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India is expected to secure its position in World top 10 richest place list by 2017 with its increasing number of millionaires. A report by banking giant Barclays revealed that emerging markets like India, China and Russia are fast catching up with the rich countries in terms of their wealth and India is projected to be in the 8th position among the world’s top 10 wealth centers in coming decade.

“Over the coming decade, the gap in wealth between the world’s most developed countries and the leading emerging markets will continue to narrow with many new millionaires being created in India, China, Russia and other countries which are undergoing rapid development,” says Barclays Wealth Report.

Barclays told that the four emerging markets - India, China, Brazil and Russia will house so many millionaires in the coming decade and will replace the more developed economies such as Australia, South Korea and Portugal from the list and the markets will no more be categorized as emerging markets.

In India, there would be 4, 11,000 households with wealth in excess of USD 1 million by 2017. The numbers of mass affluent, with wealth over $500,000, is expected to rise from a negligible figure in 2007 to 1.9 million by 2017, the report said.

The country’s financial assets stood at $1.8 trillion in 2006, more than double its GDP, a higher ratio than that in Latin America, Eastern Europe or Russia, it added.

Where the second fastest growing economy India is expected to come at position eight in the top 10 wealth centers, China is likely to move up to third rank from its present seventh place. Russia can move from 19th to 11th position while Brazil can swing to 12th from 15th.

Other developed countries are falling from their position. Australia’s ranking fell from 10th to 16th, while South Korea dipped to 12th from 15th and Portugal came down to 34th from 25th.

In 2007, G7 countries- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, contained more than one million millionaire households. By 2017, there would be 12 countries with one million USD millionaire households, the report said.

“In long-term, India’s economic prospects look rosy, although there remain obstacles to growth, including poor infrastructure, trade barriers and a shortage of skilled labor” Barclays added.

Tags: Australia, Barclays, Brazil, China, India, Portugal, Rich, RIchest, Russia, South Korea, World

India’s Tennis sensation Sania Mirza would undergo her right wrist’s surgery in Miami on Thursday. The operation will put her at rest for at least four long weeks.

There is some trouble in her right hand wrist. Inflammation is noted in her wrist which forced her to pull out of the Sony Erricson Open last month.

“A recent MRI showed contusion of her lunate bone with some inflammation and a suspected tear in the volar capsule. She is undergoing arthroscopy to repair the capsule and to clean out debris formed from chronic inflammation,” a Globosport press release said.

Renowned hand specialist Dr Badia will perform the surgery.

Sania had already arrived in the United States on Tuesday with her mother and physiotherapist Renuka Pinto.

Earlier she had undergone knee surgery in March 2007.

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: Australia, Sania Mirza, Surgery, Tennis

After a successful and much interesting CB series between India and Australia, an upcoming test series between the two champions is announced today going to start in October this year. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced the India tour by Australian team to play four test matches of the series from October 9 in Bangalore. Australia team will reach India on September 29.

Second test is scheduled on October 17 in Mohali following the third test in Delhi from October 28. The series will end with last match in Nagpur from November 5 and is scheduled till the last date November 9.

James Sadarland, CEO of Cricket Australia said that India-Australia competition is becoming the subject of interest in the World Cricket.

He said that the 2007-08 series proved to be very interesting chapter in the competition of two wonderful teams.

Sadarland said, “I believe that cricket fans are keenly waiting for the series of this year between Australia and India.”

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: Australia, Cricket, India, Tournament

On one hand India is piling up a huge score in the third day of the first cricket test match against South Africa under the leadership of veteran and smashing opener Virender Sehwag, and on other hand Warne has decided to quit all first class cricket.

Shane Warne has announced his retirement on Thursday from first class cricket and will no longer play for Hampshire.

“I am retiring from all first class cricket but will participate in the IPL (Indian Premier League) with the Jaipur franchise as captain and coach,” the great Australian leg spin bowler told the Hampshire web site (www.rosebowlplc.com).

He was going to play for Hampshire again this season but the English county club’s chairman, Rod Bransgrove, said the two parties had mutually agreed to a parting of the ways.

“I know this will be a major disappointment to many fans of both Hampshire and Shane but, after much discussion and soul-searching, it has become clear to both of us that Shane can no longer make the commitment required to continue to lead Hampshire,” he said.

“Hampshire Cricket has been hugely privileged to have enjoyed the unstinting loyalty of this living legend since 2000. The most effective and entertaining bowler of all time, Shane Warne was also a brilliant leader and strategist.”

Warne added: “This was not an easy decision to make but due to some exciting business opportunities, and wanting to spend more time with my children, I had to make this call”

Warne took 708 wickets in 145 Tests of his career since 1992.

Tags: Australia, Cricket, India, Shane Warne

Involved in making offensive comment by Australian opener Mathew Hyden on Harbhajan, Hyden accepted his mistake and said that he wants to patch up with this Indian off spinner. He said that his words had ‘added fuel to the fire’ in already going cricket controversies between the two countries.

In his interview to a newspaper- ‘the Courier Mail’ Hyden stated,” I don’t know how Harbhajan is feeling but I will try to settle the matter with him. There was big debate for my comments on him while India tour in Australia and that hurt everyone. I want to put an end to it.”

It is known that Indian team’s tour to Australia is already blended with disputes. Hyden said Harbhajan as “an obnoxious weed“ to a radio before the finals in triseries. After returning to India Harbhajan blamed Hyden as a ‘big liar’.

Hyden said, “I wish I didn’t use those words. I had a slip in my 15 year career. I don’t want to insult Harbhajan. I shouldn’t use any other proverb on him.”

He said, “I want to go to India to talk Harbhajan. I want to improve our relations. Let’s see how we will resolve our misunderstandings. Everyone is fed up of this matter now.”

Hyden claimed that India-Australia cricket player’s relations are not sour in spite of all the controversies. H said,” Definitely there was Stress but that’s what I’d want to see as a spectator. I will be fed up of non- interesting and stress free match as a cricket lover.”

Hyden added, “They were reasonably pleasant. At the end of the day, two alpha dogs are never going to sit in a cage and not look at each other. It is what it is. The way I see my cricket, if you’re the other alpha dog, you better not blink. I feel I’d be letting down my country if I was to blink.

“In terms of general human relations, I wouldn’t say there was ill-feeling. India had four months out here. We rarely saw them other than at the ground. It’s play and get back into the cage.”

He said that Indian cricket is fantastic and had shown wonderful competitive attitude throughout the series.

Tags: Australia, Harbhajan, Hayden, India

South Africa secured the top position in the International Cricket Council (ICC) One-Day International (ODI) Championship Table after winning the ongoing 3 match series against Bangladesh by 3-0 in Mirpur.

Before this, Australia and South Africa have both 127 ratings points but Graeme Smith’s side is behind by just 0.529 of a point according to decimal calculations.

After winning the series, South Africa is ahead of Australia by 0.191 points and beat Australia for the top position in ODI ranking.

South African captain Graeme Smith’s unbeaten century helped his side to win the match by 7 wickets against Bangladesh in Dhaka.

Bangladesh team won the toss and was dismissed at a small target of 143 runs only in 42.5 overs.

Albie Morkel gave 29 runs taking 4 wickets and Jehaan Botha contributed 34 and snatched 3 wickets.

On the other side this defeat was 14th lose of Bangladesh team in international one day cricket. Its last win was against South Africa in super league during lat year.

South Africa’s achievement is significant because the side that leads the ODI Championship ladder on 1 April, receives US $175,000 for its achievement, while the side that lies second collects US $75,000. Last year also South Africa snatched the position from Australia just before the cut off date of April 1.

ODI rankings – nations

1) South Africa 127
2) Australia 127
3) New Zealand 113
4) India 113
5) Pakistan 109
6) Sri Lanka 107
7) England 105
West Indies 96
9) Bangladesh 46
10) Ireland 28
11) Zimbabwe 18
12) Kenya 0

Tags: Australia, Cricket, India, ODI, ODI Rankings, Rankings, South Africa

After first time defeating Australia in volatile tri-series by 2-0 the two teams are again set to face the challenge for the ICC Champions Trophy going to be held in September in Pakistan.

The two teams are in the same group (Group A) including Pakistan and West Indies also. The second group (Group B) features South Africa, New Zealand [Images], Sri Lanka [Images] and England [Images].

The ICC Development International Board had decided that the 2008 tournament would feature the eight top teams as per the ICC ODI Championship table exactly six months prior to the scheduled start of the tournament.

The event will be played in a round-robin format with the top two sides from each group progressing to the semi-finals with the winners of these matches contesting the final.

