 New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah and captain Rohit Sharma attended the unveiling of India's new T20 World Cup kit at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, here on Monday. Adidas, India's official kit partner, earlier revealed the team's jersey for the upcoming T20 World Cup to be played in the USA and Caribbean from June 1. BCCI's official social media handle posted a video of Jay Shah and Rohit Sharma, unveiling the Indian kits, including the training kit, coaching staff kit, and the main kit. “It is time to welcome our team in new colours. Presenting the new T20I #TeamIndia Jersey with our honorary secretary JayShah, captain Rohit Sharma and official partner Adidas,” BCCI posted on Twitter. On April 30, the BCCI named India's 15-member squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup to be held in the US and West Indies. India will begin their campaign against Ireland on June 5 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium. India Squad for T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashashvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav. Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal. Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rimku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, T20 World Cup: BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, skipper Rohit Sharma unveil Indian team's jersey | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com |
Another day, another win - another convincing argument (2016-06-14T13:23:00+05:30)
By Peakfan: Although the rules of the two-day game against Worcestershire changed as it progressed, Derbyshire were declared winners today and produced another fine day of cricket. After our 276-3 in two sessions on day one, Worcestershire struggled to 237-7 in their two sessions. Curiously, all the wickets today fell to left-arm bowlers - with two to Harry White and one each to Greg Cork, Chesney Hughes and Tom Knight. All will have enjoyed their success but Hughes and Knight have each come a long way to get to this stage. Chesney hardly bowled a ball last year as he fought back from a serious shoulder injury and was missed. While his left arm spin could hardly be deemed slow (he's quicker than me off my long run...) it is a potent weapon, especially in the one-day game. As for Knight, his action has been remodelled and grooved better than a flower power classic. A proper bowl will have done him the world of good and the wicket will be a timely boost of confidence. In the Worcestershire one session second innings, they reached 126-3, with wickets to the Hughes boys and one to Shiv Thakor, leaving Derbyshire 88 to 'win'. They did this with some ease, making 114-4, largely thanks to an unbeaten 67 from Ben Slater. There were early dismissals for Chesney, Alex Hughes and Tom Poynton, but all have runs under their belt and Wayne White got a few in the middle of the bat today. Slater continued the good impression made at the end of last season and looks increasingly like a potential county opener for years to come. I have watched him bat several times and like his uncomplicated method. He is a busy little player who could become a good one-day bat, as well as a lynchpin in the longer game. One to watch, that's for sureSource: Derbyshire Cricket, Read More<<<
|
Murali Kartik retires from all forms of cricket (2016-01-21T15:33:00+05:30)
By: Express News Service | New Delhi | Updated: June 14, 2014 7:55 pm, Veteran left-arm spinner Murali Kartik on Saturday retired from competitive crickethaving played eight Tests and 37 ODIs for India between 1999 and 2007 taking 24 and 37 wickets respectively. However it was first-class cricket where Kartik was always a force to reckon with 644 wickets from 203 games which also included stints with English county sides like Middlesex, Surrey and Somerset. “I have decided to hang up my boots from all forms of competitive cricket but will honour my commitments for Kings XI Punjab during this year’s Champions League T20. I want to thank everyone for their support and felt that it is the right time to go. I have enjoyed playing this game and it has given me a lot,” Kartik said in a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday. “I would like to thank my parents and wife Shweta for their support, my coaches MP Singh, Gurcharan Singh and the greatest motivator of all Bishan Singh Bedi. Not to forget the influence that Maninder Singh had on my career,” said one of the premier left-arm spinners in the world. Kartik also thanked BCCI’s president-in-exile N Srinivasan as he first got a chance toplay competitive cricket for India Cements. “I would like to thank N Srinivasan sir and Kasi sir (Kashi Viswanthan) for giving a chance to play Buchi Babu as a teenager for Vijay Sports Club. My first captain VB Chandrasekhar who gave me a lot of confidence.” Asked about his high point in international cricket, Kartik said, “The Mumbai Test (match haul of 7/76) where I won the man-of-the-match award will always be special as we were able to restrict an Australian side to 103, chasing 107. Also when Sachin presented me with my India Test cap and Kapil Paaji (then coach) presented the Indiahat.” Talking about his best captain, he said,”It’s got to be Azzu bhai (Mohammed Azharuddin), who would tell you that as a bowler, you should be knowing what to do rather than me telling you.” He profusely thanked Indian Railways as a team that had a lot of intent despite limitations. “Winning the Ranji Trophy in 2001 gave us a lot of joy. We beat teams like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu before beating Baroda in the final. We were defending a first-innings score of 270-odd and Baroda were over 100 for no loss. We won it from there and it was a special feeling. “In Railways, we never had the facilities but we believed in each other and stood by one and another. Probably that’s an ingredient that a learned man like Sanjay (Bangar) carried in his job when he decided to take up the Kings XI assignment,” said Kartik, who will be seen more as a media pundit rather than getting into full fledged coaching role after the retirement. Source: The Indian Express, Image: http://photobucket.com......
|
Cricket’s big divide (2015-06-28T03:05:00+05:30)
In a cricket World Cup conducted nearly flawlessly, there were very few glitches on the field in a 44-day, 49-match event, which captured billions of global eyeballs for the sport. While the encomiums poured in for an event many described as the best World Cup ever, what stuck out like a sore thumb was the controversy over the trophy presentation ceremony. The president of ICC, who is the titular and ceremonial head of the federation and chairs general and special meetings of the august body, walked out of the final and on reaching Dhaka semaphored his resignation to the world. Now, Mustafa Kamal may be a nonentity in ICC’s governance of cricket and in its power politics, but he held the constitutional right to give away the trophy to the winning captain Michael Clarke. That right was denied to him. On the golden night out at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, it was the chairman of ICC, Narayanaswami Srinivasan, who gave away the trophy. Now, India dominates the ICC, as it well may since over 70 per cent of the revenues comes either to events starring Team India or from advertisements aimed at the biggest captive audience of upwards of 400 million middle class population with newfound purchasing power domiciled in India and its diaspora. That India also drives all the power politics of ICC is perhaps owed to the presence of Srini, a divisive figure in the game who has done amazing things for the ‘body’ of cricket but who has been charged with destroying its soul. The background to the events of the final evening is well known. Kamal had spoken out of turn after the India-Bangladesh quarter final, from which he picked one contentious umpiring moment and blamed it on manipulative politics, while suggesting that the entire tournament was fixed for India to win. There may not be too many takers for Mustafa’s conspiracy theory of a Pakistani umpire deliberately favouring India in declaring a ‘No ball’ for height against a set batsman in Rohit Sharma who took the game further away from the Green Tigers of Asian cricket. Truth be told, the particular episode was poorly handled with neither umpire going ‘upstairs’ to consult their colleagues in the box with the ‘vision’ to gauge the height of the ball and rule more appropriately. Kamal’s statement on events mid-Cup were condemnable and not worthy of a man heading the federation whose feelings for his national team seem to have spiralled out of control. However, it is a moot point whether the faux pas was so severe as to warrant his exclusion from the grand ceremony of the World Cup. Such unforgiving condemnation of anyone else’s mistakes in the game is a trademark Srini reaction, although it could be said that he showed great charitable disposition to forgive himself when the Supreme Court reserved some choice descriptions for his own controversial conduct in the BCCI from where he has been unseated as President by the country’s top court. Had Srini handed over the privilege to the New Zealand PM John Key (the Australian PM Tony Abbott was away in Singapore to pay homage to Lee Kuan Yew) he may have proved his point with great dignity. By grabbing the role for himself, albeit his being the most powerful figure in world cricket by virtue of his being nominated by BCCI to head ICC’s board of governance, Srini betrayed an egoistic trait that sought the honour on cricket’s biggest night. No wonder then that Kamal made Srini the bullseye for personal barbs like “rotten’, etc. Whatever happened with regard to the prize ceremony could be put down to nasty personality politics. The issue is, however, only the top of the iceberg. The Imperial Cricket Conference outgrew its Lord’s garden party days when it went democratic as the International Cricket Council with Sir Colin Cowdrey heading it first and the presidency then passing on to the likes of Jagmohan Dalmiya of India and Ehsan Mani of Pakistan on rotation basis. In the most modern era, the federation moved into its India dominated days with a ceremonial President and a virtual executive Chairman with the reins, financial et al, in his hands. Had this led to a more benevolent regime with more money for all towards development of the game in all the frontiers and beyond of cricket, the development may well have been the best thing to happen. In calling it “India Cricket Council’, Mustafa was not far off the mark. Considering the weight of history, making points against the old colonial regimes may be considered fair game, up to a point. But the manner in which the ‘Big Three’ have arrogated power to themselves with an unequal share of revenues would lead to a divided cricket world, the poorer part of which is now afraid that universal development of the game is not going to be supported by the ICC in an equitable way. India, Australia and England are going to take away the cream of global events to organise while also cutting down on the number of teams in the showpiece World Cup so that there is a greater share of the pie to only 10 teams rather than the 14 who played in the 2015 edition. The decision to limit the field to 10 teams was bound to be most unpopular since the so-called minnows of the game like Ireland and Afghanistan performed remarkably well. There will be place in 2019 only for two teams to join the host England and seven top ranked ODI sides. This is to do with elitism being bred in the game after India’s presence became the dominant one. Cricket, which was known