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A balanced, combined batting effort, led by Ambati Rayudu’s responsible innings of an unbeaten 78, took West Zone to the Deodhar Trophy title with a five-wicket win over North Zone in Guwahati

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA collective batting effort, led by Ambati Rayudu’s unbeaten 78, helped West Zone clinch the Deodhar Trophy with a five-wicket win over North Zone in Guwahati. This was West Zone’s 11th Deodhar Trophy title.Chasing a daunting 290, West Zone lost opener Vijay Zol in the seventh over. But then Manprit Juneja and the captain Parthiv Patel, both of whom scored half-centuries, added 87 runs at 6.21 runs per over to keep the chase on track. The stand was broken when Patel tried to flick legspinner Amit Mishra’s wrong one towards midwicket, providing a simple catch.Two more wickets had fallen after small intervals, and by the 30th over, they were placed at a tricky 175 for 4.Rayudu and Kedhar Jadhav batted together till the 43rd over, sharing a quick 87-run stand that took West Zone to a comfortable 262 for 4. Rayudu and Nayar saw them home with 10 balls remaining.North Zone’s innings, after they were put in to bat, revolved around two knocks of 88 and 67 by Unmukt Chand and Yuvraj Singh, both of whom finished as the leading run-getters in the Deodhar Trophy, with 144 runs.Yuvraj was the more aggressive of the two, scoring seven boundaries and three sixes in his 52-ball knock.Chand fell for a 124-ball 88, which was smartly constructed. He played slowly initially, but after reaching a half-century off 87 deliveries, accelerated, hitting three sixes and two fours, to score 38 runs off the next 37 balls. He perished in the 40th over, mishitting a hoick towards midwicket.Their third-wicket partnership of 120 built a solid platform for acceleration towards the end, which was done via a 13-ball 25 by Manpreet Gony and a 26-ball 32 by Parvez Rasool.

Tim Southee is expected to be dropped from the New Zealand squad for the second Test against South Africa, after conceding 140 runs for no wicket in the first Test

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Mar-2012Tim Southee is expected to be dropped from the New Zealand squad for the second Test against South Africa, after conceding 140 runs for no wicket in the first Test, in Dunedin. Southee also had a torrid time in the limited-over games against South Africa, going for 64 off 10 overs in the first ODI, 61 off eight in the second, and 40 runs off four overs in the second Twenty20. Brent Arnel and Andrew Ellis are both in the Test squad and one of them is expected to take Southee’s place in the XI.Southee will go back to domestic cricket and play for Northern Districts in the next round of the Plunket Shield, which starts on Saturday, to work on issues with technique and form. Before the home series against South Africa, Southee had not had much to do in New Zealand’s thrashing of Zimbabwe in the two-and-a-half-day Napier Test. On the tour of Australia last year, his five wickets had come at 44.6 runs apiece, and he was overshadowed by Doug Bracewell.Ross Taylor, the New Zealand captain, had said after the first Test against South Africa that Southee had been having issues with his action. “Tim did not have the game of his life,” Taylor said. “He struggled a little bit with his action but he’s played a few Tests now. He’s a confidence player and hopefully he can bounce back from this.”Meanwhile, BJ Watling and Dean Brownlie remain on the injured list for New Zealand, meaning Kruger van Wyk and Rob Nicol are likely to keep their places in the XI. Brownlie is expected to be back for the third Test.The second Test is in Hamilton, starting March 15.Edited by Dustin Silgardo

