'Universe Boss' Gayle plans retirement after home series against India in August
Manchester, Jun 26: Dashing West Indies batsman Chris Gayle will retire from international cricket after the home ODI and Test series against India scheduled in August-September, revising his earlier plan to call it quits after the ongoing World Cup.
Among the high profile players in the last two decades, Gayle will follow the in footsteps of Steve Waugh (2004) and Jacques Kallis (2013), who announced their international retirement after playing against India.
It is expected that Gayle will play his final international game, a Test against India, at his home ground Kingston in Jamaica starting August 30.
The 39-year-old had last month stated that he would retire after the World Cup but speaking to the media on the eve of the game against India here, the left-hander said he has had a change of mind.
"It's still not the end. I still have a few games to go. May be another series to go, as well. Who knows, we will see what happens," Gayle said when asked about his career which was supposed to end after the World Cup.
When he was asked a specific questions on his plans post World Cup, he did spill the beans.
"My plans after World Cup? I may play a Test match against India and then I will definitely play the ODIs against India. I won't play the T20s for sure. That's my plan after the World Cup," Gayle said.
West Indies media manager Philip Spooner later confirmed that the assignment against India will be Gayle's last in national colours.
"Yes, Chris will play his last series against India," Spooner told PTI.
It has been learnt that Gayle's participation in the India series was necessary keeping the commercial aspects in mind as it is scheduled right after the World Cup.
Also a Test match in Jamaica and good friend and former IPL teammate Virat Kohli in the opposition ranks will be seen as a fitting farewell for cricket's greatest modern day entertainers.
India's tour of West Indies comprises three T20 Internationals, three ODIs followed by a couple of Test matches.
There will be two T20 games in Florida on August 3 and 4, followed by a third in Guyana.
The three-match ODI will start in Guyana from August 8, followed by a couple of games in Trinidad. The Tests will take place from August 22 to September 3.
Gayle has appeared in 103 Tests, accumulating 7215 runs at an average of 42.19. In 294 ODI appearances, Gayle put together 10345 runs, while in 58 T20 Internationals, he has 1627 runs.
He has two triple hundreds in Test matches, a double hundred in ODIs and also has the distinction of scoring the first hundred in a World T20 game.
The man who calls himself the 'Universe Boss' is a fan favourite for his flamboyant stroke-play and is considered a game-changing batsman.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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