When Prashant Vaidya gave 'sleepless night' to Sachin Tendulkar

October 26, 2013

Sachin_Tendulkar_copyNagpur, Oct 26: Sachin Tendulkar may have given sleepless nights to many bowlers over the years but not many bowlers have robbed him off his sleep. Former India pacer Prashant Vaidya, however, is one of those who kept the little master up all night on one occasion.

India was playing a triangular in Singapore just after the 1996 World Cup and the pacer from Nagpur was part of the squad.

"It was for the first time that the BCCI had given the players separate rooms. Sachin, probably was feeling a bit uncomfortable sleeping alone and he asked me to join him. Next day, we were playing Pakistan and as I wasn't in the playing XI I stayed with him. Next morning I asked him whether he had slept well and he answered in negative. I asked him 'Kay Jhala' (What happened?). He said that I was snoring non-stop. It left me terrified and embarrassed as we were playing our arch-rivals Pakistan and I had deprived India's star batsman of a good night's sleep. To my luck, Sachin scored a hundred in the game and I was the most relieved man," Vaidya said.

The pacer who owed Sachin a dinner narrates another interesting anecdote. "I along with Sanjay Manjrekar and Sachin went out for dinner. We saw Aquib Javed, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and other Pakistani players. When we passed them, Sachin greeted them. Aquib grabbed his hand, looked in his eyes and said 'you make us toil all day on the field...at least now you can afford to smile. Sachin smiled at them from ear-to-ear. Such was the fear and respect he commanded that is brought relief to the bowlers," Vaidya recalled.

The 46-year-old quips that he had a 'peace-pact' with Sachin whenever the two met on the playing field. "We had this 'peace-pact' in place whenever I bowled at him in domestic cricket. Once in a Challenger Trophy game he was clobbering all the other bowlers but I somehow managed to fare better than others. Perhaps I was bowling well to him or he took me too seriously. When I stood at the top of my run-up, I jokingly waved a peace sign towards him. That brought a smile on his face and we got on with the game. Jokes apart, bowling to him was always a challenge. I played against him twice and picked his wicket on both occasions," Vaidya said.

Vaidya recalled how Tendulkar calmed his nerves on his international debut. "He was fielding in the slips. As I was marking my run-up, he spoke to captain Azharuddin and came down at mid-off, just to calm me down. He eased my pressure. That's his greatness. He is always there for newcomers. I saw many first of Sachin and his first one-day hundred was one of them. I still remember the shot that brought up his hundred with. Who would have imagined he would score close to 50 ODI hundreds," he said.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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Agencies
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: Indian pacer S Sreesanth has slammed England all-rounder Ben Stokes for questioning MS Dhoni's intent during a World Cup match, saying that the former captain will end Stokes' career.

Stokes in his book titled 'On Fire' had questioned Dhoni's intent during India's 31-run defeat at the hands of England in the premier tournament last year.

"For Ben Stokes, I will only say that you should pray that Dhoni does not play against you in the future. Dhoni does not forget things easily," Sreesanth said during a Live session on Helo.

"I wish Stokes all the best for whenever he faces Dhoni again, be it IPL or an England vs India match. You must be earning in millions now, Dhoni Bhai will end your career. Dhoni will strike the ball everywhere and he (Stokes) can never dismiss Dhoni. Before he (Stokes) opens his mouth, he should make sure to wear a helmet," he added.

Former West Indies pacer Michael Holding had also come out in support of Dhoni and said that the wicket-keeper batsman wanted to win the match against England.

"Well, people will write anything in books these days, because people are a lot more free with their opinions and when they are writing books, they need to be making headlines at times," Holding had said on his official YouTube channel.

"...It was not the game that India had to win, but I don't think anyone can say that was a team tactic to lose the game. I watched that game and it appeared to me as if India weren't putting up their 100 percent, but I realised it was not the case when the expression on MS Dhoni's face told me that he desperately wanted to win, so I do not think it was a team decision to not try to win," he had added.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

Hamilton, Feb 5: Talented Shreyas Iyer hit his maiden century while KL Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli carried on their fine form as India dished out a clinical batting effort to post 347 for four against New Zealand in the first ODI here on Wednesday.

Iyer showed why he is considered as the next big thing in Indian cricket, scoring 103 off 107 balls, his first ODI ton. Besides, Rahul continued his purple patch, smashing unbeaten 88 off 64 balls while Kohli made 51 off 63 deliveries.

Iyer's knock was laced with 11 fours and a six and together with Rahul shared 136 runs for the fourth wicket as India scored 96 runs in the last 10 overs after being sent into bat.

This was after Tom Blundell featured his maiden ODI for the Black Caps, while India gave debuts to two openers -- Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal.

It was the fourth such instance in Indian history with Rahul-Karun Nair being the last such pair in 2016 against Zimbabwe.

Shaw and Agarwal got the innings off to quick start, adding 50 off 48 balls for the opening stand.

But both Shaw and Agarwal fell in the space of five balls as India were reduced to 54 for 2.

Shaw was the first to go, nicking behind a Colin de Grandhomme (1/41) delivery, while Agarwal was caught at point by Blundell off Southee (2/85).

It brought Kohli and Iyer together, and they dominated the middle overs with a 102-run stand for the third wicket. They manoeuvred the field well and kept the scorecard ticking as India crossed 150 in the 28th over.

Kohli fell against the run of play as a wrong one from Ish Sodhi (1/27) got through his defence to clip the leg stump.

Rahul though didn't let the innings lose any momentum as he smacked six sixes along with three fours.

But the day belonged to Iyer, who, despite a scratchy start, had crossed 50 off 66 balls. Once he passed the 50-run mark, the stylish right-hander batted fluently to notch up his first century in 16 ODIs.

The centurion fell shortly afterwards, caught off Southee even as Rahul took control.

He reached his half-century off 41 balls as India eased past 300 in the 47th over.

Rahul's carnage meant that New Zealand conceded 191 runs in the last 20 overs. Kedar Jadhav remained unbeaten on 26 off 15 balls, stitching 55 off 27 balls with Rahul.

Brief Scores:

India: 347 for 4 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 103, KL Rahul 88 not out, Virat Kohli 51; Tim Southee 2/85).

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