Captain Vinay sees more Karnataka players in Team India

March 14, 2015

Bengaluru, Mar 14: A special occasion brought Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who rarely attends any of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) functions, to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Friday (March 13).

Himself a two-time Ranji Trophy champion, Chandrasekhar was there along with G Kasturirangan, Gundappa Viswanath, B Vijayakrishna, Sadanand Vishwanath, Raghuram Bhatt and other Karnataka stalwarts to greet and congratulate R Vinay Kumar's team, which successfully defended the Ranji Trophy title on Thursday with an innings win over Tamil Nadu in the final in Mumbai.

Captain Vinay

The bus carrying the team from the airport entered the stadium premises at 1:25 p.m. amidst drumbeats, bursting of firecrackers and a lot of waving of the state flag. Robin Uthappa, the season's highest run-getter, was the first to get out of the bus, followed by the rest as they were hugged by those around them, eager to be a part of history, or requested for a photograph or an autograph on their way to the pavilion hall for the official reception party.

The trophy glittered on the side stage as players, support staffers and selectors were presented with a turban (the Mysore peta) and a shawl. There was good humour too when Viswanath placed the headgear wrongly on CM Gautam's head. Someone pointed out that he had to turn it around and, always up for a quip, Viswanath replied that he was trying to practice the reverse sweep.

The loudest cheer from the team, seated on the opposite side to the rest of the gathering, was reserved for J Arunkumar and Mansoor Ali Khan, the batting and bowling coaches respectively, B Siddaramu and Ramesh Rao, the two managers, physio Shravan, trainer Prashant Pujara, video analyst Srinivas, and Atanu, the masseur. It told a bit about the bonhomie in the camp that has brought Karnataka five trophies in the last two seasons.

Vinay, who became the first captain to score a century and take five wickets in an innings in a Ranji Trophy final and also ended as the season's joint-highest wicket taker with 48 scalps, thanked everyone he could for the support, and said how, at one point during the season, he was fed up with the amount of advice he was getting from fans on social media. Though he ignored most of them, he said he was happy that the team was being followed so religiously in a World Cup year.

Vinay also recollected the video message he had recorded for the Sports Writers Association of Bangalore awards ceremony last year, when he had pointed out that if his side could even play at 80 percent of its potential, Karnataka would be able to retain the trophy.

Among the players, Uthappa, KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Abhimanyu Mithun were most sought after as journalists, club members and the cricketers mingled after a group photograph of the winning team ended the event.

However, amid the celebrations, no one had lost sight of the upcoming challenges.

Karnataka would now have to defend their Irani Cup title against Rest of India in Bangalore from March 17, before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament, the one that got away from them last season, starts on March 24.

Brijesh Patel, the KSCA secretary, while complimenting the team, pushed the bar a bit higher for the boys: "The press guys are calling me to find out what award KSCA is going to give to the boys. I said, 'we will definitely give them, but they still have two more trophies to win'."

Vinay, on his part, used the platform to connect history with the future. "In 1995-96, we had so many players from Karnataka playing for India," he said. "We are soon going to repeat that."

Talk about the pressures a champion side has to deal with.

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News Network
February 18,2020

Feb 18: Spinner Poonam Yadav claimed three wickets as India geared up for the ICC women's T20 World Cup with a thrilling two-run win over the West Indies in a low-scoring warm-up match in Brisbane on Tuesday. Electing to bat, India posted a lowly 107/8 in their stipulated 20 overs before returning to restrict the West Indies to 105/7. Chasing 108 to win, West Indies were comfortably placed at 57 for one in 13 overs when Deepti Sharma struck, cleaning up opener Lee-Ann Kirby (42) to trigger a collapse. Soon skipper Stafanie Taylor (16), Chedean Nation (0) and Deandra Dottin (1) were back in the hut as West Indies slipped to 67 for five in the 17th over.

Hayley Matthews (25) and Chinelle Henry (17) blasted three fours and a six in the 19th over to leave them with 11 to get off the last six balls.

Henry blasted Poonam for a four but the Indian dismissed Matthews in the fourth ball.

West Indies needed three runs off the last ball but Henry was caught by Veda Krishnamurthy.

Earlier, India's top-three failed to fire as they were reduced to 17 for three in 3.1 overs.

Opener Smriti Mandhana (4) lasted just six balls, while Jemimah Rodrigues (0) failed to open her account.

Young Shafali Verma blasted a couple of fours before being caught by Britney Cooper off Shamilia Connell (2/20).

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (11), too, didn't stay long, while Krishnamurthy was cleaned up by Afy Fletcher (1/26), as India slumped to 52 for five in 11.2 overs.

