Let us look at some of the most-discussed cricket stories on the news on 2 July.
Abbas, Shafiq, Imad lose Pakistan central contracts
Mohammad Abbas, Asad Shafiq and Imad Wasim are among the notable omissions from Pakistan’s 2021/22 central contracts’ list. Others missing from last year’s contracts are Haider Ali, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Naseem Shah, Shan Masood and Usman Shinwari.
However, Hasan Ali made his entry into Category ‘A’ to join Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Nauman Ali, Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dhani and Usman Qadir are the names who have earned their maiden national contract, that runs from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.
Shakib, Khawaja, Yusuf earn headlines in LPL 2 draft line-up
Shakib Al Hasan, Usman Khawaja and Yusuf Pathan are among the top names to have registered for the second edition of the Lankan Premier League, starting 30 July.
Other popular names who have made themselves available for the draft are James Faulkner, Tamim Iqbal. Sherfane Rutherford, Nicholas Pooran, Temba Bavuma, Rilee Rossouw, Rassie Van Der Dussen and Tabraiz Shamsi.
A total of 11 cricket-playing nations have shown interest to participate in the tournament.
Yusuf announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket earlier this year. His half-brother, Irfan Pathan, played for Kandy Tuskers in LPL last season.
Men’s Hundred: Du Plessis replaces Finch at Superchargers
Northern Superchargers has signed Faf du Plessis as the replacement of Aaron Finch for the inaugural season of the Men’s Hundred, starting 21 July. In fact, du Plessis will lead Superchargers in Finch’s absence.
Alongside Finch, Kane Williamson and Nicholas Pooran are among the high-profile names who have recently pulled out of the tournament, while Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy have withdrawn from the Women’s Hundred.
Earlier, ECB had confirmed a total of 21 replacements have been made by eight city-based teams on 2 July after as many names set to be unavailable after signing contracts.
Five Sri Lankans refuse ‘tour contracts’ ahead of India series
Five Sri Lanka players refused to sign ‘tour’ contracts ahead of India’s limited-overs series, starting 13 July in Colombo. They are Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Ashen Bandara, and Kasun Rajitha.
Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva told the Daily FT they have not joined the residential camps to start training before the India series: ‘Until the national contract issue is resolved they were asked to sign the tour contract if they are going to be available for the Indian series so that they can go into a bubble as we are investing in them. But they were reluctant to sign the tour contract and therefore they were left out of the residential camps. They did not join the bubble in Dambulla or Colombo.’