Murali Vijay to feature in county cricket for Essex
Mumbai, Sep 8 : After being axed from the Indian squad for the last two Tests against England, opener Murali Vijay has signed up with Essex County Cricket Club to represent them in the remainder of the 2018 County Championship.
The BCCI announced the development on Saturday which was also confirmed by the Essex club's official website.
Vijay, who featured in the first two Tests of the five-match India-England Test series, will be returning to the county ground where he scored 53 in the first innings of India's practice game against Essex.
"I was here with the India side about a month ago and saw first-hand just how good the crowd is. I can't wait to play for Essex and hopefully win some matches," Vijay said in a statement.
Expressing pleasure on the joining of the Indian opener, Essex head coach Anthony McGrath said: "We're delighted that Vijay has chosen to come here. He's a great batsman who can score runs at the top of the order."
"Vijay's run-scoring ability means he can be the difference-maker in a game, and that skill is something we were looking to bring in towards the end of the season and something that we're excited about," he added.
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Our relationship with both India and Pakistan is 'good': US
New York/Washington (PTI): America’s relationship with both India and Pakistan is “good”, the US State Department has said, asserting that the diplomats are "committed to both nations".
Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that the US working with both nations is good news for the region and the world, and will promote a beneficial future.
“I would say that our relationship with both nations is as it has been, which is good. And that is the benefit of having a President who knows everyone, talks to everyone, and that is how we can bring differences together in this case. So it's clear that the diplomats here are committed to both nations,” Bruce said.
She was responding to a question on the possibility of increased US assistance to Islamabad in terms of arms sales following Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir’s meeting with Trump, and whether this was coming at the cost of Trump's relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Referring to the May conflict between India and Pakistan, Bruce added, “Obviously, we had an experience with Pakistan and India when there was a conflict, one that could have developed into something quite horrible.”
She said that there was "immediate concern and immediate movement" with Vice President J D Vance, President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in “addressing the nature of what was happening….we described the nature of the phone calls, the work that we did to stop the attacks and to then bring the parties together so we could have something that was enduring."
She also claimed that top leaders in the US were involved in “stopping that potential catastrophe.”
New Delhi has been maintaining that India and Pakistan halted their military actions following direct talks between their militaries without any mediation by the US.
Bruce added that the recent peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan “follows negotiated peace arrangements between Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo.”
Meanwhile, in an interview on Tuesday, Rubio said that “credit goes to” Trump for helping bring several conflicts around the world to an end.
Trump says he wants “to be the President of peace. And so any time we see a conflict where we think we can make a difference, we get involved, and we’ve had good success in that regard. India-Pakistan, Thailand-Cambodia, the peace deal with Azerbaijan and Armenia, just a few days ago,” he said in an interview with ‘Sid and Friends in the Morning’.
