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Australia opener Nicole Bolton has spoken about her battle with mental health following her return to action after a five-month break and said if it hadn’t been for stepping away from the game she may have been forced to retire.When Bolton started her indefinite break in the middle of the fourth edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in January, citing personal reasons, an air of concern hung over her withdrawal. It wasn’t, after all, a drop in form that had triggered the decision; she had just smashed a fifty for the Scorchers against Sydney Thunder and picked up 2 for 26. However, that Player-of-the-Match performance also brought the curtain down on Bolton’s season.More than five months on from the start of that hiatus from competitive cricket – she was unavailable for selection for the three-match home ODI series against New Zealand in February – which ended with a recall to Australia’s Ashes squad, Bolton revealed that her pull-out had been down to “alarm bells” around her mental well-being that nearly forced her to consider retirement.ALSO READ: Nicole Bolton relieved after bouncing back from first-baller ahead of Ashes“Personally a few things happened to me away from cricket which was a bit of a challenge in itself,” Bolton told . “There is still a lot of stigma around mental health, depression and anxiety. I don’t think I’d be sitting here talking to you if I didn’t take a break. I potentially would have retired to be honest.””It was what people couldn’t see behind closed doors where I was really struggling. Physically my body started to fail me in a sense. It was like alarm bells because I was like ‘this isn’t normal’.”A battle that has been faced by some of Bolton’s top-flight competitors such as England’s Sarah Taylor and Kate Cross, posed her a similar challenge: to speak up. And Bolton admitted she “wasn’t completely honest” with the Perth Scorchers team doctor, to whom she had only described symptoms of potential burnout.”I was almost covering up how I was really feeling,” Bolton said. “I didn’t want to rush it. It was something I knew that if I was going to take the time off, I had to do it properly. If that meant never coming back to play for Australia, then that’s what it meant.”During her time away from the game, Bolton found a confidant in the Australia and New South Wales men’s allrounder Moises Henriques, who had taken leave from the Big Bash League in late-December 2017 due to mental-health reasons.”He doesn’t know the role that he’s played, but it’s unbelievable really,” Bolton said of Henriques, who would try to lift her with words of encouragement on WhatsApp.Nicole Bolton gets set to play a sweep•Getty Images

At the time, Bolton’s decision to step away from the game was met with support by her club and national team-mates, including the likes of Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry.”You speak to anyone around the country in women’s cricket and she would have had an impact on them in some way or another,” Perry, the Sydney Sixers captain had said. “She’s a great mate of mine and I know she’s got a huge amount of support from everyone. She won’t be a stranger, that’s for sure.”Bolton’s Scorchers and Australia captain, Lanning, echoed Perry. “It’s a family at the Scorchers and we’re right behind her,” Lanning said. “She knows that so hopefully she can get into a good spot and we’ll see what happens from there.”The support from her colleagues has been palpable since her return to the Australia squad for the multi-format seven-match Ashes, which starts next month and will kick off a busy international season that includes a tour of Sri Lanka in September, a tri-series involving England and India in January next year, leading up to the home T20 World Cup in February-March. There’s also the first standalone WBBL, running from October to December, on the domestic calendar.”Coming back into the squad, they were just rapt and even the staff were pumped,” Bolton said. “I never once felt alone, I knew I had the support I just needed a bit of help to get there. To be picked to play for Australia again I think is a massive achievement.”You get so caught up in the pressure and expectations and it can just grind away at you. Now I feel like I’ve got other things going on in my life that if cricket is not going well, well it’s okay. In time, I hope I can share my experience and maybe help someone else. It was an important time in my life and I’m glad I’ve been able to come through it.”

India are the last team to start their World Cup 2019 campaign, opening against South Africa on Wednesday, with every other team having played at least one game in the past week. Captain Virat Kohli felt starting late gave his side an advantage in sussing out conditions and strategies. Speaking on the eve of the match, he also welcomed the expectations people had of him, and how he has learned to go along with them.On being the last team to start their World Cup campaign
It is a bit of an advantage, I have to say, in terms of understanding how the games have gone, what the conditions have to offer, what the overcast conditions bring into play when the sun is out. It’s a totally different ball game altogether, what the conditions are at 10.30 in the morning compared to the afternoon. I think from that point of view, we have a lot to absorb. We have a lot to learn from looking at how the other teams play.From that point of view, we would say that we have a lot of positives that we can take out of starting after everyone else.On Kedar Jadhav’s fitness
Kedar is doing well, he is back to full fitness. Kedar is batting in the nets now, he is hitting the ball well, so it is always nice to have him back in the mix because of the variety he brings into the side.On whether there is pressure of scoring a century in the opening match, having done so in 2011 and 2015
When you perform for a long time, expectations are always there. I understand how to go along with the expectations rather than saying I’m not. You don’t go out there to prove anything to anyone, which is a fact, but you have to accept that expectations are going to be there.When I walk out to bat, come down the stairs, people will say “we need a hundred” and all those kind of things will happen. So, for me, that’s just a part of the process. It’s not something that I don’t want to hear, or something that I think people should not tell me because when you do well, people obviously want to see you do well again and again because they want to see the team win.So my focus is if I’m in a position to be able to do that again, but more importantly, make the team win. And if it takes a hundred runs, 150, 50, 60, 70, 40, whatever it is, I’m ready to do that and that’s the frame of mind I’m going to be in.On the 10.30am start time, and how it affects team combinations
If the conditions offer you a lot in terms of the pitch.. we know it’s a different situation in England when there is a cloud cover and when there is sun out. With two new balls, if the pitch has something to offer, then an extra seamer comes into play big time.But even on a good pitch, on a batting-friendly pitch with two new balls, I foresee the first 10 overs to be challenging if there is cloud cover. Because we are playing in England and the ball does a bit more than any other place in the world.From bowling point of view, even if you play with two spinners, two seamers or three seamers, they are going to be in the game in the first half if you start at 10.30. The dynamics will change from morning to afternoon big time, and the bowlers will have to adapt very quickly.On Kuldeep Yadav’s weak IPL 2019 form
I have had great IPL seasons and I have entered playing for the country and I have felt like, “I feel like I’m going to dominate this tournament so much” – and you can’t put bat to ball.So every tournament, every game that you play has no connection to what you have done in the past. You can only take out the positives and the learnings and take it to the next tournament or game that you play. Whether you have done well in the IPL or you haven’t, you still have to work hard. And to me, IPL has no connection to the World Cup.He’s a guy who has done so well in the last two years. I don’t think three or four games of a T20 tournament will do anything to harm his confidence.We know when he pitches the ball in the right areas the batsman has to make better decisions or you are walking out. And he’s back to bowling at his best. In the nets he is bowling well, attacking the stumps, his variations are spot on, he is pitching the ball in the right area. So I see batsmen having to take better decisions against Kuldeep rather than the other way around.

Sri Lanka’s less-heralded players helped ease through the side’s first test in the UK, as they beat Scotland by 35 runs via the DLS method.Opener Avishka Fernando, who had had a poor tour of South Africa earlier this year, produced 74 off 78 balls, while Dimuth Karunaratne, on ODI captaincy debut, made 77 off 88. The pair put on 123 runs for the first wicket. Kusal Mendis also contributed 66 off 56 balls through the middle overs, but it was bowler Nuwan Pradeep who impressed most of all, taking 4 for 34 in the rain-shortened second innings.For Karunaratne, the match was not only a test of his leadership, but also an examination of his batting. Having not played ODIs since the 2015 World Cup, there have been doubts over whether he could score quickly enough in this format. He was dropped twice before eventually being caught at long-on, but in making a half-century, and providing the middle order with a good platform, Karunaratne suggested he was not completely out of place in ODIs.”Playing an international one-dayer after such a long time is not easy,” Karunaratne said afterwards. “I was under pressure early on and was struggling a little bit. But once I got set and thought about how to play – which bowlers I should target – I felt better. Fortunately, I got a couple of chances. But thanks to the runs I got, I got some confidence.”Avishka was excellent as well. We know how capable he is. He can hit hard and rotate the strike as well. We talked to him about what we needed from him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a hundred, but I think he can get a big hundred in the World Cup.”Sri Lanka made 322 for 8 in their 50 overs, but had seemed set for a score of over 350 at one point, before they experienced a serious middle-overs stutter. Having been 203 for 1 at the end of the 33rd over, Sri Lanka mustered only 19 more runs in the next seven overs, as they lost three quick wickets. While that slowdown was not ideal, it was important that Mendis and Lahiru Thirimanne stabilise the innings at that stage, Karunaratne said. Sri Lanka later made 99 runs in the final ten overs.”We planned to bat out 50 overs, so when we were struggling in the 33rd over – we had lost a couple of wickets, in Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera – we were trying to make sure we batted long. Kusal Mendis was playing well, and Lahiru Thirimanne went in and did a good job. When you have wickets in hand, you can go for it at the end. We were struggling through that period, but we rotated the strike, and in the last ten overs we went for our big shots.”Although they had a substantial score to defend, the arrival of rain partway through Scotland’s innings had complicated the task of Sri Lanka’s bowlers, who were visibly struggling to grip the ball. Pradeep, though, was able to maintain excellent control, and was rewarded with the Player of the Match award for his returns.”When Scotland were going quite well, I spoke to Nuwan Pradeep and asked him to try a couple of bouncers,” Karunaratne said. “He did that really well and we were able to squeeze them through that middle period. It’s not easy to bowl yorkers, especially with the ball getting wet because of the rain. If you don’t execute it well it will go for a six. But Pradeep knows how he has to bowl, and he went for the straight yorker. I hope he takes that confidence into the World Cup.”

