St Lucia Zouks will make a return to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), replacing St Lucia Stars for the upcoming season.

Zouks was the name of the original franchise from St Lucia when the league was launched in 2013. In 2016, Stars replaced Zouks, but last week the CPL terminated its participation agreement with Royal Sports Club, LLC, the entity that operates the St Lucia franchise.

CPL didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind Stars’ termination, but said it was “in the process of establishing and operating a new franchise to be based in St Lucia” for the upcoming season, which begins on September 4.

Jay Pandya, the chief executive and owner of Royal Sports Club, LLC, termed the CPL decision “an attempt to bully us”, one which, he said, the franchise would fight legally. “CPL Limited has absolutely no basis, legal or otherwise, to terminate our contractual rights to operate St Lucia Stars,” Pandya told ESPNcricinfo. “We vehemently dispute CPL’s decision and will use all means necessary to vindicate our rights. This is an attempt to bully us, plain and simple. We are confident in our position and look forward to securing justice against CPL’s blatantly illegal act in the appropriate court of law.”

More to follow…

Brendon McCullum is set to take over as head coach at Kolkata Knight Riders for the upcoming season, to go with his appointment as the head coach of Trinbago Knight Riders, the other team owned by the same group.

Less than a week ago, it had been learnt that McCullum would take over as head coach at Trinbago but only as assistant coach with the IPL franchise, following his retirement from all forms of the game earlier in the month. That’s changed since, with the top job at the Kolkata franchise going to the former New Zealand captain, too.

ESPNcricinfo understands that McCullum, whose appearance for Toronto Nationals against Brampton Wolves in the Global T20 Canada league was his last representative match, has been signed up by the Knight Riders franchise – which owns both teams – for at least the upcoming seasons of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and the IPL.

McCullum, 37, was expected to play in the Euro T20 Slam from August 30 as an icon player for Glasgow Giants but instead announced his retirement as a freelance cricketer. It’s understood that the decision to skip the new tournament was because Trinbago wanted him to helm the team at the CPL this year itself, and the dates of the two competitions clashed; the CPL starts from September 5.

Indeed, in his message on Instagram at the time of announcing his retirement, McCullum had mentioned that “the next chapter, in both media and coaching, will challenge me further”.

Kolkata recently announced that they were parting ways with Jacques Kallis, their head coach, and Simon Katich, the assistant coach who was also the head coach at Trinbago.

McCullum had retired from international cricket in 2016, after the Christchurch Test against Australia, but continued to turn out in franchise-cricket leagues around the world, with stints in the IPL with Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, as well as Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash, Lahore Qalandars in the PSL and Trinbago in the CPL.

New Zealand 249 (Taylor 86, Dananjaya 5-80, Lakmal 4-29) v Sri Lanka

The lower half of New Zealand’s batting order unravelled dramatically on the morning of day two, with the wicket of Ross Taylor setting in motion a collapse that cost them five wickets for 44 runs. Seam bowler Suranga Lakmal claimed all but one of those wickets, dismissing Taylor with his first ball of the morning, before going on to deliver a 5.2-over spell that yielded 4 for 15.

The visitors had been well-placed to push for a total in the range of 300 – Taylor resuming his innings at 86, with Mitchell Santner for company, and an industrious tail to come. But they could muster only 249 in the end, which could yet turn out to be a competitive total, given the treacherous nature of the Galle surface. But it is not the commanding total they would have hoped for.

Taylor had batted chancelessly through much of day one’s play, and it was on him that New Zealand’s hopes of a big total rested. But he could not negotiate the first ball he faced on Thursday. Attempting a cut shot to a short-of-a-length ball close to his body, he supplied a straightforward edge to the wicketkeeper. Santner didn’t last the first half hour either, shouldering arms to an indipper that would have gone on to clip the stumps.

Only Trent Boult, from among the tailenders, provided any sort of resistance. He hit a six and a four on his way to 18 off 22 balls. He eventually holed out trying to hit Lakmal for another six down the ground, before No. 11 Ajaz Patel was out lbw first ball, attempting a legside flick. New Zealand’s innings was wrapped up soon after drinks.

In some ways, day two’s unravelling was the continuation of a collapse that had begun just before tea on day one. New Zealand had been 171 for 3 at one stage, before they lost their last seven wickets for 78 runs. There were only two partnerships worth more than 50 in the innings – the openers making 64 together, before Taylor and Henry Nicholls put on 100 for the fourth wicket.