Michael Clarke to retire from Test cricket after Oval Test

The legendary Australian player and captain Michael Clarke has announced that he will retire at the end of the ongoing Ashes series. Australia has already lost the series against England by 1-3 on third day of the 4th Test.

Clarke was reportedly not in the mood of retiring until the Trent Bridge Test, where his team lost the match by an innings and thus, adding one more to the consecutive series loss in England.

34-year-old Clarke has been playing Test cricket for past 11 years and believes that he was physically and mentally exhausted by now and should leave when it is time. Clarke himself confirmed the news soon after his team lost their 3th Test in the ongoing series. This was Australia's first loss by an innings against England in 30 years.

"The boys have worked hard, I don't blame anyone in that change room. As a team we haven't performed as well as we needed to be beat England, and as a captain I certainly haven't led from the front."

Michael Clarke will play the final Test match of the series as Captain against England at the Oval in London. The current Ashes series has not done any good for Clarke and he is now at his all-time lowest Ashes average of 16.71. He indicated that it is time for him to move on and make place for someone better. Former England captain Michael Vaughan supported Clarke's decision saying that he was not surprised with the decision.

Clarke has scored 8605 runs in his career that include 28 centuries and 27 half centuries. A big applause for one of the best Cricket players of all-time.

Champions League T20 (CLT20) tournament discontinued

The Champions League T20 tournament has been discontinued with immediate effect because of the poor demand and user base. BCCI, on Wednesday confirmed that an agreement has been reached by the Governing Council of CLT20 to discontinue the tournament with immediate effect.

CLT20, which was a joint venture of BCCI, Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA), could not find enough sponsors or fans to be continued any longer. The fan base was poor since the very beginning of this tournament in 2009 and now, the hosts are even struggling to find sponsors. The decision was taken unanimously by all three host associations.

Anurag Thakur, Secretary of the BCCI said, “This has been a difficult decision as the Champions League T20 provided added context to a number of domestic Twenty 20 competitions around the world such as the IPL in India, Big Bash League in Australia and South Africa’s Ram Slam T20. "

After this decision, the upcoming edition of CLT20, scheduled in September and October, will be discarded.

CLT20 was not reportedly drawing enough attraction of audience from any country other than India and this was not good for the business. BCCI, though gave a hint of organizing a 'mini-IPL' to be played in the UAE to replace the discontinued CLT20.

Modi's Letter to ICC about ‘corrupt’ players

Ex-Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi reportedly sent a confidential letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) revealing the names of some top international cricketers who were involved in corruption in the IPL T20 tournament.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday confirmed receiving the letter from Modi. The letter ts dated June 2013 in which Modi has claimed that certain players received illegal payments equal to the amount of Rs 20 crores each from an Indian real estate businessperson. ICC CEO David Richardson has received the names of the so called alleged players and the bookie and has promised that ICC will look after into the matter.

“The players are in close contact with real estate tycoon (name withheld). He is also a big punter and also book maker. I had banned him from bidding for any IPL teams… Reliable sources have informed me that he has paid in cash and kind (flats) to the above three in tune of 20 cr each,” Modi said in the letter.

“The ICC confirms that Mr Modi’s confidential e-mail, which was received in June 2013, and which has recently been published on Twitter, was provided to the ACSU at the time. The ACSU handled that information in accordance with its standard operating procedures, which included sharing it with the BCCI’s anti-corruption unit,” the ICC statement read.

The letter is almost two years old, but has been revealed to public only now. ICC has assured the BCCI that it would carry out investigations since the players involved in the case are all internationals.

The news first came out from Twitter when one of the social-media website users with the handle @shyamswami158 posted an image of the letter in a tweet sent to Modi, asking,"Whadya hav to say about this @LalitKModi ? Wat was @ICC response ..... This is shocking!!!!" Modi's response to the tweet from @shyamswami158 was: "Ask @Icc @Bcci @Ipl why ask me. This is highly confidential. You should not be tweeting this". Later, ICC confirmed about the letter.

Sangakkara announces retirement from Test after India Series

The legendary Sri Lankan player Kumar Sangakkara has announced that he would retire from Test cricket after the second Test match of India-Sri Lanka Test series scheduled in August 2015. He will also not play the third Test match of the ongoing Pakistan Test series and the two Test matches against India would be his last. Sangakkara is already retired from ODI format of Cricket.

Breaking the long silence about the rumors of retirement, the Sri Lankan player confirmed the news in a special press conference held after the third day's play of the second Test of Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2015. Sangakkara also mentioned that he was intended to retire from all forms of cricket after the 2015 Cricket World Cup, but was convinced to play 4 more Test matches by the Sri Lanka's previous selection committee.

"I've had the time of my life playing for Sri Lanka. It has been a great honour. Growing up as a kid, watching players like Aravinda de Silva play for Sri Lanka and then one day to get a chance to play with them. I've thoroughly enjoyed playing every format, but donning the whites for Sri Lanka has been a different feeling altogether. There have been so many ups and downs. I've had bad days as well but the good times outweigh the bad. I know, it's disappointing to say goodbye to something you've done for over 15 years, but I know this is the right time to leave," Sangakkara said.

Sangakkara has been one of the best ODI & Test players of all-time. He currently holds the third position in the ICC Test Batsmen Ranking and second in the ICC ODI Batsmen Ranking. His list of records is quite  long. He debuted his Test career in 2000 and in just 15 years, he managed to score 12271 Test runs, which is also the fifth-highest of all-time in Test cricket format.

The 37-years old Sri Lankan player hit 38 Test centuries that include 11 double-centuries, just one behind Sir Don Bradman's record of 12.

Sangakkara, during the announcement, indicated that he never played for personal records, but always for the country. "If that (personal milestones) is the only driving ambition, then it is time to say 'thank you very much'. I've prided myself in doing well individually, but I should be able to look at my teammates in the eye and say I really went out there for the country and not individual records."

We wish the great player Kumar Sangakkara a very well and successful future ahead.

Batting Powerplay No Longer a part of ODIs

ICC Annual Conference 2015

At the Annual Conference 2015 of the International Cricket Council, ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson, on Friday, announced that the batting powerplay system has been removed from the One Day Internationals (50-over format). He also announced some other significant changes in the ODI formats after discussing the recommendations made by ICC Cricket Committee at the Conferencein Barbados.

The batting Powerplay was one of the systems being followed in One-Day International until now. From now on, there will be no batting powerplays in any innings of any International 50-over match that means, no restriction to field setting like before. Although ICC also announced that from now on, five fielders will be allowed to field outside the 30-yard circle in the final 10 overs of both innings while maximum of two fielders outside the circle for first ten overs and maximum four fielders outside the circle for overs 11 to 40. That means, No compulsory catchers in overs 1-10 in ODIs.

Also, all No balls, including 'over stepping by the bowlers' will result in free hits in both ODIs and Twenty20 formats.

All new rules will be in effect for any series starting starting on or after July 5.

"We have thoroughly reviewed the ODI format after a very successful ICC Cricket World Cup. There was no need to make any radical changes to what has proved to be a vibrant and popular format but we wanted to take this opportunity to make the format simpler and easier to follow for the public as well as maintaining a balance between bat and ball," Richarsdon said at the press conference.

Sachin Tendulkar voted best Test player of 21st century

In an online poll conducted by Cricket Australia’s website, India's legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been voted as the 'Test player of the 21st century.' The poll was conducted by the website cricket.com.au, which is the official website of Cricket Australia to list out best 100 Test players since 2000.

The former Indian cricket player Sachin Tendulkar received the higher number of votes in the poll to become the best test player of 21st Century. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara held the second position in the list receiving second highest number of votes. Third position has been occupied by the former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist.

Sachin Tendulkar is certainly one of the best cricketers of all-time and now, this online poll has crowned him as the best Test player of this century.

"Tendulkar, the Little Master who remains an iconic figure in the sport, was a runaway winner, while batting giants Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis were separated on countback, with the Australian just edging out his Protean counterpart," the website said.

The survey was taken by over 16,000 cricket fans and Sachin managed to get 23 per cent of votes to top the list while Sangakkara got 14 per cent votes to be at the second position. The top 10 Test players list includes only one Indian (Sachin Tendlukar), four Australian, three South African and two Sri Lankan cricketers.

Sachin Tendulkar currently holds the record for the highest number of runs scored in both ODI and Test cricket formats as well as the only player to have hit 100 international centuries.

Zaheer Abbas is the new ICC President

Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has been appointed as the new president of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Abbas has replaced Bangladesh's Mustafa Kamal as the ICC president. Zaheer Abbas has joined his duties and thanked the ICC Board for giving him the opportunity.

"I feel truly honoured and humbled to be appointed as the president of the governing body of our great game," said Abbas.

The ICC chairman, Narayanaswami Srinivasan said: “Zaheer is clearly an iconic cricketer who always played the game with skill, flair and in the true spirit. He is a worthy ambassador of our great game.”

Zaheer Abbas has been a former player of Pakistan and Gloucestershire teams and has many records in his name. Zaheer has scored 5,062 runs in 78 Tests, around 2,500 in 62 ODIs and more than 34,000 runs in his cricket career. He also made 108 centuries and is the only Asian batsman with 100 first-class centuries.

Zaheer also played in the 1975, 1979 and 1983 ICC Cricket World Cups. He also played as a captain of Pakistan Cricket team in 14 Tests and 13 ODIs.

The International Cricket Council also accepted the Serbia Cricket Federation (SCF) as the 58th Affiliate Member of the ICC.