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Former England cricketer was asked to pick between Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. This is when he shared an epic story.

Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Sunil Gavaskar remain three of the finest batters that India has produced. For many, Tendulkar remains the ultimate GOAT, though fans from different eras have varied preferences. For some, it is Virat Kohli who is the greatest batter of all time, at least in the ODI cricketing spectrum. As former England cricketer Allan Lamb was asked to pick between Sachin, Virat and Gavaskar he picked the Master Blaster. Lamb, however, also had an epic tale to share behind his preference.

Speaking to PTI, Lamb also spoke passionately about his playing days with Kapil Dev in County cricket and why he rates Sachin Tendulkar over Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli.

Excerpts:

Q. You toured India for the first time in the 1984-85 series, having made your debut at Lord’s in 1982 against India. How would you sum up the rise of Indian cricket? A. I always thought that Indian cricket was going to go up, it was on the gradual climb. And because of the population and being your number one sport, cricket was always going to be the top of the tree.

The IPL has changed cricket in India and the world. It’s incredible to see these youngsters coming through, the 15-year-olds and the 16-year-olds (like Vaibhav Suryavanshi), and making a name for themselves.

In one day cricket, India should win every competition. In Test matches, you’re going to rely a lot on Bumrah and you’re going to miss Virat Kohli big time.

Q. Would you have fancied playing in the IPL and how has it changed the life of an international cricketer? A. It’s changed the life of all cricketers that are playing now. They don’t have to play Test cricket. They can just have 20-20 contracts all around the world and earn a fortune. I mean, the money we earned was tippings when we played. But good for them. They deserve all the millions; as entertainers they deserve to be paid.

And would have I enjoyed the IPL? Yeah, because when I played, I always waited till the last 20 overs or the last 10 overs if we’re playing a 50-over game.

Q. You played with the great Kapil Dev at Northamptonshire and played against the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. Who is your favourite Indian cricketer of all time? A. I love the way Kapil Dev played. We played together at Northampton. I remember him coming over and I saying, ‘Kapi, I’m so pleased that you’ve come over. We need to strengthen our bowling’. He said, ‘no I haven’t come to strengthen my bowling. I’ve come to better my batting. I’ve come here as a batsman, which I always enjoyed that’.

Q. Gavaskar, Sachin or Kohli? A. Sachin easily. I played against him when he was 18. I dropped him at slip and he went to get 100 (in a Test match). So I always say to him, it was me that made your name (laughs).

Kohli is a brilliant player, he’s got all the shots, he can score quickly. But if you want the best player I played against, that Indian player is Sachin, even ahead of Sunny. The only thing I would have liked to see Sachin play the West Indies, where Sunny scored runs against the West Indies. He was probably the only Indian to score runs against those quicks.

UGC Notice to IITs, IIMs: As per the UGC Regulations on Ragging, 2009, every institution affiliated with UGC is required to submit Compliance Undertaking and Anti-Ragging undertakings from students.

UGC Notice to IITs, IIMs: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a notice to 89 institutions across the country, including four Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), three Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), for failing to comply with anti-ragging regulations.

As per the UGC Regulations on Ragging, 2009, every institution affiliated with UGC is required to submit Compliance Undertaking and Anti-Ragging undertakings from students.

According to the notice, “It has come to the attention of UGC that these institutions have not submitted the mandatory Anti-Ragging undertakings from students and the compliance undertakings from institutions, despite repeated advisories, follow-up calls from the Anti-Ragging Helpline, and direct interventions by the Anti-Ragging Monitoring Agency.”

“Compliance with the UGC Regulation on Ragging, 2009 is mandatory for all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Non-compliance not only breaches UGC guidelines but also endangers student safety, especially amid rising concerns regarding ragging-related distress and hostile campus environments,” the notice stated.

The four IITs named in the defaulters’ list include IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Palakkad, and IIT Hyderabad. The IIMs include IIM Bombay, IIM Rohtak, and IIM Tiruchirappalli. Other notable institutions cited for non-compliance are AIIMS Raebareli and the National Institutes of Design in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana.

The girl’s symptoms included vomiting live larvae, approximately 1 centimetre long, indicating a severe infestation.

