The Asian Cricket Council on Thursday announced that Asia Cup 2023 will take place between August 31 – September 17 in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The BCCI had refused to play Asia Cup 2023 in Pakistan. The Pakistan Cricket Board had been pushing for the hybrid model, where they get to host the non India matches for the first round of the tournament.

As per the hybrid model, Lahore will host Pakistan’s opening match against Nepal .Three matches of the other group namely Afghanistan Vs Sri Lanka and Bangladesh Vs Afghanistan will also be played in Lahore. The competition will then move to Sri Lanka where two India Vs Pakistan matches will likely happen. The Final of the Asia Cup will also be played in Sri Lanka.

The Pakistan Cricket Board was in a mood of celebration, as this marks the starting of multi nation cricket in Pakistan after a span of fifteen years. The last such event was the Asia Cup hosted by Pakistan in 2008.

PCB Chief, Najam sethi said that he was delighted that the Hybrid model of Asia Cup as proposed by Pakistan had been accepted. This meant Pakistan would host the non India matches of the Asia Cup with Sri Lanka being the neutral venue as the Indian team was unable to travel to Pakistan.

He further added that the people of Pakistan would have been delighted to see the Indian cricket team play in Pakistan but he said the PCB understood BCCI’s position. The BCCI required its governments approval to play in Pakistan. He said he was happy that the hybrid model had been accepted by the ACC as he thought this was the best solution to the problem. He said that the ACC will now stay together and united. He added that the Pakistan had hosted high profile bi-lateral series as well as two immensely successful Pakistan super league events in the past 15 months.

Former India captain and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has criticised the choice of shots played by captain Rohit Sharma and batsman Cheteshwar Pujara in the World Test Championship final in England against Australia.

Gavaskar questioned the need to play such random shots and poor selection by both Rohit Sharma and Pujara.

He said this was the point on which the entire match turned. Gavaskar said Pujara need not have played the delivery from pacer Pat Cummins because the team had lost Sharma very recently. Gavaskar said Pujara was lost despite being feted for his patience in waiting out balls and occupying the crease and it seemed it was not his day. Gavaskar had no mercy on Indian cricketers, saying handling pressure was one of the key traits to win big matches like the WTC final.

In the fourth innings, India had been set to chase 444 runs, the task seemed to be difficult but not impossible. India had got a good start because they were 91/1 at one point of time. Things were chugging along at a steady run rate of nearly five runs per over. After scoring heavily against the Aussie pace attack, Sharma and Pujara had to deal with the spinners now. Australian spinner Nathan Lyon came into the attack.  Lyon was going around the wicket with the intention of slowing down the pace at which runs were being scored and possibly look for a breakthrough by taking a wicket.

As slip and a short leg had been put in place for the off spinner. Sharma had defended the first ball but then made up his mind to go after the spinner. But he chose the wrong shot and tried to sweep. With Sharma in two minds, the ball rammed the pads. The umpire was sure that he was out leg before wicket and dispatched him to the pavilion.

The Indian captain even took a review but had to walk back after scoring 43 runs. In the very next over, Pujara played an irresponsible shot on a Pat Cummins delivery and was caught behind by keeper Alex Carey.

The Pune police has busted a IPL (Indian Premier League) betting racket in Bollywood movie style. The betting racket went during the entire IPL 2023 season from March 31 to May 28, 2023, in luxurious residential societies and apartments of Pune city.

When the IPL was in full swing in the country, the Pune police was busy elsewhere, in pursuit of an operation that busted a huge racket. The Pune police department initiated its initial probe into the IPL betting case in March.

The police had received information from the sources that a betting racket was being run in the luxurious residential societies and high rise apartments across Pune city. Police put into action a perfect plan to bust the case and raided 12 places in Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune city.

They arrested 53 people in this case, one of the major arrests made by the police in regards to the betting in IPL season.

During their investigation, the police found most of the accused in this case are not resident of Pune, almost 40 people did not belong to Pune, all of them in the age group of 25-50 had come from Chhattisgarh, Bihar, and Punjab.

The police revealed in the investigation that the people who were taken into custody used online platforms for betting. The police further found that these platforms are hosted from outside India. Police seized mobile phones and laptops in the raid through which was used for the entire betting operations.

The Police said that the accused were used to place bets through an account on an online international betting platform. Here, a group of people rent a flat for a few days to bet.

Investigating officer added that in the process of betting, bookies usually prefer to work together from one place so that they can share their resources and help each other.