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The IPL has terminated the franchise agreements with Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals and has issued a notice to the Kochi franchise, asking them to resolve their disputes and form a joint venture company to hold the rights

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Oct-2010The IPL governing council has ejected Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab from the league on charges of transgression of shareholding and ownership norms that threatened to “shake the very foundation of the tender process”, while granting a temporary breather to the Kochi franchise to put its house in order.The IPL chose to invoke powers vested with it to terminate a franchise contract with immediate effect at an emergency meeting of the governing council held in Mumbai today. The notices seeking explanation why action shouldn’t be taken again remained unsent to the franchises.The two franchises are now considering their options. A statement from Rajasthan Royals pointed out that it had never received any notice from the BCCI and hinted at legal redress without explicitly mentioning it.The Punjab franchise said its legal team was studying the BCCI’s decision, which it called unfair and not in the IPL’s collaborative spirit, and hoped for negotiations to settle the issue.However, a top BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo that IPL 4 was almost certain to feature only eight teams. “These two teams [Rajasthan and Punjab] cannot come back,” he said. “IPL 4 will have only eight teams.” Asked if the BCCI would draft a fresh tender process to replace Rajasthan and Punjab, he said that would happen only the Kochi franchise failed to resolve its internal disputes.The announcement to terminate agreements with the two franchises came after days of hectic speculation and raised further questions about its implications. Though the BCCI president Shashank Manohar said the decision had nothing to do with Lalit Modi both Rajasthan and Punjab have co-owners who are relations of the ousted IPL chairman.After the announcement was made through a media release, Manohar explained the reasons for the decision. “With regards to Rajasthan, the bid was given by a different bidder and the agreement was entered into with a different company,” he said. “The shareholding pattern was different. The shares were transferred into with different people without the permission of the governing council.”When asked about Kochi, Manohar said the franchise hadn’t been scrapped because it hadn’t violated the agreement yet, but was only suffering from internal disputes. He said Kochi had ten days to resolve all problems and form a joint venture company to hold the franchise rights otherwise it also ran the risk of being ejected from the league.Sunday’s meeting was the first for the reconstituted governing council, which had its membership reduced from 14 to eight, and its tenure and powers cut. Chirayu Amin was appointed the chairman of body, replacing ousted chairman Lalit Modi, and the rest of the council comprises five other members – Arun Jaitley, Ranjib Biswal, Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke and Rajiv Shukla – and two former cricketers, Ravi Shastri and Mohinder Amarnath, as honorary members.

Dominic Cork has expressed his disappointment at not being able to take Hampshire to the Champions League in South Africa after leading them to the Friends Provident t20 title

Andrew McGlashan16-Aug-2010Dominic Cork has expressed his disappointment at not being able to take Hampshire to the Champions League in South Africa after leading them to the Friends Provident t20 title. They clinched the trophy by losing fewer wickets as scores finished level against Somerset but, unlike last year when Somerset and Sussex headed to India in October this season, there are no places for English counties due to a fixture clash.The Champions League runs from September 10-26 which coincides with the closing two weeks of the domestic season, including the conclusion of the County Championship and CB40, and also England’s one-day series against Pakistan. The ECB had brought the end of the season forward by a week under the belief the tournament would be held in late September but it was shifted so that India could play Australia.It left the ECB with no choice but to say to counties couldn’t take part because of the extensive changes that would have been required to the domestic fixtures. There is a certain irony, then, that Hampshire with their strong IPL links to Rajasthan Royals are one of the teams that would have qualified for the Champions League and Cork said it was a major loss for the club as well as English cricket.”It’s a disappointment for me as a player because I’d have loved to have gone but also for the guys who have performed so well, the younger players who would have benefited from playing against top international cricketers,” he told Cricinfo Switch Hit podcast. “It’s just a shame we won’t be able to go and I hope the ECB are looking at that to make sure counties are represented in the biggest competitions in the future.”We’ve seen how when the England players were first refused a chance to go to the IPL England’s Twenty20 campaign was disastrous and when they were allowed to go all of a sudden we win a World Cup in West Indies,” he added. “That’s no coincidence, that’s the fact that players are able to perform in the biggest competitions. Hopefully now the ECB can look at the Champions League, put all these rows to bed with India and sort it out because English cricket will suffer if we don’t have clubs represented.”It is hoped that from next year there will be a clear window after the English season which will allow counties to rejoin the tournament although there remains a feeling that the ECB have been left behind in the global development of Twenty20 despite inventing the format back in 2003. Discussions remain ongoing about the structure for domestic cricket from next season with serious movements being made towards a franchise-style structure based around the Test grounds.Cork believes the biggest change that needs to be made is a reduction in the number of matches after an explosion in fixtures meant 151 games in this year’s Friends Provident t20. But he thinks that county teams would be able to hold their own against IPL franchises.”The English Twenty20 is a very strong tournament,” he said. “It was too long with 16 qualifying games and the ECB need to look at that because we don’t want to reach overkill, but the fact we can attract some very good Twenty20 players, and the fact there are some good domestic players, means we can be very proud in having a strong competition. Hopefully we can keep it as strong as possible and I’m sure if we were able to play IPL teams all counties would put up a good performance.”

