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India defeated Sri Lanka in 3rd ODI by 46 runs today and won the five day match series by 3-1 with one match still to go on. India won the first ever One Day Series against Sri Lanka on Sri Lanka ground creating an historical record.

India won the toss and set a respectable target of 259 but the hosting team was all out in 46.2 overs at a score of 212 only. Led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian youth brigade done a fabulous job. Dhoni (71), Raina (72) and Kohli (54) are those who made their half century and contributed most to the victory.

Opener Gautam Gambhir (17) was the first one who was sent back to pavilion by Kulasekara. yuvraj singh was struck off by Chaminda Vaas before opening his account. Yuvraj became his 400th victim when he flicked a simple catch at short mid-wicket to Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene for a duck.

Virat Kohli, the Delhi lad was seemed in form but was departed after making 54 runs giving a big blow to India. But soon the India skipper MS Dhoni walked in to take charge with Suresh Raina. Both have been cracked their half centuries scoring 71 and 72 respectivily before departing. The duo powered the Indian total past 202 runs in 38 overs.

Among other players Rohit Sharma scored 18, Harbhajan Singh soon departed after making only 2 runs, while Badrinath gave 6.

In Sri Lankan team, only Jayasuriya (60) cracked his half century and added some good runs to the scores. Thushara and Kapugedera devoted 40 and 30 runs respectively. Others are departed back to pavilion one by one. After 30 overs, Lankans were 132/5. After 33 overs, they were struggling at 142/6. And after 42 overs, Sri Lanka was tottering at 194/8.

Suresh Raina was awarded Man of the Match. For complete score card, please visit Cricket Updates.

Tags: Badrinath, Cricket, Dhoni, Gambhir, Harbhajan, India, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Kapugedera, Kohli, MS Dhoni, ODI, ODI Cricket, Raina, Rohit Sharma, Sri Lanka, Thushara, Vaas, Yuvraj

The most prestigious sports show of the year- Beijing Olympics 2008 is over with lots of ping pong. The hosting country, China is at the top with 51 Gold medals, 21 Silver medals and 28 Bronze medals.  USA followed China with 36 Gold medals, 38 Silver medals and 36 Bronze medals. Although, India far away from these winning countries but this years Olympics had created historical records with first ever individual Gold and 2 Bronze medals.

This can be considered best performance by India. Abhinav Bindra won the first gold in Olympics in Shooting, Sushil Kumar catch Bronze in Wrestling while Vijendra Kumar gets first Bronze in Boxing.

Comparative to earlier performances India has recorded good points in Olympics but why we never get good number of medals in Olympics? India, the biggest democracy of the world and second largest populated country has very few medals at the name of Olympics. A lone gold till now at the Olympics makes one wonder, Can India ever match China and USA when it comes to winning medals at the Olympics? What are the reasons? May be the following points are responsible to some extent behind our failure:

Infrastructure: A proper infrastructure is needed to encourage any sports. Most of our concern remain on cricket which is nowhere in Olympics. Other games of interest in Olympics remain ignored like shooting, Athletics, Gymnastics etc. These players need support to have an enthusiastic spirit. How medals can is expected without proper infrastructure to these sports? Proper utilization of funds is required for different sports to flourish.

Cricket: Cricket is the most adored and played sports not only in India but all over the world. Cricket is played on every street in India. People got crazy when it comes to cricket and left everything to watch the battle between two teams on cricket ground. It gives everything from money and fame to respect. That is why every person who loves sports wants to make his career in cricket. This is one of the biggest factor because of which we are lacking in the major sports events. Other sports get hide behind cricket and get less value comparatively.

Politics in sports organization: we try to dominate in all the sports and due to this the focus shifts from the player to the authorities in these games. This is because of politics in sports organization which lads to a failure in Olympics and hence no medals.

Lack of efficient government and legislation: India does not lack in talent. Indians have lots of buried talent which needs to dig up. But government is not providing adequate facilities and finance needs which make the talent lost. Without these efforts India can not organize a team to lead in Olympics, bureaucratic and in-efficient democratic system and poor lead ship makes India unable to coordinate all interests behind the game.

Our Will Power: Lack of will power makes the sports dull and there become no chance of winning any medal. Will power is a must and must thing to achieve success. Sushil Kumar, Vijender Kumar, is those who win medals this year by their strong will power.

Encouragement from Schools: Children learn from their schools. Their sports play list enlists mostly cricket, football, hockey and tennis. Other games like shooting, boxing, gymnastics are given little or no importance. No good facilities are provided for these games. But these games are included in Olympics and hence enough talent is not created in youngsters for these games which makes India avoid of any good number of medals in Olympics.

