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“We are incredibly proud to play at Lord’s, [but] it’s not a pinnacle event,” says Ireland performance director

Matt Roller26-May-2023When Ireland walk out at Lord’s on Thursday to play only their seventh men’s Test match, they will do so without their best bowler.
Josh Little is yet to make his Test debut but has thrived in one-day and T20 cricket, and would have been among the first names on Ireland’s teamsheet. But, to the frustration of many Ireland supporters, he is not available for selection.Little has spent most of the last two months in India, becoming the first active Ireland player to feature in the IPL. His contract with Gujarat Titans is worth INR 4.4 crore (€500,000 approx.) – around six times the value of his Ireland central contract – and he played in eight of their 14 group games, missing three to play an ODI series against Bangladesh.And while Ireland are determined to put up a good show at Lord’s, they have opted to give Little the week off in order to ensure he arrives at next month’s 50-over World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe – and July’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in Scotland – feeling fresh after a long winter playing franchise and international cricket around the world.Related

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“Josh asked us initially if he could have a period of rest ahead of the World Cup Qualifier,” explained Richard Holdsworth, Cricket Ireland’s performance director. “Our management team and the selectors discussed that issue in detail and were amicably in agreement that actually, that was in the best interests of Josh and the team.”We are incredibly proud to go and play against England and at Lord’s. It’s a special occasion,” Holdsworth said. “However, it’s not a pinnacle event. And where we have to put our energies and ensure we have the best team on the park is in our pinnacle events.”Going to a World Cup Qualifier where only 10 teams [two from the Qualifier] can qualify for that World Cup, that is still the biggest prize in the game as far as we’re concerned, and certainly as far as the world game is concerned.”Cricket Ireland’s decision has caused some disquiet. “I’d say there are people who are not happy with that,” Andy Balbirnie, Ireland’s captain, told ESPNcricinfo. “There’ll be a lot of people at Lord’s, and there won’t be a lot of people in Zimbabwe or Scotland [for the Qualifiers].”And Lord’s, for an Irish supporter, is fairytale stuff. People in Ireland, I think, got their love of cricket from listening to Test Match Special and watching cricket on Channel Four – like myself – in the nineties and early 2000s. It was always England Tests – and now we’re the team playing on TMS.”If you’re an Irish cricket fan, you’re like, ‘This is amazing, this is dreamland stuff.’ So naturally you’d be like, ‘Why aren’t we playing our best team when they’re not injured?’ But there’s a bigger picture: we understand that the Qualifiers are where we need to be at our best. There’s probably a few moans and groans about it but I think for us – and for Josh – it’s the best thing.”Little has already missed all three of Ireland’s Tests this year – one in Bangladesh, two in Sri Lanka – in order to fulfil his Titans commitments, but Balbirnie said that he had “no issue” with him missing international fixtures to play in the IPL if it had long-term benefits for Irish cricket.”Naturally, I would love to have him next week. I’m not saying I wouldn’t,” Balbirnie said. “But I have no issue with him playing in the IPL; if anything, I want him to be there. I want him on that stage because it’s good for Irish cricket, it’s good for our players.”In the space of a year, he’s gone from not really on the IPL radar to potentially being in the winning squad. It’s good for the people below him – the young players – because they can strive to be the next Josh Little. The knock-down effect it has is far more important than whether he plays the Test match at Lord’s.”Holdsworth added that, without any red-ball preparation behind him, Little might struggle to manage the physical demands of Test cricket: “The majority of the cricket he has been playing is T20 and bowling four overs is not good enough to prepare any cricketer to play Test cricket, where they could be bowling 20-plus overs a day and maybe for two innings.”We didn’t feel physically he was actually going to be ready for that having had no preparation for that Test match. His preparation was literally going to be coming out of the IPL and arriving a couple of days before the Test match.”Instead, Ireland will go into the Test with a depleted seam attack – with Barry McCarthy and Conor Olphert both unavailable through injury. They are preparing with a three-day, first-class warm-up match at Chelmsford, against an Essex side which features four of their own squad members.

