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“If we were to have a 60-run partnership upfront tomorrow morning, that puts us in a good position”

Firdose Moonda13-Jan-2022South Africa’s team of “good cricketers without superstars” has to band together one final time to deny India the chance to make history, and it’s not going to be easy. That’s Lungi Ngidi’s assessment of a series that will come down to a couple of sessions on the penultimate day of the third Test and has made for gripping viewing throughout.”We are not going in there with a team of superstars,” Ngidi said. “We’ve got good cricketers and good cricketing brains, and it’s always a team effort. There are going to be moments where someone is going to have to put up their hand. If someone is not taking wickets, you make sure you keep the runs down, and if it’s your day, you make sure you cash in.”Related

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Ngidi was referring to a question about his own performance in the second session of the third day when he took three wickets in six overs to reduce India from 152 for 4 to 170 for 7. Ngidi started by removing Virat Kohli, who had batted for more than three hours and faced 143 balls for 29 runs, and then had R Ashwin and Shardul Thakur caught off loose strokes, but more notable than the names, it was the manner in which he took his wickets. After making his name as the kind of bowler who hits the deck hard, Ngidi operated completely differently at Newlands by pitching it up and finding swing. He listed this as one of his best series, especially “against this calibre of players” and despite it being “testing at times.”Though bowlers appear to have had it easier than batters in this series, Ngidi explained that it has been challenging for seamers to get their lengths right on surfaces that have not been entirely consistent in bounce. “The ball has been doing something the entire Test series,” he said. “There are patches on the wicket where if you hit it, it does something a little more than others. And we could see, with patience, guys could score hundreds out there, there have been two 70s already, so with the right application, there are runs in the wicket. As a bowler, if you hit the right areas, there are wickets as well.”The match won’t last five days – and if you take into account the rain-affected day in Centurion, none of the Tests has – but Ngidi praised the surfaces, especially this Newlands one. “It’s a good cricketing wicket. Everyone is in the game. It’s pretty evenly matched out.”He sees the match hinging on whether Keegan Petersen will find someone to post a half-century stand with or whether South Africa’s middle order will fold against the relentless Indian pace attack. “If we were to have a 60-run partnership upfront tomorrow morning, that puts us in a good position. If they were to take early wickets, that shifts it to them. It’s perfectly poised at the moment.”India know that too. Kohli was heard on the stump microphone reminding both his team and South Africa how much was at stake. “Just relax guys,” he told Dean Elgar and Petersen. “I can hear your heartbeat.”That’s understandable. As Elgar said before the match, this is South Africa’s biggest Test in the last decade and winning it could complete what has been a very slow turnaround from losing to Sri Lanka at home three summers ago and slipping to No. 8 in the rankings. There’s enormous expectation, at home, and from far away. For instance, in Guyana, South Africa’s Under-19 players, who are gearing up for their World Cup campaign, are keeping an eye. Their captain George van Heerden said they’re unlikely to wake up in the middle of the night to watch but are prepared to find out the results as soon as possible. “The management team have all got their laptops out and we are all watching from there,” he said at a press conference.India, meanwhile, will be eyeing their first Test series win in South Africa. On their last tour here, they won the final Test in Johannesburg. That South African team had superstars. This one, in Ngidi’s words, just believes that “everyone has got to perform when they are asked to”.

Assistant coach Roddy Estwick backs Gabriel, Joseph for deciding third Test against England

Matt Roller22-Jul-2020West Indies’ management will trust their frontline seamers to be honest about their ability to get through a third Test match against England in the space of as many weeks, but are confident that there are no major injury concerns heading into the final match of the series at Emirates Old Trafford.While England opted to field a completely different seam attack in the second Test, bringing in Stuart Broad, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes for James Anderson, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, West Indies went in unchanged, and their bowlers toiled for 162 overs in the first innings.Shannon Gabriel and Alzarri Joseph both left the field at various points with niggles, but assistant coach Roddy Estwick said that there were “no major injuries” to report ahead of Friday’s decider.”The thing about our seam department is that they’re very experienced,” Estwick said. “We’ll trust them. We’ll sit down with them and we’ll have a discussion. They must have been pulling up quite well because Shannon was ready to go into the nets today and have a bowl. The rain curtailed that but I think they’ll be fine.”We’ll try to get them to stay off their feet and to get the adequate rest and the treatment that they need, because come Friday there’s no second-guessing. We’ve got to be ready, and we can’t have any excuses.”If we had rested Shannon Gabriel for the (second) Test match after getting nine wickets (in the first) and had gone on to lose that Test, people would have been saying ‘Shannon got nine wickets, why did you rest him?’ It’s 20:20 vision, it’s hindsight. We can’t keep looking back and saying ‘we should have done this or that’. Just because England have done it and it proved successful doesn’t mean that it would have worked for us.”ALSO READ: Hope, Campbell in firing line as West Indies mull batting changesGabriel in particular looked stiff and sore at different points during the second Test, struggling for rhythm in his first spell and leaving the field clutching his groin on the second day. But Estwick said that his attitude to fitness had been impressive since his ankle injury last year, and backed him to get through the final Test.Shannon Gabriel went off with an injury in the second Test•Gareth Copley/Getty Images

“Obviously Shannon was injured just before the lockdown in the region, but he was able to put some training in,” Estwick said. “Once I was able to gauge from the 2km run and the time he did as soon as we arrived in England, I knew his fitness was commendable.”Shannon is a very hard-working individual. The key thing for him is to rest and recover. It’s a short turnaround, and he’s an important member for us. He’s an experienced player now, and we’ve got to make sure that he gets the right rest and gets his treatment in or whatever he needs to make sure he’s on the park on Friday.”Estwick said that Joseph’s injury – he went off with pain in his right elbow in the second Test – would be monitored on a “day-by-day” basis.”We know the injury he had, but you could see that he bowled in the second innings on the last morning. He had a bowl and he looked quite well.”The physio is going to keep us updated, but again, we’re going to trust the players. You’ve got to trust them to sit down and have an honest discussion, find out where they’re at and then make a decision.”The two back-up seamers in the 15-man squad are Chemar Holder and allrounder Raymon Reifer, but it may well be tempting for West Indies to pick Rahkeem Cornwall, the offspinner, as a second spin option after Roston Chase’s success in the first Test. The selectors may yet add a batsman – either Joshua Da Silva or Shayne Moseley – to the squad from the reserves amid concerns over John Campbell and Shai Hope’s form, but no decision has been taken as yet.Cornwall took a ten-wicket haul in his most recent Test appearance, against Afghanistan last November, and while Estwick pointed out that the conditions were very different, he said that Cornwall had looked good in training.”We’ll have a look at it – he’ll come under discussion, I’m sure. Rahkeem has been preparing well so if he’s given the opportunity, I’m sure he will go well. We’ll try to make sure we get the best combination from those 15.”

He looks set to miss the World Cup bus, having been out of India’s ODI side for nearly two years, but the offspinner isn’t ready to think of himself as Test-only player yet

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Mar-2019On June 30, when ODI cricket’s top two sides meet in one of the World Cup’s most anticipated clashes, India’s spin discussions will revolve around Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravindra Jadeja. One man who almost certainly will not is R Ashwin.On that day, unless India’s selectors spring a major surprise with their World Cup squad, it will have been exactly two years since Ashwin last played an ODI.Since that game against West Indies in Antigua, Ashwin has found himself cast as a Test specialist, another fingerspinning casualty in the worldwide push for wristspin as a wicket-taking force in white-ball cricket. Kuldeep and Chahal have been India’s first-choice spinners in ODIs since then, and if Jadeja has re-entered the picture over recent months, it’s thanks in large part to his utility as a lower-order hitter and gun fielder.Ashwin hasn’t reconciled himself to being a Test-only player, however, and says his exclusion from limited-overs cricket is down to a “perception” that wristspin is a must in the shorter formats.”I am not looking at it like that because I am no slouch,” Ashwin said in an event in Mumbai on Saturday. “In the white-ball format, my records are not bad like what it is perceived to be. It is out of perception that wristspinners are required in the modern day one-day cricket format, that [is why] I am sitting out. The last one-day match that I played, I got 3 for 28.”I would always look back at my career and say it is not due to my effort that I am sitting out of the team, it is due to the supply and demand that the team requires.”I went and played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali [domestic T20 tournament] and I had a decent outing and that is how I look at it. I am playing cricket and it is not like I need to specialise in one particular format. It is the challenges of the modern-day game, I will be looking forward to do whatever I can do best.”Perception or not, the rise of wristspin in ODIs has coincided with Ashwin trying to reinvent himself as a limited-overs bowler; during last year’s IPL, he alternated between legspin and his usual offspin, and he’s set to do so again this season for Kings XI Punjab.Kuldeep Yadav practices at training as R Ashwin watches•Getty Images

