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Usman Shinwari and Kashif Bhatti left out for Test series opener against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi

Umar Farooq01-Feb-2020Pakistan have recalled offspinner Bilal Asif into their Test squad, in a bid to counter what is expected to be a left-hander heavy Bangladesh line-up, for the first game in Rawalpindi. Seam-bowling allrounder Faheem Ashraf also returned to the squad after having been ignored for the team’s most recent Test series at home against Sri Lanka.

Pakistan Test squad

Azhar Ali (capt), Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Yasir Shah, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Afridi, Bilal Asif, Naseem Shah, Faheem Ashraf

Both Asif and Ashraf weren’t part of the Test squad that toured Australia in 2019, but have now made comebacks in place of left-arm fingerspinner Kashif Bhatti and left-arm quick Usman Shinwari. Asif was the second-highest wicket-taker in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, with 43 strikes in nine games, in Central Punjab’s run to the title. Meanwhile, Ashraf, his Central Punjab team-mate, had taken eight wickets in three games in addition to making 118 runs at an average of 59 and strike rate of 90.07. Six of those wickets came in the final after he had missed six successive matches because of a groin injury.ALSO READ: Who is Bilal Asif?An offspinner, who can turn the ball sharply and generate extra bounce, Asif has played five Tests so far, collecting 16 wickets, including a six-wicket haul on debut against Australia in Dubai in 2018. Ashraf last played a Test in January 2019 in Johannesburg.”The Test team is in good shape after winning the last Test against Sri Lanka,” coach-cum-selector Misbah-ul-Haq said. “But now we have a different opponent, we haven’t made a lot of changes and have made only two changes. We went with four fast bowlers in the last Test in Pindi (Rawalpindi) and that’s why we have included an allrounder (Ashraf) if we get the same conditions.”Bilal Asif has been brought in because of left-handers and it gives us a different option if we need it. In the last series against Sri Lanka, if we consider the wicketkeeper as a batsman, we needed a bowler at No. 7 who can bat. Faheem took five wickets in the final and gives you cushion to score runs too, but we consider him as a bowler. We will try to play with an experienced team in the Test matches; we have a settled batting line-up but have also have back-ups.”The first Test will take place in Rawalpindi from February 7 to 11, and Bangladesh will then return to the country in April to play a solitary ODI and the second Test, both in Karachi. The Pakistan Super League, also to be played in Pakistan in its entirety, will be played between the second and third legs of Bangladesh’s tour. The first leg included a three-match T20I series, in January, which Pakistan won 2-0, after the third match was washed out.Both Tests will be part of the ICC Test Championship, where Pakistan are currently placed fourth, with 80 points from four games.Misbah rued the lengthy gap between the two Tests and said that it could disrupt the “rhythm” of the players.”It’s very difficult not only for me but for the players too,” Misbah said. “If the player has scored a century in his last Test and then plays after a gap, it’s too difficult. When you play back-to-back Test series it gives you rhythm. It’s a very tricky situation for the team when you play with a gap of two-three months.”

‘I am talking more about off-field stuff than on-field performance,’ he said looking ahead to the one-off ODI in Pakistan next month

