West Indies' two-time World T20-winning captain Darren Sammy has defended his team-mate Chris Gayle, who has once again revived accusations of sexism against him with some lewd comments in an interview with a British daily. Gayle, 36, came under fire for asking Australian broadcaster Mel McLaughlin out on a date in a live television interview during a Big Bash Twenty20 game in January. In the ongoing IPL, the Royal Challengers Bangalore opener sparked another sexism row when he asked a Times journalist a string of inappropriate questions. Sammy, however, chose to play down the latest row. "Chris Gayle is the universe boss, a team-mate of mine who I admire and respect. I just think people target Chris for no reason. "To me, Chris is one of our cricketing heroes. He's an entertainer, first, but a lot of people have jumped on his back," Sammy was quoted as saying by 'ESPNcricinfo'. He added, "I always support Chris because of what he does on a cricket field. Yes, we have a responsibility to ourselves, and the people who watch us, but sometimes I feel Chris is a target for newspaper headlines."
India will begin the journey to identify the core of their 2019 World Cup squad when they square off against a low-on-confidence Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series, starting in Dambulla, on Sunday.
After bringing home just two medals from the Rio Olympics, India needs to be realistic in its preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Games and should narrow its focus to a handful of sports, says former All England badminton champion Prakash Padukone. P.V. Sindhu's silver medal in the badminton women's singles and a bronze from wrestler Sakshi Malik at the Rio Games was considered a sorry return for a nation of 1.3 billion people. India have won a total of 28 medals since first competing at the Olympics in 1900 but a government think tank has come up with a strategy it hopes will help the country to 50 medals in 2024, including prioritising 10 sports.
However, Hyderabad had clearly done their homework as Rashid grabbed the top wicket-taker's 'purple cap' on Sunday after his 3-19 set up a comprehensive win over Gujarat Lions.
It will be a test of character and battle for supremacy when Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Lions, two of the most impressive teams of IPL 9, lock horns against each other at the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday. Barring one bad day in office, both Daredevils and Gujarat Lions had a near perfect campaign so far in the tournament. While new outfit Gujarat Lions are comfortably placed at the second spot in the eight-team standings with eight points from five matches, the Daredevils are a place below in the third position with six points from four games.
India return to place from where journey to glory began.
With an eye on the final spot, two-time champions Chennai Super Kings face high-flying Mumbai Indians in their first qualifier in the Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The all-powerful working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India retained former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri as Director of the Indian cricket team till next year's ICC World Cup while deciding to hold its Annual General Meeting in Chennai on November 20.
Rohit Sharma says India are confident of putting up a good show in the first Test against Australia as past two weeks' stay in Adelaide and the two tour-games have helped them get familiar with the conditions.
Pakistan head coach Waqar Younis conceded that the Indian Premier League has helped South Africa's master blaster AB de Villiers and New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, saying they have matured by playing in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament.
The 2016 Indian Premier League season brings with it an opportunity for both the old and new.
Royal Challengers Bangalore leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal termed his team's narrow one-run win over Kings XI Punjab as crucial.
Enjoying one of the best phases in his career so far, Royal Challengers Bangalore's inspirational leader Virat Kohli is ready to play through pain against Kings XI Punjab with multiple stitches in his split webbing in another must-win IPL encounter in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Kohli sustained split webbing in his left hand while fielding against Kolkata Knight Riders as he went for a diving catch. He left the field briefly to get medical assistance, got his webbing taped and was back in field. He then played another classy knock to keep RCB's play-off qualification hopes alive. "I might need 7-8 stitches," Kohli had said after the match but if KXIP thought that the opposition skipper will make himself unavailable, they would be in for disappointment as RCB's manager Avinash Vaidya said that India's No 1 batsman will be playing in this crucial encounter.
Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming is not only ruing the absence of Brendon McCullum from the batting line-up for Indian Premier League qualifier but also the fact that Tuesday's match is an away game for them.
Statistical highlights of the pool B match between India and UAE.
2016 is at the halfway stage and the year has already seen some stunning sporting wins, underdogs emerging triumphant on the biggest stages of them all.
Desperate to break their title jinx, Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore will be hoping for a positive start to their campaign in the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League, when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad, in Bengaluru, on Tuesday.
After two successful World Cups and rapid growth, ever-improving Ireland have lost their element of surprise and can scale new heights in Australia and New Zealand, according to captain William Porterfield.
