Hello friends,
We are heading towards the end of 2026 but there is no end to exciting sporting actions across the globe. It was a great month for Indian sporting contingent since we performed well in both Asian Games & Asian Para Games. India finished 4th in medal tally in both the competitions with 85 &114 medals respectively. Great to see after a long time sporting events other than cricket making headlines in our country. Hopefully such performances would motivate future athletes to work hard on their crafts and make the country proud.
As far as cricket is concerned this month was tipped to be big specially for two big series. First one being Indian men's tour of New Zealand where they will be playing 5 T20Is, 5 ODIs & 2 tests which is one of their longest & toughest assignments in recent times. The second one being Australian men's team's tour of South Africa where they will be playing 3 ODIs & 3 tests. Both the series have so far lived upto the hype as the final test being played between Australia & South Africa with series scoreline at 1-1 whereas India have registered a strong start to their tour of New Zealand with a dominating victory in the T20I series with two games to spare. For men in blue this tour is of utmost importance since their performance abroad in recent times hasn't been satisfactory. Earlier this month they won the gold medal in the men's cricket competition in Asian Games before having a competitive series against the West Indies where they won the ODI series but could draw the T20Is courtesy washout of the final game.
This month also witnessed comeback of one of the 90's famous cricketing trend i.e. ODI tri series and that also two in the same month. First one was played between Afghanistan, Zimbabwe & Bangladesh which was eventually won by Afghanistan. The other one being played in Pakistan with Sri Lanka & England being the other two teams. This series witnessed one of the exciting games of the recent times when Sri Lanka chased down a target of 430 (Second highest chase in ODIs) against England in one of the nail biting finishes. Interestingly in the same match English captain Harry Brook became the first Englishman to score an ODI double hundred but unfortunately ended up on the loosing side.
As far as women in blue are concerned there was a big announcement made by captain Harmanpreet Kaur of stepping down as captain across formats and continuing to play as a batter. As expected Smriti Mandhana was appointed as the new Indian captain. She started her captaincy journey with an ODI series win against Zimbabwe. It was indeed a timely decision by Harmanpreet after leading India to their maiden ODI World cup last year and a Gold medal finish in Asian Games this year. Fans would expect to witness a much more free flowing batter Harman who can express herself without the additional responsibility of captaincy. This month was big in terms of some of the announcements in IPL coaching assignments as well. Zaheer Khan (CSK), Sourav Ganguly (DC) and Keiron Pollard (MI) have stepped into head coach roles in the toughest T20 league in the world.
India & Australian players have already started a fresh season of their respective domestic red ball competitions. Interestingly not much of a franchise cricket this month but there would be usual business from next month onwards.
This month's Sports Talk of the month will feature couple of leaders who have held the fort strongly for their respective countries specially during crunch times. Let's start now.
Hope Of The Island Nation
Amid current cricketing scenario at international level we all know that there is a substantial gap in terms of financial outcomes among the teams. Teams like Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe or Afghanistan don't make kind of money that India, Australia or England makes by hosting or participating in international matches. In such a scenario it's difficult for cricket boards to keep their players motivated to continue representing their respective countries with a below par payment structure. It seems an ideal alternate for the players to opt for lucrative offers from T20 franchise leagues. This is slowly becoming a big challenge that is going to affect most of the teams in near future if not all.
Teams like Australia & New Zealand have already made some changes in their player contract policy to ensure that some of the players can fulfill their franchise cricket commitments as well as national duties. It is inevitable that players won't care much for a national contract in the coming days since they have to look after the financial outcomes too. Imagine how difficult it must be for captains of those teams to motivate their players to participate and perform for their countries irrespective of the financial benefits. One such leader is the West Indies captain (ODIs & T20Is) Shai Hope who not only leads his team with passion but also inspires them with his own match winning performances more often than not.
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| Shai Hope has been a real influence for his team Image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Shai_Hope.jpg |
He doesn't have an aura that some of his counterparts have. He's not even as popular as some of his teammates due to their heroics in the T20 format specifically. But one thing that sets him apart and allows him to earn his team's respect is his ability to perform the task in hand without any distraction. He does play in T20 franchise leagues too. But that doesn't stop him to perform his national duty. He first came into the picture a decade back when he made his test debut against England. Soon he was included in the ODI & T20I teams as well. He was regarded as one of the stylish top order batters from his early days as a cricketer. With time his love for ODI format became prominent where he has notched up 21 hundreds (Second only to Chris Gayle with 25 hundreds for the West Indies) with an average of 51 till date. Overall he has scored 10000+ runs across formats with 29 hundreds for his country so far. Not much has been spoken about him but he is definitely one of the rare top order batters of the current generation who has numbers across formats.
Such performances were good enough for him to take the leadership duties of a team that has been extremely inconsistent in recent times. Cricket in the Caribbean has gone through severe crisis in recent past. Players' inclination towards franchise T20 leagues, dispute between players & cricket board on several issues including pay scale for players, poor domestic cricket infrastructure and more importantly not much talent coming through the ranks to represent the country were some of the major ones.
Over the years there have been quite a few changes in the leadership group including captains. In one of the most shocking developments they witnessed when one of their star batters and former captain Nicholas Pooran took a shocking retirement from international cricket to focus on franchise leagues. Time and again they have found it difficult to field a solid eleven in test cricket who can compete. Under such circumstances prime requirement was a calm & composed character who can hold the fort despite all the storms. Shai Hope is that character who holds the team together despite all the outside noise. His leadership on and off the field has been a real positive amid uncertain times in the island nation.
Recently concluded white ball series in India (3 ODIs & 5 T20Is) was a big opportunity for them to showcase their talent against one of the best in the business. Undoubtedly they gave a tough fight to men in blue irrespective of what the series scoreline reads. The young bunch under the leadership of Hope showed grit and performed to the best of their abilities. Once again the captain showed the way with some scintillating performances that saw him notching up 4 hundreds in total (2 in ODIs & 2 in T20Is). The series witnessed Hope led team registering a 400+ total batting first and chasing down a record 350+ target in another game. They were equally impressive in the T20Is as well where once again the captain led from the front by scoring two consecutive hundreds. It was his calming presence behind the wicket and a calculated aggressive approach with the bat in hand that inspired this young bunch of players to play fearless cricket. Hope knows his team's shortcomings well and that's why he tries to lead from the front most often than not.
It's true that under his leadership they haven't achieved anything really substantial so far but the process that he along with head coach Sammy has created to stage a comeback for the West Indies cricket is definitely going to bring fruitful results in near future. His next big challenge as a leader will be to make sure that his team qualifies for next year's ODI World cup since their fans would not want them to miss out on two back to back ODI World cups. What sort of support he will get from his board to resolve players' issues is not certain but one thing that is certain is the West Indies team has an exceptional leader at the helm who will do his best for his team. Caribbean fans would expect Hope would surely take their cricketing tradition to newer heights in coming days. Surely there is hope with captain Hope.
Aura Of Harry Di
Next story is about India's very own Harmanpreet Kaur or Harry di as lovingly called by her teammates.Though she has formally quit captaincy but she will remain a leader till the day she keeps playing professional cricket. Record books might say that she is the first captain to win a World cup for the Indian senior women's team but in reality her contribution to make what this Indian team is today is beyond any stats. It's fair to say that Indian women's cricket team is still a work in progress in many aspects. They definitely have come a long way but at the same time they have a long way to go if they have to be the best across formats.
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| Harmanpreet has been a real force in Indian cricket Image Credit:https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? title=User:StatGuru&action=edit&redlink=1 |
We all are aware how women's cricket always took a backseat compared to the men's game in our country. Support system was never a strong one to produce quality players. In terms of infrastructure, facilities and financial benefits they were lagging behind for a long period of time. There have been many stalwarts of the women's game who have represented the country, but the performance at the global stage has mostly been underwhelming. That's why World cup victory last year seemed like a staggering achievement despite of the fact that it took nearly five decades for first big global title. Harmanpreet definitely played a big role in winning the title. But her contribution towards that success was lot more than just captaining the team or scoring runs. Years of planning, building a culture keeping the long term perspective in mind, giving players the freedom to express themselves, keeping the outside noise aside and most importantly building a winning mindset were some of the major attributes of her leadership journey.
Coming from a small town in Punjab Harman's journey from being a swashbuckling batter to a title winning captain has been phenomenal. There were plenty of moments of despair as well as jubilation throughout her journey. Such moments must have played a part in making her a strong leader. Harmanpreet will be remembered as a true leader who gave her all to take women's cricket to where it is today. She might not have hold multiple batting records but her contribution as a batter to her team is beyond words.
On field we have witnessed her flamboyance and aggression many a times. At times she has been criticized for the same too. But not to forget most of the times it was that burning passion that used to come out as an outburst. Towards the later stage of her captaincy journey though she appeared as a more mature & calm personality who was carrying the expectations of a billion people.
What she has achieved so far as an individual or as a captain will be remembered for a long time. In a country like India where sports as a profession for women is still not accepted completely she has done the unthinkable. Courtesy her today lot more young girls from every part of the country dream of playing cricket for the country. She has lived her dream in a way probably she would not have anticipated. With now being free from the responsibility of captaincy she can completely focus on fulfilling her ambitions as a batter and help her team achieve greater success in coming days. Fans would expect their beloved Harry Di still has some good amount of cricket left in her before she says a final goodbye to the game that has given her everything.
That's all for this month. Stay tuned for some more exciting sporting actions in this space.
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