Deepti Sharma made a 32-ball 21 before becoming a victim of Anisa Mohammed (2/16), while Pooja Vastrakar (13) was removed by Aaliyah Alleyne (1/9).

Stafanie taylor then got rid of Taniya Bhatia for 10. Shikha Pandey finally smashed a 16-ball 24 to give some respectability to the total.

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Agencies
March 25,2020

Lausanne, Mar 25: The World Archery has hailed as a 'brave decision' the International Olympic Committee (IOC) move to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics until next year due to coronavirus pandemic.

"We commend the conscientious and brave decision taken by Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee to delay this summer's Games in the face of an unprecedented challenge to humanity," Ugur Erdener, the World Archery president, said in an official statement.

The decision to postpone the Summer Olympics was confirmed by the IOC, on Tuesday, after the organising body for the event and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to reschedule the quadrennial event in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is not an easy situation, especially for the athletes who had been training hard for Tokyo 2020. I hope that everyone understands why this decision has been made and I urge archers around the world to retain hope and reset for this new timetable," he added.

The IOC has, however, said that the original name of Tokyo 2020 will remain intact irrespective of the fact that it will take place next year.

The Tokyo Olympic Games were slated to be held from July 24 to August 9.

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Agencies
May 26,2020

Some of the ICC guidelines on resumption of cricket border on the impractical and will need a review when the cricketing world is closer to action, feel former players Aakash Chopra, Irfan Pathan and Monty Panesar.

Last week, the International Cricket Council recommended a host of "back to cricket" guidelines including 14-day pre-match isolation training camps to ensure the teams are free from COVID-19.

The world body issued training as well as playing guidelines which will drastically change the way the game is played.

Among them are regular hand sanitising when in contact with the ball, no loo or shower breaks while training, minimising time spent in the changing room before and after a game, no use of saliva on ball and no handing over of personal items (cap, sunglasses, towels) to fellow teammates or the on-field umpires.

"Social distancing is very doable in individual sport but very tough in a team sport like cricket and football. If you need a slip during the game, would you not employ it?

"If the team is going through a 14-day quarantine and is being tested for COVID-19, I am fine with that process. Now, after that, if we have more guidelines for the players during the game, then you are making things complicated. Then there is no point of a quarantine period," former India pacer Pathan told PTI.

Safety cannot be compromised but regularly sanitising hands during the game will be too much to ask from the players.

"Safety is paramount but we should not make the game complicated. If a bowler or fielder has to sanitise hands every time he touches the ball, then it would be very difficult.

"You can shorten the process of giving the ball to the bowler. Instead of the usual chain (wicket-keeper to cover fielder to bowler), the keeper can straight away give the ball to the bowler but even then the bowler will have to sanitise hands six times in an over," said Pathan seeking more clarity on the guidelines.

Former India opener Chopra said it is still pre-mature to prepare a fixed set of guidelines for resumption of cricket as the situation is evolving "every day".

"That (regular hand sanitisation after contact with ball) is obviously impractical but my big question is when the game happens in a bio secure environment and everyone is quarantined and tested, do these additional measures make a difference?

"On the field, I can still understand but what happens when you go back into the dressing room? How do you practice social distancing there? So it becomes quite complicated.

"To be honest it is all very premature. Once they get closer to resumption, which will take some time, there will be more clarity," said Chopra.

International cricket is likely to resume in July with England hosting West Indies and then Pakistan.

Bundesliga football league has already begun in Germany behind closed doors and by the time cricket resumes, more sporting competitions would have restarted and Chopra feels that will help cricket decide the way forward in post COVID-19 times.

"By the time cricket resumes, more football would have started after Bundesliga. Cricket can take lessons from there, collect data and ideas and see what is practical and what is not."

Former England spinner Panesar foresees the start of the England-West Indies series making things a lot clearer for the entire fraternity than they are at the moment.

"The 14 day quarantine is very much needed and well done to the ICC for including that. I think we will see resumption of international cricket with England hosting West Indies in July. We might have some practical ideas then, the other countries would also be watching keenly and will learn how to go about it.

"But measures like regular hand sanitising is not going to be practical. May be you could sanitise every one hour but it can't be regular during the game," said Panesar.

While Pathan feels the on-field safety measures will make managing over-rate a bigger challenge for teams, Chopra said no loo or shower breaks during training won't be that much of an issue.

"Training is still controllable. You don't have to be there for a long time but you would still have to use the restroom at some stage. You may avoid taking a shower but you will have to use the restroom.

"I think the idea of these guidelines is to make cricketers more aware that you have to take care of yourself and inculcate habits which are in everyone's interest in the current scenario," added Chopra.

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