Feature
Dhoni, Kohli rested, Rahane to captain India
New Delhi: Middle order batsman Ajinkya Rahane was on Monday named captain of the 15-member Indian cricket team that will tour Zimbabwe in July as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, among other seniors, were rested.
Batsmen Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav were also rested by the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) All-India Senior Selection Committee which met here. India will play three One-Day Internationals (ODI) and two Twenty20 Internationals from July 10 to 19 in Harare.
“We are happy with the way Rahane’s career is shaping up. He has been the most consistent batsman for India and we want to see his other aspects. So we have given him this opportunity and will keep backing him,” said chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil.
“We have decided to rest a few players who need urgent rest. Until players themselves request for a rest, we don’t rest them. We sent a full-strength side to Bangladesh but this time the players communicated that they needed rest.”
Meanwhile, another middle order bat, Cheteshwar Pujara, has been named skipper of the India A squad for the two four-day games against Australia A. Both games will be played in Chennai — from July 22 to 25 and from July 29 to August 1.
This will be the first time the legendary Rahul Dravid will be in-charge of the A team since he was appointed India Under-19 and India A coach earlier this month.
Significantly, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s name does not figure in the squad – impliedly he has been dropped. The southpaw’s performance has dipped of late.
Despite being “rested” from the India squad, pace bowler Yadav was still named in the India A side.
No specialist wicketkeeper has been named in the India squad but Robin Uthappa, Kedar Jadhav and Ambati Rayudu, all of whom have been selected, have kept wickets in the past.
Meanwhile, veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh made a comeback to the ODI squad after four years. He last played an ODI in June 2011 against the West Indies while he was last picked for T20Is in September 2012 against Australia. He will be accompanied by left-arm tweaker Axar Patel and leggie Karn Sharma.
“We cannot say on long term basis but looking at Harbhajan’s performance in the last series, we feel that he deserves a chance on this tour,” Patil said.
Murali Vijay, who is a regular opener in Tests, is likely to partner Rahane at the top of the order as Manish Pandey and Manoj Tiwary are the other batsmen named in the side. Among pacers, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma were retained with Punjab’s uncapped Sandeep Sharma joining them.
Team director Ravi Shastri will not travel to Zimbabwe due to “prior engagements”.
“It is a young side we selected keeping in mind the future. The boys have put in good performances to get selected. This team has been selected keeping in mind the road map for the World Twenty20 which will be held in India early next year,” said Patil.
“We have to move forward for which we selected this side. Our job is to select the best possible team which we have done. The playing XI has to be chosen by the team director, captain and team management; the selectors have no role in that.”
The teams are:
India squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Murali Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma.
India A squad: Cheteshwar Pujara (captain), Lokesh Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shankar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, Baba Aparajith.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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