The ICC has confirmed receiving from Lalit Modi a letter that claimed that three top and regular IPL players received illegal payments - in cash and in kind - from an Indian business house. The former IPL chairman made the allegation in June 2013. The ICC has said it passed on the letter, as per procedure, to the ACSU, which in turn forwarded it to the BCCI's anti-corruption unit. It was not clear whether the investigation had been completed, and whether the said players had been cleared of the charges.
Curiously, this letter was not revealed by Modi, who has been on a contentious-document-sharing spree on Twitter ever since top politicians in the country came under fire for helping him out with travel documents. Instead, this was a tweet sent to Modi by a user with the handle @shyamswami158. This was also the first tweet from the account, posting an image of the letter and asking the question, "Whadya hav to say about this @LalitKModi ? Wat was @ICC response ..... This is shocking!!!!" Modi's response to the tweet from @shyamswami158 was: "Ask @Icc @Bcci @Ipl why ask me. This is highly confidential. You should not be tweeting this".
West Indies and Pakistan are currently ranked eighth and ninth in the ICC ODI rankings, with only a point separating them. Only the top-seven sides as on September 30, apart from hosts England, will make it to the 2017 Champions Trophy.
There are three standards of cricket in this world. There is the high standard of South Africa, Australia, India, and New Zealand. There is the weak standard of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, and there is - not those in between like England and Pakistan - but those who are seen as average, or mediocre like the West Indies.
Once upon a time, the West Indies were the kings of cricket, the rulers of the game, the team that was rated as possibly the world's greatest ever cricket team.
They were better than teams like Don Bradman's all-conquering Australians of 1948, or Ian Chappell's men of the 1970s and especially 1974 and 1975.
It has been a long time since those days of greatness and it appears as if the return to those days, or anything close, is a long way off.
THE Caribbean Premier League (CPL) entourage moves on from Barbados and St Lucia this weekend, heading north to St Kitts for its next round of feting and T20 cricket. Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad, which hosts the final at Port of Spain’s Queen’s Park Oval on July 26, follow.
It leaves Barbados after four matches that attracted spirited sell-out crowds each night with an ominous notice from the CPL bosses that, after three years, it could well be the end of play at Kensington Oval.
Chief executive Damien O’Donohue and chief operations officer Pete Russell charged in an interview in the local press that the government and private sector had “failed to come on board” and that if they received a good offer from “people knocking on our doors” they were prepared to pull out of Barbados.
“All the other teams are making money because of the support of government and the private sector in those countries,” they said, adding that they would review Barbados’ position when the season is over.
A fighting 82 from Barbados Tridents captain Kieron Pollard was not enough to dig his side out of a hole from 14 for 3 as the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots held on for a one-run win on Saturday night at Kensington Oval. A scratchy first innings total of 143 for 8 was just enough for the visitors after Navin Stewart only managed a single off the final ball of the match with three needed to win.
Pollard produced a valiant effort, with his score far and away the biggest contribution of the match from either side ahead of team-mate Shoaib Malik's 35. Pollard started the final over on strike with his side needing 19 to win and proceeded to hit a four and six off the second and third balls of the over, bowled by medium pacer Orlando Peters, bringing the equation down to nine off three balls. After a bouncer over head height was signaled a no ball, it became eight off three.
