Ahead of the ODI series against West Indies beginning on Friday, the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave his team members a dressing down. Dhoni reportedly told his team members that everyone needs to be truthful about injuries or any other personal issues that could affect team’s performance.
The other issue Dhoni is said to have dealt with was related to players’ fatigue. He said that in case anyone felt tired and not 100 per cent fit, they should take rest in order to get better.
Dhoni has been forced to address these issues after the severe criticism that the Men in Blue faced after their performance in England. Also it came to light that several players went to England despite carrying injuries.
Melbourne, June 24 (ANI): West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo will be unveiled today as Victoria’s first international cricket signing, contracted for next summer’s domestic Twenty20 competition.
Dwayne Bravo
Bravo will join the Bushrangers in between international commitments, and will help Victoria in its quest to avenge last season’s loss to NSW in the Twenty20 final through his lusty hitting and clever medium pace.
Although he won’t be in Melbourne for the announcement, Bravo has been signed under Cricket Australia’s new provisional rules, which encourage states to lure more international players to take part in the domestic Twenty20 competition, The Age reports.
But he won’t be able to qualify for Victoria’s participation in the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League, which is scheduled to be played in India in October.
Bravo, 25, has played 31 Tests, 95 one-dayers and 15 Twenty20 internationals for the West Indies. (ANI)
MS Dhoni’s salary will be delayed next month. Ditto VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, S. Sreesanth and R.P. Singh. Reason: These India cricketers are among the 200-odd sportspersons employed by Air India. Also on the list are India hockey captain Sandeep Singh and Jhulan Goswami who captains the national women’s cricket team.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
“Frankly, we are still not clear on the status but yes, the salary has been deferred by a fortnight,” said Shekhar Guha, head of Air India Sports Promotion Board. An Air India hockey coach, who didn’t want to be named, also said: “By the 20th of every month we get PLI (Performance Linked Incentive), but we have not got it till now and there are rumours that we won’t be paid at all.”
Some of the big names mentioned above may not be affected by this but for sportspersons, present and former, surviving only on salaries this is a big blow. Neither Raina nor Sandeep, a deputy manager, said they knew about this. “I have been hearing about it in the news, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. I will have to speak to my coach,” Raina, assistant manager, Commercial, said. Sandeep, however, felt if they did not get the salary on time would be a big problem.
Former India wicketkeeper and Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya said he would be hit by this but added that since “Air India takes care of its employees and this is a crisis, I urge all my colleagues to stand by it.”
In Mumbai, Bimal Ghosh, coach of the Air India football team which plays in the I-League, said training hasn’t stopped despite the announcement.
Company spokesman Jitender Bhargava said sportspersons, if hired as permanent staff, are usually recruited as assistant-managers. Their educational qualification too matters, he said. “We don’t employ sportspersons as brand ambassadors, but spot them young and groom them. So, their salaries are not higher than that of the top level managers,” he said.
As of now, the loss-making airline has formed a four-member committee comprising members from finance and personnel departments to look into its salary structure. Air India employs 31,000 people and has an annual wage bill of about Rs 3,000 crore. Its cumulative loss is about Rs 5,300 crore.
Air India has an annual sports budget of approximately Rs 4 crore and officials said, as of now there are no plans to curtail that.
Shahid Afridi, who guided Pakistan to magnificence in the Twenty20 World Cup, may shortly receive an offer to play in Sheffield Shield for the Australian domestic side New South Wales.
Shahid Afridi
The 29-year-old all-rounder helped Pakistan win their 1st major title in 17 years by thumping their sub-continental opponent Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the final at Lord’s.
“Afridi is clearly one of the world’s best T20 player, but also he would be precious addition to our dressing room, our young players would learn a lot from him.”
“We would surely consider if he could be used for other formats,” a NSW Cricket official was lined as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Afridi set up an excellent all-round performance through the tournament; scoring 176 runs in seven matches included two half-centuries and also gets 11 wickets with an economy rate of 5.32.
If the contract materialises, Shahid Afridi would become one of the high-profile players to join an Australian side, after NSW’s selection of Kiwi Brendon McCullum for last season’s Big Bash final alongside Victoria, the report said.
London, June 22, No Indian player found a place in the World Twenty20 men’s team while Rumeli Dhar was the only one from the country to feature in the women’s team, announced by a select group of experts chosen by International Cricket Council (ICC) Monday.
Defending champions India had a forgettable outing in the World Twenty20, losing all three matches in the Super Eights. Even the in-form Yuvraj Singh failed to make the cut in the 12-member team, showcasing the best Twenty20 players of the world. Pakistan skipper Younis Khan was named the leader of the side.
Indian women’s team fared better than the men’s, reaching the semi-final where they lost to England. All-rounder Dhar was the sole Indian in the team led by Charlotte Edwards of England.
World Twenty20 teams are (in batting order):
Men:
Chris Gayle (West Indies), Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Younus Khan (Pakistan, captain), Dwayne Bravo (West Indies),
Shahid Afridi (Pakistan), Kamran Akmal (Pakistan, wicketkeeper), Wayne Parnell (South Africa), Umar Gul (Pakistan), Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka).
