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Upbeat Afridi regains Twenty20 captaincy

September 17, 2014

Karachi, Sep 17: Shahid Afridi returned as Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain on Tuesday and then announced that he was looking forward to leading a team of “lion-hearted cricketers” to international laurels including the next T20 World Cup in 2016.

AfridiThe flamboyant all-rounder has replaced Mohammad Hafeez, who stepped down as skipper earlier this year after Pakistan failed to reach the T20 World Cup semi-finals in Bangladesh.

In addition, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has reaffirmed that Misbah-ul-Haq will continue to captain Pakistan in Tests and One-day Internationals till next year’s ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

“In line with my policy of taking decisions democratically I consulted Cricket Committee and my Board members before announcing these decisions. I wish both Afridi and Misbah very good luck in their upcoming assignments,” PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said in the statement.

Chosen ahead of young contender Sohaib Maqsood primarily because of his vast experience, Afridi stressed that he would lead by example and put the country’s underachieving Twenty20 team on the victory path.

“I’m honoured to get national captaincy again,” he told ‘The News’ in an interview soon after PCB announced that Afridi has been installed as the T20 captain till the 2016 edition of the Twenty20 World Cup.

“It’s an exciting responsibility and the fact that the team management is backing my completely gives me great confidence,” he said.

Afridi made it clear that as captain he would not live with “chicken-hearted” players and would instead support boys exhibiting a “lion-hearted approach”.

“As (Twenty20) captain my message to the players would be simple: don’t be scared of failure,” he said.

“There is no place for chicken-hearted players in the Twenty20 format. You need a lion-hearted approach and that’s what I intend to promote in our team,” he added.

Pakistan reached the final of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and then went on to win the coveted title two years later in England. But since then Pakistan’s performance graph in the tournament has dipped.

Afridi believes that unlike the past when Pakistan were among few teams with plenty of expertise in the slam-bang format, other sides have really caught up.

“Winning Twenty20 matches isn’t easy for us anymore,” he said. “Other teams have gradually learned how to flourish in this format and have hence improved.”

But Afridi was quick to make it clear that under his command Pakistan would be one of the major contenders for the T20 World Cup in 2016.

“We have a good Twenty20 team and all we need is to show that killer instinct needed to win major tournaments,” he said.

Afridi was Pakistan’s hero in their title-winning triumph in 2009 when he produced match-winning performances in the semifinal and final.

But his personal stats have taken a hit in recent times and Afridi is fully aware of it.

“I need to regain my form both with the bat and ball,” he said. “As captain I know that I will have to lead by example because that’s the only way you can get the best out of the players.”

Afridi, 34, was forced to give up captaincy in the summer of 2011 following a public spat with team coach Waqar Younis and the then PCB chairman Ijaz Butt.

Butt is long gone but Waqar is back in the saddle as national coach. However, Afridi is certain that what happened in 2011 following Pakistan’s World Cup semi-final defeat against India would not get repeated in the future.

“What happened in the past stays in the past,” he said. “I would want to focus on the present and as far as Vicky bhai (Waqar) is concerned I must say that he is a changed man and I’m enjoying working with him,” he added.

During his previous stint as captain, Afridi captained Pakistan in 19 Twenty20 Internationals between August 2009 and April 2011. Pakistan won eight and lost 11 matches under his captaincy.

He is one of the most capped players in the Twenty20 format and also one of its most accomplished. In 74 appearances, Afridi has accumulated 1112 runs at an average of 19.17 and a strike rate of 144.04. He has also bagged 77 wickets at 22.61. Over the last 12 months, he has taken 10 wickets at an average of 26.80 in 11 matches and scored 173 runs at a strike rate of 150.

Afridi will begin his latest stint as captain with a one-off Twenty20 International against Australia in Dubai on October 5.

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Agencies
August 5,2020

New Delhi, Aug 5: "Want to know what makes him tick," said Australian pacer Kane Richardson will talking about playing alongside Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

The IPL 2020 will be played in the UAE from September 19-November 10 and the tournament will run for 53 days.

In the players' auction which was conducted in December 2019, RCB managed to bag key players like Richardson, Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Dale Steyn, Joshua Philippe, and Isuru Udana.

In an interaction with news agency, Richardson talked about playing alongside Kohli and the learning curve which is in store for him by being in the same squad as Proteas great Dale Steyn.
"Huge. These guys (Virat, AB de Villiers) are the absolute legends of the game. Anything I can learn from them will be a bonus, that's for sure.

I am really looking forward to playing with Virat, there are few more competitive players in the world. I am really looking forward to seeing what makes him tick," Richardson said.

The 29-year-old pacer also said that he would want to learn from Steyn as to how to be consistent in all formats of the game over a long period of time.