to bring together the high and mighty as well as the hoi polloi on an equal footing on the field of play, is now being driven towards an oligarchy under a potentate who will do far more damage to it than the colonials managed in hundred years. Did not GM Trevelyan write — “If the French noblesse had been capable of playing cricket with their peasants, their chateaux would never have been burnt.” What the Bangladesh official did, wittingly or not, was to expose the big divide that is fast overtaking cricket. If the Srinivasan-led ICC, with a retinue of power brokers and well rewarded former cricketers, continues to run the game only with an eye on the money and taking all decisions based purely on commercial considerations, the game is at grave risk of reaching a plateau when it should actually be competing with myriad forms of emerging entertainment in the modern world. Many former BCCI presidents are convinced that the controversial Srinivasan has allowed things to come to such a pass. His philosophy is not seen to be much different from that of another figure of historical hate in Kerry Packer, the Australian magnate, who once said — “There’s a bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen, what’s your price?” In cricket, they used to tell bowlers to aim at the three stumps. Nowadays, admin men may see the three stumps of the wicket as rupees, dollars and pounds. Source: The Asian Age, Image: http://photobucket.com
|
Virat Kohli is a genius with the willow, says Niall O’Brien (2014-06-24T13:37:00+05:30)
Excited about his county team’s practice match against a star-studded Indian cricket team, Leicestershire’s Irish import Niall O’Brien says Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men can destroy, dazzle and intrigue their rivals all at the same time. The 18-member Indian squad, which landed in England on Sunday, created considerable excitement in the Leicester corridors with the county side hosting a three-day game against the visitors. “India are a wonderful bunch of cricketers who can destroy you one minute, intrigue you another and just dazzle you with their unreal skill and talent the next,” O’Brien wrote in his column in the ‘Leicester Mercury’. “India will be led by the inspirational Dhoni who is another top man and a superb captain who has transformed the India side over recent years with his tactical nous and aggressive approach, both in the field and with the bat. “Another (player) who will create great interest is Virat Kohli, the new kid on the block. This man is a genius with the willow in his hand and is already is making serious runs that will surely one day put him near the top of the Indian run-getters list,” he wrote. Leicester may be placed at the bottom of the County Championship Division II table but wicketkeeper-batsman O’Brien is hoping that playing India will benefit the Josh Cobb-led side. “It is always a great experience, especially for the younger lads, to play against MS Dhoni and Co… For the (Leicester) Foxes, it will be a great test for our batsmen and bowlers to show what they can do against a Test side,” wrote the 32-year-old left-hand batsman. The visitors will play another three-day practice game against Derbyshire before the commencement of the first of the five Tests on July 9 at Nottingham. India are looking to avenge their 0-4 thrashing at the hands of the Three Lions in 2011 before they take on the hosts in five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 in a two-and-a-half month long tour. Source: The Indian Express
|
Masaba Gupta to design for women's cricket league (2014-05-28T14:36:00+05:30)
New Delhi, April 29 (IANS) Young designer Masaba Gupta has been roped in by Women's International Cricket League (WICL) to bring a twist of fashion and design into women's cricket apparel. Her design label Masaba will be associated with WICL as the official sporting apparel design partner. "Bringing Masaba in to design women's playing and training cricket apparel seemed perfect as we were looking to create an identity through design and packaging of the sport. A partnership with this fantastic young designer seemed to complete the picture," Shaun Martyn, director, WICL, said in a statement. Masaba, who, at 24, was also appointed the fashion director of luxury brand Satya Paul, has emerged as one of the most promising new-age designers. She is excited about breaking new ground in fashion as far as designing for a women's cricket team is concerned. "As a designer, integration across fields is what really gives a brand dimension, diversity and visibility. I am extremely excited about this opportunity as I love cricket and design and could not see a more perfect collaboration on the two subjects," said the daughter of West Indies' cricket legend Vivian Richards and actress Neena Gupta. A small panel of international players will work with Gupta to design playing and training gear that will be functional, feminine and different. Sharing her plans of what's in store for her debut foray in sportswear, Masaba tweeted: "I will be designing the jerseys and gear for six teams for the first ever women's IPL to be held in Singapore. Our first step into sportswear." The designer will showcase these apparel designs at major fashion shows during the course of the year. The range will include a co-branded WICL and Masaba range of sportswear, which will be available online and in selected sporting outlets around the world. Source: News Track India, Image: http://www.famouspeopleindiaworld.in
|