Punjab Kings’ costliest acquisition Shreyas Iyer is “super excited” about being a part of the franchise and is hopeful of delivering results from the very first match.

It has been a remarkable year for Punjab Kings’ latest acquisition. At the start of the year, Shreyas Iyer was part of the Mumbai team that won the Ranji Trophy for the 42nd time. He then led Kolkata Knight Riders to their third Indian Premier League title. He was also a member of the Irani Cup-winning Mumbai team.

Under his leadership, Mumbai won the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), their second SMAT title, last week.

“Surreal feeling after winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. A lot of hard work took place behind the scenes. The boys were tremendous with their performance. Now we are done with this part,” Iyer said in a video uploaded on Punjab Kings’ official social media handles.

Now, the Mumbai cricketer is laser-focused on a significant task: winning a maiden IPL trophy for the Punjab Kings. Iyer, who was signed on by the Kings at the Auctions last month for Rs 26.75 crore, expressed his excitement about joining the franchise.

“Super excited to be part of Punjab Kings. I cannot wait to join the Punjab Kings family. It’s been a great year for me to win four trophies. My main goal is to win the IPL trophy for Punjab,” Iyer said.

The 30-year-old, who has previously played under the guidance of former Australia World Cup-winning Captain Ricky Ponting in the IPL, said he is looking forward to brainstorming alongside one of the cricketing legends once again. Earlier this year, the Kings announced Ponting as the new Head Coach for the franchise.

“I can understand what the feelings must be among the fans. With Ricky coming in, we have shared a great camaraderie from the past. We would be putting our thinking caps on and brainstorming on many aspects. Hopefully, we will deliver from the match one,” Iyer signed off.

Shreyas worked alongside Ponting for three seasons when he was the captain of Delhi Capitals while the former Aussie captain was the Head Coach.

The Border Gavaskar 2024-25 Series recently witnessed an off-field controversy involving Ravindra Jadeja.

The left-arm spinner addressed a press conference on Saturday ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and the proceedings of it have not impressed some media outlets it seems. 

Channel 7 carried out a report claiming Jadeja “refused” to answer questions from their reporters in English and the TV reporters, who had travelled all the way after being “invited” and were left “bemused by the “strange and frosty media conference at the MCG.”

Notably, Jadeja addressed the media after India’s first practice session at the MCG. The press conference proceeded smoothly until Jadeja concluded the session and decided to return to practice. At this point, an Australian journalist expressed frustration, displaying anger over Jadeja not answering any questions in English.

A couple of Australian journalists were rude towards the Indian media manager, asking their camerapersons to keep recording their conversation with the Indian media manager. Their behaviour bordered on the aggressive.

Australian media: One question in English? 

Team manager: sorry, we don’t have time now. You can see the team bus is waiting. 

Aussie media: Can’t we take one question in English?

Manager: This was organised mainly for the travelling Indian media. 

Aussie media: The organisation is hopeless.

This incident comes a couple of days after Channel 7 invaded India legend Virat Kohli’s privacy by filing him with his children without his consent at the Melbourne airport. Although there is no written rule that stops the media from filming a superstar like Kohli in the public domain, his family, especially his young children, could have been spared. Moreover, the aggressive reporting, claiming Kohli lost his cool and had a heated exchange with a female reporter on the same channel, was also questionable.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy stands at 1-1, and before the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, it appears that tension is not limited to the cricketers on the field.

The BCCI will hold a Special General Meeting (SGM) in Mumbai on January 12 to elect its new secretary and treasurer after the two posts were vacated by Jay Shah and Ashish Shelar respectively earlier this month.

The BCCI constitution states that any post lying vacant should be filled within 45 days by calling a Special General Meeting. The upcoming BCCI SGM will be held within 43 days of the deadline.

“Yes, after the Apex Council Meeting on Thursday, state units were sent a notification about the date of the SGM, which is January 12 at the BCCI headquarters,” a state association president told PTI.

Shah has already taken over as the youngest chairman of ICC on December 1 and Shelar, a seasoned BJP politician, has been sworn in as a cabinet minister in the recently-formed Maharashtra government.

As per the Lodha Committee reforms accepted by the Supreme Court, one person can’t hold two positions. Shah, who still had a year left in his BCCI tenure before the mandatory cooling off period, relinquished his post as required.

Shelar, who has been a Maharashtra BJP president, had to quit the BCCI post as Lodha Reforms do not allow any minister or public servant to be an office-bearer.

“As the posts of Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer have been vacated, the same are required to be filled up for the remaining period at a Special General Meeting by way of elections,” reads an official Board document which is in PTI’s possession.