The board’s CEO Warren Deutrom lays out the obstacles in hosting matches under the current climate

Matt Roller15-Apr-2020Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom has conceded that there is a “high risk” that home series against New Zealand and Pakistan this summer will fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic.The start of the Irish season has already been pushed back to the end of May, meaning that Bangladesh’s scheduled tour for three ODIs and four T20Is has been postponed, and with international travel severely limited as things stand, it is possible that Ireland will not play a single home fixture this summer.New Zealand are due to play three ODIs and three T20Is from June 19, while Pakistan are scheduled to play two T20Is in July in between series in the Netherlands and England.”We’re all going to have to take a pragmatic approach – we just don’t know what’s going to happen even if sport does get back up and running in June,” Deutrom said. “With regards to international cricket, we remain in a wait-and-see holding pattern. Clearly, there is a high risk that our men’s home series against New Zealand and Pakistan… may be postponed if government restrictions remain in place.”Of course, some of the challenge we face in trying to bring some degree of certainty are no different to any other sport with international opposition – for example attaining visas for visiting teams and their support staff may not be possible as the Department of Foreign Affairs and the UK Foreign Office are currently not processing visa applications.”In addition, each country will take the advice of their home government, so teams may not even be in a position to travel to Europe. More specific to our situation, both New Zealand and Pakistan are visiting multiple countries on their tours, so that adds an extra layer of complexity. Then there are more logistical issues such as hotel and international flight bookings, the movement and staffing of broadcast facilities, and complying with the restrictions that may still exist around large group gatherings.”Two weeks ago, NZC chief executive David White indicated that the tour to Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands and the Caribbean was “most unlikely”, while PCB chairman Ehsan Mani told the board’s podcast this week that “preparation for the tour might become an issue if this keeps going the way it is.””It will also depend to a large degree on what the situation is like in England and Ireland,” Mani said. “If those series are disrupted, it will have a lot of impact. [The national boards] will also obviously have a huge financial impact. To reschedule those [tours] to fit into a future FTP will become a big challenge.”Irish cricket faces a further obstacle in that it has no permanent stadium, and relies heavily on temporary infrastructure at home fixtures. “Not only does this extend our lead-times for series preparation,” Deutrom said, “but also – at this time of crisis – we are aware that there is a shortage of temporary or portable infrastructure on the market as most is understandably in use by [Irish and Northern Irish health services].”The groundsman at Malahide – the ground near Dublin due to host both fixtures against Pakistan – has been temporarily repatriated to England by the local club, and Deutrom has previously indicated Cricket Ireland would monitor its readiness to host international cricket once restrictions are lifted.Deutrom also confirmed that the board has taken measures to preserve jobs and “to buffer the organisation through at least the next two months” with revenue shortfalls expected through loss of broadcast and sponsorship revenue. All non-playing staff have taken a 20% wage cut for April and May, while Deutrom himself will take a 25% cut for the rest of the calendar year.Centrally-contracted players have not been asked to take a cut on their retainer, on account of the losses already incurred due to the absence of match fees. “To ask them to take a further cut to their base remuneration… would be unreasonable,” Deutrom said.It remains to be seen how well-equipped Cricket Ireland is to deal with the crisis financially, with the annual report for 2019 due to be published within the next few weeks. The board’s 2018 accounts showed that cash reserves had been depleted to just €13,470 (14,700 USD approx), with the achievement of Test status leading to vastly increased costs, while Mani has warned that many boards will “feel the pinch” of the crisis, not least if the T20 World Cup is postponed.

Hales hopes to ‘get absolute confirmation of my current health status’ after developing fever, dry cough upon return home from PSL

Matt Roller17-Mar-20202:21

We took all measures we possibly could – PCB CEO

Alex Hales has confirmed he is self-isolating at home after developing symptoms of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) following his return from the Pakistan Super League.The PSL’s organisers confirmed on Tuesday morning that the competition’s semi-finals and finals had been postponed indefinitely after a player had shown symptoms of the virus. PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said “we cannot reveal the identity of that player”, but Ramiz Raja, who has been commentating on the tournament, told reporters: “Alex Hales has developed symptoms.”Raja’s comments led to inaccurate speculation that Hales had tested positive for the virus, which he denied in a statement.ALSO READ: PSL playoffs postponed on semi-final day“In the light of the speculation and rumour that is currently circulating within the cricket world and on social media, I felt I needed to give a full explanation of my situation,” Hales said.”Like many other overseas players, I reluctantly left the Pakistan Super League early because, with COVID-19 reaching global pandemic status, I felt it was more important to be with my family rather than face a period of lockdown thousands of miles from home.”I returned to the UK in the early hours of Saturday morning feeling perfectly fit and healthy and with absolutely no symptoms of the virus. However, I awoke early on Sunday morning having developed a fever and followed the government’s advice of self-isolation, a process I am obviously still following having developed a dry and persistent cough.”At this stage, it has not been possible to be tested although I am hopeful that might be the case later today [Tuesday] so that I can get absolute confirmation of my current health status.”Alex Hales in action for Karachi Kings at the PSL•AFP via Getty Images

