14 SPORTS
Friday, 23 October, 2015
‘Breaking Miandad’s record doesn’t Make Me feel arrogant’ P
AgencieS
AKISTAN veteran Younus Khan believes that all the records that he tumbled in Test cricket for Pakistan are primarily for his country. “We should all feel proud that these records are for Pakistan. I had never dreamt of beating [Javed] Miandad’s record but I will never feel arrogant, it is a record over which we all must feel proud,” said Younus, quoted Gulf News. Younus said that the Pakistan Test team was not solely dependent on him and the captain Misbahul Haq instead the whole team was responsible for the recent victories. “The responsibility of being senior players in the team does not put extra pressure on me because and I only want to performance in the manner that is expected of me.” The 38-year-old further said that winning the Dubai Test against England was very imporatant for the team after the fifth day collapse in the Abu Dhabi Test. “We will fight back. We did well in the first innings (in Abu Dhabi) and they (England) also did well against our expectations. “I had said before that they will be a different team and they kept us under pressure. But that is gone now – this is a new Test and we are geared up. This venue is resultoriented so I am hopeful that we will do well here.” Younus also praised Yasir Shah’s performance saying that it was good to see a leggie making an impact in the longest format. “He has been bowl-
MCCULLUM GOES FROM COURT TO CRICKET SportS DeSk
ing brilliantly recently, so we are sure that he will do well,” said Younus. “It is welcoming that another leg-spinner is playing international cricket and creating an impact. It is good for Test cricket, like before we had Mushtaq Ahmad, then Shane Warne and Anil Kumble.” Pakistan’s highest runscorer in Tests said that left-hand opener Shan Ma-
sood deserves another chance. “I will back Shan Masood. He was unlucky that he got out in the same manner to the same bowler (James Anderson). It wasn’t a technical problem but maybe it was not his day. Shan has done well in Sri Lanka so I will back him,” Younus said while defending Shan.
DUNDALK DOMINATE PFAI TEAM OF THE YEAR SportS DeSk After clinching back-to-back Premier Division titles, Dundalk have once again dominated the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI) Team of the Year. Seven players from Stephen Kenny’s title-winning team have been named, with players from Cork City, St Patrick’s Athletic, Shamrock Rovers and Drogheda United also represented. Drogheda goalkeeper Micheal Schlingermann has been chosen as the goalkeeper with Dundalk’s Dane Massey, Brian Gartland, Andy Boyle and Sean Gannon making up the defence. Lilywhites midfielder Richie Towell, who leads the Premier Division goalscoring charts with 22 goals,
is joined in midfield by team-mates Daryl Horgan and Stephen O’Donnell, while Brandon Miele and Mark O’Sullivan complete the XI. Meanwhile, Dundalk trio Towell, Horgan and O’Donnell have been nominated for the PFAI Player of the Year award. Cork City’s Mark O’Sullivan has also been nominated. Sean Gannon is the only Dundalk player nominated for the Young Player of the Year award, with Bohemians striker Ismahil Akinade and Shamrock Rovers’ Brandon Miele also nominated. Everton defender Seamus Coleman has been nominated for Irish Overseas Player of the Year along with Norwich City duo Wes Hoolahan and Robbie Brady. Tom Connolly, Paul McLaughlin and Paul Tuite have been nominated for the Referee of the Year.
New Zealand’s captain Brendon McCullum is unsure how much the ongoing perjury trial of Chris Cairns will distract him as he sets about leading his country in what shapes as their best chance to unseat Australia at home in 30 years. McCullum missed the New Zealand players’ only chance for a first-class fixture at home before reaching Australia as he was called as a prosecution witness at Southwark Crown Court in London and gave evidence of Cairns’ alleged spotfixing approaches to him in 2008 - conversations that he did not report to the ICC for some years. As part of a modified preparation as a result of his travel schedule, McCullum will not take part in the tour opening fixture against the Prime Minister’s XI on Friday, but will instead wait until the two-day practice match starting on Saturday to play his first cricket since the court appearance. He is hopeful that the case and its wide ramifications for the game will not cloud his thinking against Australia. “I hope so,” McCullum said when asked whether the case could be put to the back of his mind. “I had a job to do over there, but now I’m back here and very much focused on this series, three Tests is going to be a huge opportunity for us and a massive challenge as well. “It’s just nice to be around the boys again. I missed that first-class game back home so it’s good to get back into the nets. To a degree it has [been a distraction], but it had to be done and now I’m very much just focused on this tour, it’s a huge challenge for us as a team and a new stage in Australian cricket as well. It should be a cracking series.” In a departure from recent norms, the PM’sXI match will be less a festival match than a legitimate proving ground, both for the New Zealand side freshly landed in Australia and a host of locals eager to press their cases for Test selection next month. McCullum said New Zealand would benefit from an early sight of the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Joe Burns, Adam Voges and Peter Siddle before the Tests as they formulated plans to try to win a Test series down under for the first time since 1985. “It’s going to be good, and for those guys as well they probably haven’t had the volume of cricket they would have wanted,” McCullum said. “So it’s probably a smart move from the Australian selectors as well to include them in this game and it’s going to be good for us as well to have another competitive hitout leading into the series. “It’s going to give us a good preparation. Obviously I’m not playing tomorrow and Timmy [Southee] will have the stripes and I’m sure he’ll do an excellent job. So we’ll probably be able to get a little bit more information as well about some of these guys that we haven’t seen as much of as some of the other guys in the team.” Unlike most meetings between the two teams over the past decade of which there have been precious few since 2010 it will be New Zealand that have the more settled team going into the Tests. While acknowledging that as a strength, McCullum said he also knew that change could have positive effect on a team, as highly motivated individuals entered the dressing room.
T20 competitions destroying West Indies cricket: Sobers SportS DeSk Garry Sobers has delivered an emotional lament on the state of West Indies cricket, attributing the decline of West Indies side to the rise of Twenty20 leagues. He made his comments in Colombo, ahead of the second Test of the Sobers-Tissera series, which he is attending. Sobers was particularly sorrowful as he reflected on what he felt was a dearth of motivation and pride in playing for West Indies, among modern players. West Indies are currently eighth on the Test ranking list, and seventh in ODIs. “My whole obligation was to West Indies cricket,” Sobers said. “As I’ve always said, I have never made a run for me. I have always played for the West Indies team and it was such a pleasure and joy to be able to do what I did. You know, records meant nothing. The team was important. “I don’t think we have that kind of person today.
We might have them in different countries - we might have them in Sri Lanka, in England, in Australia - but I don’t think we have that kind of person in West Indies cricket anymore, who is quite prepared to play and give it everything for their country. And that hurts. Until we can get people who are willing to play for West Indies in the right way, I think we’re going to be struggling for a long time. Other countries are going to surpass us. “ Sobers suggested that some West Indies players even focus on Test cricket only as a means to landing an IPL contract. There have been several instances of Caribbean players prioritising domestic leagues over playing for West Indies in the past few years. In January, Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine declined the retainer offered by the West Indies Cricket Board, ostensibly to remain free to play in domestic T20 tournaments. “I think T20 competitions are certainly destroying West Indies cricket, I’ll tell you
that,” Sobers said. “When you look at the point of view of the players from the West Indies in particular, they come from very humble backgrounds. So if the opportunity is there for them to make money so they can help their families, then you can’t really
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blame them. But I think they should be able to use discretion and understand the difference. I don’t think Twenty20 will run away. I’ve always believed that Test cricket was the utmost, and if you were a cricketer, that was the sort of cricket that you’d want to
play.” Sobers said that other cricket nations had maintained the primacy of international cricket much better than West Indies had. He believed, however, that the Caribbean could still produce talented cricketers who were capable of regaining some of West Indies’ former glory. “In the 1980s and 90s, West Indies were champions for about 15 years. I don’t think you’ll see that again in the history of cricket. At present we have lost a lot of that because I suppose we got too lazy. T20 cricket seems to be affecting West Indies more than any other nation. We’re all rebuilding. But some seem to be doing it faster than others. All the other countries seem to be doing it faster than the West Indies. “But I think we’ve got a lot of good players in the making, and I think they just need a bit more time. If they are handled in the right way and are given the right ingredients, I am quite sure that West Indies cricket will blossom again.”