Cricket news round-up – October 19: PCB sacks Sarfaraz, Nadeem replaces Kuldeep, Bodi sentenced to five years imprisonment

Pakistan got rid of their regular captain Sarfaraz Ahmed. Shahbaz Nadeem replaced Kuldeep Yadav for Ranchi Test between India and South Africa. Gulam Bodi was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday.

Sarfaraz Ahmed sacked

Sarfaraz Ahmed has been sacked by Pakistan Cricket Board as Azhar Ali and Babar Azam take the charge of Pakistan’s Test and T20I sides respectively. Sarfaraz has been also dropped from team touring to Australia to play a T20I series and begin their World Test Championship campaign.

Azhar Ali will lead Pakistan in Tests in the 2019-20 season while Babar Azam has been given the responsibility of the T20 reigns till the T20 World Cup next year in Australia. Following the World Cup debacle and the home series disaster against Sri Lanka, the board decided to take such a call. Ehsan Mani, the PCB chairman acknowledged his contribution and said, “It has been a difficult decision to drop Sarfaraz Ahmed, who has performed well as a player and a leader. But, his loss in form and confidence is visible and, in the best interest of the team, it has been decided to leave him out and provide him the opportunity to reflect and regroup himself and try to reclaim his form away from international cricket.”

Nadeem replaces Kuldeep

Shahbaz Nadeem replaced Kuldeep Yadav for India’s final Test in Ranchi against South Africa following the latter’s pain in the left shoulder. The Jharkhand spinner has been a regular contributor in the domestic and India circuit and waiting for this call for long. In 110 first-class matches, Nadeem has picked up 424 wickets. Recently His eight wickets in the two four-day games for India A against South Africa A prior to the Test series also proved his mettle. So when Kuldeep complained about a pain in his shoulder on Friday, Nadeem was included in the squad.

Moreover, the local boy has enough experience of bowling at the JSCA stadium in Ranchi, the venue for the final Test. No wonder this is going to be an added advantage for the team if he gets a chance to play. On the other hand, Kuldeep was not a part of the XI for the first two games of the ongoing series as Indian played with R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. With India already winning the series, this could be a great opportunity for Nadeem to make his debut.

Five years imprisonment for Bodi

Gulam Bodi was sentenced to five years imprisonment in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Friday for his involvement in South Africa’s 2015 domestic spot-fixing scandal. He became the first South African sportsman to be prosecuted under the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004, which was introduced post the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal. Bodi was charged under the Act after getting banned by Cricket South Africa for 20 years for his role in fixing or influencing otherwise in 2015 RamSlam T20 domestic tournament.

Last November, the 40-year-old pleaded guilty to eight corruption charges. He begged for mercy and his sentencing kept got delayed since January 2019. Now he will apply for leave to appeal and an extension of his bail.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier

Day one of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier saw Singapore, trumping highly rated Associates, Scotland at Dubai whereas Ireland won against Hong Kong. Netherlands beat Kenya and Oman won the fixture against UAE.

Powered by Surendran Chandramohan’s half-century from the top of the order and Aritra Dutta’s late blitz, Singapore set a target of 169. Scotland began with an opening stand of 70 runs in 7.4 overs.  But then wickets fell frequently; with eight to defend in the final over by Singapore edged Scotland by two runs. Selladore Vijayakumar ended with 3/16.

Kinchit Shah’s 79 was instrumental for Hong Kong’s 153 in their Group B game against Ireland in the T20 World Cup Qualifiers. Mark Adair took two for 22 in a four-over spell. Ireland were ready with a stunning counter-attack. Paul Stirling (62 in 36 balls) and Andy Balbirnie (70 in 53 balls) put on an 86-run stand followed by Harry Tector’s 16-ball 21 Ireland won the game by eight wickets in 17.2 overs.

Netherlands, opting to bat first scored 166 for four in 20 overs. Thanks to Max ODowd’s 53 and a late order partnership between Roelof van der Merwe and Pieter Seelaar- 40 in the last four overs. Collins Obuya took two for 16 in three overs. During the chase, Obuya once again contributed with a 40-ball 63 but his sole efforts were not enough. Kenya eventually fell short of 30 runs with Paul van Meekeren ending with 3/27.

Oman chose to bowl first and UAE were soon reduced to 29/3 within the powerplay. There was hardly any recovery as UAE’s highest score of the match was Muhammad Usman’s 27 off 24. It never gained any momentum and they could only score 108 runs in 20 overs. In response, Aqib Ilyas (45 in 51 balls) and Aamir Kaleem (27 in 19 balls) took Oman home with 10 balls to spare for the loss of three wickets.