By Archita Maverick

Pakistan’s senior women’s national football team returned to action after a huge seven-year break as the Pakistan Football Federation held a training camp and posted about the same thing on social media on Monday. The federation has not been able to work properly and is currently being run by an ad hoc committee appointed by FIFA. 

The senior national women’s football team was out of action and last appeared in the SAFF Women’s Championship in November. Their last official match against Bhutan was 4-1. Since then, the women’s team has not played and registered in any official tournament after which FIFA forbade them.Their three-year suspension was lifted in December 2018, but they have yet to play a single match. It is the first time since 2014 that the women’s team has come together for a training camp. 

The senior women’s team is currently not ranked according to the latest FIFA rankings, though India is ranked 55th in the world. 

Despite the inactivity of the senior team, the U-16 and U-19 teams played in the 2019 AFC Qualifiers in their respective groups. 

Not just the women’s side, Pakistan’s senior men’s national football team was also inactive between 2015 and 2018 and has no official record of matches. 

The Pakistan Football Federation took social media to post pictures from the Women’s Training Camp and wrote, “Down but never out! You just can’t hold # Pakistan out of the game! After nearly 7 long years of inactivity, the Pakistan Women’s Football Team is back in action for the National Training Camp!” 

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By Deepika Notani

World number one Novak Djokovic said he is “so sorry” after becoming the latest tennis player to test positive for Covid-19. Born on 22 May 1987, he is a Serbian tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 1 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

 He is also the first male player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title. He is a six-time ITF World Champion and a five-time Association of Tennis Professionals year-end No. 1 ranked player. Djokovic has won numerous awards, including the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year (four times) and the 2011 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award. He is also a recipient of the Order of St. Sava, the Order of Karadorde’s Star, and the Order of the Republika Srpska. He started playing tennis at the age of 4. Djokovic is a member of the “Champions for Peace” club, a group of famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.

 Novak Djokovic announced on June 23^rd , that he and his wife have COVID-19 after he played in a series of exhibition matches he organized in Serbia and Croatia with zero social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. ‘’Unfortunately, this virus is still present, and it is a new reality that we are still learning to cope and live with. I am hoping things will ease with time so we can all resume lives the way they were,’’ Djokovic said in a statement released on 23rd june. “I am extremely sorry for each individual case of infection. I hope that it will not complicate anyone’s health situation and that everyone will be fine.”

Frequently Djokovic recently was in the most talking news regarding outbreak of covid 19, which led to the suspension of the ATP and WTA professional tennis tours in March. In April, he was criticized for saying he would not want to take a vaccine for the virus in order to be able to compete, even if it were mandatory for travel. In May, when he was staying in Spain, Djokovic broke local lockdown rules by practicing at a tennis club about a week before the lockdown was relax. He tested positive, but not showing any symptoms of COVID-19, said he will remain in self-isolation for 14 days.

Image Credits: Tennis.com

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By Deepika Notani

Rajinder Goel was almost robotic in his bowling pattern, and was a captain’s delight. He never asked for any particular end or field placement. “Just give me one over to find my rhythm,” he’d say confidently. Rajinder Goel passed away, at the age of 77 on 21^st June 2020.

He played 157 first-class matches, most of them for Haryana, and finished with 750 wickets. Rajinder Goyal was a former cricketer who holds the record for most wickets in Ranji Trophy, India’s premier first–class competition, despite which he was never selected to play for India.  He was the top wickettaker in 1978-79, 1979-80, and his last two seasons 1983-84 and 1984-85. He was left arm spinner who served cricket selflessly and quietly.

Born in United Punjab’s Narwana town in 1942, Rajinder Goel played his first Ranji game for South Punjab in 1958-59, representing Haryana as well as Delhi. Mr Goel and Mr Shivalkar were awarded the Col. CK Nadu Lifetime Achievement Award by the BCCI for the year 2016. Mr Goel took up coaching after retirement and also served as chairman of the junior national selection committee.

“Saddened to hear about the passing away of Rajinder Goel ji! He was a stalwart of Indian Domestic Cricket picking up more than 600 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. May his soul Rest in Peace and my heartfelt condolences to his near and dear ones,” Sachin wrote on Twitter.

During his playing days, Rajinder Goel was employed by the State Bank of India. He later served as a selector for Haryana and the Indian junior teams. His son Nitin Goel was also a first class cricketer for Haryana. Indian cricket fraternity mourns the demise of legendary spinner Rajinder Goel.

