Lankan Premier League 2021 scheduled to start in December, announces Sri Lanka Cricket

IPL 2021 | Sherfane Rutherford's father passes way, SRH player to leave bio-bubble

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s latest West Indian import, Sherfane Rutherford will be leaving the Indian Premier League’s bio-bubble to travel back to his home as his father passed away in Guyana. The franchise conveyed their condolences to the player and informed through their Twitter handle that Rutherford would not be available for selection anymore. “The #SRH family conveys its heartfelt condolences to Sherfane Rutherford and his family on the passing away of his father. Sherfane will be leaving the IPL bio-bubble to be with his family in this difficult hour,” tweeted the Hyderabad based franchise. Rutherford was roped into the IPL after a brilliant showing with Caribbean Premier League 2021 champions St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. The 23-year-old has been impressive this year in the Pakistan Super League as well as the CPL, and although he has played only seven games in the IPL so far even after being with Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals, he hasn’t really been able to leave any mark. But this time around, he was expected to make a mark.

MI vs KKR: Rohit Sharma becomes first man in IPL history to score 1000 runs against single team

Just as Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma hit second of the consecutive fours against Varun Chakravarthy of Kolkata Knight Riders, he not only got past 17 as his personal score in the game but also became the first man in the history of the Indian Premier League to score 1000 runs against one team. Before this game, Sharma, who has been part of the IPL since its inception in 2008, had played 207 IPL games and scored 5480 runs at an average of 31 and a strike rate of more than 130 and is one of the only six players to have gone past the 5000 runs landmark. He is also only one of the five players to have gone past 200 games in the league. The 34-year-old is currently the fourth-highest run-scorer in the league and stands only behind RCB skipper Virat Kohli, Delhi Capitals’ Shikhar Dhawan and Chennai Super Kings’ Suresh Raina. Rohit is only seven runs away from overtaking Raina to the third position and might do it in this game itself. As far as scoring against opponents is concerned, apart from KKR, Rohit has scored 852 runs against Delhi Capitals, which is his second-most runs against a side in IPL. Ironically, Rohit was out for a duck in his very first IPL game against KKR itself on the bowling of Murli Kartik in 2008, playing for Deccan Chargers.

Usman Khawaja, Wasim Jaffer bat for Pakistan in light of England’s tour cancellation

Since the time England have cancelled their tour of Pakistan, which was scheduled for October this year, the England and Wales Cricket Board have had to face heavy criticism, especially due to the fact that Pakistan risked its players to help ECB fight the losses due to Covid at the time when even vaccines were not developed. Joining the list of critics are Australia’s Usman Khawaja and former India player Wasim Jaffer who have said that ECB opting out of the tour was a big blow for Pakistan Cricket which they did not deserve to be dealt. Khawaja said that it is all about money and only because Pakistan and Bangladesh are not rich boards, England, New Zealand or Australia could afford to cancel the tours or abandon it midway. “I feel it’s very easy for players and organisations to say no to Pakistan because it’s Pakistan. I think the same thing would apply too if it were Bangladesh. But nobody would say no to India if they’re in the same situation,” The Western Australian quoted Khawaja as saying. “Money talks, we all know that, and that’s probably a big part of it,” the 34-year-old Queensland skipper, who played for Islamabad United in this year's PSL when it was moved to UAE, added. Wasim Jaffer on the other end went on to remind ECB how much they owed to Pakistan. “The @TheRealPCB have every reason to be disappointed with the ECB. Pak and WI toured England last year during pandemic before vaccines. England owes so much to both Pak and WI. Least ECB could do is not cancel the reciprocal tours. There are no winners when cricket is cancelled,” the Punjab Kings batting consultant tweeted. After New Zealand abandoned its Pakistan tour right ahead of the start of the first ODI in Rawalpindi, England too decided to cancel both its men’s and women’s tour to Pakistan, which it had promised after Pakistan’s last year tour during the pandemic.

ICC releases official World T20 2021 anthem

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has released the T20 World Cup 2021 anthem. The ICC posted a video on social media to release the anthem. The World T20 2021 is slated to begin October 17, 2021, a couple of days after the conclusion of the IPL 2021. The tournament will be co-hosted by UAE and Oman. Oman will be up against PNG in the opening encounter of the competition in Al Amerat. India will begin the campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24, 2021 in Dubai and will then play New Zealand on October 31, 2021 at the same venue. The Men in Blue will lock horns with Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi on November 3 and will then play the qualifying teams from the two groups on November 5 and November 8 respectively in Dubai. The defending champions West Indies will start the competition against the last edition’s runners-up England on October 23 in Dubai. The Caribbean side who is the most successful team as far as the World T20 is concerned lifted the trophy back in 2012 and 2016 respectively. They defeated Sri Lanka in 2012 while lifted the trophy after beating England in 2016. India have won the World T20 once back in 2007 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni while ended as the runners up in 2014 after losing the final to Sri Lanka.