~snip~
Not a big fan of Siraj. IMO, he benefitted immensely from the fact that he is playing for the RCB, at least during the starting years. Siraj has been given a lot of opportunities so far, and he hasn't made use of them in an effective way. I would rather prefer someone like Thangarasu Natarajan, who has an excellent record in Australia (where the T20 world cup is being played). There are a few other options as well, such as Mohsin Khan, Mukesh Choudhary and Kuldip Yadav (not talking about Kuldeep Yadav). And I wouldn't prefer Khaleel, Umran or Avesh, since they have received enough chances till now.
Absolutely true. Siraj has goot way more opportunities than any other bowler like Natrajan, Thakur or even harshal Patel. But at this point I think Directly bringing Shami as replacement of Bumrah made more sense instead of Siraj, but i have heard there was some Covid probability with Shami which was why he didn't play. I feel that no matter how much we guys debate, eventually favouritism is playing a big role in selections.
I doubt if Siraj could make it into WC playing XI as Bhuvi, Harshal, Arshdeep and Chahar are frontrunners but at the same time majority of them are swing bowlers except for Harshal so in a way Siraj
inclusion as backup makes sense to me because you need variety in your squad. He does both seam and swing, mostly in Test tho.
Gate collection hardly adds to anything when full capacity of stadiums are below 50K spectators, ticket pricing is another factor. I guess security etc takes a really big cut, makes sense when you are hiring 1000's of elite security personnel for a month or so and blocking a block or 2 every now n then where a team is staying or traveling.
They can't have it both ways. They were not happy with the matches being hosted in the United Arab Emirates, because the argument was that all the revenue was being directed to the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB). Now when big-3 teams are finally agreeing to tour Pakistan to play their matches, again they are arguing that it is also a loss making proposition. Security needs to be stepped up, given the recent incidents targeting cricketing teams from other countries. I don't think any cost-cutting can be made on this sector.
Karachi, Pindi, and Lahore are pretty much safe places for anything but the problem is PCB can't take any risk and visiting teams demand an extra layer of security as it gives everyone a sense of security. This could potentially pay dividends in future tours.
I believe this is for SENA countries only, I didn't notice this level of security for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.