Virat Kohli is the new king of world cricket, says Dean Jones

January 2, 2015

Jan 2: Former Australia cricketer Dean Jones believes that time had come for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to take a call on his Test career, and says that Virat Kohli is the ‘new king of world cricket’ with his recent appointment as Indian Test captain.

Dean Jones

Dhoni announced retirement from Test cricket after the third Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) last week, which resulted in Kohli being appointed as the 32nd full-time captain of India.

Jones wrote in his column in the Sydney Morning Herald, “Being captain of the Indian Test team is possibly the biggest, toughest and most demanding position in world sport. India are the power brokers and financiers of world cricket and I could not even imagine the pressures and responsibilities placed on people in this most prestigious role. Now we have a new king of world cricket, Virat Kohli.”

“It is interesting to note that Kohli and his predecessor MS Dhoni are exact opposites. Dhoni is quite reserved, while Kohli is combative. Like most countries around the world, India play brilliantly at home but are atrocious away. It was time for a change and Dhoni knew it and fell on his sword. The game needs India to be strong in all formats of the game. Under Dhoni, India held the No.1 Test ranking for 21 months from 2010-2011. But while India are No.2 in world one-day and Twenty20 rankings, they embarrassingly sit sixth in Test rankings,” he added.

Jones believes that Kohli is someone who will never get bogged down with on-field confrontation, and it will be interesting to see how the Australians deal with the new Indian captain.

He wrote, “Kohli will not back down from confrontation. If Australia want to sledge, he will sledge back. Not too many batsmen are prepared to stand up and talk back to Mitchell Johnson. Fewer still win the battle. Kohli did the same thing to his own, when he almost went toe to toe with Gautam Gambhir in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match last year. Judging from Kohli’s results, it might be time the Australians gave Kohli the silent treatment for a while – like they did to Viv Richards, Brian Lara or Tendulkar. Or will the Australians’ egos get the better of them?”

Jones thinks that while the Indian fans are jubilant with the appointment of Kohli, the Indian team will find new energy and will be more successful overseas. The former Australian cricketer also thinks that there will be a big change in terms of captaincy style, which will certainly help India.

Jones wrote, “Kohli knows he has big shoes to fill. He knows he can learn a lot from Dhoni’s captaincy. But he needs to lead his way. Dhoni captained the team like a python hunts for its prey. Dhoni waited for his opposition to make a mistake and would squeeze the living daylights out of them. Kohli, I feel, will try to win a game from ball one. Like Michael Clarke, Kohli is prepared to lose a match while trying to win. He is an aggressive batsman and his captaincy will not be any different.”

Talking about Dhoni, Jones thinks that the 33-year-old will be missed on the Test arena, as he lavished praise on India’s most capped and successful captain.

Jones concluded, “He will be missed in Test cricket as he is so well respected by fans and his peers. I admired the way Dhoni handled the constant criticism by fans and the media. It was like water off a duck’s back.”

“And how humble was Dhoni when he captained his team to win the World Cup in 2011 and the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007? He just let the team accept all the plaudits and took a back seat. When Dhoni finally retires from all formats of the game, he will be no doubt be in India’s top 10 players of all time.”

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News Network
June 29,2020

Jun 29: The West Indies cricketers will sport a 'Black Lives Matter' logo on the collars of their shirts during the upcoming three-Test series against England to protest against racism in sports.

Skipper Jason Holder, who has voiced his support to the cause that has once again come to the forefront after the killing of American George Floyd, said in a statement on Sunday: "We believe we have a duty to show solidarity and also to help raise awareness."

The ICC-approved logo, designed by Alisha Hosannah, will be the one which featured in the shirts of all 20 Premier League football clubs since the sport's resumption earlier this month.

"This is a pivotal moment in history for sports, for the game of cricket and for the West Indies cricket team," Holder was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

"We have come to England to retain the Wisden Trophy but we are very conscious of happenings around the world and the fight for justice and equality. "As a group of young men, we know of the rich and diverse history of West Indies cricket and we know we are guardians of the great game for a generation to come."

Holder, who wants racism to be treated at par with doping and corruption, said they arrived at the decision to wear the logo after much thought.

"We did not take our decision lightly. We know what it is for people to make judgments because of the colour of our skin, so we know what it feels like, this goes beyond the boundary. There must be equality and there must be unity. Until we get that as people, we cannot stop," he said.

"We have to find some way to have equal rights and people must not be viewed differently because of the colour of their skin or ethnic background."

The West Indies players are likely to wear the shirts for the first time in this week's four-day warm-up match at Emirates Old Trafford, starting on Monday.

The opening Test of the series, which will mark the resumption of international cricket after the coronavirus-forced hiatus, will get underway at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on July 8.

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Agencies
April 12,2020

London, Apr 12: Former Formula 1 legendary driver Stirling Moss died at the age of 90 on Sunday.

"All at F1 send our heartfelt condolences to Lady Susie and Sir Stirling's family and friends," Formula 1 said in a statement.

Often referred to as the greatest driver never to win the world championship, Moss contested 66 Grands Prix from 1951 to 1961, driving for the likes of Vanwall, Maserati and Mercedes, where he famously formed a contented and ruthlessly effective partnership with lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

In his 10-year-long stint at the tracks, Moss took 16 wins, some of which rank among the truly iconic drives in the sport's history - his 1961 victories in Monaco and Germany in particular often held up as all-time classics.

Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia on public roads for Mercedes at an average speed of close to 100mph, while he also competed in rallies and land-speed attempts.

Following an enforced retirement from racing (barring a brief comeback in saloon cars in the 1980s) after a major crash at Goodwood in 1962, Moss maintained a presence in Formula 1 as both a sports correspondent and an interested observer, before retiring from public life in January of 2018.

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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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