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Mudassar Nazar was UAE’s previous head coach on an interim basis

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2024Former India international Lalchand Rajput has been appointed head coach of UAE for a three-year term, taking over from interim head coach Mudassar Nazar.Rajput has previous experience of managing India during their title win in the 2007 T20 World Cup, and also coached Afghanistan when they received Test status in 2017. Most recently, he was Zimbabwe’s head coach from 2018 to 2022.”UAE has emerged as one of the stronger Associate Members in recent years and the players have put in some good performances in both ODIs and T20Is,” Rajput said in a statement from the Emirates Cricket Board. “The current batch is exceptionally talented and I look forward to working with them and further harnessing their cricket skills.”Rajput’s first assignment will be to oversee UAE’s League 2 tri-series campaign against Scotland and Canada starting February 28, a qualifying competition for the 2027 ODI World Cup. He takes charge of a team that most recently lost a T20I series 2-1 to Afghanistan.In November, UAE also lost their chance of making it to the 2024 T20 World Cup by losing to Nepal in the semi-final of the Asia-Pacific qualifiers.”We are confident that under his coaching UAE men’s cricket will flourish further,” Mubashshir Usmani – ECB general secretary said. “I also want to take this opportunity to thank Mudassar Nazar for his stellar work as the interim head coach. Mudassar will now return to his role as Head of the National Academy Programme where he will continue to identify and groom our future stars.”

Here’s how ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary recorded his stunning cameo

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Apr-202419.1 Nortje to Shepherd, FOUR runs
Shepherd gets going now. Slower back of a length ball off, he flat bats it past the bowler, past the stumps and rockets into the fence between long-on and long-off19.2 Nortje to Shepherd, SIX runs
What a hit! Slower length ball outside off, he stands tall and deposits the ball flat and hard over long-on19.3 Nortje to Shepherd, SIX runs
WALLOPED! Length ball on middle stump, he hopped across and sends it soaring miles, miles over deep square leg19.4 Nortje to Shepherd, SIX runs
THREE IN THREE! Offcutter dug into the pitch outside off, he backs away, generates all the pace and thrashes him over deep cover19.5 Nortje to Shepherd, FOUR runs
FOUR MORE! Fuller and on pace on the stumps. Shepherd backs and powers it straight back past the bowler. He’s hit that so hard that there is no chance for long-on to get across19.6 Nortje to Shepherd, SIX runs
Thirty two runs off that last over. What a finish for Mumbai! What bat speed Shepherd is generating, what power! He finishes on 39 off 10 balls. Fuller on middle and leg, he clears his back leg and flicks it powerfully over long-on

He helped Australia pille up 196 before Scotland were bowled out for 126 with Stoinis and Green picking up a combined 6 for 39

Karthik Krishnaswamy06-Sep-2024In conditions where every other batter from both sides struggled for timing, Josh Inglis struck the ball with remarkable fluency on his way to the fastest T20I hundred by an Australia batter. He brought up the milestone in 43 balls, beating the previous record – held jointly by himself, Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell – by four balls, and finished with 103 off 49.To put the innings in context, the rest of Australia’s top six scored 89 off 73 balls between them. His innings laid the foundation of Australia’s 70-run win over Scotland and also helped them take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.Sent in, Australia set Scotland 197 to draw level after their shellacking in Wednesday’s series-opener. The home side had their moments in the chase, particularly during a 42-ball 59 from Brandon McMullen, but they could never quite keep up with the asking rate. On an occasionally two-paced pitch that offered a bit of seam movement, Australia’s seamers used their height advantage expertly, bowling hard lengths and extracting every ounce of help they could find.Scotland managed the odd spurt of quick scoring – George Munsey whipped Xavier Bartlett for two leg-side sixes in the first over, and McMullen used his feet against the quicks and hit four sixes, the pick of them a front-foot pull over wide long-on off Aaron Hardie – but Australia kept chipping out regular wickets, bowling into the pitch and inducing miscues.When Sean Abbott employed this modus operandi to end McMullen’s charge in the 13th over, the contest was all but over. From there, the end was swift, with Scotland losing their last six wickets for just 20 runs and being bowled out for 126 in 16.4 overs.Take Inglis away, and Australia didn’t do a whole lot better with the bat. Jake Fraser-McGurk, who had fallen for a duck on T20I debut on Wednesday, got off the mark in the format with a first-ball four. But he struggled to middle the ball – and often failed to connect – as his aim-for-the-grandstand methods proved unsuitable for the conditions, particularly against McMullen’s nibbly new-ball medium-pace.Marcus Stoinis picked up 4 for 23 with his medium pace•AFP/Getty Images