Doctors in China treated an eight-year-old girl from Yangzhou City in Jiangsu province, who had been throwing up live worms for around a month, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. The doctors found that the cause of her illness was linked to something so common in a household – drain flies, also known as moth flies.

The girl’s symptoms included vomiting live larvae, approximately 1 centimetre long, indicating a severe infestation. Her family members were fine, suggesting the infection was not contagious.

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She saw many doctors, but initially, they were unable to identify the cause. A doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Soochow University in Jiangsu suggested sending the samples to the local Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, where a staff member recognised the worm.

The moth flies are small insects with distinctive heart-shaped wings. They thrive in environments rich in organic matter, such as clogged drains.As quoted in the report, Xu Yuhui, who is a department chief at the Yangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, explained that the drain flies’ larvae had contaminated the running underground water.

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“When the child brushes her teeth or flushes the toilet, the worms might enter her system through splashes of water,” Xu said.

The report mentioned that the flies do not send diseases via the blood, but they can still cause problems. If left untreated, parasitic infections can lead to more severe health issues, including intestinal blockages, anaemia and malnutrition. Such infestations can be tackled through a combination of good hygiene practices.

Preventing such infestations involves maintaining good hygiene practices, such as proper drainage, regular cleaning and good hygiene.

Shefali’s close friend and Bigg Boss 13 co-contestant Arti Singh posted an emotional tribute on Instagram.

Actor and dancer Shefali Jariwala’s sudden death on June 27 at the age of 42 has left the entertainment industry and her fans in shock. 

Recently, Shefali’s close friend and Bigg Boss 13 co-contestant Arti Singh posted an emotional tribute on Instagram.

What’s Happening

• Arti shared a heartfelt message on Instagram. She posted a series of pictures and a video clip from their time on the reality show, as well as photos from her recent wedding festivities, which Shefali attended with her husband Parag Tyagi.
• Arti wrote, “Just can’t believe it. Till the time I saw you yesterday, I couldn’t… We just met in the gym a week back and you said, ‘Arti, tere liye bohot khushi hoti hai. Tu khush hai na? Sath mein cardio karenge.’ We made plans just a week back. Whenever someone asked, ‘Kis kis se aaj bhi baat karte ho?’ I used to say ‘SHEFU.’ I never thought in my wildest dreams you would go.”
• She continued, “You were a crazy, super-happy child. You gave me love and blessings always. You never gossiped about anyone. Clean at heart. Why, why, why would God do this? I love you and will always love you.”
• Arti also recalled Shefali’s presence on Bigg Boss 13, writing, “When you entered Bigg Boss, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. Before your wedding, you’d call me every day like a sister, saying, ‘Facial kara le, kaam bata.’ You and Bhaiya (Parag Tyagi) were like real siblings to me. My heart goes out to Uncle and Aunty, it broke my soul to see them like that.”
• Expressing her sadness, she added, “Parag Bhaiya kept you and pampered you like a child. We will cry, we will mourn, but the family… they will suffer all their life. I don’t want to say you’ve gone to heaven or a better place… This was not the time for you to go. You had to spread more smiles, more happiness, and more love.”
• She ended her message with, “You will always, always, always be my special friend. I know life is unpredictable, but we tend to forget that. I hate writing RIP. I pray you are happy, your soul is happy, and that your family gets the strength to endure. I love you, my SHEFU.”

In a video that has gone viral, Indrakumar is heard telling Guru Aniruddhacharya that he owns 18 acres of land but has no one to look after his property.

A deep sense of frustration over not finding a bride followed by a viral public appeal ended in the death of a 45-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh, after a woman forged her identity to marry him and then killed him to seize his property.

Indrakumar Tiwari from Padwar (Khitola) village in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district, who worked as a part-time teacher and farmer, had expressed his frustration about not finding a bride during a spiritual discourse by renowned Guru Aniruddhacharya Maharaj last month.  

In a video that has gone viral, Indrakumar is heard telling Guru Aniruddhacharya that he owns 18 acres of land but has no one to look after his property. Rather than advice, Indrakumar was met with light-hearted banter. 

