New Delhi, July 21: After a near-perfect tour of England, the Indian cricket team flew out to the Caribbean for the white ball series and the BCCI spent around Rs 3.5 crore on their travel. The final ODI against England got over on July 17 after which players who were rested for the upcoming 50 over matches went their own ways. However, players, who were supposed to travel to the West Indies, assembled and took a chartered flight, not a commercial one. As a result, the BCCI spent a hefty amount on a flight from Manchester to Port of Spain, a Times of India report said. The team will play three ODIs in the Caribbean, beginning July 22, followed by five T20I starting July 29. Regular skipper Rohit Sharma, Pant and Pandya will return to the squad for the T20Is, while Kohli, Bumrah and Chahal have been rested for those matches as well. "The BCCI spent Rs 3.5 crore on the chartered flight which took Team India from Manchester on Tuesday afternoon to Port of Spain (the capital of Trinidad and Tobago) by 11.30 pm IST. The reason a chartered flight was booked for the team was not Covid-19. It's difficult to book so many tickets on a commercial flight-the Indian contingent includes 16 players and members of the support staff, including head coach Rahul Dravid. There are players' wives who have travelled to the Caribbean too," TOI quoted a source close to the BCCI as saying. The source added that it made sense to book a chartered flight instead of a commercial plane given how common the practice has become, especially among the world's top football clubs. "Normally, in a commercial flight, this expense would've been around Rs 2 crore. A business class ticket from Manchester to Port of Spain would be around Rs 2 lakh. A chartered flight is more expensive, but it's a logical option to take. Most top football teams have a charter now," he said. Upon reaching Trinidad on Wednesday, Team India, led by Shikhar Dhawan, had to turn to indoor nets ahead of the opening ODI of the three-match series starting on Friday, as rain prevented them from training outdoors. The BCCI on Thursday tweeted a video report on the indoor nets as the final practice session had to be cancelled because of rain. "Gearing up for ODI No.1 against the West Indies. Here's @ShubmanGill giving a lowdown on #TeamIndia's first net session in Trinidad," tweeted BCCI along with the video. IANS

New Delhi, March 3 In a major blow, veteran India batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane and all-rounder Hardik Pandya were demoted in the latest central contracts list of the BCCI that was ratified by the Board's Apex Council on Wednesday. The BCCI has four categories - A+ which have annual remuneration of Rs 7 crore while A, B and C categories are valued at Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively. Both Rahane and Pujara had produced underwhelming performances in the last season and were eventually dropped from the India's Test squad. As a result, they have been downgraded from Grade A to Grade B in the latest central contracts list. Meanwhile, Indian captain Rohit Sharma, former skipper Virat Kohli and pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah are the three players in A+ category, as per sources. On the other hand, injured Hardik Pandya, who has not played for India since the 2021 T20 World Cup, has been dropped from A category to C category. Similarly, opener Shikhar Dhawan, who presently is considered for ODIs only by the team management, has been demoted from A category to C as well. Wicket-keeper batter Wriddhiman Saha, who was recently involved in an off-field controversy after being dropped from India's Test side for the home Test series against Sri Lanka, has been demoted from B category to C category. Pacer Navdeep Saini and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav have been excluded from the list. Earlier, they were in the C category. Full list of players in each category - A+ category - Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah A category - Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant B category - Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma C category - Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Yuzvendra Chahal, Suryakumar Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Mayank Agarwal ians  

