Sports

India ODI skipper Mithali Raj really wants to include that elusive World Cup trophy to her cabinet before calling time on her behalf illustrious career.

Raj helped India achieve final from the tournament on two occasions — 2005 and 2017 — however the ‘Women in Blue’ endured heartbreaks against Australia and England correspondingly.

Raj has mentioned that constantly producing great results against top sides helps they obtain a solid status in recent occasions. Based on her, teams don’t take India gently any longer.

“Teams don’t take us gently any longer and are available ready for us,” Raj was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

“Consistently beating the very best sides on the planet whether it is Australia within the ODIs or England within the T20Is, has provided us the arrogance that people too really are a side to conquer.”

Raj required retirement in the shortest format following the T20 World Cup this past year inside a bid to extend her ODI career. She revealed how this really is motivating her to help keep herself fit in this enforced break submit through the coronavirus pandemic.

“Fitness, inside my age, is one thing I have to consciously and also continue. I understand I can’t forget my skill. I have some batting within me. I would require a couple of sessions to obtain my rhythm going,” she stated.

“Some people have running space while some much like me need to manage inside the restricted spaces inside, so our trainers are adapting routines for all of us. (Coach) WV Raman is attempting to become creative with this skill training regimen.

“It is tough because regardless of just how much we train inside, we have to escape to the ground to become fully prepared,” she added.

Most of the current Indian cricketers are very participating in social networking. The scenario because of the nation-wide lockdown has showed up on various social networking platforms much more frequent. But when there’s one Indian cricketer who doesn’t require a second invitation to create his presence felt on social networking that’s leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – you name a platform and Chahal can there be, entertaining together with his amusing comments and videos. On Sunday, Chahal made the decision to talk about a throwback picture with ‘legend’ MS Dhoni stating that he misses ‘being known as tilli from behind the stumps’.

Chahal required to Twitter to talk about an image with Dhoni and captioned the publish: “Miss being known as tilli from behind the stumps through the legend..!!”

The coronavirus pandemic has had an enormous toll on sports around the world as all of the sporting occasions have either been cancelled or postponed.

Both Chahal and Dhoni could have been plying their exchange the 13th edition from the IPL for his or her teams Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Nobleman in normal conditions. However the COVID-19 crisis in the united states also put an imprecise halt towards the IPL by which Dhoni ended up being to slated to create his go back to the area.

The previous captain hasn’t performed any worldwide match after India’s exit in the 2019 World Cup.

Tainted former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif states he wasn’t the very first nor will be the last to possess participated in place-fixing and really should happen to be treated better by his country’s Cricket Board, which gave “everyone another chance” aside from him.

Asif was banned for seven years for his role within the 2010 place-fixing scandal during Pakistan’s tour of England, where he bowled deliberate no balls for the money. Also, he offered incarceration within the United kingdom after being found guilty together with Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt.

Asif stated he should enjoy a second chance like many more, whom he didn’t name.

“Everyone makes mistakes and that i did too. Players have been involving in fixing before me which after me. But individuals before me will work with PCB and you will find couple of after me still playing,” Asif told ‘ESPNCricinfo’.

“Everyone was handed another chance and you will find couple of who never got exactly the same treatment (as me). PCB never attempted in order to save me regardless to the fact that I’m the type of bowler who had been highly considered by everybody on the planet.

“But anyway I am not hanging out thinking about yesteryear or stuck onto it.Inches Asif stated he adopts pride within the performances he dished in his limited career.

“However much I performed within my career, I managed to get count, duniya hila ke rakh di thi (I shook in the world). That’s more essential that i can consider. To this day, a lot of years later, the very best batsmen on the planet still remember me plus they discuss me.

“Just think how large the outcome was which i had around the world. Making this why is me proud – that there’s grounds KP, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla talk highly about me. It is exactly what makes me happy.”

The 37-year-old, who also unsuccessful a dope test in the year 2006 and offered a 1 year suspension for this, accepted he “should have socialized best the field”.

“That is how I’d issues. I wish to provide the kids this message that whenever you mix the boundary line in to the field, your ambition ought to be to prosper on your own as well as for your team.” “I was selfish like a bowler since i desired to take wickets, which ended up being to save the day win. Being selfish isn’t bad if you are playing your behalf for that team,” he stated.

Asif appreciated the times as he made the ball talk and produced an enduring impression on players like Wasim Akram and Mudassar Naazar.

“I demonstrated myself not only once but frequently. I acquired exactly the same batsmen out more often than once, and it is nothing like I bowled one fluke incredible points rather than made it happen again.