Pankaj Advani held his nerve to edge past David Causier of England and enter the final of the World Billiards Championship (Time format) by a mere five points, in Leeds, on Wednesday. Eyeing another grand double (points and time format in the same year) after clinching the 150-up short format title last week, the Indian ace led last year's runner-up by a comfortable 400 points at one stage before settling for a 1180-1175 victory.
Rashid Khan's road to success in the longest format as he has a '30-year-old mind in a 19-year-old body'
'Batting against spin bowling you need to have your own individual plan. You can't go into a match saying, "Oh, this wicket is going to spin this much".'
South Africa cricket team captain AB de Villiers is 'incredibly humbled' by the huge response his autobiography has been getting in India even before it's launch there next week.
Left-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe took 12 wickets in the match to help Australia beat India by 333 runs in Pune on Saturday as the tourists took a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series between the world's top-ranked sides.
Erratic Sunrisers Hyderabad look to bounce back against inconsistent Mumbai Indians.
A B de Villiers is likely to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore in the initial phase of the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League in case Virat Kohli fails to recover from his shoulder injury.
The all-rounder captained South Africa at the age of 42 on their historic post-isolation limited overs tour of India in 1991, but was then controversially left out of the squad for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand the following year.
A clutch of Indian stars led by India and Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli are either sidelined or ruled out of this edition of the tournament, lessening the wow factor of the IPL.
'I knew that I had to stay patient and wait for the loose balls but the way they bowled, they bowled in the right areas'
Pint-sized Kedar Jadhav's power-packed 65-ball 100 might have earned him the sobriquet of 'Pocket Dynamite' but former national selector Surendra Bhave revealed how a hard-core vegetarian added power to his small frame by switching to chicken.
KL Rahul says opening the batting along side an in-form Chris Gayle has made his life easier as opposition bowlers are always focussed on the big-hitting West Indian
National coach Pullela Gopichand on Wednesday defended Indian Badminton League's decision to reduce the base price of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa before the IBL Players' auction, saying it was done so that the doubles specialists do not incur financial loss.
With India all set to host the ICC World Twenty20 for the first time in 2016, we take a look at the 8 grounds that will host the 58 matches over 27 days from March 8 to April 3.
Explaining the decision to appoint Anil Kumble despite his lack of experience as an international coach, BCCI president Anurag Thakur said the former spinner's record itself is a testimony to his worthiness for the job.
'The biggest challenge is not to be too predictable.' 'If you can execute the yorker well, it can be a good ball at the death.'
Rajasthan Royals are in a similar situation like last year when they were one win away from qualifying for the play-offs of Indian Premier League but were knocked out by Mumbai Indians and the team members have talked about it, said Stuart Binny in Mumbai, on Wednesday.
The stories on how Virat Kohli attained supreme fitness are well documented but not many know of his candid chat with former India coach Duncan Fletcher before he went on to become one of the fittest cricketers in the world.
A fit again South African pacer Dale Steyn on Wednesday said that New Zealand's decision to play three spinners against India in the World Twenty20 opener paid off as the Kiwis posted a comfortable 47-run win over the hosts. Chasing a mere 127 runs for victory, favourites India were bundled out for 79 in 18.1 overs on a turning track at Nagpur last night with the Kiwi spinners sharing as many as nine wickets among them. "I guess New Zealand thinking was correct. Playing with three spinners paid off. We would probably go with spin, I don't know. But as a seamer I have to back myself. Bowl fast cutters. It is really difficult to hit out when the ball is coming at 140-145, its gripping and stopping," Steyn told reporters on the sidelines of his team's practice session at the Brabourne stadium on Wednesday. Steyn, who had suffered a shoulder injury, said he was now fully fit and things were coming up nicely.
There are bowlers who have a better statistical record than the 311 wickets in Tests and 282 in ODIs, but those figures do not reveal Zaheer Khan's match-winning abilities in all conditions
'When cricketers, coaches, captains, managers, franchise owners focus on the prize, they forget the process.' 'You can't win every game. Getting better is all about making mistakes.'
India's top cueist Pankaj Advani fought off a stiff resistance from Keen Hoo Moh of Malaysia to notch up a 4-2 win in his opening match in the Seaways IBSF World Snooker Championship in Bangalore.
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