He fell for a run-a-ball 16, and Travis Head, who had battered Scotland for 80 off 25 in the first T20I, was out for a first-ball duck, bowled by a peach of an inducker from left-arm quick Brad Currie. Currie was one of five players in Scotland’s XI who hadn’t played on Wednesday.Three of the incomers were bowlers, and the revamped attack continued to make the Australia batters not named Inglis work for their runs. Cameron Green scratched his way to 36 off 29, and Marcus Stoinis finished with an unbeaten 20 off 20. They would eventually have their revenge with the ball, picking up a combined 6 for 39 in 5.4 overs.Inglis, though, seemed to bat on another pitch, against another attack. Where his team-mates seemed to lack options if they were denied room to free their arms, Inglis kept finding the boundary by means of quick feet and quicker hands. He manipulated the field expertly with his movements around the crease and his use of the scoop and reverse-scoop. When the Scotland bowlers tried to cramp him by going short and into his body, he generated incredible bat-speed through his short-arm whips and pulls.Despite this, Australia had only got to 179 when Chris Sole ended Inglis’ innings in the 19th over. Sole, introduced only in the 11th over and bowling just three overs, was perhaps Scotland’s best bowler on the day, quicker than his colleagues and as a result more impactful when he used his pace variations.In the end, Australia got close to 200 thanks to a cameo from Tim David, who clubbed the first two balls of the final over, bowled by Brad Wheal, for six, the second one soaring well beyond the midwicket boundary and landing outside the ground.

There was speculation the enclosure would be renamed due to the political dynamics in the country

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Jan-2025The PCB has dismissed speculation that former captain and politician Imran Khan’s name would be removed from an enclosure at the recently-renovated Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore owing to his imprisonment on charges of corruption.Speculation was doing the rounds that PCB had removed Imran’s name due to the current political situation in Pakistan. The Gaddafi stadium has been renovated for the Champions Trophy that starts on February 19.The Imran Khan enclosure, which is one of the VIP stands in the stadium, has been a permanent fixture at the venue since 1992, when he led Pakistan to victory in the ODI World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Tickets for Champions Trophy games in Lahore are being sold online under the ‘Imran Khan Enclosure’.Imran is presently in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi and has denied allegations of corruption, insisting he is a victim of a political vendetta. However, a court recently convicted him and his wife Bushra Bibi in a corruption case, sentencing them to 14 and seven years respectively in prison.Imran, who leads the Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, is currently in opposition to the ruling coalition government of Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Peoples Party. The Punjab province is governed by a PML (N) government led by Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former premier, Nawaz Sharif.

Moeen and du Plessis combine to give Samp Army their first win of the tournament too

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Nov-2023The Jordan Cox show put Bangla Tigers on the board and condemned Deccan Gladiators to their second defeat in three games in the final fixture of the Abu Dhabi T10 league on Thursday.Cox, after Gladiators had asked Tigers to bat, smashed eight fours and six sixes in a rollicking 36-ball 90 not out that gave Tigers 143 for 4, the highest total in the tournament so far. It became the highest-scoring match of the tournament so far too, as Gladiators gave it a good thump in the chase, putting up 123 for 3 with quick 40s from Nicholas Pooran and Fabian Allen keeping them in the contest, if only just.There were three ducks in the Tigers innings – Chris Lynn, David Miller and Daniel Sams totaling zero from seven balls between them – but with Cox in marauding form, they didn’t have much to worry about. Contributions also came from Kusal Mendis (19 in eight balls) and Dasun Shanaka (25* in 11).In reply, Gladiators’ batting star of the previous two games, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, was dismissed cheaply, but Andre Fletcher (17 in five balls) and Pooran kept them going. After Pooran was dismissed for a 17-ball 41, with Gladiators 72 away with 4.5 overs left, it was game on. But Andre Russell’s 11 not out took 17 balls, and despite Allen’s 40 not out in 16 balls, Gladiators ended well short.Hazratullah Zazai brought up his fifty with a six•Abu Dhabi T10

