And there it is! NZ have beaten Sri Lanka by 2 wickets on the final day with zero balls to spare. Sri Lanka’s hopes of advancing to the WTC Final have ended. This means that India have guaranteed a spot in the WTC Final against Australia
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The fourth and final test between India and Australia at Ahmedabad has ended in a tame draw. Australia finished their second innings on 2/175, leading the home side by 84 runs, when the two team captains shook hands.
Virat Kohli was awarded player of the match for his score of 186, while Australian opener Usman Khawaja made 180 before he injured his leg while fielding during India’s first innings. Ravi Ashwin (25 wickets) and Ravindra Jadeja (22 wickets) were named players of the series.
India won the series 2-1 and retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy for another four years (the next series will be held in Australia).
Former Australian captain Tim Paine has now retired from all forms of cricket.
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India won game one by five wickets after bowling out Australia for 188. Australia claimed game two by ten wickets after dismissing the home side for just 117.
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Western Australia have won back-to-back Sheffield Shield titles, defeating Victoria by nine wickets in the final at WACA Ground this afternoon. WA captain Ashton Turner was named player of the match for his first innings score of 128, and Queensland’s Michael Neser was named player of the season for taking 40 wickets and making 357 runs during the 2022-23 competition.
The result means WA have completed domestic’s men’s treble (Sheffield Shield, One-Day Cup and BBL) for the second season in a row.
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Interesting NZ A beat Australia A in New Zealand. It was a big chase. We need a test series in NZ. I am a broken down record player. I know 
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BIG BASH CONTRACTING CHANGES
– Total Payment Pools rise to $3 million in BBL and $732,624 in WBBL
– Both BBL and WBBL to hold overseas player auctions
– BBL clubs able to sign Cricket Australia players on “Marquee Supplementary List” outside of squad of 18, and will be given salary cap relief should those players play
– BBL clubs must pay top six players a combined $1.7 million
– BBL clubs must pay a minimum of six players a minimum of $200,000
– WBBL clubs must pay a minimum of five players a minimum of $50,000
Overseas player draft salary bands:
Platinum (BBL and WBBL wages)
$420k and $110k
Gold
$300k and $90k
Silver
$200k and $65k
Bronze
$100k and $40k
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Amazing in my lifetime I am seeing Cricket come from primarily an international team sport to becoming more franchise based (where the “new gold mine is”). State cricket /county cricket was more popular back in the 80s but never to the heights of T20 (or so it appears) as television coverage is so much more widespread and T20 brings in $$$$.
Although you can watch a lot of shield cricket now using the Cricket Australia App. I don’t think many people do except for some diehard supporters. I don’t think you got live state shield cricket in the 80s besides the one dayers. Now state cricket feels like a feeder comp into the more elite competitions. It is rare you get a full strength shields teams playing, where I think in the past if there was a shield final all the test players would be available.
All this feels like Premier league in soccer. Where that league is in India instead of England. Its not quite there yet (it may never catch up to that extent). Also a bit like Baseball as well. It is a good thing for cricket? Time will tell certainly there is money to be made these days in franchised cricket (compared to our recent past).
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I think a lot of sports are heading this way - the English Premier League in soccer, you could argue NRL and AFL teams are similar purely because of the $$$ involved and that there isn’t as much loyalty in the game anymore, players will often chase the biggest $$$ because they may only have a 10 or so years in it, often less.
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In Cricket I think, playing for your country can still help your “value” to then get a good contract in the T20 world.
I don’t know much about international football but I don’t think it matters so much (playing for your country to get the big $$$). You could probably do the numbers to see if this is correct or not.
Maybe in the next 30-50 years this may change for cricket. It would be interesting to to ask elite baseball players to have a go at T20 cricket say in exhibition game in India. I’d say the bowlers would still need to be cricketers. Need to be careful though this is how Cricket died in the US all those years ago 
. History of United States cricket - Wikipedia
The Americans might start poaching our elite batsmen .
Yeah, I think batting and bowling/pitching in cricket vs baseball is quite different, more so with bowling… but you do need good footwork in cricket as a batter.
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I reckon we are about a year to three years away from having fixed international windows for cricket where players have to be released (like football), otherwise it’ll be franchise tournaments around the world. Especially with the Saudi League on the horizon.
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I’ll put money on the IPL-backed tournaments getting carved-out windows from the international schedule and the remaining will have to work around the remainder of the calendar.
I’ll also put money on Australia having to spend our traditional international window touring another country within 5 years.
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Definitely seems to be going that way.
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Will the IPL teams sign up with BBL teams to align themselves to each other?
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I get the feeling that there will be a push (across the world) for the T20 franchises to exit control of the game’s administration and put up for tender. The Indian-driven investment in a number of series outside of the IPL suggests to me that there is a desire to control the whole format at a local/domestic/franchise level (depending on how you look at it)
I would imagine that CA and the ECB will try and hold out - but it has a real feel that it will get to a point where enough aligned interests will apply pressure for it to change.
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Major changes announced for the Big Bash with 44 matches (40 games and 4 finals matches) from season 2023-24 onward. The Big Bash League will adopt the Page Playoff system used in the IPL for its playoff format after having a top 5 playoff system since BBL08
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