Usman Khawaja hopes to start forging something good with Sam Konstas in the West Indies in the lead up to the Ashes

Andrew McGlashan24-Jun-20251:10

Head not fazed by big-name absences

Usman Khawaja won’t overstay his welcome in the Australia team but is adamant he has more to contribute and sees a significant role for himself in helping nurture Sam Konstas on his return to Test cricket against West Indies.Khawaja scored a career-best double-century earlier this year against Sri Lanka but his form returned to the spotlight with twin failures against Kagiso Rabada in the World Test Championship final. That continued a trend of lean returns against pace bowling following the challenges posed by Jasprit Bumrah last season and New Zealand’s quicks earlier in 2024. However, speaking after Lord’s, head coach Andrew McDonald all but confirmed that Khawaja’s position was secure for the Ashes later this year.Khawaja, who was the second-highest-scoring opener in the last WTC cycle, behind Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Australia’s leading scorer overall, stands by his longer-term record and believes any downturn is more a symptom of his role in the side at a time when top-order batting has been a challenging prospect. Since the start of 2024 he averages 25.29 against pace, only a little below the global average of all openers of 27.84, compared to 65.80 against spin.Related

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“I can’t understand how I can [have a problem against seam bowling] if I can score so many runs in [Sheffield] Shield cricket or be the highest run-scorer for Australia in the WTC cycle,” he said in Barbados ahead of the opening Test. “I open the batting for Australia. So I get out to seam more than I get out to anyone else. It’s just part and parcel of the game.”I wish I could face more spinners, but you don’t always get that opportunity. So, I’m facing the new-ball bowlers with the new ball every single time. I went back from Sri Lanka to domestic cricket and scored a hundred against Tasmania. I pretty much faced seam the whole time there [and] against Riley Meredith, who is one of the fastest bowlers in the country.””I understand I’m 38 years old. People will be looking for an excuse. [But] I think I’ve got a role to play: open the batting, starting off, and setting a good platform for Australia.”Since David Warner’s retirement in early 2024, Khawaja has had five opening partners: Steven Smith, Nathan McSweeney, Konstas, Travis Head and, latterly, Marnus Labuschagne in the WTC final. Khawaja spoke of the rapport he built with Warner in their 41 innings together at the top, which included almost a sixth sense of what the other was thinking – “I knew when and where he was going to drop and run a quick single, and I was ready for it” – and hoped to start forging something similar with Konstas in the West Indies with an eye to the Ashes.”With young Sammy coming in, it’s an added role [for me],” he said. “To help Sammy along through his journey, trying to impart as much knowledge as I can. I won’t be around forever. But it’s very important that I can do whatever I can, obviously first and foremost, [to] have a solid partnership between us but then bit of stability at the top [and] also guide him through this journey. He’s still very young, he’s a 19-year-old boy, and it’s quite exciting.”There’s obviously this series and then a big Ashes coming up. [You] probably want a little bit of stability at the top. It’ll be tough to chop and change, and opening is a tough place. Mentally it can be very tough. Going out there against the new ball and sometimes just getting a good ball and low scores.Australia are hoping Sam Konstas is the answer to the spot left vacant by David Warner•Getty Images

