England coach Brendon McCullum aims for glory in decisive 2025: Time to shoot for stars
England coach Brendon McCullum wants his side to aim for the stars as they get ready for a decisive year in 2025 with the India series and an Ashes series on the horizon. McCullum and his Bazball mantra has revolutionised England cricket as they have won 22 out of the 35 Tests under him. They now go up against an Indian team in a home series, starting from June 20. Despite the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, India remain a strong side and England are yet to beat them in a Test series. Same is the case with Australia as the Ashes will take place down under this year. These two assignments will be crucial for England in their new World Test Championship cycle. advertisementMcCullum said that they're not trying to pick up this team anymore and want them to become a side that the English people can be proud of. The England coach feels that his side has the best chance to go to Australia and produce a good performance under the bright lights. 'We're not trying to pick this team up any more. It's a matter of taking this team from a good team into being something English people are really proud of,' McCullum told the BBC Radio 5 Live Cricket show.'We're actually travelling pretty good but there's an opportunity now," McCullum added. "We're working from a position of strength, but now's the time where we shoot for the stars."'There's no greater opportunity than playing in big series against the best opposition on the biggest stage under the brightest lights to be able to test that.'McCullum delighted with Stokes returnadvertisementMcCullum was happy to welcome captain Ben Stokes into the team once again after his lengthy injury layoff. The England coach said that Stokes is a driven player who pushes his teammates to win at all costs. 'He [Stokes] is unbelievably driven, to push himself, to push his teammates, to win at all costs," McCullum said.'We're very lucky to have him in the chair because he's going to be very strong about trying to push this team to the next level.'England and India will play 5 Tests with the first match taking place in Headingley. Must Watch
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Hindustan Times
23 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
‘You don't know which format will be more important in a couple of years'
Stavanger: Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand says he likes of compartmentalize the various hats he currently wears. Over the last 10 days in Stavanger, though, he's been a busy man. Amidst his daily commentary gig with Norway Chess, Anand made a quick dash for the 'Clash of Generations' exhibition game in Italy, and was among the speakers at the Norway Summit on Wednesday. Sitting down with members of Indian media here ahead of that, the five-time world champion spoke on a range of issues — from Gukesh's performance in the tournament to Magnus Carlsen's fist bang. On Gukesh's tests of survival in Norway Chess It is nothing that wasn't unknown to me. He is tough, quite tenacious. He copes pretty well with setbacks. Obviously, this is a higher test, a more intense tournament. He seems to be under pressure every day, but several days he came out well. Yesterday (on Tuesday, in the loss against Hikaru Nakamura) he flipped a little bit. Suddenly too much success, perhaps two days of getting lucky — of course, you make your luck — and something was off with him. But, that happens. On whether Gukesh is playing too much It depends on what you want to try. And also, you have to grab opportunities. Maybe, going forward, careers won't be as long. But yes, you have to schedule some tournaments. It's good that after this, he gets some break. He has to enjoy those moments as well. I mean, there's no use if the brain refuses to switch off. On his advice to Indian youngsters in dealing with playing all formats (classical, rapid, freestyle), and the risk of burnout Not only is it difficult to compare, the situation is also not the same. I no longer feel my advice is what's the right mix is necessarily the only one. But I know that you cannot cope by taking in everything. And at some point you have to stop, and say these are things that I'll leave out and these I'll prioritize. Because that's the way we do things. Beyond that, the scenario is changing so much. You don't know which format will be more important in a couple of years. A lot of this is decided by public opinion and what they want to watch. On the Gukesh-Grzegorz Gajewski partnership I guess it's a normal relationship. But they've had to deal with such wild swings. I don't think they expected Toronto (Candidates). Obviously without Toronto, you can't expect Singapore (World Championships), and you can't expect this kind of meteoric rise. So they're also adjusting to it. On whether he's seen extreme reactions like Carlsen's fist bang on the table before Yes, enough anger. All this has been around for a while, people screaming and cursing. The only difference is the cameras. The other thing I would say is that this was very intense. Maybe Magnus isn't that excited about classical chess, but he has certainly taken on Gukesh. Or if not that, (to) show that he can fight the youngsters. A lot of stuff (that was) probably going on in his head, and it came out. So those two games (against Gukesh), he took very intensely and seriously. That's kind of partially what brought it on. And that he essentially threw away a carefully nursed game in half a second. On comments by Carlsen and Nakamura in Norway speculating their classical future They've been saying this for some time. Hiraku doesn't play much anyway. He is really quite busy with his other commitments. Same with Magnus, and he's mentioned it many times. You can't ask what the future is every time someone tries to dial it down. I mean, nobody asked me — I had also dialled it down. The sport goes on. There are hundreds of new talents. In this case, we had a lot of warnings. On Nakamura's comments here that chess needs more personalities to sell, and whether that also applies to the current Indians in the elite bunch People are supposed to do what they do best, focus on the best outcomes, and that is supposed to be interesting. You're not supposed to go out there and make being interesting separate from what you do. They (the likes of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi) are all also very young. Hikaru is able to bring his experience over many years into this, and he's been someone who has done things on the online platform and has a good sense of what people react to and like to watch. That's something he has managed to leverage well. They (Indian players) are welcome to take advice from him, but how they implement it is on them.
United News of India
26 minutes ago
- United News of India
BCCI floats RFP for IPL and WPL digital services
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Indian Express
27 minutes ago
- Indian Express
FIDE chief Arkady Dvorkovich on Magnus Carlsen's fist thump: ‘It was extreme emotion… but emotions make any sport more exciting'
When a frustrated Magnus Carlsen slammed his fist on the table after a blunder against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju during a match at Norway Chess, the sound was heard across the world. While many in the chess fraternity were a little taken aback by that display of emotion, that moment has prompted plenty of people who would otherwise not follow the sport to track the drama keenly. Now FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich has said that what Carlsen did was 'a bit unusual' but 'not disrespectful'. 'I saw a video that showed that Gukesh had also done the same (once). The reaction (from Carlsen) was a bit unusual, yes. It was like extreme emotion. But, people like emotions. Emotions make sport more exciting sometimes,' Dvorkovich told Indian media in Stavanger on Wednesday. OH MY GOD 😳🤯😲 — Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 1, 2025 'Of course, everyone should keep himself respectful. I would not call what Magnus did disrespectful. It was emotional as he was really disappointed. Gukesh fought back in a very tough game. But at the end, Magnus appreciated that Gukesh was really fighting for that (win).' Dvorkovich-led FIDE and Carlsen have recently clashed a few times, especially when the world no.1 was threatened with a forfeiture for wearing jeans at the World Rapid and Blitz Championship. In response, Carlsen quit the tournament and butted antlers with the top brass of chess' world governing body. He was later coaxed back to play the World Blitz Championship, the title which he subsequently opted to share with Ian Nepomniachtchi. FIDE then objected to the Freestyle Grand Slam chess tour events, organised by people backed by the Norwegian. In Stavanger, when Dvorkovich was asked whether he thought Carlsen banging his fist on the table would draw in newer audiences to the sport, he said: 'You can always say that in any sport, any scandal creates more excitement. And this was not a big scandal, happily, it was just a short moment.' 'Major channels start following those things, like it was once with the (Hans Niemann) cheating scandal, Jeansgate or whatever. Magnus is a top player, so when he is involved in something like that, of course everyone pays attention. But I have great respect for Magnus and I would not blame him for those things.' Dvorkovich felt that in cases where a player acts out physically during a game, an arbiter should give a soft warning. But 'if there are no complaints (from the other player), it doesn't go anywhere.' Right after the fist thump incident, Carlsen had spoken out about how this year's Norway Chess could be the last classical event he plays. When asked about Carlsen quitting classical chess, Dvorkovich said: 'That would be unfortunate, but I hope that he'll come back to some classical events or some mixed events. Magnus is the best player, but not the only strong player in the world. He's in his mid-thirties already, so it's good that he's doing other things as well.' Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
