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Former allrounder and Rohit Sharma discuss the importance of guiding youngsters properly

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Apr-2020Former India allrounder Yuvraj Singh believes the big difference between players of his generation and the ones today is how they dealt with seniors in the team, specifically in the “sense of respect towards seniors” and appreciating their work.”The youngsters say anything to anyone now,” Singh told Rohit Sharma, India’s white-ball vice-captain, during an Instagram chat hosted by the latter on Tuesday.According to Singh, the other key difference between the two generations is that the current India team has a very small group of seniors – captain Virat Kohli and Sharma in the main – so the youngsters “have very less guys to look up to”.Singh opened up on the subject after Sharma asked him for an appraisal of the current Indian team, not as a player but as someone watching from the outside. “Can you tell us what you find that we are doing good, what we are doing bad, where we can improve as a team,” Sharma asked.Singh, who retired last June, was blunt in his assessment: “See, I will tell you the difference what I felt in this generation and our generation. I felt that our seniors were very disciplined. Obviously, at the time there was no social media, so there were very few distractions. There was a certain behaviour that we boys had to carry watching our seniors – how they play, how they work hard, and how they actually talk to people, how they talk to the media. Because they were great ambassadors of India.”So I learned a lot that way. And that’s what we tried to do and that is what we told you guys that if you have to play for next ten years, after playing for India you have to be more careful about your image.”But I feel in this generation, I feel the seniors that are there are only you and Virat Kohli are there, who are playing three formats. I just feel there are very less guys to look up to. And I feel that the sense of respect towards seniors to say something or that respect of how these players have become great, like it has become a thin line now, (the youngsters say anything to anyone now).”As a consequence, Singh said, incidents like the one that led to Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul being suspended in 2018 took place, because there were not enough seniors to guide the younger players. “Because of social media and party scenes and the incident that happened with KL and Hardik, these kind of things during our time we could not even imagine of such things happening during our time because we respected the seniors a lot. We knew that if we did some mistake our seniors would tell us ‘, don’t do these things, this is not nice’. I feel the atmosphere is not the same. The boys (juniors) do what they want to now.”Singh, however, didn’t want to blame the youngsters entirely, saying that they did not know how to “handle” the fame and money that came on the back of big IPL contracts. During his time, seniors like Sachin Tendulkar were in his ear, to caution him at the right time, something that might not be case right now.”Even after a little bit of success, it’s not their fault also because at a young age you get distracted (and) because IPL contracts are so big,” Singh said. “[It’s the] starting of their careers, they are not even playing for India they are getting such big contracts. So they don’t know how to handle the money so they’re easily distracted.””So you need seniors, you need coaches, you guys (seniors) have to talk to the youngsters and explain to them what is important to them – playing for the country and working hard on the field and then all these things follow. Tendulkar always told me that, ‘if you perform on the field, everything will follow’.‘They don’t want to play Test cricket’Singh suggested that some of the younger lot were too keen on the limited-overs formats, and not interested in long-form cricket at all. “I was at the National Cricket Academy (in Bengaluru) recently. I was observing (some) boys there don’t want to play Test cricket,” Singh said. “They don’t want to play four-day cricket for their own state. They are happy playing one-day cricket because of IPL.”Except you guys, I don’t think the second generation really wants to play Test cricket. And Test cricket is the real test of a cricketer. So I want the next generation to tell them these things.”Sharma agreed with Singh, recollecting his early years with the Indian team when barring a few youngsters like Suresh Raina and Piyush Chawla, the dressing room was full of seniors. He did, however, point out that he was doing his bit to help the newbies, and presented a recent example of putting an arm around young Rishabh Pant’s shoulders after the youngster came under intense scrutiny for his performances in front of and behind the stumps since the 2019 World Cup.Rishabh Pant exchanges notes with Rohit Sharma in the nets•Getty Images

