Canada have joined the Twenty20 bandwagon and will host their first tournament in Toronto on May 17 and 18. Eight teams from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia will compete.”In the light of what is happening in the IPL in India at the moment, what we are undertaking in Canada is a major step to restore this sport to its former glory which it enjoyed till ice hockey replaced it,” the board’s CEO Atul Ahuja said.Ahuja was present at the launch of the IPL in Bangalore last month and said that the owners of the franchises had indicated a willingness to send teams to Canada. “All of them … promised to send Twenty20 teams to Canada in the summer to help us groom players. We have a huge talent from the South Asian and Caribbean communities in Canada.”However, if they do, the sides are unlikely to bear much resemblance to those playing in the IPL at the moment and most of the high-profile players will be on international duty elsewhere.
Hong Kong booked their place in the semi-final of the ACC women’s tournament with a six-wicket victory over Thailand at Johor.Thailand put up a gutsy performance, but Hong Kong’s class and composure saw them through.Winning the toss, Hong Kong captain Neisha Pratt put Thailand in under cloudy conditions. The Thai top order confidently negotiated the new ball and scored runs against one of the best attacks in the competition. Hong Kong were guilty of bowling short on the rather slow ‘moonchong clay’ surface.Pratt got an early breakthrough for Hong Kong, after which Chan Sau Har picked up the critical second wicket in the 14th over, of opener Arissa. From then on, the Hong Kong bowlers dominated, with the last eight Thai wickets accounting for only 12 runs. Fifteen-year old Godiva Li bagged three wickets in her second spell, all three deliveries being yorkers.In reply, Hong Kong had a jittery start, losing an early wicket. The Thailand team, marshalled by captain Sornnarin Tippoch, were enthusiastic in the field as they defended their total of 40. The shuffled Hong Kong batting line-up looked wobbly against the Thai attack, and wickets tumbled.At the fall of the fourth wicket came Pratt – who had to change in a hurry after opting not to open – and she steadied the chase with Keenu Gill to eventually take them home.Lal Jayasinghe, the Hong Kong coach, said after the win: “All of our bowlers with the exception of Neisha Pratt are under 18 and their lack of experience of bowling on turf showed at the beginning but once they worked things out, they made things happen.”
One of cricket’s most famous paintings – Albert Chevallier Tayler’s picture of the Kent v Lancashire match at Canterbury in 1906 – has been sold at auction for £600,000.I was purchased by Andrew Brownsword, whose Charitable Foundation buys selected works of art in order that they can be retained for public viewing.The painting, which was commissioned by the county to commemorate their first Championship in 1906, hung in the pavilion at Canterbury until 1999 when it became too expensive to insure. It was then loaned to MCC and displayed at Lord’s.”The decision to sell the painting was a difficult one, but the finances of county cricket clubs are becoming increasingly fragile and, since it was no longer possible to display it at Canterbury, we took the view that the proceeds should be used to help to ensure the longer-term future of the club,” Carl Openshaw, Kent’s chairman explained. “From Kent’s point of view, this is the ideal outcome, since I understand that this unique painting will in the short-term at least continue to hang at Lord’s where it can be seen by future generations of cricket lovers.”Click here for the story of the painting’s origins.