The series had been in doubt after Zimbabwe were suspended, but a late confirmation from Zimbabwe Cricket has kept it alive

Mohammad Isam07-Aug-2019Zimbabwe are set to play in a T20I tri-series in Bangladesh – with Afghanistan as the third team – next month, which will be their first assignment since the ICC suspended them last month. The series was part of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) schedule for the 2019-20 season, and they waited till Wednesday evening for confirmation from Zimbabwe Cricket. The series was meant to have given Zimbabwe preparation for the World T20 qualifiers later this year from which they were removed on Tuesday.Bangladesh’s 2019-20 home season will open with their maiden Test against Afghanistan, in Chattogram from September 5 to 9, before they play the tri-series from September 13 to 24. The double-league phase will be played in Dhaka and Chattogram, with the final to be held in Dhaka on September 24.”We are holding the tri-series as planned,” said BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury. “We had to wait till now for them to confirm their participation. The ICC has clearly stated that they are allowed to play against member boards.”ESPNcricinfo has learned that additional ODIs against Zimbabwe, following the T20I tri-series, have not been ruled out by the BCB. These matches, or even a single ODI, could well be Mashrafe Mortaza’s farewell from international cricket, but talks of a fitting send-off are still on within the BCB.

Baig and Raza blaze with the bat to extend Gladiators’ disastrous campaign

Danyal Rasool21-Feb-2023Quetta Gladiators’ campaign continues to leap from one disaster to the next. Hours after it was confirmed their Platinum pick, Sri Lankan allrounder Wanindu Hasaranga, would miss the entire PSL, they turned in a wretched performance against a ruthless Lahore Qalandars, succumbing to a 63-run defeat. The 2019 champions were never in the chase of 199 against the defending champions, and the lopsided scorecard didn’t flatter Gladiators in the slightest.It was Shaheen Shah Afridi who spearheaded his side with the ball, knocking Gladiators out of the contest early on in the chase, and sometimes, knocking batters quite literally off their feet. Unplayable inswinging yorkers stung the toes of several top-order batters; one saw Jason Roy end up flat on his stomach. There was, of course, the mandatory first-over wicket, Abdul Bangalzai dismissed for a golden duck. There was a sensational diving catch from him to get rid of Mohammad Hafeez. There was a lovely deception of pace that fooled Odean Smith all ends up. It was a Shaheen Afridi masterclass.Haris Rauf had an off day, but aside from him, there was no aspect of this Qalandars bowling line-up that wasn’t on song. Rashid Khan, playing his first game this year, was at his masterful best, having shaken off a poor spell in the SA20. It was his wicket of Roy, who scored a 30-ball 48 laced with 5 sixes, that snuffed out realistic hopes of a chase, and figures of 4-0-17-1 were well merited. Even David Wiese found himself among the wickets, taking 3 for 23 in his full quota. Brief flashes of resistance from Gladiators’ batters were precisely that, and the outcome was a foregone conclusion long before the final delivery was bowled.Signs of the direction this game was headed in were evident from the outset when Tahir Baig and Fakhar Zaman got Gladiators off to a blazing start. Mohammad Hafeez opened the bowling for the Gladiators, and Baig immediately went after him, clobbering him for two fours and a six in that first over. Even Naseem Shah – who was off-colour – wouldn’t be spared, with Baig picking up two boundaries on either side of square in the powerplay.The partnership had flown along to 49 in 27 balls before Fakhar nicked off to the keeper. But Qalandars continued in that vein throughout, a 56-run stand between Shai Hope and Kamran Ghulam forming the backbone of the middle overs. A cameo from Hussain Talat and an unbeaten late flurry from Sikandar Raza, who smashed 32 in 16, ensured Gladiators were never quite able to find breathing room, powerless to prevent Gladiators from surging towards 200.Well, with one notable exception. Mohammad Hasnain was heroic in defeat against Peshawar Zalmi 24 hours earlier, and today would be an encore. He was sensational once more, particularly at the death, mixing up the lengths and speeds expertly, the only bowler who was truly able to stop Lahore in their tracks. Bar his two death overs, which allowed just 14 runs, Qalandars’ score, as well as Gladiators’ margin of defeat, would have been much greater.Tonight’s game looks to have demonstrated that Qalandars’ defeat against Karachi Kings was an aberration, while Gladiators’ showing only appeared to confirm their victory against that same opposition was exactly that, too.

