I News India - Empowering Ideas!

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has given permission to five year banned Pakistan player Shoaib Akhtar to resume his career outside the country giving him a chance to appear in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Kolkata Knight Riders but BCCI denied his part in Twenty20 League.

“Akhtar can play anywhere in the world except for Pakistan,” said Farrukh Aftab, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board appeal tribunal, told reporters on Wednesday.

“Unless he is cleared to play for Pakistan, he cannot play in the IPL. This was the decision taken by the special general body of the BCCI at Bangalore before the start of the Twenty20 event,” informed BCCI sources.

PCB has imposed a five year ban on the player earlier this month for indiscipline breaches and Shoaib has appealed against the decision which was rejected on Wednesday by a three-member appeal tribunal but was permitted to resume his career overseas.

Akhtar was bought for USD 425,000 (approx Rs 1.7 crore) by the Kolkata franchise team owned by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. He can now play for the team after the decision.

Akhtar’s lawyer Abid Hassan Minto told reporters that it would request the appeal tribunal meet again before its scheduled deliberation in June if the IPL did not lift its upholding of the Pakistan ban.

Tags: Ban, BCCI, India, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders, Pakistan, PCB, Shoaib AKhtar

Harbhajan and Sreesanth row has added a new dirty scar to Indian Cricket history. Harbhajan Singh has been banned on Monday for the remainder of the current IPL season after Farokh Engineer, the match referee, found him guilty of slapping Sreesanth at the end of Mumbai Indians match against Kings XI Punjab on Friday, 25th April, 2008.

Cricket known for the gentleman’s play is no more left gentle. Harbhajan-Sreesanth case in IPL has assisted to loss all the respect of the Indian Cricket. The behavior of players was said to be terrible. The two are getting an image of aggressive and volatile players of India. If the two are on the field, there will be no surprise if anything unpredictable happens.

The two are always associated with controversies. Problems and trouble always run behind them to create cricket crisis. The behavior of both players had come under the scanner during the recent South Africa series in India, too when Harbhajan apologized to the South African batsman Ashwell Prince for abusing him during the third Test of the series in Kanpur last month.

Telling about his views on Sreesanth the South Africa coach Mickey Arthur said, “Sreesanth was just Sreesanth. Perhaps our players lost a lot of respect for him on the tour. He constantly abused AB de Villiers and it was very personal. But considering the general spirit in which the series was played, we didn’t feel strongly enough to complain.”

Arthur admitted that the behavior of Harbhajan and Sreesanth during the India series “was not great”. “When there are two such volatile players on the field, anything can happen,” Arthur said criticizing on the impulsive nature of the two players.

Recently the BCCI has also asked to give an explanation from umpire Amiesh Saheba for his remarks which he made to ‘Mumbai Mirror’. Saheba, one of the on-field umpires during the match in Mohali has been withdrawn by the governing council of the Indian Premier League from his next two matches.

He told the tabloid that he and his fellow umpire Aleem Dar had warned Sreesanth and he said that the fast bowler was “disliked in the Indian dressing room”. “Sreesanth was sledging Mumbai’s batsmen right from the start, “He was over the top throughout the match and was acting like a petulant schoolboy.

Saheba commented on irritable nature of Sreesanth and said “He is one of India’s main bowlers, and yet, he is not doing anything to get rid of that schoolboy image of his. His colleagues are not too happy with that.”

And now Harbhajan is paying a big loss for his mistake. The ban put on him is for 11 matches, including last Sunday’s game, extendable to 13 if Mumbai progress to the semi-final and final. He is fined 100% of his match fee for Friday’s game. He will now be paid only for the first two matches of the IPL.

However the assault was totally found unprovoked in the video tapes but Sreesanth was let off with a warning. Harbhajan has offered an apology and both were found embarrassed in front of the cameras after the hearing.