“With ball in hands I had been in charge. Moving the ball out and in wasn’t only a one-off factor. And That I didn’t learn to get it done in days. It required me many I labored very hard for this.Inches

Asif didn’t like the truth that Amir upon the market from Test cricket at age 27, saying he let PCB lower together with his decision because the Board helped him a great deal in the hard time.

“I curse the PCB for the way they saved his career. However it was his obligation to assist Pakistan cricket inside a tough situation and that he must have remained, particularly when they’d helped him return.”

“…When they (the PCB) tried exactly the same beside me, then I’d be open to save Pakistan in Test cricket for the following 2 yrs. I understand you will find fitness standards, however i could work that out and whatever is needed I’m able to get it done.Inches PTI AT PM PM

Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar – there are just a couple of bigger names than the others two in Indian cricket. While Kohli defines modern times of Indian cricket – Tendulkar revives recollections from the golden chronilogical age of Indian cricket. Suresh Raina, who had been a part of India’s 2011 World Cup-winning cricket team is among the couple of lucky ones to possess performed with Tendulkar and Kohli.

Within an interview with Khaleej Occasions, Raina opened up up about his experience with having fun with both cricketers and described how differently the 2 crickets approach the sport.

“Sachin and Virat, both of them score lots of hundreds, Virat really wants to win all the games. And Sachin really wants to make certain things are very calm,” Raina stated. “With Sachin, it’s usually about his calmness. It had been due to Sachin that people won the planet Cup. He was the man who made everybody within the team think that are going to that, He was such as the second coach within the team.

“And Virat, he’s been amazing in most formats. He is a excellent captain. He’s been striking the ball perfectly. He’s very fit, very positive and that he has got the aura around him. I’m glad I’ve performed with each of them,” he further added.

Meanwhile, Raina also continued to check Tendulkar with FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi. “I am a large fan of Messi. He’s so lower to earth, Both Sachin and Messi are extremely good with regards to taking proper care of people around them because in sports you have to be really humble,” he stated.

“You could be the number 1 player on the planet, however your legacy is essential, You have to show gratitude to everybody.”

The International Cricket Council (ICC) also tweeted their birthday wishes to the former West Indies captain and asked fans to rate their favourite Brian Lara innings.

West Indies batting legend Brian Lara turned 51 on Saturday. Widely rated as one of the greatest batsmen of all time in a generation that had stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid and so on, the West Indian got wishes from a number of quarters within the cricket fraternity on the occasion.

Tendulkar led the way in wishing his long-time rival at the top of the batting charts. “Wishing my fellow Taurean a very happy birthday. Was great fun catching up with you recently. Have a great one, Prince! Look forward to seeing you soon. Take care,” said Tendulkar.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) also tweeted their birthday wishes to the former West Indies captain and asked fans to rate their favourite Brian Lara innings.

“Happy birthday to the legend, the Prince of Trinidad & Tobago and a great human being @BrianLara Hope you have a beautiful year ahead and soon we’ll do our dance lessons,” said Dhawan

Indian Premier League side Royal Challengers Bangalore also wished Lara a happy birthday. “Lara, Kya Mara – if you relate to this phrase, then your childhood was awesome. Here’s wishing the stylish West Indian legend @BrianLara a very Happy Birthday!” said RCB.

Former India batsman Yuvraj Singh tweeted: “A man known to set unbelievable records on the field and humanitarian benchmarks in life, wishing you the very best on your special day. Happy birthday Sir Brian”

Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh tweeted: “Happy birthday to the most dashing,dominating,stylish,left handed batsman that has played the game.. Prince of Trinidad Flag of Trinidad & Tobago A top man @BrianLara Glad I played cricket in the era where these legends played the game and inspired.

India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin doesn’t want a post-COVID-19 world that is more conducive for organising T20 leagues at the expense of international cricket.

The fastest Indian to 350 Test wickets, the seasoned spinner said on Saturday he forsees another “purple patch” for him in the traditional format, provided his body holds. He also outrightly rejected the four-day proposal.

“I really do hope that this (pandemic) does not transpire into something where you have more leagues and not much of international cricket because the borders are closed,” Ashwin said during a videocast with former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar on ESPNcricinfo.

With the COVID-19 pandemic yet to subside, Ashwin doesn’t see cricket resuming anytime soon.

“I think we are still some distance away. In terms of the health of world cricket I think it is going to take longer than what people might assume.

“So, that’s an imminent possibility, but I don’t know what the further future has in store.”

He calls himself a “hardened” T20 cricketer but it is the five-day format in which he has tasted maximum success. And he is far from being done in the game’s long form.

“If my body is in great space, I think Test cricket I just have another streak of great purple patch I am looking at.”

“I believe I am a hardened professional in T20 cricket, and good at what I do. Wherever I play I will be able to deliver, with the experience that I have got and the courage that I have.”

“But I generally like to use the arm ball in first 2 or 3 overs because when you use the arm ball, it challenges both the edges of the batsman and forces him to go across the line which is rendered risky.”

The spin ace who has often been seen with the new ball across formats, added, “The others that I use are the floaters that swing, the one that pitches in and goes out or the other one that lands on the seam and gets to go the other way. So these balls become very effective.

“With a new ball I use my middle finger more than the index finger but when I bowl with an older ball, I try and get over the top.

“Sometimes, I don’t use index finger to go over the top, it is behind and I still put the revs and that’s when the ball actually goes the other way.”

He shared his views about the need to be versatile in the T20 format, where the bowlers have little margin for error, and about finger and wrist spinners.

“In a T20 cricket, you need to call yourself a bowler. At times you should be able to bowl a bouncer or a spinner.

“Wrist spin is successful not because it is challenging both edges of the bat but because of its unpredictable nature when bowling length. And this makes wrist spin extremely relevant.

A virus has halted everything, even the Olympics, the greatest sporting constant. Stuck now at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru — the Indian hockey teams’ training base — Neha Goyal admits feeling a little disappointed. However, she knows she is one of the few lucky migrants, safe and shielded even as the facade of an egalitarian society crumbles around.

Neha Goyal has played over 50 times for the Indian women’s hockey team in the last six years — assisting, scoring and cheering at crucial moments, completely fit and her place secure.
Neha Goyal’s dream was finally real, or she hoped it would be. Thirteen years after first picking up a hockey stick, six since her national team debut, two since a lung busting performance established her in Indian hockey’s mainstream, four months after the historic night that altered women’s hockey in the country forever, she wondered if this was the moment and knew that if it was she needed to grab it and not let go.

She has played over 50 times for the Indian women’s hockey team in the last six years — at the World Cup, at the Champions Challenge, at the Olympic qualifiers, the play offs — assisting, scoring and cheering at crucial moments, completely fit and her place secure. A young promising career was rolling forward, seemingly towards the ultimate stage, the Olympics.

And then it all stopped.

A virus called a halt to everything. Even the Olympics, the greatest sporting constant of all. From perpetual motion to an unending state of suspension. Stuck now at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru — the Indian hockey teams’ training base — Goyal ruefully admits to feeling a little disappointed. “My heart broke when I read the news. I’ve been away from home for so long, we have been training for this for so long. It was the ultimate dream. But then I pulled myself together. Staying safe is more important. Yahan log mar rahe hain, toh Olympics kya hai (people are dying around so Olympics doesn’t matter)…”

Vaibhav Raghunandan 02 May 2020
Indian women’s hockey team player Neha Goyal
Neha Goyal has played over 50 times for the Indian women’s hockey team in the last six years — assisting, scoring and cheering at crucial moments, completely fit and her place secure.
Neha Goyal’s dream was finally real, or she hoped it would be. Thirteen years after first picking up a hockey stick, six since her national team debut, two since a lung busting performance established her in Indian hockey’s mainstream, four months after the historic night that altered women’s hockey in the country forever, she wondered if this was the moment and knew that if it was she needed to grab it and not let go.

She has played over 50 times for the Indian women’s hockey team in the last six years — at the World Cup, at the Champions Challenge, at the Olympic qualifiers, the play offs — assisting, scoring and cheering at crucial moments, completely fit and her place secure. A young promising career was rolling forward, seemingly towards the ultimate stage, the Olympics.

And then it all stopped.

A virus called a halt to everything. Even the Olympics, the greatest sporting constant of all. From perpetual motion to an unending state of suspension. Stuck now at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru — the Indian hockey teams’ training base — Goyal ruefully admits to feeling a little disappointed. “My heart broke when I read the news. I’ve been away from home for so long, we have been training for this for so long. It was the ultimate dream. But then I pulled myself together. Staying safe is more important. Yahan log mar rahe hain, toh Olympics kya hai (people are dying around so Olympics doesn’t matter)…”

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“The first thought was: Wow we are lucky. We get three meals a day, a roof over our heads, superb facilities, good company. There are families, individuals, people struggling. Ek din ka khana naseeb nahi ho raha (many are not getting a chance to eat a proper meal.”

Goyal has seen that first hand. When she walked on to a hockey pitch all those years ago, she did so at the behest of a friend. She didn’t have a stick, shoes or a behind-the-scenes sports machinery pushing her to success. Her father (who passed away in 2018) was a daily wage labourer whose earnings went into supporting a family of five. Her mother, a housewife, did odd jobs to supplement the family’s income.

She wanted to play the sport to reduce the burden on her family. Hockey was a sport, sure, but hockey was also work. It offered her a chance to climb out of a strata of society she was born into, and promised herself that through hard work and dedication she would catapult into another. She told Pritam Rani Siwach exactly that, and was promptly offered a place in the academy. She also told Siwach she wanted to play for India.

Siwach, who was part of that Indian women’s hockey team which created history in Manchester in 2002, believed her. The story of Siwach and teammates became folklore and then cinema, to a point where the film is now better known than the game itself. Indian hockey begins and ends in blue kits. Siwach knew, more than most, the need to do better at the grassroots.

Siwach’s career wound down soon after and the academy she started became the focal point of her life. She wanted to create opportunities for girls to play hockey. Not only an escape, but well enough to get into the Indian team. Goyal was under Siwach’s discerning eyes now.

Those early days are a jumble of sentences and memories in Goyal’s head. There was hard work, good results, then an injury that refused to go away. “I remember clearly registering that there was an injury around 2012,” she says, “Sometime during the Junior Women’s Asia Cup. It was the sole of my foot. Something was wrong and physically I just wasn’t there.” After that tournament — India finished runners up, their best finish ever — Goyal was off for six months recuperating, rehabbing and taking time off the game.

What followed was a game of roulette. Post recovery she made it back to the junior national team, and not too long after was kitting up for the seniors at the FIH Champions Challenge in Glasgow. Indian women’s hockey was looking up, there was renewed attention, players of immense quality pushing a late surge to get to the Rio Olympics. Goyal, 17 on debut, was on a surge of her own.

The wheel stopped short. India qualified for the Olympics, the women’s first appearance at the Games in 36 years. Goyal didn’t make it there. That old injury resurfaced at the 2015 Nationals in Kerala. Again she went through recovery and rehab. Again she dropped back to the Junior team.

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“Those were rough times. To be honest I wasn’t so sure of being picked for the Olympics, but I was looking forward to the Junior World Cup. We didn’t manage to qualify though,” she says. The injury and subsequent rehab took a toll on her finances and peace of mind. “It was crazy expensive to get physiotherapy. They would charge Rs. 2000 for one session. I would go to get a taping every three days. After a while I just stopped going.”

She went back to the academy that birthed her. Back to her roots. Quite literally. “I literally couldn’t run. I wouldn’t play but even doing the warm up was an eyeopener,” she says. “The goalkeepers, fully padded up, are lapped by the rest of the team, when running around the pitch right? I was being lapped by the goalkeepers.” That was Neha Goyal during the Olympic year — 2016.

Over the next cycle she broke back into the team, scored an important goal that led to an historic World Cup run in 2018, set up another that kickstarted a rout to help earn India Olympic qualification, and became the mainstay in a fairly set team. “If you work hard, look how things happen.” Pretty well, just not the way she imagined it.

This now is the year of Olympics 2020.

She is sitting in Bengaluru, two months and counting, and admits to missing home. She has — and this is a huge admittance from a professional athlete playing a team sport — had enough of being in the camp. She loves the camaraderie and all, but home is home and mom is home. “Ab bas ghar jaana hai.”

She is worried for her mother in Sonepat, who she can’t talk to regularly but knows to be safe. The elder sister had fortuitously arrived to visit days before the lockdown was enforced. “Thank god for that!” she sighs, almost immediately interjecting her own sentence. “I mean, I feel bad for her husband, who is now alone in Hapur, but you know, he can take care of himself,” she bursts out laughing.

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Goyal could have been home. On March 14, several members of the team were packed and ready to leave for a two-week break, loaded into buses even, some at airports, when they were recalled. It wasn’t safe, and Hockey India had taken a decision to sequester them together. The coaches, many of whom were going back to their countries, were held back too. Sportsmen and women, they were among the lucky migrants offered protection and comfort as the facade of an egalitarian society crumbled around them.

“It’s better for us. We have access to training equipment, facilities, trainers,” Goyal says. She admits to feeling terrible for Sjoerd Marijne though. “He misses his kids terribly. You can see it. He chats with them on video, but dekh ke na, rona aata hai.”

Days in the SAI centre, which were earlier centered around training and recovery routines — a monotony of their own — have started merging into one another. The Olympics, while not a distant thought, is actually not the what’s on their minds.

The women — many of them like Goyal — come from underprivileged families and have watched the mass exodus of workers and the struggles they have endured over the past month. The team agreed something needed to be done. “We wanted to collect money, make an impact. But we knew by ourselves we couldn’t do much. Our contributions would add up to very little.” What though? And what could they, young female athletes, stuck in a training facility do?

The answer was simple: Start an online challenge, and crowdfund support to an NGO which works to aid those afflicted by the crises. Everyday one member of the team kickstarts a workout and nominates 10 people to do it. The nominees take it up and donate Rs. 100 to the cause. The fund was at Rs.11 lakh at the time of conversation, and rose to 18 lakh within five days. The response has been extraordinary.

Goyal is thrilled at the response, but the numbers barely register. She is more concerned about those other numbers, fast rising everyday, with seemingly no end in sight. “I see the case numbers everyday. Rising up by 10,000 in one week. I shouldn’t and it scares me and irritates me at the same time. I shouldn’t because I get stressed about something I cannot control. But I do.”

As a compromise, she has been ‘studying’ history. Indian political history specifically. “I used to hate studying as a kid. Missed out on stuff. I’m using this time to learn some things,” she laughs. On her watchlist right now is the Shekhar Kapoor hosted show, Pradhan Mantri. She is halfway through the first season and has no reviews to pass on yet.

“Oh I’m also doing some English lessons,” she pipes up. “Dammit, I could have practiced with you. Chalo, next time. In person.”

MUMBAI: For the new generation of India’s racers, its practice arena has turned into a battlefield in the lockdown era. Cooped up inside homes and missing out on valuable wheel time, racers from 14 cities took part in the country’s most popular competition: the Indian Sim Racing Championship (ISRL).

Chennai’s Sai Prithvi garnered the maximum points, 252 over the five rounds, with the final one held on Friday night, to emerge Season 2’s undisputed champion. Thrissur’s Abdul Fattah collected 191 while Mumbai’s Raiden Samervel managed 172 to take the third position.

Incidentally, following innumerable queries, the ISRL announced that the third season would begin on May 8, with the promise of upgrades, a more viewer-friendly format and an attractive prize pool. Registrations are already open.

In the final race on the Laguna Seca track, Chennai’s Amith Kutti grabbed pole in qualifying, a mere eight-thousandth of a second ahead of points leader, Sai Prithvi. As the lights went out, a determined Prithvi went breathing down the tail of the leader pressurising him into an error.

Kutti and Prithvi exchanged fastest laps before Kutti tragically hit a back-marker. The resulting suspension damage forced him to retire. Title challenger Abdul Fattah then crashed and pitted, losing valuable time and any hopes of winning the title. Jessie Jakhar (Thrissur) was the star of the race, climbing from seventeenth to finish fourth.

Sai Prithvi’s four victories in the five rounds were sufficient to crown him champion. He earns himself testing in a Volkswagen Motorsport race car. Abdul Fattah eventually finished eleventh to secure second in the final standings and earns himself kart training sessions with Rayo Racing. Raiden Samervel (Mumbai) gets a free race entry, courtesy IndiKarting.

Organised by 8-time national karting champion Rayomand Banajee and his IR eSports, in association with Volkswagen Motorsport India, the championship pits India’s best online racers against real world racers: held on the popular online iRacing platform, each competes in an FIA homologated Dallara Formula 3 car, with identical setups, using his or her own simulator.

Sirish Vissa, Head Motorsports at Volkswagen India, said: “We are proud to associate with IR eSports and the Indian Sim Racing Championship. This gives a different dimension to our motorsport program in India. With this association we look forward to expanding our footprint in terms of accessibility to the sport.”

The ISRL follows all the racing norms, with a proper rule book and experienced officials overseeing the conduct of the racers. Each round consists of two practice sessions totalling 90 minutes, a 10-minute qualifying and a 20-minute race. Points are awarded as per the Volkswagen India Championship, with additional points for pole position and fastest lap.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Flamengo head coach Jorge Jesus has returned to Brazil after five weeks in his native Portugal as the Rio de Janeiro club steps up plans to resume training.

Brazilian football has been suspended since mid-March as part of efforts to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They are workers like any others. Players have the advantage of testing and working outdoors. We have to be careful, this is no joke. I was asked in Portugal if I was going to put myself in the eye of the storm when I returned to Rio. We are going to take it day by day.”

Brazilian clubs cannot resume training without the authorisation of their corresponding state governments, which are yet to make a pronouncement.

Brazil has 92,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 6,000 deaths, according to the latest health ministry figures.