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Trouble seems to follow Pietersen, even during his morning coffee!
Sussex left-arm seamer Lewis Hatchett, who was diagnosed at birth with Poland's Syndrome, a rare condition affecting one in a million, has retired from professional cricket after medical advice from doctors. The defect causes an absence of chest muscle on one side of the body. Hatchett played for Sussex for a span for six years, battling a weak bowling arm, and sharp pains post a day's play.
During his first-class career, Hatchett took 72 wickets at 35.08 along with 19 wickets in List A matches and 11 in T20s.
New Zealand's Hamish Marshall played his last game for Gloucestershire against Sussex, where he scored 77, guiding his county to an unlikely draw. In a career that spanned for over a decade at Gloucestershire, Marshall has left in order to prepare to return to New Zealand for a new role with Wellington Firebirds.
"It's tough to leave something you love, but it was nice to get a few runs in my final innings," Marshall said.
"Of course I would like to be staying here. we have made a lot of friends over the 11 years we have been here. However, things change and you have to look at a new career. That's what I have done, although I will be keen to come back and see everyone as soon as I possibly can," the Kiwi batsman said.
Former Pakistan cricketers ridiculed BCCI President Anurag Thakur's recent statements about not even considering playing Pakistan in light of the recent attacks in Uri. Thakur, who is also a leader of the ruling BJP, yesterday made the statement that there was no question of playing Pakistan.
Former Pakistan captain, Mohammad Yousuf should his disappointment over Thakur's comments. “I just don’t understand what he (Anurag Thakur) wants to say. For the last eight years India has avoided playing us in a proper bilateral series even when relations were better,” quoted Yousuf.
"The ICC keeps on saying it will not tolerate politics or government interference in member boards and the BCCI President is making political statements. Either he speak as a BJP leader or BCCI head,” Yousuf said.
Another former legend Abdul Qadir said that unlike Pakistan, who has kept politics away from India, BCCI has turned into a body run by politicians. He quoted: “They have not played us for so many years so what value is this statement off. I believe that the PCB should seriously think about playing India in the group matches of any ICC event.”
On the occasion of India's 500th Test, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has picked his all-time Indian test XI. Surprisingly, the XI does not feature few big names which include India's all-time leading wicket-taker Anil Kumble.
Sanjay has gone in with a 6-5 combination with Kapil Dev providing the stability as an all-rounder. The other pacer in his XI is Zaheer Khan and has picked three of India's spin quartet, BS Chandrasekhar, EAS Prasanna and BS Bedi as his spinners.
Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag will open the innings with Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and GR Viswanath following the openers in the top 5. MS Dhoni is picked as the wicket-keeper and will also lead the team.
Team: Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, GR Viswanath, MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, BS Chandrasekhar, EAS Prasanna and BS Bedi
BJP leader and former Indian cricketer Chetan Chauhan on Saturday said that India should not play with Pakistan in the wake of recent terror attacks in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. "We should not even think about playing Pakistan until they get rid of terrorism completely. There should be no relationship between both the teams, not Just cricket, but sports in general," he said.
Lahore Qalandars could have a new captain in the next season of the Pakistan Super League, with former Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum likely to take over from Azhar Ali.
"We are bringing in McCullum, whose credibility and performances as captain are tremendous. We are signing him not only as captain but as a batting mentor as well.
"We are announcing it earlier because we want to take the captain on board so that we can make a better combination than the one we had last year. We are really happy to have him on board and the level of commitment he has shown so far is really great," Aaqib Javed, the director of cricket operations for the franchise said.
The Qalandars will be the first team to pick a player in each round of the opening draft.
West Indies T20 skipper Carlos Braithwaite has said that it was the lapse in batting that led to his side's defeat in the opening T20 against Pakistan on Friday night.
"[We lost because of] poor execution, [their] good bowling, you know we are an aggressive exciting team, two games ago we scored 240 odd and today we scored 115. We have ebbs and follows ups and downs, today it just didn't come off for us. I don't think we assessed the conditions quickly enough. Majority of the shots didn't show situation awareness," Braithwaite said after the game.
"I don't want to just say we didn't bat well, credit must go to Imad Wasim who bowled fantastically, anytime you get 5 for 14 in an international match you must be doing something right, and to get it in a T20 International is even better. But these things happen. We are an aggressive team and I won't tell any of the guys in the room to lose their aggression, it is just a matter of being more situation aware going into tomorrow's game," he added.
Former Indian cricketer Shiv Sunder Das was all set to be named as a national selector before the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) rejected his application at the last moment after discovering that he had played his last first-class game – a Ranji Trophy encounter between Vidarbha and Delhi which concluded on January 1, 2013 – much less than the five-year stipulation laid out by the BCCI for retired cricketers.
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Former Indian skipper and current President of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Sourav Ganguly lauded the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for providing the budding Indian cricketers the best of facilities to help develop their game and believes the athletes from other sports disciplines can bring laurels to the country on a consistent basis if provided with similar training facilities.
"The reason why we have done well in cricket is because the BCCI has been able to give us great facilities. We have world-class stadia all over India be it in a small centre like Ranchi. One running event won't produce a champion overnight. You give them facilities and infrastructure, I can guarantee you they will become world beaters in 10 years time," he said.
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Former member of the selection committee Saba Karim, who was a keeper himself during the 90’s, felt that for the time being Dhoni was doing a good job, adding that fitness wise, he as up there and felt that the new batch of selectors needed to have a vision.
Karim admitted that the major reason for India not finding a quality man to replace Dhoni in coloured clothing is a lack in resources for the trait in the country. He added that KL Rahul had the potential, but was still a work in progress, as far as his glovework is concerned.
"There is a problem with the resources, especially in wicketkeeping. Wriddhiman Saha is just growing into his job in Tests. But in limited-overs, Rahul looks good to don the gloves. His glovework has potential but a lot of work has to be done with wicketkeepers. At the moment, Dhoni is doing pretty well,"
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Scott Boland has expressed hope of South Africa offering bouncy pitches for the visiting Australians in their tour of South Africa, which begins at the end of this month.
"Hopefully the wickets are a bit more like Australia, fast and bouncy.But in one-day cricket I think they try to make the wickets as flat as possible."
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Pietersen runs into parking trouble
Former England batsman Pietersen's morning coffee at Starbucks turned rather expensive for him, as he ran into parking trouble, getting a parking ticket worth £90. A befuddled Pietersen posted the image of the parking ticket on Twitter, also asking advice from an expert whether his fine was enforceable or not.
Pieterson was quick to receive the advice on the issue, and thanked the expert for the same.