The ICC has finally postponed the 2020 men's T20 World Cup, a decision made because of the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The decision to put off the tournament, originally scheduled for October-November, was taken by the ICC Board on Monday. The board has also shifted the 2023 Men's World Cup from the February-March window to October-November that year.
The board ultimately agreed to windows for three men's events, with T20 World Cups in October-November 2021 and October-November 2022. But one decision not yet made is in which order Australia and India will host the T20 World Cups. In the original rights cycle, India was scheduled to host the event in 2021, after this year's event in Australia. The Women's World Cup, in New Zealand in February next year, has not yet been postponed, the ICC saying that planning for the event continues "as scheduled".
This remains a point of contention between the BCCI and CA, and is one reason why it took as long as it did to postpone the tournament officially. In May Earl Eddings, the CA chairman, sent an email to the ICC's Finance & Commercial Affairs Committee, in which he proposed that Australia and India swap hosting rights for the T20 World Cup, with Australia hosting the event in October-November 2021 and India a year later. Doing that, Eddings said, would financially help all members. If not, Eddings said it would be "detrimental to cricket" in case the "cancellation" of the World Cup in Australia this year was "replaced by award of" the tournament in October-November 2022.
West Indies coach Phil Simmons is disappointed that batsmen in his team have not converted good starts into big scores, blaming that fact on defeat to England in the second Test of the #raisethebat Series at Old Trafford on Monday.
According to Simmons, half-centuries from Kraigg Brathwaite, 75, Shamarh Brooks, 68 and 62, Roston Chase 51, and Jermaine Blackwood, 55, were missed opportunities.
“We had five or six half-centuries and no conversions. It is something that we have been talking about a lot and nobody has taken up that opportunity in this game yet again, so it is disappointing,” said Simmons.
West Indies coach Phil Simmons has pinpointed five or six overs during the course of the second Test in the Raise The Bat Series at Old Trafford, that were the catalyst for the visitors ending 113-run losers.
The West Indies began day five of the second Test with the ball and a 214-run deficit, but were quickly put under pressure by the big-hitting Ben Stokes, whose, quickfire unbeaten 78 ballooned that lead to 311 with just 11 overs played.
“For me, we lost control of the game in five or six overs with the new ball yesterday evening,” he said. Read more at SportsMax
Former West Indies T20 captain, Carlos Brathwaite, says that while he understands that everybody, sports stars or not, has a life to live, he is still disappointed with Jofra Archer.
Brathwaite was speaking about Archer’s decision to visit his home in between the first and second Test in the #raisethebat Series against the West Indies.
Archer’s decision saw him miss the second Test which is headed to day four after Saturday was rained out.
The England pacer was fined by the English Cricket Board on Saturday but can play in the third Test if he tests negative for COVID-19.
“For me, as a personal friend, I'm disappointed, not only in what Jofra's done but the scrutiny you get from the media,” said Brathwaite.
According to Brathwaite, Archer has not done any favours to his image, though he believes the paceman is generally misunderstood.
By the time of Marlon Samuel’s infamous fight with Shane Warne at the MCG in 2013, Marlon Samuels was one of my favourite batsmen. I had shivered through a freezing cold fourth day at Lord’s in 2012, watching him blunt England’s world-class bowling attack, and seen him finish the series as its leading run-scorer. Not bad, I thought, for a man written off as an unfulfilled talent.
Four months later, I watched with pure amazement as he played one of the all-time great T20 innings on the biggest stage. West Indies were 38 for 2 after 11 overs of the World T20 final, which seemed to have turned into a coronation for Sri Lanka. Then Samuels unleashed one of the most extraordinary assaults on the world’s best white-ball bowling, carting Lasith Malinga for five towering sixes, each bigger than the last. The fifth was measured at 108 metres.
Not only did he single-handedly salvage the game, he did it in style: forget a high front elbow, he cleared his front leg to open up a huge hitting arc from midwicket through to cover-point, and combined languid with violent to crack the ball off the face of his bat, arms fully extended in an effortless follow-through. To follow that up with a vital spell of off-spin and have his team-mates dust him down in celebration was the icing on the cake.