“We still have five matches left, and everyone is looking ahead,” – Tamim Iqbal

Sidharth Monga in Dhaka21-Feb-2011Tamim Iqbal says that Bangladesh have put behind them the defeat against India in the World Cup opener, and are feeling good about their chances of making it to the quarter-finals. After a week of frenzied anticipation, Bangladesh went down to India in a disappointing manner, especially with the ball letting India to score 370 runs.However, Tamim said, “We are not thinking about the India match at all. We still have five matches left, and we are looking ahead. Today’s practice I feel was the best session we had in the last one-and-a-half months. Everybody was enjoying, and we were all very relaxed. We are now totally focused on the Ireland match. As a player I am very satisfied about how it went today.”As a player in the first game, though, Tamim struggled, and was the face of Bangladeshi surrender after the first two wickets fell. It was as if Bangladesh had decided early on in their innings that 370 was too much, and they would not even go for it. Before that happened, though, Imrul Kayes, usually the anchor to Tamims pyrotechnics, started aggressively, scoring 34 off 29. Tamim spoke about both the innings.”The way Imrul struck the ball against India has been a huge benefit for the team,” Tamim said. “I think if Imrul can play like that he can take his game to the next level. As for my innings I was not timing the ball well. Somehow the ball was not coming on to the bat that well. So I thought not to throw the wicket and hang in there. One thing I believe is that even if I play 20-30 balls more, I am capable of recovering my strike-rate later.”Three-hundred-and-seventy-one was a huge target to chase. I thought if we got them somewhere around the 300 to 310 mark, we could have made a match out of it, considering their bowling attack and our bowling strength.”In one way perhaps, Bangladesh take confidence from having reached close to 300, for not every team will set them 371 to chase, and their bowlers are also expected to improve and be more effective against non-subcontinent sides. One of those teams will be Ireland, who have beaten them in the World Cups of both limited-overs formats.”Against Ireland we have plans for each and every player in their side,” Tamim said. “We have played quite a few matches against them, and its the same set of players they have got. We know their strengths and weaknesses. If we can execute our plans we will definitely win.” Three of those quite a few matches against Ireland have come at home for Bangladesh, and they have won all three, which will give them heart.Tamim, though, said there was no room for complacency. “In the World Cup there are no easy matches,” he said. “You cannot relax. The moment you take something lightly you stand a chance of losing. We will approach all the matches the same way, similar to the way we approached the India match.”Bangladesh know that progress to the next round will only be possible if they beat both Ireland and Netherlands, apart from beating one of Test-playing teams in their group. A loss against Ireland can knock Bangladesh out. “If you take pressure, there are a lot of pressures,” Tamim said, “[But] the boys are mentally very tough, and they are ready. We know we have to play our best if we want to beat any team we play against, whether it’s South Africa or whether it’s Ireland.”

Mumbai Indians can bounce back, for Sachin Tendulkar is in tremendous form, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard boost their all-round strength and Zaheer Khan is proving highly consistent

Nagraj Gollapudi10-Mar-2010They are owned by the richest Indian in the world. They are led by the best cricketer of this generation. They have one of the best fast bowlers in their ranks. But Mumbai Indians, despite their high profile, failed to reach the knockout phase in the IPL’s two editions thus far.An array of reasons can be cited behind for their struggle: In the first season, Mumbai did well to hold together after the Harbhajan Singh slapping incident. But what hurt them the most was the absence of Sachin Tendulkar from the first half of the tournament due to injury. There was also plenty of chopping and changing of the line-ups, and the inexperience of the domestic players was apparent on more than one occasion despite Tendulkar and Shaun Pollock’s best efforts to inspire the team through their leadership.In 2009, Zaheer Khan was bought from Royal Challengers Bangalore, adding strength to the bowling department. Zaheer also filled the spot vacated by Pollock, who took up the role of mentor. Jonty Rhodes added vitality to the training sessions with his agility and reflexes. JP Duminy was signed up for a whopping US$950,000 after his heroics in Australia, but, on home soil, was unable to finish off games or give that final thrust to innings when left on his own. It did not help that Zaheer injured himself in the field midway through the tournament, and Sanath Jayasuriya failed to provide the usual fireworks in the beginning. Mumbai ended on the second rung from the bottom.But things look more positive the third time around. Tendulkar is in tremendous form with the bat and even if he is yet not a formidable batsman in Twenty20 cricket, the defining innings doesn’t seem far. Mumbai’s middle order is bolstered by the presence of the Trinidad pair of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, both supremely athletic allrounders having the ability to win games on their own. Zaheer is currently among the most consistent fast bowlers and if he is well backed-up by Lasith Malinga, with Jayasuriya firing at the top with Tendulkar, Mumbai can bounce back.The buzz
The blue on the jersey has been shaded to a darker tone. The inspiration behind the new design was the state-of-the-art Bandra-Worli sea-link, which connects the northern suburbs to south of Mumbai. The idea was to create a design that would not only be new, but also resemble the enterprise and growth of Mumbai – the golden stripes across the bust of the shirt depicts the two pillars of the sea-link and the blue is the shade of the Arabian sea. The team has also found support from sponsors, whose count has increased to 14, five more than last year.Another first is the sale of wrist bands in the Mumbai colours, autographed by Tendulkar, the proceeds of which will be passed over to provide education for underprivileged kids supported by five NGOs.New faces
Mumbai stamped their authority as the richest franchise in the League, bagging Kieron Pollard in the silent tie-breaker for an undisclosed sum, rumoured to be as high as that of the richest players in the IPL. Robin Singh leads a new coaching set-up, with Paras Mhambrey as his deputy. The pair did not waste time in picking few of the best players from the unofficial Indian Cricket League – Ambati Rayudu and R Sateesh, Rahul Shukla, Ishan Malhotra, Ali Murtaza, and Aditya Tare have been fast-tracked into the primary squad.Kieron Pollard’s success in the Champions League has taken him a long way•Getty Images