The storms are done and the floodwaters have abated, but lightning still struck for the second time at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today, as New Zealand’s James Franklin emulated his idol, Wasim Akram, by claiming cricket’s equivalent of the hole-in-one, the prized hat-trick.Five-and-half years on from the Asian Test Championship final at Dhaka, where Wasim skittled three Sri Lankan batsmen en route to victory, Franklin’s precision line proved too much for three helpless Bangladesh tailenders, who found themselves in the record books for all the wrong reasons.And the comparisons don’t stop there. Like Wasim, Franklin is a left-armer seamer, and he too had to wait until the first ball of his next over to claim his crowning glory. Now it’s up to Franklin to go on and take hat-tricks in consecutive matches as Wasim did in March 1999. Appropriately enough, the man himself was looking on from the commentary box today.Franklin’s hat-trick was only the second by a New Zealand bowler in Test history, 28 years after Peter Petherick spun his way into Kiwi folklore on debut at Lahore. Franklin himself is in just his fourth Test, after being cast aside by the New Zealand selectors in 2001 following his first two Tests against Pakistan when he was just 20 years of age.That Franklin is even on this tour is fortuitous. He was overlooked for the winter tour of England, and instead headed to Lancashire to play club cricket where, after a string of injuries in the New Zealand team, he was drafted into the side for the third Test at Trent Bridge. Six wickets later, he had effectively booked his ticket to Bangladesh.The seamers had failed to fire for most of the first day, so there must have been some temptation for Stephen Fleming to open from one end with the left-arm spin of Daniel Vettori. He didn’t and, as they say, the rest is history.Spectators and media alike were just finding their seats when Manjural Islam Rana, so disciplined yesterday afternoon, drove loosely at Franklin’s fifth ball of the morning and gave Brendan McCullum a simple catch behind the stumps. Mohammad Rafique received a beautifully angled delivery first-up, and the edge that flew to Scott Styris at second slip was unavoidable.Jacob Oram then completed a tidy over from the other end, whereupon Franklin returned to rip out Tapash Baisya’s off stump with a delivery that the great Wasim himself would have been proud of. Tapash had elected to play no stroke, but at the last minute, the ball swung in just enough to find the ultimate target.Andrew McLean is a presenter on The Cricket Club, New Zealand’s only national cricket radio show.
Zimbabwe batsman Mark Vermuelen has undergone surgery at the Mater hospital in Brisbane to repair a skull fracture sustained in the VB Series match against India on Tuesday. The operation, which lasted three-and-a-half hours, was a complete success.”Mark’s recovering well from the surgery and should make a full and complete recovery from the injury,” Brad Robinson, Zimbabwe’s physiotherapist, said. “He will stay in hospital for the next few days at least while his progress is monitored.”In addition to reconstructing the impact area above his right eye, the surgery also repaired damage he had sustained in a previous fracture incurred while practicing during the World Cup.”Vermuelen will travel to Perth to spend some time with his family before returning to Zimbabwe.
NEW DELHI, Jan 27 AFP – The Delhi High Court today overturned a five-year ban on Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja on match-fixing charges, saying there was no proof he was guilty.Jadeja was banned from official cricket two years ago by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after he was named in a match-fixing investigation by federal investigators.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its report, claimed that Jadeja hobnobbed with alleged bookmakers and cited phone records to link his association with them.But the arbitrator appointed by the High Court ruled the probe was one-sided and he was not given a chance to prove his innocence.There was no reaction yet from Jadeja or the BCCI, which has the option to appeal against the ruling in the Supreme Court.It is unlikely that Jadeja, who turns 32 on Saturday, will be reinstated immediately in the Indian team since he has not played cricket officially for two years.Regarded as one of India’s finest limited-overs cricketers, the stylish middle-order batsman played 196 one-dayers in which he scored 5,359 runs with six centuries and 30 half-centuries.Jadeja also played 15 Tests, scoring 576 runs averaging 26.18.His last international engagement was the Asia Cup match against Pakistan in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka in June, 2000.Former captain Mohammad Azharuddin, slapped with a life ban following the CBI probe, is also fighting a legal battle in an Andhra Pradesh court to clear his name.
England still have a couple of NatWest Series matches left but few could blame the players if their minds are already turning to the Ashes series.England have been outclassed in the triangular one-day competition by Pakistan and Australia, losing all four of their games so far. This renders their two remaining games meaningless as it will be the tourists who will contest the final.There is a worry that any psychological scars picked up during the NatWest Series could be carried over into the Tests but England paceman Darren Gough dispelled such concerns.”It will be a totally different side that will turn up at Edgbaston for theFirst Test,” he said. “We’ve got three days’ preparation, you’ll see a hard-working unit who will not be thinking about what happened in the one-day games.”We are a side who have come off a good trot; we got outplayed at OldTrafford, we had a couple of spells which cost us the game, but we’ve playedsome great cricket over the last 18 months and we are confident we can put up agood show against them.”As soon as I arrive at Edgbaston on the Monday before the Test. I won’t havemy blue kit any more – that’s gone for another six months. They are favourites,but if we play like we did at Lord’s, like we did in the winter, we can win it,and we all believe we can.”I’ve got my theories about Australia; all you do is find out the strengthsand try to keep away from them. They’ve got some great batsman – you have to beup for it, and don’t get down.”There will be days when you get none for a hundred, but there are days whenyou can really believe as a bowling partnership you can bowl them out. If we cando that in two Tests and win two, we’ve a chance of winning the series.”There are two good bowling attacks; it’s going to be the team that bats thebest that wins the series. We’ve got some experienced players to come back inHussain, Thorpe and White.”Looking beyond the Ashes series and towards 2003, the year of the next World Cup, Gough is optimistic about England’s chances despite the current run of nine consecutive one-day defeats.”The last two World Cups have been disasters,” he said. “We won the gamesleading up to them, but as soon as we got to a World Cup, we didn’t play verywell. There are young players coming in now and when we bring back men who areimportant to us such as White, Hussain, Giles and Thorpe and we’ve a good sidewith experience and youth.”It is disappointing when we keep losing, but these guys are getting capsunder their belts and when we go into the next World Cup we need everyone inthe squad to have played around 30 One-Day Internationals.”Owais Shah has come in and showed skill, and the fielding in the last threegames has been the best I’ve been part of. We’ve got something to work on. Iwouldn’t judge it until we get the team all playing together.”This one-day series was always going to be hard with the injuries we’ve had.We’ve missed Hussain and Thorpe, he’s our finisher, our Michael Bevan. All weneed is experience in playing more games.”
