Tendulkar turns down Test captaincy

Sachin Tendulkar, on Tuesday, turned down the offer to become India’s Test captain just two days before his appointment was to be formally announced in Mumbai.

Rahul Dravid had relinquished the position in September and the selectors were to meet later this week to announce his replacement in Tests.

With Tendulkar turning down captaincy, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who led India to the Twenty20 World Cup triumph, and took over the helm for ODIs as well, is now favourite for the top job.

The Indian team has also been without a coach since Greg Chappell stepped down following India’s first round exit in the one-day World Cup.

Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh are the bowling and fielding coaches respectively, while Lalchand Rajput has been the manager of the team since the Twenty20 World Cup.

A BCCI source said Tendulkar had given his views to the BCCI President and selectors.

“I cannot say what prompted him to take such a decision but it is some personal reason. All I can say is that he does not want to be the Test captain at this stage,” the source said.

The selectors will meet in Mumbai on Thursday to announce team for the remaining three one-day internationals against Pakistan.

‘Don’t thrust captaincy on Dhoni’ :Greg Chappell

There’s another fight brewing for India’s most prized job; that of team India’s Test captain. Will Dhoni be the man for the job or will Sachin take up the challenge once again. In a Times Now exclusive, former coach Greg Chappell feels it’s not yet time for Dhoni to take the reins of the Test side.

In the battle for India’s Test captaincy even the dark horse of the race Anil Kumble is clinching the job. There is huge hype about Dhoni who had a dream debut as India’s captain leading them to the historic Twenty20 World Championship, but is he ready to handle the pressure that comes with the longer version of the game?

Well Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s experience of just three seasons is the worry not only for the selectors but also for the former India coach. “I feel Dhoni needs another 12 months and than he will be ready to lead India in all the three formats of the game, while the tour of Australia will finish him off as leader and cricketer” Chappell said, mincing no words.

And it’s this factor that has selectors thinking of going the Aussie way and debating about the possibility of separating the two different formats and building a separate team for the longer version of the game.

Leading the side, keeping wickets and keeping up with immense pressure of expectations is no easy task in the five-day format. This leaves the selectors with very little choice of going back to the experienced hand of Sachin Tendulkar to lead Team India for the all important tour Down Under and groom Dhoni as India’s future leader.

ICL unveils teams’ uniforms

The Indian Cricket League unveiled the teams’ colours and logos for its inaugural Twenty20 league to start later this month.

Chandigarh Lions, Mumbai Champs, Kolkata Tigers, Delhi Jets, Chennai Superstars and Hyderabad Heroes are the six teams that will take part in the tournament to be held in Panchakula.

The team gear has been designed by Manish Arora.

“It’s indeed heartening to see new talent being offered an ideal platform such as the ICL to showcase their talent,” ICL Executive Board chairman Kapil Dev said.

The board has former England skipper Tony Greig, former Australian Test cricketer Dean Jones and former Indian stumper Kiran More as its members.

The league, seen as a rebel establishment to the BCCI, has also roped in retired international stars like former West Indies skipper Brian Lara, ex-Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq and former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns, besides several youngsters from the Indian domestic circuit.

We won’t play like the Indians: Muralitharan

Sri Lanka would not emulate India’s ultra-aggressive tactics against Australia during their upcoming two-Test series Down Under, spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan said.

The off-spinner and opening bowler Chaminda Vaas said the tourists would focus on playing smart, positive cricket in the true spirit of the game during the series starting on Thursday.

Muralitharan, who needs nine wickets to become the most successful Test bowler upstaging Shane Warne’s world record of 708 wickets, said in Brisbane that Sri Lanka had no designs on following the Indian example of ‘fighting fire with fire’ during the recent ODI series in India, which the Aussies won 4-2.

“[We want] to play decent cricket and not [approach it] like the Indians,” Muralitharan said at Queensland Cricket’s annual Test match luncheon, Australian newspaper The Age reported on Tuesday.

“We’d like to play our game,” he said, adding: “The challenge is not to think about the end results.”

Recognised as the team which played the game in the best spirit at the ICC’s annual awards in September, Sri Lanka have a fine on-field reputation. Vaas said they would ensure their reputation is retained but would not take a backward step against the hosts.

“We are not Indians. We are not going to play like the Indians did,” he said.

“But when it comes to cricket you have to play aggressive five-day cricket,” he said.

“We are here to play good cricket and play smart cricket, and we received the spirit of the game award so we want to play good cricket and prove we can do something,” he added.

Sri Lanka have registered only one series victory over Australia in 25 years and have never won a Test match in that country. Muralitharan is not thinking about the prospect of breaking Warne’s record and says he is more concerned about proving himself in Australia.

The 35-year-old averages 32.47 for his 67 wickets against Australia in 15 Tests, well down from his career mark of 21.33, but his record in Australia is much worse with eight wickets in three Tests at 63.