Bangladesh’s stand-in captain, however, was relieved to have scored a hundred and broken a lean run with the bat in Test cricket

Mohammad Isam15-Nov-2018As Bangladesh’s stand-in captain, Mahmudullah has had some interesting post-match reactions. After the 215-run loss to Sri Lanka in February, he defended the batsmen’s attacking approach. After the 151-run loss in Sylhet last week, Mahmudullah questioned the same approach. Now, after Bangladesh’s first Test win in 2018, which was orchestrated by a strong first-innings batting performance, he felt his team had found a template for success in Test cricket.”One must be happy winning a Test match,” Mahmudullah said. “I think we have the right to be happy. We feel really bad in the dressing room when we lose. Nobody sees our tears. We don’t tell anyone. There’s no need for comparison, whether it is happiness or relief.”If we keep playing like we did in the first Test, we shouldn’t be playing Test cricket. But we should be playing if we see our performance in this game, and the mentality we showed.”Mahmudullah did, however, concede that sharing the trophy with Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza was tough. Given that Bangladesh were playing at home, he said that the aim was always to win the series 2-0.”I think we played poorly in the first Test,” he said. “We always try to win the home series, whether we are playing against Zimbabwe or Australia. Our target was to win both matches in this series, so it was tough sharing the Test series trophy.”But there was relief for Mahmudullah on the personal front – he made his first Test hundred after nearly nine years, an unbeaten third-innings 101 off 122 balls.”I am a bit relieved,” he said. “I hadn’t performed well in the last five Tests. I was struggling in this format. A captain has to perform from the front, so I wanted to add value to my position. I want to be more consistent in this format, and contribute more for the team.”Mahmudullah also hoped the confidence of the rest of the batting unit would return, after their best Test in 10 months. Mushfiqur Rahim made a record-breaking, unbeaten 219 and Mominul Haque reached his third 150-plus score. Mohammad Mithun and Mehidy Hasan also made fifties.”It is a good comeback ahead of the West Indies series,” Mahmudullah said. “Not everyone will do well all the time. Sometimes the top order will make runs, sometimes the middle order. Everyone is trying from their position. I think our batsmen would have gained some confidence from this game, having been a worry for some time.”Bangladesh’s focus now shifts towards their next opponents, West Indies, who hammered them 2-0 in the Test series in the Caribbean in July. Mahmudullah said the upcoming series would be different, especially for the visitors’ fast bowlers in Bangladeshi conditions, though he felt their recent tour of India would have helped their preparation.”We know West Indies’ fast bowlers, since we have played them a few months ago,” he said. “There will always be some difference between pitches in Bangladesh and West Indies. Playing in India must be helpful for them. They are a good side. We have to be prepared, physically and mentally, for tough cricket. It is still different conditions here. We can have positive results if we can use our conditions.”

