Hyundai Motor ropes in four Indian women cricketers as brand ambassadors for a new campaign

BCCI will deal with it appropriately: Sourav Ganguly on revelations made by Virat Kohli

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly has finally opened up after former limited-overs captain Virat Kohli made some big revelations in a press conference on Wednesday. Ganguly had earlier said that Kohli was removed from the ODI captaincy as the selectors thought that it wouldn't look good to have two white-ball captains. The former left-handed batsman had further added that he himself requested Kohli to not step down as the T20I skipper. "I personally requested him (Kohli) not to give up the T20I captaincy. Obviously, he felt the workload. Which is fine, he has been a great cricketer, he has been very intense with his cricket,” he said, while talking to News18. "Also, they wanted only one white-ball captain. And that's why this decision. I don't know what's going to happen in future. But as I said, it's a good team and it has some fantastic players and I hope they will turn it around," he added. Later, Kohli in a press conference certainly contradicted the statement and said that he was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on December 8 for the Test series. "Whatever was said about the communication that happened about the decision that was made was inaccurate. I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on December 8 for the Test series and there was no prior communication to me at all since I announced my decision on T20I captaincy,” Kohli said. “I gave the reasons why I wanted to quit T20 captaincy and my view point was received very nicely. There was no offence, no hesitation and not for once was I told that ‘you should not leave T20 captaincy’," added Kohli. Now the BCCI president has reacted on Kohli’s statement and said that the board “will deal with it appropriately”. The BCCI president stated, "I have no comments to make. The BCCI will deal with it appropriately," reported ABP News on Thursday, 16 December.

The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 1: David Warner misses out on century two games in a row

David Warner missed out on yet another deserving century on the first day of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide. He hit a short and wide ball from Ben Stokes straight to Stuart Broad at the cover and walked back dejected after scoring 95 runs filled with a fair mix of caution and aggression. Notably, Warner had missed out on a century in the first Test of the series at the Gabba as well when Stokes had taken a catch off his bat of the bowling of Ollie Robinson. Warner was batting with impeccable patience and took more than 100 balls to reach his fifty to signify how much time he was willing to wait to score runs. Warner struggled initially with tight line and length bowling from Stuart Broad, who returned with his dangerous round the wicket angle of bowling but fought hard to see off that phase of play. England employed short ball tactic with three men back on the boundary on the leg side but Warner kept on finding ways to score runs. Just the ball before he got out, Warner hit an unconvincing pull shot of Stokes that went in the gaps and square leg boundary for four.

Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev weigh in on developing Virat Kohli-Sourav Ganguly face off

The sequence of events leading up to the sacking of Virat Kohli as India’s ODI captain and then his press conference on December 15 that cleared the air from his side on the issue of captaincy has opened up more questions than giving concrete answers. Now, former greats of Indian cricket are weighing on what is developing as controversy and a possible clash between Kohli and Ganguly. Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar said that questions must be asked of Ganguly over the discrepancy in statements made by him and Kohli on the same issue. He said that Kohli is not waging a war of words against the board but individually, Ganguly must come forward and address the confusion that have arisen out of miscommunication between the two parties such as the BCCI and Kohli. “I think it (Kohli’s comment) actually doesn’t bring the BCCI into the picture. I think it’s the individual who has to be asked where he got the impression he had conveyed such a message to Kohli. So, that’s the only thing,” Gavaskar told news channel India Today. “Yes, he (Ganguly) is the BCCI president and surely he should be asked why there is this discrepancy. He is probably the best person to ask about the discrepancy in what you seem to have to say and what the Indian captain has said,” he added. On the other hand, India’s world cup winning captain Kapil Dev suggested Kohli to not point fingers at individuals before the start of an important tour and urged him to take control of the situations that can cause harm to the side. He did not let Ganguly go off the hook as well and said both of them are wrong in making their views public before discussing the matter at a personal level. “It is not good to point fingers on anybody at this point in time. The South Africa tour is coming and please pay attention to the tour,” Kapil told ABP News.“I would say the Board president is the Board president but yes the Indian cricket team captain is also a big thing. But talking badly about each other in public, I don’t think it is a good thing, whether it is Sourav or Kohli.” Earlier, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had said that he personally requested Kohli to not relinquish his T20I captaincy as India did not want two captains for the two white-ball formats of the game. He had also said that Kohli was suggested if he would give up the captaincy of the side in the shortest format, his leadership from the ODI side will also go. However, Kohli countered that claim without actually mentioning it in his press conference. He said that his decision to give up T20 captaincy was hailed as “progressive thinking” by the BCCI and he was not asked to stay on as T20I skipper.

SRH to rope in Dale Steyn as bowling coach: Reports

Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn has been approached by the Sunrisers Hyderabad to be the franchise’s bowling coach as per a report in Cricbuzz. Steyn who announced retirement from all forms of cricket earlier in August has played for SRH, Gujarat Lions, Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. In 95 IPL matches, the right-arm pacer has picked up 97 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 6.91. Talking about Steyn’s T20 career, the former Proteas player has featured in 228 games where he has bagged 263 wickets at an economy of 6.85. Apart from this, Steyn has been capped 93 times in Tests and has 439 scalps to his name while has played 125 ODIs where he has picked 196 wickets during the course. The right-handed cricketer will be working with Tom Moody who is going to take over as the head coach of the franchise. As per the reports, Hemang Badani will also be joining the coaching staff of the Hyderabad side. The Hyderabad-based franchise has retained Kane Williamson, Umran Malik and Abdul Samad while Rashid Khan and David Warne were the two big names who were released by the franchise ahead of the mega auctions.