Shamsi and Zazai take Northern Warriors to the top of the table

Northern Warriors 106 for 0 (Zazai 52*, Lewis 46*) beat Team Abu Dhabi 103 for 7 (Banton 33, Shamsi 2-17) by 10 wicketsTabraiz Shamsi’s wristspin and some power-hitting from openers Kennar Lewis and Hazratullah Zazai lifted Northern Warriors to the top of the table with a thumping 10-wicket win against Team Abu Dhabi.Abu Dhabi started off on the right note when their English openers Tom Banton and Alex Hales raced to 39 in under four overs but Shamsi truck to have Banton hole out off a slog sweep. Once Colin Ingram fell for 10 two overs later, Abu Dhabi struggled to get sizeable partnerships going as Shamsi removed Hales as well and only one of their next four batters dismissed reached double digits. Asif Khan scored a quick 19 off seven with two sixes to help Abu Dhabi reach 103 for 7.Lewis and Zazai crossed that target with an over to spare, facing 27 balls each of which 10 reached the boundary rope and five went over. While Lewis remained not out on 46, Zazai reached his fifty with a winning six over long-on.Faf du Plessis struck three sixes in his quickfire knock•Abu Dhabi T10

Janat, Moeen, Gous, du Plessis get Samp Army off the mark

Samp Army 99 for 3 (Gous 43, du Plessis 31) beat Chennai Braves 97 for 7 (Asalanka 31, Janat 2-15, Moeen 2-17) by seven wicketsTwo wickets apiece from Karim Janat and Moeen Ali kept Chennai Braves to 97 for 7 before Samp Army’s openers Andries Gous and Faf du Plessis put on a rapid fifty stand to script a seven-wicket win with one ball to spare.Jason Holder and Janat first combined to reduce Braves to 6 for 2 in the second over before three wickets in the fifth over, including a run out, placed them on 27 for 6. Charith Asalanka, however, smoked a counter-attacking 31 off 13 before unbeaten cameos from Aayan Afzal Khan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa stretched them to a more respectable total, even as Holder finished with stunning figures of 2-0-8-1.Gous and du Plessis scored at a good clip at the top and even though du Plessis and Moeen fell in successive overs, the quick start meant Samp Army needed 30 runs off the last three, which Najibullah Zadran ensured they scored by hitting a winning six on the penultimate ball of the game.

The home side fed Hayley Matthews’ off-side strength and paid the price

AAP03-Oct-2023Australia do not have an issue halting the momentum of rival batters, captain Alyssa Healy insists, despite falling victim to a Hayley Matthews masterclass in the second T20I against West Indies.Matthews clubbed 132 from 64 balls on Monday night to help West Indies pull off the biggest chase in women’s T20I history, as the tourists ran down their target of 213 at North Sydney Oval.The loss marked Australia’s third defeat in four T20Is, having previously enjoyed a 12-match winning streak before being shocked twice by England in this year’s Ashes.Related

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Matthews’ knock came after Australia faced similar challenges in that series, with England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt twice hitting a century in the ODIs.Australia bowled too full and wide to Matthews on Monday night, with the West Indies’ captain hitting 11 fours and three sixes between backward point and cover. The hosts also dropped Matthews twice, as the momentum of the match swung away from them.”I wouldn’t say it’s a concern. They’re really good players, right?” Australia’s stand-in captain Healy said.  “It just comes down to execution. If you’re only hitting the stumps like 20 percent tonight, you’re asking for trouble knowing how small [this] ground is.”We said all along that there’s going to be periods where we could potentially lose games of cricket, and that’s happening. It’s a good opportunity for us to learn from what is going wrong and try and fix it for the next one.”Australia identified the need for a Plan B with the ball as a key issue after India star Harmanpreet Kaur knocked them out of the 2017 ODI World Cup.Changes with the ball and a more attacking approach with the bat prompted a six-year era of dominance for Australia that had not been seriously challenged until this year’s drawn Ashes.Healy insisted ‘Plan B’, or the lack of one, was not the issue at North Sydney Oval.”We’ve got all the plans that we could possibly have in our heads and we’ve got the skills to be able to do it out there,” she said. “We’re just not executing when we need to, which we need to fix.”We were too wide. You look at the way [Matthews] swings the bat, she’s batting on leg stump, basically trying to open up the offside. 
“We probably gave her a little bit too much room in that department.”Australia must win on Thursday night in Brisbane to avoid their first series defeat to West Indies.

“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.

