T20 World Cup: Saifuddin ruled out of the tournament, Rubel Hossain comes in as replacement

Waqar Younis apologises for his 'namaz' remark after facing heat on social media

Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis has apologised for his ‘namaz’ remarks that he made after the side’s win against India during the T20 World Cup fixture earlier this week. “In the heat of the moment, I said something which I did not mean which has hurt the sentiments of many. I apologise for this, this was not intended at all, a genuine mistake. Sports unite people regardless of race, colour or religion. #apologies,” he tweeted. Waqar who was a part of a discussion on Pakistan’s ARY News said that it was a “special” moment for him to see Mohammad Rizwan offering namaz in front of Hindus. The former right-arm bowler faced a lot of criticism for his words and later made apologies. Pakistan thumped India by 10 wickets, riding on some fine piece of batting from Rizwan and captain Babar Azam. Both the batsmen notched up individual fifties during the course of the match. Earlier, Shaheen Afridi rattled the Indian batting unit after scalping three important wickets in the innings that included the dismissals of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and later skipper Virat Kohli. India were eventually restricted to 151/7 in 20 overs. The Babar Azam-led side has been in some good form as they continued the winning run against New Zealand in the second match, defeating them by 5 wickets.

WBBL 2021 | Jemimah Rodriguez, Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh shine with the bat

It was a day of Indian women in the Women’s Big Bash League 2021 as they played brilliantly with the bat for their respective teams. While Jemimah Rodriguez was the player of the match for Melbourne Renegades Women as they beat Sydney Thunder Women, Smriti Mandhana, playing for Thunder tried her best to get the defending champions off and running, but even after her brilliant 64 off 44 balls, the women in green remained nine runs behind the red brigade. Chasing a target of 143, Thunder had a slow start losing opener Tahlia Wilson early on. Mandhana along with Phoebe Litchfield got the team running but Litchfield was very slow to start with. In their 53 runs partnership off 43 balls, Litchfield played 19 balls but could make only 14 runs. This built pressure on Mandhana and no other batter than her and Deepti Sharma who made a quickfire 23 off just 10 balls. Mandhana was eventually out in the 16th over at the team score of 99 and her individual score of 64, giving a glimpse of how good her innings was on that wicket where every other Thunder batter struggled. Rodriguez who has not been in the form that she showed in The Hundred earlier, was top of her batting efforts as her unbeaten 75 off 56 balls and an opening partnership of 84 with Josephine Dooley was the main reason for Renegades to reach 142 as other batters hardly seem to be playing on a completely different wicket. In her 75 runs inning, the 21-year-old Indian hit nine fours. In another game, India’s wicketkeeper batter Richa Ghosh, who is plying her trade for Hobart Hurricanes Women, scored a quickfire 24 off 16 balls and guided her team to victory against Melbourne Stars after Mignon du Preez laid the foundation for a 145 run chase with her 62 off 45 balls. After today’s two games, Thunder remained winless while Renegades’ third win of the season meant that they are now heading to the top of the table, only one point behind Brisbane Heat Women. Hurricanes’ second win also meant that they are now in the top four.

Watch: Shoaib Akhtar resigns on Live TV in presence of Viv Richards after spat with anchor

In a curious set of events, former Pakistan fast bowler, Shoaib Akhtar decided to resign from PTV Sports, a state-owned channel of the Pakistan Television Corporation. The resignation came after an argument with a program host Dr Noman Niaz, who is said to be a great friend of Akhtar as well. The matter developed as Shoaib Akhtar decided to dodge a question from Niaz on whether Pakistan made a meal of the chase and instead started praising Haris Rauf, Lahore Qalalanders who have brought in Rauf and Akib Javed, the former Pakistan pacer and the pace mentor of Qalandars. Niaz did not look one bit comfortable with how Akhar handled his question and said, “You're being a little rude and I don't want to say this, but if you're being over smart, you can go. I am saying this on air.” First Akhar can be seen laughing as he thought that it was a joke and Niaz would curtail his words, but as Niaz moved forward to ask other guests without addressing the issue, the man to have delivered the fastest ball in the world is heard saying ‘excuse me’ before Niaz took a break on the show called ‘Game on hai’. The Rawalpindi Express in a video uploaded on Twitter explained how it all started with Nauman Niaz. In the video, Akhtar says, "Multiple clips are circulating on social media so I thought I should clarify. Dr Nauman was obnoxious (sic) and rude when he asked me to leave the show.” He then went on to explain that he wanted to sort out the matter with Niaz but wanted a public apology for his rude behaviour which he never got and thus decided to leave the show mid-way. "It was embarrassing especially when you have legends like sir Vivian Richards and David Gower sitting on the set with some of my contemporaries and seniors and millions watching. “I tried to save everyone from embarrassment by saying I was pulling Dr Noman’s leg with this mutual understanding that Dr noman will also politely apologise and we will move on with the show, which he refused to do. Then I had no other choice,” said Akhtar. The show includes greats like Sir Vivian Richards, David Gower, Rashid Latif, Umar Gul, Aaqib Javed and Pakistan women's team captain Sana Mir as guests and they were all taken aback by the incident. However, Akhtar, deciding to keep his composure apologised to them all before resigning on Live TV and leaving the studios. "My apologies for this but I am resigning immediately from PTV sports as I have been insulted and treated badly on live television in front of the nation," said Akhtar.

Harbhajan Singh reignites Lord’s fixing matter in an ugly Twitter spat with Mohammad Amir

What started out as maybe a friendly banter or to say a more of a point-scoring Tweet by former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir involving Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh, quickly escalated to a full-blown war of words between the two cricketers. The quick escalation was caused by Harbhajan Singh going so far as to bring in the darkest days of Amir’s cricketing career where he as an 18-year-old in 2010, was involved in a fixing saga that saw careers of two of his former teammates Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt getting over and he himself facing a ban of five years before re-entering the game in 2016. The tweet that instigated this fight was done by Amir after Pakistan’s now famous 10 wickets, jinx-breaking victory in the T20 World Cup against India on Sunday in Dubai. Amir mentioned the Turbanator and asked about the famous ‘TV breaking’ reference that has been made in the past by many cricketers including Harbhajan in regards to Pakistan’s losses in the World Cup. In reply to that, Bhajji tweeted a video of him smashing a six of Amir’s bowling in the final over of the 2010 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka to win a close game for India and asked if Amir’s TV was broken that day or not? While it was still funny and loved by the fans the banter that was going on between the two players. Amir then brought into the context the four sixes that former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi hit off Harbhajan Singh in a Test match and asked how can someone be hit for four sixes in a row in a Test. But then things got ugly as Harbhajan brought in the Lord’s fixing reference and asked how can someone bowl so big a no-ball in Test cricket and how much money did Amir receive and from whom for selling his soul and his country’s pride. After this, the matters got worse and eventually unparliamentary language was also used by Amir to score points and the fans of both cricketers got involved in the matter and many Pakistani journalists also came in support of Amir, who had announced that he won't be playing for Pakistan till the last management was involved in Pakistan Cricket Board, which has now been changed. But eventually, things settled down, although not on a happy note, still, both cricketers stopped making any more tweets tagging each other.