The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has offered to play two extra T20 internationals in England next year following the last-minute cancellation of the fifth Test in Manchester due to Covid concerns.
The Old Trafford Test was cancelled last Friday barely two hours before its scheduled start as the tourists, who were leading the series 2-1, failed to field a side after their physiotherapist tested positive for COVID-19. “The players refused to play but you can’t blame them,” BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly said.
Be it launching the ball out of the park, putting brakes on the flow of runs or getting crucial breakthroughs, India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja knows how to turn the game on its head. Apart from that, there is one more quality Jadeja has added to his game — the role of a finisher, a quality he learned from Mahendra Singh Dhoni. And the Saurashtra cricketer credits Dhoni for guiding him the right way.
Virat Kohli, who currently leads the team across all formats and is India’s most successful captain ever, is learned to have taken the call to share leadership responsibilities with Rohit Sharma, BCCI sources told TOI. Kohli has had prolonged discussions with Sharma and the team management over the last few months, particularly after Team India’s triumph in Australia, one that coincided with Kohli becoming a father.
Novak Djokovic’s bid for the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men’s tennis since 1969 ended one victory short with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 loss to Daniil Medvedev in the US Open final on Sunday. Medvedev’s surprisingly lopsided triumph gave him his first major championship and prevented Djokovic from winning what would have been the record 21st of his career.
In the case of BCCI, despite conducting a very smooth IPL in UAE in 2020 by hiring an IT and health safety firm to create a state-of-the-art bio-bubble, the Indian board did not repeat the same exercise in IPL 2021, thereby leading to the IPL being called-off midway.
Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra might have become the talk of the town after his special feat at the Games, however, the javelin thrower still manages to stay grounded and one of his dreams came true on Saturday morning.
World number one Novak Djokovic kept his bid for a calendar Grand Slam alive on Friday, overcoming German Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the US Open semi-final.
The Indian cricket board (BCCI) will be arranging charter flights to get the IPL players out of Manchester and flying them into UAE on Saturday. As the final Test in Manchester got called off due to a Covid scare, the Indian team heaved a sigh of relief. But there was still an underlying anxiety in the camp on Friday. The players were now eager to join their respective IPL franchises at the earliest in UAE for the second half of the IPL which is due to begin on Sept 19.
The legendary Sunil Gavaskar has lauded the BCCI’s offer of rescheduling the cancelled Old Trafford Test, saying India should never forget England’s gesture of returning back to complete a tour, which was halted midway due to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.