3 / Dt. 24-06-2015, Wednesday
Suresh Raina, RAshwin bat for beleaguered MS Dhoni Agency | Mirpur
Two senior cricketers, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin on Tuesday expressed their wholehearted support to under-fire captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, calling him a “legend” who could not be solely blamed for the team’s debacle in Bangladesh. While Raina posted a picture of Dhoni along with his team-mates with just a simple message “respect” and a sign of folded hands alongside, Ashwin backed him to the hilt when he attended the pre-match press conference. The beleaguered Dhoni had offered to quit ODI captaincy in the wake of the shock series defeat against minnows Bangladesh if it guaranteed success for the Indian team. “If you don’t go
behind your leader (now) then when will you? So as far as I am concerned it’s like an army, if you don’t go behind your leader then you are definitely going to get shot. If my captain asks me to die on the field, I’ll do it,” Ashwin said. “It’s not just now, any captain you have to go behind him. If he asks you to die on the field, then you have to be prepared to do it.” Calling Dhoni one of the legends of Indian cricket, Ashwin said: “He is one of star cricketers. He has done so much for the nation. We can’t really forget what he has done. “Yes, I know bad results crop and all kinds of statistics crop up. With statistics you can prove whatever you want as you please. You have to give credit to the individual because
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SPORTS ROUNDUP Indian men, women to play their second encounters in Hockey World League
he has done a lot of good things. “You can’t blame him for the whole team’s performance. That’s not fair. I would say we have failed as a unit, failed as a group. We need to grow up as a group. To finish a season on a loss is not always bad. You can go back and work
on whatever you need to work on,” he insisted. Several former cricketers on Monday voiced support for Dhoni to continue as ODI skipper, saying he still has a lot to contribute to Indian cricket. Former captains like Bishan Singh Bedi, Dilip
Vengsarkar and Ajit Wadekar and players like Chetan Chauhan, Chandu Borde, Syed Kirmani and Kiran More strongly backed Dhoni, saying that there was no need to press the panic button and he is the best bet till the 2016 World T20.
The Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams will be playing their second round encounters of the Hockey World League Semi-finals here today, facing New Zealand and Poland respectively. Agency | New Delhi The Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams will be playing their second round encounters of the Hockey World League Semi-finals here today, facing New Zealand and Po-
land respectively. The women’s team, led by Ritu Rani, would be looking for a win today as a defeat will further slim their chances of booking a place in next year ’s Rio Olympics. The eves had last
week lost their opener against Belgium 0-1. Meanwhile, the Sardar Singh-led men’s team would like to improve their performance after they struggled against minnows France for a narrow 3-2 victory.
India vs Bangladesh: Done and dusted, just a sweep to go Viswanathan Anand outplays VachierAgency | Mirpur
When Rubel Hossain ended Kyle Mills’ laststand with an inch-perfect yorker one October evening at Mirpur in 2013, Bangladesh got more than just a historic 4-0 series victory against New Zealand. The country, and the cricket world, got introduced to a new word. As the Bangladeshi players celebrated like never before, Danny Morrison described it as a whitewash, only for the co-commentator Athar
Ali Khan to correct the Kiwi by saying, “No, this is Banglawash.” The term gained currency overnight, with all local dailies — Bangla or English — splashing it on their front pages in oversized red font and across eight columns the following day. It was as if the newspapers — and not New Zealand — were ‘BANGLAWASHED’. That was not the first series sweep that Bangladesh had completed. Before New Zealand, they had inflicted this
Lagrave; jumps to joint 2nd spot Agency | Norway
ignominy on Zimbabwe, Scotland, Ireland and the West Indies (albeit a second-rung West Indies). But this, coming against a major team, was huge. Perhaps, it
was their biggest sporting achievement till then, along with the 2007 World Cup (where they beat India in the group stages to qualify for the Super-8s). It gave their
fans enormous belief, and it also made them hungry for more. For more Banglawashes. In fact, ‘hunger’ wouldn’t be the right word here. It’s lust.
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand scored a thumping victory over French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier Lagrave to jump to joint second spot after the end of the sixth round of Norway Chess tournament, which is a part of the Grand Chess tour. Anand took his tally to 4 points out of a possible six following a crushing victory and the Indian ace seems to
be getting better as the tournament is progressing. Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria strengthened his lead at the top with another victory at the expense of Al-
exander Grischuk of Russia. The Bulgarian took his overall tally to 5.5 points with his fifth win in the strongest tournament of the year.