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The ECB has decided not to give Kevin Pietersen a central contract as discussions continue over his international future

George Dobell07-Sep-2012Kevin Pietersen is notable by his absence from the list of players awarded central contracts for the 2012-13 season by the ECB.Pietersen has been left out of the England team since the Leeds Test against South Africa following the revelation that he sent messages containing derogatory remarks about the England captain, Andrew Strauss, to members of the South Africa touring squad. It later emerged that Pietersen’s relationship with several members of the England squad had deteriorated to an unhealthy level.In releasing a statement containing the names of the ten centrally contracted players, the ECB said: “In respect to Kevin Pietersen discussions are ongoing and they remain private.” It is understood that Andy Flower, the England coach, and Pietersen met last weekend, but that there is some way to go before a resolution to the issue is found.While the ECB can add to the list of centrally contracted players at any point, time is running out before the Test squad to India is announced. The ECB originally hoped to announce the squad before the team depart for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in about a week’s time, though they could delay it to allow Pietersen and Flower to continue their discussions during the tournament. Pietersen is due to be in Sri Lanka working for ESPN STAR as a summariser.There is also some doubt as to Pietersen’s desire to sign a central contract. While he recently reaffirmed his commitment to England in all forms of cricket, not signing a central contract would allow him to perform in the whole IPL and other T20 leagues such as Australia’s BBL. It is also understood that Pietersen remains underwhelmed about the parody Twitter account that he feels may have been more directly influenced by some England team-mates than is thought by the ECB.Chris Tremlett, who has been injured for almost the entire season and Strauss, who has retired, are also omitted from the list of players awarded contracts last year.Eoin Morgan retains a central contract despite having not featured in the Test side since the series against Pakistan in the UAE, while Graham Onions is the one player added to the list of those players awarded incremental contracts. Morgan’s inclusion may also provide encouragement to him ahead of the announcement of the Test squad to India.Geoff Miller, the national selector, said: “Congratulations to Graham Onions who is the one addition to the list of players who have been awarded increment contracts and is in recognition of the effort he has put in since his return from injury in 2011 and an indication that we feel he has plenty to offer England in the coming months.””Contracts are on-going recognition for those players who have regularly been selected for England and have performed consistently as well as players who we feel could play an important role for England over the next 12 months.”England central contracts James Anderson (Lancashire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Matt Prior (Sussex), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire)England incremental contracts Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ravi Bopara (Essex), Craig Kieswetter (Somerset), Graham Onions (Durham)

A heavy downpour in the afternoon followed by intermittent drizzle has delayed the start of tour match between the Indians and Kent at the St Lawrence ground

Nagraj Gollapudi at St Lawrence26-Aug-2011A heavy downpour in the afternoon followed by intermittent drizzle delayed the start of the tour match between the Indians and Kent Spitfires at the St Lawrence ground and eventually forced the umpires to switch the 50-over game to a 20-over one.The Indians arrived in Canterbury on Thursday night immediately after their six-wicket victory over Sussex at Hove. It was their first win of the tour and the visitors would like to keep the winning rhythm after their 4-0 whitewash in the Test series.Unfortunately, the Indians were forced to sit inside the dressing room, apart from walking downstairs into the long room housed in the Frank Woolley stand for their lunch. Outside thousands of Indian fans waded through water that cascaded down the slope of the front entrance of the ground. The die-hard fans continued to stand there, cuddled up in their woollens and jackets, under umbrellas, waiting just to get a sneak peak at the Indian players.The umpires carried out their first inspection at 4 p.m. and were straightaway concerned by the wet areas in outfield. Even though the match was converted into a Twenty20, the umpires were worried about the practice strips to the right of the Frank Woolley stand on the pavilion side as the fielders could easily slip. Though the sun had come out for the first time half-way through the day, the umpires remained dissatisfied and after another inspection at 5 p.m, decided on a third at 6 p.m and then at 6:30 decided the game had to be reduced to a Twenty20 starting at 7:30 p.m.Meanwhile, in a piece of good news for the Indians, Gautam Gambhir was batting in the indoor nets facing throwdowns from the bowling coach Eric Simons. Gambhir, who picked up a concussion in the fourth Test, was not listed on the team sheet distributed at the start of the day. Rahul Dravid, who played for Kent in 2000, will play the match while Sachin Tendulkar will be the twelfth man.