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Mar-2020Improving Bangladesh’s team culture will be of top priority for newly appointed Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal. The 30-year old has called for greater discipline and collective effort after taking over from Mashrafe Mortaza, whose five-year stint ended earlier this month.The BCB’s top brass had convinced Iqbal to succeed Mortaza as captain although the cloud of Shakib Al Hasan’s comeback hangs over his new job. Shakib is BCB’s preferred long-term captain across formats, despite being suspended till the end of October this year.”I want to take small steps to improve ourselves,” Iqbal said. “How we can improve our training, how much better can we play as a team, how can I contribute to someone else’s process, and vice-versa. This is my starting point. We will take it one step at a time. Without focusing much about the long process of everything, we should break it down into small steps. On the field, a lot of things remain out of control but the team culture is within our control. How we think off the field, how professional we are.”I want to improve on our team culture, so that with time, you can see results in that aspect. We get more disciplined and work harder, minimise our mistakes. When I think how I will take this team forward, the first thing that comes to mind is that we have to fix all our off the-field issues. I think we are one of the most disciplined teams in world cricket, but we can get better. If I can get to work there and we start seeing it reflected in the field, we are good.”ALSO READ: Life in the time of Mashrafe Mortaza, by Tamim Iqbal and MahmudullahBangladesh’s next assignment is a one-off ODI in Karachi on April 1, but that is in doubt, like all other international fixtures, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Iqbal, though, said that a win over Pakistan in Karachi will boost the confidence of the current group. “When we beat Pakistan under Mashrafe Mortaza in 2015, we started to believe as a group that we can beat bigger teams,” he said. The current squad, which has a lot of young players, needs to win against a big team as soon as possible, to bring back that belief.Mashrafe Mortaza played a key role in reviving the careers of Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah•AFP via Getty Images

“This is a different team than 2015. There are a few key players missing. Form is also different. We have at least four or five new players. We are the type of team that needs five or six people performing to beat good teams, so we need that one big win to break the ice. They need the confidence.”Iqbal also spoke of his challenge to bring the best out of each player. He reserved special praise for Liton Das, who forged a strong partnership with Iqbal at the top and amassed 311 runs of his own in the recently concluded three-match ODI series at home against Zimbabwe.”There is a difference between how Liton thinks now to how he thought six months ago,” Iqbal said. “You can see the reflection in the field. I think the young players are positive towards their cricket. They want to do well. But everyone needs improvement in those areas, including myself.”We are all professional cricketers. You have to treat each individual differently. There are different ways to treat Mushfiq (Mushfiqur Rahim) and Riyad (Mahmudullah) , for example, to get the best out of them. I am talking more about off-field stuff than on-field performance. The sooner, as a team, we can come back into the right track, better for us.”Mortaza ended his ODI captaincy tenure with 50 wins and while it would be difficult for Iqbal to emulate his predecessor’s success, the new captain said that his “close relationship” with Mortaza will hold him in good stead.”I am not an experienced captain. You have to give me time for anything,” Iqbal said. I don’t know what my performance is going to be in six months’ time. Our fans have to be a little patient. I will do for the best interest in the team. You also have to remember that it will be very hard to reach the level of the previous captain. We have achieved a lot under him, but you have to give me some time to reach his level.”I am lucky that I have a close relationship with him. I saw him from close quarters, and we have played a lot together. I know how he thinks and I can take as much as I can. But, those are very difficult shoes to fill straightaway. I hope that I will take the positives from him. If I face trouble, he will be the first person that I will call to take advice.”

Fast bowler itching to get back to action, even if it has to be behind closed doors