Tags: Bronze Medal, China, Cricket, gold medal, India, Infrastructure, Medals, Olympics, Politics, Silver Medal, USA

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is going to enter in Bollywood by his comeo debut in a film, “Vighnaharta Shri Siddhivinayak” about the miracles of the elephant-headed deity Ganesh. The film is about the god and Tendulkar himself will play a small role of “Vighnaharta Shri Siddhivinayak”.

The star of Indian cricket, Sahin Tendulkar is a devotee of Ganesha and he will not charge any money for his role in the movie. The film is expected to start from next month and it will also feature a voice-over by Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan.

The film is being produced by the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust, which looks after a famous temple dedicated to Ganesh in Mumbai. Film’s production is handled by company of Rajiv Sanghvi. “He will play a small role, as himself, either in a song sequence or in an actual scene,” said Rajiv Sanghvi.

“Sachin has been a regular at the temple for many years now and he never gives up an opportunity to show his devotion,” said Subhash Mayekar, chairman of the trust.

Indian cricket team is in touring Sri Lanka at present. Sahin’s office confirmed the cricketer would be shooting for the film after he returns from Sri Lanka.

Tags: Bollywood, Cricket, film, Ganesha, Master Blaster, Movie, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, shri siddhivinayak

The cricket icon, Sachin Tendulakar who have been a brand ambassador of soft drinks major Pepsi since 90s, was dropped by the company. The decision came on the backdrop of Pepsi axing the other two members of the Indian batting troika - Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly - earlier this year.

“The decision was also influenced in a big way by the premium amount demanded by the batting maestro,” the sources added.

The Pepsi contract with Sachin, who is earning Rs 3-4 crore from Pepsi every year through promotions and ads, was expired in May.

A company source said that he had not “got back” to a request to “lower his price” for renewing his contract, which expired around two months back.

Pepsi had made it clear its intention to go with youngsters as part of a new campaign for 2008, ‘Yeh hai Youngistaan Meri Jaan; and roped in Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma while dropping Dravid and Ganguly.

Other insiders said the Master Blaster had asked for a “huge” hike. “We went back to the drawing board to see if it made more sense to put money on young cricketers who fit into our Youngistan campaign than shell out a huge sum for someone like Sachin,” the source said.

Tags: Cricket, Dravid, Ganguly, Pepsi, Rahul Dravid, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Youngistan

The dashing opener of Indian Cricket team Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan are selected for the Indian squad for the forthcoming Sri Lanka Test series on Tuesday.

The BCCI selectors met in Mumbai ro choose the 15-man Indian team where the exhausted ODI skipper MS Dhoni was opt out and Zaheer Khan is welcomed back from injury.  Harbhajan Singh is again in the team after his rather inglorious IPL exit.

MS Dhoni who was complaining of his hectic schedule in the just concluded Asia Cup according to media reports was given a rest. Dhoni was playing non-stop cricket for the past two years.

According to television reports Dhoni had talked to BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah and then took the decision. “In India and the subcontinent we have a full year of cricket and there’s no off-season. It’s tough for cricketers. When we want rest we should get it,” India’s T20 team captain said on Monday.

In place of Dhoni, Parthiv Patel is selected for the test squad after a long gap. Parthiv comes back to the team on the back of his fine batting performance in the domestic circuit.

The young left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha was rewarded for his consistent performance with a berth for this upcoming three-match Test series against Sri Lanka starting July 23.  Dinesh Kaarthick is the other wicket-keeper in the team with a new vice captain, Virendra Sehwag.

Sachin is back after his groin injury and Anil Kumble is going to lead the team.

The squad is like this:

Anil Kumble (Capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), Gautam Gambhir, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel (WK), RP Singh.

Tags: Anil Kumble, Cricket, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Sri Lanka, Team India, Test Cricket, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan

India lost the crucial Asia cup against Sri Lanka by 100 runs today in Karachi in National Stadium. Sri Lanka which set an easy looking target of 274, won the Asia cup Tropthy for the fourth time. The final match was all set for a Sunday delight to get a view of powerful Indian batting and Sri Lankan fielding but disappointedly the Indian batsmen really had no answer to Ajantha Mendis, who is selected as Man of the match and Man of the series as well.

Earlier India lost the Kitply Cup against Pakistan and lost the finals at Dhaka by 25 runs. India’s skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first.