The team distribution with seedlings can be seen as follows:

Group A: Australia (1), India (4), Pakistan (5), West Indies (8)

Group B: South Africa (2), New Zealand (3), Sri Lanka (6), England (7)

The teams are grouped according to their rankings in the ICC ODI Championship table as on March 12, which was the cut-off date for the determination of the seedings for the Champions Trophy.

As can be seen Australia at the top just ahead of the Proteas, who can take over the number one ranking if they beat Bangladesh in the third one-dayer of their series in Mirpur on Friday.

India is placed at position four just before Pakistan. New Zealand are ranked third and Sri Lanka sixth, one ahead of England. West Indies are at the end even though they won the 2004 Champions Trophy and lost in the final of the last edition.

Tags: Australia, Champions Trophy, Cricket, India, Pakistan, West Indies

The Board of cricket Council India (BCCI) asked off-spinner Harbhajan Singh to limit his talks to media regarding the Australia tour. Everyone is aware of Harabhajan’s involvement in the racism controversies since before the start of the tour which got bitter during the series.

During the tour Harbhajan was called “a little obnoxious weed” by Mathew Hayden for which the Aussie opener was let off after a warning by Cricket Australia.

“Yes, we received a mail from Cricket Australia about Harbhajan Singh. He has been told not to talk to the media on the Australian tour. He has to accept our directive,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah told PTI on Sunday.

Harbhajan was found guilty of using abusive remarks against Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds and was fined by the International Cricket Council-appointed judge John Hansen.

After returning from the tour Harbhajan termed Hayden as “a liar” and wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist as “no saint” in the media. but later he refused on these words by him.

It is also in news that ICC will investigate about the statements of Harbhajan against Heyden and Gilchrist.

ICC spokesman said,” We are aware of Harbhajan’s statement and we are keeping an eye on the conversation of both the countries”. Harbhajan can be blamed of breaking Code of Conduct and there are chances of his suspension also.

Tags: Australia, Harbhajan, India, Team India

Indian team got a new sensational paceman during Australia tour in the form of Ishant Sharma. This 19 year old young blood has lots of courage and guts to snatch wickets. Ishant consistently bowled around the 140 kmph and also sometimes touched close to 150 kmph.

He had shown his caliber openly in the Australian tour. He is the one who emerged as India’s highest wicket-taker with 14 scalps from nine matches in the tri-series. Ishant stated the tour as a turning point in his life. The tour had totally changed his life and people praised a lot of the spell he bowled.

Ishant said, “The nine overs during which I bowled Ponting out are very important for me. That was the turning point of my life. This tour was very crucial for me. It has changed my whole life”.

With his marvelous performance he suddenly came into limelight during the tour. The great Australain batsman Rickey Ponting said,”Ishant was the standout player” while Steve Waugh stated him as “next best thing in Indian cricket”. He is getting words of praise from every side.

Ishant said that all the words put a positive effect on him. He is excited for his success and for being noticeable by everyone. He is motivated by the words from great batsman like Ponting and Steve. He said that he is not trying to be in the league of speedsters like Australia’s Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan in terms of pace.

He seems very confident and said that he is doing well presently. He also said that he would not restrict himself to any one format of the game to prevent injuries.

“If I’m struggling to find place in the team I am not going to be disheartened by that because I would know that if someone is selected ahead of me he is doing a better job,” he said.

For the controversies during the tour he said that main focus was to win the game. They were more concerned with cricket than media and papers. Center of all the controversies Harbhajan, is not a guy who can say anything offensive, he added.

As a captain, Kumble was calm and patient but that was what the requirement in the Test while Dhoni is aggressive which is the need of limited-overs’ games, Stated Ishant.

“But one thing is common in them — they both ask us to do normal things,” he added.

Ishant confidently said that the tour is crucial for him and he learned ‘to be brave’ during the game without bothering about the opponent.

Tags: Australia, India, Ishant Sharma, Team India

India pulled off a memorable 2-0 win against Australia in the best-of-three finals to triumph in what is the final edition of the annual Commonwealth Bank (CB) tri-series.

Team will be back on 6th March with the trophy in their hands and glittering smile on faces. Indian team has written history in golden words with this victory as it is not only after 23 long years India defeated Australia but the first tri-series win by India in Australian soil.

