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Usman Shuja, 36, who had set the record to become USA’s top wicket-taker in the 50-over format, has announced his retirement from international cricket

Peter Della Penna18-May-2015Usman Shuja, who set the USA record for career wickets in 50-over cricket in October, has announced his retirement from international cricket at age 36. The fast bowler was USA’s leading wicket-taker at ICC WCL Division Three in Malaysia last year, but was not included in USA’s T20 squad for the ICC Americas Division One tournament earlier this month and cited a desire to formally step aside in order to allow younger players to develop.”The team as a whole with the next generation is ready to take over,” Shuja told ESPNcricinfo on Sunday night. “I think I can still help out, but I feel I’ll be more of a hurdle for them to express themselves than to help them. There have also been some huge personal life changes with having a baby last year, a start-up job and having achieved the record, the whole personal element has dropped my motivation quite a bit.”Though Shuja played a series of unofficial games for USA against Cayman Islands in 2003, he made his official USA debut in 2006 against the same team at the ICC Americas Division One tournament, taking 1 for 21. With his 3 for 12 against Bermuda on the first day of play at 2013 WCL Division Three, Shuja surpassed former USA captain Zamin Amin’s mark of 47 wickets that had stood since 2004. He added five more at 2013 WCL Division Three to set the new USA mark of 53 in 35 games at an average of 15.49, comfortably better than Amin’s 22.09 and a better average than anyone else in USA’s top 10.Shuja also took nine wickets in 15 T20 matches for USA with his 4.56 economy rate standing at number one. He credits his father, a former first-class wicketkeeper-batsman for Lahore and PIA in the 1960s, with instilling in him a competitive drive from an early age.”He was very tough,” Shuja said. “If I got one or two wickets he would just shrug it off. He pushed me and helped with the skills. When I was in college at Texas and I was going back to Pakistan every year, he hooked me up with Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis and got me coaching from Waqar and the entire Pakistan team so they could analyse my skill-set. He’s always been supportive because he had played first-class professional cricket in Pakistan. The point is that he was always engaged. Even till now he always knew how many runs I had scored and wickets I had taken every week.”Shuja was controversially dropped ahead of USA’s tour of Bermuda in 2013 for ICC WCL Division Three and said the main reason he didn’t retire then was that he felt strongly that he had more left to contribute to the national team.”I think I was still at the top of my game at that time,” Shuja said. “I felt the drive to play and I also didn’t want to leave when I was dropped. I felt I was dropped unfairly so there was a little bit of unfinished business. Today, I think a few things have changed for me personally and my motivation has gone down quite a bit. The moment I made that decision it was a relief. I’m not willing to put the hard work in to deserve a spot to be able to step on the field now but the feeling of being on the field and the whole preparation to get there, that I’ll still miss.”I will definitely miss just being able to represent the country and playing at the highest level. I’ve always been driven by the competitiveness of the games and also to be able to say I play for the country. Those two things are softer elements but those were the driving factors and I’ll miss that quite a bit. But most importantly is the friendships. I made some really good friends. To be able to go on tours and talk cricket is the thing I’ll miss the most.”The fast bowler says his proudest moment as a member of the USA team was their victory over Nepal in front of a hostile Kathmandu crowd on the final day of round-robin play at 2010 ICC WCL Division Five, a win which secured USA’s promotion to Division Four in Italy. However, Shuja says he laments the fact that USA wasn’t able to produce more meaningful results during a two-year stretch when the core group of players was perhaps more talented than the USA team that reached the Champions Trophy in 2004.”I think it’s a story of missed opportunities,” Shuja said. “The 12 years associated with US cricket, I think we have touched a lot of interesting opportunities where we were under prepared. We had really good teams, really good coaches. Everything just didn’t fit together but there were pieces of it that were there and I genuinely feel that we could have been something like Canada, if not better. It was always an honour to play but there were just a lot of missed opportunities. If we had prepared better, we could have done better especially in the 2010-11 time frame.”I think 2010 was the time when most of the guys were if not at their peak, they were still in their prime or at the tail end of it. They were still pretty good and the team that went to Italy, Nepal, the first UAE trip and even Hong Kong, I think that was a pretty solid team. We just never prepared. We had some missed planning. There was no strategy and things like that. I think we could have done a lot better if there was a little bit of planning and help from the administration.”

