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The Tata Group has extended its title sponsorship of the IPL for another five years, from 2024 to 2028, for INR 2500 crore (US$301 million approx.), making it the “highest-ever sponsorship amount in the history of the league,” a BCCI statement said. The group were the IPL title sponsors in 2022 and 2023, and are also the title sponsors of the Women’s Premier League (WPL).”The collaboration with TATA Group for the title sponsorship of IPL 2024-28 is a significant milestone in IPL’s journey,” IPL chairman Arun Singh Dhumal said. “The record-breaking sum of INR 2500 crore by TATA Group is a testament to the immense value and appeal that the IPL holds in the world of sports.”This unprecedented amount not only sets a new benchmark in the history of the league but also reaffirms the IPL’s position as a premier sporting event with global impact. TATA Group’s commitment to cricket and sports is truly commendable, and we look forward to scaling new heights together and providing fans with unparalleled cricketing entertainment.”The Tata Group had replaced Vivo as IPL title sponsors for the last two seasons. The BCCI had temporarily severed ties with Vivo, a Chinese mobile and technology company, following political tensions between India and China in June 2020. Vivo had originally bagged the title sponsorship for 2018 to 2022 for INR 2199 crores (US $341 million approx. at the time), but for the 2020 season, it was replaced by Dream 11, before Vivo returned for the 2021 season.Tata’s bid for the next five years is a 13.7% jump over what Vivo had paid for 2018-22.”This collaboration embodies the spirit of growth, innovation, and a mutual dedication to excellence,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said. “The unprecedented financial commitment reflects the immense scale and global impact of the IPL on the international sports stage.”The 2024 IPL will be played from March 22 and run till the end of May, just before the men’s T20 World Cup kicks off on June 1.

New South Wales captain Moises Henriques admitted there was relief after the team ended their 15-match winless run in the Sheffield Shield with a convincing victory over defending champions Western Australia.The visitors were bowled out for 136, after making 141 on the opening day, while Ollie Davies playing the defining innings of the game with his maiden first-class century.Related

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New South Wales had seen victory slip away from them in the opening match of the Shield season when Queensland secured a draw at Cricket Central then they lost against South Australia and Victoria.They had not won in the competition since beating Tasmania at the SCG in February 2022.”It’s definitely a huge relief,” Henriques said. “If anything, I feel like our preparation through pre-season had been magnificent and feel like I’ve seen a lot of the players grow in confidence. And we weren’t quite getting the results in the longer format.”Think it’s really important to get a result to give the guys a little bit of reward for some really positive processes otherwise that doubt starts to set in again. Until you start seeing some results that doubt’s always there, so I’m hoping on the back of that it builds up a lot of belief and a lot of confidence that they are on the right path because I believe they are.”It’s been a great week and we’ve shown with the skill around the squad that we can match it and defeat the reigning premiers in both competitions. We don’t get carried away, it’s one Shield win…[but] I’m hopeful that’s the first of many into the future.”WA had been reduced to 34 for 6 on the second day but then provided some stubborn resistance led by Cameron Bancroft who was eventually ninth out when he edged Liam Hatcher to slip from round the wicket for a 160-ball 54.He had added 66 for the eighth wicket with Charlie Stobo to take WA to the brink of a lead before Stobo fended Hatcher to leg gully. The last three wickets fell for two runs leaving NSW a target of just two that was achieved before lunch.”Our bowlers came up to another level and to bowl a WA side out for 140 in both innings was a pretty good result,” Henriques said. “You take Ollie’s 130 out of our scoring – that was a very special knock.”WA coach Adam Voges acknowledged his team had not been able to respond to the pressure put on by the NSW attack”We were below par from probably ten minutes before lunch on day one when we lost those couple [of wickets],” he said. “We were outplayed by New South Wales, they were very good and we were off. The result reflects that.”We were put under pressure…this is probably the first time our middle order has been exposed a little earlier and unfortunately we weren’t able to handle that challenge this week.”Voges was hopeful that Aaron Hardie, who missed this match with a minor quad strain, would be available to face South Australia at the WACA next week.