A slice of luck – a dropped catch to be exact – could well have saved, and extended, Rahul Dravid’s career, the man himself reckoned at the launch of ESPNcricinfo’s Superstats, a set of new-age metrics for a more nuanced understanding of the modern game.Dravid spoke about how a top-edge off Stuart Broad fell in no-man’s land in the Mohali Test of England’s tour of India in 2008, and allowed him to score a career-saving hundred, leading to a “couple of good years (in international cricket)” thereafter.Dravid was on 1 when the chance was missed, and went on to make 136. ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary wondered if “that’s a bit of luck for Dravid”, something Luck Index – one of three elements that make up Superstats, Smart Stats and Forecaster being the others – attempts to quantify for T20 cricket.Dravid was part of a panel that also featured Sanjay Manjrekar and ESPNcricinfo’s editor-in-chief Sambit Bal, along with Dr Raghunathan Rengaswamy of IIT Madras, whose team collaborated with ESPNcricinfo’s team of statisticians to develop Superstats. The new stats language, available for T20 cricket to start with, has been derived by putting our rich ball-by-ball data through complex algorithms developed by Gyan Data, an IIT-M incubated company founded by Raghunathan.In the words of ESPN India head Ramesh Kumar, these Superstats “offer a final point of view to settle water-cooler debates and discussions on cricket” and “will validate cricketing wisdom”.Bal said that while traditional numbers would continue to be around, Superstats added a “layer of quality and value to them”, and explained how it would mean “batsmen and bowlers are equalised” and measurable on a common metric that gauges their impact in a match.The panel discussion at the launch of ESPNcricinfo’s Superstats in Mumbai – [L to R] Raunak Kapoor, Sambit Bal, Rahul Dravid, Sanjay Manjrekar and Dr Raghunathan Rengaswamy•Annesha Ghosh/ESPNcricinfo

