Sports

Hathurasingha’s dismissal linked to Nasum incident, reveals BCB report

Published

11 months ago

2025/06/7

Shakib captained Bangladesh in the 2023 Cricket World Cup

Former Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan has accused Tamim Iqbal and former BCB cricket operation chairman Jalal Yunus of trying ‘to build a case’ to oust former coach Chandika Hathurusingha from the national team. Shakib alleges that they did so by leaking Hathurusingha’s altercation with Nasum Ahmed to the media.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board formed a three-member committee to assess their 2023 World Cup failure. According to the report of the committee, which was accessed by Cricbuzz, the reason for Hathurasingha’s dismissal was cited to be his altercation with Nasum Ahmed, a claim Hathurasingha recently denied while stating that he fled Bangladesh fearing for his life.

Between December 2023 and January 2024, the special committee conducted private one-on-one meetings with the following persons. It should be noted that all conversations were recorded and documented with the consent of those invited:

Cricketers – Mustafizur Rahman, Litton Kumar Das, Nasum Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Tanzim Sakib, Mahmudullah Riyad, Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh Captain at World Cup 2023), Tamim Iqbal (not part of the World Cup Squad)

Team Management & Coaching Staff – Rabeed Imam (National Team Operations Manager, World Cup 2023), Nicholas Lee (National Team Strength & Conditioning Coach), Chandika Hathurusingha (National Team Head Coach), Bayjedul Islam Khan (National Team Physio), Khaled Mahmud (National Team Director)

National Selection Panel – Minhazul Abedin (Chairman, National Selection Panel), Kazi Habibul Bashar (Member, National Selection Panel).

BCB Director – Mohammed Jalal Yunus (Chairman, Cricket Operations Committee, BCB).

“Handing over of captaincy at the eleventh hour was not ideal. The captaincy could have been announced before the Asia Cup. The Head Coach was unable to execute his duty properly due to inadequate time to prepare before the World Cup,” Shakib said in his recorded statement.

“The reason for the poor performance at the World Cup is the frequent changing of players. The media had also influenced this. Changes in the batting order had created problems and resulted in bad performance,” he said.

Shakib added that during the World Cup, division between Hathurusingha and other coaches were visible. “The current head coach (Hathurusingha) is good for the Bangladesh team. However, during the World Cup, the tension between the Head Coach and the other Coaches was visible. The formation of the World Cup team was alright. Any information related to a player’s injury must come from the physio, and not from the player,

“Confidential team information had been leaked. Any matter related to the team goes to the media which is harmful. The Team Director does not need to be present in team meetings,

“Caution should be exercised before appointing team assistants/team boys. They may pass confidential team information,

“Chairman cricket operations (Jalal Yunus) and Tamim Iqbal had called Nasum about the ‘slapping’ allegation and had leaked it to the media to build a case against the Head Coach so that he could be sacked”.

Major findings and revelations from discussions with National Team Members (Players, Coaches, Management):

– The strain in the relationship between the Head Coach and support staff was visible to everyone. However, the Head Coach and most players got along well in comparison.

– Most players had heard about an alleged incident involving the Head Coach and Nasum Ahmed during the match with New Zealand in Chennai, with the cricketer being the alleged victim. However, there were no eyewitnesses among the cricketers, and Nasum had not shared his side of the story with any responsible member of the management.

– The general understanding among team members was that it was a relatively minor issue at a tense moment in a match and had no adverse effect on the team. Strength & Conditioning Coach Nicholas Lee was the lone eyewitness and claimed to have seen the Head Coach ‘hit’ Nasum in the neck area.

– Nasum, who was a substitute fielder in the match, stated in his meeting with the committee that the Head Coach got angry at him for a supposed delay in getting something to the batsmen in the middle and pulled him by his shirt’s collar and hit him. He felt shocked and humiliated and only told selector Habibul Bashar about what had happened later. He appeared more concerned with the fact that the matter was leaked to the media when the team returned home, and he was worried about his social image.

– The Head Coach said he had no recollection of any such incident with Nasum. Nasum informed the Team Director that he felt the Head Coach’s attitude towards him was hostile in general.

– Team morale suffered most with the defeat against the Netherlands. From that point onwards, confidence took a nosedive. Players were mentally and physically exhausted due to the duration (46 days) of the event. Homesickness and fatigue were genuine concerns.

– Consistently failing to deliver with the bat in batting-friendly conditions was the main reason for underperformance. There were no complaints in terms of training facilities or the sincerity of the Head Coach, who was always available for guidance. The relationship between players and other members of the coaching staff was good.

– Players did not discuss the frequent changes in batting positions among themselves, and no one had expressed displeasure within the team about the batting order.

