Ravi Shastri reappointed head coach of Indian team
Mumbai, Aug 16: Incumbent Ravi Shastri was on Friday re-appointed head coach of the Indian men's team by the Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee, a decision that was expected and has the backing of captain Virat Kohli.
Shastri has been reappointed for a two-year period, ending with the 2021 T20 World Cup in India.
This will be Shastri's fourth stint with the national team, having served briefly as the Cricket Manager (2007 tour of Bangladesh), Team Director (2014-2016) and head coach (2017-2019).
Shastri pipped former India teammates Robin Singh and Lalchand Rajput along with former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson and Australian Tom Moody to the post. Former West Indies and Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons pulled out of the race, citing personal reasons.
"Number three was Tom Moody, number two was Mike Hesson. Number one is Ravi Shastri as all of you were expecting... (But) It was a very close race," said Kapil at the press conference to announce the decision here.
Once Kohli openly backed Shastri's candidature at the pre-departure media conference before the West Indies tour, it was expected that the former India captain would be a favourite to retain the position.
Among all the candidates, Shastri's record was unmatched as the team reached the No.1 ranking in Test matches under his guidance and won a series in Australia for the first time in 71 years.
On the flip-side, India twice lost in the World Cup semi-finals (2015 and 2019) with him at the helm but that doesn't seem to have a bearing on the decision taken by the Dev-led committee that also comprised Shantha Rangaswamy and Anshuman Gaekwad.
Since he came back in July, 2017 replacing Anil Kumble, whose differences with Kohli came out in the open, Shastri's coaching record has been phenomenal.
India have won 13 out of 21 Tests, 43 out of 60 ODIs and 25 T20 Internationals out of 36 on his watch.
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Will Modi govt conduct Kargil Review Committee-type exercise on Pahalgam, asks Congress
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Tuesday said its repeated demands for a Prime Minister Narendra Modi-chaired all-party meeting and a special session of Parliament assume even greater urgency and importance in light of the statements from Washington DC.
The opposition party also asked whether the Modi government will conduct an exercise similar to the Vajpayee government that set up the Kargil Review Committee on July 29, 1999, three days after the Kargil War ended.
"Three days after the Kargil War ended, the Vajpayee Government set up the Kargil Review Committee on July 29 1999. Its report was tabled in Parliament on February 23, 2000 although sections of it have remained classified - as indeed they must," Congress general secretary in-charge Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
The Committee was chaired by India's strategic affairs guru K. Subrahmanyam, whose son is now India's External Affairs Minister, he said.
"Will the Modi Govt now conduct a similar exercise on Pahalgam, notwithstanding the NIA probe?" Ramesh said.
"Given the statements from Washington DC, the INC's repeated demands for an all-party meeting TO BE CHAIRED BY THE PM himself and for a special session of Parliament - which is now scheduled to meet at least two and a half months from now - assume even greater urgency and importance," he said on X.
Ramesh's remarks come a day after President Donald Trump reiterated his claim that his administration stopped a "nuclear conflict" between India and Pakistan, telling the South Asian neighbours that America will do a "lot of trade" with them if they end hostilities.
"On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think, a permanent one between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons," Trump said at the start of a press conference in the White House where he announced that he will set 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower cost of prescription drugs.
He started the briefing by describing the historic events that took place over the last few days in the Indian subcontinent.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on Saturday to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
Indian government sources in New Delhi have been maintaining that the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect. They said no third party was involved.
Trump said that India and Pakistan were going at it hot and heavy, and it was seemingly not going to stop.
"I'm very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering, powerful, but unwavering in both cases, having these they really were from the standpoint of having the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation," Trump has said.
The US President said he told India and Pakistan that America will do "a lot of trade" with them if they stop the conflict.
"And we helped a lot, and we helped also with trade. I said, 'Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it. Let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade'".
"People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you. And all of a sudden they (India and Pakistan) said, I think we're going to stop," Trump added.
"And they have, and they did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one. We're going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We're going to do a lot of trade with India. We're negotiating with India right now. We're going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan, and we stopped a nuclear conflict," Trump said.
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