January 2013

Ricky Ponting Retired

The Cricketer and Former Captain of the Australian Cricket team, Ricky Ponting on 3 December 2012 announced his retirement from International Test Cricket. The decision of retirement came after Australia lost the third test match against South Africa by 309 runs on 3 December 2012 at Perth. The first and second test matches at Brisbane and Adelaide resulted in a draw during the South Africa Tour to Australia 2012. Ponting will continue playing for Tasmania and in the Australian Domestic T20 Tournament the Big Bash League, where he would represent the Hobart Hurricanes this season.

About Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting nicknamed as Punter was the Captain for the national team of Australia in both test and one day segment of Cricket from 2004 to 2011 and 2002 to 2011 respectively. He made his international debut in one day cricket on 15 February 1995 against South Africa and in Test on 3 December 1995 against Sri Lanka. He played his last one day match against India on 19 February 2012 and test match on 3 December 2012 against South Africa before giving an end to his international career in Cricket.

Honorary Membership of the Order of Australia for Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar the Indian Cricketer on 6 November 2012 received the honorary membership of the Order of Australia by Simon Crean, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts at a function organised at Taj Lands End at Mumbai, India.On this occassion Sachin recieved a medal and a stump painted by an Australian. With this honour Sachin has now joined the list of non-Australian cricketers to be honoured with the membership of Order of Australia along with Brian Lara, Clive Lloyd and Gary Sobers.

West Indies won the Bangladesh Test Series

West Indies on 25 November 2012 won the second match of the test series against Bangladesh at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium and sealed the series with 2-0. Tino Best the West Indies paceman claimed his career best six-wicket haul to help the team win the match against the competitors, which was followed by the five wicket haul in the first test against Dhaka.

With this defeat Bangladesh faced its 65th defeat in the 75 tests played till date, since the time it got recognition as aq test playing nations 12 years back. The list of defeat also includes 34 defeats by an innings. After marking this major win in the test series, West Indies would be playing five one-day internationals followed by a twenty20 international match.

Only Indian to Score Three Triple Tons in First-Class Cricket

Ravindra Jadeja became first Indian and only eighth batsman in the first-class cricket history of world to score three triple-centuries in the unbeaten 320 runs against Railways in the Ranji Trophy Group A match on 2 December 2012 in Rajkot. With the help of Jadeja’s innings, Saurashtra reached the giant score of 534 for six in their first innings on second day of 4-day combat. Jadeja had scored 303 against Gujarat in his first match of this season and eventually the second triple century and third as well to become the only Indian batsman to reach this podium.

There are five other Indian batsmen who have scored two triple centuries in their first-class cricket and these are VVS Laxman, Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Vijay Hazare and Raman Lamba. With his triple century, Jadeja has joined the league of seven other non-Indians who have reached this landmark and these are Mike Hussey, WG Grace, Graeme Hick, Sir Don Bradman, Wally Hammond, Bill Ponsford and Brian Lara. During the match, Jadeja, the left-handed batsman hit 28 fours and 7 sixes during his 11-and-a-half-hour game in which he played 491 deliveries. With this, he added 274 for the unbreakable 7th wicket partnership with Kamlesh Makvana.

International News Agencies Boycotted India England Test Series

International news agencies on 15 November 2012 boycotted the high-profile Test series between India and England which began with its first test in Ahmedabad to protest against the restrictions imposed by the BCCI on some photo agencies covering the tour. The major International agencies Thomson Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press decided to suspend reports from the tour as well as pictures. Also, as per the release issued by the News Media Coalition (NMC), the press Association, National Agency in the United Kingdom is not going to supply Photographs. The international news agencies are basically protesting against providing pictorial or text coverage of the tour. It is being seen that agencies distribute thousands of images as part of their editorial coverage to the enjoyment of fans, the curious and sponsors of teams, such as Nike and Sahara. The lock-out of photographic agencies by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would result in cricket fans worldwide having sight of far fewer images taken by press photographers.

Life Ban Lifted on Mohammad Azharuddin

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on 8 November 2012 lifted the life ban from playing Cricket on Mohammad Azharuddin which was imposed by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Year 2000. The life ban on Mohammad Azharuddin came after he was found involved in the betting scandal and the match-fixing episode as per the BCCI three-member committee, comprising its erstwhile president A C Muthaiah and two vice-presidents Kamal Morarka and K M Ram Prasad. Overturning the BCCI decision, the bench of Justice which was comprised of justices Ashutosh Mohanta and Krishna Mohan Reddy gave relief to Azharuddin allowing his appeal challenging the order of a local court.

The bench of Justice agreed with the argument of Azharuddin’s counsel K Ramakant Reddy that there is no evidence against him. Azharuddin made his debut for India in 1984-85 and played his final international match in June 2000.Mohammad Azharuddin was stranded on 99 Test appearances due to the ban. He had made 6215 runs in test matches at an average of 45.03 after bursting on the scene in 1984-85 with centuries in each of his first three Tests. In One-Day Internationals, he scored 9378 runs and hit seven hundreds across 334 matches. Mohammad Azharuddin in his 49 years of age is currently a member of parliament from Moradabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

South-African Sportsman of the Year 2012

South African fast bowler Vernon Philander on 4 November 2012 at the South African Sports Awards ceremony in Sandton named Sportsman of the year beating two Olympic gold medallists for the award. The top title of Sports Star of the Year went to Olympic gold-medallist swimmer Chad Le Clos who had won gold in the men’s 200m butterfly at the London Olympic Games 2012. 27 Years old Vernon Philander made huge public impact since his Test debut in 2011 and he is now ranked the number two bowler in the world only behind his fellow teammate Dale Steyn. Earlier in 2011, Hashim Amla had won the award and was nominated again this year. Vernon Philander is the fastest player to take 50 Test match wickets in more than 100 years of cricket history and the phenomenal thing is that he has done it in his debut year of Test match cricket. He was named Man of the Match in South Africa’s Test victory at Lord’s this year in 2012when the Proteas claimed the No.1 ranking in Test match cricket.

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