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Having kicked off her ODI career with a fifty on debut against England in 2011, the knock should have given then 18-year-old Veda Krishnamurthy the required confidence to achieve greater heights. Her attacking batting style meant she was entrusted with the role of a finisher, but the early success lulled the India batter to believe she was “bigger than the game”.”The biggest mistake of my cricket career was that I thought I was the greatest player when I was 18,” Veda, now 27, said on Indian Express Facebook Live. “I thought I was bigger than the game, that nobody could be better than me.”It was only in 2014-15 when things started to fall in place for me. I realised cricket is bigger than anyone. This is true for life as well. You need to have gratitude, appreciation for what you have.”ALSO READ: ‘They used to call me Darthy – after Darth Vader’While she has scored eight half-centuries in 41 ODI innings, those knocks were interspersed with a string of low scores. She was part of the squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year, but she was dropped from the ODI side in 2018 after several single-digit scores in a row. Veda, however, has no regrets about the way she plays.”My aggressive nature has definitely gone against me sometimes in my career. The higher the reward associated with risk, the higher is the chance of missing out. But I don’t regret any of the rash shots I played. Regrets don’t work.”I like to stick to my natural game. If it comes off, it will flip the match in such a way that the opponents cannot come back. Sometimes because of me, things have gone wrong for the team, but that’s cricket. You cannot let go off your natural instincts. I would like to say I am the nail in the coffin, either for my team or the other team, depends on how that day turns out.”Over the last ten years, Veda has represented India in 48 ODIs and 76 T20Is, and has played most of those games under or alongside Mithali Raj. There was a time in 2007 though when Veda was in awe of India’s ODI captain.”Mithali scored a double-hundred in a two-day match when I had just started playing for Karnataka. I was struck by how effortlessly she scored her runs. When I first batted with her, I called up a friend and told her, ‘Do you know who I batted with today?’ That’s the kind of influence she had on us. I have learnt a lot in the 8-9 years I have spent with her.”Mithali is very professional. We all try to learn from her how she manages to compartmentalise things, does one thing at a time. She has mastered the art of concentration.”Veda though is closer to India’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur in her approach to the game. When asked to compare the captaincy styles of Raj and Kaur, Veda said: “Mithali is very calm on the field. You discuss your plans beforehand, you are told what your role is, if you are not able to execute your role, she discusses it in the team meeting later.”Harmanpreet is a more on-field captain. She is more aggressive, she is always telling you what to do. Both are very good in their own ways and are doing a fantastic job in the different formats right now.”

Australia

Where do things stand?It became clear just a few days after the historic T20 World Cup final at the MCG how lucky it was that the game was played with sport shutting down less than a week later. The world champions will be back in action for the first time since that heady night when they face New Zealand this weekend (with a small crowd). After that there is the WBBL which will be played entirely in Sydney beginning on October 25. So while it won’t be normal, there should be plenty of cricket.What’s next?The first of three T20Is is on September 26 at Allan Border Field in Brisbane which will host all the matches against New Zealand. The tour also includes a three-game ODI series. Internationally after that things remain uncertain; India are due to tour Australia in mid-January although that was originally meant as a lead-in to the World Cup, but there are positive talks about a tri-series in New Zealand during February also involving England.ALSO SEE: Mithali Raj: India women ‘don’t know for what we’re training’

India

Where do things stand?Very much in limbo. As Covid continues to rise across India it’s very difficult, or impossible, for the female players to train as a group. The key event on the horizon, although details remains sketchy, is the T20 Challenge that is due to be held in the UAE alongside the IPL playoffs in early November. Since the initial announcement there has not been much further information which has left players nervous. The prospect of a domestic season in India looks bleak at the moment.What’s next?India were due to tour England, initially in June, and then there was hope of a tri-series in September also involving South Africa. However, both fell through and the fact that the IPL could be relocated but the women’s tour could not take place – despite much of the cost being borne by the ECB – creating some controversy. They are scheduled to have three ODIs in Australia in mid-January but it remains unclear whether they will go ahead.Harmanpreet Kaur addresses her team in the huddle•ICC via Getty

England

Where do things stand?The ECB has moved mountains to ensure the women can get some international cricket this season by hastily arranging for West Indies to head over for five T20Is after visits by India and South Africa couldn’t be made to happen. On the domestic scene, newly-created professional teams have managed to play the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint trophy, while a few players will head off to Australia for the WBBL in a few weeks and others may get a gig at the T20 Challenge.What’s next?Alongside the tours by India and South Africa, the launch of the Hundred – the new domestic format – has been pushed back by a year, although the ECB has ensured the salaries, which were considerably lower than the men’s tournament, have been ring-fenced from cuts. For those not getting places either at the WBBL or T20 Challenge, the next action could be a tri-series in New Zealand in February, when the World Cup was due to be held, involving the hosts and Australia.ALSO SEE: Alyssa Healy aims to develop 360-degree strokeplay

