Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: With Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah taking over as Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), former India spinner Harbhajan Singh that he will take cricket to a higher level globally. Jay Shah officially assumed the role of ICC Chair on December 1, succeeding Greg Barclay who vacated the position on Saturday, to become the youngest to occupy that post. Harbhajan said Shah will be able to continue at ICC the work he did at BCCI.
“Jay Shah will take cricket to a higher level globally and he is able to continue the great work he did (in BCCI) at the ICC too. Also, he can bring in smaller nations to participate more: Harbhajan Singh told IANS,” Harbhajan Singh said during the inaugural function of the World Tennis Cricket League.
With the fate of the Champions Trophy 2025 veering towards a hybrid model, former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh has asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to accept the decision.
Pakistan are the original host of the ICC 2025 Champions Trophy but are likely to agree to conduct it in a hybrid model after the Border of Control for India (BCCI) informed the ICC that the Indian Government has refused to allow the team to travel across the border to play in Pakistan.
About PCB’s threat that Pakistan will not travel to India to play ICC events in future, Harbhajan said they are free to make their own call. “If Pakistan does not want to travel to India in the future, it is their call. Tournaments will happen without their participation as well,” Harbhajan Singh said.
Harbhajan praised the Indian team for its brilliant victory over Australia in the opening match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Perth.
Playing under stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah, India outplayed Australia in all departments of the game to hand them an embarrassing defeat.
With skipper Rohit Sharma back in the squad after the birth of his second child, India continued their good performance in Australia by beating Australia Prime Minister’s XI in a rescheduled 50-over match after the first day of the two-day pink-ball match was rained off.
However, concerns have been raised over skipper Rohit Sharma’s batting form after he could only score three runs against the Prime Minister’s XI.
Harbhajan, however, refused to read much in Rohit’s failure which continues from the home series against New Zealand that India lost 0-3.
“Rohit Sharma’s form is not a concern. However, I would pick Dhruv Jurel in the playing 11 and rest Shubman Gill for the second Test,” said Harbhajan giving his preferences for the pink-ball Test to be played at Adelaide from December 8. Gill had missed the first Test because of an injury and has recently recovered from it.