It seems absurd that Andrew Strauss’s place in England’s one-day line-up was being debated on the day he struck 126 to set-up a 2-0 series lead against Pakistan

Andrew McGlashan at Headingley12-Sep-2010It seems absurd that Andrew Strauss’s place in England’s one-day line-up was being debated on the day he struck 126 to set-up a 2-0 series lead against Pakistan, but during the lunch interval of the second one-day international a panel of experts on TV selected their World Cup squads and Strauss wasn’t in the 15.Neither, for that matter, was Jonathan Trott, who is England’s in-form batsman of the moment in all formats and added 146 with Strauss at Headingley. But it was the absence of the current captain that provoked debate as he notched up his fifth one-day international hundred and second in three matches. The panel’s reasoning behind Strauss’s omission is his lack of runs straight down the ground and how he will adapt on the slower pitches in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Yet since returning to the one-day side in early 2009 – at that time because there was no other choice following the messy end to Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy stint – Strauss has averaged 42.03 in 32 matches compared to a career mark of 35.06. He knows he will be the man leading England at the World Cup and the numbers back up that decision.”All I can do is do my talking with the bat and help England to win cricket matches,” he said. “Other people can talk as much as they like, it’s pretty irrelevant to me. I’ve worked very hard on trying to expand my game and it’s important I can lead by example. I’ve been in good form all summer and that helps because things tend to come a bit more naturally. I’m very happy with my game and even more happy that we are continuing to win.”However, his innings wasn’t without two moments of good fortune and Pakistan were convinced he’d been caught behind on 38 when Umar Gul nipped one back off the seam. Kamran Akmal held a fine catch but Billy Doctove turned down the appeal and a few words were exchanged between batsman and bowler. It led to Shahid Afridi calling for the introduction of the umpire review system for major one-day series.”Definitely it would be good in matches like this and in big series like this,” he said. “It is important that it’s in cricket now. I know in Twenty20 you don’t have much time but in one-dayers you would.”But on this occasion it wasn’t a clear-cut decision even on replays so the UDRS may not have even overturned the on-field call and Strauss was very content about standing his ground. “I wasn’t sure if it had hit my glove,” he said. “Nothing has changed in cricket, the umpires are there to make a decision and they did that.”Strauss was given a much more obvious life on 23 when Mohammad Irfan, the seven-foot pace bowler, couldn’t take a simple catch at short fine-leg. Irfan later limped off with cramp for the second match running and Afridi was far from impressed with his new recruit.”I’m really disappointed with this guy,” he said. “Cricket is not all about just batting and bowling, fielding is very important and maybe if he’s good in the field I will give him a chance otherwise I’m not happy.”However, Pakistan don’t have many other pace options in their squad. Wahab Riaz would be a controversial selection considering his links to the ongoing spot-betting allegations while Abdul Razzaq, who has been left out of the opening two matches, is due to undergo an MRI scan on his troublesome back in the next few days.

Dewald Brevis and Lungi Ngidi have been called up; Aiden Markram will lead South Africa in the first Test

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Oct-2024Temba Bavuma has been ruled out of the first Test in Bangladesh after scans revealed a muscle strain in his left triceps. Aiden Markram will lead South Africa for the first Test, in Dhaka from October 21. With Nandre Burger earlier ruled out of the series because of a lumbar stress reaction, Dewald Brevis and Lungi Ngidi have been added to the squad.A CSA statement said that Bavuma will “travel with the squad to Dhaka on Tuesday and continue his recovery under the supervision of the Proteas medical team in preparation for the second Test”, which will start in Chattogram on October 29.On October 6, Bavuma was ruled out of the third and final ODI against Ireland with what was understood to be an elbow injury. He had retired hurt during the second ODI, on October 4, and didn’t field in that match. Rassie van der Dussen led South Africa in Bavuma’s absence, with Markram rested for that series.Brevis, CSA said, has been called up “as cover” for Bavuma. He hasn’t played a Test match yet – he has only played two T20Is so far – but has played 12 first-class matches, most recently for South Africa A against Sri Lanka A in Benoni, where he scored 49 and 74 in a five-wicket loss.Ngidi, who played all three ODIs against Ireland in Abu Dhabi, picking up two-fors in the first two matches, now completes the fast-bowling department which also has Kagiso Rabada, Dane Paterson and Wiaan Mulder, the allrounder.

