricket programming – we don’t invest in infrastructure,” a CA spokesman told . “It is nothing to do with our financial situation, all to do with our governance structure. The states are responsible for their cricket grounds.”Adelaide Oval’s upgrade, due to be completed by 2014, was cleared to proceed earlier this month when South Australian Cricket Association members voted overwhelmingly in favour of changing the SACA constitution to allow control of the venue to be handed over to the Stadium Management Authority, comprising representatives from cricket and football. The arrangement will effectively cede major control of the ground to football as the venue’s major revenue-raiser ahead of cricket.The SMA has publicly stated its desire to seek out all possible options to add funding to the project.Football’s financial strength was placed in sharp relief by the meeting of Australian sports CEOs at an annual lunch in Sydney. Having just negotiated a new television rights deal that reaped a staggering $1.253 billion for the AFL, the league’s chief executive Andrew Demetriou spoke of the war-chest available for the creation of two new expansion clubs in Queensland and New South Wales.”We spent three years planning for both those clubs,” Demetriou said. “We’ve budgeted $20 million over the first six years and we’ve allocated those funds. There’s a contingency fund if things don’t go right, but we are working with those clubs to promote off-field revenue and on-field success with the support of the other 16 clubs.”Clearly the AFL has the sort of financial clout that CA, and all other sporting bodies in Australia, can only dream of, allowing the league to invest in projects like the oval upgrade. By contrast, part of the $535 million cost of the project, to be largely funded by the South Australian government, is destined to go towards debt relief for the SACA following the earlier construction of the new Western Stand.Cricket in Australia remains largely dependent on Indian money to balance budgets, something that has struck a slight hurdle in recent months due to the strength of the Australian dollar relative to the Indian and US currencies. Meanwhile the AFL is yet to finalise exactly how much it will contribute to Adelaide Oval.”We haven’t had a discussion on that yet, it’ll be in the millions but we’re waiting for costings and the financial planning to be completed,” an AFL spokesman said.

A round-up of the third day’s action of the ICC World Cricket League Americas Region Division One in Bermuda

Cricinfo staff01-Jun-2010Despite having a squad of just 13 to choose from, Bermuda faced no problems in thumping Cayman Islands by 148 runs. Things started in disastrous fashion for the hosts, as they lost their openers for ducks after being put in to bat. Things went from bad to worse when the captain David Hemp was consumed by Kervin Ebanks in his bustling opening spell. Steven Outerbridge and Janeiro Tucker then adopted contrasting methods to rescue the innings, and the combination worked wonders for Bermuda. Tucker carried on his fine form, striking five sixes and as many fours in his 83-ball 77. Outerbridge adopted a more measured approach, consuming 110 balls for his 65, as the pair raised 109 for the fourth wicket. Irving Romaine and Rodney Trott struck quick twenties in the end overs to lift the score to a healthy 247. Ronald Ebanks cashed in as the batsmen went in search of quick runs, picking a five-for in the end overs.Jordan DeSilva’s opening spell quickly put paid to the visitors’ hopes of launching their chase, sending the openers back early. Sacha De Alwis, the one-drop batsman was out in bizarre fashion, obstructing the field. Jim West shared the spoils with DeSilva, picking three wickets as the chase folded for 99 in the 40th over.Zubin Surkari’s fifty and Khurram Chohan’s three-wicket haul helped Canada trounce Argentina by six wickets at Southampton Rangers Cricket Club. After being put in to bat, Argentina were reduced to 35 for after Chohan’s early burst. The highest partnership was the 46 between Estaban McDermott and Martin Siri for the eighth wicket. Chohan finished with 3 for 32 as Argentina ended on 155. Canada got off to a decent start with the openers adding 42 but suddenly lost three wickets for as many runs. But Surkari and Sandeep Jyoti went on the attack and sealed the game in the 23rd over. Surkari’s 57 came off 49 balls, while Jyoti remained unbeaten on 45 off 40 balls.It was another one-sided encounter at the Somerset Cricket Club as United States of America, helped by a combined efforts by the batsmen and bowlers, beat Bahamas by 115 runs. Half-centuries by Sushil Nadkarni and Aditya Thyagarajan and a quick 48 by Lennox Cush helped push USA to 307. The USA was built around strong partnerships by the top and middle order, the best being 82 for the first wicket between Nadkarni and Orlando Baker. Thyagarajan’s knock was the quickest, his 58 coming off 43 balls with six fours and three sixes. Bahamas on the other hand couldn’t string together enough stands to mount the target and as a result, all the batsmen who made starts couldn’t convert them to fifties or more. Rohan Parks was the top scorer with 39, and for USA, Adrian Gordon, Cush and Muhammad Ghous took two wickets apiece.