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has called on the national selectors to appoint fast bowler Wahab Riaz as the country’s next one-day captain

Gaurav Kalra22-Mar-20154:55

Ramiz: Wahab can take Pakistan in right direction

Former Pakistan batsman Ramiz Raja has called on the national selectors to appoint fast bowler Wahab Riaz as the country’s next one-day captain.Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Ramiz said that after watching Wahab bowl in the quarter-final defeat against Australia, he was convinced Wahab can make it “big as a leader” because of the “aggression, passion and emotion” he showed. Pakistan will need to find a replacement for Misbah-ul-Haq, who had announced his retirement from ODIs after the World Cup, and Ramiz urged the selectors to groom a youngster for the job.”It’s a difficult one because Pakistan have not yet trained a youngster,” Ramiz said. “What I saw of him (Wahab) against Australia convinces me that he’s got it in him to make it big as a leader because he showed aggression, passion and emotion and that is what is required right now to put Pakistan cricket back on track.”The team think tank have not really been able to give Pakistan that aggressive tag that its renowned for and I’ve been very disappointed with the route that we have taken. Pakistan cricket is about emotion, about showing passion and to a certain degree about being unpredictable in a healthy way, which makes it so romantic.”Wahab was among the few standout performers for Pakistan at the World Cup, finishing as one of the tournament’s highest wicket-takers with 16 scalps at an average of 23.00 and an economy rate of 5.56. His spell to Shane Watson during Australia’s run-chase in the quarter-final in Adelaide was an unforgettable passage of play, and Ramiz believed the time was right for Pakistan to pitchfork Wahab at the helm on the back of that performance.”You can experiment with an out-of-box idea like this in one-day cricket. Australia is a great example,” he said. “George Bailey was plucked out of first class cricket straight into international cricket as a leader when he was made T20 captain. I’ve seen the ingredients to give Wahab Riaz that pedestal and position. Let’s see how he operates but what I saw of him against Australia, he can take Pakistan cricket in the right direction.”Although Pakistan won’t have the services of Misbah and Shahid Afridi, who too retired after the tournament, Ramiz believes that at least for the short-term, the selectors should consider “looking beyond” players like Ahmed Shehzad, whose best scores came against UAE and Ireland, and Umar Akmal, who produced underwhelming returns at the World Cup. While Shehzad made 227 runs at an average of 32.42 in his seven innings, Akmal could manage just 164 at 27.33.”I would look beyond these youngsters because you have to get the nucleus right,” he said. “You can carry on for a bit with these guys but they need to learn quickly because people are getting frustrated, they must themselves be getting frustrated because they know that they have the talent and ability. I think Pakistan do not have even at this stage a batting culture, like for example India.Ramiz Raja – “What I saw of him against Australia convinces me that he’s got it in him to make it big as a leader”•Getty Images”When you are in and you have got 20 or 30, those numbers then need to get converted to a 60 or a 70 which they fail consistently, not only the youngsters but also the senior players. They also disappointed in that area.”Pakistan’s batting is a throwback to the 1980s. We need to kick on and be a little progressive in our thoughts and a little fearless in our approach, and that seems to be missing. I don’t think they are far behind in the bowling area but batting needs a kick up the backside. They need to take a fearless approach and a new direction altogether with the bat.”While Pakistan’s batting was a letdown throughout their campaign, Ramiz was impressed with what he saw from the bowlers. Wahab stood out, but in Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan and Junaid Khan, who was ruled out of the squad due to injury, Pakistan have a strong core group of fast bowlers to call upon.Ramiz, who played under Imran Khan for a large part of his international career, believes Pakistan need to focus on creating “an aggressive environment” similar to that era for these bowlers to achieve their full potential. He said the country’s “great bowling culture” meant that these young fast bowlers did not need to be taught “how to bowl.” All they need, according to him, is the backing of the team’s leadership group and management.”I think we have been very conservative in our approach about when to introduce and unleash young bowling talent,” Ramiz said. “Our fast bowlers have been far too reserved and it stems from the fact that we have had a reserved captain. It needs to change completely after this World Cup fall and we need to think differently so that these younger players take Pakistan to a newer high.”Ramiz was also of the view that Pakistan needed to follow the example of India who have “moved on” from celebrating past feats, and focus on an “overhaul” of the domestic structure.”We still rejoice the 1992 World Cup whereas for example, India, our neighbour, has moved on,” he said. “They’ve produced new superstars and Pakistan have lagged behind in that area. They (Pakistan’s batsmen) don’t seem to read the situation and that stems from the fact that Pakistan domestic cricket needs an overhaul.”You have to go through such situations at domestic level to make you a success story at international level. Then it doesn’t appear to be an alien art for you because I feel some of these younger guys just do not know how to operate in or react to a tense, crunch situation.”Pakistan’s next international assignment is a tour of Bangladesh involving two Tests, three ODIs and a T20I from the middle of April.