South Africa Test squad for Bangladesh tour

Temba Bavuma (capt), David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Tony de Zorzi, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram (capt for first Test), Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Kyle Verreynne (wk)

West Indies are up 2-1 with two to go, but both teams would be looking at the bigger, broader picture ahead of more high-stakes challenges

Hemant Brar11-Aug-20234:05

Do India hold the edge with their wristspinners?

Big picture – India, West Indies look at the long term

After losing the first two T20Is, India kept the five-match series alive with a thumping win in the third. While, in the long run, the result of this series will matter little, India are looking to try out personnel for the 2024 T20 World Cup – handing Yashasvi Jaiswal a debut in the previous game was a sign of that.At the same time, they have an eye on the upcoming ODI World Cup, and Tilak Varma has emerged as a strong candidate for the No. 4 slot in that squad. Tilak’s international career is just three T20Is old, but he has impressed everyone with his temperament. Moreover, India don’t have a left-hander in their first-choice top six in ODIs. If picked, he can fill that void too.India, however, know that success in T20Is is no guarantee for success in ODIs. In the last two years, Suryakumar Yadav has had an extraordinary run in T20Is, but he has himself admitted that his ODI numbers are “really bad”. Tilak’s List A numbers are outstanding, though: 1236 runs in 25 matches at an average of 56.18 and a strike rate of 101.64. He has five hundreds and as many fifties in the format. If they want, India can test him further in the Asia Cup to see where he stands, especially if Shreyas Iyer isn’t fit by then.Related

• India need to cut long tail short to find T20 success

• Powell: 'Series will be decided on how WI play spin'

• A glimpse of a future with a lot of Tilak in it

West Indies are not going to the ODI World Cup, but under Rovman Powell, they are rebuilding their T20I side. In March, they beat South Africa 2-1 and now have a chance to win back-to-back T20I series for the first time since 2017.So far, this has been a series of middling totals. But that could change as the caravan moves to Lauderhill in the USA for the last two games.

Form guide

West Indies LWWWL
India WLLWW

In the spotlight – Shimron Hetmyer and Shubman Gill

After the first T20I, Powell said that the series would be decided by how his left-hand batters, Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer, play spin in the middle overs. While Pooran seems to have hit a purple patch, Hetmyer has looked off-colour. Playing for West Indies after almost a year, Hetmyer had scores of 11, 9 and 4 in the ODI series. In three T20Is so far, he has managed 10 off 12, 22 off 22 and 9 off 8. Can he turn it around on Friday and help West Indies win the series?1:54

Analysing Shubman Gill’s recent form

Shubman Gill finished the ODI series as the second-highest run-getter, his tally of 126 taking him to No. 5 in the ICC ODI batters’ rankings. However, runs have been hard to come by in the T20I series: Gill has been dismissed in single digits in all three innings. With India’s tail starting from No. 8, they would want bigger contributions from him in the remaining two games.

Team news

If fit, Jason Holder should replace Roston Chase. West Indies can also consider bringing in Shai Hope for one of Brandon King and Johnson Charles.West Indies (probable): 1 Kyle Mayers, 2 Brandon King, 3 Johnson Charles, 4 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 5 Rovman Powell (capt), 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Jason Holder/Roston Chase, 8 Romario Shepherd, 9 Akeal Hosein, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Obed McCoyExpect India to stick with the same XI that won them the third T20I.India (probable): 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya (capt), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Mukesh Kumar, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

Pitch and conditions

In the last two T20Is played in Lauderhill, India – batting first both times – posted 191 for 5 and 188 for 7. They won both. In fact, teams batting first have won 11 of the 13 completed T20Is played here. However, a 47% chance of rain in the afternoon may be a temptation for chasing.