The video, unfortunately, caught the attention of scamsters. Soon after, the man went missing and on June 6, his body – with a knife stuck in his neck – was recovered from the bushes on National Highway 28 in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar. According to Kushinagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Santosh Kumar, a preliminary investigation revealed that a woman named Sahiba Bano disguised herself as “Khushi Tiwari” and approached the man on social media for marriage. 

As Indrakumar and Sahiba gradually became acquainted with one another, the latter called him to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. “Khushi Tiwari contacted Indrakumar and proposed marriage to him. He agreed to marry her. The woman then laid a trap along with her associates,” Mr Kumar said. 

Police said the man even told his family that he was going to Kushinagar to marry “Khushi”. 

“The man reached Gorakhpur and the two got married. His body was found days later. It is suspected that the woman and her associates killed him and escaped with some jewellery and cash that he was carrying,” the SP said. 

Indrakumar’s body with a knife stuck in his neck was found in Sukarouli under Hata Kotwali area in Kushinagar.

The IIT graduate said his landlord deducted a large portion of his Rs 1.5 lakh deposit, citing what he described as “unreasonable and unexpected” charges.Stories about awful landlords in Bengaluru often go viral on social media, sparking widespread debate. These posts often highlight tenant-landlord disputes over deposits, broken agreements or evictions. Recently, a LinkedIn post by founder Shravan Tickoo has sparked a discussion online after he shared his experience of shifting rental homes in the tech capital of India. The IIT graduate said his landlord deducted a large portion of his Rs 1.5 lakh deposit, citing what he described as “unreasonable and unexpected” charges. 

“So recently, I moved out of my 2BHK on Sarjapur Road after living there for two years, into a larger house. When I had moved in, my owner never spoke to me not once in two years. The reason? She only speaks Kannada,” the user said, adding that the landlord always communicated with him via the building manager. 

“There were always rumours that the owner had harassed previous tenants over the same issue. So, when the time came, I was mentally prepared. Still, when I finally left, I tried to stay civil. But then came the blow: Painting charges – Rs 55,000. Miscellaneous damages – Rs 25,000+,” Mr Tickoo wrote.The founder said that when he asked for a detailed list, the damages were “absurd”. He claimed that the landlord charged him Rs 2,000 for using the lift. After a lot of back and forth, she returned only Rs 68K out of my Rs 1.5 lakh deposit, citing Rs 82K for painting and damages. I had asked her to provide a list of actual purchases, with invoices. All I got was a handwritten sheet with random charges. So in the end, I got back just about 40% of my deposit,” he continued.

Mr Tickoo said that he takes the blame for not doing proper due diligence “But the reality is, dealing with landlords in Bengaluru is just disheartening,” he added. “I’m not saying all landlords are like this but when you hear your friends struggling with abrupt rent hikes, withheld deposits, and more… You begin to realize: there should be better protections and support for those who’ve left their hometowns behind to build a life in Bengaluru – the apparent future city of India,” he wrote. 

“I hope there’s change. I hope there’s help. And I hope this reaches the people who can do something about it. Because Bengaluru landlords are becoming a menace,” the founder concluded. The post has sparked a conversation online, with many users sharing similar experiences. 

“It’s not just Bangalore. I got scammed similarly by my landlord when I was in Chennai. India has no regulations that create a fair platform for tenants, even though rental income constitutes 50% of real estate revenue in metro cities,” wrote one user. 

“Bangaloreans are great , but a Bangalorean landlord is a villain. same story , my deposit was 4 lacs , I sweated and dreaded asking back the money and got random cuts to the tune of 1 lacs …. pains so much seeing this kind of behaviour !” commented another. 

“Completely agree Shravan Tickoo! I remember my first landlord in Bangalore had done something very similar, they deducted 50% of our deposit! Back then, I didn’t know any better. Living in other places has taught me to be more diligent. But that experience will always be burnt in my mind as a cautionary tale,” shared a third user. 

A Karnataka man’s post has sparked a debate online on how urban children are losing touch with their native languages. Ganesh Shankar from Mysuru shared on X that his neighbour’s child speaks only in English – neither in Kannada nor Tamil, his mother tongue. “Because of status, it seems. And he had an accent already,” he wrote. The post resonated with many, highlighting growing concerns over language loss, cultural disconnect, and the increasing preference for English in urban households.