Only 48.4 overs were possible, with New Zealand on 14 for 1 in reply to Bangladesh’s 157 for 7 when the game was called off

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2022No result Rain had the final say in Napier as the second women’s ODI between New Zealand and Bangladesh was washed out after 48.1 overs of play.Batting first, after rain had reduced the contest to a 44-overs-a-side affair, Bangladesh batted through to reach 157 for 7. In reply, New Zealand lost their captain Sophie Devine to a run-out before the clouds opened up after just 4.1 overs and eventually forced an abandonment.Bangladesh lost Dilara Akter in the fifth over of their innings to Hayley Jensen, but Sharmin Akhter and Fargana Hoque provided some much-needed resistance. The two held fort for 13.5 overs, adding 36 runs for the second wicket, before Hannah Rowe got rid of Sharmin for 16. Her wicket resulted in a mini collapse as Bangladesh lost Hoque and Lata Mondal, both falling to Fran Jonas, followed by Nigar Sultana.Ritu Moni and Fahima Khatun then dug in. They stitched a 49-run stand for the sixth wicket. Moni top-scored with 32, hitting a six and a four in her innings, while Fahima scored 25. The two fell in the space of three balls late in the innings, but made sure Bangladesh played out their quota of overs.New Zealand lead the three-match ODI series 1-0 after taking the opening game by eight wickets. They had earlier swept the T20I series 3-0. The third and final ODI will take place in Hamilton on Saturday.

Renegades fought back from a poor start to the chase but the target was always out of reach

AAP30-Oct-2022A rejuvenated Alyssa Healy blasted the Sydney Sixers to a comprehensive 37-run victory over the Melbourne Renegades in Ballarat and to the top of the WBBL points table.Healy thumped three sixes in her 78 off 54 balls while fellow opener Suzie Bates crunched 66 off 47 to steer the Sixers to 3 for 188 at Eastern Oval.Healy, who entered the fixture with just 53 runs at 10.60 this season, combined with Bates for a match-winning 151-run first-wicket stand, before both fell to Renegades captain Sophie Molineux.Bates was grassed twice before finally holing out to Shabnim Ismail on the deep midwicket boundary, before Molineux struck again two balls later, bowling Healy around her legs.But Molineux’s double-strike failed to slow Sixers, who plundered 36 off the last three overs, through Ash Gardner, Erin Burns and captain Ellyse Perry.”It was nice to spend some time out there,” Healy said. “I’ve been waiting seven years to have a really good partnership with Suzie Bates.”The fact we could do that today and get our team off to a good start was really pleasing. I’ve been praying to some sort of higher power for a bit of luck and I got it today.”Renegades’ unlikely pursuit of the imposing target started poorly when English spinner Sophie Ecclestone, the world’s No.1 T20 bowler, sent Hayley Matthews and Courtney Webb packing early.When Lauren Cheatle enticed Molineux to Stella Campbell at mid-off, the hosts were reeling at 5 for 38, before a WBBL record sixth-wicket stand of 81 off 52 balls between Carly Leeson and Rhiann O’Donnell gave them an unlikely sniff.They were aided by a burst of shoddy bowling from Sixers after the drinks break, with Campbell sending down five straight wides to concede 22 off the 11th over and Perry carted for 24 off the 13th.Perry made amends with a spectacular, high-leaping catch at cover to send O’Donnell packing, ending Renegades’ resistance.

India’s captain also conceded that his players were “a little poor in the field” and “gave too many chances”

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Oct-2022South Africa needed 25 from 18 balls with six wickets in hand when India captain Rohit Sharma decided to bring R Ashwin on for his final over.The Perth surface had assisted fast bowlers throughout the game, but India had one over of spin left to squeeze in. David Miller took advantage of that and hit Ashwin’s first two balls for two sixes to all but seal the game.Related

