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India ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Monday chosen for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2007-08 given for the most outstanding performance in a year. The awards would be presented on August 25, 2008.

The current Indian captain of the ODI (one day international) and T-20 teams became the only second cricketer after master blaster Sachin Tendulkar to be honored with the Khel Ratna Award, the country’s highest honor given for an achievement in sports. .

Dhoni on Monday offered prayers at the famous Deori temple after being conferred with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sharad Pawar said, “We are very happy. He has represented the country with distinction, and deserves the honor. His exemplary leadership and demeanor under pressure, especially in the ICC World Twenty20 and the tri-series in Australia, mark him out as the ideal role-model for millions of young Indians, who want to make a mark in life.”

Dhoni is the model icon among youth. He scored 148 against Pakistan in his fifth ODI in 2005 - then the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper. Later in the year, he broke his own record as well as set the current world record for the highest score in the second innings in ODI matches as he scored 183 not out against Sri Lanka.

Tags: Award, BCCI, Dhoni, ICC, Indian Captain, Mahender Singh Dhoni, MS Dhoni, ODI, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, T20, Tendulkar

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

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

Sachin Tendulkar’s groin injury put him away from the upcoming cricket tri-series in Bangladesh, and subsequent Asia Cup. He was ruled out of the series on Thursday.

He was declared unfit by Mumbai Indians’ physiotherapist, Nitin Patel, for the June 8 to 14 tri-series, also involving Pakistan.

“Tendulkar is not available for the tri-series as well as the Asia Cup on the advice of Mumbai Indians physiotherapist Nitin Patel. He has not recovered sufficiently from his groin injury,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah informed in Mumbai on Thursday.

Tendulkar will also skip the Asia Cup, to be held in Pakistan from June 24 to July 6, he added.

Tendulkar has also missed the first seven matches of the Indian Premier League because of the injury. A few day’s back Sachin requested the selectors to keep him away from the selection of the team for Bangladesh.

Tags: Aisa Cup, Bangladesh, Indians, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, Pakistan, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Tendulkar

Watch the live match online at Cricket Updates!

Icon player for Mumbai Indians, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has announced that he is fully fit and will play in the match against Chennai Super Kings lead by Mahender Singh Dhoni.

Mumbai Indians are at the fifth position in the points tally and the team was desperately looking for the master blaster to blast in the way that they can make them self to the semis.

The match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians is scheduled on Wednesday at Wankhede Mumbai. This will be the first match of the master blaster in the ongoing IPL tournament.

“Yes I will be playing the match on May 14. I feel very comfortable. It has been tough and disappointing to have missed the two Tests against South Africa and the first seven IPL ties” Tendulkar confirmed.

“Shaun Pollock was the makeshift captain and has done a terrific job but I will be captaining the side,” he further said.

Tags: Cricket, IPL, Mumbai, Pollock, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Tendulkar

Mumbai Indian stand-in captain Harbhajan Singh on Saturday downplayed the controversy regarding him allegedly slapping S Sreesanth to bring the Kings XI Punjab pacer to tears, saying the issue “had been sorted out”.

Sreesanth said the incident as “shake hand on a wrong side” and said he would not file a complaint against him.

“Not exactly (slapped), it was a shake hand on a wrong side. I don’t want to file any complaint against him,” said Sreesanth who was seen bitterly crying on the ground last night.

After the Punjab team won the tenth IPL match on Friday night against Mumbai Indians by 66 runs, aggressive Harbhajan allegedly hit Sreesanth when the pace man said something to him but later Bhajji apologized him in the dressing room of the home team.

Harbhajan said that all things are sorted out now. Sreesanth, on his part, also said everything was “normal” between him and Harbhajan.

“A lot of things happen in a family. We are part of one family. I think a lot of things which are coming out in the media, whatever has happened we have sorted out all, everything is fine now,” Harbhajan said before leaving for Mumbai with his team this morning.

“Everything is normal, there is nothing between us,” said Sreesanth.

Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar, who missed the IPL matches because of his groin injury, gave no comments regarding the issue.

Harbhajan had preferred to maintain silence on the issue in the post match conference but Punjab team captain Yuvraj Singh had described the incident as “ugly”.

“I do not know what exactly happened but one does not want to see such things happening.” said Yuvi.

The pace man was seen crying bitterly on the ground at the end of the IPL match.

Harbhajan is known for his short tempered nature. There were lots of controversies associated with his name. Many times he loses his temper and got involved in offensive incidents on cricket ground. He must take care of his temper and should remain calm with players and on the cricket ground.

Tags: Harbhajan, IPL, Sachin, Slap, Sreesanth, Yuvraj

The master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, highest scorer in test and in One Day Cricket, is celebrating his 35th birthday today on April 24.

Sachin, son of a Marathi novelist Ramesh Tendulkar, first wanted to be a tennis player, then a fast bowler. But Dennis Lillee told him to “just focus” on his batting and he is now here, a great batsman of Indian cricket.

At the young age of 16-year, he made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1989. In that match Tendulkar wore the pair of pads given by his childhood hero, Sunil Gavaskar.

Tendulkar is the only Indian batsman to have slammed centuries on debut in Ranji Trophy, Duleep and Irani trophies. The ace batsman has over 28,000 runs accredited to his name in all forms of the game. But Tendulkar is also a typical superstitious Indian. He used to put on his left pad before his right.

Tendulkar was the first batsman to have been declared run-out by a third umpire (Karl Liebenberg), against South Africa, at Durban in 1992.

Tendulkar became the first overseas cricketer to play for English county Yorkshire in 1993 when he replaced Australian fast bowler Craig McDermott.

He was featured as one of 60 Asian Heroes in TIME Magazine’s April 28, 2003 edition.

The ace batsman, who in the process also increased his century count to 39 in Tests and 42 in ODIs, besides overtaking Sri Lankan ace Sanath Jayasuriya as the leading run-getter in the 50-over game, has truly bounced back in style after some critics wrote his epitaph in the aftermath of India’s dismal display in the World Cup in the Caribbean.

Presently he is struggling with his groin injury due to which he has missed the first two matches in the ongoing Indian Premier League and has been unable to lead the Mumbai Indians team at two of his most favored venues - Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium and Chennai’s Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk.

This time he is celebrating his birthday with his Mumbai Indians teammates who would be wishing fervently.

Tags: Cricket, Master Blaster, Sachin, Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar is not 100 per cent fit for the upcoming IPL tournament and feared to be a part of his Mumbai Indians team.

Groin injury is troubling Sachin which made him to miss the last two tests against South Africa also.

Sachin Tendulkar, Captain of Mumbai Indians, on Thursday said that his participation in the team’s opening match in Mumbai on Sunday is still doubtful. He said that final decision will be taken before the start of the match against Banglore Royal Challengers on Sunday.

“Whether I will be fit for the first match or not, we will assess before the start and depending on my condition we will take a decision. As of now we haven’t made any decision,” Tendulkar said in Mumbai at the launch of the team.

Sachin is much excited to lead Mumbai in IPL and looking forward for the challenge.

“It is a great challenge to captain Mumbai and I am looking forward to it. There will be challenges and there will be obstacles but those are the challenges we are looking to embrace and go out and give our best,” Tendulkar said.

Harbhajan will be the vice-captain of the team. It is first time Harbhajan is elected as vice captain for any match.

Harbhajan said he would continue to play in his aggressive style despite being pitted against some of his team mates in the IPL. The off-spinner says I will be more aggressive than before.

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: Harbhajan, IPL, Mumbai, Sachin, Tendulkar

India’s Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar has pulled out from the Indian leg of the Olympic torch relay going to be held in the Capital city on Thursday, the 17th April. Sachin’s groin injury that ruled him out of the Test series against South Africa is told as the reason behind his refusal.

Sachin said that he was invited by IOA and it is a matter of proud for him. But he will not be able to run because of his fitness.

Olympic torch has arrived in Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad early on Wednesday on the first leg of its relay in Asia. The torch, touring the world ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August, arrived in a chartered plane from Muscat at an airbase in the nearby city of Rawalpindi.

Earlier, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Magsaysay Awardee Dr Kiran Bedi and National football captain Bhaichung Bhutia, a Buddhist refused to carry the Olympic torch.

The Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan, who initially gave her consent to take part in the relay also refused to run because of some personal reasons.

The torch will reach in Delhi tonight. Fearing Tibetan protest, India also squeezed the route for the relay on Tuesday. The new route is less than a third part of its original 9 Km path. The torch will now travel the two-and-a-half-kilometer route between Vijay Path and India Gate. More than 3000 security personnel have been deployed for the event.

The torch-relay is taking place in the wake of worldwide protests by Tibetans against the crackdown in Lhasa.

Tags: China, India, Olympic, Pakistan, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Tendulkar, Tibet, Torch