"There are loads I can learn from Dale. He has been amongst the best at the highest level for so long. His control and ability to swing the ball without losing his pace is really impressive. 

I look forward to getting in his ear about how he performs so consistently over a long period, in all forms," said Richardson who has 39 ODI wickets to his credit.

Richardson has so far played 14 games in his IPL career so far and has picked up 18 wickets. The bowler played for Pune Warriors India in 2013, Rajasthan Royals in 2014, and RCB in 2016.

For this year's IPL, RCB has also bagged Australia's limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch, and Richardson thinks having a familiar face in the camp would help him to settle better in the franchise.

"Finchey is an awesome player and a fantastic leader. I am sure it will help to have two Aussies in the side along with Josh who is playing his first tournament after a massive summer in the BBL. We are all professionals, I'm sure it won't take long for us to gel as a side," Richardson said.

However, before the IPL starts, Australia is expected to tour England for a limited-overs series, comprising of three ODIs and as many T20Is.

The side was last seen in action in March this year as they played one ODI against New Zealand in Sydney. After the first match, the remaining two ODIs were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Talking about the series against England, Kane replied: "We will be fresh, that's one thing, while the England players have been in a bubble for some time now. As long as we get enough practice in before and possibly some centre wicket it should not be an issue."

"They are World Cup holders and the number one ranked side for a very good reason. It will be a tough series also given they will have played a fair bit of cricket together by then. We know we need to work hard on our one-day game which will be a priority over the next period," he added.

The pacer also talked about how the lockdown was like for him, and Richardson feels that everyone would come back strong as a result of this break.

"The break from playing has been refreshing, to be honest. We have come back strong and are well into pre-season training with our states. As a bowler, our loads are not at their peak but we are working towards getting ready for a tour of the UK in a few weeks," Richardson said.

The Australian quick has so far played 25 ODIs and 18 T20Is, managing to take 39 and 19 wickets respectively.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

London, May 31: "Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli," replied umpire Ian Gould when he was asked to name the three best batsmen he loved watching when he was officiating as an umpire.

The former ICC elite umpire said that he was unlucky to not watch Ponting bat as much as he would have liked to.

"Jacques Kallis. I loved watching Jacques. He was a very, very fine player. Sachin. And probably Virat. I was unlucky in some respects. I didn't see the best of Ricky Ponting. He was an outstanding character, outstanding captain, such a proud Australian," ESPNCricinfo quoted Gould as saying.

"But his career was just starting to wane as I came on the scene. But he was incredibly helpful, so I'm disappointed I have to leave him out. Jacques Kallis, I could sit and watch all day, Virat, the same. And Sachin, if you want someone to bat for your life, he was the man," he added.

Gould had retired from the ICC's panel of elite umpires in 2019, after standing in more than 250 international matches over a 13-year career.

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.

While, Kallis played 166 Tests, 328 ODIs and 25 T20Is for South Africa and he is often viewed as the greatest all-rounder the game has seen.

Many pundits of the game find it hard to pick between him and Sir Garfield Sobers.

Across his career, Kallis scored 25,534 runs in his career and he also managed to take 577 wickets.

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News Network
May 8,2020

Karachi, May 8: A cricket museum based in India has bought a bat auctioned by Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali to raise funds for the needy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Azhar had put two of his precious belongings -- the bat he used to score 302 runs against the West Indies in a Test in 2016 and the jersey he wore during the 2017 Champions Trophy final win over India -- on an online auction to raise funds for the people affected by the deadly disease.

Both the bat and jersey were signed by members of the Pakistan team.

Azhar announced on social media that he had kept a base price of one million each for the bat and jersey and they had sold for 2.2 million.

He confirmed that Blades of Glory Cricket Museum based in Pune bought the bat by making a winning offer of Rs. 1 million for the bat.

Azhar said that the auction of the shirt also generated a lot of interest and Kash Villani, a Pakistani based in California, came up with the highest bid of Rs. 1.1 million for the shirt before the conclusion of the auction.

Another Pakistani based in New Jersey, Jamal Khan also donated Rs. 100,000 for the cause.

"I put two of my closest belongings on auction with base price of 1 million PKR each to support people suffering due to ongoing crisis. Auction starts now and will close on 11:59 PM 05 May, 2020," Azhar had tweeted.

Ali became the first international player to score a test triple century in Day/Night Test when he scored an unbeaten 302 against the West Indies team in UAE in 2016.

"The shirt is from 2017 Champions Trophy which we won, it has the signature of all the players which were present in the squad," Ali said in a video posted on Twitter.

"Both these things are close to my heart but if it can be used in the difficult times for the benefit of the people I will more than happy."

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