No Champions Trophy hangover, insists Dhoni

June 28, 2013

Champions_DhoniKingston (Jamaica), Jun 28: It has not even been a week since India won the Champions Trophy but captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the team is done with the celebrations and firmly focussed on the tri-series against West Indies and Sri Lanka starting here today.

"The demands remain the same. The expectation when it comes to the Indian cricket team has always been the same," Dhoni said at the launch of the Celkon Mobile Cup here.

"If it's moving, it only moves in one direction - it goes up. It doesn't matter whether we have won the last series or lost or what has happened on the field," he explained.

India play West Indies in their first game at the Sabina Park here on Sunday.

Dhoni attributed the team's recent success to a friendly dressing room atmosphere where the players "enjoy each others success".

And Dhoni said he was lucky to have players at his disposal who are not afraid of pressure.

"I'm fortunate to have the players in the side to really soak up the pressure," he said.

"What we have done really well is we have enjoyed each others' success and that has really contributed to the side winning most of the games," the wicket-keeper batsman said.

"If I'm happier than the person who has actually scored a century or a fifty, you understand that's the kind of atmosphere that you want, because at the end of the day, what we play is a team sport," he added.

Dhoni said there is fierce competition for places in the Indian team but it has never spilled over into personal rivalries.

"It's important that the guys sitting out just to wait for their chance, not think that if this guy does badly I will get a chance. They can use that period to improve themselves and whenever the chance, whatever the reason may be, fitness or form, they try to earn that place in the side," he said.

"We have been able to create that kind of atmosphere and it's really reflected in the performances that we have given."

Each team in the triangular series plays the other twice before the final on July 11 in Trinidad.

Meanwhile, West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo said there is plenty at stake in the triangular series even though it doesn't hold the same significance as the Champions Trophy.

"It's always good to play here in Jamaica. We have a very good record and that will be in the back of our minds," Bravo said.

"But if we don't prepare well and execute our plans, it won't count for anything. As much as we are happy playing at home, we still have to do the basics right in order to be successful."

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said going by recent form, the island nation starts as underdog in the series.

"They are the two current reigning champions of the T20 and the one-dayers. So to match them we need to play some really good cricket. We feel like we're the underdogs but I feel I've got the team to do well in this format and I'm pretty confident of my team," he said.

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News Network
May 8,2020

New Delhi, May 8: India skipper Virat Kohli believes cricket in empty stadiums is a real possibility in post COVID-19 world and though it is unlikely to have a bearing on the intensity of players, he feels the magic would certainly go missing.

Cricket Boards across the globe are exploring the option of resuming the sport in empty stadiums. There is speculation that fans could be kept away from stadiums in a bid to salvage the T20 World Cup in Australia, which is currently under threat due to the global health crisis.

"It's quite a possible situation, it might happen, I honestly don't know how everyone is going to take that because we all are used to playing in front of so many passionate fans," Kohli said in Star Sports' show 'Cricket Connected'.

"I know it will be played at a very good intensity but that feeling of the crowd connecting with the players and the tension of the game where everyone goes through it in the stadium, those emotions are very difficult to recreate," he added.

Kohli said the many moments which are created because of the passion brought in by fans, would be missing.

"Things will still go on, but I doubt that one will feel that magic happening inside because of the atmosphere that was created.

"We will play sports how it is supposed to be played, but those magical moments will be difficult to come by," he said.

Cricketers such as Ben Stokes, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Pat Cummins have backed the idea of playing behind closed doors.

However, legendary Australian Allan Border has said it would defy belief to host a World Cup without spectators.

Another Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and some other cricketers have also expressed similar sentiments.

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April 7,2020

London, Apr 7: Bowling coach Waqar Younis feels that it was the absence of pacers Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir which saw Pakistan getting whitewashed during Australia tour last year.

Amir and Riaz had quit the red-ball format ahead of the matches against Australia in 2019.

"Just before the Australia series, they ditched us and we had the only choice to pick youngsters.

We were the new management and decided to go on with taking in the younger lot and groom them. ESPNcricinfo quoted Younis as saying.

Pakistan was not able to win a single match in Australia as they got defeated both in T20Is and Test series.

"It's not like we have lost a lot, but yes they left us at the wrong time. But anyway, we don't have any grudge against them," Younis added.

"We cannot control players' choice on what they want to play, but then there should be a mechanism so we all are on board. "It's not like I am saying we could have won in Australia but we could have done better than what we have done," he opined.

Amir gave up the red ball format in July in order to manage his workload and extend his white-ball career for Pakistan as well as in T20 leagues around the world, while Riaz took an "indefinite break" from Test cricket in September last year.

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News Network
April 8,2020

London, Apr 8: England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has raised more than 65,000 pound (USD 80,000) to help fight the coronavirus by auctioning off his World Cup final shirt.

Buttler's shirt, which he wore when completing the last-ball run-out that saw England beat New Zealand at Lord's last year, was sold to raise money for specialist heart and lung centres provided by the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London.

Buttler, who earlier in the showpiece match had hit a fifty and batted in the Super Over, put his long-sleeve keeping jersey up for sale on eBay a week ago.

By the time the auction closed on Tuesday, the shirt had attracted 82 bids with the winner paying 65,100 pound.

Buttler, speaking on Monday, said: "It's a very special shirt but I think it takes on extra meaning with it being able to hopefully go to the emergency cause.

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