New Zealand

Where do things stand?A trip across the Tasman will see them resume international cricket in a few days. The squad has had to undergo two weeks of quarantine in Brisbane, but they have been able to train for a few hours day during that period. After this short tour a number of players will remain in Australia to join WBBL clubs while others will return home (through another period of managed isolation) and prepare for the home summer which include the T20 Super Smash competition.What’s next?After the Australia tour it is still to be confirmed but NZC are confident of having women’s international matches during the latter part of the season including a tri-series involving Australia and England. They had been due to host the ODI World Cup next February and March but that has been delayed by a year.Dane Van Niekerk celebrates the wicket of Heather Knight•Getty Images

South Africa

Where do things stand?That’s a loaded question in South African cricket. Things are such a mess that it’s hard to know what the knock-on effect will be on the women’s team. International travel restrictions, which mean that only individual athletes and not full teams could get exemptions, prevented the tour to England taking place so for the some the WBBL will provide a playing lifeline.What’s next?South Africa have been hit hard so far with two significant series, hosting Australia and touring England, not taking place. It is also difficult to know what sort of domestic season will take place. The squad has been able to resume training with the lifting of some restrictions and while borders have partially reopened no international sport is yet allowed.

West Indies

Where do things stand?Cricket West Indies has done a huge amount to help the ECB get a season played, firstly with the Test tour by the men and now arranging the women’s visit at short notice. The players had barely been able to training before leaving the Caribbean but have spent the last three weeks in Derby preparing for the T20I series where they will look to start rebuilding after a very disappointing T20 World Cup.What’s next?West Indies would have been part of the World Cup qualifiers in June as they looked to secure a spot at the main event in New Zealand. After the England tour it’s unclear what will follow, although something in West Indies’ favour is the number of Caribbean islands that have managed to keep Covid numbers down. Hayley Matthews has a WBBL deal with the Hobart Hurricanes.Chamari Atapattu goes on the attack•Getty Images

Pakistan

Where do things stand?There have been positive developments in the women’s game in Pakistan over recent years and the challenge will be ensuring that does not fall by the wayside amid the multitude issues to confront. However, there was the encouraging sign of the PCB offering increased salaries to their centrally contracted players and in August the board also offered a three-month support package to 25 unemployed cricketers outside of the contract system.What’s next?Pakistan were one of the teams set to take part at the World Cup qualifiers while there was also due to be a T20 Asia Cup tournament. There is no indication of when they will be able to return to action, although the fact that the PCB are hopeful of staging cricket again over the next few months offers some hope.

Sri Lanka

Where do things stand?After the T20 World Cup where they gave Australia a fright and beat Bangladesh, it will be a barren year for Sri Lanka with the World Cup Qualifiers postponed. There has been a change of coach with Lanka de Silva taking over until the end of the year although it is unlikely he’ll have any matches to take charge of. With the retirements of Shashikala Siriwardene and Sripali Weerakkody they will need to look to the future when cricket resumes.What’s next?They are expected to remain hosts of the qualifiers when they are rescheduled for some time next year and Sri Lanka has an advantage of being a nation to have coped well with Covid-19 which may make it a more practical destination for hosting matches. A few of the players, notably captain Chamari Atapattu, could have their eyes on the T20 Challenge as a chance to get back into the middle.Jahanara Alam looks on•Getty Images

Bangladesh

Where do things stand?Huge uncertainty surrounds the game at all levels in Bangladesh with the women’s set-up in danger of being particularly hard hit. The cancellation of domestic cricket has left many without any income. The BCB has offered some financial assistance with two lots of payments: in March it offered grants to all those who had been involved Women’s National Cricket League and in May another payment to all male and female league cricketers.What’s next?It is a waiting game. The priority for the BCB is to try and get the men’s international team back into action and work towards a resumption of domestic cricket. It remains highly likely that the women won’t play again this year.

Ireland

Where do things stand?Ireland’s last international cricket was a year ago during the T20 World Cup qualifiers. Since then they have had a tour to Thailand – part of a quadrangular 50-over series – cancelled along with the ODI World Cup qualifiers. There has, at least, been a small domestic programme during the summer with a two-team Super Cricket Series while there has been additional investment in a new category of retainer contracts below the full deals handed out by Cricket Ireland.What’s next?They will be waiting to see when the World Cup qualifier is moved to so they can resume planning for that. They have been dealt the significant blow of losing allrounder Kim Garth who has committed her future to Australian cricket with Victoria.

