BLAME THE PLAYERS, NOT THE COACH SAYS AB de Villiers

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BLAME THE PLAYERS, NOT THE COACH SAYS AB de Villiers

After suffering a shocking defeat against West Indies in the last league match of Tri-Series, AB de Villers came up strongly in the support of South African coach Russell Domingo. AB de Villiers said that the players should be blamed for this defeat not the coach. “He’s played a big role in all of our careers in the last four or five years. I’ve felt he’s done a fantastic job. It’s sad to see him under pressure. It’s definitely not the coaching staff. The coaching staff, there’s no doubt in my mind they’re the best in the world,” de Villiers said. “Unfortunately as players we let them down in this series. We had ample opportunity in a few games to knuckle down. We should have walked the first game we played. So it comes down to the players. The preparation was perfect. All the coaching staff did their jobs. It is sad to see Russell under pressure. It shouldn’t be that way. There are a few players who should be under pressure” de Villiers said.

AB de Villers also mentioned about his own poor performance in the series saying that, “I got in four out of five times and didn’t convert. That’s the first thing I will teach any youngster: convert your scores, make them big ones especially once you get to 20 or 30. There’s no reason for me to get out after that because I’m in and seeing the ball well. Four out of five times I didn’t do that,”. AB de Villers scored only 121 runs in the 6 games of the series at an average of 24.20. This is his worst batting average since an ODI series against India in 2010-11.

AB de Villiers also clarified about the decision to take Kagiso Rabada out of the attack early who had taken 3 wickets in his first three overs. He said that, “KG is a fit man, so maybe one more over. I thought we had four world-class seam bowlers in the attack, enough guys who can ask questions,” he explained. After KG’s spell I did try pretty much everything we had. Perhaps I could have bowled him for a few more overs. But you’ve also got to think of the rest of the game and not bowl your best bowler out in the first spell.”

Naman Ojha to lead India A on the tour of Australia

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Naman Ojha, the wicket-keeper batsman was named the captain of India A team on Saturday for the tour of Australia. India A team is to play two four-day matches and a four-nation one-day tournament in Australia, starting on August 14.

Highest run-scorer in domestic season Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer, who was ignored for the West Indies tour, is also part of the squad, with Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel, Barinder Sran and Dhawal Kulkarni being the seasoned campaigners.

As many as nine players from the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led squad who recently toured Zimbabwe are part of the ‘A’ team. The A team will be coached by the legend himself ‘Rahul Dravid’.

Faiz Fazal who got a half-century on his ODI debut in Zimbabwe is also there in the squad. Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem and Axar Patel are the three spinners, while pacers are Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran. Sanju Samson is a standby wicketkeeper batsman.

The tour will begin with a match against Australia A in the four-team one-day event on August 14. The other two teams are South Africa A and Australia’s National Performance Squad. All matches will be played in Queensland towns of Townsville, and Mackay.

The two four-day matches against Australia A are scheduled to be played on September 8 to 11 and September 15 to 18 in Brisbane.

India A Squad for the tour of Australia: Naman Ojha (c), Faiz Fazal, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Shahbaz Nadeem and Sanju Samson.

ENGLAND vs SRI LANKA 3rd ODI PREVIEW : ENGLAND WILL LOOK TO TAKE AN UNASSAILABLE LEAD IN THE SERIES

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ENGLAND vs SRI LANKA 3^rd ODI PREVIEW : ENGLAND WILL LOOK TO TAKE AN UNASSAILABLE LEAD IN THE SERIES

After the thumping victory in the second ODI, England will look to take an unassailable lead in the series by winning the third ODI at Bristol on 26th June 2016. After crushing Ireland, Sri Lanka showed a fighting spirit to defend 286 runs in the opening match of the series which eventually resulted into tie after Liam Plunkett’s heroics, however their bowling performance were below average in the second ODI as England crushed them by 10 wickets chasing 255 runs in which Alex Hales and Jason Roy plundered easy century.

Dashun Shanaka who had a great debut against Ireland, failed to make their impact in the first two ODIs against England and by virtue of it who was kept out from the playing eleven in the third ODI against England. After suffering deficit of 1-0, there will be no surprise if Sri Lanka go through some changes in the playing for the third ODI. Also Sri Lanka would be hoping that their captain Angelo Mathews regain full fitness.