With Sunday's Gold Cup final set to renew the biggest rivalry in Concacaf, Goal selects the players who have been the tournament standouts

The Gold Cup final that Mexico and U.S. national team fans were hoping for is finally here, and Sunday's final will be an opportunity for players from both teams to cap the strong tournaments they have already put together.

The United States has won all five of its matches at the Gold Cup, allowing just one goal along the way while scoring a tournament-best 15. Gregg Berhalter's squad has helped ease the fears generated by two pre-Gold Cup defeats to Jamaica and Venezuela, though struggles against Curacao in the quarterfinals rekindled some of the concerns about whether the Americans have the quality to defeat Mexico in the final.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing for El Tri either, with Tata Martino's squad needing a penalty shootout to hold off Costa Rica in the quarterfinals and overtime to eliminate Haiti in the semifinals.

Despite those difficult matches, Mexico has shown the individual quality expected when the Gold Cup began, with some familiar faces shining, and some new ones impressing.

The same can be said for the USMNT, which has had some relatively new faces step up into prominent roles and enjoy breakout tournaments.

Which American and Mexican players have enjoyed the best Gold Cups so far? Here are Goal's selections for the combined USA-Mexico Gold Cup XI:

Guillermo Ochoa | Mexico | GoalkeeperWithout a doubt the El Tri No. 1, Ochoa helped Mexico to the final with a save to win a shootout against Costa Rica in the quarterfinals. Though he’s 33 years old, Ochoa hasn’t dropped a bit from his form in the 2014 World Cup and has his sights set on a third World Cup as the starter in 2022. His Gold Cup campaign indicates he’s up to it.AdvertisementGetty ImagesLuis 'Chaka' Rodriguez | Mexico | Right Back“Chaka” may not be a perfect fullback, but he does what he needs to do in Tata Martino’s system. He gets forward to join the attack, scoring in a pre-tournament friendly and coming close in the tournament proper, and also defends well enough to avoid catastrophe. While Fernando Navarro also is available this tournament, it’s clear why Martino has stuck with Rodriguez as his first choice at right back.Getty ImagesAaron Long | USA | Center BackOne of the breakout stars of the Gold Cup for the United States, Long overcame a hamstring injury suffered a month before the Gold Cup to help anchor a U.S. defense that has allowed just one goal in six matches. Long's one-on-one defensive ability, range, and attacking quality as a threat to score on set pieces make him the ideal well-rounded defender. What makes Long's emergence even more impressive is that the 26-year-old hadn't even received his first national team cap until last October.ENJOYED THIS STORY?

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Patrick SmithWalker Zimmerman | USA | Center Back

One of the surprises of the Gold Cup, Zimmerman beat out Matt Miazga for the starting role in central defense and took full advantage, providing a perfect complement to Aaron Long. His aerial prowess and increasing confidence on the ball have helped him adapt to Gregg Berhalter's system. His growth as a player at LAFC playing for Bob Bradley is clear, and the United States hasn't allowed a goal at the Gold Cup with Zimmerman on the field.

Napoli could part ways with manager Walter Mazzarri before the club's Champions League clash against Barcelona on Wednesday.

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Napoli could sack Mazzarri before Barcelona clashWon just five times in 16 games under MazzarriSlovakia coach Calzona tipped to be next managerWHAT HAPPENED?

Since taking charge of the club in November from Rudi Garcia, Walter Mazzarri managed to guide Napoli to just five wins in 16 matches across all competitions. On Saturday, the reigning Serie A champions scored a late goal to hold Genoa to a 1-1 draw.

Now journalist reports that the club are "seriously considering" sacking Mazzarri and the Italian coach's exit could even come before they take on Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash on Wednesday.

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The journalist further claims that The Blues have already contacted Slovakia national team coach Francesco Calzona who is likely to replace the Italian coach at the helm. Calzona, who had formerly worked at Napoli as an assistant to Maurizio Sarri and Luciano Spalletti, would then manage the Italian side and The Falcons simultaneously.

DID YOU KNOW?

Jose Mourinho was strongly linked with the Napoli job after he parted ways with AS Roma last month, although the move never materialised. Some reports suggested that the Portuguese coach was supposed to meet club president Aurelio De Laurentiis to discuss a potential move.

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Getty ImagesWHAT NEXT FOR NAPOLI?

It remains to be seen if Mazzarri will sit on the bench for the club's upcoming European clash against the Catalan giants. After facing the reigning Spanish champions, the Blues will take on Cagliari in the Serie A on February 25.

United States women's national team captain Lindsey Horan has demanded more "in all aspects" in an honest assessment of Monday's shock loss to Mexico.

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USWNT suffered shock loss to Mexico on MondayU.S. now faces a tougher Gold Cup routeHoran delivers honest assessment of defeatWHAT HAPPENED?

The USWNT was deservedly beaten on Monday in a result that saw La Tri qualify for the knockout rounds of the Gold Cup in first place in Group A. A mistake from veteran Becky Sauerbrunn allowed Lizbeth Ovalle to break the deadlock shortly before half time and Mayra Pelayo put the cherry on the cake with an outstanding strike in stoppage time.

AdvertisementWHAT HORAN SAID

Speaking to reporters after the game, Horan said: "First off, Mexico played a really good game so we don't want to take anything away from that. But we were not on point today. We need to be better all aspects of the game. I could go into so many details but I think just across the board we need to be better."

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By qualifying in second place in Group A, the USWNT can now expect a tougher Gold Cup quarter-final. Horan and her team had already secured a place in the last eight before facing Mexico but the shock loss means the U.S.'s route to the success will be trickier.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Mexico's win on Monday was just its second-ever against the USWNT and its first since 2010. Meanwhile, the U.S.'s incredible unbeaten record against CONCACAF opponents was broken, this its first loss on home soil to a team from the same confederation since 2000.

George Bailey has conceded that he struggled with constantly changing formats last summer, which contributed to his least productive Sheffield Shield campaign since his maiden season in 2004-05

