India will leave out senior players from the one-day series against New Zealand starting next month to prepare them for a tough tour of South Africa, an official said yesterday.
New Zealand are due to play three Tests in India from Nov. 4 to Nov. 24, followed by five one-day internationals from Nov. 28 to Dec. 10.
The last one-dayer will end just six days before India begin a three-Test series in South Africa from Dec. 16.
The Indian board plans to send the top Test stars, possibly even skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to South Africa soon after the New Zealand Test matches end to get acclimatized to the conditions.
Board official Ratnakar Shetty said the request to send players early to South Africa had come from coach Gary Kirsten.
“The plan now is to send some of the Test players early. The team management and the coach expressed the desire that there is a need for acclimatization in South Africa,” Shetty said.
The selectors have not yet decided which players will miss the one-dayers against New Zealand to make the early trip to South Africa.
India, the No. 1 Test side, have never won a series in South Africa, who are ranked second in the official ratings.
With the limited-overs World Cup to be played in South Asia early next year, the selectors have tried to ensure the players get adequate breaks from the hectic international schedule.
Seven top stars, including Sachin Tendulkar, have been rested from the ongoing one-day series against Australia.
India won the second match by five wickets after the first game was washed out. The third and final international will be played in Goa tomorrow.
Dhoni welcomed the move to rotate players to give them adequate rest before the World Cup.
“In the last few series, we have not played with our strongest side and rested most players,” he said. “We are a bit cautious because injuries are a concern. We don’t want our big players to get injured before the World Cup.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but