Watch out for
Sachin Tendulkar. He is in stupendous form and will be hungry to prove his worth in a format he hasn’t dominated.Missing in action
The Caribbean pair of Bravo and Pollard would be absent in the opener against Rajasthan Royals, for they will be wrapping up the ODI series against Zimbabwe, which ends on March 14.X-factor
Pollard can provide the firepower lower down the order, something Mumbai expected from Duminy last yearStrength
A formidable batting order: Tendulkar, Jayasuriya, Shikar Dhawan, Bravo, Pollard and Abhishek Nayar.Weakness
Barring Zaheer , the rest of the fast bowling department, including Malinga, have been inconsistent. But Zaheer, who has been the Indian bowling captain for the last two years, has the ability to hold the attack together, and along with Harbhajan in the middle overs, can lead the rest of the pack in the right direction.IPL 2009 – the key figures
Final position: SeventhTop scorer: JP Duminy with 372 runs at 41.33 and strike-rate of 114.46Top wicket-taker: Lasith Malinga with 18 wickets at 17.33 and economy-rate of 6.33Best result: Eight-wicket win over PunjabWorst result: Nine-wicket defeat to BangaloreHighest team score: 187 for 6 v KolkataLowest team score: 116 v DelhiPrediction for 2010
Mumbai have the ability to make the semi-finals, but a return to the spot they ended at in 2008 is more realistic.

Sean Williams takes over as Zimbabwe captain in Craig Ervine’s absence

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2025Craig Ervine, the designated Zimbabwe captain, has been ruled out of the ODI series against Sri Lanka after sustaining a calf injury on the eve of the first match, played at Harare Sports Club on Friday. In his absence, Sean Williams will lead Zimbabwe.The injury took place on Thursday, and an MRI scan confirmed that Ervine had suffered a Grade II strain in his left calf as well as a chronic and resolving Grade I strain in his right calf.Ervine, 40, is one of Zimbabwe’s more experienced players and a key member of the batting unit. He has missed some cricket in recent years, often because of injury, but the most recent absence, in a Test against Ireland in February 2025, was to be with his wife for the birth of their child. Williams, too, had missed that Test with a back injury, but both of them returned to the squad for the Test series in Bangladesh at home in April-May. His last ODI appearance was in that series against Ireland.Ervine’s absence, while a blow for Zimbabwe, comes at a time when Brendan Taylor, one of the country’s best batters of the last decade, makes his comeback to the format as part of his return to international cricket after a three-year ban for corruption-related offences. It’s been Taylor’s best format over the years, one where he has scored 11 centuries in 203 innings over the years.Ervine has played 128 ODIs in his 15-year-long international career, scoring 3600 runs at an average of 33.02 with four centuries and 23 half-centuries, including a best of 130 not out, against New Zealand in Harare back in 2015.

Lahore Qalandars lost their third game in a row, as their much-trumpeted pace attack failed to defend yet again

