Cricket: Gough named Yorkshire's managing director

Yorkshire have appointed former England bowler Darren Gough as managing director on an interim basis to ensure stability, the club said on Monday after their coaching staff quit last week amid allegations of institutional racism.

Yorkshire said last week that director of cricket Martyn Moxon and coach Andrew Gale were among the members of the club who had left.

The departures followed allegations of racist abuse made by former player Azeem Rafiq, who is of Pakistani descent, with the 30-year-old saying he had contemplated suicide after he was made to feel like an outsider at Yorkshire.

Yorkshire said in a statement that Gough has been appointed initially until the end of the 2022 season, with overseeing the recruitment of a new coaching team being his first priority.

"Like many, I have followed how the club handled the recent racism allegations with sadness and anger," said Gough, who spent 15 years at Yorkshire across two spells and also captained the side.

"I want to play my part in rebuilding cricket in Yorkshire and I am looking forward to working with the exceptionally talented group of players here.

"I am also aware of my wider responsibility to listen to everyone and ensure that every person who is associated with this club feels welcome."

The scandal had shaken English sport, cost Yorkshire sponsors and the right to host England internationals, and embroiled some of the biggest names in English cricket.

Players security beefed up after lynching incident in Pakistan

The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Monday said it has beefed up personal security of all the cricketers competing in the ongoing T20 League in the country in view of the lynching incident involving a Sri Lankan in Sialkot, Pakistan.

A dozen of Pakistanis players, including Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Amir, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Hafeez, are competing in the T20 league.

A top SLC official told reporters that security net has been widened not  just for Pakistan players but all the cricketers participating in the five-team Lanka Premier League (LPL), which began on Sunday and will conclude on December 23.

Players from all top cricket playing countries alongside Namibia and UAE are in the competition. However, there are no Indian players.

The last week's incident of a Sri Lankan expat, working as a general manager in a factory, getting lynched by a mob has created anger here.

The remains of the murdered man, Priyantha Diyawadana, will be brought here on Monday evening.

Two Bangladesh women cricketers test positive for COVID-19

Two members of Bangladesh women's team tested positive for COVID-19 after returning home from Zimbabwe, forcing the national cricket body to extend the isolation period.

Bangladesh team had participated in the ICC Women's World Cup 2022 qualifiers and has been in quarantine after returning home.

With a new COVID-19 variant, which originated in South Africa, rocking the world, the Bangladesh government had imposed new travel rules on people returning from the African country.

"The team members, who were sharing the same room, had returned negative results in the two tests conducted in Dhaka on December 1 and 3. However, the report from a third PCR test on December 6 has shown both to be Covid-19 positive," BCB was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

"As such, the mandatory isolation of the team, which was due to end today (Monday, December 6, 2021), has been extended as per the Covid-19 Management Protocol of the BCB. The team members will undergo further tests and evaluation during the extended isolation."

The women players had completed their mandatory five-day quarantine on Monday and they were to leave the team hotel but they will now have to stay put some more days.