Bangalorean 'shoots' odds, wins silver

Karachi, May 19: Babar Azam wants to take a leaf out of Imran Khan's aggressive captaincy and besides cricket, he is also brushing up his English to become a "complete leader" like the World Cup-winning all-rounder.

Last week, the star batsman took over the reins of Pakistan's white-ball cricket after being appointed as the ODI skipper.

Azam, who was one of the world's leading batsmen across formats last year and already the T20 skipper, replaced wicket-keeper batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed as the ODI captain for the 2020-21 season.

"Imran Khan was a very aggressive captain and I want to be like him. It is not an easy job captaining the Pakistan team but I am learning from my seniors and I have also had captaincy experience since my under-19 days," Azam said.

He said that to be a complete captain one must be able to interact comfortably with the media and express oneself properly in front of an audience.

"These days I am also taking English classes besides focussing on my batting," he said on Monday.

The 25-year-old Babar said he was not satisfied with Pakistan's current standing in international cricket.

"I am not happy with where we stand and I want to see this team go up in the rankings."

Babar said captaincy would be a challenge for him but it would not affect his batting.

"It is an honour to lead one's national team so it is not a burden for me at all. In fact, after becoming captain, I have to lead by example and be more responsible in my batting."

Babar hoped the T20 World Cup is held this year in Australia as he wanted to lead his team in the ICC event.

"It would be a disappointment if the event was not held or rescheduled because I am looking forward to playing in the World Cup and doing well in it," he said.

About plans for Pakistan to fly to England in July to play three Tests and three T20 internationals amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Babar said a lot of hard work and planning would be required to make the players feel comfortable and safe.

"Touring England won't be easy. Health and safety of players is of great importance and the tour will only be possible when proper arrangements are in place," he said.

"Both England and Pakistan team fans, along with the cricketers, are missing cricket because of the pandemic."

"We will still try to perform to the best of our ability despite no support from the fans in the stadium," he added.

New Delhi, Jan 10: Injured Assam archer Shivangini Gohain underwent a critical surgery at the AIIMS. Dr. Deepak Gupta, professor of Pediatric neurosurgery at AIIMS, revealed about the delicate nature of the procedure and said there was no room for error.

"It was touching vertebral artery which supplies blood to the brain stem. The arrow was 0.5 cm in front of the spinal cord and the child could have become quadriplegic if someone tried to pull it out," Gupta said.

According to doctors, the arrow accidentally went inside the body damaging the shoulder bone, part of the neck, spinal cord and left lung.

Dr Gupta said, "Now the patient is fine. We had planned the surgery in a very unique way. Last whole night, our team was doing the planning and plotting to conduct this complex surgery. About 15 cm part of the arrow was inside the body which has entered through shoulder bone and affected neck, spinal cord and left lung".

"We started the surgery in the morning at 6 am which lasted for three and a half hours. We have successfully removed the arrow. The patient is stable now and shifted to ICU for observation," he added

Shivangini Gohain, the 12-year-old Assam archer who was impaled by an arrow shot accidentally at the SAI centre in Dibrugarh, was training unsupervised and the mishap was a result of negligence by the local coach and officials, the state's archery association has said.

The child was training at the Dakha Devi Rasiwasia College at Chabua, which serves as an extension centre under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Regional Centre in Guwahati when the incident took place on Wednesday.

She was airlifted to Delhi on Thursday night and admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre. Pulin Das, a joint secretary of Assam Archery Association and executive member of the state Olympic association said the injury to the school girl from the Deodhai village, which is 3km from Chabua, happened as the trainees were practising without any coach and other officials.

“There is a SAI contractual coach Marcy and he has left for the Khelo India Games in Guwahati. He didn't instruct the trainees to stop the camp for some time nor did the college principal, who acted as administrator of the extension centre, looked after the practice,” Das said on Friday.

The extension centre has 11 trainees, six boys and five girls, and they were training under SAI contractual coach A C Marcy from Nagaland, who is in Guwahati for the Khelo India Youth Games.

“The training ground itself is in very bad shape, it was not even a dedicated ground for archery training, some play football, cricket and other sports on that ground. But the worst part is that the SAI coach did not give instructions to stop the camp for a while and the archers were training without any supervision,” he added Das said Gohain was struck by an arrow shot by boys doing practice for compound event. The arrow remained stuck for more more than a day before she was airlifted to New Delhi on Thursday night.

“There was nobody to look after the archers, they were training on their own though their parents were outside the ground. An arrow shot by a boy trainee who was doing compound event practice hit her on the shoulder,” the official said.

Gohain's father Brinchi Gohain was outside the practice area and with no official of the college and SAI coming for help, she was taken to Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh, 33km from Chabua.

“She could reach the AMC in Dribugarh only on Thursday morning. There, the doctors told her parents to take her to a more reputed hospital like AIIMS in Delhi. With help from people close to the local Member of Parliament and Assam CM himself, she was taken by air ambulance to Delhi.

“I was told that she had a very tough time as the arrow remained stuck for more than a day. She is a strong-willed girl and she fought. Her father must be a daily wage labourer and he was distraught also.”

The SAI said that it will bear all the expenses of her treatment. The Assam Archery Association has contributed Rs 20,000 towards her treatment.

Melbourne, May 7: Australia opener Joe Burns is eyeing the Tests against India should they take place later this year, to stabilise his stop-start international career, saying "you want to play in and do well in" in this kind of series.

India is scheduled to play four Tests in Australia in December-January, a series which is currently in doubt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 2.5 lakh lives across the world.

"They are obviously world class team. I think the two teams going at each other will be very exciting to watch and players playing against each other as well," Burns told reporters in a video conference on Thursday.

"You look at the world ranking, they were number one and now we have got to number one, so I know that series will be anticipated by everyone and as a player this is a sort of series you want to play in and do well in."

With the coronavirus also threatening the T20 World Cup, Cricket Australia is under financial stress and has gone on a cost-cutting drive, which included standing down 80 per cent of its staff at 20 per cent salary.

There are also speculations that the Sheffield Shield for 2020-21 would be curtailed to cut costs.

Burns, however, hoped it won't be tinkered with.

"I love the fact we have a really strong first-class system. The 10 games, where you play everyone twice," Burns, who was struck down by a fatigue illness after an indifferent season, said.

"It leads to world-class players coming into Test teams. You don't want to see that get changed.

"Obviously it is unique circumstances at the moment and There's a lot of things to work through ... the players' association is consulted on those things."