Mumbai Indians suffered their tenth defeat of the season despite three-wicket hauls from Thushara and Chawla and Rohit Sharma’s 38-ball 68

Sreshth Shah17-May-2024On a bittersweet evening for Mumbai Indians (MI) fans at the Wankhede Stadium, a high-octane Rohit Sharma fifty gave them something to be happy about, but they also saw their side slump to their tenth defeat of the season to finish bottom of the points table.The victors, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), too, were left with a what-could-have-been feeling as their seventh win of the season took them to the important landmark of 14 points, but a straggling net run-rate of -0.667 left them just outside the top four. In any case, despite scoring 214 batting first, LSG needed an impossible margin of victory to get their NRR where it would have been useful.On the night, it was Nicholas Pooran who rescued LSG from a familiar situation. With their top order struggling again, his 29-ball 75 brought life to a sluggish innings against an inexperienced MI attack that played without Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar his replacement.MI began the chase in dazzling fashion on the back of Rohit’s barrage of boundaries on either side of a short rain delay, but they slid from 88 for no loss to 120 for 5 in the middle overs, effectively ending their chances of putting up a realistic fight.The result meant MI, under new captain Hardik Pandya, finished last for the second time in three seasons. LSG will end up missing the playoffs for the first time in their three-season history.3:21

McClenaghan: Rahul could have gone harder

Pooran goes 360!

LSG gave Devdutt Padikkal another go this season at the top. But he finished the way he had started, with a duck.Nuwan Thushara got the new ball to sling into Padikkal, and Tendulkar too troubled No. 3 Marcus Stoinis early with the swinging delivery. Piyush Chawla also kept LSG quiet enough to prise out Stoinis and Deepak Hooda in quick succession, and at 69 for 3 in the tenth over, LSG’s innings was moving without direction.But Pooran changed that, even masking KL Rahul’s inability to get quick runs. As Rahul moved to only 40 in his first 33 balls, Pooran bashed 22 runs off Anshul Kamboj’s 12th over, and then hit consecutive sixes off Hardik in the 13th.He saved his best for the 14th when Tendulkar’s first two balls went for 12, and after an injury forced the bowler to leave the field, replacement bowler Naman Dhir got pummelled for two sixes. That over went for 29.Not all of Pooran’s shots were pretty, but he rode his luck. Even though he and Rahul fell as part of three wickets in three balls, their partnership and the late assault from Ayush Badoni (22 in ten balls) gave LSG 214 for 6.1:59

A season to forget for Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians

Rohit finishes on a high

Rohit came into the match with scores of 6, 8, 4, 11, 4 and 19. Among India’s batters for the T20 World Cup, he was the most out of form. But, on his way out of the season, Rohit batted the way he was expected to when captaincy was taken away from him at the start of IPL 2024.He hit boundaries on either side of the wicket alongside new opening partner Dewald Brevis to get MI off the blocks early in the 215 chase. He also made up for a streaky early boundary to hit Matt Henry for sixes over midwicket and long-off in the second over.Then, through the fifth, sixth, and seventh overs, Rohit enjoyed the pace-on deliveries and hammered Mohsin Khan and Naveen-ul-Haq for six fours and a six in the space of 18 balls. It got him to his fifty in 28 balls and put MI ahead in the chase.

Krunal, Bishnoi trigger collapse

But MI and Rohit found themselves in a squeeze as the LSG spinners came on. Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi, occasional boundaries aside, made an impact with tidy spells to slow MI down. The two of them also took sharp outfield catches to help LSG’s cause.After holding on to a spectacular sliding catch at long-off to dismiss Brevis in the ninth over off Naveen, Krunal got Suryakumar Yadav sweeping to deep third for a three-ball duck in the tenth over. Bishnoi, who took the tough juggling catch for that Suryakumar dismissal, then had Rohit slicing to Mohsin at short third in the 11th.Hardik couldn’t do much, and Nehal Wadhera then became Bishnoi’s second victim. All told, the six overs Bishnoi and Krunal bowled between eight and 17 gave away 44 runs and netted three wickets.2:36

McClenaghan: ‘Piyush has probably bowled himself to a contract in IPL 2025’

Dhir shows his worth

With Ishan Kishan looking off-colour from No. 4, MI’s game looked done after Wadhera’s dismissal in the 15th over. But Dhir gave the home fans some positives for next season with a dazzling unbeaten 28-ball 62 that took MI to 196.His second boundary of the evening, a scoop off a short ball behind the keeper, showed off his intent, and he followed it up with more big shots.The three sixes in the space of five balls across the 19th and 20th overs gave MI a bit of hope, but another spectacular fielding effort from Krunal on the boundary line stopped a second six to start the final over, and that took the wind out of the chase.