Associated Press22-Feb-2024Multan Sultans continued their dream start by handing defending champions Lahore Qalandars their third straight loss in the Pakistan Super League on Wednesday. Iftikhar Ahmed smashed 24 runs in the penultimate over, and earned Sultans a five-wicket win over defending champions Qalandars in a rematch of last season’s final.Qalandars’ much-trumpeted pace attack, led by Shaheen Shah Afridi, has now failed to defend in three successive games, as Haris Rauf continued to struggle and Zaman Khan also proving expensive (2-52).Sultans now sit pretty on top of the table with six points from three straight home wins, while Qalandars are yet to get first win under their belt.Skipper Mohammad Rizwan, who was dropped on 40 by Afridi, went on to compile this season’s top-score of 82 off 59 balls before Ifthikar charged against Zaman’s pace in the 19th over, smacking two sixes and three fours, and guided the home team to 170 for 5.Iftikhar wiped the hopes of Qalandars for its first win with a robust knock of unbeaten 34 off 11 balls after the home team needed 21 off the last two overs.The inclusion of left-arm spinner George Linde (1 for 26) of South Africa seemed to have beefed up Qalandars’ bowling in the absence of injured Rashid Khan when he bowled brilliantly in the middle overs after Qalandars posted 166 for 5, but Iftikhar’s onslaught against Zaman sealed the game.Earlier, Rassie van der Dussen (54) scored his second half-century in three games and Fakhar Zaman made 41 as they put on 94 runs for the second-wicket stand and pushed for a daunting total before Sultans pulled back despite dropping four catches.Khushdil Shah, who dropped two catches in the last game against Islamabad United, floored two more chances on Wednesday, but fast bowler Mohammad Ali (2 for 28) continued to impress with his swing and variations which restricted Qalandars in the end.

The forecast is bad for Sunday but that can change quickly, and both teams are determined not to be distracted by the weather

Alex Malcolm12-Nov-2022In 1992, the same year England and Pakistan last met in a World Cup final, Australian-based New Zealand band Crowded House released one of their most famous songs, Four Seasons in One Day.It was an ode to Melbourne’s unpredictable weather, featuring the line, “it doesn’t pay to make predictions.”It is a lesson the current England and Pakistan teams have heeded 30 years on, ahead of Sunday’s T20 World Cup final in Melbourne, with horrendous weather predicted.Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting 100% chance of rain with 10-20mm expected including “the chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe with heavy falls.”But nothing is ever guaranteed in Melbourne when it comes to the weather. England risked failing to reach the knockouts, after focusing on Melbourne’s unpredictable weather too much earlier in the tournament in the shock loss to Ireland at the MCG.Related

• From injury rust to purple patch: Shaheen Shah Afridi is back

“Obviously, the Ireland match is a big disappointment for us as a team throughout this tournament, but certainly feels a long time ago now,” England captain Jos Buttler said on Saturday. “Being able to sit in this position on the eve of the World Cup final, I think we will have learned quite a few lessons throughout that game and actually, the lead-up into the game.”The weather around Melbourne was dominating the whole tournament at that stage and was definitely a distraction at times.”It was a blunt admission from Buttler and perhaps in part explained why England had bowled so poorly at the start of that game against Ireland.The irony is, as much as they were distracted by the weather in the lead-up to that loss, they freely admit too they didn’t pay enough attention to the radar during the game itself, when they fell five runs short of the DLS par score as the rain began to fall.”We know the areas we were short,” Buttler said. “That definitely hurt us. And I think we’ve seen a reaction to that game in the rest of the cricket we’ve played so far.”Pakistan had their own experience with Melbourne’s weather in the lead-up to their epic clash against India, with fears the game would be washed out without a ball being bowled due to another foreboding forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology. But in the end, not a drop of rain fell that night during Melbourne’s wettest October for half a century, and the teams duked it out in one of the best T20 internationals ever played.Pakistan were not distracted by the weather against India, having outplayed their opponents for much of the night before losing the game in the final eight deliveries.Again, ahead of the final, they are unperturbed by the forecast.”We discuss the weather situation of course, but we don’t focus on it,” Pakistan captain Babar Azam said. “We’re focused on getting a full game in. It’s a World Cup final, so getting a part-game in or not getting one at all would be disappointing. We’re aiming to execute regardless of how long it is, but I’m really looking forward to getting a full game in.”Pakistan’s vibes-over-tactics mindset has served them well to this point and gives them great comfort.England too will take comfort from the knowledge that they have played a rain-shortened game in this tournament. They also played another in the lead-up to the event, against Australia in Canberra, giving them added recent experience of both setting and chasing in rain-shortened matches should the game be reduced to a 10-over affair, the minimum length needed for a result in the final.But as Crowded House front man Neil Finn wrote, “finding out wherever there is comfort there is pain, only one step away, like four seasons in one day.”