Andrew Miller22-Apr-2020Chris Woakes says that England’s cricketers would be open to playing behind closed doors in a bid to get the international game back up and running after the Covid-19 outbreak, but concedes that his own focus would have to be on the Test and ODI squads over T20s if the plan to play different formats concurrently ever comes to fruition.Woakes played an integral role in England’s World Cup win last summer, producing a Player-of-the-Match performance in the semi-final victory against Australia, and then went on to impress in tough overseas Test conditions against New Zealand and South Africa. He claimed seven wickets at 25.71 in his two appearances, a tally that might have been greater had he not succumbed to the mystery virus that swept through the squad over Christmas.However, he played the last of his eight T20Is in November 2015, and knows that it would require quite a turn of events for him to enter England’s plans for the T20 World Cup in Australia at the end of the year – a point that he himself recognised prior to the pandemic when he withdrew from his IPL deal with Delhi Capitals to rest up ahead of England’s scheduled Test series against West Indies and Pakistan.ALSO READ: Woakes sacrificed IPL deal to extend England career“I want to play for England for as long as possible but, at the minute, it doesn’t look as though I’m going to get a go in T20 cricket unless something really drastic happens in terms of injuries,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to play all three formats for England, but if the games are all going to be in very close proximity, I’d obviously favour being in the red-ball and ODI side of things, rather than T20s.”Whatever shape England’s summer is eventually able to take, Woakes recognises that there will have to be sacrifices along the way, including the need for the matches to be played in a bio-secure environment, potentially at a limited number of venues such as Old Trafford and the Ageas Bowl which have on-site hotels with sufficient capacity to accommodate the teams, officials and broadcasters.”It’s not something we’ve talked about in depth about but I’m sure, as players, we would be able to get our heads around playing without any fans present, because it looks like there’s a high possibility of that happening,” Woakes said. “I think we’d just be happy to get back to some form of normality, playing cricket, giving the public something to watch and hopefully entertaining some people who are missing cricket a lot.”In terms of the squad interactions during such a match, Woakes admitted the need to maintain social distancing in a team environment would be “strange”, but said that they’d encountered a degree of that already in the early weeks of their aborted tour of Sri Lanka in March.”Just coming out of [lockdown] is going to feel a bit strange, whenever that does happen,” he said. “You almost can’t see the world being the same ever again. But you saw in Sri Lanka, we were trying our hardest not to make contact with each other, and not to shake hands and stick to fist bumps and things like, but it was quite easy to forget and accidentally do something that you’d told yourselves that you weren’t going to do.Chris Woakes celebrates a wicket in the World Cup final•IDI via Getty Images

“So in terms of the normal interaction of a dressing room, with people being very close to each other, and communal showers, and all that sort of thing, those are going to have to have to be discussed before we can get back to normal. And there are a lot of people with young families as well – no-one knows how that would work.”But after what the world has been through, if the players have to be put in quarantine for a period of time I think they’d be happy, though it depends how long for. If they said it was going to be for three months, I think players might not be too keen. But if it was a 3-4 week window, I think guys would be open to do that without too many issues.”We’re just going to have to wait and see and sit tight, and rely on the experts’ advice, because I’d imagine they’re not going to allow teams and sport to go ahead unless it actually is pretty safe to do so.”ALSO READ: Hundred up in the air as ECB prepares for postponementUltimately sportsmen are acutely aware of the need to maximise their opportunities at the peaks of their careers, and Woakes is no exception at the age of 31, especially after the year that he enjoyed in 2019.”I still feel like I’m young enough at 31,” he said. “I’ve had the odd injury here and there but most fast bowlers do, and I feel my body’s in as good a place as it as it has been for a good few years. I haven’t missed any games due to injury for quite a while now, which is really pleasing.”I’ve been putting in some hard yards off the field to try and make sure that’s the case, but the immediate goal for me is just to try and stay in the team because the competition’s high. There’s a lot of fast bowlers knocking around and I just want to be a part of that team moving forward.”Prior to the winter tours, Woakes might have feared for his long-term future in the Test squad, given that his overseas record for England was far from impressive – just 18 wickets at 61.77 in 12 matches. However, his effectiveness with the Kookaburra ball came on in leaps and bounds thanks to his work with the new head coach Chris Silverwood and, in New Zealand, Darren Gough, who joined the squad as a consultant prior to the Tests.”I’m the first to admit that my away record hasn’t been as good as my home,” Woakes said. “But this winter was a little bit of a breakthrough for me. I think in the past I’ve probably been a little bit safe and bowled a little bit short whereas, actually, with a Kookaburra you’ve got to give it a chance to move laterally and try to drive it into that fuller length a little bit harder. I also got an opportunity to bowl with a new ball, which can help as well.”Gough – as you can imagine – was quite light-hearted, but he was a breath of fresh air in the dressing room. He didn’t rely too much on the technical side of things, he was definitely more tactical, and he drilled it home to me that you can be two different bowlers and that I needed to bowl a fuller length away from home.”You have to attack while the Kookaburra is at its newest,” he added. “I was probably being just a bit safe with my lengths and looking to sit tight rather than having that mindset of risk-reward. Cricket is a simple game in that you have still try to hit the top of off as many times as possible, but it’s about being accurate and aggressive at the same time.”

While the number of contracts has dropped, their value has increased across categories A, B and C

Danyal Rasool05-Jun-2020The PCB has increased salaries across the board for the country’s top women cricketers, as well as more lucrative financial incentives for domestic cricket. Bismah Maroof retains the captaincy, while Anam Amin and Umaima Sohail get full contracts. Maroof finds herself promoted to the highest category A, as does Javeria Khan, while Nida Dar, who became the first Pakistan women’s player to participate in the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia last year, drops down from Category A to C due to a “below par season”, according to women’s chief selector Urooj Mumtaz. A sustained run of poor form with the bat appears to have cost 28-year old Sidra Ameen a central contract, while 22-year old left arm spinner Nashra Sandhu also drops out of the 9-woman list.

The contracted players

Category A: Bismah Maroof and Javeria Khan
Category B: Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig and Sidra Nawaz
Category C: Nida Dar, Umaima Sohail, Anam Amin and Nahida Khan
Emerging: Ayesha Naseem, Fatima Sana, Kainat Hafeez, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui, Najiha Alvi, Rameen Shamim, Saba Nazir, Sadia Iqbal and Syeda Aroob Shah

Sana Mir’s retirement means nine central contracts this year, as opposed to 10 last year but it also means that in two years, the number of centrally contracted women’s cricketers has nearly halved. Two years ago, 17 women were awarded central contracts, a number the current PCB administration brought down last year. Mir’s exit ostensibly leaves a hole no player has been able to fill, and the trade-off is an increase in the quality of the contracts. Category A players see their earnings rise by a third, while Category B and C players will have their remuneration increased by 30% and 25% respectively. Domestic cricketers experience a significant boost as well, with match fees and event prize money doubling at that level, while daily allowances increase by 50%.In addition, an emerging contract list of nine promising women’s players has been created. ESPNcricinfo understands they will be paid retainers, with the category in effect serving as a vote of confidence to the players believed to be knocking on the door of centrally contracted players most earnestly.Mumtaz said: “On behalf of the selection committee, I would like to congratulate all the players who have received the central contracts. The selection committee had detailed deliberations prior to announcing the central contracts. International performances over the past 12 months, fitness standards and the players’ ability to contribute in both white ball formats were key measures that formed the criteria for the selection.”Bismah and Javeria have been promoted to Category A, following leading performances with the bat in the last year. Diana Baig has been promoted to Category B and she joins Aliya Riaz and Sidra Nawaz – both of whom have been retained in this category – as she topped the T20I bowling charts for Pakistan in the last 12 months.”We had to take some tough decisions and would like to emphasise and encourage those who have missed out to take this as an opportunity to improve their game and make a strong comeback. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Bismah Maroof on retaining her leadership role in both ODI and T20 formats for the upcoming season. She has been a phenomenal performer and has risen to the occasion whenever the situation demanded.”I am extremely delighted to announce the emerging contract category. The addition of this category will incentivise players to remain dedicated to the game, importantly increasing the pool of players and creating a competitive environment at the junior level.”The Pakistan national women’s team is scheduled to feature in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier and the ACC Women’s T20 Cup in the next 12 months, while an U19 team will feature in the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup.

In a chat with Sachin Tendulkar, former WI captain talks about how to succeed in England