Crystal Palace have now joined the race for a “technically skilled” Champions League player, who could be brought in as an alternative to Sacha Boey.
Palace eyeing new right-back despite Munoz's impressive form
Daniel Munoz has established himself as one of Palace’s most important players over the past three seasons, with the Colombian full-back particularly impressive from an attacking point of view, chipping in with three goals and two assists in the Premier League already this season.
Oliver Glasner has also singled the right-back out for high praise, saying back in April 2024: “Daniel has an outstanding training mentality. Every training session he’s the guy who’s running most, who’s sprinting most.”
However, in light of his impressive showings for the Eagles, Munoz is starting to attract interest from some top clubs, with it recently being revealed that Manchester City have been making moves to secure his signature, while Chelsea have also been credited with an interest.
The South Londoners remain in a strong negotiating position, with the 29-year-old contracted until 2028, but they are now looking at signing a new right-back, who could push for Munoz’s starting spot.
Sacha Boey was named as a potential target earlier this month, and there is a belief a January deal for the Bayern Munich man wouldn’t break the bank, but he is not the only option, with Juventus’ Joao Mario also on the shortlist.
That is according to a report from Corriere dello Sport (via Sport Witness), which states Crystal Palace have now joined the race for Mario’s signature, alongside some unnamed clubs in Spain.
It is deemed very possible the Portuguese full-back leaves the Italian club in the next month, and a deal would be inexpensive, as Juve are demanding a fee in the region of €12m (£10m).
Shades of Zaha: Crystal Palace join race for £22m Champions League forward
Palace are looking to sign a new attacker.
ByDominic Lund
Sport Witness relay a previous report, which makes it clear Boey is the priority target, but the 25-year-old is viewed as a ‘reliable alternative’, despite being unable to make much of an impact in the Serie A this season…
Mario hasn't hit the ground running in Italy
It may be a gamble to sign the three-cap Portugal international, who has made two Champions League appearances this term, given that he hasn’t made a flying start to life in the Serie A, after joining from FC Porto in the summer, predominantly being limited to appearances as a substitute.
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However, manager Luciano Spalletti was full of praise for the former FC Porto man earlier this month, saying: “Joao Mario is technically skilled. He’s a good player, who knows how to make decisions and how to build confidence with the team and on the ball.”
The Juventus ace would also be a versatile option for Glasner, given that he is able to play in a multitude of positions, including full-back, wing-back, and further forward on both wings.
Having averaged 0.26 assists per 90 over the past year, which places him in the 98th percentile, compared to other full-backs, Mario could be a similar type of full-back to Munoz, and it may be worth Palace taking a risk, given the low asking price.