On the other hand, England would be hoping for another dominating performance like the previous one. After top order collapse in the first ODI, Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler stepped up and took the game away from the visitors and after that Liam Plunkett’s historic six snatched the victory from the jaws of Sri Lanka. In the second ODI, Hales and Roy took the Lankan bowlers and chased down the total of 255 runs easily after the great performance of their bowlers to restrict Sri Lanka at 254. England will want to carry forward their dominance and take an unassailable lead in the series.

James Anderson uncertain for the first Test against Pakistan

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England leading wicket-taker in Tests, James Anderson, is an uncertain for the first Test against Pakistan starting from July 14 at Lord’s, after picking up an injury in his right shoulder.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that Anderson will be sitting out of Lancashire’s next two County Championship games.

Jimmy Anderson has sustained a stress fracture in the right shoulder blade, which he sustained in the third Test match against Sri Lanka at Lord’s earlier this month.

“Due to the nature on the injury, Jimmy’s availability for the Pakistan Test series, commencing on July 14, will be determined following ongoing management and review by both the ECB and Lancashire’s medical teams,” said ECB in an statement.

Anderson has been in fine form off-late and picked up 21 wickets in the recently concluded Test series against Sri Lanka. He is also currently the No. 1 ranked Test bowler in the world.

Sanjay Bangar appointed as India’s batting coach for the West Indies tour

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Former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar has appointed as India’s batting coach for the upcoming tour of West Indies while Abhay Sharma was appointed as the fielding coach to support Anil Kumble as the head coach. Banger and Abhay Sharma were India’s interim coach in the recently concluded Zimbabwe series, where Team India won the ODI series 3-0 and the T20I series 2-1.

Sanjay Banger was also an integral of support stuff in the tenure of former Team director Ravi Shastri and former India head coach Duncan Fletcher.

Abhay Sharma previously worked with the U19 Cricket Team as a fielding coach and has been selected again for the Caribbean tour.

India to commence their tour of West Indies on July 21. Virat Kohli will lead the side on the tour which consists of 4 Tests and two practice matches starting from July 9.

BCCI considers a change in its name

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the most powerful cricket board across the globe. It generates the most amount of funds for the ICC. Reports say that the BCCI that is the “Board of Control for Cricket in India” is now thinking of a change in it’s name. The newly elected president, Anurag Thakur has proposed this idea to the committee.

“Yes, I had put forward this idea in the meeting today. I think the word ‘Control’ should be replaced by ‘Care’,” BCCI President Anurag Thakur told the Times of India.

“We want to do away with the word ‘Control.’ We want to care for our fans, players, coaches, selectors, administrators and all the other stakeholders who matter in cricket,” he mentioned.

The members will discuss this proposal over the next few meetings and the result will be out soon. All these concerns from Anurag Thakur’s side shows that the President is keen to improve the image of the board after it has taken some hampering in many controversies in the recent past.

Brian Lara’s batting clips – The catalyst behind Darren Bravo’s ton

Darren Bravo, who scored a magnificent century against the Proteas that helped them to storm into the Tri-series final, has said that he was inspired by watching clips of his legendary cousin Brian Lara before the match.

Bravo, who has often been compared to the legendary ‘Prince of Trinidad’ because of his batting style said, “I haven’t spoken to him for some time now, but last night before I went to bed I looked at some of his clips on YouTube,”

“That’s my boy, that’s my role model, so when I’m struggling I always go back to him. If I’m not speaking to him, I’ll always go back and look at him on YouTube and get that sort of inspiration to keep believing in myself. Today was a very good day for me and hopefully I can continue on Sunday (during the final).”

Bravo who struck a 103 ball 102, also stated that this knock is the best of his one-day international career so far and also praised Kireon Pollard with whom he shared a 156-runs stand for the fifth wicket that helped them to post 285 after being reduced to 21-4 in 5 overs at one stage.

“We were under a lot of pressure but I think the experience of Kieron Pollard really played a big part in this game,” Bravo said. “He talked to me every single ball and we were communicating very nicely out there so it was good to put us in that position from where we were.

Bravo is also pleased by the fact that Pollard is back in the national side, “He’s definitely one of our leaders. He has that sort of presence in the dressing room. He has played a lot with these guys at the IPL and at T20 level and he’s always willing to share information. He knows them inside out. He definitely is a game-winner, a game changer for us and it’s nice to have him back.”

Improving overseas record will be our main focus: Anil Kumble

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Anil Kumble, the newly appointed Indian coach has clearly stated that during his tenure the focus of the team would be to improve its overseas record.

