BCCI elections on hold after SC reveals Srinivasan's name in probe

November 15, 2014

BCCI electionsNew Delhi, Nov 15: N Srinivasan, the ICC chairman and BCCI president-in-exile, Indian Premier League CEO Sundar Raman, Srinivasan's son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, and three international cricket players are among those that India's Supreme Court has disclosed as having been probed by the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee into illegal activity in the IPL.

Interestingly, Justice TS Thakur on Friday said that reports regarding players being withheld for the time being but that the names of the three players were released inadvertently, thinking that they were non-players.

Six names are yet to be revealed and the next hearing will be on November 24. The SC has ordered that the misdemeanours and activities of all non-players in the probe be named public. Aditya Verma, the Cricket Association of Bihar chief and petitioner into the spot-fixing and betting case, told reporters outside the SC that information about five big names has been held back as per the court's direction. The officials named now have four days to file objections to the SC.

The apex court has told the BCCI that it cannot hold elections until these issues are addressed, the result of which is that the elections have been pushed back until January.

The SC was set to see the details on November 10 but was informed by Raju Ramchandran, representing the Mudgal committee, that the sealed envelope report ran in 30 pages wherein no individuals are named but codes are used. Apparently the court wanted to see the report in detail before beginning the hearing of the concerned parties.

The SC has said the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee report on its investigation into 13 persons, submitted at the beginning of the month, includes mention of misdemeanors (by officials) which cannot be held back. The extent of their roles have not been discussed in court yet. The will take some time to reach lawyers/parties. Supreme Court has ordered certain parts be blacked out before registry makes it available.

SC adds cricketers (refers to individuals as I1 I2 I3) should be left out ambit of discussion for now.

This comes nearly six months after the SC asked IPS officer BB Mishra and the police departments of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to assist the investigation into the corruption scandal. The SC empowered the probe panel to carry out search and seize but refrained it from making any arrest on its own. In April, the SC dealt a severe blow to the BCCI when it rejected a three-member committee selected by the board to investigate the IPL spot-fixing and betting charges. The court then said if the Mudgal committee that conducted an initial probe into the allegations is willing, it would hand over further investigation to the same panel.

In early September, the SC had given the Mudgal Committee two months to finish its investigation IPL betting and match-fixing controversy. The committee had submitted its interim report to the apex court on August 29.

The IPL spot-fixing scandal broke out during the 2013 IPL when India fast bowler Sreesanth, along with two other Rajasthan Royals players Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan and 11 bookies, were arrested for alleged spot-fixing in the tournament. The contracts of the tainted players were terminated by their franchise, which also lodged a criminal complaint against them. It snowballed into a crisis for the BCCI when Meiyappan was arrested on charges of betting on May 26, 2013.

An internal probe panel, originally comprising former judges T Jayaram Chouta and R Balasubramanian and the then BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale, was constituted on May 28 to investigate the allegations against Meiyappan, who maintained his innocence after getting bail. Srinivasan, who owns the CSK franchise, remained defiant through the turmoil and refused to resign but had to step aside as BCCI president after a stormy emergent board meeting on June 2 where Dalmiya took charge of an interim arrangement to run the board's affairs pending the inquiry. The upheaval led to the resignations of board secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke, who asked for Srinivasan's resignation on moral grounds.

Srinivasan, 68, had on June 2, 2013 decide to temporarily step aside from his position as BCCI president after Meiyappan was arrested for allegedly betting in the IPL.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Hamilton, Jan 27: In awe of Jasprit Bumrah, New Zealand wicketkeeper Tim Seifert says the Indian speedster's subtle variations have been difficult to pick in the ongoing T20 series and his side needs to a learn a thing or two about adapting from the visitors.

India beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the second T20 International in Auckland on Sunday to grab a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

Bumrah returned with figures of 1-21 from his four overs as Indian skipper Virat Kohli changed his bowling plans from the first game.

"Even in the first game, Bumrah bowled slower balls that were going wider. Normally, death bowlers get into straighter lines, plus yorkers and mix it with chest height. He kind of changes things a lot and is tougher to play," Seifert said.

"...the ball was holding a lot more which made it tougher. So sometimes as a batsman you have to move away from the stumps and see if they bowl straight. I was backing myself to do something different instead of just standing there at the wicket," said the stumper, who remained unbeaten on 33 off 26 balls.

"It was tricky and the ball was holding a little bit. When Kane (Williamson) got out in the over against Yuzvendra Chahal, we knew it was the over to push because they had Bumrah coming back," he added.

He said New Zealand batsmen need to take a cue from their Indian counterparts on how to adapt to different conditions quickly.

"...Indian batsmen showed how to get under the ball and time it. They showed it a couple of times that and on the slower wickets you just have to keep it like that. Once you lose your shape, you are not in position," he said.

"Try to get them (bowlers) off line or off balance, try to get into that position to hit good balls. That's T20 cricket as well. Sometimes it's going 100 per cent but some times you have to take a breath and re-assess. Indian batters did that well."

Seifert believes New Zealand bowlers did reasonably well in the two games but they have been outplayed by the Indian batsmen.

"To be honest, in the first game they were 110-1 and they had wickets in hand. We didn't bowl too badly in that first game. In the second game, we only got 130 and it is tough to bowl at Eden Park (with that total)," he said.

