Current Affairs - Cricket

• Women’s: Sophie Ecclestone (England Left-arm spinner) – She is the second English female player to win the title after Tammy Beaumont (in February 2021).
• Men’s: Devon Conway (New Zealand opener) - He became the first New Zealand player to win the award.

• The Jharkhand State Cricket Association, affiliated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has signed a lease agreement with Bokaro Steel Plant for the construction of an international cricket stadium.
• BSL is a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited, and the first city of Maharatna to house an international cricket stadium.
• Bokaro will become the third city in Jharkhand to have an International Cricket Stadium after Jamshedpur and Ranchi.
• Bokaro Steel Plant will transfer 20.17 acres of its land to JSCA for 33 years, for the construction of Stadium.
• The proposed stadium will also be the first stadium to be constructed in SAIL township.

• Madhya Pradesh allrounder Anshula Rao has become the first women cricketer to be handed a four-year ban by the National Anti-Doping Agency, after failing the dope test.
• She was found guilty of consuming a banned anabolic steroid ’19- Norandrosterone, on March 14 at Baroda in 2020.
• Rao represents Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit, and was last seen playing cricket in the under-23 T20 tournament hosted by BCCI.

• All-Rounder: India’s Ravindra Jadeja on 23 June 2021 dislodged West Indian Jason Holder as the world’s top all-rounder in the latest ICC Test rankings. Jadeja is two points ahead of Holder (384) while England all-rounder Ben Stokes is third on 377. R. Ashwin is at fourth with 353, followed by Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh (338).
• Bowler: Ashwin remains in the second spot in the bowlers’ rankings on 850 points, below Pat Cummins (908) of Australia. Tim Southee (830) of New Zealand is third.
• Batsman: Among the batsmen, there was no change in top-five with Indian captain Virat Kohli static at fourth on 814. Steve Smith of Australia continues to be the top batsman on 891 points, followed by Kane Williamson (886) of New Zealand and Marnus Labuschagne (878) of Australia.

• Former India all-rounder Vinoo Mankad was among 10 cricket icons inducted to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall Of Fame on 13th June 2021.
• Mankad was among a special edition intake group to celebrate the history of Test cricket, and to coincide with the first ever ICC World Test Championship Final.

The Inductees

• Early cricket era (pre-1918): Aubrey Faulkner (SA), Monty Noble (Aus)
• Inter-war era (1918-1945): Learie Constantine (WI), Stan McCabe (Aus)
• Post-war era (1946-1970): Ted Dexter (Eng), Vinoo Mankad (Ind)
• ODI era (1971-1995): Desmond Haynes (WI), Bob Willis (Eng)
• Modern era (1996-2015): Andy Flower (Zim), Kumar Sangakkara (SL)

• The Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to have its own ‘Hall of Fame’ to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of its stalwarts.
• As part of the launch, six members of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame — Hanif Mohammad, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Zaheer Abbas — will be inducted into the PCB Hall of Fame.
• There will be three more inductions each year from 2021 with the inductees to be chosen by an independent panel and announced on October 16, the day when the country made its Test debut in 1952.

• Mumbai beat Uttar Pradesh to win their 4th Vijay Hazare Trophy played at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi.
• Aditya Tare (Mumbai) was given Player of the Match award.
• Prithvi Shaw and Karan Sharma were the captain of Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh respectively.
• The Vijay Hazare Trophy is named after the legendary Indian cricketer Vijay Hazare.
• Tamil Nadu is the most successful team having won the trophy 5 times.

• Ravichandran Ashwin has been named the ICC men's Player for the Month of February for his stellar show against England in a four-match Test series at home which India won to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
• Ashwin who played in three tests in the four match series scored a 106 in the second innings of India's second Test victory over England at Chennai and took his 400th Test wicket in the third Test victory at Ahmedabad.
• Besides the century, Ashwin scalped 24 wickets against England last month to help India pocket the four-match Test series 3-1 and help his team secure its spot in the WTC final against New Zealand at Lord's in June.
• England's Tammy Beaumont was adjudged the women's Player of the Month.

• BCCI secretary Jay Shah has been elected as the President of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).
• Shah will take over the reins from Nazmul Hassan, President, Bangladesh Cricket Board.
• Shah is the youngest administrator to be appointed as the ACC President.
• Headquartered at Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is a cricket organisation which was established in 1983, to promote and develop the sport of cricket in Asia. Subordinate to the International Cricket Council, the council is the continent's regional administrative body, and currently consists of 24 member associations.

The winners of the prestigious ICC Awards of the Decade were announced on 28th December 2020. The ICC Awards of The Decade recognise the best players across Cricket over the past 10 years.

Major Awards & Awardees

• Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade: MS Dhoni (India)

Men’s Awards

• Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India)
• Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India)
• Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Decade: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)
• Men’s Test Cricketer of the Decade: Steve Smith (Australia)

Women’s Award

• Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for ICC Female Cricketer of the Decade: Ellyse Perry (Australia)
• Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade: Ellyse Perry(Australia)
• Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Decade: Ellyse Perry (Australia)

Indian Players in ICC Teams of Decade

• R Ashwin found a place in ICC Men’s Test Team of the Decade where Virat Kohli was chosen captain of the team.
• Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli found mention in ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade where M.S. Dhoni was chosen wicket keeper and captain.
• Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah found place in ICC Men’s T20I Team of the Decade where MS Dhoni was chosen captain and wicket keeper.
• Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami found a place in ICC Women's ODI team of the Decade.
• Harmanpreet Kaur, Poonam Yadav found place in ICC Women's T20I Team of the Decade.