For the second time in the match Matt Prior hauled Sussex out of a hole after the top-order slumped and set the platform for a final-day dart at victory. Luke Wright also played a vital hand as they added 115 for the sixth wicket and built an advantage of 278 to set up a fascinating finish. Mushtaq Ahmed’s 5 for 83 earned a 99-run lead as Kent did well to avoid the follow-on before striking back to reduce Sussex to 54 for 5 shortly after tea.It was a spirited resurgence from Kent who began the day on 65 for 6 and fell away to 122 for 9. Geraint Jones and Yasir Arafat added 82 for the last wicket and when Azhar Mahmood claimed two quick wickets, followed by Chris Adams going early in the final session, the game was alive for Kent.However, Prior continued from his first-innings 105 with a 67-ball half-century although he was given a life on 9 when James Tredwell dropped a tough chance at first slip. Prior earlier told Cricinfo: “I enjoy playing when there’s something on it in a pressurised situation…you know the amount of work you put into a certain innings and you do get reward out of it.” When playing well he is one of the crispest drivers of the ball and he repeatedly went straight down the ground while also unleashing his favourite square drive.Wright, who combined with Prior in a first-day stand of 82, kept up with him throughout the partnership. Wright is eager to develop his first-class batting to remove the tag of a one-day hitter and began the season with 155 against MCC. There was nothing other than pride riding on that innings, it was a different case here. His half-century came off 64 balls before the partnership was ended when Ryan McLaren found one to keep low at Prior. Wright was bowled by the final ball of the day from Tredwell, but it wasn’t the worst thing to happen to Sussex as it keeps the match moving.The complexion of the game changed throughout the day and as in the first innings Sussex’s collapse started with a run out when Carl Hopkinson was beaten for the second time in the match. It was ill-judged single as he dropped the ball into midwicket, where Joe Denly collected cleanly and had time to take aim at the non-striker’s end and still catch Hopkinson a yard short. Chris Nash was then well caught by Jones when he clung onto an outside edge in front of first slip.Michael Yardy was clearly unhappy about the decision he received from Jeremy Lloyds, slamming his bat as he trudged off, and on the stroke of tea Murray Goodwin was well caught from a top edged hook by Arafat at long leg. The onus was on Adams to steady the innings, but his footwork hasn’t looked quite right this season. He fell to another sharp catch, this time Martin van Jaarsveld at second slip, as he fished outside off stump against the deserving Mahmood.At that point the lead of 99 looked even more important. It hadn’t appeared as though Kent would be able to save the follow-on as Mushtaq continued to chip away, although it’s unlikely Adams would have enforced to allow Mushtaq final use of the pitch. He ended Tredwell’s stubborn 40 and then, in a wicket to give him plenty of personal satisfaction, had Mahmood taken at silly point.Jones played with patience he rarely showed for England – even when in good form he was never one to hang around – and took more than 50 balls to reach double figures. His innings only contained three boundaries, partly down to a slow outfield, and his fifty took 117 deliveries as he pushed Kent towards an unexpected batting point.Arafat is much better than a No. 11, pushed into that slot by the nightwatchman, but Kent have so many allrounders that he is often buried down the order. Once the follow-on was saved he opened his shoulders with consecutive boundaries off Chris Liddle. Mushtaq completed his first five-wicket haul of the season when Arafat inside-edged a googly and was bowled. Mushtaq operated unchanged during the third day, no doubt a sign of things to come for the final day of this match and the season ahead.
Vince Hogg has announced his intention to resign as managing director of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. Hogg, who has been increasingly worn down by the protracted player dispute, will take leave of his office on August 6, after which time he will return to commercial life in Zimbabwe.”The past few months in office have really been strenuous on me," said Hogg, who was caught in the crossfire between the 15 rebel players and the ZCU’s heavyweights. "I have decided to resign because I was no longer enjoying the work."My view is that the recent player dispute was ill-conceived at the outset and has left both parties and cricket in Zimbabwe worse off. I personally did not agree with the action taken by the players in boycotting games and breaching their contracts. Unfortunately, there have been no winners in this dispute."Hogg expressed his hope that some of the disaffected players might one day return to Zimbabwe to play alongside Tatenda Taibu, and remained adamant that the ZCU was not an institution that had been influenced by government appointees. "I can state in all conscience that I have never been pressured by any political force or government department during my tenure as managing director."I have in fact received a great deal of support from the Sports and Recreation Commission during my time in office. It has been a privilege to work for cricket in Zimbabwe and to see the emergence of many talented young cricketers, both black and white, over the past couple of years. As a former national player, it has been my wish to contribute to the building of a Zimbabwe team that can hold its own and earn the respect of all opponents."Peter Chingoka, the chairman of the ZCU, said Hogg’s resignation had been accepted with regret. “While we are sorry he wants to go, we respect his decision and the personal reason for it. He leaves the union in a healthy financial state, and we wish Vince all the best in his future endeavours.”