He has also been no-balled on two separate visits for ‘bowling with an illegal action’, suffered verbal crowd abuse and been pelted with fruit as well as heard Prime Minister John Howard brand him a chucker.

“I had a bad tour in 1995 and I want to forget that. That’s when it all started,’ he said.

“I want to prove myself this time and show before I retire I can do something,” he said. Meanwhile, Australian opener Matthew Hayden suggested it would be another tough tour for the spinner as none of his teammates harboured any Murali “ghosts.”

“We have played him in his conditions and in our conditions, we’ve seen him across pretty much all parts of the world and I think we’ve handled him very well,” Hayden said.

“Our job is to keep him out of play and I think we’ve definitely got the skills to do that,” the left-hander added.

Indo-Pak: Pitch battles with an edge

Manchester, millions of miles from Kargil, wasn’t just a venue of a World Cup match in 1999 but an offshore battlefield when the real battle was being fought on the icy peaks of Kargil.

This game became the most potent symbol of what India Pakistan cricket had degenerated into: A bitter conflict. But unlike in Kargil where India won our players couldn’t even reach the semi finals of the 1999 World Cup. But the anti-Pakistan rhetoric vis-a-vis cricket was already ugly in India by then.

That same year in 1999 Shiv Sainiks had dug up the Ferozshah Kotla pitch in Delhi on the eve of an India Pakistan match.

The BCCI office in Mumbai was ransacked and several trophies broken. The Sena chief even ordered Hindus to rise against the Pakistan cricket team. Even threats of releasing snakes into the crowd were issued. But this wasn’t just bigotry. Politically Indo-Pak diplomacy was at its lowest point and cricket was the first casualty.

”Indo-Pak series after we played after a long time, there was a lot of tension then. Pak didn’t want to loose in Pak. And when they came here we didn’t want to loose. That spirit used to be there that we have to win the series. That thing was there you know the revenge type,” said Madan Lal, Former Cricketer.

Overshadowing politics

For the next five years political power play dominated cricket ties. In a TV interview in 2003 Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said Pakistani players don’t want to play in India.

”I would like cricket and all sporting ties to resume. But cricket is a trivial issue. And let me tell you that my players don’t want to play in India,” said General Pervez Musharraf on A ‘General’ No. Even India’s Home Minister L K Advani made a distinct attempt to shelve the next Indo-Pak tour.

A freeze that continued till the ice on Indo-Pak ties melted in the winter of 2003. This paved the way for this historic win of India in Pakistan in the year 2004.

If it had taken some politicians like L K Advani and Bal Thackeray to queer the pitch for cricket, it took another to prepare the ground for normal cricketing relations that being former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, ironically on the same side of the political fence as Advani and Thackeray.

When India first resumed cricketing ties with Pakistan in 1978-79, Vajpayee was foreign minister. And as history would have it Vajpayee was Prime Minister when India decided to play cricket again on each other’s soil.

Till then India-Pakistan matches had become big in offshore venues like Sharjah and Toronto. But by 2004 with the ice broken and with cricket taking on bigger, richer dimensions, the history of bickering and bitterness has itself become a thing of the past.

ICL is not competing against anyone: Kapil Dev

Mumbai, November 6: Former Indian world cup winning captain and head of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) Kapil Dev on Tuesday said that his organisation was not competing against any body in particular, instead it was trying to ensure that cricket should go everywhere in the country.

“When you are working, you just have to work your way up and want to wish others good luck. I want to say that the BCCI has authenticated by doing what we were trying to do by announcing Indian Premiere League. They announced the same thing, we are very happy. Our aim is that Cricket should go to every part of the country,” Chairman-Executive board of ICL Kapil Dev said.

When asked whether the BCCI managed to steal the thunder from ICL by signing up big names like two-time World Cup winning Australian captain Ricky Ponting and the cream of Australian players along with swashbuckling Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi, he said that ICL was not looking for thunder.

“We are not competing against any one. We just want to give opportunities to thousands of cricketers in the country who want to play this game and make it a career. It is high time that we recognise the skills and give them the opportunity. If we don’t give them opportunities, how will find the next Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid or even a Dhoni,” he said.

Dev was speaking on the sidelines of ICL announcing teams, logos and team gear. Regarding BCCI refusing to open up its international venues, he said that was not a worry for ICL.

Dhoni leads way as India strikes

November 06, 2007

INDIA struck first with a five-wicket win over Pakistan in the first one-day international today.

Skipper Mahendra Dhoni hit 63 and his deputy Yuvraj Singh 58 in a 105-run fourth wicket partnership to lift India to 5-242 in 47 overs. Their spinners had helped restrict Pakistan to 7-239 on a slow pitch at Guwahati.

In-form Mohammad Yousuf struck a classy 83 not out and opener Salman Butt hit 50 to raise Pakistani victory hopes, only to be let down by poor bowling and sloppy fielding.

Indian left-handers Saurav Ganguly (39) and Gautam Gambhir put on 82 runs for the second wicket before the aggressive Dhoni, who promoted himself to number four, and Yuvraj took over.

