Names of langer & Flower doing rounds for India coach’s job
New Delhi: Former Australia opener Justin langer has suddenly cropped up as one of the possible candidates for Indian cricket team’s chief coach’s job, a position that is lying vacant after Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher completed his tenure at the end of the World Cup.
langer, who has earlier been a batting consultant with Australian national team, has been the chief coach of his home state Western Australia in Sheffield Shield and ‘Big Bash’. The 44-year-old, who scored 7696 runs in 105 Tests with 23 hundreds, is known to be shrewd tactician.
“langer’s name is doing rounds but it is too premature to say anything. No formal offer has been made by BCCI to anyone but some of the bigwigs are discussing names of Justin langer and former England chief coach Andy Flower. While applications will be invited and due process will be followed, the BCCI won’t mind if langer or Flower send their CVs,” a source close to the development said on Sunday.
It has also been learnt that there could be a meeting next week after IPl final where president Jagmohan Dalmiya and secretary Anurag Thakur will be meeting to decide on the roadmap for the national coach’s selection.
Sonowal for Indo-Pak series
Kolkata: Batting for the resumption of bilateral series with arch-rivals Pakistan, Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday said sports can promote friendship between the two neighbouring countries. “As a sports minister my main objective is to promote sports. For better friendship and relationship we want the series to take place. There are a lot of issues to be addressed that’s a different part,” Sonowal told reporters on the sidelines of Indo-Bangladesh Korean Cultural festival of taekwondo.
Subject to government’s green signal, the bilateral series is likely to be hosted by Pakistan at their ‘adopted’ home UAE owing to the security situation in their country as a final decision is awaited.
The two boards, as per an MoU, are slated to play five bilateral series over eight years. PCB chairman Shahryar Khan recently had visited India and called on BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya to take the process forward.
India had cut all cricketing ties with Pakistan since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks as they have not had a full-fledged series with the rival country; however, India did host Pakistan for an ODI series in 2011-12.
Australia’s Brad Haddin quits one-day internationals
Sydney: Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin (in pic) has announced his retirement from ODIs, Cricket Australia said on Sunday. Haddin made the announcement ahead of his departure for Australia’s Test tours of the West Indies and the United Kingdom on Monday. Haddin, 37, has played in 126 ODIs in a career that began against Zimbabwe at Hobart in January 2001 and ended in Australia’s World Cup final victory over New Zealand in Melbourne in March this year. Throughout his ODI career Haddin claimed 170 catches and 11 stumpings, leaving him with the third most dismissals for a wicketkeeper in Australia behind Adam Gilchrist and Ian Healy. Haddin scored 3,122 runs at an average of 31.53 with a top score of 110. “I have had a privileged one-day career and I have been fortunate enough to be involved in three Cricket World Cups and now is the right time to walk away,” Haddin said. “Not many players get to write a script like mine at the end of their careers and I have been lucky enough to do just that after winning a World Cup on home soil. “I leave the team with Australia ranked number one in the world and I am proud of everything we have achieved.”
England team weaker without Pietersen: Clarke
Sydney: Australia captain Michael Clarke said on Sunday England will be a weaker team without Kevin Pietersen, but still expects a tough Ashes battle in July. Clarke said he had mixed feelings about his long-time Ashes rival’s exclusion. “There’s probably two sides for me. There’s the personal side where I feel for KP because I get on well with him and I’d love to see him back playing cricket for England. His form has been outstanding, he’s still a great player and I know he wants to play, so I feel for him on that side,” Clarke told reporters. “The other side (is) we go there soon to play against England. Any team without Kevin Pietersen in it I don’t think is as strong. His statistics speak for themselves. He’s been a wonderful player over a long period of time and he’s obviously still in career-best form.”
ICC won’t send match officials, PCB appoints own
Dubai: The ICC on Sunday informed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) that it will not be appointing its match officials for the upcoming series between the two countries owing to security concerns. The ICC’s decision has been made after receiving a report from its security consultant. This is the first time a Test nation is touring Pakistan since the terrorist attack on the Sri lankan cricket team bus in 2009. The ICC Board, during its April meeting, had decided that the playing conditions relating to the appointment of match officials could be waived to allow the PCB to appoint local match officials for this series should the the apex body decide not to send its umpires and referee due to the current security situation in Pakistan. If this was to occur, the matches would still be considered ‘official cricket’, even though they will not be played strictly in accordance with the ICC standard playing conditions. Zimbabwe is due to arrive in Pakistan on May 19 to play two T20 matches and three One-Day Internationals, all in lahore. Meanwhile, PCB announced its own panel of match officials for the Zimbabwe series. Former Zimbabwean Test umpire Russel Tiffin has been named as one of the umpires for the three ODIs while the rest of the panel announced by the PCB is made up of Pakistani umpires. The PCB has named national selector Azhar Khan as the match referee for the entire series of two T20 games and three ODIs. The umpires include Ahsan Raza and Shozab Raza for first T20 and Ahsan Raza and Ahmed Shahab for the second T20. Aleem Dar, Sohzaib Raza and Ahsan Raza will partner Tiffin in the ODI games.
Muhammad Aamir could play in Big Bash T20
Karachi: Pakistan’s banned left-arm pacer Muhammad Aamir could feature in the Australian Big Bash T20 tournament later this year. Aamir, 22, whose five-year ban for spot fixing ends in September this year, is already playing domestic cricket with the special permission of the ICC. A source close to the player said that a top former Australian player had got in touch with Aamir’s manager recently. “The manager was told that apparently the Melbourne team was interested in having Aamir play for them in the Big Bash this winter,” the source said. The source made it clear that while Aamir was interested in the offer nothing was final as yet. “It is still early to say what happens because Aamir is very keen on making himself available for national selection as soon as his ban officially ends in September,” the source said. Aamir, who is currently playing in the national super eights T20 event in Faisalabad for Rawalpindi and has bowled impressively, had said that his main priority was making a comeback to international cricket.