India have the resources to become the best team in Test cricket and the bumper home season would be a perfect opportunity to sow the seed of their ascendancy, captain Virat Kohli said on Wednesday.
Kohli's men embark on an important 13-Test season on Thursday when they take on New Zealand in the first match of the three-Test series at Kanpur's Green Park Stadium.
“We believe we certainly have what it takes to be the best team in the world,” the 27-year-old told reporters on the eve of what would be India’s 500th Test.
“One area we have tapped into is belief. It’s something that a lot of young players can lack coming into international cricket.
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“It’s all about getting rid of that feeling ... That’s the only way you can go out there, be confident and express yourself. Express how good you are, and that’s what this team has done.
“More often than not if you’re fearless, the results will fall your way because you’re willing to take that extra risk in the course of the game. I certainly feel that this team has what it takes to be the best.”
India's poor record as tourists have been a home truth but under Kohli, the team have won series in Sri Lanka and West Indies to briefly occupy the top Test rankings before arch-rivals Pakistan snatched it.
Kohli saw a gilt-edged opportunity to reclaim the tag in the big "career-defining" home season which will also include Tests against England, Australia and Bangladesh.
“This season is a phase where we can lay the foundation where the Test team will go,” Kohli said.
“The challenge in last one year or so has been to show composure and get the victories which we require and we have been able to get that. The important thing is to continue the same.
“This season will be career-defining for all the people in the squad, because hardly we have played 17 Test matches regularly.
“That’s something we are happy about, that we can plan our Test cricket, and back ourselves and get those victories whenever the chance comes. Very exciting times ahead.”
Considering the Test against New Zealand, Kohli praised the touring side’s fearless brand of cricket, which he attributed to former Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum.
“Their mentality was cricket was not the end of the world for them, they just enjoyed the game,” Kohli said. “I think they have been able to detach themselves from those pressures and that’s why they have got successful in last couple of years.”
Indian paceman Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the Test with mosquito-borne viral disease Chikungunya.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Esperance de Tunis 0
Al Ain 3 (Ahmed 02’, El Shahat 17’, Al Ahbabi 60’)
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