12th man: Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka)
Women:
Shelley Nitschke (Australia), Charlotte Edwards (England, captain), Claire Taylor (England), Aimee Watkins (New Zealand), Sarah Taylor (England, wicketkeeper), Suzi Bates (New Zealand),
Lucy Doolan (New Zealand), Rumeli Dhar (India), Laura Marsh (England), Holly Colvin (England), and Sian Ruck (New Zealand).
12th player: Eshani Kaushalya (Sri Lanka)
Bangladesh Tuesday named fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza as captain of the national team, replacing Mohammad Ashraful, for the cricket tours of West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Ashraful took over the captaincy from Habibul Bashar in June 2007.
mashrafe mortaza
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) said the move was aimed at relieving the burden on Ashraful and allow him to focus on his batting.
Under Ashraful’s captaincy, Bangladesh won only eight games in 38 ODIs, and failed to win a Test, losing 12 out of 13. His performance with the bat suffered in both forms of the game as captain.
“We want him (Ashraful) to play his natural game. He has the potential,” BCB chief selector Rafiqul Alam said.
He also said that change was not related to Bangladesh’s poor performance in the recently concluded Twenty20 World Cup.
Bangladesh could not move beyond the preliminary stage of the Twenty20 World Cup losing to India and Ireland in their first round matches.
BCB’s Media and Communications Committee Chairman Mohammed Jalal Yunus thanked Ashraful for his contribution as skipper.
“We all know his quality and what he is capable of as a batsman and we are confident that without the burden of captaincy his batting would flourish and he would contribute more to the team.”
All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been named vice captain.
Bangladesh will play two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20 in West Indies starting July 3.
Sydney, June 22, Andrew Symonds swapped the green and gold jersey of the Australia cricket team for the green and red of Wynnum-Manly to fulfil his dream of playing a senior rugby league match.
Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds
Symonds has been stripped of his central contract by Cricket Australia (CA) and now the Queenslander is free to play rugby which was deemed too risky for his physical well-being when he was a contracted player.
Symonds was always passionate about rugby and at one point in his career considered giving up cricket to try out for the Brisbane Broncos.
On Sunday, he made a surprise appearance at Kougari Oval, near Brisbane, against a Men Of League All Stars team which included former Test centre Steve Renouf, former Melbourne Storm premiership winger Marcus Bai and Manly star Ben Kennedy.
It was a friendly game but Symonds felt the pressure to perform in front of spectators including former Queensland teammates Jim Maher and Andrew Bichel.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Symonds was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.
Symonds, though nervous, gave the packed crowd some glimpses of his potential. He was playing win in the first half and was also jeered by the crowd when he dropped first pass that came his way, but then he proceeded to play well.
He also could have scored but generously unloaded to teammate David Green who touched down under the posts.
Former St George hooker Trevor Bailey liked Symonds’ style.
“He has got a bit of pace and strength – if he had played league he would have played wing or centre and being the athlete he is might have done well,” Bailey said.
England have announced an extended 16-man squad for the ashes which begins in Cardiff on the 8th July.
Adil Rashid has been included in a total of 3 spinners in the squad the other two being Monty Panesar and Graham Swann. England have left their options open as rumors have it that the Cardiff pitch will turn.
Of the remaining 13 players in the squad their are no more real surprises in store with Michael Vaughan left out, which was to be expected due to his poor form in the county game. Ian Bell comes back into the squad, many believe this is simple as back up and he will not take place in the first test providing no injuries to the remaining squad.
Still no place for Steve Harmison even though his form of late has picked up when playing for his county Durham with his fellow Durham team mate Graham Onions taking his place in the squad.
The England players will now participate in one of two warm up games taking place next week. The England Lions which will include Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions and Adil Rashid will play against Australia at Worcester in a 4 day game from 1st – 4th July. The remaining squad will play in a warm up fixture against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in a 3 day game from 1st – 3rd July.
All players involved will be looking to impress to claim their place in the starting line up of the opening test of the ashes 2009 series.
England’s Ashes 2009 Series Squad in full:A Strauss (captain), J Anderson, I Bell, R Bopara, T Bresnan, S Broad, P Collingwood, A Cook, A Flintoff, G Onions, M Panesar, K Pietersen, M Prior (wkt), A Rashid, R Sidebottom, G Swann.
NEW DELHI: Ace woman shuttler Saina Nehwal on Sunday scripted history by becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament after she clinched the Indonesian Open title with a stunning victory over higher ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta.
Saina Nehwal
Saina clinched her maiden Super Series title beating Wang 12-21, 21-18, 21-9 in an edge-of-the-seat thriller that lasted 49 minutes.
Her triumph is the best ever performance by any Indian woman and at par with All England Championship titles won by Prakash Padukone and her current coach Pullela Gopichand.
In the thrilling final, world number eight Saina came from behind to outsmart world number three Wang and avenge her last week’s Singapore Open Super Series loss to the same rival.