Strike bowler Shoaib Akhtar won a personal duel against Sachin Tendulkar when he trapped him leg before for four runs.

Akhtar bowled a series of short deliveries to peg back Tendulkar before beating him with a pitched-up ball that nipped back a shade.

He was unlucky not to make more inroads as Ganguly (39) and Gambhir (44) nicked him past fielders many times early on.

Ganguly was finally run out and spinner Afridi bowled Gambhir round the legs with an off break to reduce India to 113 for three but had to wait for the next wicket until India were just 22 runs short of victory.

Yuvraj reached his 31st one-day fifty, including a six against left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, before being caught at deep square leg.

Akhtar had Dhoni caught behind edging a wide ball to end his 77-ball effort studded with eight fours but it was too late.

He returned two for 52 from eight overs.

Yousuf and Butt propped up Pakistan in the morning.

Yousuf showed his class to hold the innings together after the 33-year-old hit his 58th one-day fifty, facing 88 balls.

Yousuf added 63 runs for the fourth wicket with Shahid Afridi (31) before taking charge in a sixth-wicket stand of 68 with Misbah-ul Haq (27) after Sachin Tendulkar removed Afridi and skipper Shoaib Malik (two).

Salman Butt, recalled as opener to play his first game since May, played many wristy shots for his fifth one-day fifty until he was run out to allow Indian bowlers to take firm control in the middle of the innings.

The next match in the five-game series will be played in Mohali on Thursday. Pakistan will also play three Tests.

Murali haunted and taunted: Hayden

MATTHEW HAYDEN believes Australia has overcome the spectre of Muttiah Muralidaran but it is unlikely Murali will ever rid himself of the ghosts that have haunted him around this country for more than a decade.

Even as a special guest speaker at an official lunch yesterday to launch the first Test, beginning in Brisbane on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s star spinner was subjected to a call of “no-ball” from some gormless wit among the crowd of 600.

Murali did not react because he knows that with a crowd of 25,000 expected on the opening day at the Gabba and at least 60,000 for the Test overall, he’s going to cop plenty more of the same.

It could become decidedly uncomfortable if he makes sharp inroads into the nine wickets necessary to break Shane Warne’s world record of 708.

“I’ve got past that,” Murali told compere Ian Healy about his early days touring Australia when umpire Darrell Hair called him seven times for throwing on Boxing Day in 1995.

“That was a bad tour. I want to forget that. That was the day it started,” Murali told Healy, who was playing on that infamous day.

“I want to prove myself in Australia. I hope I can do that before I retire.”

Like Murali, cricket officials are bracing for a bad reception, with Queensland Cricket chief executive Graham Dixon claiming there was a more comprehensive security plan in place at the Gabba than ever before.

Murali has been tested four times and found to comply with the International Cricket Council’s most recent throwing rule, which allows bowlers to flex their arm 15 degrees on delivery, the angle at which bending becomes discernable to the naked eye.

There is the hope that racial taunts, which followed Andrew Symonds around India in the form of monkey chants, will not be directed at Sri Lanka by Australian crowds, and Murali claimed recently he had never been racially abused in Australia.

Always smiling and often jovial, Murali made it clear that the over-the-top behaviour India showed towards Australia in last month’s one-day series, which appeared to inflame the crowd, would not be repeated by Sri Lanka here this summer.

“We want to play good cricket and not behave like the Indians,” Murali told yesterday’s lunch.

“We like to play our cricket hard but within the spirit of the game and put up a good fight.”

These were sentiments later backed up by veteran left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas.

“We are not Indians,” Vaas said. “We are not going to play like the Indians did. But when it comes to cricket, you have to play aggressive cricket, five-day cricket.

“We are here to play good cricket and play smart cricket, and we were awarded the best spirit of the game in the world.”

Having not played Test cricket since so emphatically reclaiming the Ashes 5-0 just days into this year, Australia’s Murali focus is understandably on the field, as highlighted by Hayden yesterday.

“None of the Australian players has got too many ghosts against Murali,” he said.

“We’ve played him in his conditions, our conditions, we’ve seen him pretty much across all parts of the world and I think we’ve handled him very well. But again, he’s a world-class bowler obviously. In a situation where he’s got a lot of incentive coming into the summer, our job is to keep him out of play and I think we’ve definitely got the skills to do that.”

But it is not just Murali who is likely to trouble the Australians at the Gabba, which can have the country’s most pace-friendly pitch.

Sri Lanka has the best pace attack in its brief history of Test cricket in Australia and could do some damage in Brisbane.

“The left arm of Vaas. The unusual, unorthodox action of (Lasith) Malinga, that tall element to the side as well (Dilhara Fernando) – a real hit the wicket sort of bowler. They’re the foundation for a very good fast bowling attack,” Hayden said.

So maybe Murali will become an anonymous bit-part player to his fast bowlers.

The crowd is likely to suggest something entirely different.