“I have always maintained that you can spin the ball into the batsman or out of the batsman, you can’t do anything more than that,” Ashwin said when asked if he was working on any new variations. “I am just adding more ammunition to my own skill and try and add more strength to my game and that’s all it has always been.”I have never played for the galleries, never really played for the records, never really played for places. I just enjoy the sport, the sport has given me everything. When I picked up the bat and ball as a eight-year-old it gave me everything, I love it. Even today when I play a club game, when I play on the streets, I enjoy it. For me it is all about playing the game that I love and excelling in the best possible way I can.”Ashwin also weighed in on the discussion over whether India’s World Cup contenders should have their workloads monitored during the IPL. Virat Kohli recently said it was up to individual players to monitor their fitness requirements and arrive at the World Cup sharp and match-fit. Ashwin felt a clearer picture would develop as the IPL progresses, and that the bowlers might require rest at some point.”I don’t think as a cricketer you can look far ahead about what needs to be done and how you can manage it,” he said. “As a cricketer or as a sportsperson, you just concentrate on what happens today. The franchise has invested money on you. Obviously it is a massive tournament, everybody plays for pride, everybody wants to perform and excel. It definitely stays at the back of the head because it is being spoken about a lot more right now.”I am sure the players are responsible enough and more fitness-aware and able to handle it better than they ever were. I don’t think going into the tournament people will be thinking about it but as the tournament pans out and the way it goes for each and every franchise and for each and every player, they will take decisions wisely. Probably because of the number of injuries and the amount of premium players that are right now available for the country, and how important every spot is.”It is a dream for every cricketer to represent his country at the World Cup, it is a big stage. I think that is the point of view from where they are coming. Obviously, bowlers have more chances of succumbing to injuries because of the workload they go through, it is physically more hard on the body than the batters. Probably from that point of view, if you look at a [Jasprit] Bumrah or a Bhuvneshwar [Kumar], Bumrah has been fine but Bhuvneshwar has had a few concerns over the last year or so. I think from that point of view the bowlers need to be taken good care of.”

With AB de Villiers and South Africa’s four premier pacemen back in the reckoning, coach Ottis Gibson is excited about picking the playing XI

Firdose Moonda22-Dec-2017Ottis Gibson enjoyed a dream start as South Africa’s coach – with a clean-sweep over Bangladesh a couple of months ago – and if he could have it his way, he won’t be waking up anytime soon.Though South Africa’s assignments get tougher over the next three months, starting with the four-day, day-night Test followed by series against India and Australia, they are well resourced for the fixtures, better than they have been for several reasons. The return of star batsman AB de Villiers and as their premier pacemen – Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada – are all fit, selection could be a little bit of a nightmare. But Gibson doesn’t mind at all.”Some nightmares you want to wake up quickly from but this one is a good nightmare because you are bringing back such good quality players,” Gibson said. “It’s going to be interesting selection but if we get right and you look at the strength of the team we can put on the park, that’s a pleasing thing. It’s good to have all those guys back. Getting the right blend is going to be a challenge but it’s one we’re all looking forward to.”South Africa’s main dilemma will be deciding if they are going to get de Villiers in the team by lengthening the line-up to seven batsmen, or by leaving Temba Bavuma out and choosing three of the four seamers in the attack. Of those, Dale Steyn will demand the most attention, because he been sidelined for the longest and his chances of a comeback were the slimmest.While Philander struggled with a back injury for a few months and Morkel battled through a side-strain, Steyn has not played an international in more than a year since last November. He is now aiming to return, not just to take the five wickets he needs to overtake Shaun Pollock as the country’s leading Test wicket-taker, but to play for a few more years or so. But he may not be included in the starting XI immediately.Without giving too much away, Gibson said he wants to see how Steyn has come through the warm-up match against Zimbabwe, of which he and Bavuma played two of the three days before joining the Test squad. Steyn bowled three spells (of five overs, four overs and then three overs) in Zimbabwe’s first innings and went wicketless, but found rhythm and conceded just 16 runs. Assessing him in the next few days will be more crucial than any of that. “When you’ve had such a long layoff and a significant injury, you just have to wait and see how you pull up. Hopefully he pulls up well from that game, and we’ll see how he goes going into this summer,” Gibson said.Like so many, Gibson is eager to see Steyn back to his best and work with him. “He has been a champion bowler for a long time, probably along with James Anderson, probably the best of the modern generation in terms of wickets taken, games played and the way he has led the South African attack for a number of years,” Gibson said.For now, Gibson may have to content himself with trying to build the rest of the side into the formidable unit he wants to turn them into, especially as they aim to dethrone the world’s top Test side. “Against Bangladesh, we started to try and talk in a particular way around the dressing room and we tried to play in a particular way. We tried to be very positive in the way we went about Test cricket and take opportunities when they come along,” Gibson said. “Hopefully we will try and continue that in this game and then leading into the India series. India are the No.1 team in the world at the moment and we know we need to be at our best if we are going to compete with them and beat them, which is our ultimate goal. We just want to continue the progression that we started in the Bangladesh series.”Zimbabwe may not present a same kind of challenge but it’s important for Gibson that the team starts to gel again, after more than two months playing domestic cricket. It is also a match Gibson will use to re-emphasise his own philosophies, especially as a new(ish) coach. “The players, in general, have responded quite well to me. I am quite a laid back person anyway and a bit firm when I needed to be and I think Faf has made it quite easy for me as well. He has been outstanding as a captain and a leader and we chat – I was just back home for a couple of weeks and we were talking constantly about the game and planning ahead so he has been very good. In general, the players have been good. We’ve been winning so its been easy that way,” he said.He also wants to make sure South Africa have some fun in the new format – a four-day Test which will also be played under lights. With the novelty of the famous St George’s Park brass band, it may even feel a lot like home for Gibson. “I love the band. I’m from the Caribbean so music is in our blood over there,” he said, reminiscing about his own playing days down the coast in East London. “But hopefully they’ve learnt a few more sounds. Last time I was here I think they played the same song for about five hours.”