• Ngidi, Parnell, Markram, Miller lead South Africa past India

While Ashwin trapped Tristan Stubbs lbw with his fourth ball, his over left South Africa needing a run-a-ball 12 off the last two overs, which Miller and Wayne Parnell knocked off with two balls to spare.After the game, Rohit said his decision to give Ashwin the 18th over was influenced by how spinners had fared in the final over at the 2022 T20 World Cup. In India’s opening game, Pakistan left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz had failed to stop India from scoring the 16 runs they required to win.”I have seen what happens in the last over with spinners, so I just wanted to go the other way and see if I could finish Ash and not keep him for the last over,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation. “I just wanted to make sure that the seamers were bowling the right overs but honestly, when you have options like that, you have to use them at some point. I thought given the new batter [Stubbs] came in, it was a perfect time for him to bowl. But things like that can happen. Miller played some good shots as well.”Ashwin finished with figures of 1 for 43 from his four overs, at an economy rate of 10.75. He was hit for four sixes and was the most expensive bowler on either side. After the match, Aiden Markram was asked if South Africa had pre-decided to attack Ashwin.”I think naturally that’s how our game would pan out when the seamers are all that difficult to get away,” Markram said. “We expected them to take on Keshav [Maharaj]. I’m sure they expected us to take on Ashwin as well, just because of the nature of the wicket, because the seamers were so difficult to get away.Rohit: “We gave too many chances on the field and we were not quite clinical”•Getty Images

“It almost got to a stage where we had to target someone because they bowled so well initially in the first ten overs up until the drinks break. It got to the stage where we had to pick someone. It could be anyone on any night. And sometimes you execute, sometimes you don’t.”You pick those match-ups according to who you’re most comfortable against on the night. You get to different conditions and those match-ups would change completely. Yeah, it was a discussion we had at the drinks break to pick one of the bowlers and commit to that, and if it comes off, then it might give us a chance.”Earlier, India scored 133 for 9 on a fast, bouncy surface before having South Africa 40 for 3 after ten overs. They had a couple of opportunities to press home the advantage but Virat Kohli put down Markram in the 12th over. In the next over, Rohit missed a run-out chance that could have sent Miller back. Markram and Miller made India pay for their mistakes, adding 76 off 60 balls to shift the momentum.”Honestly, when you see that score [40 for 3], you will always think you are in the game because the pitch is such that a wicket can come at any time for the seamers,” Rohit said. “But I felt that was a match-winning partnership from their perspective from Markram and Miller.”We were a little poor in the field as well. We gave too many chances on the field and we were not quite clinical. We have played in such [cold] conditions before so that was not an excuse at all. We were not just good enough.”The last two games we played, we were pretty good in the field and we want to continue to be consistent in that department. But unfortunately we couldn’t hold our chances, a few run-outs we missed, including myself. But we need to keep our heads high and think about what’s coming for us and take learnings from this game, what we need to do in games like that.”

A majority of county chairmen want the Blast to be expanded as part of the changes to English professional cricket from 2020

Matt Roller21-Aug-2018The Vitality Blast group stage could be extended from 14 to 16 games because county chairmen are lobbying to rid the competition of its existing uneven format and maximise revenue in the process.Since 2014, each side has played seven home games in the group stages, meaning that they miss out on hosting one team, and counties are pushing for change both for competitive and commercial reasons.The change would likely come into effect for the 2020 season, when the Blast will become the secondary short-form competition in English domestic cricket after the introduction of The Hundred.ESPNCricinfo understands that the vast majority of counties would support a change to eight home games per season, with a majority of 12 required.For commercial reasons, the game counties miss is not identified as one of their most lucrative with derby matches gaining particular protection.For example, Middlesex play their London derby against Surrey home and away every year, but have missed a home fixture against Glamorgan and Kent every other year since the current format’s introduction.Other traditional rivalries – Lancashire v Yorkshire, Gloucestershire v Somerset, and Sussex v Hampshire – are also played twice every season.The group stage of the domestic twenty-over competition did last 16 games in its previous guise as the Friends Life T20 in 2010 and 2011, when the schedule was widely criticised for being too long. Some games were played in front of extremely sparse midweek crowds in those seasons.However, attendances have continued to rise in recent seasons – over 900,000 people went to a domestic T20 game in 2017 – and counties are keen to host an additional game each.There had been suggestions that the Blast’s group stage would be cut to 10 games, with three groups of six instead of two groups of nine, from 2020 onwards, but it is unlikely that such a change would find support among counties for whom T20 cricket is a vital source of income.The Blast would start in mid-May – around six weeks earlier than it did this year – and run through to mid-July, with the One Day Cup expected to follow, running alongside the Hundred.One competition must suffer a fall in standard when The Hundred raids the country’s best players for the eight-team format and the working party set up to make proposals as to the structure of the game, under the chairmanship of Leicestershire chief executive Wasim Khan, seems poised to conclude that the 50-over competition should take the hit.Meanwhile, the prospect of a conference format being introduced for the County Championship is understood to have diminished sharply.It had previously been reported that counties backed the idea of removing the current system of promotion and relegation in favour of three groups of six followed by play-offs between teams in different groups, but support for the idea has waned.