“I keep trying to talk to the guys as much as I can. I talk a lot to Rishabh Pant,” Sharma said. “He came under a lot of scrutiny recently. He’s just 20 and he became really worried. Apart from Pant, there are five-six people I regularly talk to about these things. This (criticism) will be there as long as you’re playing, it’s not going to go anywhere.”‘Every innings should be the like the last of your career’The two players also spoke about how they developed the mindset to dominate opposition for longer periods of time, to convert their starts into big scores and play in the zone where they stood out for their excellence. Sharma wanted to know from Singh, the Player of the Tournament at the 2011 World Cup, how he developed that mindset.”To come into that zone, you need to go through a lot of experience in games. You need that experience,” Singh said. “Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, [Shreyas] Iyer and whoever comes as soon as they come we expect them to play like we did, because we have learnt early. That won’t happen. It has to be over time when they play certain amount of games. Then they fail, they play domestic cricket and they come back and they play a number of games and with that experience when they have a few knocks like that they get into that zone where they know how to make a big score. Like you and Virat probably know how to convert 60s into hundreds. It will not happen with a lot of younger guys because they don’t have that experience.”Whenever they are not playing international cricket they should be playing domestic cricket or they should be playing any form of cricket where they keep on getting experience of playing a lot of games getting into different kind of situations on different wickets.”Singh called Sharma a good example for the youngsters to follow: “When you were playing in the middle-order, you had some exceptional innings of 70, 80, 90 not out, 65 not out. People were saying, ‘wah, Rohit was very good’. But after now that you are opening you have made 200 not out, 260, 200 and 150… so you have taken your game to the next level. That has happened after you playing seven-eight years of international cricket.”Although he agreed with Singh, Sharma stressed that he didn’t want the young players to “lose those seven-eight years, and, which is why I keep talking to them and make them understand that you should start learning these things now itself. I make them understand to try and make sure that every innings you play should be the like the last one of your career.”

New Zealand required only 14 deliveries on the final day to clinch a series win that took them to No. 3 in the Test rankings

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Christchurch29-Dec-2018New Zealand required only 14 deliveries to wipe out Sri Lanka’s tail and claim a 423-run victory in the second Test at Christchurch, by extension winning the series, and moving up the No. 3 in the Test rankings.Angelo Mathews, who retired hurt with hamstring trouble at tea on day four, did not come out to bat, which meant that only three dismissals stood between New Zealand and the series win.

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This was a record fourth consecutive series win for New Zealand, with the team having beaten West Indies and England at home in the last summer, and having defeated Pakistan in the UAE earlier this month.Trent Boult claimed two of those dismissals, bowling Suranga Lakmal with the third ball of the day, before trapping Dushmantha Chameera in front of the stumps with the first ball of his next over. Boult finished with match figures of 9 for 107, having taken 6 for 30 in the first innings.In between those two Boult wickets, Neil Wagner bounced Dilruwan Perera out, having him caught in the square leg region by Kane Williamson, who ran towards the boundary to complete a good overhead catch. Having taken three vital wickets on day four, Wagner finished with wickets of 4 for 48 from his 29 overs in the second innings.The margin of victory is the greatest for New Zealand in matches not involving an innings result, beating their 254-run win over Zimbabwe in 2016. It is also Sri Lanka’s heaviest defeat not involving an innings result, with the 304-run loss against India last year being their previous worst.

With roads sealed off and huge security convoys, the security arrangements provided to the Sri Lanka team are similar to the protocol followed for a presidential visit

Umar Farooq in Lahore29-Oct-20173:05

‘Would love to drive the Sri Lankan team bus again’ – Khalil

The Sri Lanka T20 squad were surrounded by ‘extraordinary’ security arrangements upon their arrival in Lahore on Sunday morning, for the third T20I at the Gaddafi Stadium. This is the first Sri Lanka team to visit Pakistan since the terror attack targeting Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in 2009.The side, which flew in from Abu Dhabi, was escorted to the team hotel in a bomb-proof bus. The routes from the Allama Iqbal Airport in Lahore were virtually sealed off with thousands of armed police deployed along the 14 km route. The streets leading to Mall Road were also deserted as the team was flanked by a large convoy of police commandos. The arrangements were similar to the security protocol followed for a presidential visit.A Sri Lankan security delegation had visited Lahore over the last two days to oversee the arrangements. A full dress rehearsal of the security arrangements from the airport to the hotel to the stadium – involving the Pakistan army, Pakistan’s paramilitary force, the Rangers, and the Punjab police – was also held.”We are prepared to host Sri Lanka team,” Dr Haider Ashraf, Deputy Inspector General (operations) of Punjab Police, told reporters at Gaddafi Stadium. “Under the umbrella of the Punjab government, and with the help of Pakistan army, rangers and intelligence agencies, we are geared up to make this event successful.”I can assure that the entire administration from Punjab government and police is very much professional and competent to handle such event. A Sri Lanka security delegation was here and nobody has so far objected or expressed any dissatisfaction about any of our arrangements. We have adopted all the best international practices and everyone on board is satisfied. International security consultants are also on board. There are four layers of security check points to enter the stadium and Lahore administration has put a shuttle service in place to take fans from the parking area to the stadium gates. There are four parking points covering all direction of the city.”The team that landed in Sunday does not include any player or coach who was present in 2009. Sri Lanka Cricket had announced a new-look T20I squad after several senior players refused to travel to Lahore. Sri Lanka’s regular T20I captain, Upul Tharanga, had pulled out, along with Lasith Malinga, Niroshan Dickwella, Suranga Lakmal and Akila Dananjaya. The team is being captained by Thisara Perera. SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala and sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara have accompanied the side to Lahore.Sri Lanka’s cricketers were driven to the team hotel in a bomb-proof bus•PCB