Image Credits: Sakal Times

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By Madeeha Khan

Vasant Raiji, born on 26^th January 1920, was an Indian first-class cricketer and a cricket historian. He played his debut match representing a cricket club from India in 1939 and from 1941 he started playing for Baroda and Bombay. His contribution didn’t end on the field. He became a writer and is author of several important works of early Indian cricket. He wrote and edited 12 books on cricket.

Raiji’s dedication towards Indian cricket literature is humongous. Mr. Ramachandra Guha a notable historian and author in an interview with Outlook said, “Vasant Raiji’s contribution to the Indian cricket literature is very substantial. He was one of the first historians of Indian cricket. He worked very scrupulously and diligently. The important thing is that he didn’t only write about Indian cricket but also about the legendary Australian batsman Victor Trumper. In addition, he helped me to write ‘A Corner of a Cricket Field: An Indian History of a British Sport’ published in 2004.”

On 26^th January 2020, Raiji celebrated his 100^th birthday and was gifted a Ganesh Idol by the President of Mumbai Cricket Association Dr. Vijay Patil, followed by a visit from Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh. Furthermore, Sachin tweeted, “ Wishing you a very special 100^th birthday, Shri Vasant Raiji. Steve and I had a wonderful time listening to some amazing stories about the past. Thank you for passing on a treasure trove of memories about our beloved sport.” As a result of his age he was losing his memory but still made it a point to watch live cricket on television.

Alas, Raiji expired due to old-age on 13^th June 2020 at 02:20 a.m. in his sleep at his house in Walkeshwar, South Mumbai. His cremation took place on Saturday afternoon in Chandanwadi crematorium, South Mumbai. The entire cricket fraternity mourns the loss of Vasant Raiji. Acknowledged cricketers like Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar have shown their grief via Twitter. The BCCI also paid a tribute on Twitter and wrote, “ BCCI mourns the sad demise of Vasant Raiji. The former first-class cricketer and historian who turned 100 this year in January, passed away in his sleep.”

Undeniably, the cricket fraternity has lost its gem. The amount of respect and love that Raiji has earned is incomparable. As said by Mr.Ramachandra Guha, “His cricket record contains just a few matches but his contributions are more as a chronicler, a documenter and a lover of the game.” Raiji would still be around us in the form of his work, as he did actually hit a century in life.

Image Credits: Times of India

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It is often said that a wicket-keeper has done his job brilliantly if no one talks about them by the end of a day’s play. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Well that’s Wicketkeeping for you, the most gruesome and tiring job on a cricket field, which is recognized only when it’s not done well.

There are approximately 90 overs i.e 540 balls bowled in a single day of a test match, and along with every ball being bowled there’s the wicketkeeper squatting 540 times, running to the wickets (in case of faster bowlers), collecting the ball and then throwing it back to the bowler. The wicket-keeper does it every time irrespective of the batsman playing a shot, bad weather conditions and everything which happens on a cricket field. You have to be mentally ready to catch everything that comes your way, and dropping is considered a crime for the wicket keepers as they are the only fielder with the advantage of wearing a gloves,

Imagine maintaining that accuracy along with the compulsory squatting. If you have to be a wicketkeeper you have to have extremely high levels of physical fitness. Otherwise if you are not physically fit, there’s every chance of a lack of concentration or effort which can lead to byes, or god forbid a dropped catch or missed stumpings. Imagine giving 5 extra runs through byes on the bowling of someone like Shoaib Akhtar who runs for almost 50 metres to approach the pitch every time and bowls over 150 kmph+ . No one wants to be that, except Kamran Akmal maybe.

However, the art of wicketkeeping isn’t limited to ensuring no byes or missed chances. Keeping wickets to faster bowlers is a totally different ball game as compared to keeping wickets to slower bowlers who turn the ball. For the fast bowlers, the wicketkeeper has to move swiftly along with the swing and line of the ball and has to be aware of its trajectory every moment. Otherwise the chances of conceding byes and burning in the fury of the bowler’s wrath is really high. One has to be light on their feet, and even dive in case of a wide or prominent edge. If the surface is slow and uneven, the keepers have to adapt almost with every ball and bowler. Therefore, while keeping wickets to fast bowlers, the keeper needs to be agile, nimble and ready to dive if it’s needed.