Manjrekar, a well-travelled broadcaster, spoke about how such enhanced statistics would benefit commentators and fans watching live telecasts, especially in T20 tournaments like the IPL, which is followed by scores of data-savvy fans who are “fascinated by numbers”, than those who have grown up watching the longer formats.Should these metrics have been available during his playing career, Manjrekar argued that “an Ajay Jadeja might have won Man of the Match in the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal” against Pakistan in Bengaluru, for the impact his innings had on the game’s result, and not Navjot Singh Sidhu, who ended up getting the award.When asked if insights of the sort had helped him make informed decisions in his playing and coaching career, Dravid mentioned acquiring the services of Brad Hodge for Rajasthan Royals in the 2012 auction despite his middling returns in past editions of the tournament with other teams.Royals, “pretty much a budget team at that stage”, went with Hodge to fill a middle-order spot despite the fact that on pitches such as in Jaipur – the Royals’ home ground – his “averages weren’t good, numbers weren’t great”. Dravid and Co picked Hodge as a death-overs finisher based on his compelling past record against pace bowling. His past failures were attributed to “playing in spin-friendly tracks in Kolkata and Kochi, falling often to left-arm spinners”.Hodge, who put in a few match-winning performances in that role, had reportedly insisted that he bat at No. 3, only to be told by Dravid that “I don’t want your 450 runs at three, give me 200 runs at strike rate 160 facing the Mitchell Johnsons and Dale Steyns”.Dravid spoke about how the conversation around T20 cricket based on conventional metrics “sometimes frustrated me as a player and a coach”, and how it was “fantastic to see people have finally recognised over the past few years” that the T20 game was a different beast.Dravid and Manjrekar agreed that, with Superstats and other new-age metrics around, the critical thing was to “make the best use of these numbers” and arrive at meaningful conclusions.The two former India batsmen did, however, debate at length about whether “geeks and nerds are taking over the game”, observing that while the likes of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli would no doubt be better captains with such insights, there was “an emotional element to cricket, a human element to it”, which can never fully be explained by numbers.Dravid argued that cricket would “never fully be taken over by the geeks, because while the numbers might tell you ‘bowl X on that day’, the captain knows better if he’s up for it, because numbers can’t quantify whether he’s carrying a niggle. As a coach, sometimes if captains take a gut call on the field, you tend to back them, as long as you know he’s not doing it blindly. I think a guy like Dhoni gets the feel of that (the game), better than most captains”.

An error in ball-tracking projection came into the spotlight as Aaron Finch was given out lbw off Kuldeep Yadav during the third ODI between India and Australia in Ranchi.When the left-arm wristspinner got his stock ball to straighten and catch Finch on the back foot in the 32nd over, C Shamshuddin, the on-field umpire, ruled the batsman out lbw. Finch called for a review, which suggested that the ball had pitched on leg stump, when it had actually bounced on middle stump.While the ball might have still gone onto hit the stumps even if it had pitched on leg stump, it was a glaring error on the part of the ball-tracking technology being used.Finch struck 93 off 99 balls – his first fifty-plus score in 22 innings in white-ball cricket since his record-breaking 172 in the Harare T20I – before he was given out lbw to end a 193-run opening-wicket stand.

A five-wicket haul from Mitchell Starc set up a 319-run first-innings lead for Australia, before Usman Khawaja’s flowing second-innings ton set Sri Lanka 516 for victory – the hosts ending the day 10 wickets away from a 2-0 series win.Both Australia’s stars on the third day were short of confidence after tough summers, and a depleted Sri Lanka were a perfect side to rebound against. Starc routinely breached speeds of 150kph to deliver perhaps the most fearsome spells of the series so far, to claim his first five-for since March last year.Khawaja, meanwhile, had hit only one fifty in his 10 most-recent innings, and had to battle through a tough period against Dilruwan Perera, before finding his feet after tea. Captain Tim Paine seemed to have delayed the declaration specifically to allow Khawaja to reach triple figures, which he did off the 134th ball he faced. This meant that Australia only had six overs at the Sri Lanka openers before the light deteriorated, however. Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne survived unscathed.Despite that, it was a thoroughly woeful day for Sri Lanka, in a tour that has been awful on various fronts. Either side of lunch, they lost 6 wickets for 45 – Starc precipitating that collapse by claiming two wickets in one over, before completing it by blasting out the tail. More worrying even than the batting slump was the blow to Kusal Perera early in the day. Hit flush on the side of the helmet by a Jhye Richardson bouncer, Perera left the field a little unsteady in the next over. According to Sri Lanka’s manager, he suffered a mild concussion. He didn’t take the field for the remainder of the day, but they are hopeful he may be in a state to bat on day four.It had been the injury to Kusal that had unsettled Sri Lanka. Early in the day, Kusal and Dhananjaya de Silva – the overnight batsmen – had made bright starts as Australia’s bowlers largely pitched the ball up, looking for swing. With no movement on offer, Australia began to bowl more short deliveries, and it was then that Sri Lanka ran into trouble. Kusal essentially ducked into that bouncer Richardson, the force of the blow near the right ear causing one part of his helmet to disintegrate, and another part to fly off.Dimuth, who had been struck in the neck the previous evening and had been cleared to bat by doctors overnight, could add only 13 runs to his score before he was out sending a catch off Starc to gully. Earlier in that same over, de Silva had attempted to hook a Starc bouncer, and ended up knocking off his own off bail, unable to control the swing of his bat.Spinners Nathan Lyon and Marnus Labuschagne then removed Chamika Karunaratne and Niroshan Dickwella respectively – the former going for a duck on debut, and the latter being given somewhat controversially, after the third umpire failed to overturn an lbw in which Dickwella had appeared to glove the ball before it struck pad. But by this stage, Australia had already made the vital blows and were all over Sri Lanka, who were clearly rattled.Soon after lunch, Starc dismissed Dilruwan and Vishwa Fernando in the space of three balls to wipe out the Sri Lanka tail – Australia declining to enforce the follow-on as expected, because their bowlers had already delivered 68.3 overs in the first innings.Sri Lanka’s seamers did impress with the new ball, having Australia 3 for 37 at one stage – Kusal Mendis taking two more excellent catches at second slip – but as in the first innings, they were virtually toothless when the ball lost its shine. Khawaja was tense early in his innings, particularly against Dilruwan, who has a history of getting him out. But having survived until tea on 25, he blossomed in the third session, hitting beautifully through the covers, as well as through point and square leg, whenever Sri Lanka pitched short. He hit 14 fours in his 101 off 136 deliveries, and in the process, put on a 159-run stand with Travis Head, who made a half-century to go with his 161 in the first innings.Paine eventually declared after Khawaja had got to his hundred (it’s worth remembering that Paine had denied himself a half-century by declaring when he was on 45 in the first-dig), and his quicks, though menacing, could not break through before the umpires deemed the light unfit for play. Dimuth and Lahiru Thirimanne both ended the day on 8 not out.

Vasbert Drakes, West Indies’ bowling coach, believes “the sky is the limit” for this current team, and says the emergence of a four-pronged pace attack evokes memories of the great days of West Indies cricket by “putting fear in opposition hearts”.And, with the final Test of the series against England likely to be played on the quickest pitch in the Caribbean, he hopes that their seam attack can continue to trouble a batting line-up that had been blown away in the opening two Tests in Barbados and Antigua.”The sky is the limit for this side as they continue to grow,” Drakes said. “The guys understand the legacy of West Indies cricket and they want to continue to inspire the next generation of cricketers to play the game. The guys are playing really good cricket. I’m really proud as an ex-West Indies cricketer. All kudos to the players.”We’re really looking forward to playing in St Lucia. It reminds me of the wickets that were prepared for us, the West Indians, in the ’70s and ’80s. That’s the environment we’re trying to create. The objective is to make sure we have pace.”Kemar Roach has really started to mature as a bowler and Shannon Gabriel has the X-factor for us. I’m really excited to be part of this squad where we continue to put fear in opposition hearts.”I wouldn’t use the words so strong to say ‘intimidate with pace’ but when you have pace, as someone who played the game as a fast bowler, it gives you a little more option of being able outfox the batters. At the moment that’s what we have in our favour so we’re going to utilise it to our advantage on the cricket field.”While Drakes accepts the loss of Jason Holder, suspended as a result of his team’s slow over-rate in Antigua, is a blow, he is excited by the prospect of the young players who could come into the side. And while Keemo Paul, the 20-year-old all-rounder, looks more likely to play by virtue of his superior batting, Drakes appears especially excited about the prospect of 21-year-old fast bowler Oshane Thomas.”I saw that young man five years ago,” Drakes said. “I thought he would be one for the future who would put fear into any opposition team.”It’s unfortunate for Jason, but those are the rules we have to live with. We might question it but that’s a different discussion. It just opens up a spot for Oshane or whoever the selectors decide to go for.”

Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul have been suspended from all forms of cricket pending an inquiry into their controversial comments on a recently aired TV show. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) that is overseeing the functioning of the BCCI has sent fresh show-cause notices to the players, asking them for a response within seven days “as to why they should not be proceeded against for misconduct and indiscipline under Rule 41 of the BCCI Constitution”.The pair will return to India and miss the remainder of the Australia tour and the upcoming limited-overs tour of New Zealand. The selectors are expected to name their replacements in due course.”You are aware that the enquiry and proceedings against you for misconduct and indiscipline have been initiated under Rule 41 of the BCCI Constitution and the same are presently pending,” the show-cause notice, which ESPNcricinfo has accessed, read.”In terms of Rule 41(6) of the BCCI Constitution, you are hereby suspended with immediate effect from participating in any matter whatsoever in any match or function or event or activity that is authorized, organized, sanctioned, recognized or supported in any way by the BCCI, the ICC or any State Association, until final adjudication of the matter.”The CoA has taken on board the recommendation of the BCCI’s legal team that Pandya and Rahul be suspended pending an inquiry. This was the procedure the BCCI followed when its CEO Rahul Johri faced sexual harassment allegations last October.The recommendation has the support of the CoA member Diana Edulji, a former India women captain, and the BCCI’s acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary,”Based on the legal opinion and till the time the final procedure is laid down to address this issue, will recommend that a communication be sent to the concerned players and the team immediately,” Edulji said in response to the legal team’s email on Friday morning, which has been accessed by ESPNcricinfo.”It will be imperative that the players be put under suspension till a further course of action is decided for this misconduct as was done in the case of CEO when he was sent on leave in the sexual harassment matter.”Choudhary agreed with Edulji’s view in a separate email.In reply to the first show-cause notice issued by the BCCI earlier this week, both Pandya and Rahul had apologised for their conduct.Both Pandya and Rahul have been part of India’s practice sessions in Sydney leading up to Saturday’s first ODI. On Friday, India captain Virat Kohli said their comments were not acceptable.This latest controversy, coming immediately in the wake of India’s triumph in the Test series in Australia, has once again split the BCCI and the CoA. Vinod Rai, the CoA chairman, had initially recommended a two-match suspension for the players, while Anirudh Chaudhry, the BCCI treasurer, had called for stricter sanctions. Acting secretary Choudhary wanted the pair suspended “immediately”.At Edulji’s behest, the BCCI’s legal team gave its inputs as to the way forward, and whether and how the players could be charged under the board’s new constitution, which came into effect in August 2018. The legal team ruled out charging Pandya and Rahul for violating the BCCI’s Code of Conduct, which applies strictly to on-field actions.As per the new BCCI constitution, the power to sanction players for indiscipline or misconduct is to rest with the BCCI’s Apex Council. The constitution specifies that the BCCI CEO seek an explanation from the players through an initial show-cause notice and the CEO’s report is to be forwarded by the Apex Council to an Ombudsman, who determines what sanctions are binding.The BCCI, pending fresh elections, does not have either an Apex Council or an Ombudsman. The legal team has suggested that the CoA, as the authorised head of the BCCI currently, could substitute for the Apex Council. The legal team also pointed out that CEO Rahul Johri’s initial show-cause notices to Pandya and Rahul had not included specific rules under which the pair could be charged subject to an inquiry.The legal team suggested that Johri send fresh show-cause notices to both players and that he submit his final report within 15 days. The team also recommended that an ad-hoc Ombudsman, meeting the criteria set by the BCCI constitution, be appointed to adjudicate on the matter within the maximum prescribed period of 6 months from the date the player is charged.”Considering that the inquiry process against the concerned players has commenced and is pending, it is open for the COA to suspend the concerned players (along with their privileges and benefits) pending enquiry and proceeding into the charges of misconduct until final adjudication,” the legal team said in its email to the CoA, the office bearers and the BCCI’s professional management.

Former allrounder Dilhara Lokuhettige has become the third ex-Sri Lanka player to be charged with corruption-related offences, this time for allegedly breaching the Emirates Cricket Board’s anti-corruption code. The charges, of which there are three, relate to the T10 Cricket League played in December last year.The charges are as follows:

• Being party to an effort to fix or contrive or to otherwise influence improperly the result, progress, conduct, or other aspect(s) of a domestic match.
• Directly soliciting, inducing, enticing or encouraging a player to [improperly influence a match]
• Failure to disclose to a designated anti-corruption officer (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations he received to engage in corrupt conduct under the code