– The bonding between the players was good. However, there was a clear division in the coaching group. At one stage, the Head Coach became almost isolated. He and Bowling Coach Allan Donald were openly disagreeing on strategy planning, etc. Mutual respect was not present. The Fielding Coach Shane McDermott, who had heard that his contract may not be renewed post-World Cup, also appeared unhappy with the Head Coach who, for his part, could not resolve the issue and unify the coaches. This raised questions about his management skills. The other coaches and Technical Consultant S Sriram preferred to stay neutral. The rift among the coaches had a negative impression among team members.

– All the coaches, especially Nicholas Lee and Shane McDermott, were hard-working and were ever ready to help players out. However, the internal problems they were having had dampened their spirit.

– Only after reaching India did the squad feels that it was there for the World Cup. The issue with Tamim Iqbal’s sudden announcement of retirement and subsequent developments, including his omission from the World Cup team, the hurried declaration of Shakib Al Hasan as captain, and the constant criticism in the media had severely affected mental focus and preparation in the lead-up to the big event.

– Shakib Al Hasan was reluctant to take up the captaincy as he wanted to focus solely as a player in the event. The captaincy responsibility at such short notice did not allow Shakib to complete his preparations, and some physical issues, including a quad strain and vision complication, bothered him.

(Cricbuzz)

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Sooryavanshi ton in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad raze a 229 chase

Published

4 hours ago

2026/04/26

Priyan

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi salutes after hitting a century [Cricinfo]

Twelve days after defeating Rajasthan Royals [RR] by nullifying Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sunrisers Hyderabad [SRH] defeated them in spite of an astonishing innings from the boy wonder.

Sooryavanshi scored his second IPL hundred, getting there off just 36 balls, and struck a six every third ball before his dismissal. The rest of RR’s batting, however, struggled around him. Sooryavanshi made 103 off 37 balls, and his colleagues and extras combined to score 125 off 83.

It wasn’t clear at the innings break whether 228 for 6 would be enough for RR, on a day when Punjab Kings (PBKS) had broken the T20 record by chasing down 265 with an over to spare. It wasn’t, and this was because SRH were able to fire at both ends where RR only went from one. A red-hot Jofra Archer dismissed Travis Head in the first over, but Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan quickly took over, enjoying their share of luck in a match where the two teams combined to put down seven chances (there had been nine drops in the Delhi Capitals-PBKS game).

Individually, neither Abhishek nor Kishan matched Sooryavanshi for pace of scoring. Together, though, they comfortably outscored Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel, who had put on RR’s biggest partnership – 112 off 62 balls for the second wicket. Abhishek and Kishan put on 132 off just 55, and when Donovan Ferreira broke their partnership, SRH needed just nine an over in the last 10. They got home with an over and a half to spare.

Praful Hinge had made an eye-catching debut in the reverse fixture, taking a match-winning four-for that began with the wicket of Sooryavanshi. On this day, Sooryavanshi had his revenge. He faced five balls of Hinge in the first over of the match, after SRH had chosen to bowl. First a dot – a play and miss. And then 6, 6, 6, 6. Hinge began short and kept getting gradually fuller, and Sooryavanshi put everything away: a pull, a whip over backward square leg, and two clean, flowing hits down the ground.

It took until the last ball of the second over for Sooryavanshi to get on strike again, and now he was facing Pat Cummins – playing his first competitive game since the Adelaide Ashes Test in December – for the first time in his life. Cummins bowled a good short ball, angling across the left-hander and climbing, but Sooryavanshi picked the length in a flash and swatted it for another six, well in front of square. He had faced six balls and hit five sixes.

Sooryavanshi was never going to keep up that rate of scoring, but he didn’t slow down by much at all. He finished the powerplay on 51 off 16, along the way getting to a 15-ball half-century for the third time this season, and getting to 1000 runs in fewer balls than anyone in T20 history. He had also enjoyed one major slice of luck, Aniket Verma putting him down off Eshan Malinga on the leg-side boundary, when he was on 32.

Sooryavanshi kept hitting boundaries at an absurd rate even when the fields spread, showing he could innovate to disrupt bowlers’ plans: a reverse-swat over backward point, for instance, forced left-arm wristspinner Shivang Kumar into a fuller, straighter follow-up that he launched over wide long-on for six.

Another attempt at innovation – he opened up and shaped to reverse-scoop – led to his wicket off a Sakib Hussain yorker in the 14th over, but he had hit his Bihar team-mate for 6, 4, 6 before that to bring up his century. It was only his second-quickest century in the IPL – his maiden hundred, against Gujarat Titans last year, had come off 35 balls.

He now has the second and third quickest centuries in the history of the IPL. He’s only 15.

