Rashid, Mujeeb and Mohammed Nabi, they have played

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Dinesh Karthik reckons that experience matters a lot in test match cricket and experience is not something which a player can easily achieve. It comes with playing more and more cricket which is the reason why Afghanistan despite having all the talent in their spin department still lag behind India in red ball cricket.

As per Karthik, red ball cricket doesn’t only mean test cricket. It also means first class four day matches. Somebody like Kuldeep Yadav in the Indian squad, he is not vastly experienced in test cricket, but he has played so much of first class cricket that he has got a fair idea of how to go about his business in red ball cricket which is not the case with the Afghanistan bowlers.
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ROB KEY TALKS LIFE AFTER THE PITCH

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Most players struggle to continue their life after they retire from the game but not Rob Key.

The ex-cricketer seems to be adapting fine, and he says he relishes retirement.

For most former players, concerns when they near retirement range from making money to pay bills, finding new roles in the society, and living with their legacies, if they have any. Rob Key took to sports commentary – like many sports people generally – after he retired from his 18-year career.

Key said he does not regret leaving last April as his current role gives him the feel of the dressing room and all the perks without the hard work of playing.

“I haven’t missed it at all actually. In fact, I wonder how I did it for so long! I’ve been very, very lucky that I’ve been able to go and work for Sky and at the minute it seems a better job than playing. It’s like cricket without the fielding! You get to watch cricket and you get that dressing room environment at Sky anyway,” he said.

He added that he knew retirement was imminent so instead of delaying he decided to take the plunge. Since retiring, he has done several things that keep him happy like charity work and playing golf.

“Golf has completely taken over that side of my brain. I used to love working on my batting – even at the end I would spend the winter trying to work out how to become a better player – but now I’ve swapped that for golf, which I think is why I haven’t thought about batting,” he explained.

Whilst in action for the English Whites, he was decent in the 2002/03 tour though he did not make the figures. He won the match at Old Trafford in in 2004 with an unbeaten 93 against West Indies. He hit 83 in the Johannesburg win in 2005 but he was soon dropped. He never played Test cricket from then.

On the club level, he was better at Kent. He averaged 69 in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. He was the captain from 2006 until 2012, where he club navigate through different ugly situations

BATES WINS BOTH ICC ODI AND T20I PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Suzie Bates, the captain of the New Zealand Women cricket team, recently became the first player to win both the ICC Women’s ODI and the T20I player of the year awards announced on Wednesday.

In w2013, she had been named won the women’s ODI player of the year award. However, this would be the very first time she’s being named the T20I player of the year

In making their choice for the selection, the ICC took into consideration, the 12 months period between September 14, 2015 and September 20, 2016, which saw the Women’s World T20 being played in India this year, with the Women’s Championship just recently concluded.

In seven ODI innings, Bate scored 472 runs, which placed her at an average of 94.40, at the second position, just behind the 506 runs from 10 innings scored by Trisha Chetty.

The period also saw Bates with eight wickets during the period at an economy rate of 3.75 which was the second-highest for a New Zealand player, after that of Erin Berningham, at 14 wickets. Read More »

Glenn Maxwell’s scream after one of his cut shots

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Glenn Maxwell’s scream after one of his cut shots went over the second slip for four to take him into three figures in the on-going Ranchi test match showed how desperate he was for a knock like that.

There was a sense of pride and satisfaction in that celebration and of course a little bit of relief as well.

He was over the moon, was Maxwell and why wouldn’t he be? It was not only a hundred, but, a statement to those who had given him no chance to come good at the test level.

As per Maxwell, if he had not scored runs in this test match, it was possible that he would never have appeared in the whites for Australia again and he didn’t want it to be the case because the longest format of the game is just so special for him.

Maxwell revealed that the previous night was pretty tough as he was struggling to have some sleep. He was imagining what could be in store for him on Day 2 and a lot of the things that were coming in his mind were negative only. Read More »

BILLINGS WANTS SIXERS’ SUCCESS TO BOOST TEST HOPES

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Sam Billings is hoping that he can go ahead to perform very well and impress crowds in the Sydney Sixers Big Bash League Season six campaign. This he hopes he can achieve before the Ashes tour starting next year.

A seasoned ODI and T20I England player, Billings has set his mind and heart on a call to the England’s Test Squad.

So far, the Kent right-hander had been in the works to make sure he gains all the necessary experience needed him to become a regular for the team in all formats.

Billings has had stints in the Pakistan Super League and the Indian Premier League and was recently selected to participate in the upcoming limited overs tour holding in India.

Billings talked about how his participation in some of these tournaments has helped him develop himself and adapt well to all conditions. Read More »

BCCI Prefers Hiring Professional Coaches from Outside India

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It seems not a lot of coaching professionals outside of India are willing to be hired by the BCCI as the advertisement released by the Cricket board for the post of the head coach has not drawn much interest from overseas.

The India coaching job is one of the most lucrative jobs in world Cricket and thus, a number of top coaches from around the world were believed to put their names forward for that, but, so far, only a couple of applications have come from the foreigners.

The coaches are now increasingly getting hesitant in associating themselves with any of the international teams because of the devotion of time it requires.

They would rather take up the opportunities coming from the franchises of the twenty 20 leagues as that sort of job would keep them away from home only for a period of 6 to 8 weeks.

People like Tom Moody and Gary Kirsten who have had immense success coaching at the international level with Sri Lanka and India are now involved only in the leagues.

While, Kirsten was the head coach of the Delhi Daredevils in the 2014 and the 2015 Season, Moody has been in the same capacity at the Hyderabad franchise for the past three years.
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