Omitted from World Cup squad, Ambati Rayudu retires from cricket
New Delhi: Ignored for the ongoing World Cup, Indian middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu has decided to retire from all forms of cricket, a BCCI official has revealed.
The 33-year-old Andhra batsman was in the official standbys list for the big event in UK but was ignored despite injury to all-rounder Vijay Shankar. Opener Mayank Agrawal was brought in on the team management's insistence.
The player is yet to make a formal announcement but a Board official told PTI that he has communicated his decision to the BCCI.
"He has told the Board," the official said.
Rayudu played 55 ODIs for India, scoring 1694 runs at an average of 47.05. The player, who could never break into the Test team, was in the spotlight before the World Cup.
Declared the preferred No.4 batsman by captain Virat Kohli not many months ago, Rayudu was ignored for Shankar in India's final squad for the big event.
Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad had justified the move by saying that Shankar had "three-dimensional skills". Rayudu then took a dig at that statement with a cheeky social media post.
"Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup," he had tweeted at the time.
Rayudu earned the reputation of being a temperamental player owing to several confrontations with fellow cricketers and even match officials in the domestic circuit.
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30th International Film Festival of Kerala to open with ‘Palestine 36’ film
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The 30th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) beginning here on December 12, will open with the film “Palestine 36,” directed by Annemarie Jacir.
The film is an epic historical drama which portrays the Palestinian uprising against the British colonisation.
The opening film takes its name from the year when Palestine began to revolt against British rule and Zionism, a release from the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the organisers of the event, said on Sunday.
The IFFK, which enters its 30th edition, will be held at the state capital here from December 12 to 19.
The inaugural film was awarded the best film at the Tokyo International Film Festival and was Palestine's official entry for the best international feature film at the 98th Academy Awards.
Another film by Jacir, ‘Wajib’ for which she won the IFFK's Golden Crow Pheasant in 2017 will also be screened as part of the package of films which won Suvarna Chakoram in the early editions of the IFFK.
The Chalachitra Academy also announced that the Lifetime Achievement Award of the 30th IFFK will be conferred on renowned Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, in recognition of his profound contribution to world cinema.
Born in Kiffa, Mauritania, Sissako’s family moved to Mali, where he spent his childhood. He made his first short film Le Jeu (The Game) in 1989 as his graduation project.
His full-length feature film debut, Life on Earth (La Vie Sur Terre), released in 1999, was featured in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival that year, and the definitive breakout hit was the 2014 film "Timbuktu."
Sissako's films are primarily focused on globalisation, displacement, exile, identity, and the struggles of everyday life in Africa, which helped bring African cinema into the global spotlight.
Sissako’s five films will be screened this year at IFFK. Life on Earth (1999), Waiting for Happiness (2002), Bamako (2006), Timbuktu (2014), and Black Tea (2004) are the movies to be screened at the festival.
The IFFK’s lifetime achievement award, introduced in 2009, is presented to a filmmaker who made significant contributions to the art of cinema during their career.
Earlier recipients of the award include Jean-Luc-Godard, Werner Herzog, Fernando Solanas, Alexander Sokurov, Jiri Menzel, Majid Majidi and Bela Tarr.