On the other hand, it’s a totally different keeping technique for the spinners as you stand just behind the stumps. Here it becomes really hard to judge the final trajectory of the ball, as one is blinded by the batsman’s movements most number of times. The batsmen also try to move along with the ball’s trajectory so that they can hit it. Therefore, it becomes really crucial to read the spin on the ball from the bowler’s hands. A keeper who has the ability to read the ball from the bowler’s hands is always at a benefit as compared to someone who reads the trajectory of the ball after pitching. So, it’s not very surprising that someone like MS Dhoni who is brilliant at keeping wickets to spinners, also plays the spinners so well while batting.

While keeping wickets to spinners, stumping also becomes a possible mode of dismissal. So, the keepers have to ride the bounce present in the ball’s trajectory. Along with that, they have to keep their head straight, hands still, and finally use soft hands to catch the ball in their gloves. It’s very hard to repeat it ball after ball, and if there’s an edge on a spinner’s bowling it becomes even harder to catch the ball if the deflection angle is high. Above all this, if a batsman steps out of the pitch you also have to be mindful enough to stump him so you need fast hands along with the right technique to gather the ball. The combination of fast and soft hands becomes really important here. That’s why many cricket analysts call Dhoni’s split second stumpings extraordinary, because not only he gathers the ball cleanly but stumps the batsman in a blink, and by doing this has created dismissals out of thin air. Many called his wicket-keeping technique (leave his batting technique aside for a moment) unconventional or sometimes even poor (most famously, by Syed Kirmani, the keeper of the 1983 world cup winning side). But one should also notice how still he keeps his head and body, and how he only uses his hands to gather the ball and break the stumps. If one goes according to the wicketkeeping textbooks, keepers need to slow their momentum while keeping to spinners, so that they can collect the ball cleanly by moving their hands slightly backwards. However, Dhoni doesn’t do that. He lets the ball come to him, keeps his hands still and just behind the stumps, and removes the bails in a flash. This gives him an extra fraction of a second and his sheer magic behind the stump is a story of those fraction of seconds. Dhoni has a record for not only the fastest stumping on a cricket field, but he had the most number of stumpings ever (195 stumings across formats), in spite of the fact that other wicket-keeping giants like Kumar Sangakkara have played more matches than him (who has 138 stumpings across formats).

This difference of keeping techniques for fast and spin bowling, also means that if someone like a Dhoni is one of best keepers for spinners ever in the history of this game, it won’t mean that they would be as good while keeping for the faster bowlers; which is quite evident in the number of byes Dhoni has conceded to faster bowlers over the years, along with seldomly dropped catches. Therefore when there comes a wicketkeeper like Wriddhiman Saha who is a brilliant keeper to both spinners and faster bowlers, you have a player who can win you test matches only by his keeping skills. India’s new successful test record has a lot to owe to him for being a nearly perfect wicket-keeper who hardly misses anything behind the stumps.

The modern times have seen the wicket-keepers playing some new roles as well – they have now become the most important player involved in DRS review (Decision Review System, which allows the player to question on-field decisions made by the umpires). They are best positioned to know about a lbw decision as they have been following the ball’s trajectory and know where it will finally end. Thus, in the modern era it has become really important to have a wicketkeeper who is not only good behind the stumps, but also has a brilliant game sense, along with being a good batsman.

Wicketkeeping is a multi-dimensional job. No wonder, someone like Kumar Sangakara averages way more with the bat (a staggering 66.91), when he is not keeping wickets for Sri Lanka. But when he has the keeper’s job to do as well, his average falls drastically to 39.55. This is enough of an evidence that even the best of batsmen in world cricket are affected by the sheer amount of workload a keeper had. In spite of all this, there’s hardly a time when wicket-keepers are specially mentioned in a post match ceremony for the brilliant job that they do. Instead, the highlights only show the keepers when they have dropped something. The amount of physical and mental strength needed to do this job, takes a toll on the keepers. There’s hardly any time in cricket when a wicketkeeper was a man of the match. In fact, there have been numerous occasions when a proper wicketkeeper has been dropped for a sub-standard keeper who can bat better, even in test cricket. It’s time that selectors, team managements and game presenters recognise the importance of wicket keepers and give them the recognition and respect that they deserve. Otherwise wait for a day, when a four-byes will cost a match, and as always, the wicketkeeper will again be shoved in the front to suffer that blame.

All the data presentations and statistics have been provided by Saravana Chilamakuri and the article has been written by Gaurav Nandan Tripathi

This post was originally posted with the same title on –https://www.facebook.com/CricketBeyondEntertainment/ .