The incident gave a big jolt to Bhajji’s team. Sachin was out of the team because of his injury and after successive four loses, and now Harbhajan is also not there. The incident also gave trouble to the team’s coach. Video tapes revealed that Lalchand Rajput, the Mumbai Indians coach was right behind Harbhajan when the incident took place. He didn’t take any step to restrain him and has been fined 50% of his match fee.

Bhajji could also face further punishment from BCCI, which announced a separate probe into the incident and appointed lawyer Sudhir Nanavati to investigate the charges against Harbhajan, who is on its payroll as a centrally contracted player.

Within 15 days, Nanavati will submit his findings from which BCCI will decide on further action against the bowler. If he would be found guilty, he could be banned for life or five Test matches or 10 one-day internationals.

Although Sreesanth is the main bowler and Harbhajan is a good Indian spinner, the two should take care of their impulsive behavior. There is a need to learn from the past incidents and to remain cool and intellectual on the field.

Australian cricket player Shane Warne has now retired to be the new face of 888.com. Visit here to see if his cricket skills match his poker skills!

Tags: Bhajji, Cricket, Gopu, Harbhajan, Harbhajan Slapped, Indian Cricket, Slapped Sreesanth, Sree, Sreesanth

Tashan is yet another Yash Raj banner’s movie but nothing sensual is there. Some unusual twists and turns left the characters as dumb without any strong impression. This will be the weakest film of the Yash Raj camp.

The debutant director Vijay Krishna Acharya of Yashraj camp, who is behind the scripts of Dhoom and Dhoom2 also, could not make any impressive stroke for the audience.

First half of the movie starts with a cool call centre executive Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan) who is entrusted the responsibility of teaching English to a desi bhojpuri gangster, Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor). The teaching lessons to Bhaiyaaji gave some laughter strokes to the story initially which fades after some time.

Bhaiyyaji is hoping to sign a big project with some foreign delegates. But Bhaiyyaji’s key help the cunning girl, Pooja (Kareena Kapoor), who can’t be trusted, uses Jimmy to swindle Bhaiyyaji of Rs. 25 crores. Now Bhaiyajji wants his money back and also his revenge to Jimmy and Pooja.

Now Bachchan Pande (Akshay Kumar), an electricity stealer came into the scene to lift the story. He can climb, jump and fly with the support of just about anything. He can break all bones of the body and the result will always be 100%. He has done a great job in the movie.

Bhaiyyaji settles him to trace Pooja after Jimmy surrenders. And after a few drama lines and turns, the story ends. The proceedings in the movie tend to get vague as the movie moves ahead right from the Hollywood style road chase for treasure to a typical Hindi formula film of revenge and lost love etc.

Anil does a good job as the villain from Kanpur. Kareena couldn’t show her best in the film but Saif is in a new look.

Akshay is the real hero of the film. He enters in the second half to precede the dragging story of the movie. He leaves you awestruck with his action sequences. He really rocks in the movie giving a superb performance.

There are a lot of unwanted scenes, meaningless sequences and lengthy fight scenes made the movie rough. Music by Vishal Shekar and Choreography by Vaibhavi Maerchant are definitely entertaining and foot tapping enough but tend to barge into any portion of the film making the film’s Tashan take a dip.

However, the cinematography by Ayananka Bose is superb giving an eye feeling capturing of locales of Greece, Rajasthan, Kerala etc. Editing by Rameshwar S. Bhagat and art direction by Sukant Panigrahy further enhanced the Tashan (style) of the film.

The audience who are fed up of IPL, which is forcing producers to push their release further ahead, can go for Tashan. It can give a new style (Tashan) to their rough routine.

Tags: Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Kareena, Kareena Kapoor, Khan, Saif, Saif Ali Khan, Saif Kareena, Tashan, Yash Raj

Today I saw a video on famous site Youtube and thought to share it with our visitors. It is something related to Bandariya i.e. female monkey in cricket.

Tags: Bandariya, Cricket, Video, Youtube

Mathew Hyden’s brilliant half century helped Chennai Super Kings to win against Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 wickets in Chennai on Saturday. It was the first loss of Knight Riders after two successive wins.

Elected to bat first Knight Riders were wrapped up at a modest score of 147 for 9 in 20 overs while the Super Kings achieved the target within 17 overs.

Losing a single wicket in the form of Parthiv Pate l(21), Chennai’s Captain Dhoni and Hyden remain unbeaten and shared a strong partnership of 86 runs.

Hayden hit three fours and as many sixes in his 49-ball innings and was well supported by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who hit a quick 43 off 27 deliveries including six fours and two sixes.

From knight Riders it was only Laxmi Ratan Shukla who held the innings together with a crucial innings of 42.

Jacob Oram (3-32) was the wrecker-in-chief as the Knight Riders’ big guns — Brendon McCullum (24), Ricky Ponting (0), David Hussey (0) and skipper Sourav Ganguly (12) — fell to indiscreet shots one by one. Ganguly’s 12 off 19 balls had just one four.

While Muttiah Muralitharan remained the most economical bowler with 4-0-12-0, P Amarnath claimed two wickets in four overs conceding 29 runs.

Tags: Chennai, IPL, Knight Riders, Kolkata, Super Kings

Mumbai Indians stand-in Captain Harbhajan Singh after being charged for alleged slapping S Sreesanth following an IPL match against Kings XI Punjab on Friday is temporarily suspended from the tournament till the inquiry goes on.

Harbhajan however apologized to Sreesanth in the dressing room after the incident. After the matter was downplayed by both, S Sreesanth gave a fresh statement telling that Harbhajan didn’t only slap him; it was more than a slap.

“Based on prima facie video evidence as seen and reviewed by the match adjudicator and referee Mr. Farokh Engineer from the tapes provided by Sony & TWI, a decision has been reached to suspend with immediate effect Harbhajan Singh of the Mumbai Indians pending the inquiry into the incident on Monday, April 28, 2008,” IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi said in a statement.

“The inquiry into the incident at Mohali in the game between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians will now take place at the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi on April 28th 2008.”

“A final verdict would be announced by the adjudicator Farokh Engineer post hearing at New Delhi”, he said.

Both, Sreesanth and Harbhajan will be present while hearing.

Sreesanth’s team, Kings XI Punjab has lodged an official complaint with the BCCI, demanding action against Bhajji. In a complaint sent to the BCCI, the Punjab team members have expressed their disappointment over the matter.

Harbhajan is getting the image of ‘Bad Boy’ in the Indian Cricket after got involved in a sequence of controversies one by one. It will be on Monday when everyone will get to know that whether he will be allowed to play in further matches of IPL or will be suspended from the tournament.

Australian cricket player Shane Warne has now retired to be the new face of 888.com. Visit here to see if his cricket skills match his poker skills!

Tags: Bhajji, Harbhajan Singh, IPL, Mumbai Indians, Sreesanth

The United States has denied any change in the 123 Agreement to make it acceptable to a section of the political opposition in India.

State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack told that New Delhi will have to work through the political process and in the framework of the text agreed upon. No changes will be entertained further.

“The last that I heard this really is an issue that is in the Indian government’s court. If they are going to resolve the — their issues within their own political system, it is going to be up to them to do so based on the agreement that is on the table,” McCormack said while replying to a query that asked if there could be major changes in the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement that could make some in India act on the issue.

Tags: India, N-deal, Nuclear, US, USA

Shahrukh’s much awaited reality show ’Kya aap paanchvi pass se tez hai’ has been started at 8pm on Star Plus on April 25 (Friday). Shahrukh has once again proved himself as the best by his brilliant performance as a host of the show playing the part of a school teacher and asking simple yet tough questions.

The first episode has revealed all about his charisma and wit. He was looking elegant with casual light blue shirt with a black waist coat and a pair of blue jeans. His funny strokes in between the show keep the viewers bounded at cool place.

On a funny note, he said that he always wanted to be a teacher but ended up being an actor. After he got a chance to play the role of a teacher in the movie, Mohabbatein, his wish again came true through the current show ’Kya aap paanchvi pass se tez hai’.

The show deals with simple question said to be of level 5th standard.In the show, three life saving options were also there – taal jhaank, copy and bachao. After answering 10 questions correctly, one question will be asked, ’Sawal paanch crore ka’. If that is answered correctly, the mega prize money belongs to the contestant.

The 39-year-old Vedula Ramalaxmi, a PhD in Hindi and an MA gold medalist was the first contestent. The Orrisa based lecturer did not expect the questions to be so tough, yet so simple.

After a series of questions earning 2,00,000 rupees, Ramalaxmi requested to quit and has to entitled herself a coward, a ’Bhagoda’ and also has to say, “Main paanchvi pass se tez nahi hoon (I’m not sharper than a fifth passed out).” as a rule of the show.

29-year-old Pramod Tripathi came as the second contestant but after answering the first question, the school bell rang, thus ending the show.

It must be accepted that Shahrukh is an all rounder, whether it is cricket, movies, reality shows or whatever, he has proved himself ‘the King’. Earlier he has hosted Kaun Banega Crorepati(KBC), which was firstly hosted by Big B. Shahrukh seems at ease and performed better in the current show as there is no pressure to perform better than Amitabh unlike KBC.

Tags: King Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Star Plus

Shahrukh Khan had decided to give a new sporty look for his pompom girls after the start of political debate regarding the presence of cheerleaders in the field. Cheerleaders of Shahrukh’s Kolkata Knight Riders will wear a new “designer” look at the next match at Eden Gardens on Tuesday.

Fashion czar Manish Malhotra is reworking on the dress for the spirited show women and they will be seen in their new attire with a colour combination of golden and black to match with the clothes of team members.

“Yes, I am reworking on the cheerleaders’ dress. I am trying to make it look sporty.” said Manish Malhotra.

When asked whether the new look will be decided on the basis of recent objections held on cheerleaders he said, “Certainly, it will be respected. I have kept this in mind while designing the clothes.”

Knight Riders franchisee Shahrukh Khan had reportedly stated, “If people feel that way we will certainly correct ourselves.”

Although Shahrukh has found nothing wrong in the glamorous dress and presence of cheerleaders for the entertainment of viewers but he decided to alter the dress code to avoid any further objections.

Maharashtra government has banned the cheerleaders telling the presence as ‘vulgar and obscene’. The dancing of semi-nude girls on fours and sixes hit by players gave rise to a controversial debate among political leaders.

Tags: Cheerleaders, IPL, Knight Riders, Kolkata, Riders, Shahrukh Khan

The special panel that was set up to review the effectiveness of Delhi government’s ambitious Rs 180-crore Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Corridor has decided not to scrap the project just yet.

At a meeting held at Chief Minister Sheila Dixit’s residence, the problems related to the BRT corridor were discussed and the panel denied further expansion of the corridor for the time being and also announced that no other corridor will be built till the system is perfected and proves to be glitch free.

Two foot-over bridges are also decided to be built along the 5.8-km BRT Corridor that stretches from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand in South Delhi.

A parallel road along the Corridor is also planned to divert the traffic volume. A new road would be built from Saket to Outer Ring Road to avoid congestion.

The new project have give rise to many traffic problem and the meeting is held to resolve the same. Importantly, BRT stakeholders hold the key to deciding whether the government should go in accordance with the unsatisfied masses or continue with it by making additional changes.

Before the meeting Dixit even went on to say that the project would be scrapped if the traffic problems were not resolved. She added that if the people of Delhi were not in favour of the new system, she will not hesitate to scrap the whole project, which, if it goes through, will cover most arterial roads of the capital.

If the project were to be scrapped, it would have caused major embarrassment to the government and might have also affected the Congress party’s chance in the upcoming Assembly polls later this year.

The meeting however gave new hopes to the project and now there are chances of its proper implementation and success.

Tags: BRT Corridor, Delhi, Rapid Transit, Road