Test matches in Australia will be in need of a new naming rights sponsor from mid-2017 after it was revealed that Commonwealth Bank’s new $15 million deal to support diversity in the game over the next three years is in fact a reduction of the bank’s inve

Daniel Brettig18-Oct-2016Test matches in Australia will be in need of a new naming rights sponsor from mid-2017 after it was revealed that Commonwealth Bank’s new $15 million deal to support diversity in the game over the next three years is in fact a reduction of the bank’s investment in cricket by more than a third.The previous deal between the bank and Cricket Australia, announced in May 2013, was set to last four years to a value of no less than about $50 million. It included name sponsorship rights to the Australian Test team playing at home and home Test series. But ESPNcricinfo has been told this will not be renewed beyond July next year.”Commonwealth Bank remains a proud partner of Cricket Australia and is excited to rebalance its sponsorship to help even up the gender and diversity scales in professional sport,” a Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said. “On top of the initiatives announced yesterday, we will continue to support the Test series until July 2017 and throughout the upcoming summer series.”At the time it was a significant expansion of the bank’s role in support of Australian cricket, for its previous deal had covered the Southern Stars women’s team and grassroots competitions for a far less significant sum. It arrived at a febrile time for the game down under also, with Mickey Arthur about to be sacked as coach and replaced by Darren Lehmann ahead of back-to-back Ashes series.”Over the last 26 years we have been involved with Australia’s favourite sport from grassroots to grandstands,” the Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev said at the time. “Test Cricket is the pinnacle of Australian cricket, so we are proud to strengthen our commitment to the game by becoming the new sponsor of the Australian Test team and Test series.”The bank was duly the beneficiary when a team clad in their logos not only won the Ashes 5-0 at home but also went on to win 2-1 in South Africa. Qantas subsequently took up sponsorship of Australian touring teams. Vodafone had previously been the naming rights sponsor for home Tests, a deal that began in 2010.The “rebalance” of the bank’s sponsorship will now be directed at women’s cricket, indigenous players, players with a disability and local clubs. However the downgrade in financial investment will also leave a shortfall for CA’s commercial and financial divisions to have to work through unless the next Test match naming rights sponsor can match or improve on the 2013 deal.”We have taken this opportunity to review our sponsorship structure, and have decided to separate Naming Rights Sponsorship for the men’s international team and the series itself,” a CA spokesman said. “This means that, from summer 2017-18, the men’s team will have one naming rights sponsor, and the Test series will have another. Next year will be an Ashes series, which presents a very attractive proposition for any of our existing or potential partners.”We have already tested this proposition with the market, where we have received a very enthusiastic response. An association with the Australian men’s cricket team is clearly a highly attractive proposition for corporate Australia and we anticipate that this rebalancing of the portfolio will lead to significant revenue growth in corporate sponsorship. We have full confidence that we will have new commercial partners in due course.”