Stats and trivia

• West Indies and India have played six T20Is against each other in Lauderhill, with India winning four, West Indies one, and one being washed out.
• Yuzvendra Chahal needs five wickets to become the first Indian, and eighth overall, to take 100 T20I wickets. If he gets there on Saturday, in his 78th match, he will be the joint-third-fastest to the mark.
• Charles is 12 away from becoming the ninth West Indies batter to 1000 T20I runs.
• This is India’s fifth T20I series under Hardik Pandya. They are yet to lose one.

Brooks, King hit impressive fifties in win; debutant Nidamanuru impresses for Netherlands

ESPNcricinfo staff31-May-2022Shai Hope’s 11th ODI century studded West Indies’ domination in the first of three ODIs against Netherlands in Amstelveen. On a blustery Tuesday with sheets of rain that reduced the game to 45 overs per side, West Indies made light work of a 247 chase, as they got home with 11 balls to spare and seven wickets in hand. There were also bruising half-centuries from Shamarh Brooks and Brandon King to help West Indies along.The tone of the chase was set early as Hope and Brooks added 120 for the first wicket. While their approach wasn’t explosive, they reeled off enough runsto always stay ahead of the asking rate.Then there was a stutter when seam-bowling allrounder Logan van Beek picked up two wickets off successive deliveries. First, he sent back Brooks by taking an excellent return catch, and then had Nkrumah Bonner lbw with an inducker. When Nicholas Pooran, the captain, fell cheaply three overs later, Netherlands may have sniffed an outside chance of winning. But Hope and King extinguished any such hopes with an unbroken 116-run stand to seal the deal.Despite the loss, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Netherlands as they fought hard to construct an innings that centred on rookie opener Vikramjit Singh and the experienced Max O’Dowd. They added 63 in 12 overs to set a solid base. Then they had small contributions from every member of the top order, but without any substantial score. It wasn’t until Teja Nidamanuru, the 27-year-old allrounder, top-scored with 58 on debut that they managed to get to a respectable position.Nidamanuru faced just 51 balls and struck three fours and two sixes in his knock. This helped Netherlands post 240 for 7, which was then readjusted to 246 through the DLS method. As the chase went on, it became increasingly evident that they were well short.”I think we need to adapt a bit faster,” Hope said after the match. “Obviously, we have seen what they have got with both bat and ball. Hopefully, we can score a bit faster, just need to make sure we acclimatise ourselves to the conditions as quickly as we can and hopefully, get on early wickets to bowl and top them with the bat.”Despite the win, West Indies stay tenth, and outside the direct qualifying zone in the ODI Super League that serves to identify seven direct qualifiers – plus the hosts – for next year’s 50-overs World Cup in India. Netherlands are last, with just two wins in 11 matches so far.The second and third ODIs will take place on June 2 and June 4 respectively.

The captain bemoans losing small moments and says he has been too timid at the crease

Alex Malcolm17-Jan-2021Melbourne Renegades captain Aaron Finch will open the batting against the Melbourne Stars, insisting his move down the order in the loss to Brisbane Heat was purely for match-up purposes.Finch, Australia’s T20I captain and opener, has endured a lean run in the BBL this season scoring just 159 runs in nine innings with a highest score of just 39 and a strike-rate of 119.54.He had already batted out of position at No. 3 in the Renegades’ loss to loss to Perth Scorchers, but the move to No. 4 against the Heat in Canberra, behind youngsters Mackenzie Harvey and Sam Harper, raised even more eyebrows. It was the first time he had batted outside the top three in his BBL career and the first time he had done it in his last 91 T20 innings globally.Since batting at No. 4 in an IPL game in 2018 Finch had opened in 85 T20 innings and batted at No. 3 six times. In that period, only Babar Azam has scored more runs as an opener, while no one has scored more than Finch’s five centuries. Of the eight openers who have scored 2000 runs or more in the period, Finch has the highest strike-rate and the third-highest average.Related

