Former West Indies skipper Carl Hooper has said it's a shame that the top players from the Caribbeans are not interested in playing for the country.
International cricket will gingerly ease out of a 117-day shutdown in Southampton next week but the scars of the COVID-19 pandemic will be clearly evident at the Ageas Bowl. An encounter between the fourth and eighth ranked teams in Test cricket is hardly a pinnacle but England's series against West Indies could offer a glimpse into a future where the game plods on under the shadow of the new coronavirus.
Proliferation of T20 leagues puts squeeze on bilateral tours
The West Indies captain Chris Gayle refused to apologise to the WICB for comments made during their tour of England.
Leading West Indian cricketers will prefer to play in lucrative Twenty20 tournaments around the world instead of representing the Caribbean side under the current administration, former captain Darren Sammy has said.
Players will undergo temperature checks and observe social distancing guidelines as laid out by the government. With dressing rooms, players and support staff will need to arrive in full kit for training.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India will allow 20,000 spectators, mostly ticket-holding members of Cricket Association of Bengal, to watch the third and final T20I between India and the West Indies on October 20.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday gave the go-ahead for professional men's county cricket to start its season on August 1. The men's County Championship was initially scheduled to begin on April 12, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For India, this series serves as the perfect platform for the coming World Cup to be played at home in October-November.
'Although the protocols might seem very severe, they've had to put those in place to get government approval for these games to happen'
West Indies captain Jason Holder says coming to England for a Test series in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic is neither dictated by money nor a sense of adventurism but the move is a genuine effort to bring back normalcy. West Indies players arrived in the UK on Tuesday for a three-match Test series, starting July 8 at Southampton in a 'bio-secure' environment. It will be cricket's first international engagement since mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic halted all sporting action.
A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has indicated that it is close to signing a deal with a leading international team to tour the country, which has not hosted a Test nation since 2009. Najam Sethi, who heads the PCB's executive committee, said on a television channel that he cannot disclose the name of the concerned team, but it was a leading side.
Batting great Viv Richards has come out in support of Darren Sammy after the West Indies Twenty20 skipper criticised the country's cricket board (WICB) for lack of support during the team's triumphant campaign in the World T20 in India.
'The impact player rule has skewed the game heavily in favour of the batters.' 'The second factor is that all venues have BCCI-appointed curators as opposed to local curators.' 'This has essentially taken the home advantage out of the equation.'
A formidable lead in hand, an inspired Team India will be aiming to seal the series when they take on a depleted and low-on-confidence West Indies in the third cricket ODI of the five-match series, in Antigua on Saturday.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Friday said the grand welcome accorded to the T20 World Cup winning Indian cricket team in Mumbai was also a message to the BCCI to never take away the final match of a major tournament from the country's financial capital.
West Indies coach Phil Simmons says it will be very tough for his side to perform in the day-night Test against Pakistan as the players do not have enough experience of playing with the pink ball.
Terming the controversial pull-out by West Indies midway their India tour as "unacceptable", the ICC has warned players against taking contractual matters into their own hands and hinted that they could be penalized by disallowing them to play in domestic tournaments like IPL if they repeat such acts in future.
A day after the West Indies Cricket Board cancelled its Under-19 team's tour of Bangladesh due to a low intensity bomb blast near the team hotel in Chittagong, BCB president Nazmul Hassan admitted that the organization of next year's ICC World T20 in the country is under threat.
Hockley, when asked about the report, denied suggestions that the powerful nations were turning a blind eye to Test cricket, saying he had met Snedden during the New Zealand-Australia first Test in Wellington and conveyed to him that Australia was very much committed to help ICC ensure all the three formats flourish.
Kochi will host the first One-day International between India and the West Indies on October 8, while the first of three Tests between the teams will be at Hyderabad, starting October 30.
Mushfiqur Rahim has been named Bangladesh's new captain for the upcoming home series against the West Indies and Pakistan, an official said Tuesday.
Kane Williamson will opt out of a handful of internationals in January to take up a contract in South Africa's Twenty20 league.
Star India batter K L Rahul on Thursday tested positive for COVID-19, which is likely to rule him out of the upcoming five-match T20I series against the West Indies, starting on July 29.
'From being a kid who started as a leg-spinner to becoming a mainstay in the Test batting line-up, I had the loveliest moments of my life that I will cherish forever.
West Indies legend Michael Holding says England's decision to cancel its limited overs tours of Pakistan smacked of 'western arrogance' and the country wouldn't have ever done this to a rich and powerful cricket board like India.
After resuming on 70 for 1, India A added 229 runs at the expense of seven wickets as the visitors were placed at 299 for 8 at stumps on Day 2 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. India A had bowled out the home side for 228 on the first day.
The West Indies have offered to play two Tests against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in November.
Gayle emphasises the massive revenues generated by these two teams whenever they face each other, especially in a World Cup.
The British government said on Friday that recreational cricket which has been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be allowed to resume from July 11. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would set out a timetable next week for when amateur cricket can return as well as the reopening of indoor gyms and swimming pools which were closed due to the coronavirus lockdown.
West Indies' hopes of winning the World Twenty20 for the second time in four years suffered a setback on Friday when off-spinner Sunil Narine and all-rounder Kieron Pollard pulled out of their squad.
His fallout with the Caribbean players currently on tour in India notwithstanding, a defiant Wavell Hinds has refused to step down as the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) President.
India's captain Rohit Sharma says he will continue to back his young bowlers and give them opportunities to showcase their skills at crunch moments of a game.
'There have already been some cynical examples of DRS use in the series between England and West Indies that epitomise how far the system has been devalued. It's time the DRS was the subject of a thorough overhaul'.
The Test series, to be played in a bio-secure environment to counter the COVID-19 threat, is subject to the final approval of the UK government.
Ramiz Raja part of ICC working group formed to review cricket in Afghanistan
Former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer expressed his disappointment with fans trolling Indian all-rounder and Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya for his poor performances in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), saying that during the T20 World Cup starting from June 1 in West Indies and USA, the all-rounder will play some crucial knocks and the trolls will be singing his praise.
Australia have never won the T20 World Cup with their best finish of runners-up coming in the 2010 edition in West Indies, when they lost to England in the final.
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI for Friday's opening ODI against the West Indies?
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott feels his team is a stronger unit in a day game and expects them to optimise the conditions against a formidable India.
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