Rift over Kohli's Asia Cup absence, Raina back as captain and more - Cricket News Today, 16th September 2018

The decision to rest to Virat Kohli for the Asia Cup has certainly split opinions across the cricket fraternity. Today, a new voice joined in on the act as Star India are apparently unhappy with BCCI's decision to rest the team's captain for a crucial tournament, which might include as many as three India-Pakistan encounters.

Suresh Raina made the headlines once again as he is back as captain of the Uttar Pradesh. Also in the news is the Pakistan Super League as the draft order and the start date for the tournament was announced.

Here are all of today's important developments from the cricket world.

War of words between Star and BCCI over Kohli?

The decision to rest Virat Kohli certainly has not gone down well with everyone. Former national selector Sandeep Patil wondered why he couldn't have skipped the West Indies series instead of the Asia Cup, while others have spoken about how it isn't ideal that India will not have their premier batsman as they look to defend their Asia Cup.

The latest to join in on this, if reports are to be believed are Star India. The broadcaster isn't happy with Kohli being rested for the Asia Cup as the ratings won't be as high as they would be if he was taking part. According to the Mumbai Mirror, the decision to rest Virat Kohli has led to a war of words between Star and BCCI.

"Star India have claimed that Kohli’s absence from the fortnight-long tournament will have serious commercial implications, along with the erosion of the competitive value of the event. The broadcaster has reportedly written to the Asian Cricket Council stating that the implicit clauses in the eight-year agreement have not been honoured," the report said.

However, it is still unclear if this will have any impact going forward.

Raina back as captain of UP

Raina knows that he needs to impress if he makes the cut for the upcoming tours

Not picked for the ongoing Asia Cup, Suresh Raina will be hoping to impress in the Vijay Hazare Trophy that starts later this week. He has been named as captain of Uttar Pradesh and will be keen to lead them to glory and rack up the runs as well as he hopes to be back in the Indian side in time for next year's World Cup.

With India having 24 more ODIs before the start of the World Cup and the West Indies series coming up next month, Raina will be looking to impress and earn a recall to the national side. Along with him, Ankit Rajpoot who was impressive for Kings XI Punjab and his recent performances for the A-team will hope to earn a call-up with a strong Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Uttar Pradesh squad: Suresh Raina (captain), Akshdeep Nath, Shivam Chaudhary, Umang Sharma, Rinku Singh, Priyam Garg, Samarth Singh, Upendra Yadav, Abhishek Goswami, Saurabh Kumar, Shiva Singh, Ankit Rajpoot, Shivam Mavi, Amit Mishra, Yash Dalal, Mohsin Khan.

PSL 2019 to start on February 19

Final to be held in Karachi

In more good news for Pakistan fans, Pakistan Super League 2019 will start on February 14 in the UAE before moving to Pakistan for the last eight matches of the tournament. Even the final of the tournament will take place in Karachi on March 17.

The decision was taken during the PSL Governing Council meeting and included not just the representatives from the PCB but also all the PSL franchises and took place at the National Cricket Academy. The PSL Player Draft was also finalised with it being based on last year's rankings with teams being allowed a maximum of 10 retentions.