India was at good field at the start. Danger man Kumar Sangakkara was back to pavilion in just the second over of the match by Suresh Raina. He has made only 4 runs. Ishant Sharma removed Mahela Jayawardene for just 2 runs and send Chamara Kapugedera on a long walk back to the pavilion for a score of 5. With Kapugedera’s departure, the scoreboard read 66 for the loss of three in 11.4 over.

The lanky fast bowler Ishant Sharma seemed to be on fire as he took the wickets of skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera and Chamara Silva in quick succession. Jayasuriya hit three sixes and two fours in the same over bowled by RP Singh. He scored 125 runs off 114 balls at total racing his 27th century in One-Day Internationals.

Virender Sehwag finally broke the 131 run partnership between Sanath Jayasuriya and Tilakratane Dilshan by forcing Jayasuriya to hole a catch into the hands of Ishant Sharma in the deep. Dilshan scored 56 important runs before sent back to pavilion by Dhoni.

Pathan bowled the last over of the innings and scalped Muttiah Muralitharan off the fifth ball of the last ball to finish the Lankan innings before 50 overs.

At that point India needed 274 runs in 50 over to lift the Asia Cup.  India lost their first wicket at the score of 36 in the 5th over.

Virender Sehwag departed after he struck a speedy half century to give India a good and quick start. Only Sehwag crossed his half century making a score of 60 runs out of 36 balls including 12 fours.

Yuvraj Singh came to the crease after Sehwag’s departure and followed him to the hut two balls later. Ajantha Mendis sent six players to the pavilion. Suresh Raina was another victim of him who made only 16 runs.

Although the final pair of Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha offered some resistance to the Lankans, it was not sufficient to take the Indians home. Kulasekara took the last wicket in the form of Ishant Sharma by castling him to bring an end to the Asia Cup championship.

Dhoni made a score of 49 out off 74 balss. Other players could not show their best on the ground. India can only reach 173 runs in 39.3 overs before getting all out.

Mendis was awarded the man-of-the-match for his six wicket haul for 13 runs in six overs. He was also the man-of -the-series for taking 17 wickets in the tournament.

Tags: Asia Cup, Asia Cup 2008, Asia Cup Finals, Cricket, Dhoni, India, MS Dhoni, Pakistan, Sehwag, Sri Lanka

Sachin Tendulkar moves to second rank in the latest ICC ODI batsmen ranking list by stepping one move ahead while M S Dhoni is no on 4th place. Yuvraj Singh at rank 14 is another Indian batsman in top 20 ranks while Gautam Gambhir snatches 20th spot.

Tendulkar, who was suffering from groin injury for a long time, has scored 758 points after 792 points by South African captain Graeme Smith. 135 runs made by Dhoni in Asia cup scored 750 points and shares his place with Australians Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey at number four.

In the ICC championship table, India remains at fourth, one point adrift of New Zealand (115). However, if India wins its next super four matches in the ongoing Asia Cup India can reach at position three.

Australia with 128 points at the top is giving neck to neck competition to South Africa with 127 points. Sri Lanka is at sixth spot followed by England at seven and West Indies at eighth position.

Tags: Cricket, Dhoni, Gambhir, Gautam Gambhir, Hussey, ICC, Mahender Singh Dhoni, MS Dhoni, Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Tendulkar

25 June, marks a special day in Indian cricket history. 25 years back on June 25, 1983, it was the lucky day, when Indian team won the first and the only cricket World cup till now. Captained by 23-year-old Kapil Dev, the memento was won by India, beating two-time world champions West Indies in the finals by 43 runs.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organized the special ceremony for the ‘Kapil Devils’ to mark the 25 years of triumph on Sunday, June 22 in New Delhi. The Indian cricket fraternity has felicitated the silver jubilee year to celebrate one of the greatest victories in the cricket history. Members of Dev’s team were very delighted over the BCCI’s special felicitation ceremony.

All the former Indian Test captains, all Delhi-based Test cricketers, former and current women cricket captains, Delhi-based women international cricketers, including former and present office bearers of the BCCI were invited. BCCI president Sharad Pawar, welcomed the 1983 World Cup team members and congratulated them on completing silver jubilee year.

An emotional Dev said, “The entire team contributed to the victory. It brought the Indian cricket to the centre-stage of world cricket that we enjoy today. As a captain, how it happened, I really don’t know! But, when it happened, then only we could realize it. What we achieved 25 years ago was really unimaginable. In my opinion, the love and affection of countrymen, which we got, cannot be weighed in money.”

“Somewhere, I must say that the 1983 team believed in themselves. That time when somebody asked me, if we could be the world champions; I said no!” added the India’s all time most successful all-rounders.