Australian cricket’s owners will be asked to vote on the addition of a 10th director – the fourth independent director – to the Cricket Australia Board in a significant change to the governing body’s constitution at its AGM later this month.CA’s intention is to hand the new position on the board to the ABC and Santos director, Dr Vanessa Guthrie, who has also served as deputy chair of the Western Australian Cricket Association in recent years and is the former chair of the Minerals Council of Australia.While the state associations of New South Wales and Queensland have been successful in pushing for closer links between their nominated directors and the CA board itself, with the NSW director and former premier Mike Baird to join the board while Richard Freudenstein moves sideways into one of the independent spots, a counterbalance has been devised.This will be in the form of adding a fourth director independent of the states, the better to fulfil the range of skills and backgrounds required of the CA board under the terms of its reshaping into a commission-style group in 2012, as opposed to the 14-member direct representative model that had existed for more than 100 years up to that point.”New South Wales wanted to put up Mike Baird, so went through a number of discussions around that, we also think Richard Freudenstein’s been an outstanding director, even more so at the moment given his media background, so we’ve moved him across as an independent and Mike Baird comes on,” CA’s chairman Earl Eddings told ESPNcricinfo.”It’s always very difficult with nine seats trying to meet all the requirements of diversity, ex-international players and skill sets. So we felt it was a prudent thing to take a bit of pressure off the states to put another independent there, so it gives us a bit more flexibility going forward. Vanessa’s an outstanding candidate, so I think it’s a win-win.”Such a change to the CA constitution must be agreed to by a two-thirds majority of the states, who at the AGM will each be represented by three voting representatives. This measure was itself a product of the political maneuvering required to move to an independent board, as the increase of all states to three votes – by a simple majority vote – was devised to circumvent South Australia’s opposition to the removal of direct representation. Eddings is confident the move will be supported.”All the directors have indicated to me they’re keen to support it, they know Vanessa’s the outstanding candidate and it gives us more opportunity to bring skill sets in and meet those other requirements,” he said. “Most of the directors have come from state land, you look at Lachy Henderson [WA], John Harnden [SA], Paul Green [Tasmania], Michael Kasprowicz [Queensland], so we just want the best people we can possibly find on the board.”It’s very exciting to have Mike Baird come on and Vanessa. We’ve already got a good board, but this gives it more diversity and also geographic diversity too. For a range of reasons some of the state directors have come and lived in Melbourne for career choices. Having Vanessa on board from WA will be great geographically as well.”Guthrie’s entry to the board would follow the exit of CA’s first ever female board member and Bendigo Bank chair Jacquie Hey. It would also avert the possibility of leaving only two female directors on the board – Mel Jones (Victoria) and Michelle Tredenick (independent). This would contravene CA’s own diversity target of 40% female representation at board level by 2022.”Jacquie Hey was a fantastic director, she was high quality,” Eddings said. “So it is fortunate we’ve got someone like Vanessa who we can call on. Jacquie would’ve stayed but with her roles with Bendigo Bank and Qantas she couldn’t put the time into it that’s now required. It is a time-consuming board compared to most others, so she’ll be sadly missed but we’re looking forward to welcoming Vanessa on.”With any board you’re looking at succession plans, we’ve already got a number of people on our board who can take over as chair, so it’s always good to have more candidates, the more the better. It’s one thing to have the ability to do the job but it’s also the capacity to do it, knowing how time-consuming it is. So having more candidates on the board who have the capability to do that is fantastic.”Belinda Clark, who recently announced she would be exiting CA’s executive after nearly 20 years in cricket administration, is widely seen as a likely board director in the future, while it is believed that CA’s list of potential directors this year had included the former federal foreign minister Julie Bishop.However the governance hackles raised by NSW and Queensland this year, to the point of questioning whether the CA board should move to a system of six direct state representatives on the board – eg. all concurrently members of state boards – have led to something of a compromise in allowing their chairmen John Knox and Chris Simpson to nominate current state directors for CA positions, meaning they will have strong relationships with their respective states even though they will still need to resign from those boards.Baird is set to join the CA board in time for the AGM, while the process for Queensland’s new director to replace Michael Kasprowicz, most likely the former Test wicketkeeper, commentator and Australian Cricketers Association president Ian Healy, will be completed shortly afterwards.The other director up for re-election this year, Tasmania’s Green, is set to continue after replacing Tony Harrison in 2018 and retaining the full confidence of the island state’s association to be a link between state and national levels. Green is also chair of CA’s audit and risk committee, and worked closely with the chairman Eddings on the often-fraught funding negotiations with the states this year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pakistan have hired former Bermuda batsman David Hemp as the head coach of the national women’s side. He takes over from Iqbal Imam, who was temporarily working in the role. Hemp is the second foreigner roped in by the PCB to take charge of the women’s cricket team after New Zealander Mark Coles, who spent two years in the job before resigning in October last year. Since then, the PCB had been bringing in local coaches to fill the vacancy on a series-by-series basis.Hemp, 49, is presently based in Australia and has worked with Melbourne Stars and Victoria in the Women’s Big Bash League between 2015 and 2020. As a cricketer, he played 271 first-class matches and scored over 15,000 runs for Glamorgan, Free State and Warwickshire. He represented Bermuda at international level, scoring 641 runs in 22 ODI innings that included a century and four half-centuries.Hemp is a UK-qualified level four coach who has also held a coaching role with Australia’s team for cricketers with intellectual disabilities, Premier Cricket’s Prahran and was the director of coaching at Scotch College. His first assignment with Pakistan will be the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier next year for the event proper that will take place in New Zealand in 2022.”David brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge, more importantly around women’s cricket development, which is extremely critical to our strategy as part of our endeavour to increase the pool of cricketers and rise to the level of the front-running international sides,” Urooj Mumtaz, Acting Head of Pakistan Women’s Wing and Chair of women’s selection committee, said.”I am sure our players will make optimum use of David’s expertise and strict work ethics, while I am sure David will have an enjoyable time when he relocates to Pakistan to join the elite company of illustrious coaching staff of Atiq-uz-Zaman, Grant Bradburn, Mohammad Yousuf, Mohammad Zahid and Saqlain Mushtaq at our National High Performance Centre.”David has worked for five years in Australia with the Melbourne and Victoria women’s sides and he is a perfect fit for the role we were looking for as he will be able to use that experience and knowledge to translate into our system that will ultimately benefit Pakistan women’s cricket.”