Saina took time to get into the groove as she struggled to gauge the gameplan of Wang in the first game. Wang opened a 4-9 lead and rode on her smashes and better net play o pocket the first game as Saina was left to do the catch up act.
But the Indian ace rallied her way back in the second game. Saina levelled the score at 5-5 and then moved together with her Chinese rival till 17-17 before surging ahead to pocket the second game 21-18.
In the decider, Saina was in her attacking best besides displaying better nerves in crucial moments.
After moving neck and neck till 7-7, Saina went berserk by engaging her rival in soft dribble and net play to widen the gap at 15-9 before reeling off six straight points to seal her place in history.
Hailing Saina’s victory as an important milestone in Indian badminton, Badminton Association of India announced a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh as a recognition of her feat.
“It is a big moment in Indian badminton. We are proud of her achievement. We are announcing a cash reward of Rs two lakhs as an acknowledgment of Saina’s hard work and achievement,” BAI president V K Verma said.
“It is a moment to cherish for Indian sports. Saina has put up a lot of hard work but I will also want to thank the Sports Ministry for their support and financial help,” he added.
NOTTINGHAM: Another loss, another humiliation, another grilling media session. The woes of Indian captain MS Dhoni seem to be never-ending.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
After the third straight loss in the Super 8 game against South Africa at Trent Bridge on Tuesday, the Indian captain looked at a loss for words.
Clearly, a man used to such heady success was finding it tough to come to terms with his team’s shoddy performance.
Dhoni acknowledged, though, that the main reason for India’s early ouster was their batting failure. ‘‘When you turn up on the field, you have to be always 100% and the key players have to be in form, which never really happened for us. Quite a few players were out of form, including me. That really proved crucial because it was our batting that was struggling. We are always known as a side that relies a lot on its batting. Because some of the guys were out of form, it really got tough for us,’’ he said.
It’s time for some serious introspection now for the captain and his troops before India’s next big assignment on the world stage, the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa. ‘‘It’s quite an unexpected performance. A lot of soul-searching needs to be done. It’s not about what you can achieve. It’s what you actually go out and achieve. We were not up to the mark. Our performance was never really up to international standards,’’ Dhoni said.
Many factors are being attributed to India’s poor performance, including fatigue. Although coach Gary Kirsten has attributed tiredness as the main reason for the poor show, Dhoni again seemed to refute that suggestion on Tuesday. ‘‘In a 20-over game, how tired can you be? You can work throughout the year and still play a tournament like this,’’ he said.
Was he tired personally, as wicketkeeping takes a heavy toll along with the captaincy? ‘‘I never thought I was too tired. I was going to the nets each and every day. I was doing whatever drills were given to me.’’
Dhoni, it might be recalled, had opted out of the Test series against Sri Lanka last August, citing fatigue after a hectic season. Surely, if he was as tired, he could have opted out of some of the warm-up games at least. ‘‘At that time, I was not feeling like going to the nets at all. That’s the time you know you are really tired. I was not even close to feeling like that. I don’t know about other guys. I don’t think fatigue is an appropriate reason for our defeat.’’
But fitness is and it could be seen that there were some players who were just not fit. ‘‘When we selected the team there were hardly a few guys who were 100% fit. Somebody had a shoulder problem, somebody an ankle problem. That really had a big impact on our fielding. I think most of the guys were not 100% fit.’’
Skipper booed
While the Indian public were present in large numbers in the ground even for an inconsequential game, they also booed the Indian team and its captain after the defeat. What did Dhoni, known to treat success and defeat with equanimity think about all this?
‘‘It’s not the first time its happening to me or the Indian cricket team. Hamara toh antim sanskar bhi ho gaya tha after the 2007 World Cup (They had even conducted our last rites after the 2007 World Cup). It happened when we were playing a Test match against England (in Mumbai) too. There’s no use feeling bad about it. It shows the level of expectations people have from us. If they did not boo us, we would have thought there is something unusual,’’ he explained.
But Dhoni himself hasn’t copped a lot of criticism in his immensely successful career so far. But he has got a fair bit of it in the last few weeks. How is he dealing with it?
‘‘In four-and-a-half years, I have seen a lot. From being out of form to getting booed to crashing out of the 2007 World Cup to winning the World Twenty20, to winning the One-day series in Australia and Sri Lanka and now this. It’s getting more demanding mentally. I cannot stop anyone from saying anything. It is an uncontrollable. But I am really happy to play cricket for India even if I get booed or something bad happens.’’
At times you have to hide things: Dhoni on Viru’s injury
The mystery over Virender Sehwag’s injury just refuses to die down even after India’s campaign in England has ended. The media wanted to know what the levels of transparency are in the team when it comes to disclosing injuries. Dhoni finally came clear on the issue. ‘‘When the first MRI was done in India, it did not show anything. When the next MRI was done here, it showed he had a tear. At times, you cannot say everything because you want the opposition team to think of Sehwag, whether he is playing or not. I prefer announcing the team one hour before the game. At times you have to hide things.’’
