PV Sindhu still our best bet at major tournaments: Pullela Gopichand

News Network
November 13, 2019

Mumbai, Nov 13: Chief coach Pullela Gopichand on Tuesday rued that the tournament calender, packed with mandatory events, combined with the pressure of Olympic qualification has not given any respite to the players, who are now dealing with injuries and lack of form.

Gopichand, credited for transforming Indian badminton, said not only the Indians but almost all top players in the world are struggling.

"There is no respite. You are actually playing way too many tournaments. If you look at world badminton, a number of players have withdrawn (from tournaments) from Tai (Tzu Ying) to Carolina Marin," said Gopichand.

"Ideally Sindhu should have rested but world badminton makes it mandatory for you to play all the 1000s, 750s and 500s. So we almost end up playing 14-15 tournaments which are mandatory," he said.

Sindhu has been enduring a rough patch as she has not got a big result after winning the World Championship in August this year.

Gopichand hoped the players would achieve Olympic qualification as quickly as possible and Sindhu would make a strong comeback.

"She's good, she's strong, she's our best bet going into the big tournaments. This is what happened last year as well. She did not have a great result in October, November and in December at the year-end she beat everybody. So I'm confident that she'll make a comeback quickly," he said.

Gopichand lauds Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty

Gopichand was full of praise for in-form doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. They became the first Indian men's pair to win BWF Super 500 badminton tournament after they clinched the Thailand Open in August.

"Satwik and Chirag have really been stars. They played very well and have started to look threatening and consistent at the highest stage. It comes well with getting into the Olympics with this form and it is something that I would be very happy about."

The Hyderabad-based coach was speaking after launching an initiative Football Mania' by IDBI Federal Life Insurance in association with KheloMore, founded by former India batsman and current national selector Jatin Paranjpe.

Gopichand was pleased with the way season 2019 unfolded so far for India.

"We have had a decent year. I would say for the reason that the biggest tournament of the year was World Championships, and we have managed to have two medals there," he said.

In the World Championship, Sindhu won a historic gold while B Sai Praneeth clinched a bronze.

He yet again stressed that India need to produce more good coaches.

"We need to spend time and energy to identify where the good coaches are and give them awards, rewards, empower them and keep them motivated. That's the way to move forward. Indian badminton has a lot of potential," he said, adding "coaching as a profession hasn't taken off in our country."

"Till the time we produce coaches, we need foreign coaches. And even after we produce coaches, we still need them because they come out with another perspective which is needed.

"But we should clearly define what our country's policy is regarding the culture of sport. We cannot keep deviating from Malaysian to Indonesian to Chinese systems based on the coaches. A country can't change its stance and culture based on who we get. And the coach should help us get better," he stressed.

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News Network
July 12,2020

New Delhi, Jul 12: Former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar has urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to do away with 'umpire's call' whenever a team opts for a review regarding a leg-before wicket (LBW) decision.

The Master Blaster has also said that a batsman should be given out if the ball is hitting the stumps.

Whether more than 50 per cent of the ball is hitting the stumps or not should not be matter, he further stated.

"What per cent of the ball hits the stumps doesn't matter, if DRS shows us that the ball is hitting the stumps, it should be given out, regardless of the on-field call," Tendulkar tweeted.

With this tweet, the former India batsman also shared a video, in which he has a discussion with Brian Lara regarding the working of DRS.
"One thing I don't agree with, with the ICC, is the DRS they have been using for quite some time. It is the LBW decision where more than 50 per cent of the ball must be hitting the stumps for the on-field decision to be overturned," Tendulkar said in the video.

"The only reason they (the batsman or the bowler) have gone upstairs is that they are unhappy with the on-field decision, so when the decision goes to the third umpire, let the technology take over, just like in tennis, it's either in or out, there's nothing in between," he added.

This call for doing away with umpire's call has been recommended by many former players.
Whenever a verdict pops up as 'umpire's call, the decision of the on-field umpire is not changed, but the teams do not lose their review as well.

ICC recently introduced some changes to the game of cricket, and they gave all teams liberty of extra review as non-neutral umpires will be employed in Test matches due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result, all teams will now have three reviews in every innings of a Test match. 

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: After being named as India's 'Most Valuable Player' in Test cricket in the 21st century, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Wednesday said that he will always aim to give his best for the country.

His remark came as Jadeja achieved an MVP rating of 97.3 and as a result, he was also rated as the second most valuable player Test player worldwide, only second to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

"Thank you Wisden India for naming me the 'Most Valuable Player'. I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, fans, and well-wishers for your support as I aim to give my best for our country. Jai Hind," Jadeja tweeted.

Based on CricViz's market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket was awarded an 'MVP rating' by Wisden using a statistical model to rank their 'match impact' compared to their peers.

Jadeja has played in 49 Tests from 2012, managing to score 1,869 runs and has also picked up 213 wickets.

"It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India's number one. After all, he's not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 - contributing to a very high match involvement," the official website of Wisden quoted CricViz's Freddie Wilde as saying.

"But Jadeja's position is based on more than simply volume: it's what he does when he's involved that really counts. The 31-year-old's bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne's and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson's. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality," he added.

With the bat in hand, Jadeja has managed to score one century and 14 fifties in the longest format of the game.

He was last seen in action during India's two-Test series against New Zealand earlier this year.

He would have been in action for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL had the tournament commenced from March 29.

However, the IPL has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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News Network
May 7,2020

Melbourne, May 7: Australia opener Joe Burns is eyeing the Tests against India should they take place later this year, to stabilise his stop-start international career, saying "you want to play in and do well in" in this kind of series.

India is scheduled to play four Tests in Australia in December-January, a series which is currently in doubt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 2.5 lakh lives across the world.

"They are obviously world class team. I think the two teams going at each other will be very exciting to watch and players playing against each other as well," Burns told reporters in a video conference on Thursday.

"You look at the world ranking, they were number one and now we have got to number one, so I know that series will be anticipated by everyone and as a player this is a sort of series you want to play in and do well in."

With the coronavirus also threatening the T20 World Cup, Cricket Australia is under financial stress and has gone on a cost-cutting drive, which included standing down 80 per cent of its staff at 20 per cent salary.

There are also speculations that the Sheffield Shield for 2020-21 would be curtailed to cut costs.

Burns, however, hoped it won't be tinkered with.

"I love the fact we have a really strong first-class system. The 10 games, where you play everyone twice," Burns, who was struck down by a fatigue illness after an indifferent season, said.

"It leads to world-class players coming into Test teams. You don't want to see that get changed.

"Obviously it is unique circumstances at the moment and There's a lot of things to work through ... the players' association is consulted on those things."

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