England cricket has embarked upon a new Test era with star all-rounder Ben Stokes as captain and New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, who was a trend-setting batsman in white-ball cricket, as coach of the red-ball team.
The Three Lions have a completely new set-up in place, following the arrival of Rob Key as director of cricket, while Joe Root has relinquished the Test captaincy but will continue as a player.
McCullum has been brought in with the aim of infusing some much-needed aggression and positivity in they way England play the five-day format, after winning just one of their last 17 matches that leaves them last in the World Test Championship table.
One of the first decisions the new management took was to recall veteran seam bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who were controversially dropped for the West Indies tour after the 4-0 Ashes thrashing.
McCullum also hinted at having T20 star batsman Jos Buttler in the team, and is also eager to see if the likes of Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid want to be part of his red-ball revamp.
Buttler was the leading run-scorer in the recently concluded IPL, smashing a record four centuries in the tournament.
McCullum, who saw him at close quarters as head coach of Kolkata Knight Riders, is keen to see him Tests again.
He said: "Jos is one of those players you look at instantly and think how could he be so dominant in one form of the game and not quite have found his feet, other than a few fleeting performances, in Test cricket?
"There's certainly guys you look at and think there's a lot of talent that could improve the side given the right opportunity. There's no reason why, if you're good at T20, you can't bring those skills into Test cricket and you look at some of the guys who have dominated the IPL in the last two months. It's just a matter of trying to identify how they're going to do that."
England's first assignment is a three-match Test series against New Zealand, which begins at Lord's on Thursday. The team began training at the iconic ground on Monday.
Meanwhile, New Zealand named a 15-man squad for the three-Test series but said that Henry Nicholls and Trent Boult are doubts for the first match at Lord's.
Nicholls is still recovering from a right calf injury, with New Zealand naming Michael Bracewell as the 16th man as cover for the top order batsman.
Fast bowler Boult, meanwhile, is expected to arrive in London only on Monday after playing for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL final in Ahmedabad a day earlier.
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
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Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
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