Busan, May 9: Leander Paes won his first Challenger doubles title in 16 years and his season's first partnering Sam Groth to beat twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana 4-6, 6-1, 10-7 in the final of the $100,000 Busan Open Challenger here on Sunday.
The Indo-Australian pair won the match in 1 hour and nine minutes.
This was Paes' first title with his new partner. His last Challenger trophy win was way back in 2000.
New Delhi, Jul 6: India's cricket chief Sourav Ganguly says improved fitness standards and a change in culture have led to the country developing one of the world's best pace attacks.
Spearheads Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are part of a battery of five formidable quick bowlers that have helped change India's traditional reliance on spin bowling.
"You know culture has changed in India that we can be good fast bowlers," Ganguly said in a chat hosted on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Twitter feed.
"Fitness regimes, fitness standards not only just among fast bowlers but also among the batters, that has changed enormously. That has made everyone understand and believe that we are fit, we are strong and we can also bowl fast like the others did."
The West Indies dominated world cricket in the 1970s and 1980s led by a fearsome pace attack that included all-time greats such as Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner.
Recently Indian quicks have risen to the top in world cricket with Shami, Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in a deadly arsenal.
"The West Indies in my generation were naturally strong," the former India captain said.
"We Indians were never such naturally strong... but we worked hard to get strong. But I think it is the change in culture as well that is very important."
Shami last month claimed that the current Indian pace attack may be the best in Test history.
"You and everyone else in the world will agree to this -- that no team has ever had five fast bowlers together as a package," said Shami.
"Not just now, in the history of cricket, this might be the best fast-bowling unit in the world."
Shami took 13 wickets during India's 3-0 home Test sweep over South Africa last year, while Bumrah has claimed 68 scalps in 14 Tests since his debut.
Mumbai, Mar 5: Former India spinner Sunil Joshi was on Wednesday named chairman of the national selection panel by the BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which also picked ex-pacer Harvinder Singh to the five-member group.
The CAC, comprising Madan Lal, R P Singh and Sulakshana Naik, picked the two selectors with Joshi replacing South Zone representative MSK Prasad.
In an unprecedented decision, the BCCI said the CAC will review the panel's performance after one year and make recommendations accordingly.
"The committee recommended Sunil Joshi for the role of chairman of the senior men's selection committee. The CAC will review the candidates after a one-year period and make the recommendations to the BCCI," read a statement from BCCI Secretary Jay Shah.
Harvinder was chosen from central zone and replaces Gagan Khoda in the panel.
The existing members of the selection panel are Jatain Paranjpe, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh.
"We have picked the best guys for the job," Lal told news agency.
The CAC had shortlisted five candidates for interviews -- Joshi, Harvinder, Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Chauhan and L S Sivaramakrishnan -- from a list of 40 applicants.
New Delhi, Aug 2: The finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 will be played on November 20, the sources within the BCCI confirmed on Sunday.
The IPL's governing council met earlier today, and it has also been decided that the evening matches will start at 7:30 pm, half an hour earlier than usual.
Jay Shah, the secretary of BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and Arun Dhumal, treasurer of BCCI did not attend the IPL's governing council meeting.
"The tournament will run for 51 days, usually the IPL should go on for 49 days as per the constitution, however in the meeting it has been decided that we will go to Supreme Court for conducting the IPL in 51 days," sources within the BCCI said.
"As the tournament is running for 51 days, we will get the chance to play fewer doubleheaders, there would be just 10 double headers, evening matches will start at 7:30 and the afternoon matches will start at 3:30.
The matches will be played across three venues at Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah as travelling here by road is easier and bio-secure environment can be maintained," he added.
The IPL's governing council also confirmed that Women's IPL will also go on and four teams would be participating in it.
"When it comes to women's IPL, there would be four teams and the matches would be played at the time of playoffs for men's IPL," the source said.
The source within the BCCI also said that the governing council would be meeting again to discuss the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all the franchises that need to be followed in the IPL.
The governing council meeting discussed the quarantine measures along with the standard operating procedures (SOP), bio bubble training facilities, stay and travel of the players.
Issues related to the broadcaster, shifting, and scheduling of the tournament, and DXB app to be downloaded for players and other officials were also discussed as well.
A few days earlier, the IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel had confirmed that the 13th edition of the mega event will commence on September 19 in the UAE.
This year's IPL was slated to commence from March 29 but the tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) had also confirmed receiving the official Letter of Intent from the BCCI to host the 2020 edition of the IPL.
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