Deepak Hooda controversy: Pathan attacks Baroda Cricket Association for overlooking promising talents

Former Indian all-rounder and Baroda captain Irfan Pathan has come out in support of bereaved Baroda and Kings XI Punjab all-rounder Deepak Hooda after the latter had left the Baroda Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy team camp following altercations with skipper Krunal Pandya.

Pathan, 36, wanted the cricket association to treat a player of Hooda’s caliber well, especially at the time of the pandemic, when the mental health of players is very important. “During the difficult times of this pandemic wherein mental health of a player is of utmost importance as they have to stay in a bio-bubble as well as keep themselves focused on the game, such incidents may have adverse effects on a player and should be avoided,” said Pathan in a statement that he posted on his Twitter account.

The Baroda-born who represented India in 173 internationals including 120 ODIs, 29 Tests, and 24 T20Is further requested the association to look into the matter extensively. “Requesting all the members of the BCA to look into this and condemn such actions since they are not good for the game of cricket,” said Pathan.

The junior Pathan also pointed out the inconsistencies of BCA in dealing with the talent prospects saying, “In the recent past, there have been episodes wherein the deserving young talents who have performed well and are under the age of 30 have been overlooked for selection.”

“Also, the likes of Aditya Waghmode, who was the highest run-scorer for the Baroda team in the last season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, scoring 364 runs and Swapnil Singh, who had all-round performance, scoring 216 runs and took 10 wickets, were overlooked,” he added.

Pathan, who was Man of the Match in the 2007 T20 World Cup Final and who has taken 301 international wickets, hitting out at the BCA Chief Executive Officer, who had hinted at taking harsh disciplinary action against Hooda, said, “If what I have heard about the Deepak Hooda episode is true, it is indeed shocking and disheartening. No player should be treated like this.”

Baroda in their SMA campaign have got two wins from two games and look like a formidable unit.

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Australia to wait bit longer before deciding on Will Pucovski for Brisbane Test

While the Indian team is struggling with a lot of injuries and might as well play with the remaining players on the bench in the last Test of the series, the injury woes for the hosts are not too thin either. Opener Will Pucovski injured his shoulder while diving on the final day of the SCG Test. The Australian team management has confirmed the young right-hander who was making his debut in the Test suffered ‘shoulder subluxation’ but also said that the decision on the state of his injury and whether he will be able to take the field at the Gabba in the fourth Test will be decided later. However, the hosts have not made any addition to their squad for the fourth and final Test of the summer. "He will continue rest and rehabilitation over the next two days before a decision is made on his fitness for the fourth Vodafone Test match," a Cricket Australia spokesperson said. Pucovski was pressing the case for his election before the series against India had begun, but he suffered a concussion in the tour game against India and was ruled out of the first two Tests in Adelaide and Melbourne. Finally, he made his Test debut in the last Test and showed impressive signs of being a good opening batsman with a good fifty in the very first innings of his Test career.

Sreesanth thanks fans and supporters after return to competitive cricket

It was an emotional moment for Shantakumaran Sreesanth who bagged his first wicket in competitive cricket in 7 years when he castled Fabid Ahmed with a pearler of an outswinger and announced his return to competitive cricket. The ball pitched at good length and moved away just enough to miss Ahmed’s bat and disturb the timbers. Quite naturally he was overwhelmed after getting his first wicket in competitive cricket in 7 years. Plying his trade for Kerala in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Sreesanth was part of the playing XI in the game against Puducherry in Mumba and bagged his first wicket in the 2nd over of his spell. He finished with figures of 1/29 in his quota of 4 overs which played a role in restricting Puducherry to 136/8 in 20 overs. For Kerala, Jalaj Saxena was the pick of the bowlers finishing with 3/13. It proved to be a rather straightforward chase for Kerala as they chased the target down with 10 deliveries left and with 6 wickets in hand. Sreesanth took to his Twitter handle and shared the video of his maiden wicket after return. “Thanks a lot for all the support and love ..it’s just the beginning..with all of ur wishes and prayers many many many more to go.. lots of respect to u nd family,” wrote Sreesanth. Sreesanth was banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after his alleged involvement in spot-fixing during the 2013 IPL alongside his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan. A life ban was imposed on him but it was reduced to 7 years only last year which made him illegible to play from October 2019. He was added to the Kerala squad in December after he had a great time with the ball in the pre-season campaign.