“I’m just looking forward to playing with Sammy, as much as on the field as helping him off the field. I’ve been through a lot in my life, a lot of ups and downs. There are lots of things I’ve seen throughout my career and most of them are not technical. More mindset things. If I can help Sammy through this journey, especially over the next couple of series, try and impart as much knowledge I can to him.”The Sydney Test at the end of the Ashes is often referenced as a stepping-off point for Khawaja but, unlike Warner, he is not outlining a precise route to retirement. After the England series, Australia won’t play Tests again until Bangladesh visit for a series in the Top End in August.”For me, I feel like I have plenty to give still,” he said. “To be playing this series and the Ashes is the pinnacle. That’s the one we all love winning and being involved in… after that there is a bit of a gap between that and the next Test series. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there but for me it’s about making sure I stay in the moment. Because if I’m not in the moment, I don’t think I’m doing the right thing by myself and the team.”I’m not the guy who’s going, ‘I want to play for another ten years’. I’m very attuned to whatever is best for the team [and that] is what I’m trying to do. I’m not here for myself anymore. I’m here for the team. I could have stopped playing two years ago, really. But I found that I was still contributing, still trying to be the best player for the team at that opening spot, trying to do what I can do, [and] that hasn’t changed for me. When it does, you guys will surely find out.”

Roach five-for and Blackwood fifty went in vain in Test that finished in three days

Deivarayan Muthu02-Mar-2023West Indies threatened to turn the tables on South Africa by rolling them over for 116 on the third morning at SuperSport Park, but their own batters collapsed in similar spectacular fashion, chasing 247. Kagiso Rabada was chiefly responsible for that collapse, bagging 6 for 50 to dismiss them for 159 and seal South Africa’s victory inside three days on a track that offered variable bounce.Jermaine Blackwood’s thrilling counterattack – 79 off 93 balls – raised West Indies’ hopes, but Rabada found a little extra kick off the pitch to take him out and ensure the new era under captain Temba Bavuma and coach Shukri Conrad began with a victory in Centurion, where the South Africa women’s team that reached the T20 World Cup final five days ago was also in attendance.It was Roach who had set the scene for the day with his 11th five-for in Test cricket – and first away from home since 2017. He also surpassed Joel Garner’s tally of 259 to become West Indies’ fifth-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Just before lunch, Roach was warmly welcomed back by his team-mates, Jimmy Adams, West Indies’ director of cricket, and Brian Lara, the team mentor.However, the mood and tempo of the match changed quickly when Rabada struck either side of the lunch break. After having captain Kraigg Brathwaite caught down the leg side for a duck, he drew an outside edge from No. 3 Raymon Reifer.Tagenarine Chanderpaul kept playing and missing at full balls, but wasn’t particularly flustered against that length. It was the short ball that bothered him. He fell on his backside twice while trying to deal with them and then when he dared to hook a head-high bouncer from Marco Jansen, he could only top-edge it to midwicket for 10.Jermaine Blackwood played some outstanding shots•AFP/Getty Images

Roston Chase misjudged an inswinger from Jansen and was castled after offering no shot. Then, when debutant Gerald Coetzee produced extra bounce to get rid of Kyle Mayers, West Indies were 33 for 5 in the 15th over.Blackwood came in and hoicked the seventh ball he faced, off Rabada, over square leg for four. He continued to regularly pump the ball over the top, running away to a 51-ball half-century. At the other end, Joshua Da Silva was more circumspect and contributed 17 to a 58-run sixth-wicket partnership before he fell to Rabada.Blackwood, though, went after South Africa’s premier seamer and shanked him over his head for an imposing four. When Anrich Nortje shifted his angle to around the wicket, he ramped him over deep third for four. Jason Holder also operated at almost a run-a-ball in a 37-run seventh-wicket stand with Blackwood before Rabada had him nicking behind with a perfectly-pitched delivery. Though Rabada looked like wasn’t at his best earlier in the day, floating some balls in the lower 130-kph range, his seven-over spell post tea, in which he dismissed both Holder and Blackwood, was perhaps the most decisive passage of play.The day had started on a more promising note for West Indies. Roach struck with his first ball to cut Aiden Markram’s innings short at 47 off 58. He went wide of the crease, tricked Markram into playing for the inward angle from over the wicket but got it to straighten late off the seam and graze the outside edge. Marais Erasmus, the on-field umpire, didn’t rule Markram out initially, but he opted to walk back to the dressing room. In his next over, Roach went wide of the crease again, but this time he beat Jansen’s outside edge and hit the top of the off stump.Roach also helped snip the South African tail, but Coetzee’s spunky cameo (20 off 15 balls) pushed their lead closer to 250. Markram aside, Coetzee was the only South Africa batter to score more than 10 runs in their second innings. He then combined and Rabada, Jansen and Norje with the ball to compensate for their batting collapse and wrap the game up before drinks on the third afternoon.