Lokuhettige is understood to currently reside in Australia, but has links to the cricket system in Sri Lanka. He was recently seen allegedly talking about a fix in Al Jazeera’s “Cricket’s Match Fixers” documentary, which was aired in May.Lokuhettige, 38, was not part of any of the T10 squads, nor had he been an official member of the coaching staff in any of the six sides that took part in the competition.A “Team Sri Lanka” side comprising a mix of domestic and international players did take part in the competition, however. The team’s bowling coach was Nuwan Zoysa, who has been separately charged under the ICC’s anti-corruption code over the last fortnight. Although charged under different official codes, the charges for Zoysa and Lokuhettige bear similarities. Both are accused of being party to an effort to fix or otherwise influence a match, of soliciting inducing or encouraging another player, and of failing to disclose an approach.In addition to Lokuhettige and Zoysa, the other ex-player charged with corruption-related offences over the past few weeks is Sanath Jayasuriya. Unlike Lokuhettige, who has not held any official positions with SLC over the past two years, Zoysa and Jayasuriya had been part of the local system, the former as a bowling coach with the A team and several development squads, and the latter as chief selector.

West Indies’ next-gen T20I stars, plucked out of the Caribbean Premier League 2018, were tipped to challenge India more than their ODI and Test sides had done. Their batsmen cobbled only 109 for 8, but their bowlers, led by debutant quick Oshane Thomas, ambushed India’s top order and ran them close, before Dinesh Karthik and Krunal Pandya, also on debut, ushered the hosts home.Krunal, whose first touch with the ball was a fumble to the boundary in the game’s first over, hit the winning runs with an eye-catching chip over extra-cover. He had also played a part with the ball, claiming the wicket of his IPL team-mate Kieron Pollard, while conceding only 15.It was anybody’s game when 21-year-old Thomas and his captain Carlos Brathwaite pinned India down to 45 for 4 inside eight overs. Thomas set the speedgun on fire – like he had done at the CPL and in the ODI series – ripping out both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan with 147kph inswingers. It was the third time in three innings on this tour that he had nailed Dhawan’s stumps. Brathwaite then dug the ball into the pitch and had Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul holing out for 1 and 16 respectively.Thomas continued to hit speeds north of 145kph, leaving Karthik and Manish Pandey ducking and weaving. At one point, Brathwaite even deployed Pollard at forward short leg. Karthik and Pandey saw him and Brathwaite off, putting on 38 for the fifth wicket off 45 balls.Left-arm spinner Khary Pierre, who like Krunal bowled constricting lines, gave India further jitters, when he beat Pandey with dip and turn, drawing a return catch. At that point, India needed 27 off 30 balls. While Karthik simply defended tightly or knocked the ball into the gaps, Krunal was more adventurous; even venturing a reverse-paddle off his third ball. They ultimately sealed the game with five wickets and 13 balls to spare in India’s first-ever T20I at home without MS Dhoni.West Indies’ T20I line-up was dripping with flair and depth – they had hitters until No. 10 – but their troubles at the top set them up for failure. In the absence of their gun openers Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis, West Indies used a make-shift opening pair in Shai Hope and Dinesh Ramdin, who had laboured to 24 off 30 balls in his most recent game as an opener, in the CPL final earlier this year. Before that, Ramdin had opened only twice in competitive cricket – both in 2007.He was uncertain against the swing of left-arm quick Khaleel Ahmed, but it was Umesh Yadav, playing only because of Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s illness, who found Ramdin’s outside edge. In the next over, Hope was involved in a farcical mix-up that might break Youtube hit counters. After he clipped the ball away to the right of short midwicket, Rahul hunted it down but lobbed the ball over wicketkeeper Karthik’s head. Both Hope and Shimron Hetmyer were dashing towards the non-striker’s end by the time Pandey swooped in from backward point and effected a run-out, despite colliding with Karthik.Hetmyer then flickered briefly before Jasprit Bumrah bounced him out with a 141kph short ball that was aimed at the armpit. Pollard, West Indies’ most experienced batsman, was all at sea against both swing and spin, as he tiptoed to 14 off 26 balls, before Krunal sent him off with a kiss.It turned into a full-blown collapse when Darren Bravo, Rovman Powell and Brathwaite all fell to Kuldeep Yadav. At 63 for 7 in 14.5 overs, West Indies were in danger of being dismissed for a sub-100 total, but Fabien Allen (27 off 20 balls) and Keemo Paul (15* off 13 balls) helped their side avoid that ignominy. Thomas’ blistering pace then made their total of 109 look bigger, but not big enough.