While the Sooryavanshi whirlwind raged at one end, SRH’s bowlers found life significantly easier at the other. Jurel struggled for fluency early on, and despite a late flurry of boundaries only managed 51 off 35. Riyan Parag, enduring a miserable season, was out for 7 of 9, bowled by a terrific Cummins yorker with late tail.

Cummins and Eshan Malinga used the yorker brilliantly at the back end of the innings, and only Ferreira (33 off 16) managed to break free of SRH’s post-Sooryavanshi shackles.

Archer produced a chance with the first ball of SRH’s innings, his pace, bounce, constricting line, and angle from over the wicket producing a nervy jab and edge from Travis Head. Jurel, diving left, put it down.

There were two plays and misses in the next three balls (one was adjudged wide), and then a bit of width that Head carved for six. But just when Jurel may have wondered how costly his miss would be, Archer bowled another Test-match jaffa, squaring Head up, and this time the edge settled nicely in Jurel’s gloves.

The drama wasn’t done yet; the last ball of the over was a searing bouncer, and Kishan, taking his eyes off the ball while looking to fend it away, edged it for six over fine leg.

That proved to be a bit of a sign in the early exchanges. There was luck early on for Abhishek too; an edge over slip in the second over off Nandre Burger, and two missed chances – one from Shimron Hetmyer who lost the ball in its flight, one from Ravindra Jadeja who put down a sitter – in the fourth and fifth overs.

Either side of those chances, the two left-handers peppered the boundary, particularly by piercing or going over the off-side ring when the bowlers offered width. Some of this was down to mis-executed plans: Tushar Deshpande, for instance, looked to hide the ball away from their hitting arc with protection square and behind square on the off side, but he didn’t quite find the line control on the day.

The presence of two left-handers also meant RR went with the part-time offspin of Parag and Ferreira before either of their frontline spinners. By the time Ravi Bishnoi and Jadeja came on in the 11th and 12th overs, the match was nearly done, and they ended up bowling just an over each. Heinrich Klaasen (29 off 24) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (36 off 18) took SRH to the doorstep of their target before both fell late in the chase.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 229 for 5 in 18.3 overs (Abhishek Sharma 57, Ishan Kishan 74, Heinrich Klassen 29, Nitish Kumar Reddy 36; Jofra Archer 2-34, Brijesh Sharma 2-44,Donovan Ferreira 1-14) beat Rajasthan Royals 228 for 6 in 20 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 10, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 103, Dhruv Jurel 51, Donovan Ferreira 33, Shimron Hetmyer 11; Praful Hinge 1-49, Pat Cummins 1-27, Eshan Malinga 2-38, Sakib Hussain 1-62, Nitish Kumar Reddy 1-20) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Prabhsimran, Shreyas upstage Rahul’s 152* to mow down record T20 chase

Published

4 hours ago

2026/04/26

Priyan

KL Rahul became the first Indian batter to score 150 in the IPL [cRICINFO]

Punjab Kings (PBKS) overpowered Delhi Capitals (DC) and pulled off the highest successful T20 chase in an IPL bash where 265 met 264. They mowed down the target with six wickets and seven balls to spare. The opening blitz from Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh – they hit 116 together in the powerplay – and captain Shreyas Iyer’s chancy yet composed 71 not out off 36 balls upstaged KL Rahukl’s unbeaten 152 off 67 balls on a flat Delhi pitch.

Before the start of the chase, ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster had PBKS’ win probability pegged at 14.83%. It zoomed up to 65.35% after Arya and Prabhsimran went on a ruthless boundary-hitting spree in the powerplay. Both openers fell in successive overs to spin, but Shreyas then took charge of the chase and increased that count to 100%.

Rahul’s knock could’ve been cut short on 12 had Shashank Singh not dropped a regulation catch at deep square leg. Shashank lost his shape and ended up knocking the ball away to the boundary. After dropping at least three chances in their previous game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Shashank spilled another chance on Saturday, leaving coach Ricky Ponting upset in the dugout.

Shashank fumbled again in the fifth over of the powerplay, running to his right from sweeper cover and letting the ball roll into the boundary. By the time the powerplay ended, DC ran away to 68 for 1, their highest powerplay score this season.

Rahul was responsible for 35 of those from 16 balls, having repeatedly hit the ball over the top. Rana was also quick off the blocks, moving to 22 off 13 balls. Prabhsimran and Arya later made those powerplay scores look pedestrian.

In the past, Rahul often slowed down after the powerplay, but on Saturday, he didn’t allow the momentum to let up. He step-hit Yuzvendra Chahal for six over long-on in the seventh over and proceeded to step out of his crease and pick the legspinner away for back-to-back fours in the 11th over. By then, Rahul had already raised his half-century off 26 balls. He got another life on 51 when he popped up a return catch, but Vijaykumar Vyshak couldn’t hold onto it.