“Even playing them in the nets, I can see an improvement. I think they’ll do the job”

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-Jun-2022They may not be as good as Rangana Herath, but they’re better than what they showed against Bangladesh. This was what Sri Lanka Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne had to say about his young spinners, on the eve of the first Test against Australia.In their most recent Test series, against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka’s spinners claimed a paltry three wickets between them. This was across the 196 overs they had delivered in two Tests.Related

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Despite this, Karunaratne suggested Sri Lanka are likely to field three frontline spinners in their XI, in addition to having the offspin of batter Dhananjaya de Silva on hand, for the first Test. Galle’s pitch is expected to turn more than the tracks in Chattogram and Dhaka. And the likes of left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya, and offspinner Ramesh Mendis did find success on the surface last year, in the series against England and West Indies respectively.”Our spinners didn’t bowl that well in Bangladesh, but we looked ahead and looked at which series were coming up and prepared for them,” Karunaratne said. “Piyal Wijetunge, our spin-bowling coach, has been working hard with the spinners. Even playing them in the nets, I can see an improvement. I think they’ll do the job we’ll need them to do in the match.Sri Lanka’s success on Australia’s previous trip to the island had been driven by the prowess of Herath, who took 28 wickets at an average of 12.75 in a 3-0 whitewash. Australia had at times been woeful against spin in that series, but Karunaratne expects them to be much improved this time. Australia’s most recent taste of subcontinent conditions had been a three-match tour of Pakistan, which they won 1-0, albeit on flatter tracks than those expected in Galle.Sri Lanka’s young spinners will need to find ways to replicate Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera’s success in their absence•AFP/Getty Images

“Australia have improved a lot. They showed that in the series against Pakistan. In 2016 we had Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera. We had experienced spinners. We’ve now got three pretty new spinners in the team. But we know what this pitch will do and how we need to bowl on it. If we do those basics well, we’ll be able to win. There are things we learned in the last series, and a lot of the same players are playing this one as well. I think some of those plans will work out here.”What Rangana did in that series is keep bowling in good areas and make trouble for the batters. If our spinners do that, we’ll be able to ask a lot of questions.”The series won’t be all about spin, however. Reverse-swing frequently plays a role in Galle Tests, and Mitchell Starc had weaponised it to outstanding effect in 2016, when he claimed 11 for 94. With Pat Cummins who is also an excellent reverse-swing operator, Sri Lanka’s batters have a substantial challenge ahead of them, particularly as the Test wears on and the square gets drier.”With the breeze here, reverse is definitely going to be a factor. Mitchell Starc in the previous series took a lot of wickets. We prepared well in the nets. We know we have to play spin well, but then there’s Starc and Pat Cummins as well.”Starc has done really well in these conditions and he knows how to use the crease as well. We have a few plans against him. Most of our players have played against him, so they have the confidence and the experience to play him.”

Mac Wright was left unbeaten on 78 when Tasmania’s tail fell swiftly in the final session

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2022New South Wales 276 (Kerr 88) and 9 for 226 dec (J Sangha 75, Gilkes 64) beat Tasmania 213 (Wright 57, Doran 54, Tremain 5-48) and 214 (Wright 78*, Copeland 4-46) by 75 runsTrent Copeland and Jack Edwards were the key wicket-takers for New South Wales as they made it back-to-back Sheffield Shield wins with a hard-fought 74-run victory over Tasmania.Mac Wright played excellently for an unbeaten 78, to follow a half-century in the first innings, and Tasmania were still in with a chance of chasing down 290 in the final session before the last four wickets fell for 14 to a combination of Copeland and Chris Tremain.Copeland had earlier claimed his 400th first-class wicket when he produced a beauty which nipped back to bowl Beau Webster.Tasmania’s top order had made the home side work hard to add to the wicket they claimed on the third evening. Legspinner Tanveer Sangha provided the first breakthrough when he produced a good delivery to defeat Tim Ward then shortly before lunch Harry Conway found Eamonn Vines’ outside edge from around the wicket to end a 112-ball stay.Edwards’ part-time medium pace made an important impact during the afternoon when he lured Jake Doran into a drive which found point and he added a second early in the final session with a superb delivery to clean up Nivethan Radhakrishnan.At six down with and 127 still needed Tasmania might have considered trying to hang on but Tom Andrews played aggressively to move along at a run-a-ball as he and Wright added 37 in seven overs to bring the requirement down to double figures.But Andrews picked out mid-on against Copeland and the lower order went quickly. Jackson Bird was bowled by a delivery that kept low, Sam Rainbird’s off stump was nicked by Copeland and captain Kurtis Patterson held a good catch at mid-off from Peter Siddle to wrap up the match