Brydon Coverdale01-May-2013George Bailey has conceded that he struggled with constantly changing formats last summer, which contributed to his least productive Sheffield Shield campaign since his maiden season in 2004-05. The international retirements of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey in the middle of 2012-13 left the selectors looking to Shield form to find batsmen for the Test tour of India and the Ashes, but Bailey managed only 256 runs at 18.28 in Tasmania’s successful campaign.A schedule packed with ODIs, Twenty20 internationals, Ryobi Cup matches, Big Bash League and Sheffield Shield cricket meant that from August last year until the Shield final in March, Bailey had to switch between formats 18 times. That is cricket’s equivalent of constant jet-lag, and even for a mature player like Bailey, that proved too great a challenge. It was his four-day cricket that suffered: he scored only one half-century in his eight Shield matches.”I struggled at different times with switching back through the formats,” Bailey said of his 2012-13 season. “That’s not an excuse, because I think every modern-day cricketer has to make those changes pretty regularly, but I just didn’t adjust to it very well. I certainly felt like I was going into Shield games with a one-day or Twenty20 mentality. It was certainly not a conscious thing, but just not having the awareness and ability to work out how to build your innings.”It was a blow to the Test aspirations of Bailey, who is highly regarded by John Inverarity’s selection panel and was on Wednesday named Michael Clarke’s vice-captain in Australia’s squad for the Champions Trophy. Bailey was appointed captain of Australia’s Twenty20 outfit in January last year and over the past 12 months has been the highest run scorer in the ODI team, but his presence in both the shorter formats for Australia has not helped his Shield form.However, he was far from the only experienced batsman who struggled in the Shield last summer, which has left the selectors scratching around for Test batting options. David Hussey, Adam Voges, Rob Quiney, Michael Klinger and Peter Forrest were among the others who failed to pass the 400-run mark in the Shield and, like Bailey, any of them could have forced their way into Ashes contention with a big summer.As it was, Chris Rogers managed to do so with a solid tally – Ricky Ponting, Mark Cosgrove, Rogers and Alex Doolan were the top four Shield run scorers for the season. The presence of three Tasmanians in that group helped the Tigers to win the Sheffield Shield but Bailey said it also led to him cruising through the campaign without having to hit top gear. Not since his debut season, when he scored 185 at 23.12, had he endured such a lean first-class season.”The way our top order was batting there was probably a little bit of complacency there,” Bailey said. “Batting behind Mark Cosgrove, who had a fantastic season, Alex Doolan, who is in great form, and the season that Ricky Ponting had, I reckon I just took my foot off the pedal a little bit and thought it was going to happen.”Quite often I was going to the crease in quite comfortable situations, where in the past I might have gone in under the pump a little bit and you’ve really got to be switched on. It was a really disappointing individual season, but having said that I probably wouldn’t change it for the world because it was such a great team season.”Although the Ashes opportunity has passed him by for the time being, Bailey has at least given himself a chance of strengthening his case for a mid-series call-up if a batsman is injured. He is in England for a two-month county stint with Hampshire and started with an innings of 93 against Leicestershire – higher than any Shield score he made over the past summer.”One of my fears was coming over here and feeling a bit lethargic or flat, coming straight from the end of one season and such a high to finish the year and straight back into it,” he said. “But it’s a different group of faces and a new challenge and the opportunity to rectify how my four-day cricket had been, with more consistent four-day games.”There are quite a few of them in a two-month period; I think I’m playing six or seven over the eight-week period. As soon as I landed here I was really excited and, touch wood, it has started really well thus far. I’m just really enjoying the challenge of playing in different conditions and getting back to working out how to build your innings and bat for long periods.”

A round-up of matches from the third weekend of Kenya’s new East African Cup and East Africa Elite League

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2011Much of the action took place off the field after eight national squad players boycotted last weekend’s matches in another row over central contracts. But this time Cricket Kenya took a hardline stance and refused to back down, leading to the eight seeking a meeting with the board on Friday. But the franchises took the initiative and told the players they had been dropped and would not be selected again this season, in effect scuppering any hopes they had of negotiating their way back into the Kenyan side.East Africa Premier LeagueRwenzori Warriors beat Rift Valley Rhinos in the meeting of the only two previously unbeaten teams, bowling out Rift for 77 and then knocking off the runs for the loss of five wickets with three overs to spare. Rift never recovered from collapsing to 3 for 3Nairobi Buffaloes moved second with a last-ball five-wicket victory over Nile Knights, Rajesh Varsani thumping a four with two needed for the win. Colins Obuya, who had reportedly received threats over his participation in the tournament while other former team-mates were striking, led the Nairobi innings with 55.Coast Pekee’s made it five losses in as many games as they only managed 95 for 6 in their 20 overs – Dominic Wesonga the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 15 – and Kongonis strolled to a six-wicket win with seven overs in hand, Duncan Allan celebrating his call-up to the national team with 51.East African CupKongonis moved top of the table, beating tournament whipping boys Coast Pekee by 70 runs (D/L). Kongonis overcame a middle-order collapse which saw them slip from 58 for 1 to 64 for 4, eventually posting 219 for 8. Weather interventions left Pekee chasing 149 from 23 overs, a target which proved well beyond them as they limped to 78 for 6.Nile Knights were left frustrated after rain washed out their match against Nairobi Buffaloes with them in a strong position. Ugandan international Arthur Kyobe scored 123 off 100 balls to steer the Knights to 261, and in reply the Buffaloes were wobbling on 55 for 4 from 17.4 overs when the rain came.Rwenzori Warriors, who are finding the 50-over game a tougher prospect, finally recorded their first win, beating Rift Valley Rhinos by five wickets. The Rhinos lost their way after starting well, losing their last nine wickets for 90 as they were bowled out for 137. The Warriors needed fewer than half their allocation of overs to knock off the runs.

Days after revealing their romantic reunion, Alisha Lehmann and Douglas Luiz gave gaming enthusiasts an amusing glimpse of their life at home.

