BCCI rubbishes report that Tendulkar miffed about IPL offer

The Cricket Board on Wednesday rubbished a media report claiming Sachin Tendulkar spurned captaincy protesting BCCI allegedly paying more money to foreign players who are being roped in for the Indian Premier League (IPCL).

A vernacular channel claimed that Tendulkar was miffed with the BCCI, as was Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, for allegedly offering more money to foreigners, while the Indian players were offered less.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, however, dismissed the claims, which he described as “malicious and absolutely false”.
“The story is aimed at embarrassing our senior cricketers and in fact, Sachin Tendulkar called me up to issue a clarification to the effect that he has not spoken to any journalist on the issue and his name is being tarnished,” Shah said in a statement.

Shah asserted the senior players had offered full support for the Board-backed Twenty20 league.

“Our President, Sharad Pawar met the team in England and briefed them about IPL and later Lalit Modi also met the players and explained to them the format and it was then that the top four players were invited to the launch and all of them came and supported BCCI’s initiative to start the IPL which will benefit Indian cricketers at large,” he said.

Indian offer too good to refuse – Cairns

Tuesday, 2 October 2007

HOOKED UP: former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns has signed with the rebel Indian Twenty20 cricket league.

Every man has his price and a “lucrative” offer from the breakaway Indian Cricket League has proved too much for Chris Cairns to resist.

The 37-year-old all-rounder called it quits from one-day cricket in January last year but will be back on the international field, possibly as early as November this year when the breakaway league kicks off.

Cairns said the money was simply too good to refuse.

“It’s a lucrative deal,” he said.

“It’s something which has brought me out of retirement and to do that it has to be worth it.

“The competition is also a chance to have one last go playing in front of heaps of people.”

Cairns would not say just how lucrative it was but did comment that reports of $500,000 were inaccurate.

He was forced into retirement by a body that could no longer stand up to the rigorous demands of international cricket but said the Twenty20 format would be perfect.

“If it was 50 overs, four-dayers or five-day tests there’s no way I could do that. But bowling four overs and having a slog suits me down to the ground.”

Cairns will have company from his days in New Zealand and Canterbury colours. Chris Harris and Nathan Astle have signed up and Craig McMillan is expected to soon join them. Former Black Cap Hamish Marshall has also signed.

“That will be good (having his former team-mates playing ) but it’s also the guys on other teams I played against yesteryear and it will be nice to be in that environment again.”

However, one part of being an international cricketer Cairns has not missed is the training.

“I’ve just been mucking around (playing) in England.

“This is a different level and I’ll have to train appropriately.

“I’ve had mixed emotions over it. It’s such a good offer that I thought I will have to train again – I thought I’d finished with that garbage.

“I’d done it for so long and thought `I can now kick back’ but now I have to get serious because I want to acquit myself professionally.”

With his deserved reputation as one of cricket’s biggest hitters and a genuine match-winner, Cairns is the perfect signing for the fledgling league. When he retired from test cricket in 2004 he held the record for the most sixes and finished with 218 wickets and 3320 runs.

The competition is due to begin on November 17 and runs for about five weeks.

Gilchrist still a fan of 50-over cricket

Australia’s batting sensation Adam Gilchrist on Monday said even though Twenty20 cricket is the latest rage he is still a fan of the 50-over version.

“From my experience of playing so far, I am still a fan of 50-over cricket. But I do understand the excitement around Twenty20 cricket and it is good fun,” the Aussie wicketkeeper said in Kochi.

50-over cricket World champions Australia were stunned by eventual champions India in the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. However, they have dominated one-day internationals and Test cricket over the last few years.

Gilchrist believes that the 50-over game can test of a player’s skill better than the slam bang Twenty20 format.“At the moment the better test of skill and endurance is in the 50-over game, just like Test cricket is the ultimate test of cricket,” he said.

He also issued a warning to the administrators with regard to the potential overkill of the Twenty20 format.

“Twenty20 is a valuable product that we have now. I just hope that we use it the right way,” he said.

India lucky to have Dhoni as captain – Chappell

October 1, 2007

Chappell on Dhoni – ‘I had foreseen a great future for Dhoni. He has proved his potential and as a leader he has been most impressive’

 

Former India coach Greg Chappell has praised Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy and said the Indian team is shaping up well under him. Chappell quit as coach after the World Cup earlier this year, ending a two-year tenure with the team.

Though his stint was mired in controversy, Dhoni was one of the successes and Chappell said he had seen a lot of potential in him. Dhoni led an inexperienced team to victory in the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, his debut series as captain.

“I had foreseen a great future for Dhoni,” Chappell told PTI. “He has proved his potential and has been most impressive as a leader. The Indians are lucky to have a leader like him.”

