AB de Villiers wanted to retire from Tests much earlier, says Jonty Rhodes

Agencies
August 10, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 10: Jonty Rhodes, a well known figure in India has never been shy about his love for the country that has only grown on him with every visit. He is currently in the country for a stint with Tamil Nadu Premier League franchise Ruby Trichy Warriors as mentor.

Jonty has always been candid about his views on South African cricket and the game in general. He now has said that AB de Villiers wanted to retire from Test cricket long back but was persuaded by Cricket South Africa (CSA) to stay on till 2016. It is well known that Jonty shares a cordial relation with de Villiers.

Jonty said, “I think he wanted to retire a while back from Test cricket, but Cricket South Africa persuaded him to stay on. Before 2016, he was talking to people about his Test future. In South Africa, people are critical because they don’t see the IPL mechanism.” De Villiers last played a Test for South Africa in 2016 and since then has had issues with injuries.

Jonty also felt that South Africa cricket fans do not understand the concept of Indian Premier League (IPL). “They think cricketers are trying to make as much money as possible and it’s often at the expense of national call-ups.” he quipped.

If would be a shame if Jonty did not speak on fielding standards, in particularly India. “When we used to play against India, Mohammed Kaif and Yuvraj Singh were outstanding and Harbhajan Singh was probably the third best. Dhoni and Virat Kohli are physically strong. Fitness has certainly improved and so is the athletic ability,” he explained.

When asked to compare Virat Kohli with the likes of De Villiers and Rohit Sharma he stated, “I have only seen skipper Kohli as part of Mumbai Indians’ coach on a couple of occasions. Rohit looks like a laidback guy.  But he is like a duck on the water. All you see is the duck above.”

He further added, “From a captaincy perspective, de Villiers is just another nice guy. He hasn’t done anything different.”

Jonty finished off by recalling his inspiration behind his great fielding abilities. “Peter Kirsten. We didn’t have any televised international cricket when I was at school during apartheid era,” Jonty concluded.

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News Network
May 30,2020

New Delhi, May 30: Former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand will be finally reaching India late on Saturday after being stuck in Germany for over three months due to the travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Yes.. Anand will be returning today," the chess maestro's wife Aruna told PTI on Saturday morning. Anand, who boarded an Air India flight (AI-120) from Frankfurt on Friday night will reach Bengaluru via Delhi.

He is expected to reach Bengaluru at 1.15 pm. The five-time world champion will undergo 14 days quarantine as per rules laid down by the Karnataka government.

"He will complete quarantine procedures and come to Chennai as per protocol," Aruna Anand said. The flights from Germany are only scheduled to land only in Delhi and Bengaluru.

The chess ace was in Germany to play in the Bundesliga chess league and was to return to India, but was forced to stay put after the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted sporting schedules across the globe, apart from restricting movement.

He was staying near Frankfurt and was doing online commentary for the Candidates tournament which was called off mid-way due to the pandemic and led the Indian team in the Online Nations Cup early this month.

Anand had been in touch with his family in Chennai on a regular basis via video calls and kept himself busy with chess-related work.

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Agencies
May 9,2020

Tokyo, May 9: As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus pandemic, the organisers of Tokyo Game Show have cancelled 2020 showpiece event.

TGS 2020 was slated to be played from September 24 to September 27 at the Makuhari Messe convention center. However, there now talks going on for holding an online event instead.

According to the Verge, this is the first time that TGS has ever been cancelled since it started in 1996.

TGS 2020 gained more attention because of its status as the last major trade show before the launch of the upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

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Agencies
January 5,2020

Mumbai, Jan 5: India captain Virat Kohli has refrained from making any comments on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), without gaining full knowledge on the sensitive subject.

The CAA will grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document.

In 2016, Kohli had termed demonetisation as the "greatest move in history of Indian politics", which met with sharp criticism from a lot of quarters, with people questioning his knowledge on the subject.

With Guwahati witnessing massive protests against the CAA till some days back, Kohli was asked about it and the Indian skipper weighed his words carefully.

"On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it," Kohli said ahead of India's first T20 International against Sri Lanka.

The skipper made it clear that he will not like to get embroiled in a controversy by commenting on a subject that he is not well aware of.

"Because you can say one thing and then someone can say another thing. So, I would not like to get involved in something that I don't have total knowledge of and it's not going to be responsible on my part to comment on it." However Kohli on his part was happy with the security arrangements and felt that the city is "absolutely safe".

"The city is absolutely safe. We didn't see any problems on the roads," Kohli said, giving his thumbs-up for the match at the Barsapara Stadium.

The Assam Cricket Association is using this match as a "curtain-raiser" ahead of their maiden IPL match this season as Rajasthan Royals have adopted this venue.

There has been deployment of Rapid Action Force for the teams and ACA secretary Devajit Saikia has said the spectators will not even be allowed to bring along handkerchiefs and towels on the match-day as the traditional Assamese scarf was used for protests against CAA.

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