Nagraj Gollapudi08-Jul-2020Protect your stumps. Play beside the line of the ball. Two nuggets of wisdom to succeed in England, from former greats Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, to Jason Holder’s West Indies, before the first Test against England in Southampton. The visitors won the previous leg of the Wisden Trophy at home in 2019, but they have struggled in England, having failed to win a Test series in the country since 1988. They have managed only six Test wins during this period.Batting remains West Indies’ weakness. Holder and head coach Phil Simmons have underlined that as a big concern. In the rain-affected second intra-squad warm-up match in Manchester, none of the top-order batsmen even got a decent start. After the first-innings collapse in that match, Holder was embarrassed to admit some of his batsmen needed to “look in the mirror”.In the absence of Darren Bravo and Shimron Hetmyer, West Indies will look at the pair of Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope to lead the batting department. They were the standout performers for West Indies on their 2017 tour, as the visitors clinched a rare Test win in the country at Headingly on the back of their heroics.However, both batsmen have struggled since. In terms of average, since their tour of England in 2017, Holder has been West Indies’ best batsman.Lack of application and focus, and absence of partnerships, have been outlined as the major issues with the batting by Simmons. Lara, meanwhile, said that batting remained the “key” to West Indies’ fortunes.”The key to any team taking the field, especially if they are taking the field after batting, is the amount of runs they have to play with,” Lara told Tendulkar in a chat on the . “This present West Indies team need the luxury of having runs on the board. They need their batsmen to come up trumps and give them that sort of comfort. So the effectiveness of a Kemar Roach or Shannon Gabriel will only come into play if they don’t have to go on the defensive because of the lack of runs. That has been our problem for many, many years.”According to Lara, quickly understanding the conditions, playing late, and dominating bowlers selectively were some of the cues West Indies batsmen needed to understand.When pressed by Tendulkar, who asked: “In short, your message to West Indian team is try and stay beside the line, don’t get behind the line too much?”, Lara agreed.”In England it is protect your stumps. And get acclimatised quickly, get the pace and bounce of the pitch, know what the bowlers are doing. And then when you feel comfortable then you sort of grow. You don’t necessarily have to dominate every single bowler that is bowling to you – if you get to 70-80 and there’s somebody that is giving you trouble, back off. That’s key.”When Tendulkar joked that West Indies ought to take Lara “seriously”, the former West Indies captain cited the example of Tendulkar’s masterful 241 in 2004 in Sydney where he abstained from playing the cover drive, a shot that had got him into trouble throughout the series.To cut out what hurts you, Lara said, was the “key” to batting.”You know that Sachin, as well. In terms of that great innings that you played in Sydney: it was not about a particular bowler getting you out, but it was a particular shot getting you out. And you stopped yourself from playing it and you were able to score in other areas. So it is similar sort of approach – be it your technique and may be having a problem with a particular shot or a particular bowler.A good example would be Australia. Playing against Australia, I will be 70-80 or may a 140 and [Glenn] McGrath comes back for a spell. And I know he is going to bowl 36 balls or six overs, seven overs, I don’t need to sort of take any great risks. Give your other guy at the other end, give him the opportunity to score.”Summing up the chat, Tendulkar said: “You just have to be smart.”Lara nodded, “Yes, that’s all”.

Noor Mohammad pleaded guilty to approaching a player to try and spot-fix in the 2019 Shpageeza Cricket League

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2020A junior coach in Afghanistan has been banned for five years for attempting to spot-fix in the Shpageeza Cricket League, Afghanistan’s primary domestic T20 league. Noor Mohammad, who is an assistant coach at domestic level in Afghanistan, approached an unnamed player to try to arrange certain outcomes via spot-fixing in the 2019 edition of the league. The player reported the approach to authorities, who opened an investigation. Mohammad admitted his guilt and accepted the charges levied against him, meaning a hearing was unnecessary.The Afghanistan Cricket Board’s official website said an investigation found he had breached four clauses of the ACB’s anti-corruption code. These included attempting to contrive the outcome of a match, soliciting participants in matches to achieve the same, and failing to disclose suspicious or corrupt approaches to the authorities. The decision by Mohammad to plead guilty appears to have resulted in a significantly reduced ban, according to ACB’s Senior Anti-Corruption manager, Sayed Anwar Shah Quraishi.”This is a very disappointing and serious offence where a domestic level junior coach is involved in the corruption of a high-profile domestic game in SCL 2019,” Qureshi said. “The coach, as an agent, tried to get one of the national team players to engage in spot-fixing of a few matches in SCL 2019. Luckily, he failed to do so as he was reported.”I would like to place on record my grateful appreciation and thanks to the player, who displayed true bravery and professionalism from the moment he reported this approach. He recognized it for what it was, rejected it and reported it. He then supported our investigation and subsequent tribunal.”