Onus on visitors’ batting to find an extra gear after flat displays in first two T20Is

Andrew Miller25-Jun-2021

Big picture

Three days on from the World Test Championship final, the Ageas Bowl (as it is once again allowed to be known) plays host to a final of a rather less epochal variety. The final T20I between England and Sri Lanka will be a daylight-hours dead rubber after England’s comprehensive victories in Cardiff earlier this week, and if that prospect fails to set your pulse racing then never fear – at least you’ll be able to flick over to Wales versus Denmark during the second innings if the going gets too stodgy.Perhaps that’s unfair. Thursday night’s rain-interrupted second encounter had its moments, perhaps most notably Sam Curran’s sublime side-foot into the stumps to run out Danushka Gunathilaka. But for all that England’s bowlers have been excellent in both contests, the grim truth is that Sri Lanka have limped along to consecutive totals of 129 and 111 in their 20 overs – a series run-rate of precisely one a ball. And impressive though their initial defence of that second total may have been, the jeopardy was short-lived once England’s middle-order pair of Liam Livingstone and Sam Billings had calibrated the appropriate tempo for their chase.It is, as Sri Lanka’s coach Mickey Arthur acknowledged, a case of No. 1 versus No. 9 in the ICC T20I rankings, and the gulf has been plain for all to see. Even the continued absence of England’s most accomplished white-ball batter is unlikely to close up the gap between the sides. Jos Buttler has been ruled out for the remainder of the Sri Lanka tour with a minor calf tear, but Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy – reunited at the top of the order – aren’t exactly a second-best option among white-ball opening partnerships.It’s hard to see exactly where Sri Lanka can hope to catch a break in this contest. Wanindu Hasaranga has impressed once again with his legspin, while their new-ball pairing of Dushmantha Chameera and Binura Fernando bowled with heart and fire in the Powerplay. But Adil Rashid goes from strength to strength, rising to every new role that Eoin Morgan seeks to audition him for, while Mark Wood’s lavish loosener-free pace is a bruising option to bomb the middle overs. When you’re barely stretching the ability of a player with as much star billing as Sam Curran, you know you’ve got your bases covered.Related

• Sam Billings primed to seize his chance after life on England's fringes

• Mickey Arthur: They're No. 1, we're No. 9, and you can see the difference

• Liam Livingstone makes virtue of versatility in pitch for England World Cup role

• Jos Buttler ruled out of Sri Lanka white-ball series with calf injury

Sri Lanka may be tempted to make changes to their line-up, particularly in the batting, but such is the volatility of their current team, at some stage too they will need simply to opt for continuity and trust their chosen players to come out of their shells. That said, it took until the eighth over on Thursday for Sri Lanka to post their first boundary, and nonsensically only two players all night managed so much as hit a four. Kusal Mendis top-scored with a run-a-ball 39; Isuru Udana ruined Chris Jordan’s figures with some belated intent in the 20th over of their innings. Without that, they might not even have scraped past 100.Who knows what England can learn from these contests, although the state of the wickets in Cardiff suggest that they are focused on used-pitch practice given the likelihood of the T20 World Cup taking place in the UAE, straight after the IPL has swiped what little juice the surfaces may have had. That is, after all, the real end-game. This is just another staging post in the quest for further ICC silverware.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)England WWLLWSri Lanka LLLWL

In the spotlight

Dawid Malan has been drafted into England’s ODI squad as a replacement for Buttler, which may help to reassure him that he is still a hugely valued part of the white-ball set-up. But there’s no question he’ll be feeling the heat as the focus intensifies on his place at No. 3. In six T20s this summer – two for England, four for Yorkshire – he has a highest score of 23, while his consecutive scores of 7 and 4 in Cardiff were, incredibly, only his second and third single-digit returns in 26 T20Is. A truer surface in Southampton may be what he needs to get back to his dominant best, although quite how much of a pointer that would be for the T20 World Cup’s conditions is anyone’s guess.Wanindu Hasaranga has been a flicker of hope in a rough period for Sri Lankan cricket. His three-card trick to bamboozle Sam Billings on Thursday capped another fine display of legspin – 2 for 20 in four overs on this occasion – and he is now ranked in the top ten T20I bowlers in the world, according to the ICC. With his combination of accuracy and variety, including a superb googly, if any one player is likely to put in the sort of performance that can earn Sri Lanka a consolation win, it is him.

Pitch and conditions

This will be the first T20 at the Ageas Bowl this season – Hampshire have played a glut of away games in the Blast while the ground was being used as India’s base ahead of the WTC final. To judge by that contest, there should be plenty of carry for the quicks on offer, but most importantly the weather is set fair after the nonsense of this time last week. A pleasant summer’s afternoon is in prospect, come what may.

