44 Friday Sports Friday, January 17, 2020 Ex-captain Dhoni out of India’s list of contracted cricketers NEW DELHI: MS Dhoni was absent from the Virat Kohli in 2017. list of centrally contracted players published by However Dhoni may be eyeing a last hurrah the Indian cricket board yesterday, raising fresh at the Twenty20 World Cup in October and speculation about the 38-year-old warhorse’s November in Australia. future. He is expected to lead the Chennai Super Dhoni has not appeared for club or country Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this since the World Cup in July and the wicket- April-May. keeper-batsman has been expected to an- The Indian selectors have been grooming nounce his retirement for some time. young stumper Rishabh Pant, 22, to fill Dhoni’s The former captain of the national side, who gloves. Previously Dhoni was in the A-grade serves as an honorary lieutenant colonel in the category of the Board of Control for Cricket in army reserves, spent part of last year with his India (BCCI) central list, earning a guaranteed unit in strife-torn Kashmir — missing an ODI $715,000. tour of the West Indies. Pant is among 11 players listed in the A- He has not featured in any series since and grade contract with batsman KL Rahul taking was not named as part of the squad to tour Dhoni’s place. Kohli, senior batsman Rohit New Zealand later this month. Sharma and paceman Jasprit Bumrah are guar- He quit Test cricket in 2014 but continued to anteed at least $1 million each in the A-plus be India’s batting mainstay in limited-overs category for the period October 2019 to Sep- MS Dhoni cricket despite passing on the captaincy to tember 2020. — AFP Injury-hit NZ Japan hoping surprise U-19 WCup call up Bennett appearance is just the start TOKYO: Cricket is barely on the radar ally good reception from the Japanese added. “Kids should be kids.” for India T20 in Japan, where baseball, soccer and people after the World Cup. Those Curr recently took the squad on a sumo wrestling dominate the sporting players ... are Japanese, they speak the whirlwind 10-day, five-match tour of landscape, but all that could be about language and they represent the values Australia to prepare for the World Cup WELLINGTON: New Zealand have called in to change after its under-19 (U-19) that people can relate to.” and vice-captain Neel Date said he Hamish Bennett to shore up their attack for the team qualified for the World Cup in In a bid to increase the number of was living the dream. Twenty20 series against India this month, while South Africa. people playing cricket from the current “Playing international cricket in Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson remain on the in- It is early days yet, of course, with 3,000, the JCA have targeted two some form was always a huge dream jured list. The 32-year-old Bennett was a regular in the the Japanese Cricket Association (JCA) “Cities of Cricket” - Sano, which is 80 for me, and the under-19 World Cup is New Zealand one-day international side in 2011 but founded in 1984 and made an ICC km (49.71 miles) north of Tokyo, and making that dream a reality,” the 18- has played only four ODIs since, the last against member only in 1995. The U-19 side Akishima, which is to the west of the year-old said. Date, who has Indian Bangladesh in 2017 when several regulars were busy was founded in 2017 and took part in capital. heritage but has lived in Japan since he with Indian Premier League commitments. 2019’s East-Asia Pacific qualifying “Rather than throw a massive blan- was an infant, said his love for cricket Although he has not played Twenty20 at interna- tournament to get some practice. ket over Tokyo and capture everyone had begun to rub off on his Japanese tional level, Bennett has been a consistent achiever After a 170-run win over Samoa in we can, we have gone for a more tar- school friends. in the domestic league and selector Gavin Larsen their opener, however, they went unde- geted approach,” said the JCA’s head “For them, my name has almost be- said his call-up was a reward for his form and per- feated to book their place in the U-19 of operations, Alan Curr. come synonymous with cricket,” said severance. World Cup, which starts on Friday. The “We got cricket into the schools and Date. “They are immensely proud of “Over the past few seasons he’s consistently been team includes five players of Indian set up the junior Cricket Blast pro- my pursuits and I know they will be fol- one of the top domestic white-ball bowlers and origin and several with mixed heritage, gramme. It is six-a-side, fun cricket lowing my cricket in South Africa very we’ve been impressed how he’s been able to evolve reflecting Japan’s slowly increasing where everyone gets a bat, everyone eagerly. his game,” Larsen said. “We all know he brings good cultural diversity. gets a bowl. It is all about being inclu- “They may be even more excited for pace and bounce but it’s the clever variations he’s “Cricket is an international sport and sive and having a laugh.” the World Cup than I am.” Regardless added that make him such a well-rounded T20 with the changing Japanese domestic The programme has produced 11 of of how they perform in South Africa - bowler.” Bennett is joined in the pace bowling ranks demographic, this is what the future is the 14 players in the under-19s squad where they have been drawn in a pool by Tim Southee, Blair Tickner and Scott Kuggeleijn, with Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi the spinners. going to be,” said JCA chief executive including Kazumasa Takahashi, an all- with Sri Lanka, New Zealand and de- Boult and Ferguson are still recovering from injuries Naoki Alex Miyaji, who has a Japanese rounder who debuted in Japan’s senior fending champion India - the players sustained on the recent Test tour of Australia and father and Scottish mother. team the day after his 15th birthday. hope this is just the beginning for were not considered. Miyaji pointed to the success of Japanese cricket is keen to differen- cricket in Japan. Other pace bowlers not considered because of Japan’s rugby team at the 2019 World tiate itself from the harsh, disciplined “It will be a matter of utmost joy to injury included Matt Henry, Doug Bracewell and Cup, where a squad featuring 16 play- approach to training at junior level in see not just expats but also Japanese Adam Milne. ers born outside the country reached baseball and other more popular kids playing cricket in the park like we New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (capt), the quarter-finals for the first time. sports. did when we were 10,” said Date. “If I Hamish Bennett, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grand- “We need to change and see that “We want to be seen as a Japanese get to see this sight 20 years from now, homme, Martin Guptill, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl traditional Japanese thinking is not sport, of course, as we are a Japanese and know that I contributed a tiny frac- Mitchell, Colin Munro, Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner, going to help Japan in the future. Japan organisation ultimately, but there are tion to make the situation of cricket in Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim needs to open up a bit,” Miyaji said. parts of Japanese sport we aren’t par- Japan that way, it would be boundlessly Southee. — AFP “We need to learn (from) ... the re- ticularly fond of,” Englishman Curr satisfying to experience.” —Reuters.