www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015
India can win World Cup: Fletcher
Duncan Fletcher, India's coach, believes the team can defend their ICC World Cup title in Australia and New Zealand because of the feeling of continuity between the Test and ODIs squads as well as their ability to chase big totals. Ahead of his third World Cup as a coach, and first with India, Fletcher referred to India's unbeaten run during the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in England as signs of the team's capability overseas. "I am very excited, especially given the side we have. I think we are a good chance to win after the way the team has been building over the last three-four years," he said. "A big reason for my belief is our Champions Trophy (2013) victory in England. We played in very foreign conditions that didn't suit the side and yet we played so well that we didn't lose a single match. That shows that the side is used to winning and that's really exciting." India's squad for the tournament features only four members of the 2011 side - captain MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina
and R Ashwin - but Fletcher, 66, did not feel that a relatively young side would be overawed. "We do want experience. You cannot beat experience," he said. "We have played three ICC tournaments in the last three years the ICC World Twenty20 2012-13 and 2014, and the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. And people will be surprised to see that we have only lost two games in all of which one was the final. That is quite a record to be proud of. And the team in all those tournaments was more or less the same. So, these boys do have the experience when it comes to the big tournaments and they do know how to win
them. "What makes this team special is that over the last few years they have faced all kinds of situations in the limited-overs cricket and have shown they are capable of coming out successfully from all of them. That's why I say that we have a good chance to win this World Cup." The former England coach also stressed on the importance of continuity, and why similar Test and ODIs squads would aid India's World Cup bid. "It's very important. I truly believe that in these times if your squads are very similar in all three formats, it's a huge advantage," he said. "The players are together all the time, they know
each other's games and the roles they have to play within the team. I've always believed that to play cricket, you need to have certain technical aspects not for the format you're playing but for the game on the whole. "Since most of these boys have played in the Test series, they know the conditions well and how each player approaches his game in these conditions. When too many new players come in, it takes time for everyone to get used to their little idiosyncrasies and how they cope in certain situations. But when you know each other's strengths and weaknesses, you are doing away with the learning curve and that gives you a chance to hit the ground running." Several members of the World Cup squad have been in Australia since late November, playing two warm-up matches and four Tests. Next is the tri-series featuring Australia and England, and Fletcher felt spending a couple months in Australia before the World Cup was a "huge advantage".
Former India captain Rahul Dravid is expecting next month’s cricket World Cup to be an aggressive affair as he feels the revamped ODI rules will push teams into selecting attacking bowlers over part-timers. Dravid said new rules, which mandate five fielders inside the 30-yard circle at all times in an innings, will have a huge impact on how the teams work out their strategies at the showpiece event starting on February 14. “With the two new balls, the fast bowlers will get that level of assistance up front. The grounds are bigger too so it won’t be that easy to clear the ropes. I think it will be a
Rahul Dravid challenge for the captains. For example, when you have five fielders in the ring, it’s very hard to play a part-time bowler,” Dravid said. “You are almost being forced to play five specialist bowlers. That is a real positive. You are going to be forced to attack and look for wickets rather than see part-timers bowl for a large period of play,”
he said. Only two fielders are allowed outside the circle for the first 10 overs. Just three fielders are mandated to be outside the circle during the five Powerplay overs to be taken by the batting team before the 40th over. Former South African captain Graeme Smith said the new rules will make proceedings very exciting. “If teams get partnerships in these conditions with the five in the ring, the Powerplay at the back-end, that’s when they are really going to get the opportunity to score big runs,” Smith said. “You are always looking at your attack and saying we can’t afford to carry two part-timers, we need
an extra wicket-taker here. If you don’t pick up wickets through your bowling session, you will be chasing a big total,” he explained. Dravid said spinners will have a huge role to play in the tournament despite Australia and New Zealand’s reputation of having seamer-friendly tracks. “Those are the grounds we are going to be playing the World Cup in. They have been really slow and the spinners have come into play. You are just going to have to balance it out. There might be places where you go and say, the spinner might not have such a big impact on that particular day,” Dravid said.
The convictions of three Pakistan cricketers jailed for spot-fixing in 2011 are being reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) following doubts over the credibility of ‘Fake Sheik’ reporter Mazher Mahmood. Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were handed fiveyear bans by the International Cricket Council, on the basis of evidence from a sting operation by Mahmood in the News of the World. However, after concerns over Mahmood’s evidence led to the collapse of a recent trial involving former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos, the case is one of 25 being reviewed by the CPS.
Englishman Stephen Constantine was appointed head coach of Indian men's football team, paving the way for his return at the helm of affairs for the second time. The 52-year-old Constantine, who is also be the coach of the India Under-23 national team, is expected to take charge from the first week of next month. "All India Football Federation confirms the appointment of Constantine as the Head Coach of the Senior Men's National Team of India. Constantine will also be in charge of the India U-23 National Team," the AIFF said in a release. Constantine was India coach from 2002 till 2005, during which the national
Stephen Constantine team won the LG Cup in Vietnam and finished runners-up in the Afro Asian Games. He was the head coach of the Rwanda national team before he was offered the India job. According to sources, Constantine will get significantly lower salary than what his predecessor Wim Koevermans was getting. Dutchman Koevermans reportedly got around $20,000 per month before
he left the job recently after a just over two-year stint. The name of Constantine, who has coached the national teams of Nepal, Malawi and Sudan, besides Rwanda, was recently cleared by the AIFF Technical Committee headed by former captain Bhaichung Bhutia. He got the nod ahead of former New Zealand coach and India Super League franchise side NorthEast United FC coach Ricki Herbert mainly due to his earlier Indian experience. The Englishman guided the Africans to their highestever world ranking of 68 in last month's FIFA Rankings.
Duncan Fletcher
New rules will make World Cup exciting: Dravid
Convictions of Pak cricketers being reviewed
Constantine appointed India's football coach
SPORT WORLD
Smith to lead Australia against England
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Steven Smith will lead Australia in Friday's tri-series match against England in absence of suspended George Bailey, Cricket Australia said. Opening batsman David Warner has also been rested from the one-day international at Hobart to recover from a sore hamstring.ent. Shaun Marsh and Cameron White will replace Bailey and Warner in the squad for Friday's match, when Australia will target their third consecutive victory in the tri-series. The International Cricket Council banned Bailey, who was leading the side in place of injured regular skipper Michael Clarke, after Sunday's match against India for a second over-rate offence in 12 months. "Steven's appointment was a straightforward decision given the excellent impression he made in charge of the side during the ... test series when he stepped in for the injured Michael Clarke," national selector Rodney Marsh said. "It is unfortunate for George Bailey that he will miss the match in his home state but in Steven we have a dynamic player who leads from the front, by example, and we look forward to him doing so again on Friday."
Sangakkara joins Surrey for 2015 season
English cricket county side Surrey confirmed the signing of Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara. "He is a five-star player and that is important because he will be working with our homegrown players," Alec Stewart, director of the county club was quoted as saying. Sangakkara previously played county cricket for Warwickshire and Durham. "He is the number one Test batsman in the world but it's the special character that he has which is as important to us," Stewart added. Sangakkara is currently the top-ranked Test batsman and fifth alltime highest run scorer in the longest form of the game. The left-handed batsman is also the fourth highest One-Day Internationals (ODI) run-scorer with 13,414. The 37-year-old is to retire from ODIs after the impending World Cup.
Paes-Klaasen win Heineken Open title
India's Leander Paes and his South African partner Raven Klaasen, seeded fourth, beat Dominic Inglot and Florin Mergea to win the Heineken Open men's doubles title in Auckland. They beat the BritishRomanian pairing 7-6 (1), 6-4 at the $ 519,395 hard court event for their first title this year. It was the second consecutive final for Paes and Klassen, after finishing runners-up at the Chennai Open. Stronger service helped the fourth seeds edge their opponents in the first set. Both teams were poor with their breakpoints conversion and failed to grasp their chances and in the end it had to be decided in the tie-break. The second set was again a close affair but Paes and Klaasen managed to convert two breakpoint opportunities out of five to take home the title.
Younis Khan has no plans to quit after World Cup
Pakistan's experienced middle-order batsman Younis Khan has no plans to quit limited-overs cricket after the World Cup and said that as long as he stays fit he would continue to be available to play both oneday internationals and test matches. The 37-year-old Khan is one of Pakistan's fittest players and forced his way back into the World Cup squad after his scintillating batting form in the test series against Australia and New Zealand late last year. He made three centuries in four innings against Australia and another against New Zealand to make the selectors rethink his exclusion from the limited-overs team. "How come you know that it's my last World Cup?" asked Khan when queried about whether this will be his last major ODI tournament. "Whenever I feel my body is not allowing me to play, only then I will retire." Pakistan captain Misbah-ulHaq and flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi have already announced plans to retire from ODIs after the tournament in Australia and New Zealand ends in March.