New era: Australia captain promises to rebuild trust

Agencies
April 19, 2018

Apr 19: Australia Test captain Tim Paine pledged Thursday to embark on a new era of "respectful" cricket and rebuild public trust after the ball-tampering scandal that rocked the sport.

The newly appointed leader said the fallout from the tampering episode was greater than players had anticipated and promised a different style of cricket in the future.

"Going forward we have a clean slate. We can rewrite the way we play a little bit," the 33-year-old told reporters in Tasmania's capital Hobart.

"The main thing for us is to bring the fans back to Australian cricket and make sure they like the way we are going about it, they want to come and watch and be proud of the Australian cricket team," he added.

The ball-tampering scandal during the third Test in South Africa last month stunned the sport and sparked reviews into the culture within Australian cricket.

Then captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner have been banned from international and domestic cricket for a year, while Cameron Bancroft was exiled for nine months, leaving the squad badly weakened.

They have all apologised and accepted the sanctions.

Paine said all three would be welcomed back to the national side but in a new environment that met public expectations.

"Certainly playing international cricket you have to be as competitive as you possibly can be, but we just have to look at different ways of doing that," said, "more respectful ways of putting opposition teams under the pump."

Australia has been under heavy scrutiny for sledging and Paine said on-field talk with the opposition "will be very different going forward".

Cricket Australia (CA) announced a meeting Friday to discuss who will replace head coach Darren Lehmann, who despite being cleared of any wrongdoing resigned amid the scandal fallout.

But it denied media reports that former Aussie opener Justin Langer had already been selected for the job.

"The process to be undertaken for the appointment of a new Australian men's head coach will be discussed and agreed at the CA board meeting this Friday," a spokesperson said in a statement.

"No appointment has been made, and nor will any candidate be put to the board for ratification on Friday."

Paine on Thursday endorsed Langer but added there were many highly-regarded candidates worldwide.

Langer remains favourite to take the top job but has indicated he wants to maintain his coaching and family commitments in his home state of Western Australia.

Former Australian Test captain Ricky Ponting, along with former pacemen Jason Gillespie, has also been touted as potential replacements for Lehmann.

Some commentators have suggested the coaching appointments be split across the three forms of the game -- Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20s.

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News Network
March 16,2020

Mar 16: A fourth batch of 53 Indians returned to India from Iran on Monday, taking the total number of people evacuated from the coronavirus-hit country to 389.

This comes a day after over 230 Indians were brought back from Iran to New Delhi and quarantined at the Indian Army Wellness Centre in Jaisalmer, the third batch to be evacuated from that country.

"Fourth batch of 53 Indians - 52 students and a teacher - has arrived from Tehran and Shiraz, Iran. With this, a total of 389 Indians have returned to India from Iran. Thank the efforts of the team @India_in_Iran and Iranian authorities," Jaishankar tweeted.

The Indians came in a Mahan Air flight that landed at the Delhi airport at around 3 am, officials said, adding that they were later taken to Jaisalmer in an Air India flight for being quarantined.

The first batch of 58 Indian pilgrims were brought back from Iran last Tuesday and the second group of 44 Indian pilgrim arrived from there on Friday.

Iran is one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak and the government has been working to bring back Indians stranded there. Over 700 people have died from the disease in Iran and nearly 14,000 cases have been detected.

Jaishankar had told Rajya Sabha last week that the government was focusing on evacuating Indians stranded in Iran and Italy as these countries are facing an "extreme situation".

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News Network
July 5,2020

Colombo, Jul 5: Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Mendis was on Sunday arrested for knocking down a pedestrian while driving, police said.

Mendis hit a 74-year-old man, killing him in the wee hours, in the Colombo suburb of Panadura.

He is to be produced before a magistrate later today, police said.

The 25-year-old wicket-keeper batsman has represented Sri Lanka in 44 Tests and 76 ODIs. Mendis was part of the national squad which had resumed training after the Covid-19 lockdown.

Sri Lanka's international assignments, including a tour by India, have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

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News Network
January 10,2020

Mumbai, Jan 10: India’s oil demand growth is set to overtake China by mid-2020s, priming the country for more refinery investment but making it more vulnerable to supply disruption in the Middle East, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.

India’s oil demand is expected to reach 6 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2024 from 4.4 million bpd in 2017, but its domestic production is expected to rise only marginally, making the country more reliant on crude imports and more vulnerable to supply disruption in the Middle East, the agency said.

China’s demand growth is likely to be slightly lower than that of India by the mid-2020s, as per IEA’s China estimates given in November, but the gap would slowly become bigger thereafter.

“Indian economy is and will become even more exposed to risks of supply disruptions, geopolitical uncertainties and the volatility of oil prices,” the IEA said in a report on India’s energy policies.

Brent crude prices topped USD 70 a barrel on rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, putting pressure on emerging markets such as India. Like the rest of Asia, India is highly dependent on Middle East oil supplies with Iraq being its largest crude supplier.

India, which ranks No 3 in terms of global oil consumption after China and the United States, ships in over 80 per cent of its oil needs, of which 65 per cent is from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz, the IEA said.

The IEA, which coordinates release of strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) among developed countries in times of emergency, said it is important for India to expand its reserves.

REFINERY INVESTMENTS

India is the world’s fourth largest oil refiner and a net exporter of refined fuel, mainly gasoline and diesel.

India has drawn plans to lift its refining capacity to about 8 million bpd by 2025 from the current about 5 million bpd.

The IEA, however, forecasts India’s refining capacity to rise to 5.7 million bpd by 2024.

This would make “India a very attractive market for refinery investment,” IEA said.

Drawn to India’s higher fuel demand potential, global oil majors like Saudi Aramco, BP, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co and Total are looking at investing in India’s oil sector.

Saudi Aramco and ADNOC aim to own a 50 per cent stake in a planned 1.2-million bpd refinery in western Maharashtra state, for which land is yet to be acquired.

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