• Stoinis tries to avoid thoughts of cricket's 'daunting' hub life

• How a call from Lara helped spark Fletcher to life in the BBL

• Finch prepared to cast the net wide for Australia's T20I squad

• Philippe masterclass ensures thumping win over Scorchers

However, Finch explained the move was purely match-up based. The Heat didn’t have a right-arm offspinner in their bowling attack with Mujeeb Ur Rahman having departed, and the Renegades felt the two left-handers in Harvey and Shaun Marsh should bat at the top.”I’ll go back and open tomorrow. That was a match-up for that game.” Finch said on Saturday. “They didn’t have an offspinner, to start. So we felt as though having two lefties at the top wasn’t going to present any kind of issue.”Obviously, Glenn Maxwell has been bowling a lot in the Powerplay for the Stars. So that’s why I’ll go back to the top. We’ll see how we go there. I don’t expect that he’ll bowl two overs upfront but if he does then we’ve got that match-up there.”The Renegades’ horrendous form may have something to do with the clouded thinking and line-up tinkering. Since winning the title in BBL08 the Renegades have won just five of their last 24 games, including only two this season. Finch is carrying that burden on his own shoulders.”A combination of guys, not being in form at the right time, myself being probably the main culprit of that,” Finch said. “One percenters in games in T20 get amplified a lot. They kill you when games are so tight. Just some small skill errors, mental errors as well. We feel as though our best is still right up there and we can compete for a title.”It’s been difficult, no doubt. The way that we’ve been training has been really impressive though. The standard in that regard hasn’t dropped at all. So that’s what makes it even more disappointing. We haven’t been able to carry that over into a game. And there’s been situations where we’ve let ourselves slip. We’ve been in games and just haven’t taken those half-chances or we’ve just let teams off the hook too easily.”Finch has been searching for ways to find some runs. He gave a revealing interview to prior to the Heat game on Thursday where he explained he was hitting a higher volume of balls at training at the back end of this tournament compared to previous years and was trying to work on his stability at the crease.”It’s been going great in the nets,” Finch added. “It just hasn’t been going great in the game. I’ve been a little bit timid in my approach at the crease. There have been times where I’ve got out being a little bit too defensive-minded, not looking to take the ultra-aggressive approach. I know when I’m playing my absolute best in T20 cricket that’s how I play. Hopefully, in these last four games, I can bring that back.”I haven’t given myself the best chance a couple of times either. Last game I got out being defensively minded, trying to get through to the 14th-15th over rather than trying to be aggressive. It’s only an attitude thing. I can change that.”The BBL’s strict Covid-19 protocols haven’t helped either. The Renegades were supposed to play their last five matches at home in Melbourne but that was reduced to four when the BBL fixtures changed due to border closures.The players are now in their home city and won’t leave for the remainder of the home and away season. However, the Melbourne-based players can’t leave the hotel to their own beds at the moment, a bed Finch has seen very little of since last August.”It has its challenges when you can look out the window and nearly see home, but you’re not quite there yet,” he said.

Recently retired Hashim Amla advised the entire South African team to buy into the idea of batting out 98 overs

Firdose Moonda05-Oct-2019Whatever happens on the final day of the Vizag Test, there is one thing South Africa will not be complaining about. The pitch.

