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Virat Kohli on verge of another milestone in ODI series against Australia


Virat Kohli is arguably the greatest batsmen to have ever played ODI cricket and stats don’t repudiate his greatness. Kohli will lead the team Indian onto the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in the first ODI against Australia on November 27 and he is just 133 runs away from achieving a surreal feat of 12,000 ODI runs. He will be the only sixth batsman to score as many runs in ODI cricket while the first batsmen to reach the milestone before playing 300 ODI matches.

Kohli has been phenomenal across formats of the game but in ODIs, his record is unmatchable. He is just six centuries away from Sachin Tendulkar's record of most number of ODI centuries and has been at the top of his game throughout the last decade.

Team India will miss his services after the first Test in the upcoming four-match Test series due to start on December 17 in Adelaide. Kohli will return home to be with his wife Anushka Sharma at the expected time of delivery of their first child. He had applied for paternity leave which was approved by the BCCI.

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Netflix of cricket archives? Cricket boards are sitting on goldmines

During the period when the country was in a lockdown and all sporting action, not just in India but across the world, came to a standstill, cricket fans took refuge in the vaults of YouTube videos to quench their thurst for sporting drama. The now-legendary Rob Moody, whose channel 'robelinda2' has become a virtual shrine for cricket fans, provided much relief with his uploads. But these unusual times also brought to surface the thirst among cricket fans for watching matches, not just their clips, from the 'good old days.' This made the ICC open up its archives, though whether cricket fans will actually benefit by it remains to be seen. The focus also shifted to individual cricket boards and their YouTube channels. While it may be leaking players to the T20 leagues across the world due to a weak financial condition, Cricket West Indies (CWI) is doing a great job in letting viewers enjoy the high-quality cricket in its video archives. It regularly uploads gold-standard highlights of great performances from the likes of Sir Curtly Ambrose on its YouTube account. Recently, it went even further to stream full matches and innings from classic contests in the past. Last month, viewers were able to watch the entire world-record chase of 418 by West Indies in 2003 against Australia at Antigua. Cricket Australia (CA) started doing something similar even earlier. They streamed the entire final day's play from the famous Adelaide Test of 2006 where Ricky Ponting's Australia stole a highly-unexpected win from England. It also streamed an entire ODI from 2004 where a last-over six from Brett Lee won a nail-biting encounter for the hosts against India. Apart from these two boards, the English Cricket Board (ECB) too puts out highlights of old matches. However, they are yet to stream entire passages of play, like CA or CWI does, of the most famous matches from the distant past. That's one area where they can certainly improve. Unfortunately, other cricket boards haven't followed the example. While Pakistan and South African cricket boards stream their domestic matches live, they haven't yet realised the value of old matches and the nostalgia attached to them. Another trick that many boards are missing is capitalising on the nostalgia of millenials. ECB highlights and recordings are mainly from the last decade, or the one before that, at best. But there is a lot of yearning among people to watch cricket from the 1990s. The reason is simple - that period is regarded as a golden era of cricket with nearly a dozen all-time great bowlers in action around the world. Cricket fans would salivate at the prospect of watching the likes of Ambrose and Alan Donald at their best in re-runs of cricket contest from 1990s. Another thing to remember is that cricket can only be enjoyed fully when the entire match or innings is replayed. Highlights are never sufficient. One cannot appreciate the metronomic accuracy of Glenn McGrath by just watching his wicket balls or one where he came close to picking up wickets. So, its time for cricket boards around the world, especially the richest one of them - Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) - to use its archives to the fullest. In fact, they can even monetise their archives by creating streaming services like Netflix. Just imagine how many fans would like to watch the classic contest between Michael Atherton and Allan Donald at Trent Bridge, or the one between Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne at Bangalore in the same year. Cricket boards, who try to monetise every little space on a ground for sponsorship, are sitting on a virtual goldmine without realising it. It's time they woke up

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Rahul staying in present, not bothered about batting position vs Australia

