Jason Holder first West Indies all-rounder since Garfield Sobers to top ICC rankings

Agencies
January 28, 2019

London, Jan 28: Jason Holder has become the first West Indian since cricket great Garfield Sobers to be named as the world's leading all-rounder following his superb display against England in Barbados.

West Indies captain Holder struck a commanding 202 not out and also took two useful first-innings wickets on his Kensington Oval home ground in Bridgetown, Barbados to help his side complete a crushing 381-run win over England in the first Test.

Victory, secured with more than a day to spare, put the West Indies 1-0 up in a three-Test series.

The towering Holder's man-of-the-match display saw him go ahead of Bangladesh's Shakib-al-Hasan and India's Ravindra Jadeja in the International Cricket Council's all-rounder rankings, with England's Ben Stokes still in fourth place.

Although the rankings, which aim to take into account the quality of the opposition as well as a player's raw figures, did not exist when Sobers was still playing, they have since been applied retrospectively to generations of former cricketers.

Under that system Sobers -- widely considered to be the best player cricket has known -- last topped the rankings in 1974, the year of his retirement.

Sobers made a cap presentation just before the first Test started, with the 82-year-old witnessing the impressive display of Holder, a fellow Bajan.

Meanwhile West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave criticised what he said was a lack of respect shown to his side by former England captains Geoffrey Boycott and Andrew Flintoff.

Boycott, in a pre-series newspaper column, labelled the West Indies as "very ordinary, very average cricketers" while Flintoff, like Holder a pace-bowling all-rounder, tweeted his disbelief at the Caribbean skipper's double century.

Grave, an Englishman who made his reputation in cricket administration with Surrey and the Professional Cricketers' Association, was decidedly unimpressed.

"Former players have said some stuff I think is unwarranted and borderline disrespectful," Grave told BBC Radio's Test Match Special.

"I saw Andrew Flintoff say he can't believe Jason Holder got a double hundred, yet I think Jason Holder is a fantastic cricketer and has been performing so fantastically over the last 18 months -- a brilliant captain.

"Criticism of our players and suggestions that they're not world-class is unfair. It doesn't seem to happen when England play other opposition. I think it's unwarranted and not true.

"I'm hoping everyone gets to see that in the next few weeks of this series."

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Agencies
May 31,2020

London, May 31: "Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli," replied umpire Ian Gould when he was asked to name the three best batsmen he loved watching when he was officiating as an umpire.

The former ICC elite umpire said that he was unlucky to not watch Ponting bat as much as he would have liked to.

"Jacques Kallis. I loved watching Jacques. He was a very, very fine player. Sachin. And probably Virat. I was unlucky in some respects. I didn't see the best of Ricky Ponting. He was an outstanding character, outstanding captain, such a proud Australian," ESPNCricinfo quoted Gould as saying.

"But his career was just starting to wane as I came on the scene. But he was incredibly helpful, so I'm disappointed I have to leave him out. Jacques Kallis, I could sit and watch all day, Virat, the same. And Sachin, if you want someone to bat for your life, he was the man," he added.

Gould had retired from the ICC's panel of elite umpires in 2019, after standing in more than 250 international matches over a 13-year career.

Over the years, comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli has 70 centuries across all formats.

While, Kallis played 166 Tests, 328 ODIs and 25 T20Is for South Africa and he is often viewed as the greatest all-rounder the game has seen.

Many pundits of the game find it hard to pick between him and Sir Garfield Sobers.

Across his career, Kallis scored 25,534 runs in his career and he also managed to take 577 wickets.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and 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).

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News Network
April 19,2020

Zurich, Apr 19: Former Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia was among the 50 footballers to take part in the FIFA's initiative to pay tribute to 'humanity's heroes' amid the coronavirus pandemic.

FIFA, in its statement, expressed gratitude towards all the healthcare workers and other professionals who are giving their all to ensure society continues to function in the face of the coronavirus.

"To all of these heroic people: football thanks you, football remembers you and football supports you," FIFA said in a statement.

FIFA shared a video on their official Twitter handle where footballers from present and past came been seen applauding the frontline workers.

The 50 fotballer were Bhutia, Holger Badstuber, David Beckham, Lucy Bronze, Gianluigi Buffon, Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Iker Casillas, Deyna Castellanos, Giorgio Chiellini, Charlyn Corral, El Hadji Diouf, Youri Djorkaeff, Han Duan, Magdalena Eriksson, Samuel Eto'o, Pernille Harder, Javier Hernandez, Luis Hernandez, Kaka, Harry Kane, Carli Lloyd, Harry Maguire, Diego Maradona, Marta, Vivianne Miedema, Ajara Nchout, Michael Owen, Mesut Ozil, Norma Palafox, Pavel Pardo, Park Jisung, Pele, Gerard Pique, Alexia Putellas, Sergio Ramos, Nicole Reigner, Wendie Renard, Roberto Carlos, James Rodriguez, Ronaldo, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Virginia Torrecilla, Yaya Toure, Marco van Basten, Danielle van de Donk, Ivan Vicelich, Arturo Vidal, Javier Zanetti and Zinedine Zidane.
"As footballers, we are used to receiving applause, but this time, we have the opportunity to show our appreciation for the many people who are risking their lives to protect ours," FIFA.com quoted Beckham as saying.

"You are humanity's heroes and we want to show that all of football supports you and everything that you do to defend all of us," he added.

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