Fletcher's wings clipped, Shastri appointed Team Director

August 19, 2014

Fletchers wingsNew Delhi, Aug 19: Cracking the whip following India's shambolic Test series against England, The BCCI today virtually sidelined coach Duncan Fletcher by appointing former captain Ravi Shastri as the Team Director while giving a "break" to bowling coach Joe Dawes and fielding coach Trevor Penny for the upcoming one-day series.

Under pressure to act after India's disastrous performance in the Test series, the BCCI also appointed former players Sanjay Bangar and Bharat Arun as assistant coaches and R Sridhar as the fielding coach as it revamped the team management.

While Fletcher will continue as the head coach of the team, the shake-up is a clear indication that his wings will be clipped with Shastri taking over as the Director for the one-day series beginning from August 25.

This is not the first time that Shastri has been appointed as a part of 'Damage Control' exercise. In 2007 after the World Cup debacle in the West Indies, the former India all-rounder was appointed as a 'Cricket Manager' for the tour of Bangladesh after Greg Chappell was sacked.

"In culmination of the discussions among all the office-bearers of the BCCI over the last couple of weeks, the BCCI has decided to avail the services of former India captain, Mr. Ravi Shastri, to oversee and guide the Indian cricket team for the forthcoming one-day international matches against England," a press release issued by the BCCI said.

"Mr. Duncan Fletcher will continue as Head Coach while Ravi Shastri will be the overall in-charge of Cricket affairs of the Indian Team."

The support staff will have a more Indian look with Kings XI Punjab chief coach Sanjay Bangar, India U-19 coach Bharath Arun and colts fielding coach M V Sridhar being roped in place of Dawes and Penney.

"In their continuing efforts to re-energise the support to the team, the BCCI has given a break to the bowling coach Mr Joe Dawes and the fielding coach, Trevor Penney, for the one-day series and appointed Sanjay Bangar, former Indian all-rounder, and former India fast bowler Bharath Arun as the Asst. coaches of the team.

India's humiliating 1-3 defeat in the Test series had prompted many former cricketers to call for Fletcher's immediate ouster, saying that he had not contributed anything.

The former cricketers had also questioned the leadership abilities of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has a poor track record in overseas conditions. The BCCI, however, has not disturbed Dhoni for the time being.

Under Fletcher, India have now lost 13 Tests outside the sub-continent with seven in England, four in Australia, one each in New Zealand and South Africa.

41-year-old Bangar had played 12 Tests and 15 ODIs in early 2000, with his gritty half-century at Headingley opening in overcast conditions in a memorable victory still remembered.

Bangar, considered to be one of the brightest young coaches, had guided an unhrealded Kings XI Punjab team to the final of the IPL and has been widely acclaimed as a shrewd tactician with brilliant knowledge about the domestic set-up and its cricketers.

Karn Sharma, a member of current India ODI team had made his debut under Bangar's captaincy at the Railways and has attributed a lot of his success to him.

Having only retired from active cricket a year earlier, Bangar is believed to have the best ringside view and is also seen as a future coach of the Indian cricket team by many.

Bharath Arun had opened the bowling with legendary Kapil Dev in 2 Tests and 4 ODIs in the mid 80's without much success.

Arun, who will probably be the bowling coach, has been heading the NCA's bowling unit for a close to seven years now and is best known for guiding the Unmukt Chand-led India U-19 team to World Cup victory in Australia back in 2012.

His record while coaching the senior teams has not been great as under his tutelege, the Bengal team relegated from Ranji Trophy's Elite to Plate Group back in 2007-08 domestic season.

Fielding coach R Sridhar, a former Ranji Trophy player for Hyderabad, has been India U-19's fielding coach and the junior players swear by his work ethic. He has also been a fielding coach with the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL.

"R Sridhar will join the support team as the fielding coach for the one-day series." 52-year-old Shastri, has played 80 Tests and 150 ODIs for India scoring 3830 and 3108 runs respectively. He also has 151 Test and 129 ODI wickets.

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Agencies
May 9,2020

Tokyo, May 9: As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus pandemic, the organisers of Tokyo Game Show have cancelled 2020 showpiece event.

TGS 2020 was slated to be played from September 24 to September 27 at the Makuhari Messe convention center. However, there now talks going on for holding an online event instead.

According to the Verge, this is the first time that TGS has ever been cancelled since it started in 1996.

TGS 2020 gained more attention because of its status as the last major trade show before the launch of the upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: It was on April 2, 2011, when the Men in Blue went on to win their second 50-over World Cup title.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to again lift the title.
Going into the 2011 tournament, India went in as the clear favourites as the competition was to be played in the sub-continent.

Under MS Dhoni's leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.

In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.

India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board.

But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.

Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.

The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India's sporting history. 

As the winning six was hit, Ravi Shastri was doing commentary then, and he famously remarked, "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years".
As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.

Earlier this year, former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled 'Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation', was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.

The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone's hearts.

Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.

Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time.

The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia.

Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

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News Network
May 26,2020

Mumbai, May 26: Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar said that if he was playing currently he and Virat Kohli would have been the best of friends off the field, but real enemies whenever they stepped on the field.

Akhtar also said that he would have liked to challenge Kohli to drive the ball.

"Virat Kohli and I would have been the best of friends as both of us are Punjabi, but on the field, we would have been the best of the enemies. I would have loved to get inside the head of Kohli. I would have told him that you cannot play a cut or pull shot against me," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I would have gone wide of the crease and bowled a ball that would go away from him, I would have forced him to drive the ball as it is his favourite shot. So I would keep forcing him to play the drive shot at my pace," he added.

Akhtar also said that he wishes that Kohli could have played against some of the top bowlers in the game.

The Rawalpindi Express said that Kohli would have enjoyed the challenge of facing bowlers like Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, and Waqar Younis.

"I would also keep talking to him, because if I get him to lose his focus then that would have been great. The great thing about Kohli is that he gets more focused when he is challenged. But I believe Virat Kohli would have still scored the same amount of runs if I was playing," Akhtar said.

"I really wish that he had played against Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shane Warne, and then Virat would have also enjoyed the challenge," he added.

Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.

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.

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

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