'At the end of the day, we also had to look at players who will figure in the playing XI.'
Mumbai Indians head coach Ricky Ponting believes his team must start with a fresh mindset and ignore the tag of 'reigning champions' ahead of the first game of the Indian Premier League 2016. Mumbai play the IPL 9 opener against state-rivals Rising Pune Giants at the Wankhede Stadium on April 9. "It doesn't really matter what happened last year now, it's about us putting together a competitive team and making sure were ready to go for the first game," Ponting told cricket.com.au from the Mumbai Indians training camp. "We thought they were ready to go for the first game last year but it took a little while for us to click into gear." Last year Mumbai only managed one win from the first six games before dramatically turning around their fortunes to clinch the title. But this time around Ponting is keen for the team to get off to a better start, and well aware that aim will be made all the more difficult given other teams will be analysing his squad more closely as defending champions.
Unfortunately, the day chosen for the match was the actual day of Diwali and cricket starved Houstonians were in a dilemma about staying home with family and friends or going to watch their back-in-action cricket heroes.
India's fielding coach Ramakrishnan Sridhar said that the team has not lived up to the fielding standards which was witnessed during the ICC World Cup last year. In the ongoing tour of New Zealand, the Indian team has dropped quite a few catches and has not been able to capitalise on the run-out opportunities.
India's batting greats Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh turned back the clock and took Raipur by storm in their inimitable style as India Legends registered a thumping 57-run win over South Africa Legends in Road Safety World Series T20 at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, on Saturday.
They represent a new tribe whose grace and skill-sets lie well beyond my comprehension, notes Sreehari Nair.
The selection of Ravi Shastri's coaching team will take place on Monday and the interviews for the batting, bowling and fielding coaches will be conducted by the national selection committee headed by MSK Prasad.
The interviews for the rest of the support staff will be held on August 19.
The support staff will be appointed for a period of two years beginning from the series against South Africa till the end of the 2021 T20 World Cup to be held in India.
Still very much in the play-offs race after registering their fourth victory on the trot, Kings XI Punjab skipper K L Rahul said his side has at last made winning a habit after a slow start in the ongoing Indian Premier League.
Ganguly is set to be elected unopposed BCCI president on October 23 at the Board's Annual General Meeting.
The Indian spin legend has been put in charge of "all cricket-related affairs" of the IPL team.
Punjab Kings have under-performed since IPL's inception, reaching the final only once in 14 attempts.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli's failures with the bat in the first two games of the IPL has not gone down well with the fans, but his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma said his ward is 'only human and not a machine' and is bound to have 'off days'.
Ricky Ponting's positive attitude and calm demeanour played a huge part in keeping the team together.
Jasprit Bumrah, the new 'Smiling Assassin' of Indian cricket, has the potential to become a 'Captain Marvel' if entrusted with full-time responsibility.
PCB lashes out at FICA for terming Pakistan unsafe
AB de Villiers seems to make it a habit of being spectacular in whatever he does on a cricket field and the talismanic South African's gravity-defying catch in Thursday's Indian Premier League (IPL) match only added to his legend.
Following the global outrage against racism, a lot of former and current players have opened up on the issue.
West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo credits the Indian Premier League for shaping the careers of India's players. He insists that the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament is the route to international success.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has written to its affiliated units stating that their registered players should not participate in the unsanctioned Indian Junior Players League (IJPL), scheduled in Dubai from September 19-29.
Former India captain Rahul Dravid was unanimously appointed Head Coach of Team India's senior men's team by the Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising Ms Sulakshana Naik and R P Singh, on Wednesday.
Mumbai Indians head coach and former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has said his team has had a good preparation for IPL.
Opener Virender Sehwag blasted a quickfire half-century but Sachin's Blasters went down to Warne Warriors by six wickets in Game 1 of the Cricket All Stars T20 Series at Citi Field in New York, on Saturday.
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.
Apart from Shastri, the other big names who will give presentations to the three-member committee include former Australia all-rounder and Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody, along with ex-New Zealand and Kings XI Punjab coach Mike Hesson.
The cricketing fraternity took to Twitter to react to the roller coaster finale following an eventful IPL season which produced some unprecedented moments on the field.
One of the last surviving freedom fighters from that era, Isu Laloo Chiba, shared this in a message to support the Indian missions' plan to celebrate the second United Nations-sanctioned International Day of Yoga on 21 June in South Africa.
Test cricket's most successful captain is contemplating a return to the international game almost two years after he bid adieu to the game. Graeme Smith, South Africa's greatest Test captain, retired in March 2014, but after signing with the UAE-based Masters Champions League Twenty tournament on Monday, he expressed his desire to play again at the highest level.
Mumbai Indians team celebrate their second IPL title at the iconic Wankhede stadium on Monday.
Swapnil Bajpai, 32, from Jalandhar, Punjab tells us about his 17 years of friendship with his best buddy Nikhil who currently resides in Dubai.
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.
'Sachin and I will be tossing a coin in New York City... It will be part of history.'
What separates the men from the boys? What is it that winners have but losers lack? Sonil Dedhia/Rediff.com lists lessons you can learn from Mumbai Indians' win against Chennai Super Kings at Eden Gardens on May 24.
As Sachin turns 50, Rediff brings you 50 fascinating facts about the God of Cricket.
A look at how India have fared in their World Cup opening games.
Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar heaved a sigh of relief when he was named in the team of his long-time rival Sachin Tendulkar for an inaugural three-match series in the US and said he's done bowling against the Indian batting legend whom he considers a 'brutal force' and the 'greatest player history has ever seen'.
AB de Villiers could do anything and everything. If he defied gravity on field, with a bat in hand the laws of physics bent to his wishes.
Former South Africa cricketer and now Mumbai Indians fielding coach Jonty Rhodes said he still misses his late good friend, ex-South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje and coach Bob Woolmer, who suddenly died during the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.
All-rounder Andre Russell smashed a match-winning half-century as West Indies claimed a nail-biting one-wicket victory over South Africa in the fourth one-day international at St George's Park on Sunday.
