T20 World Cup: Why is Team India wearing black armbands vs Namibia?

Indian players are wearing black armbands against Namibia in the T20 World Cup game at the Dubai International Stadium on Monday. Virat Kohli and company, led by Ravichandran Ashwin, grounded their opponents to 132/8 after 20 overs after winning the toss and electing to bowl. 

The Men in Blue are wearing black armbands to honour late  Dronacharya Awardee and widely respected coach Shri Tarak Sinha, who died on Saturday. 

Tarak Sinha, the Indian coach with most number of international and first-class cricketers as his disciples, died of prolonged illness. He was 71.

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Sinha was a father figure in Delhi’s famous Sonnet Club, which has produced some of the country’s finest cricketers, who ruled domestic and international cricket.

He was a bachelor and is survived by his sister and hundreds of students and well wishers, whose lives became better due to his positive presence.

Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant paid his tribute to the coach, known as Ustad ji. The 24-year-old was one of his students. 

Pant, who was accompanied by his mother and spotted by Sinha’s assistant Devender, who was then coaching in Rajasthan. Sinha told him to watch the “boy” for a couple of weeks before he came back. The Delhi Capitals skipper’s story of staying at Gurdwara (which he did on a couple of occasions) became a myth but it was Sinha, who arranged for Pant’s education in a Delhi school, from where he gave his 10th and 12th board exams.

He also arranged for a rented accommodation where he could stay as he pursued his cricketing ambition. Once during an interview with PTI, Pant’s emotional answers struck a chord.

“Tarak sir is not like a father figure. He is a father to me,” Pant had said.