A round-up of the NCL 2015-16 matches that finished on October 13, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Oct-2015Khulna Division held off late resistance from Rangpur Division to win by 13 runs in their Tier-1 home game at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium.Set 200 to win, Rangpur slipped to 58 for 6 by the end of the third day. On the final day, wicketkeeper Dhiman Ghosh fought to get Rangpur close to the target but once he fell on the fourth morning for 56, it was all but over. Mehedi Hasan Miraz, adjudged player of the match, and Sanjit Saha, the offspinners from opposing sides, picked up their maiden ten-wicket hauls, while Khulna captain Abdur Razzak took eight wickets. Razzak and Miraz shared eight wickets in the second innings.Batting first, Khulna were bowled out for 211 runs, with Miraz top-scoring with 63. Suhrawadi Shuvo and Saha took four wickets each for the visitors. Rangpur, in their reply, eked out a nine-run lead, captain Nasir Hossain scoring 96 off 150, while Miraz took six wickets for 50 runs. Razzak picked up the other four wickets.Khulna were bowled out for 208 runs in their second innings, with Mahedi Hasan making 41 even as Saha accounted for seven of their batsmen.Dhaka Metropolis battled hard to beat Dhaka Division by three wickets in Fatullah, in another close encounter. Mahmudullah staved off an incisive spell from left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain with an unbeaten 45 as they successfully chased down 91 on the last day. Mosharraf finished with nine wickets in the game.Batting first, Dhaka Division were bowled out for 327 with Raqibul Hasan scoring 99, while Arafat Sunny, playing a first-class match after more than 18 months, took 6 for 96.Dhaka Metropolis replied strongly with opener Shamsur Rahman (138) slamming his first century of the season as they took a lead of 25 runs. Dhaka Division were then bowled out for 115 in their second innings, with offspinner Sharifullah taking four wickets and debutant pacer Shohidul Islam picking up 2 for 19 in 11 overs.Tamim Iqbal’s first domestic first-class hundred in nearly three years was the highlight of Chittagong Division‘s drawn Tier 2 game against Barisal Division at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.Batting first the home side declared on 467 for 7 with Tamim making 137 and Tasamul Haque (107) reaching his seventh first-class hundred. Sohag Gazi took three wickets.Mohammad Saifuddin then ran out Shahriar Nafees and took three crucial wickets as Barisal were bowled out for 346 with fifties from Salman Hossain (51) and Al-Amin (72).Rain interrupted the game on a number of occasions with the fourth day starting at 2.15pm. Tamim and his brother Nafees Iqbal then batted out most of the afternoon as the game petered out to a draw.Sylhet Division batted out the final day to confirm a draw against Rajshahi Division at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra. Play was called off an hour early with Sylhet on 267 for 7 with captain Alok Kapali providing the backbone on the fourth day with 93.Batting first, Sylhet were bowled out for 328 with Imtiaz Hossain making his career-best 154, which was also his second consecutive hundred in the competition. Rajshahi’s left-arm spinner Sunzamul Islam took four wickets.Rajshahi took a lead of 52 runs with Farhad Hossain (145) reaching his ninth first-class hundred and Nazmul Hossain Shanto making 62. Sylhet’s left-arm spinner Rahatul Ferdous took his maiden five-for in first-class cricket. Rajshahi maintain their top position in Tier-2 with 30 points followed by Barisal who are on 21 points.

Netherlands maintained their position at second place with a narrow one-wicket win over Namibia

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Apr-2013
ScorecardNetherlands’ last men hung on to secure a one-wicket victory over Namibia in Windhoek. Chasing 237, Netherlands were 22 for 1 before Wesley Barresi and Stephan Myburgh put on an 83-run stand for the second wicket. Daan van Bunge’s 60 helped further the cause once Barresi was dismissed for 58. Craig Williams picked up three crucial wickets for Namibia, those of Myburgh, Barresi and Tom Cooper, to halt the scoring midway through the innings. Netherlands slipped to 178 for 7 as the seemingly par target looked more difficult that it should have been. Mudassar Bukhari added 14, and Timm van der Gugten scored an unbeaten 11, as Netherlands’ last pair crossed the line with two overs to go.Namibia had been asked to bat and started with a century stand between openers Xander Pitchers and Raymond van Schoor. The pair put on 104 before Pitchers was run out by Myburgh. The next few batsmen did not contribute much to the cause, as they fell for single scores, but van Schoor continued to bat on. At 151 for 5 Netherlands smelled a chance of routing Namibia for a paltry score. It wasn’t until Nicolaas Scholtz came in that the pair could put together a healthy partnership of 85 runs. Scholtz scored an aggressive unbeaten 51 off 45 balls, while van Schoor made an unbeaten dogged 93. Namibia finished on 236 for 5 at the end of their 50 overs, Peter Borren was the pick of the Netherlands bowlers with 2 for 34.

Kemar Roach has been fined 50% of his match fee for making deliberate physical contact with Brett Lee twice in the same over

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Mar-2012West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach has been fined 50% of his match fee for making deliberate physical contact with Brett Lee twice in the same over, during the fifth one-dayer against Australia in St Lucia.The incident took place during the 39th over of Australia’s innings. Lee took a single off Roach and was approaching the other end when Roach first made contact with him. The two stared at each other before Roach nudged Lee again while walking back to his mark.Roach pleaded guilty to the Level 2 offence of the ICC Code of Conduct, which relates to “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play”. There was no need for a formal hearing.”There is no doubt that Kemar deliberately made physical contact with Brett, not once but twice,” Andy Pycroft, the ICC match referee, said. “This is completely unacceptable as there is no place for physical contact in cricket.”It is not the sort of example that players should be setting at any time, least of all in a series as high-profile as this one. Kemar accepted his mistake and admitted that his behaviour was over aggressive and inappropriate. I am sure he has learnt his lesson and will be more careful in future.”Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

Round-up of the second day’s play in the second round of matches in the Faysal bank Pentangular Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Feb-2011Federal Areas made a solid start in their reply to Baluchistan’s 353 on a curtailed second day at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. Only 39.2 overs were possible in the day, and Federal Areas finished 135 for 2, leaving them 218 runs behind Baluchistan’s first-innings score. Baluchistan’s No. 10 Zulfiqar Babar added some quick runs at the start of the day to increase his side’s overnight total of 320 for 9. Federal Areas then lost a couple of wickets early, with fast bowlers Abdur Rauf and Nazar Hussain taking a scalp each. Opener Raheel Majeed stayed steady at one end to finish on 67 not out, and he put together an unbroken 79-run partnership with Umar Amin.Not much play was possible at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore either, where Punjab’s batsmen continued to dominate the Sind bowlers. Starting on 347 for 3, Punjab added another 124 runs in the 37 overs bowled on the second day, to finish at 471 for 4. Overnight centurion Mohammad Ayub went on to make 140 before he was bowled by Sohail Khan. That dismissal did not stop the runs however, as Usman Salahuddin helped himself to an unbeaten half-century, and Kamran Sajid scored 42 not out. Punjab may have to consider declaring early on the third day if they want to force a result from the game.

Ravindra Jadeja’s ban from the 2010 season of the IPL on grounds of contractual violations has been upheld

Cricinfo staff27-Mar-2010Ravindra Jadeja’s ban from the 2010 season of the IPL on grounds of contractual violations has been upheld. The decision was taken during a hearing chaired by Arun Jaitley, an eminent lawyer and head of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association, following representations from the player and the two franchises involved – Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians.The IPL’s governing council had banned Jadeja for one season on instructions from Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, because he failed to sign the renewal contract with Rajasthan for the ongoing season and attempted to negotiate a new contract with Mumbai. It later agreed to enter an appeal from Jadeja and the two franchises.Jaitley upheld the ban after finding that “the player contrived a situation to his advantage by breaching the player trading rules and not signing his third year contract for IPL 2010 with the Rajasthan Royals”, the league said in a statement.”Thus, Ravindra Jadeja committed a breach on two counts; firstly, by not signing the contract with the Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2010, wherein he wanted to declare himself free from contractual obligations and failed to discharge his obligations under the player trading rules. Secondly, Jadeja’s act of meeting representatives of the Mumbai Indian franchise and sending his contract documents to them for inspection and his own admission that he received documents from Mumbai Indians and used them for representation purposes to the governing council, reveal that he was indeed guilty of breaching the operational rules by approaching another Franchise.”Jaitley also recommended that Mumbai be warned for “having approached a player who was under an obligation to play for another franchise” and said “a more deterrent line of action should be considered” for future offences of this nature.