WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016 SPORTS India Test threat lifted after funds released NEW DELHI: India’s cash-rich cricket board ment reforms of what is world cricket’s yesterday lifted a threat to cancel the start wealthiest and most powerful board. of its Test series against England after In its submission challenging Tuesday’s judges eased banking restrictions which petition, the panel said the BCCI was in had triggered a funding crisis. contempt of court by not implementing its Less than 24 hours before the high-pro- recommendations, which include age limits file series was due to begin in Rajkot, the for office-holders. cash-rich board dropped a bombshell by The BCCI had earlier complained that telling the Supreme Court it would not be the funding freeze was hampering organi- able to cover the running costs of the first sation for a series last month against New match. The Supreme Court last month Zealand, but the three Tests went ahead as ruled that the board would have to seek scheduled in the end. prior approval from a special panel investi- gating its governance in order to release IPL SCANDAL funds to state associations which host Test The BCCI has insisted it is not “running matches. away” from implementing the reforms after In a petition filed on Tuesday to the scandals including accusations of corrup- court, the Board of Control for Cricket in tion and match-fixing that tarnished the India (BCCI) said that “unless money is dis- Indian Premier League (IPL). bursed to the board, the match between Cricket’s massive popularity in India has India and England can’t take place”. helped the BCCI become by far the wealthi- After considering the petition for several est of all of cricket’s national boards, net- hours, the court set aside its previous order ting massive money from sponsorship and and gave the board immediate access to TV deals. the $90,000 (5.8 million rupees) the BCCI The BCCI has put the value of the IPL said it needed to host the match in Rajkot. brand at $4.5 billion and its current spon- It further allowed the board to incur sorship deal for the tournament with the expenses for hosting the remaining four mobile phone company Vivo is worth $60 Tests in the series against England but million dollars. Its last television rights deal asked it to maintain accounts for scrutiny with the Star network was worth a reported by the panel. $750 million. “We are fine with the supreme court But despite its rude financial health, the order because we wanted money for board has regularly found itself embroiled organising the India-England test series in scandal in recent years, ultimately lead- and that has been allowed,” a lawyer repre- ing to the formation of the Lodha commit- senting the board told AFP on condition of tee. A corruption and match-fixing scandal anonymity. in the sixth edition of the IPL in 2013 The court had slapped the restrictions brought about the downfall of the board’s on the BCCI’s accounts after the board, president Narayanaswami Srinivasan after which is one of the world’s wealthiest his son-in-law was accused of betting on sports bodies, failed to implement a series matches. of reforms recommended by a panel head- Two of the eight franchises in the IPL ed by a former top judge, Rajendra Mal were suspended as a result of the scandal, Lodha. The Lodha panel has accused BCCI including the Chennai Super Kings which officials of “behaving like lords” after they was owned by Srinivasan’s India Cements repeatedly ignored the deadlines to imple- company. —AFP HARARE: Sri Lanka bowler Rangana Herath is in action on the third day of the second cricket test match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club, yesterday. — AFP S Lanka’s Herath joins five-wicket Test elite HARARE: Rangana Herath became just the third bowler to pick up five-wicket hauls against all SCOREBOARD RAJKOT: India’s cricket coach Anil Kumble (L) inspects the pitch with captain Virat nine Test opponents to earn Sri Lanka a big first- HARARE: Scoreboard at stumps on the third day of the second Test between Zimbabwe and Sri Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin (R) during a training session at the Saurashtra crick- innings lead before Zimbabwe bounced back on Lanka on yesterday. et Association stadium in Rajkot on the eve of the first test match against England the third day of the third Test at Harare Sports yesterday. — AFP Club