Team news

As a rule, England are loath to make too many changes to their XIs, although the continued absence of Buttler has caused a degree of upheaval in their ranks. Bairstow is set to open with Jason Roy once more, and probably retain the gloves too, even though Billings was on standby to make his Test debut as a keeper against New Zealand earlier this month. After two blistering displays, Wood may be due a rest – compared to Chris Woakes, his recent workload has been whip-crackingly brutal. Woakes ought to return – otherwise, what did England hope to learn from his recall after a six-year gap? – but then there’s Moeen Ali, absent for ten T20Is and counting.England: (possible) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Sam Billings, 7 Sam Curran, 8 David Willey, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Adil RashidThere’s a chance that Sri Lanka may choose to blood their latest all-round prospect, the 22-year-old Dhananjaya Lakshan, whose lusty hitting and variety-laden seam bowling shot to prominence at the recent Lanka Premier League, where he claimed at least one wicket in each of his outings, and thumped Galle Gladiators into the final with some timely hitting in their semi-final victory over Colombo Kings.Sri Lanka: (possible) 1 Danushka Gunathilaka, 2 Avishka Fernando, 3 Kusal Perera (capt/wk), 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 6 Dasun Shanaka, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Dhananjaya Lakshan, 9 Akila Dananjaya, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Binura Fernando

Stats and trivia

• England have won five of their previous eight T20Is at Southampton, including the very first such contest they ever played – and only the second globally – by 100 runs against Australia in 2005.
• Sri Lanka have placed two T20Is at the ground, winning the first by two runs in 2006, but losing the second, ten years later, by eight wickets
• Sri Lanka are yet to score a boundary off Adil Rashid in the series, who has combined figures of 4 for 41 from his eight overs.

  Quotes

  “It’s something I’ve worked hard on for this sort of opportunity, to push my way into a team as someone that can offer something in all three facets of the game.”
  Allrounder Liam Livingstone believes he’s got the skills to enhance England’s T20I line-up“We’re consistently talking about freedom, about taking the handbrake off as a batting unit. But you can only bat as well as you’re allowed to and I thought England were world-class with the lengths they hit.”
  Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur praises the discipline and skill of England’s attack.

The tournament’s chief operating officer on his plans for expansion, including a women’s league

Matt Roller20-Apr-2020A new franchise in the USA, a fully-fledged women’s league and maintaining distinctive local flavour are among the keys to ensuring the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is the second-best T20 league in the world, after the IPL, according to chief operations officer Pete Russell.Seven seasons in, the 2020 CPL is shaping up to be the most difficult yet, with the Covid-19 pandemic and its knock-on effects meaning there is every chance the league will have to be played without overseas players, behind closed doors, or across only a handful of venues as organisers draw up contingency plans.But in an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Russell said he was confident that the CPL was well-placed to meet that challenge, having learnt from the mistakes it has made to date.”Private enterprise is interesting when you bring it into sport. It definitely has value to it, but you do have a lot of hurdles and obstacles you’ve got to overcome,” Russell said. “I think the tournament has now overcome a lot of those hurdles. It’s very well established in the Caribbean – even including carnival, it’s without doubt the number one entertainment product there.

CPL ‘shut down corruption quickly’

Russell says that the CPL dealt with things quickly last year when officials from the St Kitts and Nevis franchise were pulled up by anti-corruption officers, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. “I think there was naivety involved on the part of the owners – we responded incredibly quickly to that situation and shut it down quickly, and actually it did very little damage to us both in terms of making sure that the team could continue to play in the league but also in terms of its integrity,” he said. “We’d beefed up our anti-corruption that year and took on a lot more responsibility ourselves, and actually got to the root of it very quickly.”

