Wonder what
this woman has to do in this predominant Cricket post !!
At a
time when pacers Andy Roberts, Michael
Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Chris Old, Bob Willis, Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee,
Imran Khan, Jeff Thomson, Dennis Lillee and others dominated the Test scene –
the opener stood up (not even wearing a helmet for almost all of his
career). Apart from his physical
appearance, everything about Sunil Gavaskar was immense, especially the
statistical milestones he achieved over his 17-year international career. He was the first to make 10000 runs in Test
Cricket. Now that elite club has 12
members and none of them are presently playing !
In 2011, India toured England and were whitewashed – Indian fans were despaired. Around the time of First Test elections were held for the President of the Mumbai Cricket Association, Dilip Vengsarkar was defeated by a politician named Vilasrao Deshmukh. There was an article by Ramachandra Guha wondering why the two most famous former cricketers from the city, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who had played alongside Vengsarkar for many years, for both Mumbai and India did not support him ! .. .. .. paying annually Rs 3.6 crore annually to both of them as centrally contracted commentators, with instructions to toe the official line, which is implicit in any employer-employee relationship.
One of the oldest cities in Australia, Brisbane was founded upon the ancient traditional lands of the Jagera people, including the Turrbal group, who named the area Meanjin. Named after the Brisbane River on which it is located—which in turn takes its name from Scotsman Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales at the time of the city's founding. Brisbane is the Capital of Queensland, Australia.
When
Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the return of border checkpoints on Monday her
spin doctors pumped her social media pages with propaganda hailing the decision
as a huge win for Queenslanders. A video of the premier announcing the change
was posted on her Facebook and Twitter pages with the title 'Queensland
reinstates hard border closure with Greater Sydney'. There was not a hint of a
genuine apology for the thousands of tourism businesses who had bookings
cancelled, the families who were split apart, or the hardworking Aussies whose
Christmas holiday plans were shattered after such a difficult year. To make
matters worse, in her haste to show off her toughness, Ms Palaszczuk actually
caused mass confusion by failing to clearly explain the policy change. Annastacia Palaszczuk has been the Premier of Queensland since 2015
and the Leader of the Labour Party in Queensland since 2012. She was first
elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the seat of Inala at the
2006 election.
In one afternoon the
foundation of Indian batting line-up was cluttered as they collapsed to an
unimaginable low of 36. Josh Hazlewood
and Pat Cummins destroyed them with Josh
returning a miserly 5 for 8 ! .. .. India would play their 2nd test on Boxing day at Melbourne
–in Jan 2021, 3rd Test at Sydney and 4th at Brisbane. .. .. there could be some changes in the
venue !!
It was only earlier this
week that the New Year Test was in doubt to be played at the Sydney Cricket
Ground, but the iconic Moore Park venue could now be set to host two of the
Border-Gavaskar Trophy series matches as COVID-19 continues to inflict mayhem
on Cricket Australia. While the outbreak of the virus on Sydney's Northern
Beaches originally forced Cricket Australia to consider handing either the MCG
or the Gabba a second match, The Daily Telegraph and ESPN Cricinfo say the
governing body is now rethinking its plans as a result of the Queensland
government's latest move. Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today
announced the state's southern border was closed to Greater Sydney, meaning
broadcasters and Cricket Australia staff could have trouble travelling to
Brisbane for the fourth Test.
David Warner and Sean
Abbott won't feature in the Test series until at least the third match, set to
begin on January 7, after the duo were today ruled out of the Boxing Day Test
because they had been in Sydney too recently. Cricket Australia on Saturday
rushed the pair to Melbourne so they could quarantine before the arrival of the
rest of the squad for the Boxing Day Test.
Back home, former India
captain Bishan Singh Bedi has written to Delhi and District Cricket Association
(DDCA) president Rohan Jaitley, asking for the removal of his name from a stand
at the Feroz Shah Kotla after coming to know about plans to install a statue of
Rohan’s father and former head of the state association, Arun Jaitley, at the
stadium. Bedi and Jaitley were often at loggerheads during the latter’s
lifetime.
Ravichandran
Ashwin has “suffered” within the Indian team because of his “forthrightness”,
such that he has always had to fight for his place in the XI, said Sunil
Gavaskar. Claiming there are “different rules for different players” within the
national side, Gavaskar said T Natarajan — who had become a father during the
IPL season — would also be wondering about such “rules”. Writing
a column on Sportstar, Gavaskar said: “For far too long Ashwin has suffered not
for his bowling ability of which only the churlish will have doubts, but for
his forthrightness and speaking his mind at meetings where most others just nod
even if they don’t agree. If Ashwin doesn’t take heaps of wickets in one game
he is invariably sidelined for the next one. That does not happen to
established batsmen though.”
He then went on to speak
about T Natarajan, who made his international debut days after having becoming
a father, travelling directly to Australia from the IPL bio-bubble in the UAE,
where he had burst onto the stage. Natarajan is yet to see his daughter and is
with the Indian team as a net bowler even though he is not part of the Test
side. Virat Kohli has left Australia after the 1st Test to be present for the
birth of his child in India. Speaking
about this, Gavaskar said, “(T Natarajan) had become a father for the first
time even as the IPL playoffs were going on. He was asked to stay on for the
(Australia) Test series but not as a part of the team but as a net bowler.
Imagine that. A match winner, albeit in another format, being asked to be a net
bowler. He will thus return home only after the series ends in the third week
of January and get to see his daughter for the first time then. And there is
the captain (Virat Kohli) going back after the first Test for the birth of his
first child.”
Though his batting and his
straight drives were immaculate, I feel, the comparison here is not correct ..
.. Virat Kohli has taken a personal decision to be with his wife at the time of
childbirth (being an established star, he is in a position to decide) –
paternity leave is not new in Cricket – there have been many stars who have
stayed off their National duties for this – Natarajan is a rising star and that
time, he was not even sure of his debut – perhaps it was his own decision to
look at his career than take paternity leave !
There cannot be any comments on that as it is a personal logical
decision.
23.12.2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment