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It was not expected for most of the people out here in India as well as some of the people out there in South Africa too. Three old guys Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble steal the attraction of the opening day in IPL second session.

Sachin Tendulkar who him self says that this format is not fit for him and that’s why he is not a part of the Indian team for Twenty20 matches, made a superb half century in the opening match of the Indian Premiere League 2009 against Chennai Super Kings. Because of the brilliant half century by Master Blaster Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Superkings, last year Runner Up team, by 19 runs. Sachin made 59 runs in 49 balls, he hit 7 boundaries in his innings.

Another old guy Rahul Dravid, who was never considered fit for Twenty20, even he was axed from the ODI’s too by some of the selectors who think that only hitting big shots is the matter which makes sense in ODI’s and Twenty20, proved once again that cricket is not only the game of power hitting. When he joined the crease in the second match against defending champions Rajasthan Royals, his team Royal Challengers Bangalore was struggling at 17 for 3 wickets in 4.5 overs. Then he took the responsibility and brought his team to a respectable total of 133. He made 66 runs in only 48 runs and he hit 8 boundaries and 1 six. Of course Vijay Malya will be pleased to see this match winning inning.

Then it was the turn of one of the most senior player of the tournament Anil Kumble. Jumbo who has taken retirement from Tests as well as ODI’s too, took 5 wicket in just 3.1 overs. His bowling figure of 3.1 Overs 1 Maiden and 5 runs and 5 wickets were superb and it caused the worst defeat for the defending champions Rajasthan Royals. They got all out for the lowest total of the tournament, they made only 58 runs. Thus Bangalore Royal Challengers won the match by 75 runs.

The two man of the match of the opening day were Sachin Tendulkar for the match one and Rahul Dravid for the match two. Both of these genius has proved their ability in this format of the cricket too. I am now keen to see the performance of Saurav Ganguly in the first match against Deccan Chargers tonight.

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Tags: Anil, Anil Kumble, Dada, Dravid, Ganguly, Indian Premiere League, IPL, IPL 2, Kumble, Rahuil Dravid, Rahul, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav, Saurav Ganguly, Tendulkar

Last year my favorite team was Kolkata Knight Riders, though the team did not played well enough to reach to the semifinal stage but till the last match I supported the team. Although I liked the Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils too but none of them reached to the finals of the IPL session one last year.

Many people were asking me the favorite team for this session, so I thought to post my choice. As expected it was Kolkata Knight Riders till two days back, but the removal of Saurav Ganguly as the skipper of the team caused my heart break and I decided to not follow the team matches now. I strongly believe that Saurav Ganguly was the best ever player from Kolkata so far, and he should be the skipper of any team which is basically developed in the name of Kolkata. It is one sort of insult for Dada, and I would not support the team now.

This session I have also decided that I am not going to support the matches in which Harbhajan Singh and Mahender Singh Dhoni were playing. It is because that these two players were my favorite players, but a few days’ back they insulted the nation, by skipping the Padma Shri award function, which is the most prestigious award for the civilians of India. This clearly indicates that these people are now an image which is bigger than their country, which I never appreciate, although I know I am no one to put finger on these celebrities, they are such a big guys that they would not be affected from such type of opposes, but, still I think I should oppose them. I love my country India and I will never support the people who will do any thing to insult my nation, so I am here by announcing that I will not support the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians any way in the matches from now on.

I think that Mr. Dhoni is now thinking that no one will ever replace him from the captaincy of Team India, but friend you never know when you are out from the frame. People love you because you have served the nation, but if you are going to insult the nation no one is going to love you then. Same for Mr. Bhajji too, we still remember the face of Bhajji after the slap incident (with Shreesanth during last session) and when BCCI was suppose to ban him forever.

Any ways, I do like the Mumbai Indians team because of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, who was not only the icon but he is the greatest son of India. MS Dhoni and Harbhajan should at least take a few lesson from him, he has never missed any such type of award function despite the busy schedule. Any ways leave the issue now, so the three teams are out of my mind and they are KKR, MI, and CSK. Now coming to the fourth team which is for sure not suppose to get my support, and that is Rajasthan Royals, the defending champions.

I have mentioned the reasons against them in the last article: The Best Example of Globalization. Now out of the remaining four team Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils, Bangalore Royal Challengers, and Deccan Chargers, I don’t have any reason to support the last two depending on the performance in the last session. So for me only two options are left, one of them is Kings XI Punjab. I like the team but I am not the supporter of this team.

So this year I am going to support the Delhi Daredevils, the reason behind this is the form of the dashing openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Other then them I too like Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Manoj Tiwary, Farvej Maharoof, McGrath and Dilshan. So for this session my favorite team for IPL 2 is Delhi Daredevils.

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Tags: Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Bhajji, Chennai Super Kings, Dada, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Dhoni, Dilshan, Farvej Maharoof, Gambhir, Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, India, IPL, IPL 2, Kings XI Punjab, KKR, Kolkata Knight Riders, Manoj Tiwary, McGrath, MS Dhoni, Mumbai Indians, Padma Shri, Padma Shri Awards, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Sehwag, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreesanth, Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Viru

These days money has become the most powerful factor through out the world. I was really shocked to see that one small game Cricket is going to establish a new example, a new trend which includes the combination of sport ship along with the power of money and glamor. This is for sure the best example of globalization.

I was surprised to see the immense popularity which Indian Premier League, the organization of the T20 cricket matches, by the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), got during last season. This year, IPL 2 has crossed the boundaries of nation, and now it is all set to develop a new example of globalization.

A tournament which was originally developed for India is now shifted to South Africa (for the reason of General Elections in India). The tournament which was mainly claimed by the organizers that it will provide the platform for the Indian players has now totally shifted to the hands of the players who don’t belong to India. Here are a few examples:

The captaincy of the Kolkata Knight Riders has taken from the Icon Player of team Saurav Ganguly and given to the dashing Kiwi player McCullum. As far as the point of view of the team is concerned, they are free to take any decision in the favor of their team, but I think the idea of dropping Ganguly as the skipper, or the idea of four skippers in a match, which was in air a few days back, are all silly, as without Ganguly there is no identity of the team. As far as my views are concerned, I think Dada should come back to India. People from Bengal are really hurt from this issue and we don’t know why Dada is still there in the team. He is undoubtedly the best ever player of the Kolkata and the team which is representing the City of Joy should for sure include him as the skipper.

The second example is the exit of Mohhamad Kaif and a few more players (all Indian) from the Rajasthan Royals team. The reason behind is still not clear to any one, some one claims it is because of a rift between the skipper and coach Shane Warne and Kaif, some says it is because of an attempt to cut the cost of the team. If the first reason is true then too my views is that the team management require interfering in the matter and solving the matter. If the second reason is true then why they did not remove any player who was not Indian?

These examples are a few examples which are a clear indication that Indian Premiere League is not the Indian League any more. For last season at least it looked like an Indian league whether it is because of the Indian Players in the decision making slot, or whether it was played in the presence of the cricket crazy Indian fans, but this time I am not sure if it can generate the same type of attraction among the Indian people.

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Tags: BCCI, Bollywood, Cricket, Dada, Ganguly, Glamor, Globalization, India, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2, Kaif, KKR, Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders, McCullum, Rajasthan Royals, Saurav Ganguly, Shane Warne, South Africa, Sports, T20, Warne

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Saurav Ganguly, popularly known as Prince of Kolkata, Dada (big brother), or Maharaj (King), or Bengal Tiger, has played the last day of international cricket today. With this one golden era came to an end. Some people will remember him as the best captain of the cricketing history, and some people know him in the form of Trouble Shooter for Team India.

Saurav Ganguly Leading the Country for Last Time

One thing is for sure, he was a giant. The ability of Dada to come out from the difficult situations in life and in cricket ground was superb. Even the critics of Ganguly will appreciate this. So many times his critics asked for his resign, but he played some brilliant knock to make them silent.

Controversy and Dada both were moving on the same track early from his inclusion in the team for the first time in 1992. That time Dada was selected for Australia’s tour, but people called it as the influence of the Jagmohan Dalmiya, the then president of Board of Cricket Control in India BCCI. There too he became the part of a controversy and he was removed from the team. The reason behind this was his inability to act as a twelfth player in the team.

People some time says that he got the captaincy (which was unfortunately the same day 10th November when he retired too) due to the influence of Jagmohan Dalmiya only. But Ganguly always made his critics silent by his bat. The best part of Bengal Tiger was that he was a by born leader, and a fighter.

With time the spirit of Ganguly became a bit down and that too because of his removal from the team due to the influence of Greig Chappel. Due to frustration he decided to quit the International cricket. Some people claim that he made this decision due to the threat given by some anti-social events to his daughter. We all know that Dada loves his daughter more than his life. Dada was aware that retirement was inevitable. In his career he played 113 test matches and made 7212 runs with 16 hundreds with an average of 42.17 runs. His career best was of 239 runs. During tests he got 32 wickets too. In ODI’s he played 311 matches and made 11363 runs, with 22 centuries. He also took 100 wickets too in ODI’s.

Any ways the terrific career which starts from Lords ends in Nagpur. The career which starts from a great century ends at a Golden Duck, though with a superb win over the World Champions.

Tags: BCCI, Bengal Tiger, Captain, Dada, Dalmiya, Ganguly, Greig Chappel, India, Jagmohan Dalmiya, Maharaj, Prince of Kolkata, Saurav Ganguly

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One more senior player left the team at a time when team was facing criticism from all side. Anil Kumble, popularly known as Jumbo, the number one wicket tacker for Indian team in cricket history and number three till today, has announced the retirement from test cricket with immediate effect. He is not going to play in the fourth test match between India and Australia in Nagpur.

Kumble and Saurav Ganguly

In his absense Mahender Singh Dhoni, the ODI skipper of Team India will lead the team. The desicion of retirement came as a shock to the lovers of Kumble. He was facing criticism from all side due to his lack of performance in the on going Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Saurav Ganguly, one more former Indian skipper and great south-paw batsman has already announced his retirement from the cricket. Nagpur test is going to be his last appearence. The desicion of Kumble’s retirement was once again due to the pressure created by some sections of media on these senior players. It is true that new people are coming ahead with good performance, but still the way in which these senior players are forced to announce retirement is not good.

Dada, and then Kumble, both were served Indian team from last 15-20 years. There contribution to the team’s present status can never be justified by a few bad performances. But some section of media never allowed them to settle down. I am really feeling bad about the way in which these giants are saying bye to international cricket.

In his career, Kumble played in 132 test matches while he took 619 test wickets. He led the country in 14 test matches. He was behind Muralitharan (756) and Shane Warne (708), in case of number of test wickets is concerned.

Tags: Anil, Anil Kumble, Australia, Dada, Dhoni, Ganguly, India, Indian Skipper, Kumble, MS Dhoni, ODI, Saurav Ganguly, Skipper, Team India, Test Team

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As we all know that Team India won in the second cricket test match in Border-Gavaskar trophy. They defeated Australia the number 1 team in test cricket by a huge margin of 320 runs. We are here by preparing a list of seven lime lights of the test match.

1. 12K runs by Sachin: The master blaster of Indian cricket, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar made 88 runs in the first inning of India and he became the highest run getter in the history of test cricket. Also check the 10 glorifying moments of his career! He crossed the land mark made by Brian Lara of West Indies. At the end of the match he has more than 12,000 runs in his bag.


Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly

2. 7K runs by Ganguly: He was once considered as the best captain of India. A bit of politics in cricket and Greig Chappel caused him his place in the team. Finally he get the place in the team but became so frustrated that he decided to quit the cricket after this series. And in this series his bat is talking with all those people who were criticizing him earlier. He made a superb century in the first inning and due to that he made more than 7000 runs in test cricket. It was not a small feet, but still he decided not to revert back his decision of quitting cricket. I News India salutes the “Dada”, we always supported him during his bad phase too.


Maya of Dhoni and a different Bhajji

3. Maya of Dhoni: He is the guy who has changed the form of Indian cricket, he brought it from the aged person to the younger ones. Under his captaincy India won the T 20 world cup one year back and after that whichever match he captained gave India something to cheer about. He is a bit lucky too, considered by a huge section in India. We still remember the match against South Africa in this year, in which he got the captaincy due to the sickness of the regular skipper Anil Kumble and India won that match. Even today India won the match in which he was the captain. This is the Maya of Dhoni. The two attacking half centuries are superb and those gave him the Man of the Match.


The best Indian opening pair of Viru and Gauti

4. Opening pair of India: Viru and Gauti, the opening pair of India is these days considered as the best ever opening pair for India. These two have played lots of cricket together and they love to play together. In One Days too they are being considered as the best and now in test too. The 182 runs stand between these two in the second inning of this test was really brilliant, while the pitch was offering help to the bowlers. Sehwag though failed to convert 90 into 100, but Gambhir get the second test century of his life.


Superb Ishant Sharma

5. Superb Ishant Sharma: This school guy has troubled one of the best batsman of the world, Rickey Ponting. He made the hat-trick of dismissing him in test cricket. He is doing the same thing which Bhajji did in the previous tours of Australia in India. Since his debut in the national team from the January of this year he is continuously creating problem for Rickey Ponting. During this match he dismissed Ponting in both the innings and that caused problem to Aussies, while they are also facing the failure of Mathew Hayden in the series.
6. A different looking Bhajji: We still remember the slap controversy in IPL 2008. That incident has changed our main bowler Harbhajan Singh. He is looking more polite and attacking on the field after that. Yesterday he dismissed the top three batsman on Aussies and that caused them the match. He was not so much successful in the drawn first test match, while he devastated the Aussies second inning. The fall of the batsman like Hayden, Katich and Hussey caused them the match. Now he is one short to the 300 test wickets.


Amit Mishra a good beginning

7. Amazing Amit Mishra: He was not in news before this match and he performed brilliantly in the match. He took 5 wickets in the very first inning of his life and that is also against the number 1 team of world. That was superb, and awesome. Indian team management will have to face a bit more problem now in choosing the playing 11. Whom will they remove, Kumble, Mishra or Bhajji?

It was a team effort and other than these guys Zaheer Khan too did well, along with good contribution from all the players of the team, especially Rahul Dravid. So overall it was a all OK match for team India and now they are looking ahead to defeat Aussies in the series. Best of luck to team India. We would be happy to see the comments of our readers on this match. Also you can take a look at the Cricket Updates for the match reports.

Tags: Amit Mishra, Bhajji, Border Gavaskar Trophy, Captain of India, Dada, Dhoni, Dravid, Gambhir, Ganguly, Gautam, Gautam Gambhir, Gauti, Greig Chappel, Harbhajan Singh, Hayden, Hussey, India Australia, Ishant Sharma, Katich, Kumble, M S Dhoni, Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Rickey Ponting, Sachin, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Second Cricket Test, Sehwag, T 20, T-20 World Champions, Team India, Tendulkar, Test Match, Virender Sehwag, Viru, Zaheer Khan

The much awaiting first test match between India and Australia today ends with no result. The match will be remembered for the superb batting display by Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan. Once again sachin Tendulkar missed the record of Brian Lara.

Aussies won the toss and elected to bat first, they scored 430 runs in the first inning. Skipper Ponting made 123 runs while Hussey made 146 runs. Other than them Katich made 66, while Haddin made 33 runs. From Indian side Zaheer Khan took 5 wickets while Ishant Sharma took 4 wickets and Harbhajan Singh took one wicket.

Replying to this Team India got all out at 360 runs only, this way Aussies get a lead of 70 runs in the first inning. From Indian side the attraction was the superb half centuries by Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, Bhajji made 54 while Zaheer made not out 57 runs. Other than them Dravid made 51, Ganguly made 47 while Sehwag made 45 runs. From Australia’s side Johnson took 4 wickets while Watson took 3 wickets and Clarke took 2 wicket. Brett Lee too took one wicket.

In second innings Aussies made 228 runs for the loss of 6 wickets, this increased their lead to 298. In their second inning Watson made 41 runs while Haddin made an unbeaten 35 runs. Ishant Sharma from Indian side took 3 wickets in this inning along with Bhajji taking 2 wickets and Zaheer Khan took one wicket.

So India got a target of 299 runs but they made only 177 runs at the loss of 4 wickets and this way match become draw. Sachin Tendulkar missed the half century by only one runs. The match will be remembered for the last match of Saurav Ganguly in Bangalore. He returned to the pavilion unbeaten and people gave them a good farwell too.

Tags: Australia, Bhajji, Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, India, India Australia, Ishant Sharma, Ponting, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Test Matches, Test Series, Zaheer Khan

Yesterday I was going through one Hindi Daily News paper and I found one article on the Australia tour of India. The story was that Greig Chappel was warning Team India about the performance of the skipper of the Aussies squad, Mr. Rickey Ponting, who has a worst record in India. He made only 172 runs in 8 matches with a mere average of 12.28, while batting in India.

So the Guru Greig Chappel is warning the team India from the anger which he has seen in the eyes of Rickey Ponting. The worst part which I felt is his statement that if Rickey is going to bat according to my tactics then he is going to score some big innings in India.

This is the Team India which for the first time give the title of Guru to this batsman from Australia, the regard which we gave him is more than which he deserves, as far as my views are concerned. It is Saurav Ganguly who first gave the challenge to Greig Chappel and then our Indian team management sidelined Ganguly from Indian team. It was a shame that we did not supported our own skipper, who was still considered as the best skipper of Team India, rather we supported some one who tried to break the Indian team.

After that incident it was a huge distance Team India has covered, meanwhile Team India won the T 20 World Cup, and defeated Australia in Australia in the tri-nation ODI series. India lost to the test series to Aussies in Australia. So now every body is looking forward to the test series of four tests between India and Australia, which is beginning at Bangalore on 9th of October.

Let’s discuss about the performance of Suarav Ganguly. Once he was neglected by the Indian team management and then he fight back. He created one example of a strong comeback in the history of Indian team. It was unfortunate that he did not perform well in the recently concluded test series against Sri Lanka in Lanka, but in the same series all the senior cricketer failed to perform according to their reputation. So I think the blame should not be given on his shoulder only.

He was recently ignored by the selection panel in the Irani Trophy and in the camp which is going on in Bangalore. It was really unfortunate, since I think that he is the only guy in the Indian team which can give reply to the aggression of the Aussies which they do on field as well as off field too.

So I think that it is not fair to keep him away from the team for the test series against Aussies. They are not a smaller team; they can do any thing to win. So we should give one more chance to these people who have shown his aggression in the past. In my views if team has decided to drop Ganguly then why not drop Sachin and Kumble too, because they too did not performed well in the test series against Lanka. If performance was the key to drop any one then why Yuvraj Singh is in the ODI team, while he was not doing any thing good in the middle?

As far as the selection is concerned today is the first meeting of the Indian team selection panel, which is now a paid unit and I know the pressure is mounting on them to choose the best possible team. Let’s see whom they are going to chose for the series. If Dada is not picked for the series, then I think it will be the end of his career unless he once again made the history in his own manner.

Tags: Chappel, Dravid, Ganguly, Greig Chappel, Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Rickey Ponting, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Team India, Yuvraj Singh

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

Former Indian Cricket captain Saurav Ganguly is honored with Asian Cricketer and Asian batsman for his magnificent return to team India at the Castrol Asian Cricket award in Karachi on Friday. Sahin Tendulakar bagged best ODI batsman award while the same award is fetched by Gautam Gambhir for T-20.

Ganguly has had a series of successful innings since his return to the Indian cricket team during the South African tour of 2006-07. Ganguly’s wife Dona took the awards on his behalf as he was not there in the ceremony.

“I am proud and happy to be his wife. I don’t think he needed to work so hard to prove himself. But he had a point to prove and when he wants to achieve something he does it. So these awards make me really proud of him as my husband,” Dona told reporters after receiving the awards.

She, however, refused to term the awards as redemption for her husband after his removal as captain and being dropped from the team in 2006.

“I don’t see it that way. I just knew that he would achieve what he wanted. He is an introvert sort of person but my job was to be there to encourage and support him. As a family we were there for him always,” she said.

Ganguly was also delighted to get the award and expressed his happiness on receiving the awards in a video taped message.

Sri Lankan Wicket Keeper Batsman Kumar Sangakkara is selected for best test batsman award while Farveez Maharoof from Sri Lanka again begged the Best ODI Bowler. Pakistan’s Umar Gul was named the Best Twenty20 Bowler.

While Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan took away the Best Bowler award, the Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh was given a special award for hitting six sixes in the Twenty20 World Cup against England.

The most surprising element was the Best Fielder award to Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, who has been dropped from the Asia Cup squad because of his poor form.

But former Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram, who along with Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya and former India skipper Rahul Dravid picked the winners, said that Akmal was selected for his overall performances throughout the last two years.

Akram said that Asian cricket had produced some great performers from Hanif Mohammad to Tendulkar and it was good to see them being recognised for their achievements in a systematic manner.

Pakistan greats like Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal and Wasim Bari graced the ceremony that was hosted by Akram and Rameez Raja with all the teams, including associate member Hong Kong, in attendance.

Hanif Mohammad got a lifetime achievement award and said, “it was time for other companies and people to also come forward and recognize and reward the players.”

Tags: Asian Cricket, Asian Cricket Award, Castrol, Castrol Asian Cricket award, Gambhir, Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir, Indian Cricketers, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly