There is self-belief in WI camp: Gibson

Dhaka: West Indies coach Ottis Gibson says there is renewed self-belief in the Caribbean cricketing side following their convincing win in the opening One-Day International against Bangladesh here on Thursday.
West Indies won by 40 runs to rebound from the heartbreaking loss in the one-off Twenty20 International on Tuesday.

"This tour of Bangladesh is tough and we are gearing ourselves up for it, strengthening our team and making sure everyone is in top form," Gibson said on Friday.
"The mood in the camp is very good at the moment. Obviously we are a bit disappointed at losing the T20, but Thursday our focus was back and it has given us a lot of confidence.
"Marlon Samuels was in great form and Lendl Simmons hit his first century. Overall the guys stuck with the plan they had, and the results speak for themselves."
With a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, Gibson said his side was now eyeing the crucial series win.
"Thursday's win has put the opposition under pressure and a couple of more victories will see us clinch the series, something we haven't done in a while, so we're looking forward to it.

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Bangladesh won toss choose to bat against WI

Dhaka; Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and decided to bat first in the second one-day international against West Indies on Saturday.
West Indies Darren Sammy returned to captain the side after illness caused him to miss the first one-dayer.

West Indies won by 40 runs in the first ODI, while Bangladesh won the one-off Twenty-20 game by three wickets.

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Welcome to India, England!

New Delhi: Former fast bowler, Bob Willis had brilliantly summed up the English batsmen's fate against the turning ball a little over a decade ago, saying that their batters were at sea against anybody who pretended to bowl slow.
If the Indian batsmen have a history of discomfort against the moving ball, the English batsmen did their reputation of struggling in alien conditions no harm by going down by over a hundred runs in the first one-dayer in Hyderabad, in what has been hyped up as the revenge series for the world champions.
Having consistently tasted success over the last couple of years which included India's total and complete demolition in England, Alaistair Cook's men were expected to turn over a new leaf in their subcontitental endeavours; however it was not to be.
Even though it might be too early to put the 'dead and buried' tag on the Poms as of now, but the fact that they came nowhere close to overhauling India's total, might just set the trend for the rest of the series.

England will also have to contend with the fact that they are yet to win an ODI series in India since the David Gower led team triumphed 4-1 in the 1984-85 series.
They have also lost 12 of their last 15 games against India in the opposition's backyard which included a 5-0 whitewash not that long ago under Kevin Pietersen's leadership in 2008.
One might like to add that had it not been for the Mumbai attacks, the English might have suffered the mega embarrassment of a 7-0 annihilation.
So, what exactly has resulted in the Englishmen coming unstuck in India over the years gone by especially in ODIs.
It's probably a case of having lost the battle in the head more than anything else, when it comes to dealing with spinners, for that matter even the part time ones, as was proved by Ravindra Jadeja's figures of 3/34 on Friday.
Apart from the fact that the English pacers are not as effective on flat pitches and that the sun is a bit too strong for their liking in this part of the world, it's always been the slower ones that the Englishmen have failed to decipher.
As the teams gear up for the second match of the series at the slow and low Ferozshah Kotla on Monday, one might wonder how the story could be any different for England this time around.

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IPL dates clash with West Indies tours

Kingston: West Indies international players could find themselves having to choose between the maroon colours and colours of their franchises with the schedule of their national cricket outings clashing with the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 championship.
The fifth edition of the IPL will be the longest, running from April 4 to May 27, and will clash with Australia's tour of the Caribbean and the West Indies trip to England.
West Indies are scheduled to host Australia in three Tests and five One-Day Internationals between March 14 and April 23, before heading to England for three Tests, three ODIs and a T20 International from May 1 to June 20.

Earlier this year, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo requested No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to compete in the IPL. As a result, they were not available to play for West Indies against the touring Pakistan team.
Gayle was Player-of-the-Series playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore, Pollard turned out for the powerful Mumbai Indians while Bravo played for eventual champions Chennai Super Kings. All three are expected to feature again in next year's tournament.
Meanwhile, the IPL Governing Council, meeting on the sidelines of the first One-day International between India and England here, decided that it will be a nine-team tournament, making it clear that there is no re-looking at the termination of Kochi Tuskers.
The previous edition, held from April 8 to May 28, has been the longest until now with 10 teams, two new franchises Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers joining it.

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Revenge is a strong word, says Dhoni

Hyderabad: Despite the emphatic win against England in the first one-day international here on Friday night, Indian captain MS Dhoni is not ready to see it as a revenge for the defeat in the series in England last month.
"For us, it is not about revenge. Revenge is a strong feeling, it is a strong word. What is important for us is to go out on the field and perform well," he told reporters after he led India to 126-run victory in the first ODI of the five-match series.
"It is important to win the games because if you are not winning too many games, (it is) a bit of a problem in the sense you can't enjoy to the extent you do when you are winning. Winning and losing is part and parcel of the game. The losing streak was a bit too long," he said.

Dhoni feels the conditions were in favour of the bowlers as there was no dew.
"If you see the ODIs in England, all the players did very well. Because of rains, it was difficult for our spinners to bowl consistently. We did well in the second half of the England series. Today there was no dew. If the conditions are slightly in their favour, the bowlers can make us win games."
The Indian captain, however, said the timing of the series was wrong as one can't be sure of dew.
"If you are close to November or December, you know there will be dew and blindly you will opt to field after winning the toss so that bowlers get an upper hand. It is a bit tricky. It was good that in this game there was no dew. Spinners gripped the ball well, they bowled the right length. Fast bowlers got a bit of reverse swing also; outfield was very dry and the wicket was also dry."
Dhoni said there was a time when India was batting that he thought the team would get close to 250-260 runs, "which we thought was good enough score provided there is no dew on the field in the second half".
Dhoni, who was unbeaten on 87, termed his innings as "precious".
"It was a valuable inning like quite a few others I have played in my short career. It was a very calculated inning. Quite a few shots that I played, I generally don't play those shots. I have changed my game and adapted to number six position."
Dhoni said since the bowling department was new, it was time to groom the youngsters so that they should be able to perform not only in India and abroad.
"It's a grooming period we are going through. We have few bowlers who are new to the scenario. I feel as a unit they have done very well in this game."

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NEO-Prasar Bharti spar kicks off Ind-Eng series

New Delhi: A tussle between NEO Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd and Prasar Bharati over bank guarantee for the live telecast of the India-England One-Day international series resulted in no coverage of the first 1.4 overs of the first match on Friday.
NEO Sports that has rights for all of India's international matches to be played at home till 2014 accused Prasar Bharati for "unreasonable behaviour" that resulted in delayed permission from Information and Broadcasting Ministry for uplinking live feed to the match.
Prasar Bharati, on the other hand, blamed NEO Sports for not furnishing required documents, including a bank guarantee of over Rs 4 crore, and signing an agreement over revenue sharing.

"NEO Cricket is deeply disappointed by what it believes could be construed to be unreasonable behaviour by Prasar Bharati," NEO Sports said in a statement.
It said despite repeatedly communicating with Prasar Bharati much ahead of the first match, "Prasar Bharati refused to confirm on whether it wanted to share the live broadcast of the event or not."
Finally on October 10, as instructed by Prasar Bharati, and following the sealed bid process, Neo was appointed the 'Revenue Management Company' (RMC). RMC is responsible for selling advertising on the broadcast of the match on Doordarshan, NEO said.
As per the government rules, private sports broadcasters are required to share live feed for India's ODI and T20 matches with Prasar Bharati for terrestrial telecast.
"Despite the above, the uplink licence to BCCI and Neo Cricket was issued past the match start time of 2:30 pm on Friday resulting in no coverage for the first few balls of the event," it said.
This was refuted by Prasar Bharati, which said:"It was only at 1 pm today that they (Neo) came with a deposit of Rs four crore fifty thousand and an agreement was signed only hours after the match started. The company has said they will get a BG in one week to take back the deposit."
The public broadcaster further said: "The company (Neo) neither signed an agreement, nor did it present a bank guarantee. They wanted us to give them the permission to broadcast only on trust, which we refused as Prasar Bharati's interest had to be secured."

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We were outplayed in all departments: Cook

Hyderabad: England captain Alastair Cook credited India for their comprehensive 126-run win and said the home team completely outplayed the visitors in the first ODI here on Friday.
After posting a challenging 300 for seven, India shot out England for 174 runs in 36.1 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

"It was an important toss to win. We saw at the end that the ball kept low. But credit to India. They outplayed us in all departments today," Cook said after the match.
"We're going to learn from this, and that's the beauty of a five-match series."
India's newest spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin (3/35) and Ravindra Jadeja sizzled in the slow conditions, sharing six wickets between them and Cook said tackling the tweakers will be a challenge for his batsmen in the series.
"We know that (playing spin) is an issue, and that's a skill thing. We're going to work hard on that in the next couple of days," he said.

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