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Douglas Luiz plays marathon Call of Duty sessionGirlfriend Lehmann tells him to finish playingPair reunited after year-long splitGetty & Twitch.tv/DGoficial6WHAT HAPPENED?

The Brazilian took advantage of a free midweek to engage with fans on Twitch over a game of . But as any gamer knows, times can slip away quickly when you are engrossed in the game and after two-and-a-half hours of action, Lehmann appeared to tell boyfriend and fellow Aston Villa star Douglas Luiz it was time to wrap it up.

AdvertisementTwitch.tv/DGoficial6WHAT DOUGLAS LUIZ SAID

Douglas Luiz was lamenting a defeat when Lehmann reminded him how late it was. Suddenly switching from Portuguese to English the Brazilian insisted: "I'm going now. I'm finished now." He then asked Lehmann to say goodnight to his viewers.

The pair shared a brief kiss before Lehmann won the day and Douglas Luiz finally logged off.

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The clip serves as further confirmation that Douglas Luiz and Lehmann are back together. The Swiss international's glamourous New Years Day social media posts hinted heavily that pair were back together after their split in November 2022.

Lehmann had also popped up earlier in the evening while Douglas Luiz was gaming away, saying a quick hello to those following his adventures.

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WHAT NEXT FOR DOUGLAS LUIZ AND ALISHA LEHMANN?

Both of Villa's glamour couple are gearing up to face Everton this weekend. Douglas Luiz will be looking to keep Villa's surprise Premier League title charge going at Goodison Park on Sunday. Lehmann, meanwhile will face the Toffees in the FA Women's Cup fourth round on Saturday.

The Bangladesh Premier League will collapse if its franchises cannot survive, the league’s governing council chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain has warned

Mohammad Isam16-Aug-2012The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will collapse if its franchises cannot survive, the league’s governing council chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain has warned. He also admitted that mistakes were made during the inaugural season and that the league may have been born out of emotional impulses, but promised to correct the errors in the next season.The BPL remains in the headlines six months after it began – for all the wrong reasons. The most talked-about of its troubles has been the unpaid players’ wages, with the franchises missing three deadlines between May and July despite reminders in private by the BCB and publicly by national captain Mushfiqur Rahim during the tournament and by FICA afterwards. The cricket board has now stepped in as guarantor and begun paying players over the past few months, as well as handling tax issues that have been raised regularly by the National Board of Revenue.Ashraf accepts the criticism, terming it a “costly mistake” by the league to rely so heavily for sponsorship on companies that are first-time participants in an event of this scale. The main problems seem to have been a lack of knowledge in selecting players and in drawing up a budget.”There was no time for second thought but the finality of the situation dawned on us when they [the franchises] started to brand their jerseys, and it occurred to us that there could be a problem,” Ashraf told ESPNcricinfo. “It was the first time and people learn from their mistakes, but it was a costly mistake.”We are now considering issues which we should have thought of before the tournament. I won’t deny that we made mistakes, and I think emotions ruled over our actual ability to stage the tournament. In the second edition, we’ll try to create a win-win situation for players and teams. If teams aren’t sustained, the tournament will collapse and along with it will go the cricket standards and players’ futures.”Despite being the guarantor, the BCB doesn’t have a formal contract with the franchises, which partly explains the board’s delay in paying players after the tournament. The first season was based firmly on the verbal assurances, but Ashraf says that is changing.”The agreements are ready, and as far as I know, many of the franchises are ready to sign it. They are our functioning partners so, taking the BCB’s role as guarantor in paying players into account, we will come into an agreement with those who have completed all financial formalities,” he said.The larger problem is the additional burden of the Dhaka Premier League, a very popular domestic one-day tournament in which 50-odd foreigners turn up for the different Dhaka clubs each season. “I have doubts over the ability to pull such a large amount of money for two tournaments in the same season from one market, given that the DPL is also an attractive competition for players,” Ashraf said.Part of BPL’s problem was the haste with which the tournament was put together. The window in the international calendar in February was incentive enough to go with it, but that meant there were major hitches. Game On Sports, the event management company that bought the rights to run the show for $44.3 million, had little time, human resources and experience to deal with the logistics. They depended heavily on the governing council which, according to Ashraf, wasn’t very well prepared to handle such an event.”It took some time to [settle] ourselves. We took a month or two to form committees, so time was short afterwards,” he said. “But one of the main reasons that drove us [to go ahead with the tournament] was the window we got. We wanted to take advantage of it as a lot of international players were available. We also had the 2012 World Twenty20 in mind for our players.”This time round, though, a window – February 2013 – in the Bangladesh domestic calendar has already been allocated to the the BPL, giving the tournament’s governing council more time to take control.