“The challenge it has from a commercial perspective is its home audience is only seven million [people]. If you compare that to India and other parts of the world, you’ll see that the economics of getting a large home media deal aren’t there, so you have to be a lot more creative in how you build your revenue profile.”We’ve been able to do that. It broke even – or a little bit better than that – last year. This year will be a challenge, but we’ve put it in a place where we can see how to make money going forward. It’s on a stable footing – we’ve got owners now who are good, we think. It’s always difficult when you’re selling franchises when you don’t know what you’re going to get, but I think now we know our owners very well and vice versa – that relationship is very strong.”St Lucia Zouks finished fifth in the 2019 CPL•Ashley Allen – CPL T20 / Getty

Things have not always been straightforward regarding the franchise owners. Vijay Mallya was removed as Barbados Tridents owner after failing to pay his players and fighting extradition, officials from St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were pulled up by anti-corruption officers last season, and the St Lucia franchise has changed hands three times in as many years – it was most recently purchased by Kings XI Punjab’s parent company, KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited in February.As things stand, two of the teams are owned by the parent companies of IPL franchises – Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel were re-branded as Trinbago Knight Riders after they were bought by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment in 2015. And though Russell admits it would “make sense” for St Lucia’s new owners to change the team’s name from Zouks to Kings XI, he doesn’t think the CPL would lose its local flavour and turn into a mini-IPL. Indeed, in the immediate term, the fact that IPL owners have a stake in the league may help avoid a clash between the two tournaments this year.”I talk to Venky Mysore [Red Chillies CEO] a reasonable amount because he has a huge amount of knowledge: what he’s learned in the IPL is only going to help us, not just in terms of the audience that they bring in terms of the Indian market, but also the learnings and professionalism. It’s no coincidence that they’ve won the number of titles that they have. All ships rise in that scenario: other owners know that the tide mark has gone up.”Similarly with Kings XI, I’m excited to be working with some great people. If you’ve got owners like that, it’s not as if there’s any threat – at the end of the day, CPL still runs and manages the league. We’re very open-minded about the way we operate. We’ve probably got a lot more wrong than we’ve got right over the years, but we learn from our mistakes and the league is in a very strong position.”Expansion is a balancing act, and Russell thinks it unlikely that a new Caribbean-based franchise will be created any time soon. Instead, the target is breaking into the US. That is easier said than done – players were frustrated by small crowds and the loss of home advantage when games were played there in 2018, and having an American CPL franchise would present a clash with USA’s own plans for franchise cricket in the next two years – but setting up an American franchise within the next five years remains an ambition.The Barbados Tridents players celebrate with the CPL trophy•Getty Images

“Would we set up another franchise in the Caribbean? I doubt it. Would I set one up in America or Canada? Probably, because that would make sense in terms of breaking into new markets and making the commercials a little more palatable.”We’ve got the largest professional [cricket] league on that side of the world, and it makes sense to collaborate and to build a powerful base there. Who knows: I could quite easily see how you would have a North and South conference in the future, once the infrastructure is in place.”The downside with any expansion is that the league risks becoming bloated: the last two Big Bash seasons, in which average attendances were down and interest waned due to an increase in the number of group games from 40 to 56 serves as a warning sign.Similarly, the CPL is determined to maintain its distinctiveness as a league. Last year, the number of overseas players per team was reduced from five to four, and there has been more of a collaborative effort with Cricket West Indies to enhance the opportunities afforded to young, local talent. Better pitches have helped the league’s entertainment value, too – scoring rates have climbed from 6.98 runs per over in 2013 to 8.30 last season.”I always look at these leagues and think less is more. I’m not one for playing 56 games, just because of the fatigue element. In my personal view, the Big Bash lost their momentum a little bit when they did that. The IPL is a different beast, but again – that’s a lot of games that they are playing.Chris Gayle celebrates his hundred•CPL T20 via Getty Images

“I think we are second [to the IPL] – I don’t think we necessarily get the credit we deserve sometimes. Everyone goes back to the Big Bash, or the Blast – and the PSL is doing a great job, the tournament they ran there was first-class – but if you just look at the engagement levels we get, we’re up there for sure. When people switch on a CPL game, they know where they are: sometimes with other leagues you switch on and go: where is this? Is this the Blast? Is it Big Bash? It’s not always the case, but they can sometimes be a bit samey.”As for a women’s league, the CPL has lagged behind most other competitions: last season, two T10 games were staged immediately before the second qualifier and the final, but only as exhibition matches.”It could be sooner than you’d think” Russell says, with regards the possibility of a fully-fledged competition. “In those T10 games, we played them in Trinidad, we didn’t move the boundaries in, and they were still clearing the ropes quite comfortably – there’s some really good players there.”If we can be the catalyst and give them the opportunity, not only does it motivate them, but it motivates a whole new generation of potential women’s cricketers to come through. Like all of these things, the economics have to play a part, but I think we can do it. If we can have the same attention to detail, then it can be very successful.”