Mr Shankar’s post sparked a flood of replies, especially from parents concerned about the erosion of native language use among urban Indian children. 

“This is such a sad new-age phenomenon! Same scenes here. Little kids don’t understand Hindi or their mother tongue. Only English with an American accent,” wrote one user. 

“This is becoming the new normal. Kids speak only English nowadays,” commented another. 

“I was shocked when i saw this in bengaluru. I know kannadigas who speak with their children only in English (main reason inferiority complex & also desire to send kids abroad as soon as 12th is done). Most of them living near me speak with their children in English unfortunately,” shared a third user. However, one X user from Melbourne, Australia, shared a contrasting perspective. “I think it’s a thing in India. My daughter and a few families here actively ensure they speak Kannada. Also, there’s a Kannada school here funded by the government. Crazy what’s happening there,” they wrote. 

“As parents we must take the lead in speaking our native language at home. Kids may switch to English, but gently bring them back. Personal experience,” suggested another. 

“That’s a very judgemental comment on someone’s family. I would urge you to get out of biases in life and start seeing positive things in others rather than focusing on negatives only,” commented one user. 

On Friday, when India was set to play an intra-squad match for the series, a report claimed that Gambhir was returning to India due to a family emergency.Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir is returning home from England as his mother is in ICU, according to news agency PTI. Gambhir travelled to England before the members of the senior team in order to monitor how the junior side (India A) fares against England Lions in the 2-match unofficial Test series. On Friday, when India was set to play an intra-squad match for the series, the news agency claimed that Gambhir was returning to India due to a family emergency. Another such family matter had earlier prompted Gambhir to fly back home from Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.The report said Gambhir had to fly back to attend to his mother, who suffered a heart attack and is currently in ICU in a New Delhi hospital.

“Gautam’s mother had a heart attack on Wednesday. He and his family left for India on Thursday and they have reached Delhi,” news agency PTI quoted sources as saying on Friday.

“Gautam’s mother had a heart attack on Wednesday. He and his family left for India on Thursday and they have reached Delhi,” the BCCI source informed.

In Gambhir’s absence, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate will assume the team’s charge during the four-day intra-squad match between India and India A, beginning here from Friday.He will have assistance from other coaching staff such as bowling coach Morne Morkel and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak.

Gambhir is expected to return to England in a week’s time if everything goes well at his home.

“His mother is showing signs of recovery although she is still in the ICU. In all likelihood, he will be back in the UK before the start of the opening Test (starting June 20) if all goes well.”

India’s Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.

Captain Khalid: The only thing conclusive that I can see is that the landing gear has been down throughout, and landing gear is something that should have been taken up in almost all kinds of scenarios that a pilot gets in the aircraft, except when there is wind shear and the aircraft is committed to continue to descend. So we keep the landing gear down consciously.

Q: But we counted the time taken from the time the aircraft lifts off till the time it impacts the ground. It’s just 32 seconds.

Captain Khalid: That is the amount of time it will take to rotate the aircraft to go up. 825 feet is the wrong height, 625 feet is the wrong height. It would not have gone higher than 200 to 250 feet. So the aircraft, when it is taking off, it gets airborne, selects the landing gear up, and keeps the flap. Flaps are lift augmentation devices that allow the aircraft to continue climbing at lower speeds while it is accelerating. So the aircraft gets out of the ground effect. Ground effect, meaning, you know, there is a cushion of air between the wing and the ground. It adds to the lift, reduces the drag. So even if the aircraft speed is low, power is low, it will be able to get out to something like 100 to 150 feet out of the ground effect. Now the aircraft does not have the ground effect. There is a loss of power, or the speed is low.

Q: At this point in time, you can see the aircraft instead of continuing to ascend, it seems to level out and then it starts to descend.Captain Khalid: One thing that can be ruled out is that there was no control jam. Control jam means the aircraft pilot moves the control, but it cannot move. It can happen. It does not happen in this case because in one of the videos, you will see the aircraft continuing to pitch up. So that is one of the indications that the aircraft was actively being flown by the pilot.

Q: The flaps are another point that has come up for a lot of debate. Let’s just talk for a moment about this image. It’s a very grainy image, and there are many experts who say you cannot tell one way or the other about the takeoff configuration. Does this look like a takeoff configuration to you? Captain Khalid: No way. I’ve also tried to zoom it. You cannot say. You cannot make out that the aircraft is having a configuration problem here. Let’s assume that the flap is not in the right place, then the system has so much automation, it will shout at you, “Flaps.”

Q: It will not take off in a wrong configuration, then?

Captain Khalid: It is like somebody shouting at you, “Wrong configuration, wrong configuration.” You can’t take off. So that thing is ruled out. Aircraft has gone up. The flaps, let’s assume, not assume, I’m pretty certain that the flap is to the configuration. This aircraft, and many modern aircraft, in fact, all modern aircraft, have got flap auto-retraction mechanisms, and that gets signals from airspeed. It gets signals from the electrical system and sensors.

Q: What do you think happened? You know, these are early hours. I understand that. But what is your best guess?Captain Khalid: I will tell you the most probable thing. Looking at the airfield like Ahmedabad, There were a lot of birds. That would cause distraction. But it will cause a loss of power, a loss of the indication system, loss of the airspeed system. That will now create a situation which is totally out of the book for the pilot. So what the pilot did at that point in time is not in the book. It will also preclude the landing gear from going up. It can also cause, without any interference from the pilot, flaps to go up. So let me tell you that Boeing 787 aircraft, having flown 30 million hours, has not had any of this wrong flap retraction. So in the field of speculation, we can speculate a lot, but certainly, the pilot was actively trying to control the aircraft, and they gave a Mayday” call. That means they were seeing something which is visually telling them that things are not right. We’ll know about that once the black box is analysed. An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operating as Flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatwick Airport crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday. Out of 242 on board, only one survived. Now the question on everyone’s mind is: what exactly happened?

Veteran Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot and aviation expert Captain Ehsan Khalid spoke to NDTV to decode the anatomy of one of the deadliest crashes in India’s aviation history

Assassin’s Creed Baghdad, the latest in the line of Ubisoft’s open-world RPGs, is now eyeing a 2023 launch window. The new Assassin’s Creed title, codenamed Rift, was initially planned as an expansion to 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and was slated to release later this year. The news comes via a Bloomberg report, which states that the game will now launch sometime in Spring 2023 — that’s between March and May 2023 — marking the “second such setback in recent days for the French video game publisher.”

According to Bloomberg, the planned expansion to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was modified into a standalone game in an effort to fill the gap in Ubisoft’s “thin” launch schedule for the fiscal year. Assassin’s Creed Baghdad will now be its own standalone, full-fledged project, albeit tighter in scope compared to the recent sprawling, open-world entries. The still-unannounced Rift is on track to release in either May or June 2023, which suggests it could slip into Summer 2023.

“Ubisoft’s office in Bordeaux is leading development on the game and asked for more time because Rift is running far behind schedule, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans,” it reads.Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which is being developed in collaboration with Disney, was expected to release this autumn. But last week, Ubisoft pushed the launch back to a vague 2023–24 window. This leaves the AAA game publisher with two releases this year — the pirate game Skull and Bones and a Nintendo Switch exclusive Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope — both of which went through a difficult developmental process and delays.

Last week, details on a separate Assassin’s Creed title, codenamed Project Red, surfaced online. Details are sparse, but according to people familiar with development and games reporter Jeff Grubb, the game is set in feudal Japan and follows the RPG format, as seen in modern Assassin’s Creed games. Project Red will be part of Assassin’s Creed Infinity, which is described as Ubisoft’s live-service platform for future entries.

In response to a Reddit post, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier confirmed that Project Red will release after Assassin’s Creed Baghdad. “After that will be [Assassin’s Creed] Infinity, and while that’s going to include a bunch of different games/ experiences/ biomes/ whatever you want to call them, I’ve heard about the main two and neither of them are Aztec,” it reads.There is no official word from Ubisoft, but we can expect Assassin’s Creed Baghdad to launch on all current-gen platforms — PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and Windows PC, in Spring 2023. Any further updates on the game and the subsequent live-service platform should be expected in September, as the publisher hosts an online event titled, ‘The Future of Assassin’s Creed.’Is PS Plus better than Xbox Game Pass now? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.