6 candidates short-listed for India's head coach's job

Agencies
August 13, 2019

New Delhi, Aug 13: Six candidates, including incumbent Ravi Shastri, were on Monday short-listed for the high-profile post of the Indian cricket team's head coach.

The six candidates are former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson, ex-Australia all-rounder and Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody, former West Indies all-rounder and Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons, ex-India team manager Lalchand Rajput, former India fielding coach Robin Singh and Shastri.

The candidates will give a presentation to the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) headed by the legendary Kapil Dev, and a final decision will be arrived at by end of this week or early next week.

Besides the country's first World Cup-wining skipper Dev, the newly-appointed CAC comprises Anshuman Gaekwad and former women's team captain Shantha Rangaswamy.

"These six will give a presentation for the head coach before CAC. It has been learnt that these six have been short-listed for an interview with the CAC," a senior BCCI official, privy to the development, told PTI.

Before leaving for the tour of West Indies, captain Virat Kohli had said that he is in favour of Shastri continuing as the head coach of the Indian team despite the criticism he faced following the semi-final ouster from the World Cup.

The current support staff comprising Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, batting coach Sanjay Bangar and fielding coach R Sridhar were given a 45-day extension following the World Cup, covering the ongoing West Indies tour from August 3 to September 3.

While the names of Hesson and Moody have been doing the rounds for a while, Simmons, who has had successful stints with Ireland and Afghanistan cricket teams, is also in the fray now.

Simmons also served West Indies for a brief while, helping them to victory in the 2016 World T20 tournament in India before taking over as head coach of the Afghanistan national team in 2017.

Among the Indians, Robin served as the fielding coach of the Indian team when it won the inaugural World T20 under Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy in 2007.

Rajput, who was the head coach of the team when it won the World T20, also had stints with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

Hesson recently parted ways with IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab. Hesson coached the Black Caps for six years, highlighted by their memorable run to the 2015 Cricket World Cup final in Melbourne, a semifinal finish at the 2016 World Twenty20 in India and a home Test series win over England in April 2018 which lifted them to third on the world rankings.

India may have failed to win the T20 World Cup in 2016 and the ODI World Cup in 2015 and 2019, but the Shastri-Kohli duo helped the country climb to the top of the Test rankings with a historic series triumph in Australia.

Shastri was the team director till June 2016 until India lost in the World T20 semi-finals before being reappointed as head coach in 2017 after Anil Kumble's departure.

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News Network
April 8,2020

London, Apr 8: England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has raised more than 65,000 pound (USD 80,000) to help fight the coronavirus by auctioning off his World Cup final shirt.

Buttler's shirt, which he wore when completing the last-ball run-out that saw England beat New Zealand at Lord's last year, was sold to raise money for specialist heart and lung centres provided by the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London.

Buttler, who earlier in the showpiece match had hit a fifty and batted in the Super Over, put his long-sleeve keeping jersey up for sale on eBay a week ago.

By the time the auction closed on Tuesday, the shirt had attracted 82 bids with the winner paying 65,100 pound.

Buttler, speaking on Monday, said: "It's a very special shirt but I think it takes on extra meaning with it being able to hopefully go to the emergency cause.

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News Network
July 25,2020

New Delhi, Jul 25: Former India spinner Anil Kumble said that he has never understood why people compared him with Australia's Shane Warne.

Kumble was doing an Instagram live session with former Zimbabwe pacer Pommie Mbangwa and it was then that the spinner also talked about being the third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket.

"It feels really wonderful to finish with these many wickets. I never bothered about statistics or what my average should be, I wanted to bowl the whole day and be the one to take wickets. To finish as the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests alongside Murali and Warne is very special. All three of us played in the same era, there were a lot of comparisons, I do not know why people compared me with Warne. Warne was someone really different and he was on a different plane," Kumble told Mbangwa during the interaction.
"These two guys could spin the ball on any surface so it became really difficult for me when they started comparing me with Warne and Murali. I learnt a lot by watching them both bowl," he added.

The Indian spinner announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008. He finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

Kumble is the second bowler in the history of international cricket after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He had achieved the feat against Pakistan in 1999 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. Kumble had bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs in the second innings of the Test match.
Kumble will be coaching Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL). 

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Skipper Virat Kohli has become the first Indian to reach the 50M followers mark on social media platform Instagram. Kohli, who is breaking cricketing records with each passing match, has a great social media following.

The 31-year old has so far made 930 posts on the platform and his social media posts continue to enthrall fans worldwide. Overall, Instagram's official account has the most number of followers and it is followed by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 200M followers.

In terms of Indians with most number of followers, Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is on the second spot with 49.9 followers while Deepika Padukone is on the third place with 44.1 followers.

Last year, Kohli had become the most successful Indian Test captain, surpassing Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Currently, Kohli is in action against New Zealand and his side would take on the hosts in the two-match Test series, slated to commence from February 21.

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