Virender Sehwag has said R Ashwin had warned Lahiru Thirimanne before running him out for backing up too much before the ball was bowled

Sidharth Monga at the Gabba21-Feb-2012Virender Sehwag has said R Ashwin had warned Lahiru Thirimanne before running him out for backing up too much before the ball was bowled. In the 40th over of the Sri Lanka innings, Ashwin ran the non-striker Thirimanne out, a dismissal that is called – perhaps uncharitably to the former India allrounder – Mankading.The umpires asked India if they wanted to reconsider the appeal and Sehwag, captaining in the absence of MS Dhoni, withdrew the appeal. It was withdrawn, Sehwag said, “because if we appealed and umpire gave him out, then somebody will criticise that, you know, that was not spirit of the game”. Sehwag was asked if it was not soft to let the batsman off even after the warning. “It’s soft, but that’s the way we are,” he said.Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, said he was not aware of the warning. When told what Sehwag had to say about Ashwin’s warning in the previous over, Jayawardene said the warning should have been official. “I don’t know,” Jayawardene said. “Then it’s… he should warn him through the umpires. You need to ask the umpires if he was warned.”The warning, to be fair to Jayawardene, was not a conspicuous one. It wasn’t spotted on TV, nor did Ashwin pull out of a delivery before the actual taking off the bails. However, to be fair to Sehwag and Ashwin, this need not be the kind of official warning that umpires make to bowlers for running onto the danger area. So it is possible that Ashwin had indeed warned Thirimanne beforehand, but that was not spotted by those watching.However, this only makes it more curious as to why India withdrew the appeal. “Everybody was discussing it, but the umpires called me and I said, ‘We can give him one more warning but if he does it again we will [run him out] because that’s the ICC rule’,” Sehwag said. “If somebody is taking an early start, then the bowlers have the full right to run him out.”The ICC had become more strict in this ruling last year – allowing bowlers to “Mankad” somebody any time before releasing the ball as opposed to the earlier rule where you had to do it before entering your delivery stride – to keep the batsmen from gaining unfair advantage. It even falls under Law 42, which deals with fair and unfair play. Sehwag, though, had no problem with the umpires consulting between themselves and asking the captain to reconsider the appeal, despite the law being clear on it.”I think he [Paul Reiffel, the umpire] went to Billy Bowden. Billy Bowden is the senior umpire, and he asked him, and they discussed, and they called me, and they said, ‘It’s your call now. If you appeal, we can give him out’. So I took the decision that okay, we can give him one more warning.”There were suggestions that it was Sachin Tendulkar who persuaded Sehwag to withdraw the appeal, but Sehwag said it was his own decision. Either way, Jayawardene said he wouldn’t have even appealed. “I don’t play like that,” he said.However, Jayawardene admitted that Thirimanne was at fault. “The rules have changed, I know, to try to make sure there is no advantage given to the batsman,” Jayawardene said. “I probably felt there was a little bit of fault in our guy as well in trying to do that, to be honest. But I mean, end of the day, spirit of the game was the winner.”Sticking with the popular opinion, Jayawardene said that it was “nice and clean” to not run a batsman out who is technically indulging in unfair play. “I wouldn’t have got the bails off in the first place, to be honest,” he said. “Try and keep it nice and clean, and tell the umpires to try and keep an eye on the guy. But if he still keeps doing it regularly, and if he is taking advantage, yes then, but I think they did the right thing in the middle. The seniors got together. Like I said, let’s move on.”Thirimanne, though, kept backing up too far even after the let-off. He was careful with Ashwin, but with Vinay Kumar and Irfan Pathan, he kept taking the liberty. Why didn’t those bowlers try something similar? “Because they were not aware,” Sehwag said. “You have to be aware. Ashwin was aware, and I was aware when I was bowling. You have to be aware when the non-striker is taking a start.”