Afghanistan’s win over Australia means both teams stand an equal chance of making it to the final four

S Rajesh23-Jun-2024If Australia and Afghanistan winThree teams will finish on four points. If Australia win by a run, Afghanistan will need a 36-run margin against Bangladesh to move ahead of Australia on net run rate. If Australia win a run-chase off the last ball, Afghanistan will have to win their game in 15.4 overs or sooner (assuming first-innings scores of 160).Related

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• Stats – Afghanistan's maiden win against Australia in any format

India are sitting pretty with an NRR of 2.425. For them to get knocked out, both Australia and Afghanistan will have to win by big margins. Australia will need to beat India by 41 runs to go past them on run rate, while Afghanistan will have to beat Bangladesh by at least 83 runs.If India and Bangladesh winIndia will top the group with six points, while the other three teams will be tied on two each. In that case, NRR will decide the second team from the group. Australia, with a NRR of 0.223, are currently best placed among the three teams: even if Afghanistan lose by just one run, Australia will need to lose by 31 for their run rate to slip below that of Afghanistan.Bangladesh will need to win by 31 runs for their NRR to sneak ahead of Afghanistan’s, but they will also need Australia to lose by 55 runs, to finish second in the group.If Australia and Bangladesh winIndia and Australia will qualify for the semi-finals with four points, while Afghanistan and Bangladesh will finish on two.If India and Afghanistan winIndia and Afghanistan will qualify for the semi-finals with six and four points.

Allrounder takes match tally of sixes to 15 as visitors close in on rare Edgbaston win

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay24-Jul-2025 Warwickshire 184 and 55 for 2 need a further 338 runs to beat Worcestershire 333 and 243 (Brookes 87, Roderick 50) Ethan Brookes climbed into Warwickshire’s bowlers again, in record-breaking fashion, to keep Worcestershire on course for a vital Rothesay County Championship victory at Edgbaston.Of his side’s second-innings total of 243, Brookes’ share was a violent 87 from 137 balls. He struck seven sixes which, added to his eight in the first innings, amounted to 15 in the match – a record for any individual at Edgbaston, surpassing the 12 by Ian Botham for Somerset in 1985 and Dean Jones for Australia in 1989.The former Warwickshire allrounder’s barrage left his old team needing 393 to win and they closed the third day on 55 for 2 after losing both openers in the first four overs.Worcestershire resumed on the third morning on 31 without loss, already 180 ahead, but were pegged back by disciplined bowling. The opening partnership reached 80 in 32 overs before three wickets fell for 12 runs in 51 balls. Gareth Roderick (50 off 110) edged an expansive drive at Beau Webster. Jake Libby’s 149 minutes of toil for 25 ended when he pulled Ed Barnard to midwicket. Kashif Ali collected a tortuous 29-ball duck when he pulled Corey Rocchiccioli to short fine leg.As Warwickshire went on the defensive, Rocchiccioli bowling on or outside leg stump, Worcestershire’s batters appeared unsure how to handle such a big advantage. That advantage began to diminish as Ethan Bamber bowled Adam Hose and had Tom Taylor caught at point and Rocchiccioli’s leg-stump probing was rewarded when Brett D’Oliviera tickled a leg-side catch to wicketkeeper Kai Smith and Ben Allison nudged to leg slip.Seven wickets fell for 52 runs in 22 overs but Brookes defended diligently as he awaited support. It arrived from Bertie Foreman, who got the scoreboard moving again before edging Webster to second slip, and then Adam Finch. Having added 88 in the first innings, this time Brookes and Finch put on 91.The cricket descended into farce after tea as Warwickshire went ultra-negative. Rocchiccioli wheeled away while Olly Hannon-Dalby bowled far outside off stump to deny Brookes scope to seek the short boundary. Warwickshire’s supporters bore it stoically though if an opposing team had resorted to such tactics some forthright views would have emanated from the stands. The grim spectacle concluded when Brookes hoisted Barnard to deep fine leg and Finch sliced Webster to second slip,Warwickshire faced a target of 393 in a day plus 26 overs, weather permitting, and in moderate light, soon lost their openers. Rob Yates was trapped in front by a rapid shooter from Khurram Shahzad; Alex Davies chipped to midwicket. Dan Mousley and Zen Malik batted assiduously to the close but Worcestershire would be gutted, from this position, not to bank their first Championship win at Edgbaston since 1993.

