England’s Alex Hales retires from internaitonal cricket with immediate effect
London, Aug 4: Explosive and temperamental England opening batter Alex Hales on Friday announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect.
Hales, who made his international debut against India in August 2011 in a T20I at Manchester, represented England in 11 Tests, 70 One-Day Internationals and 75 T20Is.
Incidentally, Hales' last impact innings on the international stage was also against India, a brutal, unbeaten 47-ball 86 (4x4s, 7x6s) in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Hales and Jos Buttler (80 not out) had powered England to a 10-wicket win while chasing 169 at Adelaide.
“Just a note to announce that I have decided to retire from international cricket,” Hales shared in a note on his Instagram account.
''It has been an absolute privilege to have represented my country on 156 occasions across all three formats. l've made some memories and some friendships to last a lifetime and I feel that now is the right time to move on,” he wrote.
Hales, whose last appearance for England was in the T20 World Cup 2022 final against Pakistan at Melbourne, said, ''Throughout my time in an England shirt I've experienced some of the highest highs as well as some of the lowest lows. It's been an incredible journey and I feel very content that my last game for England was winning a World Cup final.''
Hales was not a part of England’s World Cup winning campaign in 2019 when the team’s captain Eoin Morgan and senior players decided that he had no role to play, while he served a 21-day ban for failing a second recreational drugs case. Morgan had termed it as ‘a complete breakdown of trust’.
But Hales was a vital cog in England’s revival in white-ball cricket. In fact, he contributed a 92-ball 147 (16x4s, 5x6s) when England piled up a monumental 481/6 against Australia in the Nottingham ODI in 2018 — the second highest ODI total ever.
Hales scored 2,419 runs at 37.79 with six centuries and 14 fifties in 70 ODIs. In 75 T20Is, he made 2,074 runs at 30.95 with one century and 12 half-centuries. In 11 Tests, he could only manage five fifties and a total of 573 runs at 27.28.
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Tax money pays for free ration scheme but BJP trying to take credit, says Mayawati
Lucknow (PTI): Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati hit out at "BJP and company" on Thursday, saying they want to take credit for providing free rations to the country's poor.
"Far from freeing the people of the country from rising inflation, poverty, unemployment and backwardness, people of BJP and company are bent on extracting electoral gains for giving the poor a little bit of ration. This is not right as this is not kindness," she wrote in Hindi on the social media platform 'X'.
"The free ration to the poor is not a favour by the BJP or the government, it comes from the tax money paid by the people. Therefore, it is inappropriate to make fun of the poor by asking them for votes in return...," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister added in another post.
BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, list the government's free ration scheme in every political rally. The party has even mentioned in its manifesto that it will continue the scheme till 2029 after coming to power.
The Congress claims that it brought the law to ensure food security to the poor. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge said at a joint press conference with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday that on coming to power, they will not just improve the quality of the ration but also double its quantity.
