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Sky Sports to broadcast County Championship after IPL 2021 gets postponed

The County Championship is going to have a Television broadcast of a round-robin match after long as Sky Sports have decided to provide LIVE coverage of Middlesex’ clash with group leaders Gloucestershire at Lord’s in London from May 6. 

The announcement was made on Sky Sports Cricket’s official Twiter account on Tuesday, May 4. Sky would basically assist and add to the regular Middlesex CCC stream coverage, which won a lot of appreciation for its multi-camera set up and great commentary during the Bob Willis Trophy last year and in the first four matches of this season as well. 

International commentators on contract with Sky like Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Rob Key and Ian Ward would join Middlesex’ own Adam Collins and Matt Floyd to provide commentary and expert analysis of the game for all four days.

Atherton while speaking to Sky Sports about the opportunity to commentate in one of the most prestigious and oldest First Class tournaments, said that he was excited about it. 

"The Championship has been terrific. These days, with the wonders of modern technology, all the counties stream their games so anybody has been able to watch a county stream,” the former England cricketer said. 

"We've seen lots of interesting games, lots of great cricket, some good storylines as well with players coming back into form like young Haseeb Hameed at Nottinghamshire,” said the 53-year-old who played 115 Tests and 54 ODIs for England, scoring 9527 runs with 18 centuries to his credit. 

“There are lots going on and the streams have been terrific so fingers crossed for dry weather over the four days from Thursday!,” added the Lancashire Legend who scored nearly 22 thousand First-Class runs with 54 centuries in his kitty at an average of 40. 

Gloucestershire in its previous four encounters have always won chasing a total, including the 348 against Leicestershire in their previous encounter. The only match in which they batted first, they ended up drawing it against Hampshire at The Rose Bowl. Middlesex on the other hand have won only one of their four encounters, losing the rest three.

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PCB’s new parental support policy allows 12 months paid leave, guaranteed contract renewal for women cricketers

The Pakistan Cricket Board introduced a new parental policy to pioneer women cricket in the country. With the implementation of the policy, the women cricketers will be allowed to get 12 months of childbirth leave and renewal of the contract for the next year to reintegrate the mother into cricket. The policy also offers one month lead for the men contracted cricketers which must be available within the 56 days of the birth of their child. The case of Bismah Maroof, Pakistan Women’s team former captain taking an indefinite break from cricket to prepare for motherhood, seems to have been the inspiration behind this policy. "The PCB has a duty of care towards its cricketers and, at every turn, it has taken measures to support them," Wasim Khan, the PCB chief executive officer said in a statement released by the board. Wasim reinstated that PCB wanted its players to commit fully to cricket and the nation and for that to happen, supporting the players mentally and financially was also important. "In this relation, it is appropriate that we have a player-friendly parental support policy so that our professional cricketers can feel fully supported during an important stage in their lives, without worrying about their careers,” he said. Stressing upon the fact that it was very much necessary to support women cricketers, Wasim said, "To have this policy for our women cricketers was even more significant. Women play a pivotal role in the development of society and our women cricketers have brought us laurels and recognition on the world stage. Now that we have a maternity leave policy, I am hopeful that it will attract more women and girls to take up the sport as this will help them strike a crucial work-life balance." The policy also states that if a woman player is required to travel for cricketing activities, the PCB will support the player by allowing her to travel with a support person of her choice to assist in caring for her infant child, with the travel and accommodation costs to be shared equally.