International
IND vs SA: Off-field issues bring stern challenge for ‘crisis man’ Dravid

Egos, ambitions, power struggle, startling revelations — Indian cricket has seen it all in the last few months and the mess has created a tricky situation for eternal ‘crisis man’, Rahul Dravid who is in South Africa with the “Men in Blue” for his first overseas assignment as head coach.
During his pre-departure press conference ahead of the tour of South Africa, Virat Kohli on Wednesday revealed that he was never asked to stay on as T20 skipper when he informed the board about his decision to relinquish the post, contradicting Sourav Ganguly’s statement which suggested that the star batter was asked to reconsider his decision.
Notably, the former India captain had said that he personally spoke to Kohli when he was deciding to step down as the T20I captain and urged him to carry on with the job but the star batter decided to quit the position.
A day after India Test captain Kohli’s startling revelations on the T20I captaincy saga, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Thursday said that he won’t make any additional comments and the matter will be dealt with by the board.
“I have got nothing to say. We will deal with it appropriately, leave it to the BCCI,” Ganguly told media persons in Kolkata.
Nevertheless, the whole captaincy issue has sparked a controversy between the BCCI president and India’s Test skipper and it’s far from being over as people are much divided, especially on social media. The hashtag “ViratVsBCCI” has been trending on social media for the last two days.
Before that press conference, the controversy revolved around the relationship between Virat and Rohit Sharma and now it has become Kohli versus Ganguly. And amid this chaos, cricket has taken a back seat even if the Indian team has reached South Africa for the much-awaited series.
After all the drama that has unfolded in the past week, Indian cricket fans have found themselves feeling sorry for Rahul Dravid. But, the politics of Indian cricket isn’t new for him. Infact, Dravid was one of the central figures during the whole Ganguly-Greg Chappell infamous episode.
And now, the batting legend has the big responsibility on his shoulders to bail Team India out from all the off-field controversies and motivate boys to perform well on the field against the Proteas.
Virat Kohli-led India had terrible outings in the first two matches of the 2021 T20 World Cup and they failed to qualify for the next round of the mega-event. Many cricket experts and ‘pundits’ believe that an insecure dressing room environment was one of the key factors for India’s debacle in that tournament.
According to them, once Kohli decided to relinquish his T20 captaincy before the start of the event, players somehow were not able to concentrate on their job; instead were thinking about the next skipper and their places in the side.
But Dravid, who always believed in work ethics and was a team man to the core during his playing days, will want his boys to concentrate on the job at hand, rather than focusing on other issues.
Whether it was playing as an opener in Test, donning the wicket-keeping gloves in order to give a better balance to the team, leading the side during the turmoil — the Karnataka-born cricketer did everything for the team whenever it was required. And he will want his boys to be ready for all sorts of challenges and opportunities during the South Africa tour.
However, it won’t be an easy task for ‘Mr Dependable’, considering the unavailability of key players due to injuries, selection issues and fragile batting line-up and the tough playing conditions and COVID-19 scare in South Africa.
In India’s glorious cricketing history, South Africa remains the only top cricketing nation where the ‘Men in Blue’ are yet to win a Test series. Yes, the current Proteas cricket team is sort of inexperienced but they will be tough contenders on their home soil.
Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane — the pillars of Indian batting in Test cricket, haven’t been at their best in the last two years and the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje will test the skill and temperament of these seasoned pros.
It will also be interesting to see whether the duo of Kohli and Dravid include struggling Rahane and Pujara in the Playing XI especially when Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari have done well whenever they have got opportunities.
India will also miss the services of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja, who have been ruled out of the Test series due to injuries. And it won’t be easy to fill the shoes in their absence.
But, the 48-years old’s biggest challenge will be to resolve the conflicts internally. His man management skills will be tested because to win in the Rainbow nation, he needs a happy captain and positive environment in the team.
Dravid — ‘The Wall of Indian Team’ — will have a herculean task to get the best out of his players in ‘final frontier’ South Africa amid all the uncertainties and controversies. And the fans, the biggest stakeholders in cricket, have belief in him.
International
Murder of Hindu leader: India slams Bangladesh, says killing follows pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities

New Delhi, April 19: India on Saturday issued a sharp condemnation of the abduction and brutal killing of Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a prominent Hindu community leader in northern Bangladesh, calling it part of a “pattern of systematic persecution” of minorities under the country’s interim government.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal voiced India’s grave concern, stating that the incident reflects an alarming trend of targetted violence against Hindus and other minority groups in Bangladesh.
“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh. This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government, even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity,” Jaiswal said in a post on social media platform X.
He added, “We condemn this incident and once again remind the interim government to live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions.”
India has previously expressed similar concerns over rising attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, but this latest incident has drawn particular attention due to Roy’s prominence in the Hindu community.
Roy, who served as the Vice-President of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, was abducted from his residence in Dinajpur district on Thursday evening. According to police and family accounts, he received a phone call around 4:30 p.m., after which four unidentified men arrived on motorcycles and forcibly took him to Narabari village. He was reportedly assaulted and later found unconscious. He was rushed to a hospital in Dinajpur, where he was declared dead on arrival. His wife, Shantana Roy believes the attackers used the call to confirm his location before carrying out the abduction.
Opposition leaders in India also slammed the shocking incident in the neighbouring country.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted that religious minorities, especially Hindus, are being persecuted in Bangladesh.
“Attacks on other religious minorities are also continuing. Recently, the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh made a very condemnable and disappointing comment about the northeastern states of India. The persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh, human rights violations, and the attempt to erase the memories of the 1971 Liberation War are efforts to weaken the relationship between India and Bangladesh. From 1971 till today, India has always wished for peace and prosperity for all the people of Bangladesh. This is in the best interest of the subcontinent,” he said.
International
Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 38: Houthis

Sanaa, April 18: The death toll from US overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 38, with 102 others wounded, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Friday, citing Houthi-controlled local health authorities.
According to al-Masirah, the casualties include five paramedics who were killed upon arriving at the scene, when the US military launched another wave of airstrikes on the port just minutes after the first on Thursday night.
More than 14 airstrikes on the fuel port were reported during the two waves, igniting massive fires in tanks storing imported fuel. The fires were extinguished within hours, said the report.
The US Central Command said earlier in a statement that it struck and destroyed the Ras Isa port on Thursday to “eliminate this source of fuel for” and “degrade the economic source of power of” the Houthis, Xinhua news agency reported.
In mid-March, US President Donald Trump ordered “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthis after the group announced plans to resume attacks on Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, citing Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza as the reason.
Earlier on April 17, Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi had said his group had launched 26 attacks against Israel and 33 strikes on the US aircraft carrier and warships in the Red Sea since March 15.
In a televised speech aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV on Thursday, the Houthi leader said the attacks on Israel were carried out using “30 ballistic missiles and drones,” while those targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its escorts involved “122 ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones”.
However, the Israeli military has reportedly intercepted many of the Houthi projectiles before they reached targets, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US Central Command dismissed the Houthi claims of daily attacks on the US aircraft carrier as “outlandish” in a post on the social media platform X.
Meanwhile, the Houthi leader noted that the US military had conducted more than 900 airstrikes against his group’s positions across northern Yemen during the past 30 days.
Tensions between the Houthi group and the US military have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 to deter the group from attacking Israel and US warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, which control much of northern Yemen, said their attacks aim to press US-backed Israel to stop the offensive against the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s Channel 12 News reported last Saturday that a Yemeni drone was intercepted near the Dead Sea within the Jordanian airspace before it could reach Israel.
The Jordanian army confirmed later last week that an unidentified drone entered Jordanian airspace and crashed in the Ma’in area of Madaba governorate, near the Dead Sea, and no casualties were reported.
Even since Israel renewed its intensive strikes in March across the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have been launching frequent attacks against Israeli and US targets.
Earlier last week, the Houthi military spokesperson claimed fresh attacks against the US aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman, and other US warships in the northern Red Sea.
International
Houthis say 123 civilians in Yemen killed in one month of US airstrikes

Sanaa, April 15: A total of 123 civilians have been killed and 247 others injured, mostly women and children, since the US military resumed airstrikes across Yemen in mid-March, Houthi-run health authorities said in an statement.
The statement was issued following US airstrikes against a ceramic factory on the western outskirts of Yemen’s capital Sanaa late on Sunday night, which killed seven people and injured 29 others.
The health authorities’ previous statement on April 9 put the death toll from the renewed US air raids at 107 and the number of injuries at 223.
The Houthi group rarely discloses casualties among its fighters. However, the US military has repeatedly said the strikes have killed dozens of Houthi leaders, which the group has denied, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier on Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi group announced that it had shot down another US MQ-9 drone, the 19th it has downed since November 2023.
“A US MQ-9 drone was shot down while carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Hajjah province” in northwestern Yemen, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
Sarea added that the drone was downed by a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile, stressing “the ongoing US aggression” has not crippled the group’s military capabilities.
The statement affirmed the group’s support for the Palestinian people, saying its operations will continue “until the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and the siege on it is lifted.”
The US resumed its air campaign against Houthi forces on March 15, stating that its strikes were aimed at deterring the group from launching attacks against Israeli and US naval assets in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who control vast areas of northern Yemen, have been attacking Israeli targets since November 2023 to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
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