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MUMBAI: India’s stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane returned home to a red carpet welcome in Mumbai on Thursday, having led a severely depleted side to a famous Test series win in Australia.
India’s regular captain and main batsman Virat Kohli had flown home to attend the birth of his daughter after the opening defeat in Adelaide where the touring side were bundled out for 36 — their lowest innings score in Test cricket.
Under Rahane, India levelled the series in Melbourne and secured a nerve-wracking draw in Sydney before triumphing in the decider in Brisbane with a second-string side to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Cricket-mad India reacted with shock and disbelief at the team’s capitulation in Adelaide, with fans thronging to social media platforms to vent their anger at the performance of their favourite sporting side.
But the mood in the country has since been transformed.
Rahane, accompanied by head coach Ravi Shastri and other team-mates, were congratulated by local cricket administrators on their arrival in Mumbai.
A viral video on social media showed Rahane, 33, being showered with flower petals as he walked along a red carpet amid the beating of drums and loud cheers to enter his housing society with his daughter in his arms.
India wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant also received a hero’s welcome in Delhi after being adjudged man-of-the-match in Brisbane and finishing as the highest scorer for the team despite being ignored for the first Test.
His performance drew comparisons in local media with India’s former captain and wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“It feels amazing when you compare me with MS Dhoni,” Pant, 23, told reporters outside Delhi airport. “But I want to make my own name in Indian cricket. It’s not good to compare a legend with some youngster.”
Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1602809/red-carpet-welcome-for-rahane-on-return
TOKYO: The virus-delayed Tokyo Olympics will go ahead this summer, and there is “no plan B,” International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach said in an interview Thursday.
“We have at this moment, no reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on the 23rd of July,” Bach told Kyodo News.
“This is why there is no plan B and this is why we are fully committed to make these games safe and successful.” With just over six months to go until the postponed Games, doubts have grown about whether the massive international event will be viable with the pandemic still raging across much of the world.
Tokyo organisers have produced a raft of safety measures they say will allow the Games to go ahead, even if the pandemic is not under control, and without requiring vaccinations.
But public support in Japan is low, with around 80 percent of respondents in recent polling favouring either a further delay or outright cancellation.
Tokyo 2020’s CEO Toshiro Muto told AFP this week that organisers were “unwavering” in their commitment to holding the Games this summer and that cancellation had not been discussed.
But he conceded he could not guarantee the stands would be full, or rule out the possibility of a Games held without spectators.
A decision on whether foreign fans will be able to attend, and how many spectators will be possible, is expected this spring. The Games are due to open on July 23, with the nationwide torch relay scheduled to kick off in late March.
Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1602810/ioc-chief-says-tokyo-olympics-will-go-ahead-no-plan-b
KARACHI: Faf du Plessis was not expecting to play Test cricket in Pakistan so soon despite two visits for limited-overs formats over the last four years.
“That is one thing I did not see happening in my time,” the veteran South Africa batsman and former captain told the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s digital channel on Thursday. “I knew white-ball cricket was happening here, but I did not know that the red-ball cricket was going to happen this soon.
“I am looking forward to it and I hope that it is the same as it was more than 13 years ago the wickets are flat so we the batters can score some runs.”
The 36-year-old du Plessis is expected to form the nucleus of the Proteas batting in the upcoming two-Test series which will be first for South Africa in Pakistan since October 2007.
Du Plessis first toured Pakistan when he led an International Cricket Council (ICC)-backed World XI for a Twenty20 series in 2017. He returned last November to feature in Pakistan Super League playoff for Peshawar Zalmi at the National Stadium — venue for the first Test, starting from Tuesday.
“That [2017] was the first step to bring any sort of cricket back [to Pakistan”, du Plessis said. “What they did really well at that stage was to bring players from all around the world to come and play and to see that the security levels were going to be very, very good and it gave players peace of mind.”
Pakistan had long been trying to convince foreign teams to return for international competition in Pakistan, where incoming cricket tours were halted after a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team’s bus at Lahore in 2009.
Du Plessis made his Test debut in 2012 and has played away matches in Australia, India, England, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. Five of his seven Tests against Pakistan have been in South Africa, the other two at Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2013.
The West Indies and Bangladesh have sent teams to play international cricket in Pakistan over the last six years. Now it’s South Africa’s turn.
“It’s important for Pakistan to play in home conditions,” du Plessis said. “They have been playing in the UAE for the last nine years or so and [some] fans have never seen them play at home and that’s almost like a generation and missed seeing them play.”
Du Plessis will not stay after the Test series to play in a three-match Twenty20 series in Lahore because South Africa will be preparing to host Australia in a Test series.
Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1602811/du-plessis-gearing-up-for-unexpected-pakistan-test-series
KARACHI: The new-look Pakistan cricket squad began its preparations for next week’s first Test against South Africa with an extensive practice session here at the National Stadium on Thursday.
Head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, batting coach Younis Khan and bowling coach Waqar Younis were joined by ex-Pakistan greats Mohammad Yousuf, Saqlain Mushtaq and ex-New Zealand player Grant Bradburn — the coaches at the National High Performance Centre in Lahore — during the four-hour session.
Both Yousuf and Saqlain along with Bradburn, who has been here to observe the domestic matches, are in the city to watch the last phase of the ongoing Pakistan Cup one-day competition. They will be in attendance during the training sessions over the next couple of days.
In what will be Pakistan’s first series after the national side were outplayed 2-0 in New Zealand earlier this month, the pressure is on Misbah and Waqar to turn around the team’s fortunes after both received reprieve following their meeting last week in Lahore with PCB’s Cricket Committee, headed by Saleem Yousuf.
But while both Misbah and Waqar have survived — at least for the South Africa series — the incoming chief selector, Mohammad Wasim, made a drastic overhauling of the squad that went to New Zealand by indicting as many as nine uncapped players in the preliminary 20-man squad for the series against Proteas.
Following a spate of poor performances in the last two tours — to England and New Zealand — Shan Masood, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Abbas and Naseem Shah -- have all been dropped. The new faces in the Test squad, which is expected to be cut to 16 at the weekend, are Imran Butt, Saud Shakeel, Kamran Ghulam, Agha Salman, Abdullah Shafiq, Sajid Khan, Nauman Ali, Tabish Khan and Haris Rauf.
Also returning to the squad after an 18-month absence is the fit-again paceman Hasan Ali — who had been missing from the national team since the 2019 World Cup in England — after showing top form during the recently-concluded Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Hasan’s heroics as captain enabled Central Punjab to play out a thrilling tie in the final against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa earlier this month at the National Stadium, with both teams sharing the first-class title.
Pakistan will continue their training over the next four days at the National Stadium, while the touring South Africa, who arrived in the city last Saturday and had several nets, played an intra-squad practice game at Karachi Gymkhana — which is adjacent to their hotel — on Thursday and are scheduled to play a second fixture on Friday at the same venue.
From Saturday onwards, the Quinton de Kock-led South Africa will start their Test preparations at the National Stadium. On the eve of the first Test, starting on Tuesday, South Africa head coach Mark Boucher will hold a pre-match media conference.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam will be leading the county for the first time in a Test match after missing both Twenty20 and Test series against New Zealand following a thumb injury during a training session in Queenstown.
The second Test will be played in Rawalpindi from Feb 4 before both teams head off to Lahore for three T20 games on Feb 11, 13 and 14 with the tourists to be captained by Heinrich Klaasen in the absence of first-choice stars — including de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Kagiso Rabada, — who are flying back after the final Test to undergo quarantine ahead of South Africa’s home series against Australia.
Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1602812/pakistan-launch-preparation-for-sa-test-with-extensive-training-session
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