Waugh criticises India’s ‘selfish’ day-night refusal
Ireland open to Pakistan tour if stars align
MELBOURNE, Australia, May 16, (Agencies): India’s refusal to play a day-night Test in Adelaide is “selfish” and hinders efforts to reinvigorate Test cricket, Australia’s former Test batsman Mark Waugh said on Wednesday.
India have declined to play their maiden day-night Test against Australia, leaving the Dec 6-10 series-opener in Adelaide a day match, and remain the lone frontline team not to have featured in one.
“It’s a little bit selfish from India’s point of view because we need to revitalise Test cricket,” Waugh said on Australia’s Big Sports Breakfast radio show.
“Day-night Test cricket in some countries is going to be one of those ingredients that could transform Test cricket back to where it should be.”
India’s reluctance is attributed to their pink-ball inexperience but Waugh, who will step down from his role as national twenty20 selector in August, is baffled by their refusal given the depth in the Virat Kohli-led squad.
“Their team is pretty well suited to day-night cricket, they’ve got a string of fast bowlers, so they don’t just rely on the spinners, and their batsman are technically very good as well,” Waugh explained. “So for the greater good of the game, I would have loved to have seen that as a day-night Test.”
India play three twenty20 internationals, four Tests and three one-day internationals in their tour of Australia from November to January.
Ireland are open to touring Pakistan if “all the stars align,” the chief executive of men’s Test cricket’s newest nation has said.
The Irish made their Test debut with a highly creditable five-wicket loss to Pakistan at Malahide Cricket Club, Dublin concluded Tuesday.
After being made to follow-on, Ireland reduced Pakistan to 14 for three to give themselves hope of a remarkable win before their visitors managed to chase down a modest victory target of 160.
The match further strengthened the cricket bonds between Ireland and Pakistan, which date back to when the nonTest nation knocked the subcontinental giants out of the 2007 World Cup with a
stunning win in Jamaica.
Ed Smith was adamant that Jos Buttler would prove to be the “right player at the right time” after recalling the talented batsman to Test duty in his first squad announcement as England’s new national selector.
Buttler was included in a 12-man squad along with uncapped spinner Dom Bess for the first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s next week.
This was despite Buttler having last played Test cricket some 18 months ago. But Smith is confident Buttler’s recent good form in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League can be carried into the Test arena. Buttler has endured a frustrating 18-match Test career since making his debut four years ago.
In part this has been as a result of being viewed as both a wicket-keeper and a batsman.
Sri Lanka’s cricket board Wednesday announced a profit of $14 million last year, far above all previous records despite one of the worst on-field performances by the islanders in years.
The board said it made a net profit of 2.12 billion rupees ($14 million) in 2017 — a staggering 33 times what it made the year before.
Revenues, at six billion rupees, were roughly double 2016 figures, Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement.