Sports

Sports desk : The Delhi Police has been instructed to increase security after the NIA received a letter claiming the Indian cricket team is under threat. India will play a T20I series against Bangladesh with the first game scheduled in Delhi on November 3. 

It appears that the Indian team might be under the threat of a deadly attack in the capital. The letter received by NIA has been forwarded by the security agency to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Delhi Police has been asked to beef up security ahead of the two team's arrival. The anonymous letter says 'All India Lashkar' based out of Kozikhode might target Indian captain Virat Kohli and prominent politicians, who will be present at the Arun Jaitely Stadium for the first T20I. However, Kohli is not a part of the T20I squad for the Bangladesh series and Rohit Sharma will be leading the side in his absence. 

According to sources, the letter could be a hoax but given heightened threat perception no chance is being taken and security review of the match venue and individual players is being done.

Sports desk: Sourav Ganguly and Ravi Shastri have been loggerheads for a while now, the conflict came to front when Anil Kumble was made coach of the Indian cricket team in 2016. At the time, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS laxman were part of the three-member high-powered Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which chose Anil KUmble over Ravi shastri.

Shastri questioned the absence of Ganguly  during his interview, and said he found it "disrespectful". Ganguly fired back by saying that Shastri was living in a "fool's paradise" if he thinks that he is responsible for the appointment of Anil KUmble as a coach. 

 And while not much has been said since, fans on social media had gone into overdrive after Ganguly emerged as the front-runner to become the next BCCI president, many wondering what Shastri's future holds after Ganguly takes over.

During a media briefing, Ganguly was asked whether he had spoken to Ravi Shastri, his reply has gone viral.

"Why? What has he done now?" Ganguly responded with a chuckle.

The former India captain is set to take over the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on October 23.

Sourav Ganguly had filed his nomination on Monday and is set to be the unopposed choice for the role.

On Tuesday, the 47-year-old tweeted a picture with his new team. Jay Shah, Arun Dhumal, Jayesh George and Mahim Verma will be part of Ganguly's team.

Anurag Thakur, former president of the BCCI, had reportedly played a pivotal role to turn the table in Ganguly's favour.

After filing the nomination, Ganguly said that he wishes to bring back normalcy in Indian cricket.

"Hopefully in the next few months, we can put everything in place and bring back normalcy in Indian cricket," Sourav Ganguly told reporters.

Sports desk: Sourav Ganguly, former India captain, took over as the president of Board of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) on Wednesday. Jay Shah, son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, began his tenure as the new secretary while Arun Dhumal takes office as treasurer. Dhumal is the younger brother of Minister of State for Finance and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur. There were no elections held for appointments of the posts since all candidates emerged unopposed after weeks of lobbying and hectic parleys. Ganguly is the first India cricketer after the Maharaja of Vizianagaram to become the president of Board of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI).

Ganguly, however, will be able to serve as BCCI president only up to September 2020, as he is currently the president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and will have to go into a compulsory cooling off period.

Ganguly took over as CAB president in 2015, following the death of his administrative mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya.

The 47-year-old Sourav Ganguly had said that he wants to emulate Dalmiya's success at the role.

Sourav Ganguly on supporting Virat Kohli 

Speaking about the captain of the Indian cricket team, Sourav Ganguly said, “I will speak to Virat Kohli tomorrow (Thursday, October 24). He is the captain of India; I think he is the most important man in Indian cricket. I will have a word with him, and as I said, we will support him in every possible way. He wants to make this team the best in the world. It's been a great team, to be honest, the way they have played cricket in the last three to four years, they have been a fantastic side. Yes, you can say that they have not won a World Cup, but you don’t win World Cups every time. We will hopefully support him with whatever he wants and make sure that Indian cricket goes ahead smoothly. In terms of Test cricket venues, we have a lot of States and a lot of venues. We will have to sit with him (Virat Kohli) and see what he wants in that way and take it forward from there.” 

Pune: Indian captain Virat Kohli scored a dazzling hundred in Pune on Friday to put the hosts on top vs South Africa in the ongoing 2nd Test.  Kohli not just scored his 26th Test century but soon also brought up his 150.

With this, he surpassed Australian legend Don Bradman as the captain with most scores of 150 and above. Kohli now has 9 scores of 150+ while captaining India, which is 1 more than Bradman's tally. Michael Clarke, Mahela Jayawardene, Brian Lara and Graeme Smith are next on the list with 7 scores of 150+ each as captain.

Virat Kohli now also has scored most Test runs as an Indian captain, going past Sunil Gavaskar who scored 2426 runs.

In what is his 50th Test as captain, Kohli also joined the likes of Stephen Fleming, Alastair Cook and Steve Waugh as only the 4th ever captain to score a century in his 50th game at the helm.

Among players with most Test centuries as captain, Kohli now lies at the joint-2nd position with 19 hundreds. Graeme Smith (25), Ricky Ponting (19), Allan Border and Steve Smith (15 each) complete the top-5 such captains.

Virat also surpassed Sachin Tendulkar's Test career average on his way to 150 in Pune. Kohli's career average at the time of writing this piece was 54.34 - just a notch above Tendulkar's 53.78. However

After the 138-run stand for the second wicket between centurion Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara on the opening day, it was the turn of Kohli and Rahane to turn the screw on South Africa with a partnership of 178.