reported that Hales spent Saturday socialising with Tom Curran and Jade Dernbach after returning from Pakistan, but that they were not among the six Surrey players confirmed by the club to be in self-isolation on Monday. A club spokesperson later confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the pair are now also self-isolating.Hales had tweeted “Self-isolation begins… TV series to watch please?!” on Monday, but later deleted the post.All the players and officials of the four teams to have qualified for the PSL semi-finals, as well as broadcasters and staff involved with the games, will be tested for the virus following the competition’s postponement.Salman Iqbal, the owner of Hales’ franchise Karachi Kings, told ESPNcricinfo: “I have been asking for it to be postponed for the past two days, as we [PSL] was the only cricket going on. But, anyway, it’s a very good decision by the franchise owners and the PCB management.”

UK death toll from Covid-19 causing disquiet in the Caribbean, says CWI CEO Johnny Grave

ESPNcricinfo staff14-May-2020West Indies’ cricketers will only tour England for their postponed Test series in July if they are “100% sure” they are not putting their health at risk, according to the CWI chief executive, Johnny Grave.Speaking on Sky Sports after it was confirmed that England’s players plan to begin their own phased return to training on Monday, Grave admitted that the UK’s death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic, already in excess of 30,000, has caused some alarm in the Caribbean.”There are relatively few cases here in the Caribbean, therefore, we’re all relatively safe from a coronavirus point of view,” he said. “Just in terms of sheer numbers of deaths in the UK, obviously over 30,000 people is an enormous number but in population terms here in the Caribbean for people who are based and who have lived most of their lives on the smaller islands, you are talking about 40-50 per cent of the total populations.”It is a very different mindset here in terms of going to what is seen as one of the eyes of the storm of this virus. So we’re going to have to be very, very careful that first up we take the medical advice that the ECB give us and secondly that we’re 100 per cent sure that we’re not putting any player’s health at risk before we can contemplate the tour taking place.ALSO READ: England face Ben Stokes dilemma in event of split squads“We’ve had, as you can imagine, lots of conversations individually and – as of the start of this month – we started really a much wider discussion with the ECB over what a tour might look like,” he added.”Certainly, from our point of view, it’s really just listening to those ECB plans both from Steve Elworthy [Director of Special Projects], from a logistics and venue point of view, and professor Nick Peirce [Chief Medical Officer] from a medical point of view.”So, we’re in good dialogue with the ECB and ultimately we’re waiting to hear from them and clearly they need to get UK Government approval before we can seriously contemplate a tour to the UK.”Ashley Giles, England’s team director, admitted that he could understand West Indies’ concerns, but remained confident that the tour would go ahead as planned.”I would be nervous, certainly, but I think we are all nervous, aren’t we? Clearly being outside and looking in, as with any scenario, it can be quite scary but we are doing everything we possibly can to answer all of the West Indies’ questions and we will be speaking to Pakistan as well and mitigate as much risk as we possibly can. We can’t mitigate all risk but as much as possible to get guys comfortable.”We have to remain confident. A big part of my job is trying to get cricket on but it has to be safe and it has to be right. We would never compromise the safety of our players and our people. Right now I am confident. We hope we don’t take another dip which would put all of us back, [but] if we continue on this trajectory hopefully we will have the right conditions to play some Test cricket.”A significant hurdle for CWI will be the assembling of their squad ahead of the trip to England, with all internal flights in the Caribbean currently suspended.”At the moment there’s no regional travel between the main airlines so first up we need to think through where the pool of players would come from across the Caribbean,” said Grave.”We’d expect at least seven or eight countries to make up the Test squad. I don’t think commercial flying is going to be appropriate here from the medical advice that we’ve been getting so we’re looking at chartering planes within the Caribbean and then ultimately a trans-Atlantic charter to get over to England.”