Eyes 2021 as potential window, with 17 double round-robin league games, followed by knockouts

Madushka Balasuriya06-Oct-2020Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is hoping to become the first ICC Full Member nation to host a national T10 league, with SLC this week having called for tenders over franchise ownership and tournament sponsors.While the details of the tournament are yet to be finalised, SLC hopes to hold the tournament sometime in 2021, though a suitable window would have to be found that is compatible with the Lanka Premier League T20 tournament and potential national team tours.”Definitely it would help Sri Lanka Cricket in a commercial sense, but it’s also a new concept. It will be more interesting for the spectators, while it will also bring something new to the country,” SLC CEO Ashley de Silva said about the tournament. “England is going to play The Hundred, so it’s always good to be innovative; it’s all about popularising the game.”As of now, the proposed specifications for the tournament will see 17 games taking place in a double round-robin format, followed by the semi-finals and a final. Six teams are expected to feature, with SLC hoping to include a team from northern Sri Lanka. Each squad will likely comprise 16 players, including a maximum of six foreign internationals.While only two venues – the Dambulla and Pallekele International Cricket Stadiums – have at present been pencilled in to host the games, SLC hopes to utilise the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo as well provided renovations are completed in time.

These players would not be exempted from the cancellation of Kolpak registrations after this year

Matt Roller and Firdose Moonda29-Sep-2020South African Dane Vilas and Cameron Delport’s hopes of continuing to play in county cricket as local players courtesy their ancestry visas have been dealt a terminal blow, after the ECB confirmed that they would not be exempted from the cancellation of Kolpak registrations when the UK’s transition period with the European Union (EU) ends on December 31, 2020.Alan Fordham, the ECB’s head of first-class cricket operations, sent a letter to the counties, the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) and the relevant boards last week, setting out the changes that would be made to eligibility registrations following the end of the transition period. That included the long-anticipated cancellation of Kolpak registrations and confirmation that EU nationals with settled or pre-settled status in the UK would continue to qualify as local players.After lobbying from the PCA, the ECB had confirmed this July that counties would be able to field two overseas players rather than one in both the County Championship and the One-Day Cup in order to protect the jobs of players on Kolpak deals.ALSO READ: ECB clarifies player retention plans for postponed HundredBoth Vilas and Delport had appealed to the ECB in the hope that their ancestry visas would mean they remained eligible to play as non-overseas players for Lancashire and Essex respectively, and both remained optimistic when contacted by ESPNcricinfo last week.But Fordham’s letter, published on the ECB’s website, affirmed that the cancellation of Kolpak registrations would “apply regardless of whether such player currently holds, or is able to obtain, an ancestral or family visa giving them the right to work in the UK”.ESPNcricinfo understands that the changes have been approved by the ECB board and are not pending appeals. It is unclear, however, whether the ruling will face any legal challenge from players affected at this stage.Vilas, 35, is expected to stay at Lancashire next season despite the ruling. Since signing for the club in 2017, he has settled in London with his wife Pippa, whose ancestral visa means that he has – and would continue to have – the right to live and work in the UK. Lancashire have previously given him guarantees that he would stay on as an overseas player. That said, he is unlikely to retain his top-bracket contract in the Hundred with the Manchester Originals, competing for one of three overseas spots rather than being one of the better local players available.For Delport, meanwhile, the ruling could be the first step on his return to the international fold. He has previously held conversations with South Africa’s director of cricket Graeme Smith and head coach Mark Boucher about the possibility of playing for his native country in the 2021 T20 World Cup, and publicly revealed his intentions to represent them while speaking to ESPNcricinfo last month.In practice, many players on Kolpak registrations – including Simon Harmer, Duanne Olivier and Stiaan van Zyl – will become their respective counties’ overseas player next year, while a handful – like Fidel Edwards and David Wiese – are expected to be released at the end of the season.Confirmation that EU nationals would only be eligible if they have settled or pre-settled status came as a blow to Dutch cricket as well, seemingly ending the pathway for young players to gain experience at the county level – much like the now first-class-veteran Ryan ten Doeschate – unless they move to the UK on a permanent basis.

