Let us have a look at some important developments from the cricketing world that took place on Thursday, 19 May.
BCCI announces annual contracts for women's team for 2020/21
Shafali Verma was promoted to Grade B, while Veda Krishnamurthy did not make the cut as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual central contract for the women's team for 2020-21.
BCCI retained 19 players in total, three fewer than the previous calendar year. Apart from Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bisht, Anuja Patil and D Hemalatha too failed to secure a contract.
Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Poonam Yadav grabbed Grade A contracts. They will be earning INR 50 lakh for the calendar year. Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were placed in Grade B. Overall, 10 players got Grade B contracts, while six were included in Grade C.
BCCI annual contract list for India Women:
Grade A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Poonam Yadav, Smriti Mandhana.
Grade B: Mithali Raj, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad.
Grade C: Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, Richa Ghosh, Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy.
CA release Ashes 2021/22 schedule for men's and women's
Brisbane will host the opening match of the Men’s Ashes 2021/22, followed by a day/night Test in Adelaide, confirmed Cricket Australia. The remaining three Test matches will be played in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Ahead of the Ashes, Australia will host their first-ever Test against Afghanistan.
Australia Women will begin their title defence with a one-off Test in Canberra, followed by three T20Is and as many ODIs. The two teams will then fly to New Zealand for the ICC Women's ODI World Cup.
Asia Cup called off due to Covid-19 concerns
Sri Lanka Cricket chief Ashley de Silva has confirmed the cancellation of the Asia Cup, owing to rising cases of the Covid-19 in the country. De Silva also ruled out the possibility of this tournament until 2023 World Cup.
Pakistan was supposed to host the Asia Cup in 2020, but was postponed due to a similar reason. Sri Lanka then bagged the hosting rights for 2021. The last edition was played in 2018 where India defeated Bangladesh by three wickets to clinch the trophy.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have already flown to Bangladesh for three-match ODI series, starting from 23 May.
India tour of England: Players arrive in Mumbai, will undergo a 14-day quarantine
The Indian players bound for the tour to England have started to arrive in Mumbai, where they will have to go through a 14-day quarantine period and multiple RT-PCR tests before flying to England, on 2 May.
Mithali Raj, R Ashwin and Mayank Agarwal were seen posing in the flight in a picture posted by the BCCI.
First stop, Mumbai 📍#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/Dieotl3GrF
— BCCI (@BCCI) May 19, 2021
India Men will play New Zealand in the final of the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship. Following that they will be playing five Tests against England.
On the other hand, Indian women will start their tour with a Test match in Bristol, followed by a three-match ODI and T20I series.