Sunday’s match is yet another attempt by the Pakistan Cricket Board to show the country’s will and capacity to host international cricket, which had stopped for many years following the 2009 terror attack. In March 2009, the Sri Lanka team bus was attacked en route to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day of the second Test, at the Liberty Roundabout situated 1.5 kilometres from the stadium. Eight people were killed in the attack and a few Sri Lanka players were injured. With teams refusing to tour Pakistan in the aftermath of the attack, the board had to adopt the UAE as its home venue for international cricket.The landscape of the city, however, has changed drastically over the last eight years. The flow of traffic around the Liberty Roundabout has been altered, and the Nishtar Park complex, which houses the Gaddafi Stadium, is now well protected with huge metal gates.In 2015, Zimbabwe became the first Test-playing nation to tour Pakistan since the attack, with a limited-overs series held in Lahore. Despite extensive security measures, a bomb blast occurred 800m away from the Gaddafi Stadium during the second ODI, killing two people. Zimbabwe stayed on and finished the series two days later, but the tour did not lead to a change in the perceptions about security in Pakistan.The next high-profile match in Lahore was the Pakistan Super League final in March 2017. This was followed by a successful tour of the World XI for three T20Is in September, which saw a number of high-profile cricketers turn out. The World XI side was coached by Andy Flower and included five players from South Africa – including Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla – three from Australia, two from West Indies and one player each from England, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The series was officially backed by the ICC, who also hired independent experts to oversee security arrangements. Players were offered US $100,000 to play the series, which spanned five days. It was a key step for the PCB in its efforts to convince teams that Pakistan is ready to host top-flight international cricket.The PCB is now in talks with Cricket West Indies for three T20I matches in November, but the West Indies board has not yet confirmed the series.

Fans in Bulawayo have been asked to join a peaceful protest during the second Test between Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Bulawayo as part of the #thisflag demonstrations that havae been held throughout the country in recent weeks

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Aug-2016Fans in Bulawayo have been asked to join a peaceful protest during the second Test between Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Bulawayo as part of the #thisflag demonstrations that have been held throughout the country in recent weeks. The movement, started by Pastor Evans Mawarire, encourages Zimbabweans to take ownership of their flag, and by implication their country, through mass action.In a video posted on YouTube, Mawarire instructed supporters to stand at the start of the 36th over on day one – to coincide with the country’s 36th year of independence – and sing the national anthem in the hope of attracting global media attention to the cause.Mawarire’s statement references the protests by Henry Olonga and Andy Flower in 2003 and says it wants to honour them for starting that first protest. It calls on spectators to go to the ground on Saturday with their flags and, at the start of the 36th over, stand up and sing the national anthem. The 36 refers to the years since Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe came to power.Mawarire is currently in South Africa, where he has been since he was released on bail after being arrested for leading last month’s stay-aways. On July 6 and again on July 13 and 14, Zimbabweans did not go to work for peaceful protests. Following that, there have been several clashes between protestors and police as well as further demonstrations, mostly in Harare. Bulawayo, where both Tests against New Zealand are being played, has remained largely unaffected.Should the action go ahead, this will be another instance that cricket would be used to send a political message in Zimbabwe. The black armband protests by Olonga and Flower to mark what they called the death of democracy resulted in both men leaving the country and marked the end of their playing careers.Since then, Zimbabwean cricket itself has been fairly politicised with events such as the white-player walkout and moves to aggressively transform the national team, aligning it closer to the state. However, interest in cricket has waned as poor results and the economic downturn caused self-imposed exile from Test cricket and fewer fixtures than any other ICC Full Member. Still, cricket remains one of Zimbabweans’ few connections to the outside world and is being used for political aims again, even though coverage of the current series is scant.Television apart, the series has not received a high level of coverage within the local newspapers, often finding itself relegated below football, there are no traveling New Zealand writers and only two other journalists from outside Zimbabwe.Attendance could also be an issue. The first match saw a crowd of a few hundred throughout the game, of which a large percentage was school children being bussed in. With school holidays commencing on Friday, that is unlikely to be the case for the second Test. However, crowd numbers are likely to be bolstered by the weekend start and the fact that four of the five match days take place over a long weekend. Monday is Heroes’ Day and Tuesday National Armed Forces Day.A police presence is also expected at the second Test, as was the case in the first, with no indication of whether the numbers will be greater than before.

New Zealand women’s vice-captain Sophie Devine has said that losing too many wickets “in clumps” was a problem that has been bothering the team for a year

Vishal Dikshit in Bangalore01-Jul-2015The New Zealand women bowlers have adapted extremely well in the first two ODIs to conditions completely foreign to them. They bowled India out for 142 in the first match, and for 163 in the second, but the visitors’ batting still remains a worry. After falling 17 runs short on Sunday, New Zealand managed to chase 164 with just three wickets in hand. Allrounder and vice-captain Sophie Devine, who top-scored with 33 today, said that losing too many wickets “in clumps” was a problem that has been bothering them for a year.

India’s top-scorer Thirush Kamini on

Only one batsman performing in both matches: I think it’s important that the top order has to click. Last game Jhulu (Goswami) di performed for us and today I should have carried on throughout because that’s important – as a top-order batter you should be able to finish the innings through once you’ve got a good start. Unfortunately me getting out it rattled the whole scenario.
India getting all out frequently: It’s important for the top order to click because when you talk about getting all out, it’s mainly the batsmen’s responsibility to carry the innings through. One or two batsmen in the top order have to click and make sure we don’t open up the lower order a little earlier.
India batsmen not rotating strike enough: That’s one of the important aspects we need to work on because in the middle overs they did really well in rotating the strike which we didn’t really apply enough. So probably those are the areas we need to look up for the forthcoming games.
Batsmen’s performance so far: It’s important for us to get a a good comeback and we need to bat a little better and get some runs on the board, giving something to the bowlers to bowl at.

“I think it’s actually been an issue for us the last 12 months – losing wickets in clumps, not losing one wicket but two or three at a time which puts a lot of pressure on the players,” Devine said. “We find a lot of players go back into their shells. We want to fall back on our brand of cricket of being confident whether we are one down or nine down and that we are still going to go out and play our same way. So there’s plenty to learn from today and we’re really happy that we got the win. It wasn’t the smoothest chase but we got over the line today.”In the last 12 months, New Zealand have played 11 ODIs with only three results in their favour, including today’s game. Batting first, they have made142, 69, 240 for 8, 168 and 230 for 8, successfully defending only one of those scores. Batting second, they have been bowled out four out of six times (thrice under 200), winning only twice, with scores of: 181, 210, 104, 219 for 1, 125 and 164 for 7. In other words, they have successfully chased a target of over 200 only once in the last year.Devine acknowledged New Zealand have been losing too many wickets, but confidently said it’s something they are aware of and can improve on with a batting line-up that runs deep.”In an ideal world we would have been 2-0 up chasing that sort of total (in the first ODI) but the really positive thing about our team is that every one bats right down to No. 11. Morna Nielsen at No. 11 has actually opened for her state cricket so everyone can bat and we’ve got full confidence in the team, right down to the No. 11 that they can come out and bat.”We were really disappointed with the way the first game went. Obviously in first half of the game our bowling was fantastic and if you’d said to us at the start of the day that we were going to bowl India out for 140, we’d take it ten times out of ten. It’s obviously the batting that required focus and today our players went out with more intent to score. Obviously conditions are different to what we face in New Zealand but it’s all about intent and coming out hard and making sure we play our own game and don’t get boxed up into playing within our shells.”Batting with intent is something captain Suzie Bates spoke about too before the series started, and Devine emphasised that they believed in playing an “aggressive” brand of cricket.”I think we spoke about this even before we came on this tour that we want to play a style of cricket that’s aggressive,” Devine said. “If you look at the BlackCaps, how they’ve played at the World Cup – we don’t want to copy them we want to play our own style – that’s a very New Zealand way of doing things. So we’ve got the players that come out hard in the first 10 overs and take it to the team and that’s what happened today. Suzie went out early, she went out in fashion that was attacking for her.”As Devine set up the chase along with Katie Perkins in a partnership of 49, and took them only 35 runs astray from the target, she admitted that she got off to starts in both ODIs, but did not apply herself enough with wickets falling around her – something she has been working on.”I feel like I have been getting starts but it’s not kicking on and I think that probably comes down to a little bit of the situation in the game as well,” she said. “I felt myself and Katie Perkins had a really good partnership and it is important to build partnerships with whoever else comes in.”I’ve got to take something away from today’s game and it is about applying myself when we are losing wickets and making sure I’m staying around. We have spoken a lot about it as a group that when you lose wickets, it’s hard and you need to rebuild and if you’re in you need to take that responsibility to stay in.”

West Indies captain Darren Sammy said that batting till the final over of the innings, despite the clutch of early wickets, made the difference for his team in the fourth ODI in Mirpur

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur07-Dec-2012West Indies captain Darren Sammy said that batting till the final over of the innings, despite the clutch of early wickets, made the difference for his team in the fourth ODI in Mirpur. They fought their way to 211 for 9 after losing half their side by the 24th over, and that total eventually proved to be too big for a Bangladesh line-up that looked all at sea against quality pace bowling.”Looking at the way the game was unfolding, I always told myself that if we bat till the end we stand the chance of scoring 190-plus,” Sammy said. “It is about applying yourself in the middle. My partnership with [Darren] Bravo was crucial. We just said ‘let us try to bat deep’.”We wanted to have a go in the last four overs. We kept losing wickets, so we had to push [launching the final surge] back. But it proved today that 212 runs was a lot [to chase] on that wicket.”Sammy’s all-round performance was, ultimately, the difference between the two sides. He held firm with the bat after West Indies had fallen to 102 for 6 in the 32nd over from the relative comfort of 71 for 1 just an hour before. He took stock of the situation and batted calmly with Darren Bravo, the pair adding 43 runs for the seventh wicket. Bravo was caught and bowled by offspinner Sohag Gazi, one of several poorly-timed dismissals for West Indies, in the 43rd over.Sammy then had the likes of Veerasammy Permaul and Sunil Narine for company but, even now, rather risking hitting out and allowing his team to be bowled out, he kept his head. He only launched in the last three overs of the innings, taking 35 valuable runs. He did have a life, being dropped at deep-square leg on 30 when West Indies were 168 for 8, and he made it count for his team.”Last game it was Marlon [Samuels], today it is me. It is about players putting their hands up and doing what matters for the team,” Sammy said. “As a leader, you always try to lead from the front. It gives you a good feeling inside. It won’t happen all the time because it is a team sport but when you do it, it feels good.”Sammy also made a major contribution with the ball, removing Anamul Haque and Naeem Islam off successive balls in his first over before accounting for Mominul Haque in his third over. He took advantage of the Bangladesh batsmen’s impatience. With Kemar Roach, his opening partner, he had reduced Bangladesh to 13 for 5 by the sixth over, and the series-levelling win was all but confirmed.West Indies thrived by attacking with pace and short pitched bowling up front and, today, the spinners did the other half of the job. The bowling unit’s showing pleased Sammy: “Our pacers have been taking the wickets throughout the Test series. In this game the ball was carrying nicely, maybe because of the dew. We all know Kemar bowls 90-plus miles per hour. Even [Dwayne] Smith did a good job. Sunny [Narine] and [Veerasammy] Permaul got some spin. All the bowlers put their hands up.”Saturday’s game now, for all intents and purposes, is a final, and West Indies are in the ascendancy. The pressure was on them when they returned to Dhaka from Khulna 2-0 down, and they have turned their form around as they would have liked. “It was a must-win game for us, I’m just happy that the team did what they had to do to win,” Sammy said. “We have had good days in the Test series, the last [one-day] match … We did what we had to do today, which is level the series. It sets up a big final tomorrow.”