Chappell, currently in India as a consultant for the Future Cricket Academy of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, based in Jaipur, acknowledged India’s recent success.

“The Indian team is now doing well,” he said. “When I was the coach, whatever I did stood them in good stead. It is up to the others to judge. They have a few exciting players and have already won the ICC World Twenty20.

“The good thing about Indian cricket is that it has a varied environment in which players are groomed differently. The players, like those from far-flung areas, are an example of that.”

The current one-day series between India and Australia, Chappell said, would be a close contest, despite a few senior Australian players retiring from the game in recent months.

“The Australian team is in a transition phase. There is no [Glenn] McGrath or Shane Warne. But they are well prepared for the series. They have been working hard and they have to keep intact their supremacy. I believe it will be a hard fought series.”

His work at the academy, Chappell said, would not necessarily replicate training methods used at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He inaugurated the academy with Ian Frazer, the bio-mechanics expert who also assisted him when Chappell was with the Indian team.

“It is not right to compare it to Centre of Excellence because that has been running for years now. People like Allan Border [the former Australian captain] work and evolve new techniques for the trainees there. But I assure you that it will be different. We wish to make it one of the most reputed training centres of the world.”

Twenty20’s growing popularity, Chappell felt, would be a challenge for coaches in adapting to different forms of the game. He did not, though, believe it would ruin a batsman’s technique. “There is no question of spoiling the technique. It has brought about a few changes which 50-over cricket too brought along. Now players use heavy bats, footwork is changing and they are hitting much harder than in my day.”

‘After the bowl-out win we never looked back’

For Harbhajan Singh, life has come a full circle.

Dumped from the team after the 2007 World Cup debacle in the West Indies, he fought his way back and played a stellar role in India’s triumphant Twenty20 World Cup campaign in South Africa.

The 27-year-old off-spinner, also dubbed the ‘Turbanator’, was at his magical best in the newest version of the game, not only claiming key wickets but also restricting the runs.

Now back in the team for the seven-match One-Day International series against Australia, which gets underway on Saturday in Bangalore, he hopes to keep delivering top-class performances.

The champion spinner spoke to Special Correspondent Harish Kotian in Bangalore on the memorable Twenty20 triumph.

In your last interview , you mentioned how eagerly you were looking forward to making a comeback and proving yourself. So, in that sense, how satisfying was it to turn in such a magnificent showing at the Twenty20 World Cup?

Well, I was just trying to stick to what I was doing in England, where I was bowling at my best. I had the hunger to prove myself again and that kept me going.

There was a lot of talk going that I am not good enough, that I am bowling too fast, that I am doing this and that. At the end of the day I knew that it was just a matter of time or, maybe, more than that for me to comeback [into the Indian team]. But I have to keep working on my game and keep coming hard whenever I play any kind of cricket.

Hayden relishes battle with volatile Indian paceman

AUSTRALIAN opener Matthew Hayden has welcomed India’s foray into the fight club of international cricket where gladiatorial aggression rules and the weak perish.

The simmering battle between Hayden and volatile Indian quick Shanthakumaran Sreesanth could escalate today, weather permitting.

Sreesanth has vowed to break Australia with a five-wicket haul in the second Future Cup clash in Kochi.

He has announced to the Indian media that he respects the Australians “outside the ground, not inside”.

Bring it on, says Hayden.

“Aggression is part of the game. It’s something we have been trying to preach to the world about,” Hayden said.

“I am glad to see other countries following Australia’s lead and becoming more aggressive.”

Sreesanth bowled Hayden for the second time in a week in the series opener in Bangalore, but the send-off didn’t rival that given by the seamer in the Twenty20 World Cup semi-final in Durban.

“Stares a lot doesn’t he? I don’t really look at that,” Hayden said of Sreesanth. “I just watch the ball.

“It’s something you have to keep backing up.

“This side has been world champion for as long as I can remember.”

Shane Watson’s breakdown triggered a recall for Hayden during the Commonwealth Bank series in January, with the personal backing of Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting.

“It was a tribute to a lot of people; belief obviously with Ricky,” said Hayden, who hit a staggering 658 runs at 73.2 at this year’s World Cup in the West Indies.

That showing played a huge part in his ICC one-day cricketer of the year award.

“He (Ponting) made a bit of a joke of it in the dressingroom the other night. I was ripping him about something and he said, ‘I saved your career anyway, mate. Don’t go too hard’, and it’s a tribute to those guys that there was that belief.”

Behind his tough exterior there’s tremendous humility in Hayden, who is closing in on his 150th one-day international appearance.

“Those kind of marks indicate longevity in the game and it’s flippant to say you are not going to enjoy them,” the 146-game veteran said.