Cricket lessons
Members of the Indian team: Skipper Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant attended a cricket clinic for school kids arranged by the ICC at the Rose Bowl Stadium on Thursday. “I believe cricket can really make a difference to children's lives. It really improves you as a human being because it makes you go through phases which are very similar to life,” Kohli said in a video posted by the official website of the Cricket World Cup. “You understand downfalls; you understand good phases and how to come back from difficult times. So, I think cricket is really a great teacher in many ways,” he added. Kohli, who became the fastest cricketer to reach 11,000 runs in ODIs on Sunday, said it was a delight to spend time with children.
“Spending time with kids is an absolute joy and an opportunity to contribute to their journey in some way. Such honesty and commitment in whatever kids do. So much to learn as well and the biggest learning is to never forget the joy of playing this great game," Kohli tweeted.
Rain woes
With rain playing spoilsport in this edition of the World Cup in England and Wales, there have been several stories on the #ShameOnICC which has garnered a lot of public interest. Capturing all social media conversations in real time, Germin8 — a Social Media Intelligence Company — has released the ICC World Cup 2019 social media insights report. Fans took to Twitter to show their anger after rain washed off quite a few games and used the hashtag #ShameOnICC to criticise ICC for their poor decision about the selection of the host country. There were several posts about ICC and how they should have considered all factors including weather when it comes to choosing the venue for World Cup matches. As per the survey, several comments came in from Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal and Karnataka among others.
In a happy zone
Back in the Indian team as a replacement following the injury to Shikhar Dhawan, young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant yesterday said he remained positive despite being ignored from the World Cup squad. Pant was flown in as cover after Dhawan suffered a thumb injury during his match-winning hundred against Australia. With the injury turning out to be a fracture, Dhawan was ruled out of the World Cup and Pant was named his replacement in the squad. “When I didn’t get selected, I thought may be I didn’t do something right, so I became more positive and focussed on how to improve myself. Then I did well in IPL. Then I kept practising,” Pant told India spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in a video posted by BCCI. “It is one dream for all to make India win. When I came to know that I have been called to England as a back-up, my mother was with me. So I told her, she went to temple and paid her offerings. As a cricketer, I always wanted to play a World Cup and perform there and now that I have got this opportunity, I am very happy,” he said.