Hashim Amla breaks Virat Kohli’s record yet again

New Delhi, Apr 24: Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh said he doesn't think Mahendra Singh Dhoni will play for India again, adding to the guessing game over the future of the superstar former captain.

Dhoni, 38, has not appeared for club or country since last year's 50-over World Cup and India's coronavirus lockdown could threaten his chances of getting back into the national team.

The Indian Premier League, the main platform before this year's scheduled T20 World Cup, is likely to be truncated or cancelled because of the pandemic.

Harbhajan, who plays with Dhoni at IPL side Chennai Super Kings, said international retirement was on the cards for Dhoni and that he was increasingly being asked about his teammate.

"It's up to him. You need to know whether he wants to play for India again," Harbhajan said in an online forum.

"As far as I know him, he won't want to wear India's blue jersey again. IPL he will play, but for India I think he had decided the (2019) World Cup was his last."

Dhoni, who gave up Test cricket in 2014, started training for the Super Kings in March but has not commented on his international future.

Dhoni led India to win the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007. He hit a six to seal the 2011 World Cup final victory and, along with it, his status as a national hero. He has amassed 10,773 runs from 350 ODIs.

Bengaluru, Jul 24: Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who was earlier banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching the Anti-Corruption Code, on Friday, said that people are bound to make mistakes and the important thing is that how well they make a comeback.

Shakib was banned from all forms of cricket on October 29 last year after he accepted the charges of breaching the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code. He will be able to resume international cricket from October 29, 2020.

"You have to be honest. You just can't lie to the people and pretend different things. Whatever happened has happened. People are bound to make mistakes. You are not 100%. The important thing is how well you can comeback from those mistakes. You can tell other people not to make those mistakes. Tell them the path so that they never take those paths," Shakib told Deep Dasgupta in a videocast hosted by ESPNcricinfo.

The 33-year-old all-rounder said he has seen many controversies ever since he was first made captain in 2009. He had trouble with the board chief, selectors and the media, mainly about selectorial decisions and not being made permanent captain between 2009 and 2010.
He believes those experiences have changed him as a person over time.

"I think [it's] combination of both [controversy following him, and vice versa]. I got the responsibility so early in my career, I was bound to make mistakes. I was captain when I was 21. I made a lot of mistakes, and there are so many things that people think about me. Now I realise that it was my fault in some areas, and in some I was misunderstood. But I get it completely. It is part and parcel in the subcontinent," Hasan said.

"Of course I will try to minimise [my mistakes] as much as I can, but by the time I got married, and now I have two kids, I understand the game and life better. It has made me a calmer person than I was in my twenties. I have changed quite a lot. People won't see me doing a lot of mistakes now. My two daughters changed my life completely," he added.

Shakib is likely return to international cricket during Bangladesh's proposed Test series against Sri Lanka in October. 

New Delhi, Apr 26: The idea of having a full-fledged women's IPL is in a "progression stage" and a World Cup title for India can actually help in turning that into a reality sooner than later, says former captain Anjum Chopra.

Under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian team sailed into the final of the last women's T20 World Cup, but was thrashed by home favourites and defending champions Australia when it mattered the most.

Chopra, one of the country's most decorated women cricketers, said a World Cup title triumph would have brought about a generational shift to the women's game in cricket-mad India.

"Women's IPL in the progression stages. From one game at the start we had four last year in the Women's T20 Challenge, and this time it was supposed to be seven. It has progressed," Chopra said.

"If the women's team had won the World Cup this year, the number of matches would have been more. There is a big difference between winners and runners up."

Chopra had a successful career spanning over 17 years during which she represented India in six World Cups while becoming the first woman cricket to appear in 100 One-day Internationals.

She added, "A victory (in final of last T20 World Cup) would have been a complete generational shift in a much more progressional manner."

Referring to the rapid strides the women's game has made the world over, she praised the International Cricket Council (ICC) for "consciously building it up".

"ICC has bifurcated viewership numbers also very well for Indian audience."

The icing on the cake was a near-packed Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the World Cup final between India and Australia, and that was not lost on Chopra, who is now a respected analyst and sportscaster.

"To have 80,000 people watching the final that's commendable. That definitely a boost," said Chopra, who holds the distinction of leading India to their first ever Test series win.

A World Cup triumph and the "mind set would have gone to different level altogether", she believed.

Asked about the chatter around pay disparity in Indian cricket, her simple message was win more to earn more.

"There is already pay parity in Australia. Because both teams have won the World Cups more than any other nations.

"If you start winning, then I am sure things will be different. It's also about how much you are able to generate as a team.

"I would say sky is the limit for them."

With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing sporting activities to a standstill, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the fate of many big events lined up in the near future.

While the IPL has been put on hold indefinitely, the pandemic has thrown the men's T20 World Cup, scheduled for October-November in Australia, into doubt.

"There has been a suggestion that if we are hosting the World Cup in October, then play the IPL as preparation ground for World Cup."

That is only if the situation improves in the coming times.

"It's difficult to see, to gauge where sport will be after this. For sure it is not going to be where it was before. Even if it opens up tomorrow it couldn't be the same.

"Can sports people can get back to work without worry? We don't know when this is going to be under control."