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After the raging turners of 2015, which saw only one of the three non-rain affected Tests go into a fourth day, the visitors have been pleasantly surprised with the surface so far and as a result, are hopeful they can add to their history of hard-fought draws.”The last time we came here, the wickets were a lot worse,” Vernon Philander said at the press conference. “But you can still bat on there. Their batters showed it today. Guys have to get in. Hopefully two guys can get in and can get big hundreds for us.”While there is ample evidence of uneven bounce and further deterioration, which will bring India’s spinners into play, Philander’s optimism is not entirely deluded (or it may be PR nonsense). South Africa, and in particular their captain Faf du Plessis, thrive in this kind of scrap. They batted out 148 overs to draw the 2012 Test in Adelaide, 136 overs to share spoils with India at the Wanderers in 2013 and 111 to deny Sri Lanka victory in Colombo in 2014. At Vizag, they ‘only’ need to last 98 overs.Recently retired Hashim Amla, who is now an analyst for the broadcaster , said he had “strong belief” that South Africa could hold out, provided they approach it in the right way. Amla’s broad-brush advice was to have the common goal of surviving 98 overs but to leave it up to individual batsmen to decide how they would go about it.ALSO READ: Dean Elgar to Keshav Maharaj, 10 seriously underrated cricketersWhen asked what he would do personally, Amla said, “I would try and block every ball dead.” He did just that five years ago at the SSC, absorbing 171 balls for 25 runs to ensure a 1-0 series victory. Amla said strike rotation did not even come into consideration because all he sought to do was “minimise the risk of getting out”. He added that even someone like AB de Villiers, who has “every shot in the book,” went into a super-defensive bubble when trying to play for the draw but also acknowledged that not all players would be able to maintain such stoicism.Though Dean Elgar has been dismissed, Amla used the opener as an example for how South Africa’s batsmen should approach the final day’s play tomorrow. “He might hit one or two over the top, to get a man sent back and then there are not so many fielders in his space,” Amla said, indicating how the score could still tick over even when accumulating runs was not the primary objective.Quinton de Kock is a player who may look to be more aggressive than Amla may like but that could work to his, and South Africa’s advantage. So too, could the team composition. South Africa bat competently all the way to No.11, where Kagiso Rabada has proven he is no bunny. That, however, may be the only benefit of leaving wicket-takers like Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje on the bench and South Africa will still have to address whether they went into this Test with their best XI, considering how Dane Piedt and Senuran Muthusamy have struggled to make an impact.Philander defended his team-mates, saying South Africa were simply outplayed by quality batsmen. “The seamers have only taken four wickets for both teams. You can say it this way or that way but I think three spinners was the right call to have made. They have played our spinners really well and credit to them.”

Kieron Pollard’s team, already occupying bottom position and having the worst net run rate of the competition, had it reduced by a further 0.15 after they were found to be two overs short against Jamaica Tallawahs

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2018In a first, following the introduction of new rules in the Caribbean Premier League this year, St Lucia Stars were punished for slow over rate by having their net run rate docked. The Stars, captained by Kieron Pollard, completed their bowling innings against Jamaica Tallawahs in 94 minutes: nine minutes longer than the permissible 85. As a result, their net run rate was reduced by 0.15.The new rule punishes teams that fail to complete their 20 overs in the allotted 85 minutes, after taking into account all allowances for stoppages. In accordance with that, Stars were deemed to be two overs short. The first over results in a docking of 0.05 from the team’s NRR, with each following over reducing the NRR by 0.10.The Stars ended up losing the match by 21 runs. This latest penalty adds to their woes in what has been a wretched CPL season, where they are currently bottom of the table. They also have, by some distance, the worst net run rate in the competition, which has now been exacerbated by this latest penalty.

Mahela Jayawardene has effectively ended his playing career in Bangladesh after being signed for two seasons as head coach of BPL franchise Khulna Titans

ESPNcricinfo staff27-May-2017Mahela Jayawardene has effectively ended his playing career in Bangladesh after being signed for two seasons as head coach of BPL franchise Khulna Titans. Jayawardene featured in two games for Dhaka Dynamites alongside his former Sri Lankan team-mate Kumar Sangakkara in 2016.Jayawardene’s signing comes a week after he coached Mumbai Indians to an IPL crown in his first season with the franchise. The former Sri Lankan captain takes over the mantle from Stuart Law, the former Australia batsman who recently took over as head coach of West Indies.”I enjoyed playing in the BPL last year and that has given me a great insight into what will be required to be successful in the 2017 tournament,” Jayawardene said in a statement. “BPL is an exciting tournament for Bangladesh, as well the region as a whole, and I am excited to be partnering with one of the most respected and forward-thinking franchises.”Kazi Inam Ahmed, Khulna’s managing director, said that the franchise can only benefit from the expertise of a cricketer of Jayawardene’s stature. “We are excited to have Mahela Jayawardane join the Titans as head coach for next two editions of BPL,” Ahmed said. “He has always been a great leader on the field and has won big tournaments for Sri Lanka.”We were thrilled to see him win the IPL recently as the coach of the Mumbai Indians. I am sure all of us Titans will learn a lot from him and the tournament will be enriched by his presence.”The 2017 edition is slated to start on November 4, with Sylhet likely to join the ranks and make it an eight-team event. The players’ draft is likely to be held on September 16 in Dhaka.