New South Wales produced one of the greatest comeback victories in Sheffield Shield history with Test duoNathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc claiming three wickets each to bowl Tasmania out on a dramatic final day.The Blues’ win by 146 runs ranks as the state’s finest ever fightback after being bowled out for just 64 and trailing by 175 runs on the first innings.Tasmania began the final day at 2 for 26 but an excellent partnership between Matthew Wade and Peter Siddle took them through to lunch unscathed and had Tasmania in a comfortable position at 2 for 101 needing 247 in the final two sessions for victory.However, Lyon struck with the first ball after lunch, extracting sharp turn and bounce to have Siddle caught brilliantly at short leg by Nick Larkin who needed two bites to pouch the reflex catch.Wade and Ben McDermott then settled into a 52-run stand. McDermott survived some nervous moments but Wade looked in control against Lyon and Starc to bring up his third half-century of the season. But Lyon changed the game again when Wade tickled a leg glace to a well-placed leg slip, on 59, with Larkin snapping up another sharp chance.The Test spinner knocked over Jake Doran cheaply with a classical off-break that scratched the edge of the left-hander’s groping blade. McDermott reached his fourth half-century of the season but ran out of luck against Starc to give the Blues two wickets in two overs and when, just before tea, Beau Webster inexplicably carved Starc straight to point and the end was nigh for Tasmania.Starc and Harry Conway wrapped things up shortly after the final break, with Starc claiming the last wicket, pinning Test captain Tim Paine lbw to complete the remarkable result.

After securing a first-innings lead of 43, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa extended it to 286 at the close of day three, taking control of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final at the National Stadium in Karachi. Kamran Ghulam led the way for KP, breaking the record for most runs in a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy season, pushing his tally up to 1245. The record was previously held by Saadat Ali who had scored 1217 runs in the 1983-84 season.Ghulam ended day three on 104 not out – his second fifty-plus score of the match and his fifth ton overall this season.”This has been an extraordinary season for me and I am grateful to my team-mates and my coaches who have played an integral role in my success this season,” Ghulam told the PCB website. “I also want to thank my family as this would not have been possible without their sacrifices in this extraordinary season which has kept the players away from their houses for the past four months.”Ghulam also credited coach Abdul Razzaq for his progress and set his focus towards making his international debut for Pakistan. He had previously represented Pakistan at the Under-19 level.