However, the ICC has not disclosed how the eventual winner will be declared

Nagraj Gollapudi12-Oct-2020Nearly four months after Shashank Manohar stepped down, the ICC has set the ball rolling on picking its next chairman. October 18 is the deadline for potential candidates to file the nominations and an appointment is expected to be made before the end of the year. The candidates will need to be seconded by at least one current ICC board director to be eligible to contest the election.The ICC has not disclosed how the eventual winner will be declared, though. Incidentally that was the sticking point and the reason behind the ICC board failing to agree upon a process to elect Manohar’s successor.On July 2, the ICC board had said it would finalise within a “week” the process to accept nominations. Despite several meetings in the past few months, the ICC board remained severely divided.As per the ICC’s constitution, any present or former director who has attended at least one board meeting is eligible to run for chairman. ICC directors are each allowed to nominate one candidate, and nominees with the support of two or more directors are eligible to contest an election.The election process is being overseen by the Independent Chairman of the ICC Audit Committee and can vary every election. In 2016, when Manohar took charge for the first time, he was elected through a secret ballot. Two years later, he was the sole nominee and was re-elected unanimously without a vote.On his way out, Manohar himself had attempted to find a successor as a unanimous choice, but failed. Consequently the ICC board agreed to appoint Imran Khwaja as the interim chairman.It could not be confirmed whether the votes would be cast via a secret ballot and whether the eventual winner would be picked based on two-third majority or just a simple one. For any resolution to be approved, the ICC constitution currently requires a two-thirds majority, or a minimum of 11 votes. During the deliberations recently some of the ICC board directors wanted that to be changed to simple majority.The ICC board comprises 17 directors: 12 Full Members, three directors representing the Associates, and the chairman (Khwaja is one of the Associate representatives as well as interim chair, currently), the ICC chief executive officer (Manu Sawhney) and an independent woman director in Indra Nooyi. The CEO, though, does not have a vote.

Shardul Thakur added to the squad as Jadeja’s replacement

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-20205:25

Gambhir: India picked Chahal as concussion sub to best of their advantage

India allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, who had been substituted out of the first T20I against Australia in Canberra, has been ruled out of the next two T20Is in Sydney after sustaining a concussion.”The diagnosis was confirmed based on a clinical assessment in the dressing room during the innings break by the BCCI Medical Team,” the board said in a statement. “Jadeja remains under observation and will be taken for further scans if required based on the assessment on Saturday morning.”Seamer Shardul Thakur, who wasn’t originally in the T20I squad, has been added to the group as Jadeja’s replacement.ALSO WATCH: Match highlights – Jadeja, Chahal, Natarajan help India win series opener (Indian subcontinent only)Jadeja had batted with a hamstring strain, which was apparent, and then in the last over of India’s innings, he top-edged a rapid Mitchell Starc delivery onto his helmet. The blow was hard enough to ricochet to backward point, where the catch was dropped.Jadeja wasn’t given a concussion test on the spot, but was subsequently replaced by Yuzvendra Chahal at the innings break amid controversy. Chahal took the key wickets of Aaron Finch and Steven Smith on his way to match-winning figures of 3 for 25.ALSO READ: Henriques questions Chahal being ‘like-for-like’ substitute for JadejaIn the absence of Jadeja, Chahal and his Royal Challengers Bangalore team-mate Washington Sundar are the only two frontline spin-bowling options for India in the remaining two T20Is. Without Jadeja’s power, India’s lower-middle order also appears lighter, with Sundar likely to slot in at No.7.As for Thakur, he enters the T20I squad with encouraging form, having taken 3 for 51 in the third ODI, which India won in Canberra. He was also Chennai Super Kings’ third-highest wicket-taker in IPL 2020 with 10 strikes at an economy of 8.50.India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (capt), KL Rahul (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur