Sourav Ganguly confident of hosting IPL 2021, Ranji Trophy in bio-secure bubble

After successfully organising the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League outside India, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has said that the flagship tournament will return to India next year and it will be played during its usual schedule between April-May. Along with the IPL, BCCI is also gearing up to hold the domestic Ranji Trophy and host England in February next year by creating a bio-secure bubble for players. He also said that the experience of hosting the IPL in a coronavirus-free environment by creating a bio-secure bubble has helped the board in containing the worries it had on hosting tournaments in the country.

"The UAE was only for the IPL. We will host England in India. We will host domestic cricket in India. Ranji Trophy, we will create a bio bubble and we will do it. We’ll be fine. ISL is starting in November in Goa. The worry is not there anymore and the IPL has helped a lot,” Ganguly said to India Today.

Ganguly also shared the BCCI’s plans to develop women's cricket in India and said that they are considering the move of organising a separate IPL for women, just like the men’s IPL with seven to eight teams in the next two years.

“At the present moment, there are only three teams in the women’s IPL and I believe that in a couple of years’ time we will be good enough to have a separate IPL with seven teams, eight teams like the franchise-based teams for the women as well,” Ganguly added.

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Elton Chigumbura announces retirement from international cricket

Former Zimbabwe Captain Elton Chigumbura is set to retire from international cricket after the completion of the ongoing T20 series against Pakistan. The development was made public by Zimbabwe Cricket on its Twitter handle. The 34-year-old will hang his boots after a 16-year-long international career where he took the field in 14 Tests, 213 ODIs and 54 T20I matches for the African nation. He captained the side in 62 ODIs and 18 T20Is. Reportedly, ZC has said that the all-rounder has considered retiring from international cricket in order to provide more chances for youngsters to make a mark on the big stage as well as a higher frequency of injuries that always took a toll on him. Chigumbura has been a legend for Zimbabwe on the international stage as he is the only the second player after Grant Flower to achieve a double of 4000 runs and 100 wickets in ODI cricket. In his long international career, Chigumbura played many memorable knocks and the one against Australia in the inaugural edition of the ICC World T20 in 2007 will certainly be one of the best match-winning innings from a Zimbabwean batsman. Chigumbura has amassed 5761 international runs along with 138 wickets with the help of two hundred and 26 half-centuries.

Mahmudullah tests positive for COVID-19; set to miss PSL play-offs

Bangladesh star all-rounder and the captain of the T20 side, Mahmudullah Riyad has tested positive for Coronavirus infection and is likely to miss the knockout phase of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). He was all set to take off for Pakistan via Dubai on a flight scheduled for today but had to undergo mandatory testing for Covid-19 as per the guidelines of the Bangladesh government where he tested positive for the highly contagious virus. Mahmudullah tested himself twice to be sure about his illness and after the results, isolated himself. He has also expressed surprise at the positive covid result as he did not have fever or any other serious symptoms except a bit of cold. A cricketer much sought after in the T20 format for his excellent skills with the bat and handy off-spin, Mahmudullah was picked by the Multan Sultans as a like for like replacement for English all-rounder Moeen Ali for a postponed play-off of the PSL scheduled to take off from November 14. Multan Sultans are led by Pakistan opener in Test cricket, Shan Masood and the team had topped the points table before the pandemic had hit the tournament and the PCB postponed it to this month.

'Loss of steam' key reason for RCB exit - Simon Katich

Calling the lack of steam in the batting department of the Royal Challengers Bangalore unit as the main reason for the team’s exit from the tournament and also for its continuous losses, coach Simon Katich said that the team lost the plot after the early brilliance. "We felt we were on track till the 10-game mark heading into the last four blocks of games. Looking back, we think we ran out of a bit of steam probably with the bat and that's one area that faded a bit after a really good start to the tournament," Katich was quoted as saying by PTI. The Australian further credited his opponents in Sunrisers Hyderabad for playing outstanding cricket and making RCB look clueless. "Credit to Sunrisers, they squeezed us beautifully, and then we were always playing catch-up. We felt if we could get 150, we could be in the game with two leggies (Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa) in the team,” said Katich. “The wicket was slow and offering a bit of turn. To stack our batting and get 130 was disappointing," he added. Explaining why Virat Kohli opened the innings even when Aaron Finch was available and why did RCB chop and changed, Katich said, "Look, it was settled (batting line-up). Aaron Finch didn't get dropped till the 11th game,” he said. “But then he didn't get the runs we expected. Josh Phillippe came in, got an opportunity, and going into play-offs we thought Virat will open, and unfortunately, it didn't work," Katich added. Praising the young Devdutt Padikkal, who scored 473 runs in this season, Katich said that he was one for the future. "A great sign for the future is Devdutt Padikkal. He was magnificent at the top of the order. He played some great knocks to set us up," said Katich.

Jason Holder always in reckoning for T20I spot in Windies Team: Phil Simmons

West Indies coach Phil Simmons has cleared the air around Test captain’s Jason Holder’s chances of playing T20 cricket for the Caribbean National Team. Simmons said that Holder has had two very good seasons with the CPL franchise Barbados Tridents and this year’s IPL has also come as a revelation for Barbados born. However, Holder not being included in the T20I squad against New Zealand came as a surprise to many. But the coach confirmed that since the gap between the Tests and the T20I series is hardly a few days, therefore he wanted the Test captain to be fully committed to red-ball cricket. "Jason is always in consideration for T20s. He had two good years at the CPL and now he is having a good tournament at the IPL," he said. "Let me just clear it up here. This is an odd tour here. The T20 series finishes a day or two days before the first Test match and [Holder] being captain of the Test team, a decision was taken by us as a selection panel that Jason will not be considered for that part. Seeing that he is coming from IPL, he will have one chance to play in the four-day game before the Test match,” added the coach. Holder indeed had a great season for the Tridents team where he scored 192 runs averaging a modest 21.33 but striking at 140.14. The fact that he also took ten wickets at an economy of 6.63 raises his importance in the team. In IPL too, the 29-year-old has been a jubilant performer taking 13 wickets and playing two match-winning knocks as well.