"170 was the target in mind but once you get 130 on the board, that was going to be very hard at Eden Park against a team that is very strong and playing really well. But our spinners were outstanding. Good balls have gone to boundary.

He said coming into the T20 series on the back of a lost Test rubber in Australia also didn't help New Zealand's cause in the first two games.

"Boys are coming off a Test series (in Australia) and a lot of them haven't played T20 cricket for a while," he said.

"But for some like me, I have had the Super Smash for the last two months, so I have played a lot of T20 cricket. They have two games under their belt now so hopefully they will have a better understanding."

Asked if New Zealand would want to play on India's strength of chasing, Seifert replied, "Even in ODI cricket, India have chased down big totals but I think on that wicket it was going to get slower and slower.

"But with that small target on Eden Park, something special has to happen with top six (for a collapse). One batsman got fifty and the other was batting very well. We needed top five-six in the first 10 overs," he said.

The Black Caps are still confident of bouncing back in the series.

The third T20 will be played here on Wednesday before back-to-back matches in Wellington and Mt Maunganui. Seifert said they would like to replicate the 2019 tour of India, where New Zealand came out 2-1 victorious in the three-match series.

"We have lost the first two games but we haven't played badly. We definitely haven't played our best though while India has played very well. If we lose the series on Wednesday, it is not the end of the world. But if we can turn things around, and win, we will take things from there," he said.

"We won the series 2-1 last time, so we have to treat it like a three match series again. But we have to treat it like the first two are must-win games."

"We are not playing our best at the moment. There are 20-odd games before the World Cup, and that tournament is the pinnacle, so we will get there (in preparation),” he signed off.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 2: Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has said that he was ashamed on seeing the training regime of Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

Iqbal said that the incident happened two-three years back as he thought to himself that why he cannot do the same even when he is the same age as Kohli.

"I must say this, it is not because I am talking to an Indian commentator, India is our neighbour so whatever things they do, it affects Bangladesh as well. We follow what is happening in India, when India changed its approach towards fitness, it impacted Bangladesh the most," Iqbal told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I have no shame in admitting this, when I saw Virat Kohli running around two-three years ago, I was ashamed of myself, I thought this is a guy who is probably my age, but he is training so much and I have not doing even half of it. We have a great example in our team as well, Mushfiqur Rahim manages himself well regarding fitness," he added.

During his initial days of international cricket, Kohli was fond of chicken which he has admitted several times during media interaction.

But in 2013, the 31-year-old batsman intentionally shifted his focus to fitness, diet, and training.

Now he has become punctual about his diet which has given him a different character on and off the field.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have also kept on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar managed to call time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings.

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February 24,2020

Wellington, Feb 24: Indian batsmen's inadequacies in adverse conditions were laid bare as they crashed to an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat against a ruthless New Zealand side that wrapped up the opening Test in just over three days here on Monday.

Starting the day on 144 for four, India were all out for 191 in their second innings. This was only a shade better than their dismal 165 in the first innings, which eventually proved to be decisive.

Trent Boult (4/39 in 22 overs) and Tim Southee (5/61 in 21 overs), the most under-rated new ball pairs in world cricket, showed that when it boils down to playing incisive seam and swing bowling, this batting line-up is still a work in progress.

The required target of nine runs was knocked off by New Zealand without much ado for their 100th Test win.

India's last defeat was against Australia at Perth during the 2018-19 series but the loss at the Basin Reserve would hurt them more because the visitors have not surrendered in such a fashion of late.

There was no resistance from a star-studded line-up and more than intent, the failure was due to poor technique on a track that had something on the third and fourth day as well.

This is a team that plays fast bowling much better than their predecessors, the reason for their success on the bouncy Australian tracks.

But when it comes to facing conventional seam and swing bowling in testing conditions, they are yet to learn the art of saving a Test match.

India had lost the mental battle on the first day itself when they saw the moisture on the wicket.

The toss became a factor and not for one session did they look comfortable. Mayank Agarwal was the only batsman, who felt at home in patches, as New Zealand showed what a Test match strategy is all about.

If the first innings was about mixing back of length deliveries with fuller length balls, the second innings saw the pacers coming from round the wicket and targeting the rib-cage. The line was disconcerting and it stifled them for good.

It affected their mindset and once Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari stepped out on the fourth morning, defeat was written all over as both looked ill-equipped to handle such high quality seam bowling.

Rahane (29 off 75 balls) and Vihari (15 off 79 balls) are players who only play long-form cricket at the international level and both are known for their patience.

But little would have the Indian vice-captain apprehended that he would get a delivery from Boult, which he thought would move away after pitching but it held its line and he had no option but to jab at it, and all he got was an edge.

Southee, who bowls a lovely classical outswinger, then bowled an off-cutter from the other end and before Vihari could comprehend, it came back sharply to peg the stumps back.

Within first 20 minutes, the two seasoned practitioners of swing had knocked the stuffing out of India's resistance.

Rishabh Pant (25 off 41 balls) batted only in the manner he can and played one breathtaking shot off Southee, a slog sweep off a 130 kmph-plus delivery to the deep mid-wicket boundary.

But there was too much left to do with too little support from the other end. Bending on one knee, he tried another audacious slog scoop but couldn't clear.

Southee, who had a terrific match, deservingly completed his 10th five-wicket haul and all it took was 16 overs to end the innings and the match.

New Zealand now have 120 points in the World Test championship and India stayed on top with 36 points.

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