Amla said the visitors need are a ‘couple of good partnerships’ in the fourth innings to offset Sri Lanka’s eventual target

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle13-Jul-2018Get your defence in order, but when the ball is there to hit, make sure you score. That’s Hashim Amla’s advice to himself and his team-mates after an abysmal second day, in which they found themselves 51 for 6 at one stage, before eventually crashing to 126 all out. As is often the case in Galle, the spinners have ruled, and the ball is pouncing off the dusty surface.The conditions are difficult, but as Dimuth Karunaratne has proved with 218 runs in the match, the surface is not quite unplayable. Amla wants to emulate Karunaratne a little, as South Africa contemplate a mammoth task in the second innings. They are already 272 runs in arrears, and Sri Lanka still have six second-innings wickets left.”If a couple of us have a good partnership and one of us plays like Karunaratne played, that would get us close to that score,” Amla said. “You’ve got to have a decent defence to keep out the good ball, and you’ve got to look to score. You’ve got to marry the two as best as possible, with an element of fortune here and there, to get good results.”Although South Africa were bowled out in less than 55 overs, there was no shortage of application from South Africa’s batsmen, Amla said. The scoreline, for him, was largely a result of the conditions. South Africa had faced similar spin challenges in India, in 2015, and had lost that series 3-0. But even having been through that experience, Amla did not fault the batsmen’s approach.”The way that everybody played, I think they applied themselves as best as they can,” Amla said. “Batters from both teams found it difficult to bat, barring one or two batters – Karunaratne batted exceptionally well, which basically got them to their score in the first innings. Into the second innings, you’ve got to keep playing with good intent and learning. We’ve played in conditions like this before, and they are low scoring games. You don’t get scores of 350, 400 or 550. These are scores of 250, 200 – that type of thing. You do take some learning from the first innings, but you’ve got to play the way the pitch allows you to play.”Amla, though stopped short of suggesting that the Galle surface favoured spin unfairly. When Sri Lanka had last toured South Africa, captain Faf du Plessis had spoken publicly about producing surfaces that neutralised Rangana Herath. The conditions in Galle were roughly what South Africa had expected, Amla said.”When you play in South Africa, you get the balls that beat the bat from the seamers – the ball nips around. Here you get the ball that turns and bounces and gets the edge, and you miss as well. It’s always going to be home ground advantage. Sri Lanka has more quality spinners. That’s how it is.”

Court to allow consecutive two consecutive terms of three years at BCCI and state separately