yesterday. Herath recorded figures of 5 for Bowling: Lakmal 21.1-5-55-2, Herath 26-4-89-5, 89 — his first five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka first innings 504 all out (D. de Silva Kumara 14-0-60-0, D. Perera 18-2-51-3, Zimbabwe-to bowl the home side out for 272 127, A. Gunaratne 116, Tiripano 3-91, Cremer Gunaratne 2-0-5-0, De Silva 1-0-4-0. and give Sri Lanka a 232-run lead in the first 3-136) innings. Cook, Haseeb ready Zimbabwe first innings Sri Lanka second innings But after the tourists opted not to enforce the T. Mawoyo lbw b Herath 3 D. Karunaratne not out 54 follow-on, fast bowler Carl Mumba picked up B. Chari b Herath 80 K. Silva c Waller b Mumba 6 for India series three wickets to reduce Sri Lanka to 84 for four. H. Masakadza c de Silva b Herath 0 K. Mendis c Mpofu b Mumba 0 With opener Dimuth Karunaratne scoring an C. Ervine c Karunaratne b Lakmal 64 U. Tharanga lbw b Cremer 17 unbeaten 54 — his third fifty-plus score in four RAJKOT: Opener Alastair Cook is not impress. S. Williams lbw b D. Perera 58 D. de Silva c Chari b Mumba 9 approaching a test record as England cap- The bowling attack will also be over- innings-Sri Lanka went to stumps on 102 for M. Waller c Silva b Herath 18 A. Gunaratne not out 6 tain while fellow opener Haseeb Hameed is hauled. James Anderson has re-joined the four, giving them an overall lead of 334 with two P. Moor lbw b Perera 33 Extras (6b, 4lb) 10 on the verge of a test debut as the tourists England squad but is unavailable for selec- days to play. G. Cremer c Karunaratne b D. Perera 3 seek to strengthen their top order for a tion. That leaves Stuart Broad and Chris Although Herath had come into the series D. Tiripano c Herath b Lakmal 3 Total (4 wkts, 40 overs) 102 testing series against India. Woakes to lead the pace attack, while with 26 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket, he had C. Mumba lbw b Herath 2 Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Silva), 2-16 (Mendis), 3-44 The England tour of India was cleared to Moeen Ali could share the spin duties with never played against Zimbabwe in a 17-year C. Mpofu not out 0 (Tharanga), 4-84 (de Silva). take place at the last minute yesterday - 24 recalled Gareth Batty and Adil Rashid. career. On Tuesday he joined countryman Extras (2b, 6lb) 8 Still to bat: K. Perera, D. Perera, R. Herath, S. hours before the first test toss - when the England is the only foreign team to win Muttiah Muralitharan and South Africa’s Dale Total (all out, 82.1 overs) 272 Lakmal, L. Kumara. country’s supreme court and the Board of a test series on Indian soil - in 2012-13 - Steyn among an elite group of bowlers with five- Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Mawoyo), 2-17 Bowling: Mpofu 9-2-17-0, Mumba 11-3-31-3, Control for Cricket in India settled a finan- since Australia in 2004-05, and has beaten (Masakadza), 3-134 (Ervine), 4-173 (Chari), 5- wicket hauls against all of the other nine Test- Cremer 8-1-21-1, Tiripano 6-3-4-0, Williams 5-0- cial dispute. India in three consecutive series. 210 (Waller), 6-253 (Williams), 7-265 (Cremer), playing nations. “If you take my career until 16-0, Chari 1-0-3-0. The BCCI filed a late plea in the Supreme “We can only look forward to what we 2009, I had only taken about 40 wickets with no 8-268 (Moor), 9-272 (Mumba), 10-272 Series: Sri Lanka leads two-match series 1-0. Court to release funds for hosting the five- can do in the future,” India skipper Virat five-wicket hauls,” said Herath. (Tiripano). test series. The supreme court agreed to Kohli said. “We want to win series, and we “So if you take the last seven or eight years, allow the BCCI to withdraw 5.87 million want to win test matches.” The Indian skip- I’ve done a consistent job for the national team. rupees to fund the series. per didn’t reveal his playing XI, though he It’s a different sort of achievement, which makes England is coming off an embarrassing doesn’t have many tough decisions to loss in Bangladesh, but skipper Cook is aim- make. Gautam Gambhir is expected to me very happy.” Although Zimbabwe reached Lehmann warns Aussies ing for yet another record. Already the open with Murali Vijay, while the only diffi- 134 for two on the third morning in reply to Sri most capped player for England, with 135, cult choice would be over the make-up of Lanka’s first innings total of 504, they ultimately and the leading test scorer with 10,688 the bowling attack.