Rahul went on to bring up his fastest IPL century, off 47 balls. He reached the landmark with a drilled drive down the ground off Marco Jansen in the 15th over. He celebrated by crossing his arms in the form of an ‘X’ and had more than 28,000 fans at the Arun Jaitley Stadium celebrating with him.

At the other end, Nitish Rana looked set to bring up a hundred of his own until Xavier Bartlett had him caught by Shreyas at mid-off for 91 off 44 balls to snap a 220-run stand – the highest for DC. In the 11 balls prior to his dismissal, Rana had cracked 44 off the Australia quick, including a sequence of 6,4,4,4,4,6 in the 12th over that cost PBKS 28 runs.

Rana wasn’t as fluent against Chahal, but Rahul had made up for it at the other end. Rahul went from 100 to 150 in just 19 balls. He got there with a superbly controlled upper cut off a lifter from Arshdeep Singh on the penultimate ball of the innings.

Rahul became the first Indian to score 150 or more in the IPL and third overall behind only Chris Gayle’s 175* against Pune Warriors India (PWI) in 2013 and Brendon McCullum’s 158* against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2008. He batted through 20 overs and vaulted DC to their highest total. At the innings break, Rahul was so knackered that he was panting for breath through his interview on a 41-degree day in Delhi.

Prabhsimran and Delhi boy, Arya, then left the crowd breathless in the chase with their unfettered assault in the powerplay. It began with Arya pumping a fairly blameless length delivery on off from Auqib Nabi over midwidcket for six and ended with four by Prabhsimran, which propelled PBKS to 116 for 0 in six overs. It was the second-highest powerplay score in the history of the IPL, falling nine short of levelling the record set by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) against DC at this very venue in 2024.

PBKS had passed fifty in the third over when Arya crunched Axar Patel for six and then Prabhsimran muscled them past hundred in the final over of the powerplay with an over full of fours against seamer Mukesh Kumar.

DC clawed back into the contest when their spinners Axar and Kuldeep Yadav dismissed PBKS’ openers in the seventh and eighth overs. Kuldeep struck again in the tenth over when he stormed through Cooper Connolly’s defences with a zippy wrong’un, leaving PBKS at 145 for 3 in the tenth over. Shreyas then managed the chase so well that PBKS ended up winning with more than an over to spare.

Shreyas got cracking when he pumped legspinner Vipraj Nigam into the sight screen in the 11th over. Nigam had come into the DC side as a concussion sub for Lungi Ngidi, who was taken to the hospital in an ambulance after suffering a blow to his head while attempting a catch off Arya at mid-off. Nigam created a chance to dismiss Shreyas on 28, but Karun Nair, who came in as a fielding sub, dropped a sitter at long-off in the 15th over. Two balls later, Nair dropped Shreyas once again, this time at long-on off Kuldeep.

Lungi Ngidi banged his head on the ground while he looked to take a catch [Cricinfo]

Shreyas went 4,6,6 off the next three legal balls to tilt the game PBKS’ way. The second six over long-on brought Shreyas a half-century off 26 balls. He also lined up T Natarajan for a brace of sixes to rush PBKS home along with Shashank.

Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 265 for 4 in 18.5 overs (Priyansh Arya 43, Prabhsimran Singh 76, Cooper Connolly 17, Shreyas Iyer 71*, Nehal Wadhera 25, Shashank Singh 19*; Axar Patel 1-44, Kuldeep Yadav 2-46, Vipraj Nigam 1-24) beat Delhi Capitals 264 for 2 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 11, KL Rahul 152*, Nitish Rana, 91; Arshdeep 1-49, Xavier Bartlett 1-69) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Power World joins hands with Kings Hospital

Published

9 hours ago

2026/04/26

Thilina Walpola

Left to Right: Christopher Prins – Head of Corporate Partnerships of Power World Gyms; Sohan Colombage, Vice President, Marketing – JXG (Janashakthi Group); Anil Jayatunga, Deputy General Manager of Power World Gyms; Thanushka Jayasundera, Director/CEO of Power World Gyms; Badrajith Siriwardana, Chief Executive Officer of Kings Hospital Colombo; Dilip Weeraman, Deputy General Manager of Kings Hospital Colombo, Sales & Marketing; Aasiri Ediriweera – Head of Human Resources of Kings Hospital Colombo

Power World Gyms, Sri Lanka’s leading fitness brand with over 30 years of promoting healthier lifestyles, has partnered with Kings Hospital Colombo as its Official Wellness Partner. This collaboration brings together expertise in fitness and healthcare to introduce a dedicated wellness programme for the hospital’s staff, supporting their physical and mental well-being. Through this partnership, Power World reinforces its commitment to making fitness and preventive wellness accessible, impactful and sustainable for those who care for our communities every day.