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CRICKETER OF THE YEAR

Rahul Dravid has been named as the ‘Castrol Test cricketer of the year’ for his brilliant performance in test cricket in 2011. The Castrol awards were given to a number of Indian cricketers a few days ago.

Dravid had announced his retirement from test cricket earlier this year. But, his performance was brilliant in the test matches in 2011. He scored two centuries against West Indies and three centuries against England last year. Rahul Dravid was the only Indian batsman who played the English fast bowlers confidently on the tour of England last year.

Rahul Dravid was the highest run scorer in the test matches in 2011.He played 12 test matches last year in which he scored 1145 runs at an average of 57.25 and at a strike rate of 44.74. He scored 5 centuries and 4 half centuries in 2011. The Sri Lankan batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, was no. 2 in the list who scored 1034 runs in 11 test matches.

Apart from Dravid, some other Indian cricketers were also awarded. Suresh Raina was named as the ‘one day cricketer of the year’. Sachin Tendulkar was named as the ‘batsman of the year’, while, the captain of the Indian U19 team, Unmukt Chand, was named as the ‘junior cricketer of the year’.

The Indian captain, MS Dhoni, was named as ‘cricketer of the year’, but, he was not present in the award ceremony to collect his award. The former Indian captain, Ajit Wadekar, was given the lifetime achievement award.

After getting the award, Dravid said that the last year was very good for him and after the England series, he had thought that he would continue playing for another two years. But, the Australian tour changed his mind set. He started missing the line of the deliveries in Australia and he felt that the time had come for him to quit.

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NEW BOWLING COACH

The former fast bowler of Tasmania, Allister De Winter, has been appointed as the new bowling coach of Australia. He will replace Creig McDermott who resigned from his post. McDermott said that he has not been able to give proper time to his family due to his coaching duties. So, he is resigning from his post to spend some time with his family.

The general manager of Cricket Australia, Pat Howard, said that there were quite a few candidates for this post including the former Pakistani fast bowler, Waqar Younis, but De Winter won the race eventually. De Winter is currently the assistant coach of Tasmania. After being appointed as the bowling coach, De Winter said that he is very excited to work with the Australian bowlers. As per De Winter, Australia has a very good bunch of fast bowlers at the moment. It would be wonderful to work with these aggressive fast bowlers.

De Winter also coaches the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big bash League (BBL). De Winter didn’t represent Australia in the international cricket. He played first class cricket for Tasmania. He played 21 first class matches for Tasmania and took 35 wickets. De Winter said that the bowlers at the international level should not be taught how to bowl. They already know how to bowl. All they need is a bit of guidance about their bowling and that’s what the role of a bowling coach is all about. As per De Winter, sometimes the bowlers need a minor adjustment in their action or in their bowling stride and suddenly they start picking wickets. So, a bowling coach should tell a bowler where he is getting wrong and what should he do to overcome his problem.

De Winter would take the charge of the Australian team from the UAE tour where Australia will play ODI and T20 matches against Pakistan.

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Australia move up

After giving some consistent performances in test match cricket, Australian cricket team has moved up in the official test rankings of International Cricket Council (ICC). Australia is now at no. 2. England is still the number 1 side while South Africa has moved down to no. 3. The Australian cricketers have performed brilliantly in the last two test series that they have played. At first, they whitewashed Team India by a margin of 4-0 in the home series and then they visited West Indies and beat them by a margin of 2-0 in the 3 match test series. In the last 7 test matches that Australia has played, it has won 6 of them.

After the appointment of Michael Clarke as captain, the Australian test team has shown gradual improvements. The team is looking stabilized and every member of the team has a fixed role. Australia has a young brigade of fast bowlers who can bowl pretty quickly. Also, it has a very good spinner in the form of Nathan Lyon. He is an old fashioned orthodox off spinner who likes to flight the ball. The opening slot is also looking quite stabilized. David Warner is relishing the opportunity of playing test cricket. He makes a lethal combination with Shane Watson at the top of the order. Australia has also found a fabulous wicket keeper in the form of Matthew Wade. He is quite capable with the bat. Ian Chappell, former Australian Captain, has said during a television show that Wade is good enough to play as a specialist batsman in the Australian team. Also, he doesn’t do a bad job behind the stumps.

Australia has to play an important test series against South Africa in the later part of the year. If Australia wins that series, it might become the No. 1 test team in the world again.