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 auction was an eye-opener for the direction in which Indian cricket is heading. The popularity of the franchise-based T20 version around the world has, in all respects, powered its way ahead of the conventional as well as the 50-overs ODI formats. The paucity of time and the fast pace of life are some of the reasons being cited. However, it is the aggression and pulsating simplicity of the T20 format that has made it a success. Cricket, since its inception, was always played in an aggressive and bold manner. The ball was there to hit and one did so then as a sign of power and masculinity. Village cricket in England was a great example of it and gradually patience, cautiousness, and smartness brought about a change. In every corner of India, one can see cricket being played. Tennis-ball cricket is the most common mode of play. This is because it does not need the paraphernalia of the protective gear required to play with a seasoned cricket ball. The interesting thing to observe while watching cricket on the open spaces of land in India is that the bowler tries bowling his fastest whereas the batsman swings to hit it as far as possible. Blocking the ball is rarely an option. A few do go into the art of spin bowling with variations via their subtle finger and wrist movement. The recently-concluded IPL auction has highlighted these very traits of Indian as well as international cricketers. The mighty hitters, the pacers and the unconventional spinners were all the favourites and ones who were in demand. This may seem as a progress to some but one can see the gradual demise of the conventional style of the game. Test and first-class cricket will be the major sufferers as cricketers will rather skill themselves in the art of hitting rather than in technique-driven batting. A few years ago, I was given a book written by David Nicol, an Australian writer, on "Hitting with firepower". It lay on my shelf as I felt that cricket needed one to master the basics before sauntering into such unconventional stroke-play. How wrong I was, as the young Indian cricketers of today have only one dream and that is to play in the IPL. For them to do so, they have to master skills of hitting the ball to all parts of the ground, as well as to whack it into the stands at will. One wonders as to how this will affect the conventional style of batting, especially when one is playing the longer format of the game. An Indian cricketer, quite understandably, is drifting away from playing Test cricket or even first-class domestic cricket for the commercially lucrative and more glamorous IPL. With 10 teams in the fray, the franchises require 170 Indian players. The minimum earnings for two months of cricket is 20 lakhs. This is a far cry from an Indian cricketer making it into the Indian Test team, ODI or even a T20 side. A domestic cricketer barely earns 20 lakhs playing the whole season for his state side and so even being a part of an IPL squad is worth his while. Therefore, for an Indian cricketer skilling himself in the art of batting or bowling with a T20 mind-set is what he aims to do for his personal success. This gives him a better chance to make it into an IPL team and also gives him a platform to catapult himself directly into the Indian national side. This has now become the trend in Indian cricket. The only domestic tournament that has reference to a player coming into the radar of the IPL owners and talent hunters or even the Indian selectors is a cricketer's performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. The IPL auction was a great indicator that established and branded Test players have no place in the slam-bang version of the game. One fails to understand as to how some of the giants and proven batsmen and bowlers failed to get a substantial bid, and some even remained unsold. This is a worrying issue, as for these icons of Test cricket not finding a place could become a major influence as to why one would shun playing Test cricket for the next generation of cricketers. The annual retainer contract that the BCCI has given to 28 of the top Indian players is a good initiative. Similar contracts, one feels, should be also given to the state players to incentivise them to play first-class cricket. The rewards that accrue from the IPL give the BCCI a wonderful opportunity to channelise and organise the fee structure for Indian cricketers. Furthermore, they need to seriously look at how to save and preserve a part of the money received by their young as well as established cricketers for their future. The world over, there are umpteen examples of well-paid sportsmen in their prime getting into financial difficulties later on in their lives. One is happy that many of the Indian cricketers are earning a substantial amount of money at present. However, ensuring that their future is comfortable and secured is as much of a responsibility of the BCCI. The IPL is a success story that one feels will grow exponentially in the years to come. Indian cricket depends on it to strengthen its roots and to make it flourish. It is an ideal platform to enhance Test cricket rather than eat into it. One hopes that the IPL does not become the dagger that stabs Test cricket in India. From the look of it, at present it seems so. (Yajurvindra Singh is a former India cricketer) ians

New Delhi, Feb 3 In a reversal to the original schedule, the Indian cricket team will now start the series against Sri Lanka with T20Is and then play the Test matches, after a request from the visiting side. The Sri Lankan cricket board had earlier requested BCCI to shift the T20I series before the Test matches to allow a smoother bubble-to-bubble transfer of their T20I squad, who will have just concluded a series in Australia. The dates for the series are still being tweaked, but the BCCI appears to have agreed to Sri Lanka Cricket's request, an ESPNcricinfo report said. This change in the dates also means that Virat Kohli will not play his 100th Test in Bengaluru, a prospect that was on the cards after he finished the South Africa tour with 99 Tests. The first Test will now be played in Mohali, with the M Chinnaswamy Stadium , which has now upgraded its flood lights, set to host the tour-ending pink-ball Test. On the other hand, Dharamsala is likely to open the tour with the first two T20Is before the teams move to Mohali for the final game. It has been learnt that the board is reluctant to schedule the day-night Test in Mohali owing to fog and heavy dew in northern India in winters. Another reason for the change as per a Karnataka State Cricket Association official is Bengaluru offers direct connectivity to Colombo, which would then allow Sri Lanka to fly home without a stopover. Reluctant for long to host pink-ball Tests, the BCCI has organised only two pink ball Test matches in India till now. India hosted their first-ever day-night Test match in 2019 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata against Bangladesh while Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad hosted the second pink-ball affair against England last year. India won both Tests inside three days. ians

New Delhi, Dec 24 Former India head coach Ravi Shastri on Thursday said that the whole captaincy change could have been handled in a better way with a "good communication" between the BCCI and Virat Kohli. Kohli, who stepped down as the T20I skipper after the 20-over World Cup last month, was sacked as the ODI captain by the BCCI selectors post which he made some startling revelations in a press conference before departing for South Africa. Contradicting Sourav Ganguly's statement that he had personally told Virat not to give up the T20I captaincy, Kohli said that there had been no communication from the board once he had decided to relinquish leadership in the shortest format in September. Regarding the ODI captaincy, Kohli said he had been informed that the selectors were removing him only 90 minutes before the selection committee meeting to pick the Test squad for the South Africa tour earlier this month. Now, the former head coach has reacted to the whole captaincy saga, saying that a good communication was needed on the matter. "I have been part of this system for many years, I was part of this team for the past seven years. With good communication, this can be handled much, much better, instead of it being out in the public domain," Shastri told Indian Express. "Virat has given his side of the story, it needs the president of the board to come and give his side of the story, or give some clarification on whatever has happened. That is all," he added. According to Shastri, it is not about whether Kohli or Ganguly was lying. "It is not a question of who is lying here. The question is what is the truth. You want to know the truth and that can only come with dialogue and communication. Nothing else," he said. "One person is going to sit on one side and say something. Other person is going to sit on the other side and say something. There has to be some clarity and you need dialogue from both sides, not one side," he added. The noted commentator added that once Kohli had decided he did not want to continue as T20I captain, there could have been only one leader for the two white-ball formats, where Rohit Sharma has now taken over. "You should have one captain for white-ball cricket. Rohit Sharma is the T20 captain, so he should be the white-ball captain as well," Shastri said. ians