Players not being able to sustain the amount of cricket they’re being expected to play will force changes, ICC chair believes

Osman Samiuddin27-Jul-2022The growing, unsustainable burden on players could eventually force boards into making the global cricket calendar a more manageable one, according to ICC chairman Greg Barclay.Barclay was speaking after the conclusion of the ICC’s AGM where the Future Tours Programme (FTP) has been going through the final stages before it is published, and where a major thread of discussion among members has been around the balance in the calendar between T20 leagues and international cricket.More relevantly, he was speaking just over a week after Ben Stokes, the England Test captain, decided to retire from ODI cricket, at just 31, blaming what he said was an unsustainable workload. Stokes’ decision came 16 months out from England’s defence of their World Cup title, which he was vital in securing in 2019.Related

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• ICC: 'The volume of ODIs and T20Is in the calendar is very much up to every member'

• ICC FTP: Bangladesh land Test and ODI jackpot in 2023-2027 cycle

The new FTP, from 2023-2027, has not been made public yet, though ESPNcricinfo has a copy of a near-complete draft. The calendar, as it stands, is marked by an unrelenting schedule of ICC events and bilateral cricket and, increasingly, unofficial windows which are being earmarked by boards for their own T20 leagues; that is apart from a two-and-a-month window for the IPL, which is all but formalised.”The fact is that we have a limited amount of time in the calendar,” Barclay said. “There’s 365 days in a year, there’s more cricket being played through ICC events, through bilateral cricket, a proliferation of T20 leagues so there is a lot of pressure on that calendar. Are we at a tipping point?”I’m not sure but it is an issue for members to work their way through. There’s a lot of cricket to fit in there and it’s simply not all going to fit. It’s not an issue so much for this organisation [the ICC], but certainly for members to try and work their way through optimum outcomes is going to be a challenge.”What they also need to take into account is that the players themselves will simply not be able to sustain the amount of cricket they’re probably going to be expected to play so that’s going to force some changes as well.”The ICC believes it has witnessed a strong commitment to the international game among members at this AGM. But for a growing number of members that commitment is clearly tussling with a newfound zeal for their own domestic products, whether a T20 league or the Hundred. Both CA and ECB have carved out – or tried to – little windows for the BBL and the Hundred in this FTP.”There are a number of members who are putting particular attention on their domestic leagues,” Geoff Allardice, the ICC CEO said. “The one thing over the last few days is the commitment to international cricket and bilateral cricket is as strong as it has ever been. But each of them has to manage that balance between domestic competitions, their international schedules and the management of their players. Each of those boards is in a slightly different situation. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to that balancing situation and each country attacks it slightly differently.”If something does eventually give way, the speculation has been on ODI cricket. Without the context of the Super League in the next cycle, the format is back to being a bilateral staple. But that has not been evident just yet, and not in the draft version of the FTP.”We talked a fair bit about the structure,” Allardice said. “One of the things about the three formats and the way they are incorporated in the FTP is that members and fans in countries have slightly different preferences for formats. At this stage, there was some discussion about the mix of formats, not specifically ODIs in the calendar. Countries are still scheduling a healthy number of ODIs as well in their FTPs, so in the FTP you won’t see significant changes to the number of ODIs, or proportion being played.”The Super League has been scrapped because the 2027 World Cup has been expanded into a 14-team event; that has rendered a 13-team Super League redundant. The current cycle of the league has been hit by severe disruptions because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has prevented it from really taking off.That might be rectified as we approach the end of league, with nine months still left, a number of series still to be played out and a number of big-name teams potentially having to play a qualifier to get into the 2023 World Cup.One of those could be South Africa, who did not help their own cause by pulling out of a three-match ODI series against Australia, in order to get their own T20 league off the ground. The ICC had no say in the fate of that series, and is not yet clear on how points will be awarded, but is looking forward to a tight fight for qualification towards the end.”We’ve still got nine months in the window available to complete the Super League,” Allardice said. “The ICC’s role in that competition is to say here are the eight teams you are playing against. The timing of those series and how those series are scheduled is between the two members to resolve.”We saw the announcement by CA and CSA and as we head to the end of the competition we will deal with that. Whether Australia and South Africa have come to some arrangement around making up some series – there may be some discussions still going on – the competition still has nine months to run and we’ll be dealing with [how the points are to be awarded] towards the end.”The ODI Super League was a way to provide context to ODIs. It has another nine months to play out and I’m sure as we approach cut-off date, the last couple of spots in 2023 will become quite exciting.”