It is well known that the only team who can dare to challenge the world champs is only the Indians. But it was not digestible for the arrogant hosts that these T20 winners can beat them. This is the reason why the Kangaroos were involved in all possible efforts to lower down the confidence of Indian players for last 3 months. Started from cheatings of Sydney test umpires the chain continued to criticizing Indian players and cheap comments on them. Even Kangaroo audience and crowd was also not behind in it. Earlier Ponting and Symionds targeted Harbhajan and later it was Ishant sharma case. But finally the Australian team is proved to be like ‘great Cry, little wool’. Team India pushed the flying Aussies back to floor.

The series started on 3rd February 2008, Sunday with first match between Australia and India and ended on 4th March with a battle between the same teams in Brisbane. After a relatively quiet start, action in the Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series has started to warm up. The three participating nations – India, Australia and Sri Lanka are breathing neck to neck, promising to take the battle for the finals right down to the wire. Sri Lanka was out of the finals and the two remaining teams had tough competition. The two teams were face to face for winning the victory cup which is finally snatched by Dhoni’s team in second and concluding final on 4th March.

While India has sported a young team under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Australia has maintained the usual blend of youth and experience under the experienced guidance Ricky Ponting. With Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman being the notable exclusions, youngsters like of Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa and Suresh Raina have been asked to fill in their shoes.

The tournament has generated significant amount of interest among the people, with spectators turning out in large numbers to watch the matches. With the competition getting more intense in the final matches, the series was surely to be a humdinger.

Much drama had, however, been played off the field before the start of the Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series. Harbhajan singh is the centre of the ugly war of words not only before the start of the tour but during the whole series. It forced to look the future of the series uncertain that time. Harbhajan was suspended for three Tests after January’s second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground for allegedly calling Symonds a monkey, a suspension that was overturned at a subsequent International Cricket Council hearing.

Later during the series, there were charges on the batsman Mathew Hayden of making verbal attack on spin bowler Harbhajan Singh. Hyden called the off-spinner as an “obnoxious little weed” while talking to a radio. But Hayden escaped after a warning from the officials and with it the matter was closed.

The racism attack is not over with it as in the first finals Australian media blamed Bhajji to make monkey gestures toward the crowd but finally they were also proved wrong as he didn’t do anything like this. Harbhajan got clean chit from ICC soon.

Harbhajan dismissed Hyden and Symonds to pavilion during the finals and thus took his revenge to their statements in the ground and outside. After winning the series he reminds Guru Govind Singh words, “One sikh is enough for all” and indirectly gave a stiff reply to the Aussies against their racism statements during and before the series.

The dispute between Ishant Sharma and Andrew Symonds is another crisis during the series. Australian team has complained about Ishant for pointing Andrew Symonds back to the dressing room after he bowled him out. He is fined 15% of his match fee for a level 1.6 offense.

As there are so many controversies associated with the series, the tour is stated a bit sour but all is well if end is well. Indian team is able to host the Indian flag in Australian soil with proud. Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist might never thought of that he will get his farewell from international cricket with such a harsh failure. Witness of Australian leadership for last one decade, Gilchrist must get a little idea that the crown of world champ is slowly getting away from Aussies. The way India won the CB series by 9 runs from Aussies in their own soil can be stated as a start of new era in the cricket history.

Sachin pulled the team to success ground with his bat again. Sachin and Uthappa together contributed much to the success. This saluted partnership had recorded two consecutive half centuries first time in last 27 years. Their brilliant start put the kangaroos under pressure.

Though Sachin gave poor performance in last a few matches and was at 11th position in ICC ranking. That time everyone is criticizing his bat. Even Dhoni also blamed him for the losses. But his wonderful performance in the last two finals against Australia Sachin is back to its top position in ICC batsmen ranking with 777points beating the Australian captain with 770 points. Sachin gave 3 consecutive 50s in Australia. He scored 63 against SriLanka, 117 and 91 in last two finals respectively against Australia. With 5 centuries and 10 fifties, he is the highest scorer of finals with1695 runs with an average 52.96.

Praveen Kumar (4/46) had shown his best performance till now against Australia. Before this, he showed his best bowling (4/31) against SriLanka in Hobart with 26-2-08. He got his second Man of the Match award of his career but first time against Australia.

Australian Captain Rickey Ponting accepted in his statements that Indian performance is better and deserves the trophy. The tour had been proved thoroughly entertaining and successful. Indian team has maintained our India on high spirits in the series. All credit goes to Indian players. Hats off to team India!

Tags: Australia, CB Series, Dhoni, India, Team India