Former West Indies skipper and chairman of selection committee Clive Lloyd on Saturday apologized for his team's decision to pull out of the tour in wake of an acrimonious pay dispute with WICB, saying that it was a mistake on the part of the players to have done so.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has termed the West Indies pull out as unfortunate and unprecedented as the visitors cancelled the ongoing series.
Pink-coloured cricket balls are ready to be used if the inaugural day-night Test match goes ahead in Australia in November, manufacturer Kookaburra said on Tuesday.
Organisers are confident West Indies will take part at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand early next year despite the crisis caused by their withdrawal from the tour of India earlier this month.
West Indies opening batsman Kraigg Brathwaite has commended the Indian bowlers for their brilliant show on a slow pitch on day three of the ongoing first Test, saying the visitors "bowled with a lot of discipline".
Former West Indies captain Richie Richardson supported the mystery spinner Sunil Narine, who has been barred from playing the Champions League T20 final for a suspect illegal bowling action, saying he will return as an even better bowler.
"Though it's tempting to play, it would curtail the development of a younger player," the former captain said.
Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has heaped praise on right-handed batsman Babar Azam, saying he is as good as swashbuckling Indian batsman Virat Kohli. During the recently concluded Hamilton Test against New Zealand which Pakistan lost by eight wickets, Azam scored an unbeaten 90 and Arthur says the former deserves the high praise.
Reacting angrily to the West Indies' pull out, BCCI joint secretary Anurag Thakur severely criticized WICB's decision to call its players back midway from the tour and said that the Indian board should cut all ties with the Caribbean team.
'Special mention to Rahane, who has come back after a while and he was outstanding...'
All-rounder Darren Sammy will lead the 15-member West Indies cricket team for the tour of India, starting next month.
Uncapped teenage fast bowler Alzarri Joseph will join the 13-member West Indies squad for the second Test against India starting in Kingston, Jamaica on July 30, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said. The 19-year-old Joseph has performed outstanding bowling feats for the U-19 side where he snared 13 wickets to lead West Indies to their World Cup title in Bangladesh. No other changes have been made to the Jason Holder-led squad which looked inexperienced against India's supremacy in the first game as they were thrashed by an innings and 92 runs.
West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite says India have a formidable batting line-up and the contest will be equally tough against the Indian spinners when the four-Test series begins at Antigua on July 21. "Their batting line-up is undoubtedly one of the stronger batting line-ups in the world, home and away, and unfortunately or fortunately for us it a lot similar to India in the Caribbean," Brathwaite was quoted as saying by the WICB website.
After having agreed to play a five-match One-Day International series in India on a short notice following the West Indies pull-out, the Sri Lankan board is looking for a return in favour from the Board of Control for Cricket in India in August next year by playing three Test matches in the island nation.
Ajinkya Rahane carved out his seventh Test century and was unbeaten on 108 runs as India extended their lead over West Indies by a mammoth 304 runs to take firm control of the second Test in Kingston. The final session on Day Three of the second Test was washed off due to rain.
Shikhar Dhawan has always had the uncanny knack of producing goods when the chips are down which he attributes to his 'big heart' and the 'backing' he has got from skipper Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble.
Dinesh Karthik, who gets another shot in the Indian ODI team, says that the No 4 position suits him best in the batting line-up.
West Indies fast bowler Shannon Gabriel plundered five wickets as they scored a stunning victory by bowling out Pakistan for 81 on the final day of the second Test in Barbados on Thursday.
Wriddhiman Saha wears his reticence like a badge of honour and, quite like his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni, doesn't believe in sledging opposition batsmen.
India skipper Virat Kohli says the much improved batting performance by the lower order batsmen, particularly wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, was the biggest gain of the West Indies series, which they won 2-0.
Batting great Viv Richards has slammed 'arrogant' Caribbean administrators for thinking they are as important as players and has laid the blame for the decline of West Indies cricket firmly at their door.
On a high after sealing the series with comprehensive victories, an upbeat India will be aiming to complete a 3-0 rout in order to retain it's No 1 Test ranking, when they meet a listless West Indies in the final Test match of the series in Port of Spain on Thursday. Having already taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series after their crushing 237-run win in the third Test, Virat Kohli and his men will be aiming to go for the kill and keep their top ranking in Test. India were reinstated as the No.1 Test side after Australia 0-3 whitewash at the hands of Sri Lanka.
Winning is 'contagious' and Indian Test captain Virat Kohli feels that it is a 'good habit' that his boys can create in order to become a formidable Test team anywhere in the world.
With two fifties in the two practice games, Lokesh Rahul has virtually staked claim for a Test spot when the series against the West Indies gets underway in Antigua on July 21 but the youngster says that thought has not yet struck him.
The Indians dominated the Test match for four days at Sabina Park with both bat and ball. Yet, they fell short of the victory marker on the fifth and final day when they needed to take six wickets in 98 overs.
India recorded their biggest Test series win on Caribbean soil with a 2-0 victory over West Indies following a washout in the fourth and final Test match but ended up losing the number one spot in the ICC rankings, in Port of Spain, on Monday.
India are on the verge of losing their No. 1 ranking in Test cricket after Day 4 in the fourth and final match against West Indies was abandoned without a ball being bowled because of a wet outfield, in Port of Spain, on Sunday.
The series appeared done and dusted when in the 4th ODI on Sunday India began a modest 190-run chase but their intimidating batting line-up fell short by 11 runs in a stunning turnaround on a slow pitch.
The Indian think-tank has devised a plan whereby they will pepper Gayle with short-pitched deliveries and force him to go for the attack early on.
India need to dominate Test matches and players cannot be content with just looking to improve, captain Virat Kohli said after the tourists thrashed West Indies by an innings and 92 runs in the first Test in Antigua on Saturday.
Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Chris Woakes is confident that their side will win the remaining matches to finish among top-two.
He will have to fight it out with the in-form KL Rahul and a solid Murali Vijay for one of the opening slots in the playing XI of the Test team but Shikhar Dhawan terms the competition "good for Indian cricket" and finds "nothing wrong with it". "I am aware that there could be three players for two (opening) spots. But there is nothing wrong in it. In fact it is good for Indian cricket. To have healthy competitions among players for places in the team is good for Indian cricket and the game in general.
The representatives of ICC Board expressed their deep disappointment at West Indies team's decision of abandoning their India tour mid-way, stating that a repeat of this kind from any team or players may lead cancellation of their T20 contracts with their franchises.
He is expected to play an important role in the upcoming 13 Tests at home, but Ajinkya Rahane doesn't want to look too far ahead, as it can clutter one's mind.
The West Indies laid down a significant marker ahead of the ODI series as they comfortably beat England by 21 runs in their sole Twenty20 fixture at Chester-le-Street on Saturday.
Virat Kohli has said that his team isn't reading too much into the newly acquired number one ranking in the longest format as they prepare to take on West Indies in the fourth and final Test starting in Port of Spain on Thursday.
Star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has also moved up three slots to a career-best 14th position among bowlers after his match haul of 10 for 153 at Mirpur.
West Indies' off-spinner Roston Chase has expressed pleasure at his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket, terming the achievement as a great feeling.
Virat Kohli became the first Indian captain to post a Test double century overseas as the tourists played their way into a virtually unbeatable position on the second day of the first Test against West Indies in Antigua on Friday.
A day after the West Indies Cricket Board cancelled its Under-19 team's tour of Bangladesh due to a low intensity bomb blast near the team hotel in Chittagong, BCB president Nazmul Hassan admitted that the organization of next year's ICC World T20 in the country is under threat.
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