Annabel Sutherland and Alana King claimed three wickets each but rain ruined the day with the match bookended by a three-and-a-half hour delay prior to the start of play before another burst ended the match after just 25.3 overs of West Indies’ inningsThe match was reduced to a 29-over-a-side fixture after heavy rain had fallen throughout the morning in Melbourne leaving puddles on the edge of the square at the Junction Oval. But once the rain stopped, the ground drained quickly and play was able to start without any trouble.Australia elected to bowl and their new ball pair of Megan Schutt and Kim Garth were able to quell West Indies captain Hayley Matthews on her return from a quad injury. She faced seven dot balls in her first 14 deliveries and only struck one boundary before finding the rope three consecutive times off Schutt. But Garth was able to nip one back off the seam and forced Matthews to chop on trying an expansive drive for a run-a-ball 20. Following Matthews’ dismissal, West Indies managed just 73 runs in 20 overs.Alyssa Healy brought King into the attack straight away and she bowled with superb control on return in place of the injured Darcie Brown. She attacked the stumps relentlessly and her control of length was sublime. She clean bowled Stafanie Taylor and trapped Shemaine Campbelle and Zaida James plumb lbw as both tried to sweep length balls.King was left out of the T20I series and missed the opening ODI. She spoke about having worked hard during her time off in Perth after a long tour of the UK which included the Ashes, a series against Ireland, and the Hundred.”I [worked on] just making sure that I owned my length,” King said. “Maybe in the Ashes we drifted to full. So it was just making sure that I bring back that length and challenge both sides of the bat and make sure that all modes of dismissals are in play.”Sutherland benefitted from King’s immaculate control picking up 3 for 6 at the other end and delivering a maiden. During a 14-over stretch after the 10th, West Indies managed 30 runs.Australia looked on track to bowl West Indies out inside 29 overs but the wind picked up and a big storm blew through late in the afternoon. The game finished in quite amusing fashion with Australia’s players forced to help the Junction Oval ground staff pull the large covers on in high winds with the rain pelting down sideways.”We were right on top there,” King said. “We just needed a couple more wickets to get the job done. But that’s Melbourne’s weather for you, unfortunately. All we can do is focus on the next game which is Saturday and hopefully wrap up the series.”Australia retain their 1-0 series lead heading into the final match on Saturday, which is also at the Junction Oval.

Angelo Mathews had made peace with the circumstances that led to him not being a part of Sri Lanka’s initial World Cup squad, but wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet.It didn’t matter that he had played all of seven ODIs since the start of 2020 – including three earlier this year in New Zealand – and the prospect of playing a fourth ODI World Cup seemed a distant dream. He decided to keep going anyway, training regularly at the High-Performance Centre in Colombo, hoping to keep himself fit at the very least.The hunger or the drive hadn’t dimmed despite all the injuries and surgeries, but little did he know a call-up was to come his way. When it eventually did, as an injury replacement for fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana, he knew the work he had put in was worth it.”Those things I can’t control, It’s not under my control,” he said of his initial exclusion. “So, what I can control is keep pushing myself individually in terms of fitness, bowling, batting, everything. I mean, when the opportunity comes, I have to be ready.Related

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“I just did that over the last month or so. I was training extremely hard at HPC with the other boys as well. So, I was giving myself a chance to… if I get the opportunity, to be prepared. But as I said, I didn’t expect [the call-up], because after the 15 was selected, I was not expecting. But it is what it is, the opportunity came.”It can at times be a blow to the ego, especially when someone as senior as Mathews is named a traveling reserve, as he initially was. However, he looked at it as an opportunity to contribute to the group in whatever way he could.Mathews is “grateful” to the opportunity, and hopes to rekindle the “fun” and try to keep Sri Lanka alive in the competition. But how does one explain the suddenness of his call-up? Mathews himself couldn’t. All he knows is he has a wealth of experience to bank on.For starters, he is keeping his mantra simple: contribute wherever he can, with bat and “if required” with the ball. The last bit a giveaway that he’s ready to bowl, something he has often been reluctant to do in recent years because of injury.”Yeah, look, I’ve probably seen it all over the last 15 years,” he said with a smile, when asked about the twists and turns of an eventful career that has now brought him here. “So it’s quite easy for me to sort of focus on what I have to do rather than getting too affected on what’s happening around me because cricket has taught me so much over the years.”And then now I am, I would say, a little more mature than who I was before to sort of shut down the things which I have to and then focus on what I have to focus on. So, all I am trying to control is the controllables, and I try not to worry too much. Well, obviously, we are people with emotions and then reacting for those emotions is going to damage you, so I try to keep calm and then focus on what I have to do and then obviously always do the right thing.”The wheels of fortunes may have turned for Mathews at the Lanka Premier League this year, when he led B-Love Kandy to the title. Mathews contributed equally with bat and ball, hitting 210 runs and picking up seven wickets across 11 matches. He drew confidence from that performance.”I played only like three [white-ball] games over the last two or three years,” he said. “But I had a good LPL. I bowled batted and fielded well. So that gave me the confidence. And also, as I always say, I just try to focus on my fitness, trying to be fit, bowl a few overs, and keep myself fit and trying to give myself a chance. If I do get the opportunity, then to grab it with both hands.”1:54