'Fed up' Indian players subjected to 'harsh rules' in Brisbane team hotel

After a lot of uncertainties built on the fourth Test of the series, the touring Indian team has reached Brisbane where the fourth and the final Test of the series is scheduled to start on January 15 but looks like they have been subjected to facilities so unlike of any sporting team across the world, let alone the Indian cricket team run by an all-powerful BCCI. Reportedly, their concerns of living lives of animals locked up in zoos are coming true in Brisbane as they have been confined into a five-star hotel just four kilometres away from the Gabba stadium in the city. As per a TOI report, they have to prepare their own beds and clean their toilets in the hotel rooms as well as they are not allowed to use any of the amenities present in the hotel even while the entire hotel is empty. “We are locked up in our rooms, have to make our own beds, clean our own toilets. Food is coming from a nearby Indian restaurant which will be given to us on our floor. We can’t move out of the floor that’s been designated for us. The entire hotel is empty, but we can’t use any amenities in the hotel including the swimming pool and the gym. All the cafes and restaurants in the hotel are shut,” TOI quoted an unnamed member of the contingent as quoting. The members of the Indian touring party are not showing signs of being fed up at giving swab samples too many times and TOI quoted a member saying that they feel their nostrils have flared up due to repetitive testing. Not surprisingly, the team management has asked the BCCI to discuss arranging the arrangement of all amenities to the touring members with Cricket Australia or arranging a flight back home. “They’ve tested us some 15 to 20 times (swab tests) ever since we’ve arrived here (in November). So much so that the nostrils have flared up. Yesterday we were tested. Two days before that we were tested. A week ago, we were tested. It’s got to the point that it’s nauseating,” say those going through the procedure.” The Indian team has suffered so many injuries on the tour of Australia and the Brisbane Test is the last match of the series that is levelled at 1-1. The tourists have a lot of injured players who can’t make it to the playing XI of the Brisbane Test, and it seems that Ajinkya Rahane will have to accept playing the series decider with whatever team he will be left with, come January 12.

SMA Trophy 2021: Siddarth Kaul demolishes Karnataka with hat trick; Vivek Singh of Bengal hits first ton of the tournament

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy's 2021 edition is picking pace with passing days and after two over two hundred scores yesterday, it was a day of some other milestones today. Bengal’s Vivek Singh hit the first century of the tournament, batting against Jharkhand in an elite group B match at the Eden Gardens where the Bengal team registered their second win on a trot, defeating Jharkhand by 16 runs. Along with Vivke’s hundred, the bowling of the Bengal team deserves a bit of praise as well. Ishan Porel cleaned up the tail and ended up with figures of 3/32 in his four overs. Brief Scores: Bengal-161/6 in 20 Overs (Vivek Singh-100 not out, Monu Kumar 3/30) beat Jharkhand 145/9 in 20 Overs (Virat Singh 47, Ishan Porel 3/32) by 16 runs. Check Full Scorecard In Alur, Punjab’s Siddarth Kaul picked up the first-ever hat-trick of the edition as the north Indian state rolled over the defending Champions Karnataka by nine wickets. The 30-year-old Kaul finished with the figures of 4/26 and apart from him, Arshdeep Singh picked two wickets as well. Prabsimran Singh with 89 not out was the star with the bat for Punjab as they lost only one wicket chasing an easy target. Brief Scores: Karnataka- 125/8 in 20 Overs (Rohan Kadam -33, Siddarth Kaul- 4/26) lose to Punjab- 127/1 in 14.4 overs (Prabhsimnran Singh- 89 not out) by nine wickets. Check Full Scorecard Elsewhere, Uttar Pradesh, considered hot favorites before the start of the tournament suffered a second consecutive defeat as it was blown away by the Railways. None among the IPL heavyweights in Suresh Raina, Priyam Garg, or Rinku Singh could fire as the UP team could only manage 133 in their 20 overs which was chased down with ease by Railways who lost just two wickets while doing so. Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh- 133/9 in 20 Overs (Karan Sharma-55, Harsh Tyagi- 2/17) lose to Railways- 137/2 in 17.4 Overs (Mrunal Devdhar-57, Bhuvneshwar Kumar-1/21) by eight wickets. Check Full Scorecard In other games of the day, Jammu and Kashmir notched up an easy win over Tripura while Himachal Pradesh were beaten by Krunal Pandya led Baroda in a low scoring thriller by four wickets. Gujarat also made light work of Uttarakhand beating them by a huge margin of 73 runs. Brief Scores: Baroda-112/6 in 19 overs (Kedar Devdhar- 49 not out, Vaibhav Arora-2/34) beat Himachal Pradesh-109/10 in 20 overs (Prashant Chopra-39, Babashafi Pathan-3/9) by four wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Gujarat 172/5 (Priyank Panchal-46, Dikshanshu Negi- 2/25) beat Uttarakhand 99/8 (Jay Bista-26, Piyush Chawla- 3/12) by 73 runs. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Jammu and Kashmir 94/3 (Suryansh Raina- 33, Manisankar Murasingh- 2/19) beat Tripura 93/10 (Udiyan Bose-28, Aaquib Nabi-3/10) by seven wickets. Check Full Scorecard Vintage Kedar Jadhav turned up for Maharashtra as they chased down 192 of Chhattisgarh with eight wickets in hand. Hyderabad on the other hand notched up its first win by beating Odisha by six runs, after having lost their opening game against Asam by just two runs. The last of the game will be played at the Eden Gardens and it is going to be an evening affair between Tamil Nadu and Assam, starting at 07.00 pm IST. Brief Scores: Maharashtra 196/2 (Kedar Jadhav-84 not out, Veer Pratap Singh-1/23) beat Chhattisgarh 192/5 (Rishabh Tiwari-44, Manoj Ingale-2/43) by eight wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Hyderabad 153/8 (Tilak Varma-44, Suryakant Pradhan- 3/34) beat Odisha 147/4 (Govind Poddar-50, Chama Milind-2/24) by six runs. Check Full Scorecard