Cricket news round-up – October 24: Bangladesh cricketers call off strike, ready to tour India

Bangladesh cricketers are back in the business. Sourav Ganguly officially becomes the president of the BCCI. Lockie Ferguson is ready for a comeback from injury.

Bangladesh call off strike

The ongoing dispute between the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the cricketers was eventually resolved on Wednesday. The board agreed to most of the demands of the players and they decided to call off the strike with immediate effect.

Nazmul Hasan held a joint press conference with Shakib Al Hasan and said, “We have agreed to meet up most of their demands. We had earlier decided to cancel the third round of the NCL, but as the players decided to play we have shifted it to next Saturday. The national camp will start from October 25.”

Hasan also added, “They had sent 11 demands where BCB had nothing to do with the CWAB related demand while we have decided to agree on the remaining demands apart from the one where it was stated that players will be allowed to play in more than two franchise-based tournaments. I don’t think there are many players who are offered more than two franchise-based tournaments and we will take the decision regarding participation of them in the franchise-based cricket on a case-to-case basis.”

This ends speculations regarding Bangladesh’s India tour scheduled to begin from November 3. Cricket is set to resume in Bangladesh with the National Cricket League starting next Saturday and the national players will take part in the training camp for India tour.

Ganguly takes charge of the BCCI

Sourav Ganguly officially took charge of the BCCI and promised to work for the betterment of Indian cricket. His appointment as the BCCI president marked the end to the tenure of Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators. Speaking about the crisis period the Indian cricket board went had gone through, Ganguly said, “I’ll do it the way I know, with no compromise on credibility and corruption. That’s the way I led India.”

Although he will be in the chair only for 10 months, he is determined to focus on the pending issues.”Things need to be brought back in place, reforms need to be done, huge amounts of money need to be paid to state associations.” He further added, “We don’t know what’s happened in the past three years, we weren’t part of it [BCCI], there were no AGMs or working committee meetings. We’ll take note of everything and do what’s best for Indian cricket.”

The board president showed his urge to support the team captain and called Virat Kohli, “the most important man in Indian cricket”. Ganguly said, “He wants to make this team the best in the world… We have to sit with him and see what he wants. We’ll support him in every way.”

Ferguson ready for comeback

Lockie Ferguson is set to make a comeback from injury for the New Zealand XI in England’s warm-up matches ahead of the T20I series. He was suffering from a fractured thumb at the beginning of the tour of Sri Lanka in August. Now he will get a chance to test the injury on October 27 and 29 when he will play practice matches before the T20Is.

New Zealand’s star performer in the World Cup said, “The thumb has healed well and I’m looking forward to having a hit-out at Lincoln,” he said. “While it’s obviously frustrating to be side-lined, it’s actually been good to take some time to freshen up and be able to return with plenty of motivation and energy. It’s the beginning of a really big summer of cricket and it’s exciting to be starting it against a quality England side.”

The squad: Colin Munro (c), Katene Clarke, Josh Clarkson, Blake Coburn, Anton Devcich, Lockie Ferguson, Jake Gibson, Brett Hampton, Anaru Kitchen, Christian Leopard, Tim Seifert (wk), Anurag Verma