The auction will take place in Mumbai on Wednesday, and the winners will be determined through a closed-bid process

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Jan-20231:59

Healy: ‘WIPL is next step for the game’

Seventeen bidders, including seven entities that own men’s IPL teams, will participate in the BCCI’s January 25 auction to buy the five women’s IPL franchisees ahead of the inaugural edition in March. The auction will take place in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon, and the winners will be determined through a closed-bid process.A key eligibility criterion for bidding, as listed by the BCCI as part of clearing the technical-bid process, was for the bidders to have audited net worth of at least INR 1000 crore as of March 31, 2022. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the groups that own IPL teams Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals have submitted the technical bids on Monday’s deadline day.The other three men’s IPL franchises – Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants – opted not to enter the bidding process though they did buy the tender document.Related

• BCCI invites 'reputed entities' to bid for WIPL teams

• Healy – 'WIPLwill change women's cricket for the better'

Among other business entities that will be part of the financial bids are Adani Group, Capri Global, Haldiram’s Group, Torrent Pharma, Apollo Pipes, Amrit Leela Enterprises, Shriram Group and Slingshot 369 Ventures Private Limited.The BCCI has listed ten Indian cities and the venues in the tender document, which allows a single party to bid for more than one city. There is no base price set, and bids will be accepted for a ten-year period – 2023 to 2032. The ten shortlisted cities and venues are Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi Stadium, capacity 112,560), Kolkata (Eden Gardens, 65,000), Chennai (MA Chidambaram Stadium, 50,000), Bengaluru (M Chinnaswamy Stadium, 42,000), Delhi (Arun Jaitley Stadium, 55,000), Dharamsala (HPCA stadium, 20,900), Guwahati (Barsapara Stadium, 38,650), Indore (Holkar Stadium, 26,900), Lucknow (AB Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, 48,800) and Mumbai (Wankhede/DY Patil/Brabourne Stadiums).

Auction purse of INR 12 crore to build each team

An auction purse of INR 12 crore would be available for each franchise to build their squads for the first season.The BCCI has not yet formally announced the auction date, but it is expected to be in the first week of February.In the bid document, the BCCI has mentioned that squad sizes would have to be between 15 and 18. A total of seven overseas players would be allowed in each squad, including those from Associate countries. As for playing XIs, there is a cap of five overseas players including one from an Associate country.The inaugural season of the women’s IPL is likely to be played between March 5 and March 23, but a final schedule is still being worked out.

Former Pakistan medium-pacer Asmavia Iqbal has been named as the new head of the women’s selection panel

Danyal Rasool28-Dec-2021Urooj Mumtaz has quit as chair of the women’s selection committee, the PCB announced in a statement. The former Pakistan player, who is also a television commentator, left the role “to focus on her professional commitments as well as to pursue other opportunities within the game,” the release stated.Former Pakistan medium-pacer Asmavia Iqbal has been named as the new chief of the selection panel and will be assisted by junior selection committee members Saleem Jaffar and Taufeeq Umar.”It has been a wonderful experience to head the selection committee and contribute in the growth and progression of women’s cricket,” Mumtaz said. “I am grateful for the opportunity and thank all my colleagues, while wishing the team the very best in the 2022 international commitments and beyond.”PCB chairman Ramiz Raja expressed his gratitude towards Mumtaz. “You worked diligently in your role for which the PCB is grateful and indebted. We wish you best for your future endeavours.”Related

• Tania Mallick roped in to head PCB's women's cricket wing

• Urooj Mumtaz leaves role as PCB's Head of women's cricket

• Bismah Maroof takes indefinite maternity leave, as PCB mulls pregnancy provisions in contracts

• PCB's new ethics code takes aim at conflict of interest

Mumtaz’s resignation is her second such departure this year. In May, she quit her position as Head of Women’s Cricket in Pakistan after her multiple roles with the board and in television came under increasing scrutiny. The PCB had begun to take a more uncompromising stance over potential conflicts of interest; Misbah ul Haq had also seen his term as chief selector and coaching position with Islamabad United come to an end while he served as head coach of the men’s side. At the time, Mumtaz was replaced as Women’s Cricket Head by Tania Mallick, a member of the Pakistan Olympic Association.Meanwhile, top-order batter Bismah Maroof confirmed she would be available for the ODI World Cup starting March 2022, scheduled to be held in New Zealand. The former Pakistan captain has been on maternity leave since last December and gave birth to a girl in August.”The past few months have been the best of my life,” Maroof said. “Becoming a mother and spending time with my daughter has given me immense pleasure, but it is now time to return to my passion of representing Pakistan at an international stage.”The maternity leave helped me realise the significance of navigating the balance of raising a child and maintaining my professional cricketing career as I missed being on the field each time I saw the girls in action. I can now resume my ambitions and aspirations of playing for Pakistan and hope to make a useful contribution in our target of doing well in New Zealand.”According to the PCB statement, under the board’s maternity policy, if Maroof is selected, “she will be allowed to be accompanied by her dependent child and one support person of her choice.”