The Australia captain acknowledges it could be tough for teams to get enough cricket

Andrew McGlashan22-Jul-2020With a decision around whether the 2021 Women’s ODI World Cup goes ahead in New Zealand expected in the next couple of weeks, Australia captain Meg Lanning has acknowledged one of the issues will be whether all teams will be able to have adequate preparation due to Covid-19.While New Zealand has led the way in coping with the pandemic, and Australia has done well albeit there are now worries over the second wave, a number of countries either already qualified or hoping to be involved are currently far more severely hit.The qualifying tournament, which had been set for Sri Lanka in July, was postponed in May although ESPNcricinfo understands that if the World Cup still goes ahead, the plan would be to stage the qualifiers in the UAE during November.As things stand there remain three spots up for grabs in the World Cup, between Bangladesh, Ireland, Pakistan, West Indies, Ireland, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, USA and Netherlands.”It’s something the ICC will have to weigh up in whether the tournament goes ahead,” Lanning said. “Will every team in the competition have the opportunity to prepare adequately for a World Cup? There are still a few teams that have to go through the qualifying process so I’m not sure how that will pan out.”There’s a few more decisions to be made around it rather than whether it can just go ahead or not. It’s a pretty difficult position to be in, but as a player you want things to be as equal and fair as they can be heading into a big world tournament and I’m sure the organisers will make sure that happens.”It had been hoped that India would be able to travel to England for a tri-series also involving South Africa but the BCCI has said that won’t happen although there is belief South Africa will still tour.While Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to play each other in late September, and India are due to tour Australia in January, there is no other women’s cricket currently in the calendar.New Zealand’s trip across the Tasman is due to include three T20Is, all play in Sydney, followed by three ODIs played across Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast in Queensland.”The planning is for that to still go ahead as scheduled, there needs to be flexibility around things if they change but from what I’ve heard still planning for that to happen which is really great for the players to look forward to and an end point to pre-season,” Lanning said.

Bowlers then take over to lead TKR to third successive victory in CPL 2020

The Report by Firdose Moonda23-Aug-2020Half-centuries from Colin Munro and Darren Bravo, who also shared in a 98-run stand with Kieron Pollard, propelled the Trinbago Knight Riders to the highest score of this year’s CPL and the top of the points’ table. The defending champion Barbados Tridents made a fist of the chase, and were ahead of the required run-rate after the PowerPlay but could not sustain their scoring. They remain in the bottom half of the table.Knight Riders picked up pace after a watchful start which brought just 27 runs in the first five overs. They scored at more than 10 runs an over for the remainder of their innings, giving Tridents a mountain to climb in response. Tridents’ innings played out in opposite fashion. They raced to 68 inside eight overs, thanks largely to Johnson Charles’ 52, but then lost three wickets for seven runs, leaving the middle order with too much to do in the second half of the innings.Nursing the scoring rate Ashley Nurse was the first spinner Jason Holder turned to immediately after the Powerplay, just as Munro had started to free his arms, and he proved the most economical of the Tridents’ attack. Nurse found turn and grip on a wearing surface and would have had Sunil Narine’s wicket at the start of his second over but Shai Hope could not hold on to a thick outside edge. Narine only lasted until the next over anyway, as Nurse and Raymon Reifer kept the Knight Riders’ fairly quiet. Nurse was the only bowler to concede less than eight runs an over and was eventually rewarded when Munro slogged his final ball to deep midwicket, where Rashid Khan took a tumbling catch. The One-Handed Six Specialist and his 3,000 run partner Knight Riders entered the last four overs with a strong foundation of 116 for 3 and then upped the ante. Mitchell Santner’s only over cost 19 runs and included Pollard fetching a wide delivery with one hand to send it down the ground for six. At the end of the next over, Pollard pulled it off again, this time against Reifer, who bowled it too full. Pollard took his bottom-hand off the bat to get under the ball and hoist it over long-on. And in the over after that, Darren Bravo reached the milestone of 3,000 T20 runs when he belted a low-full toss from Jason Holder down the ground for four. The Knight Riders’ scored 69 runs in the last four overs, 52 of them in boundaries.Not quite brotherly love Only the off-side seemed to get the better of Charles, who all but three of his 52 runs on the other side of the field, but Dwayne Bravo could have caused Charles trouble with his first ball. Charles hit Dwayne to the left of deep midwicket, who just happened to be Bravo’s little brother, Darren, who ran and dived and tried to hold on but couldn’t. Worse than the missed chance, or that Charles was on a roll, was that the wicket would have been Dwayne’s 500th. Darren made amends when he took the catch that dismissed Kyle Mayers but Dwayne will have to wait for the next match to take his milestone wicket.Back of the bat and back to the changeroomPollard was not the only innovative stroke-maker on the day. Jonathan Carter, whose contribution was a mere 8, scored four of them off the back of his bat when he got down on one knee to scoop Dwayne Bravo over fine leg. Carter switched his stance but not his bat and instead of turning it around in his hands, just used the other side. He wasn’t able to provide much more entertainment though. He lost his leg stump to Ali Khan and the most exuberant celebration in the two overs later. Apart from the customary fast-bowlers’ roar, Ali ripped off his sweat band and chucked it away in delight.