KL Rahul has been in a top-notch form of late in the Indian Premier League and international cricketer before the coronavirus pandemic stuck the world and his name is back in the reckoning in the upcoming series against Australia, more so due to the absence of Rohit Sharma who missed out due to hamstring injury. KL Rahul was an opener before Virat Kohli-led team management decided to not waste his rich vein of form and tried to make the best use of attacking game down the order. He was assigned the task of finishing the innings on the tour of New Zealand and needless to say, he aced the spot and sealed the opportunity he had earned for himself. Now, as Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the limited-overs series, there are talks about Rahul making a comeback at the top of the order with Shikhar Dhawan but Rahul is not at all perturbed at these discussions and rather have left it for the team management to decide what works best for the team. "My batting position will depend on the format I am playing and what the team wants from me and what combination sits better. The last ODI series we played, I batted at number five and I kept the wickets so yeah, it is a role that I enjoyed and I am happy to play whatever role the team gives me," Rahul said while addressing a virtual press conference. He rued lack of consistent opportunities in the ODI format although he has been in the squad for a long time now. He expressed satisfaction at coming good for his team and contributing good enough for the access of Tema India. "Look I haven't played a lot of 50-over cricket for a continued period of time, though I have been a part of the Indian team for a few years now, I have not gotten a continued run in the 50-over format like this, it feels good that I am contributing for the team," he added. KL Rahul international career has been marred with inconsistent performances surrounded by few eye-catching knocks that leave fans and experts bemused at his failures but now, Rahul asserts that he is learning the art of staying in present and go through a process that is required to get the job done at a particular period of time than focusing a larger goal altogether and the recently-concluded edition of the IPL has helped him achieve the goal of living through a process. "Look, I learnt to stay in the moment in the IPL, when I am wicket-keeping for those last 3-4 seconds when the bowler is running in, I learnt to switch on and not focus on the leadership part. It will be important for me going forward, it is important to start well in the white-ball leg, Australia is a country where we have enjoyed competing," added the elegant Right-hander. KL Rahul has mixed memories in Australia where he scored his debut Test hundred back in the 2013-14 series but has also struggled for runs in the last series where his vulnerabilities outside the off-stump were completely exposed by the Australian pace attack. He would look forward to all the history behind him and put on display of his class and consistency to seal a spot for himself across formats.

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Jhulan Goswami shortlisted for ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Decade award

Jhulan Goswami turned 38 today and she could not have asked for a better gift to celebrate her birthday. The tall pacer from Bengal was among the six players shortlisted for the ICC Woman ODI Cricketer of the Decade award. Goswami, who was known as being one of the fastest female bowlers during her time, has been the recipient of an ICC Award before. She won the Women's Cricketer of the Year award in 2007. Jhulan's name in this list of nominees is another good news for India regarding the ICC Decade awards. Mithali Raj, the Indian run machine and former captain of the side, has been nominated in two categories whereas Virat Kohli's name features in four. Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin's name also features among the top contenders for the Player of the Decade award. In fact, Indian players have earned more nominations than any other country, a tribute to the prolificacy of Virat Kohli and the dominance of the team through the decade. However, the presence of Mithali and Jhulan would be even sweeter, signalling the rise of women's cricket in India as a product that hold its own. Jhulan played in 10 Women's Tests, picking up 40 wickets with three five-wicket hauls. In ODIs, the format where she found the most success, the fast bowler has played 182 matches and picked up 225 wickets with two five-wicket hauls. She is the leading wicket-taker in the format, the first ever to reach the 200 mark. She has already set her sights to playing in the 2022 World Cup, something that won't be easy due to her advanced age. However, if she wins the award, it could just be the booster shot she needs to travel the extra mile.

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Star India bags broadcasting rights of South Africa cricket till 2023/24 season

Star India has bagged the broadcasting rights of the South African Cricket for a period till 2023-24 that will enable them with the rights to televise all cricket matches to be played in the country including on India's tour of South Africa. The broadcasting contract will be in effect immediately with the upcoming series between South Africa and England scheduled to start from November 27 and Star will broadcast the series in Hindi for its Indian users along with English feed for global users in regions such as Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. Speaking highly on the prospect of South African cricket and the value of sports in the plans of Star India, its CEO of the Sports division, Sanjog Gupta said that the country has some of the highly-rated cricketers and Star India is keen to take their games into different parts of the world. “Star India has made significant investments over the years to deepen the relationship that fans have with the game via enhanced story-telling, innovations in broadcast and regionalisation. The broadcast of Dream11 IPL was an unprecedented collective endeavour built on the same principles. We will hope to apply the same approach and elevate the consumer experience of CSA’s matches. The partnership will kick off with the England tour of South Africa on 27 November 2020 during which the three T20Is will be broadcast in Hindi for the very first time. This will give these matches significant reach in the Hindi-speaking markets,” said Sanjog Gupta. CSA Acting Chief Executive Officer, Kugandrie Govender who heartedly welcomed the alliance with Star India and said that Cricket in the country is one of the biggest events that pulls all together in the same manner. He recognized the potential of the deal with Star and said that the fact these broadcasts will reach millions of fans across the world will inspire Proteas to up their game and beat their rival handsomely. “There are few social events on the South African sporting calendar that rally our fans up as much as the cricket-showdown between South Africa, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, so we wholeheartedly welcome this agreement with Star India. Knowing that the sport reaches millions of people all over the world, which is now further amplified by this Star deal, will see our Protea teams even more powered up to impress fans and to outperform their rivals! We look forward to partnering with Star India and to delivering wicket-smashing cricket until the end of the 2023/24 season!,” Govender said in a CSA media release. As per the current Future Tour Programme, South Africa is set to host big teams such as India, Australia and England in the timespan of the deal with Star India. The Indian team is scheduled to tour South Africa thrice during this period and Star India will get as many as 20 bilateral games between the sides to broadcast in the same time period.