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 Saurav Ganguly who has been recently appointed as the President of the BCCI mentions that the first-class cricketers in India will be placed on the basis of a contract system.

The action will be taken by the BCCI at the earnest and that the financial health of domestic cricketers was the main focus and an increase in fee will also be made for their match fees. Ganguly wants to bring forth a secure and structured payment system similar to the annual central contract for country’s top international cricketers.

“We will bring in a contract system for first-class cricketers. We (office-bearers) will ask the new finance(sub) committee to prepare a contract system,” Ganguly said

“It’s just been four-five days and in between, there was a Diwali break. It will take about two weeks to assess everything and move forward. There is a lot of work going on,” the BCCI president said

Depending on the matches a player plays a domestic cricket player earns around Rs 25 to 30 lakh. Also, the match fee for the first-class game is Rs 35000 per day ( excluding the daily allowance). The domestic cricket players get 13 percent distribution amongst them from the gross revenue earned by BCCI through broadcast rights.

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By: Talat Mohsin

India has defeated South Africa in the 3 rd test match of the series, winning the whole test series against the visitors by 3-0. The victory was achieved on day 4 of the match when South Africa when Shahbaz Nadim was able to dismiss the last two players of the South African batting line up in within the second over of the morning.

This is the first time ever that India has been successful in whitewashing the Africans in a test series. It was a 202 run victory and an inning. After his smashing performance in the series, Rohit Sharma was awarded both Man of the Match and Player of the Series award.

This is India’s sixth-biggest victory. With this series, this is India’s fifth consecutive win in the ICC test championship with a total of 240 points on the scoreboard. At this stage, it’s at the top of the table. It was also India’s eleventh successive series triumph at home.

In the post-match presentation, the star of the series Rohit Sharma said-“the support of the coach and captain helps. I am thankful for the opportunity to the management for that opening slot.”

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BCCI has recently made headlines by appointing former India captain Saurav Ganguly to take charge of the board.

The board met this Sunday to make this announcement with Brijesh Patel as the new IPL governing council chairman. The members of the board have planned to meet again on Monday morning to finalize the candidates for the post of secretary and treasurer.

Coincidently, Monday is also the deadline for filing the nominations for the BCCI’s October 23 elections/AGM. Last month, Ganguly was appointed as the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president last month. The board members have decided to pick him because they felt that the Indian cricket needed someone of his stature.

Ganguly will have to demit office in July next year and his moving to the BCCI is an indication that the CAB will have to conduct fresh elections for the president’s post.

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M.C Mary Kom has been an ever pride for India and this time she manages to achieve her eighth medal at the World Women’s Boxing Championship after advancing to the semi-finals of the event here.

She defeated Colombia’s Valencia Victoria with a score total of 5-0 verdict to make the last -eight stage. With this, she has successfully bettered her own record as a successful boxer in the history of the marquee tournament.

She has won a total of six gold and a silver medal but this time she has secured a world medal in the 51kg category. In the past also she had finished quarterfinalists in this division in the past. The latest achievement adds to her legend.

She has also achieved a bronze medal in 2012, five Asian titles, gold medals at the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, besides numerous other international top finishes. Also, she won gold medals at the India Open in Guwahati and President’s Cup in Indonesia.

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By: Talat Mohsin

Amit Panghal became the first Indian to clinch the silver medal in the world boxing Championship. He was defeated by Shakhodin Zoirov 5-0 in men’s 52 kg league. It was Panghal’s first meeting with Zoirov.

Panghal created history on Friday when he became the first Indian to qualify in the finals of the championship. He defeated Kazakhstan’s Saken Bibbisinov by split decision (3-2) in the semis. Uzbekistan’s Zoirov secured his place in the final after winning the semi-finals against France’s Billal Bennama.

India’s Manish Kaushik also reached the semi-finals, where he was knocked out 5-0 by Cuba’s Andy Cruz Gomez in the 63 kg bout. He became the fifth Indian Boxer win the bronze medal, after Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017). Both Panghal and Kaushik are Naib Subedars in the Indian army.

“Hum dono bhaiyo ne yahi socha ki poora zor laga dena hai, desh ke liye medal ka colour change karna hai (we both had decided to give it our all in the semis and change the colour of the medal for the country. It’s unfortunate that Manish lost the match but it is a great journey that Manish had here on his debut. Debut par medal hamesha khaas hota hai”

Panghal after winning the semis (as stated in the Times of India).

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