BCB says those who came in close contact with the infected player have also been isolated

Mohammad Isam20-Sep-2020A Bangladesh men’s player, who was among the 27 to participate in the skill-training camp ahead of the Sri Lanka tour, has been isolated after showing “classical Covid-like symptoms”, according to the BCB. Those who came in close contact with him have also been isolated, following the latest Covid-19 tests conducted by the board ahead of the camp that began in Dhaka on Sunday. Their next set of tests will be on September 22.The BCB said two players were identified as “borderline negative” in the tests conducted on September 18 and 19, including the one with Covid-19-like symptoms. The players in question did not participate in the camp.”Out of the 27 cricketers for the Bangladesh team skill camp tested on September 18 and 19, two cases have been identified as ‘borderline negative’ with one of them showing classical Covid-19-like symptoms,” the BCB said in a statement. “As per the Covid-19 management guideline and to maintain Bio-Secure Environment standards, the symptomatic individual along with all the players who have been in close contact with him recently, have been isolated until the next test on September 22.”The BCB, however, didn’t say what would happen to the other player who it called “borderline negative”.Saif Hassan, too, is scheduled to be tested for a third time, on September 22. Hassan is currently quarantined at home after two recent positive results, although he is part of the 27-man training squad. These players have been isolating at a city hotel, from where they are expected to go to Mirpur every day for the next six days, starting Sunday.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s form will be critical, while Mohammad Nabi may have a bigger role to play this season

Hemant Brar13-Sep-20204:52

Can Mohammad Nabi or Fabian Allen step up as finishers?

Where they finished in 2019: Fourth. Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab had 12 points each at the end of the group stage, but a superior net run-rate saw the Sunrisers through to the Eliminator, where they lost to the Delhi Capitals.Potential XI: David Warner (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel AhmedBatting: As always, the Sunrisers’ batting will revolve around David Warner, who has topped 500 runs every season he has played for the franchise. Warner will open the innings with Jonny Bairstow – both were exceptional as an opening pair last year, their average stand being 79 in just eight overs.The middle order, though, once again appears a bit shaky. In the absence of a proven anchor, Manish Pandey may have to bat at No. 4 instead of No. 3, with Vijay Shankar slotting in after him. For the No. 3 position, the Sunrisers may start with Wriddhiman Saha. Their other options are Priyam Garg, who was India’s captain at the 2020 Under-19 World Cup, and Virat Singh, who scored 343 runs at 57.16 with a strike rate of 142.32 in the last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Kane Williamson can also come in for Bairstow, with Saha opening the innings in that case.Abdul Samad and Fabian Allen are in the side as finishers. Then there is Mohammad Nabi, who had a fantastic CPL both with bat and ball. With Warner and Rashid Khan taking up two overseas slots, the Sunrisers will have to leave Bairstow out if they want to fit both Allen and Nabi into their XI.Sunrisers Hyderabad full squad•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Bowling: Rashid is arguably the world’s best T20 bowler. Even though teams have started playing out his four overs of late, he remains a wicket-taking option. His compatriot Nabi will have a bigger role to play this year given the slow nature of the UAE pitches. If a third spinner is required, the Sunrisers can turn to Shahbaz Nadeem.Still, a lot will depend on how Bhuvneshwar Kumar fares. Kumar was the leading wicket-taker for the Sunrisers for four successive years, from 2014 to 2017. However, he has struggled with injuries in the past two years and last played a representative game in December 2019. His form in the tournament could be the difference between a top-four finish and a title win.In the supporting cast, the Sunrisers have a left-arm seamer in Khaleel Ahmed, a swing bowler in Sandeep Sharma and a hit-the-deck bowler in Siddarth Kaul. They also have the option of playing the tall Australian pacer Billy Stanlake in place of one of the overseas players.Young player to watch out for: The spotlight will be on the 18-year-old Abdul Samad. In India’s last domestic season, the Jammu & Kashmir batsman was the most prolific six-hitter across formats (61 sixes). Moreover, he hit a six every 13 balls, the best rate among those with a minimum of 25 sixes. In March, just before India went into lockdown, Samad worked with Milap Mewada and Irfan Pathan to further sharpen his game and add shots like the uppercut to his repertoire. Apart from Samad, there is Priyam Garg who has a more all-round game. But it needs to be seen how many matches he gets.Coaching staff: Trevor Bayliss (head coach), Brad Haddin (assistant coach), Muttiah Muralitharan (bowling coach), Biju George (fielding coach), VVS Laxman (mentor)