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Sep-2022The Supreme Court has relaxed the cooling-off period rule in the BCCI constitution, which will allow the current set of office-bearers led by board president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to stand for re-election for another term, until 2025. A two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli passed orders to this effect on Wednesday – the formal judgement has not yet been made public -modifying its 2018 judgement.The court agreed to tweaking the existing rule on the cooling-off period by allowing an office bearer to hold office for two terms at one place – the state association or BCCI – while removing the clause of combination of both. Ganguly and Shah had already served one term each at the state and BCCI levels and would have been disqualified under the existing rule. They can now serve an additional term at the BCCI.In 2018, the BCCI adopted a newly drafted constitution, which was finalised post the court’s judgement by Justice Chandrachud, that an office bearer who has held any post for two consecutive terms (six years) either at a state association or in the BCCI, or a combination of both, shall not be eligible to contest any further election without completing a cooling-off period of three years. During the cooling-off period, the person cannot serve in any capacity at both the BCCI or state level.In 2019, the BCCI administration approached the court seeking several significant amendments to the board’s constitution, which if approved by the court would roll back the sweeping reforms passed by the court in 2016 on the basis of the RM Lodha Committee recommendations. The changes sought by the BCCI comprised: tweaking the cooling-off period of the board’s office bearers, modifying the disqualification criteria, giving unprecedented powers to the BCCI secretary, and stopping the court from having any say if the board wants to alter the constitution.In its 2019 plea, the BCCI said the existing cooling-off period was a “restriction”, which was “proving to be a big blow to selecting talented and experienced hands”. The BCCI said the cooling-off period must be applied only after the individual has finished six years at one place – the BCCI or the state association, separately.That clause, it said, would be applicable to its two most senior office bearers: the president and secretary. As for the three remaining office bearers – treasurer, joint-secretary and vice-president – the BCCI said those three should be allowed to finish the maximum tenure of nine years (three terms), instead of having to take the three-year break after two consecutive terms (six years) in the job.”Existing position is by using the word combination, even if you have done one term in state and one term in BCCI then you are out,” Justice Chandrachud said in the hearing. “But what we are proposing is that if you have done six years at the state level then you are subject to a three-year cooling-off period (at state). If you have not done six years at the same level then you are not subject to a cooling-off period.”Justice Chandrachud said another “format” the court could “possibly consider” was “a person can be a member at the most for two consecutive terms either at the state or at the BCCI. But if you have two completed two consecutive terms each of three years at the state and BCCI then you must have a cooling-off period of three years. That is two different proposals. Our first proposal was three in state, six in the BCCI (or) six in the state three in the BCCI, after which cooling-off period will apply.”Second, we are giving a more liberal thing: you can do six in the state, you can then immediately do six in the BCCI because they are two different levels. But after completing two consecutive terms at two different levels then take a break of three years.”Justice Chandrachud also said that once the person had finished six years at one place – state or BCCI – he could not return to the same for three years. And in case the person had finished 12 years at a stretch – six each at state and BCCI – he could not return for a period of three years to either.Justice Chandrachud pointed out that these were his observations at this stage before he and Justice Kohli put out the order. Both justices agreed that such an approach would be more “balanced”.If the court does pass the same in its judgement, that would allow the current BCCI office bearers to continue for another term of three years. It was in October 2019 that former India captain Ganguly was elected as BCCI president and Shah, who is the son of India Home Minister Amit Shah, as secretary. Arun Dhumal, brother of former BCCI president Anurag Thakur, who is also the Indian Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, was elected as BCCI treasurer while Jayesh George took charge as joint secretary.The BCCI is due for fresh elections, which was originally scheduled for the end of this month, but eventually postponed as the board wanted to wait for the court take a call on the amendments sought.Justice Chandrachud added the main reason for having a cooling-off period was to avoid any “vested interests” because “you don’t form a clique with undesirable elements for undesirable purposes.” He said that it was “too stringent” to ask the office bearer to take a three-year break if he had served six years through a combination of state and BCCI or served just six years at state level or BCCI level.Justice Chandrachud said that while he had the “highest respect” for the RM Lodha Committee which had recommended originally a cooling-off period of three years after every single term of three years for an office bearer or administrator, he felt it was important to remember the court was “regulating affairs” as an autonomous body and it was important to give BCCI “sufficient” freedom “so long as they are not defeating the purpose” of the judgement.”The (court’s) object is to prevent undesirable monopolies in cricket or in any sports association. You have to balance two things – you have to balance to need for continuity with the need for to ensure there are no undesirable affiliations. Instead of having two terms at two different levels (BCCI and state) as a bar, one term at two different levels as a bar, we are saying that you can’t have more than two terms at one level.”