Sunil Gavaskar, one of the senior members of 1983 squad said, “His dedication, discipline as a captain is there for everybody to learn. The way people follow Sachin Tendulkar today, we used to follow Dev at that time. He is the man who showed us the way. The time when he lifted the trophy was the greatest memory of my life. He is still the greatest cricketer India has ever produced.”

“The 1983 World Cup win was a start that led us to the Asia Cup, Rottman’s Cup, Benson and Hedges and World Championship triumphs. It was a tournament that captivated the imagination of the whole nation,” added the legendary opening batsman.

Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Mohammed Azharuddin and former board presidents Salve, Raj Singh Dungarpur, Inderjit Singh Bindra and Ranbir Singh Mahendra were also present in the function to honor the team.

The Board presented a silver memento and cheque of Rs. 25 lakh to each of the 14 member of the 1983 squad.

The contribution of the victory team of 1983 world champions is actually priceless as they have marked the history with golden words and landed Indian cricket to success doors.

Tags: , 1983 World Cup, BCCI, Cricket, Gavaskar, India, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, World Cup

With the recent rise in the row over misjudged matches falling in the less deserving side, the ICC introduced a new rule wherein the players could seek for a second opinion by the third umpire if they are not satisfied of the on field umpire.

In the coming test series between India and Sri Lanka which is starting on the 23rd of July, the BCCI announced early this week that this ICC’s new experimental rule would be applied

The new rule allows the batsman or the fielding captain, to make an appeal to the TV umpire for a review of the on field umpire in the case of an unsatisfactory decision. Each team has been allowed three unsuccessful appeals per an inning. If a batsman has been given out by the on field umpire but the batsman is not satisfied with his decision, the batsman appeals to the TV umpire. In case if the reviewal is in favour of the decision of the umpire, it is calculated as unsuccessful, the team being allowed only 3 unsuccessful appeals.

The rule is applicable for all dismissal ways excepting the case when the batsman arrives late on the field. In such a case, the batsman is not applicable to make an appeal to the third umpire.

This system can be compared to a similar system used in tennis but only for simple line calls. Being accepted by the ICC in March, the rule was first to be tested in the comin England-South Africa series, but there was a problem regarding the non agreement of the respective boards.

The actions involved for the appeal are:

• The batsman has to make a T sign with his hands if he is not satisfied of the decision taken by the on field umpire. In such a case, the decision is transferred to the TV umpire.
• If TV umpire is upholding the appeal made, the umpire would cross his hands thrice, each team having three unsuccessful appeals per inning.

The new system has once been tried at the English domestic scene in friend’s provident trophy but a huge criticism had to be faced with it due to no verdict being given in the favor of the appeal made by the TV umpire

Another threat to the system is that the on field umpires could start feeling their decision making abilities being questioned.

Tags: Cricket, ICC, India, Sports, Sri Lanka, Test Matches, Test Series, Umpires

The Appellate tribunal has reduced the ban imposed on Pakistani pace man Shoaib Akhtar, to 18 months instead of earlier 5 years imposed on by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Rs 70 lakh was also fined on him with this ban on Saturday.

In March 2008, Shoaib was banned for five years by the disciplinary committee of the PCB for violating code of conduct. Shoaib appealed against the five-year-ban and today the decision was delivered in Lahore by the tribunal, legal counsel of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

“The tribunal has taken the decision with a clear conscience and under no pressure from either the board or anyone else,” tribunal head Justice Aftab Farrukh told a news conference, adding that the three-member tribunal unanimously felt the original punishment was too harsh.

“We also took into consideration the past record of Shoaib and that he had publicly apologized for his behavior and past deeds,” Farrukh said. “He has promised to reform himself and we have also recommended to the board that he should be given proper counseling.” He added.

He was allowed to play in the Indian Premier League [Images] after the tribunal suspended his ban for one month.

The player always remains in controversies because of his short tempered nature. Many times, he became a part of such incidents for his misbehavior or for other such reasons.

Last year, he was banned for 13 international matches and fined Rs. 3.4 million ($120,300) for four breaches of discipline including striking team mate Mohammad Asif with a bat before Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and put on two-year probation.

Shaoib’s has played 46 tests and 138 one-day internationals and due to this ban he will miss the Asia Cup and Champions Trophy being hosted by Pakistan this year.

His lawyer Abid Hasan Minto however said that they will appeal to higher court regarding the case. “But we will take a decision after going through the long and detailed order of the tribunal,” Minto said.

Tags: Ban, Cricket, Pakistan, Shoaib, Shoaib Akhter