In an interview with bcci.tv Kumble was quoted saying “The focus will be on our overseas record. The mindset … I believe, we need to start looking to address that from home itself”.

The first assignment for Kumble will be the four-match Test series in the Caribbean starting from July 21, since West Indies are longer a force to reckon in Test Cricket Kumble would be expected to deliver straight away. In this regard he said: “Getting 20 wickets in Test cricket will win you matches and that will be the focus.”

The former leg spinner also spoke about Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli in his interview with bcci.tv. “I believe this team has the potential. It’s a young team and it’s driven by a young leader and it will be nice to work with Virat”.

On his selection as the head coach, Kumble said the interview session with his former Indian team-mates (Sachin, Sourav and Laxman) was “nerve-racking”. He further went onto say that attending the interview was a different kind of experience.

Indian team will soon start the preparations for the tour with a coaching camp in Bengaluru.

Virat Kohli Dances his heart out to AR Rahman’s composed tunes for Premier Futsal League

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India Test skipper Virat Kohli sang and danced for the official anthem of the Premier Futsal League with Rahman, who composed the song. The video is out and has already become viral on various social networking platforms.

The anthem is named as ‘Naam hai Futsal’. Just like the Indian Premier League, Premier Futsal League is also comprising of 8 Eight franchises. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Goa, Kochi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru will compete from July 15 to 24 in the inaugural season of the league.

Futsal is a shorter and quicker version of football. The five-a-side matches are usually played indoors. It is very popular in Europe and South America. The Premier Futsal League is a private and semi-professional league promoted by Xavier Britto of Indev Group.

The national federation has said that the league doesn’t have its sanction and is not approved by the Asian Football Confederation. Former Manchester United star Paul Scholes has signed a marquee deal to play for the next three editions of Premier Futsal.

Earlier, the league has already unveiled Alessandro Rosa Vieira, fondly known as Falcao, and 19 other international futsal specialists, including ex-Portugal star Deco.

West Indies cruise past South Africa to qualify for the Tri-Series final

The West Indies make their headway to the final of the one-day International tri-series by crushing South Africa by 100 runs on Friday at the Kensignton Oval Barbados. Darren Bravo led the charge for the West Indies with his century, then later on paceman Shannon Gabriel came to the party with his three wickets. The World T20 Champions will now meet the 50 over World Champions (Australia) at the same venue on Sunday.

The elegant Left-hander Darren Bravo finally managed to showcase some of his talent in the limited overs Cricket as he struck a brilliant 102 off 103 balls including 12 fours and 4 sixes, it was his third one-day ton which lifted the West Indies from early trouble at 21-4 to 285 all out in 49.5 overs. Bravo shared a fifth wicket stand of 156 with Kieron Pollard, who chipped in with 62 off 71 balls, including seven fours and two sixes.

Proteas chase was undermined by the fiery Shannon Gabriel as the visitors were bowled out for 185 in 46 overs. The spin wizard Sunil Narine and the all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite supported Gabriel very well with their figures of 3-28 and 2-39 respectively.

Gabriel, clocked near 150 kilometers per hour consistently and was bowling with intent and purpose, provided the crucial early scalps of Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and A.B. de Villiers as the Proteas slumped to 28-3.

Narine soon joined the party and claimed the prize scalp of Hashim Amla by trapping him in front and captain Jason Holder had J.P. Duminy fending to gully at 51-5.

It was one sorry batting performance by the Proteas top order as Farhaan Behariden top-scored with 35, Wayne Parnell contributed 28 and there was a late flourish by the last pair of Morne Morkel (32 not out) and Imran Tahir (29) but there was no way back for South Africa.

Earlier, the tourists dominated the first half hour, the 21-year-old Rabada took 3-31, that really silenced the home crowd as the hosts top order slumped to 21-4. But Bravo, who survived a difficult chance at fine leg by Parnell off Morne Morkel when he was on 11, rebuilt the innings with the fellow Trinidadian Pollard.

Captain Holder, with 40 off 46 balls, and fellow all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite, 33 not out, boosted the lower order in adding 54 for the seventh wicket and by virtue of all these cameos West Indies ended up with a stiff total of 285 on the board.

Brief Scores: West Indies 285 in 49.5 overs (Darren Bravo 102, Kieron Pollard 62; Kagiso Rabada 3-31, Chris Morris 3-63) beat South Africa 185 (Farhaan Behardien 35, Morne Morkel 32*; Shannon Garbriel 3-17, Sunil Narine 3-28) by 100 runs