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A gentle smile appeared on Mathews’ face when he was asked of Sri Lanka’s previous World Cup outing against England. At Headingley in 2019, his 85 had shored up a floundering innings before Lasith Malinga put in a match-turning spell.Asked what his message to his mates would be, Mathews, genial at the best of times, said in no uncertain terms that the only option against England would be to “fight fire with fire”.”Whether you play at home or away or in England or any other neutral venue, it’s always a contest between the English because we know the brand of cricket that they play and it’s all about you got to be positive with them,” he said. “If you if you take a backward step, they are going to jump on to you and then they’re going to take the advantage but we need to sort of be positive with them.”As I keep saying, you have to fight fire with fire. We know that they are a high-quality team. They are a very well-balanced team. And they can hurt us badly if we are being complacent. I mean, obviously we have to play our A game to win against a strong English team. Even though they haven’t played to their potential [at the World Cup so far], they are a very dangerous team.”

Lasith Malinga will return to Mumbai Indians for IPL 2024, this time as their fast-bowling coach. He will replace Shane Bond, who had held that position for the past nine seasons.After retiring in 2021, Malinga had joined Rajasthan Royals in 2022 as their fast-bowling coach, a position he served for two seasons. This will be Malinga’s second stint in Mumbai’s support staff, having served as their mentor in 2018. A year later, Malinga returned to the field to share the bowling duties with Jasprit Bumrah, with the pair playing a key role in Mumbai winning their fourth IPL title.Overall, Malinga won five titles with Mumbai: four IPLs (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019) and the Champions League T20 in 2011. Malinga played 139 matches for Mumbai in all, taking 195 wickets at an economy rate of 7.12. Out of those, 170 wickets came in the IPL, the joint-sixth-most in the league.Bond had joined Mumbai in 2015 and played a key role with Rohit Sharma and Mahela Jayawardene, who served as head coach from 2017 to 2022. It could not be confirmed whether Bond will continue as the head coach of MI Emirates in the ILT20, which started in January this year, where the franchise finished third on the points table in the six-team tournament before losing the second Qualifier to eventual champions Gujarat Giants.

MSK Prasad joins Super Giants as strategic consultant

MSK Prasad, the former India wicketkeeper and chief selector, has taken up the role of strategic consultant with the Super Giants franchise, which owns Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and Durban’s Super Giants in the SA20.Prasad played six Tests and 17 ODIs for India from 1998 to 2000. In 2016, he replaced Sandeep Patil as the chairman of India men’s selection committee and served in that role till 2020. Apart from that, he was also the director of cricket operations at the Andhra Cricket Association.”His involvement at RPSG Sports will be instrumental in providing essential guidance across a spectrum of critical domains as head of talent search, talent development and our academy business,” Super Giants said on their website.

India batter Prithvi Shaw has secured a deal with Northamptonshire to play the remainder of the County Cricket season in England and also be a part of the Royal London One-Day Cup which starts in August. The 23-year-old is expected to join them at the end of the Duleep Trophy.Shaw is part of a strong West Zone side which is tipped to make it all the way to the final of the Duleep Trophy scheduled between July 12 and 16. He may have fallen down the pecking order for India but remains a prolific run-scorer for his state side, Mumbai, in all formats of the game. Shaw hasn’t played any first-class cricket for six months but he did make a career-best 379 off just 383 balls in a Ranji Trophy game against Assam in January 2023.The ability to score runs quickly is a big reason for Shaw’s rise through the ranks since winning the Under-19 World Cup for India in 2018. He had a stunning introduction to Test cricket, scoring a century on debut, but has since then struggled to deal with the quality of bowling on offer in international red-ball cricket. He played his last game as a first-choice pick for India in 2020 and only managed to get back when they had to send a second-string side to Sri Lanka in 2021.Most recently, Shaw was part of the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023. He went through a six-game stretch where he was unable to score more than 15 runs which led to his being dropped there as well. He did return later in the tournament and immediately struck a half-century.Northamptonshire play in Division One of the English County Championship. They have won just one out of seven games so far and have seven more until the end of the season.This will be Shaw’s first time playing domestic cricket in the UK. He will become the fifth Indian to be part of the 2022-23 season following Cheteshwar Pujara (Sussex), Ajinkya Rahane (Leicestershire), Arshdeep Singh (Kent) and Navdeep Saini (Worcestershire).Shaw is a very attractive package in white-ball cricket, where hitting through the line of the ball is much easier. He is approaching 3000 List A runs at an average of 52.54 and a strike-rate of 123.27 with eight centuries, one of which is a double. Former India opener Gautam Gambhir, in 2022, had even tipped him to lead the country at some point in the future.