Dwayne Bravo ready for international return after change of guard at WICB
New Delhi, Dec 13: West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo on Friday announced his return to international cricket, little over a year after he called it quits due to a bitter fallout with his country's Board.
Bravo said the decision was prompted by the change of guard in the Cricket West Indies (CWI), where former team manager Ricky Skerritt took over as the new president replacing Dave Cameron earlier this year.
"Today I confirm the announcement of my decision to return to International Cricket to all my fans and well wishers all around the world," the 36-year-old said in a statement.
"It's no secret that this big announcement has come as a result of the changes made at the administration level. For a while now I have been contemplating my return to international cricket and my decision was solidified by these positive changes," he added.
Bravo had a bitter spat with Cameron and had accused him of destroying careers. This was after a Bravo-led West Indies team abandoned a tour of India in 2014 midway during an ODI series owing to a pay dispute with the WICB.
The Caribbean side is currently in India for a limited-overs series, the T20 leg of which ended 2-1 in favour of the hosts. The three one-dayers will get underway on Sunday.
"With the current leadership of coach Phil Simmons and captain Kieron Pollard I'm really excited about this come back and about the chance to be part of something really special," Bravo said.
"We have a lot of young talent on the team as well as cricketers with a wealth of experience such as Pollard, (Lendl) Simmons and Jason Holder and I believe that I can contribute to a positive change.
"With a powerful team such as ours we can definitely rebuild the WI T20I cricket team on and off the field and improve our rankings. I will remain fully committed to WI T20 team once selected. Thank you to all my fans and supporters for your continuous support as always," he added.
Although he announced his retirement in 2018, Bravo has not played for the West Indies since September 2016.
His last international appearance was a T20I against Pakistan in the UAE.
Earlier in November, the 36-year-old hinted that he is considering playing international cricket again while congratulating the West Indies team for a 3-0 clean sweep over Afghanistan in an ODI series in Lucknow.
Bravo featured in 40 Tests, 164 ODIs and 66 T20Is for the West Indies. He has scored 6310 runs across all formats and bagged 337 wickets to go with it.
He still continues to play T20 cricket for franchises like the Chennai Super Kings (IPL), Lahore Qalandars (PSL), Melbourne Renegades (BBL), Trinbago Knight Riders (CPL), Winnipeg Hawks (Canada).
He recently played for Maratha Arabians, who won the Abu Dhabi T10 League.
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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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