India rejects blame on its IPL selections

India recently denied and rejected Pakistan's blame on New Delhi regarding the absence of Pakistani players from the present selected line-up of IPL. Clarifying the suspicions India's officials quoted that Pakistan should introspect into the issues that have actually strained the bilateral ties as this issue raised is baseless with the fact that 17 Pakistani officials have actually been granted Visas.



The issue raised and suspicions creeping in are just a few days before the official conference between the Foreign ministers of the two countries to be held in London over the issue of Afganistan. With Pakistan's rhetoric on the perceived snub to Pakistani players, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said on Thursday that the Indian Government has nothing to do with the proceedings of IPL and neither had a role to play in the selection process. He also added that Pakistan should draw a clear demarcation on what is the issue that is related to Government's intervention.

The entire issue has escalated with the strong words being used by an internal minister of Pakistan saying that the insult borne to Pakistani players shows that India is not serious towards the peace talks between the two nations. The Government of India has expressed its condemnation strongly over the issue which also included the perception of Pakistani players not getting Visas to which the government elapsed the fact that 17 Pakistani players have been offered Visas.

Modi want assurance of Aussie players to be available in IPL 2010

The third edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to begin in March-April 2010 and the IPL chairman Lalit Modi is worried about participation of Aussie players as they would be playing for their state team at that time. Modi asked the state sides to make sure the availability of the players, who are playing for their franchise, by releasing them beforehand the tournament.

It is to be mentioned here that event schedules of BCCI and Sheffield Shield are clashing. On the other hand, IPL organizers are also demanding for No-Objection Certificates from the boards of the nation's boards whose players are to participate in the mega T20 event. Modi was quoted as saying by the 'Australian' that the players might be penalised or terminated of contracts but discussion will be there before tanking any extreme action. On the other hand, a couple of State teams are very particular to be there in domestic event rather than playing in IPL.

MS Dhoni to miss 2 ODIs due to slow over-rate

Indian skipper Mahindra Singh Dhoni will be missing two ODI against Sri Lanka. Thanks to slow over rate in the second one-day international played between India and Sri Lanka on Friday. The bowling side, India, did take 45 minutes more than scheduled. The extra time was taken during the final stage of the second innings of the game. These extra 45 minutes did cost Indian captain ban of two ODIs against Sri Lanka. However, it is also to be seen that the ban will come into effect immediately. In the very ODI, Dhoni hit a classic century and took India twoards a very impressive total but wan in vain. India scored 301 runs in 50 overs game and Sri Lanka chased it with the help of century by Dilshan.


Sri Lanka levelled the series by winning the second ODI. Still 3 ODI are to be played between the teams and Indian side will definitely affected by the absence of Dhoni. It is believed that Indian opener Gautam Gambhir would be named as a captain in absence of Dhoni. Nevertheless, no official comment on the development.

No 'Sahara' for Indian cricket team but Sahara

It would be written in rare cases in the history of Indian cricket. Surprised! But yes, there is no other sponsor was found for the team this time thereby forced to retain Sahara only as a sponsor for the next six months. The sponsorship contract between Sahara and the BCCI is coming to an end on 31 December, 2009 and the latter is looking for a new sponsor but failed completely.

The on going contract was made in 2006 for Rs around 314 crore. On Wednesday, the BCCI Marketing Committee has to extend the contract in view of no new sponsor. BCCI secretary N Srinivasan informed after the meeting that after six months, the board will issue a fresh tender for bidding for the same. Mr Srinivasan added that World Sports Group has been awarded the ground and title rights for Twenty20 International matches to be played between India and Sri Lanka at Rs 3.15 crores per match.

Apart from Twenty20 matches, there is one another attraction for Indian cricket fans that is a luxury small car launch in India. It is Volkswagen Beetle which would be launched along with Volkswagen Touareg on 4th December, 2009. So enjoy, cricket and luxury car in India very soon.

Forward Rajpal becomes Captain of Indian hockey team

The Indian hockey team will depart for the FIH Men's Champions Challenge I tournament in Salta, Argentina from December 6 to 13 with a new skipper: Rajpal Singh. Rajpal, one of the best forwards in Indian team, will lead the team for the upcoming event only. The team will depart from India to Madrid on November 23 for a one-week training-cum-competition tour en-route to Salta. Other than India, New Zealand, Belgium and China (group A), while South Africa, Argentina, Pakistan and Canada are in group B.

India will take on New Zealand in their first match on December 6. India will play against China and Belgium on December 8 and 10 respectively. In the last version of Champions Challenge at Boom, Belgium, India had to content at fourth place. However, the Indian team was lucky enough to won the first edition of the Challenge in Germany in 2003. The winner of the upcoming Champions Challenge will qualify for next year's elite Champions Trophy.


Squad: Adrian D'Souza, PR Sreejesh. Defenders: Sardar Singh, Sandeep Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Bharat Ajitesh Roy, Dhananjay Mahadik, V Raghunath (all are goalkeepers ).

Tushar Khandker, Arjun Halappa, Vikram Pillay, Roshan Minz, Danish Mujtaba, Vikas Sharma (Midfielders), Rajpal Singh (Capt), Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Shivendra Singh, Deepak Thakur, Sarwanjit Singh, Mandeep Antil, Prabhjot Singh (Forwards) and Chief Coach is Jose Brasa while National Coach would be Harendra Singh.

Yuvraj Singh awarded Karizma ZMR

The second cricketer of Indian team, Yuvraj Singh, won the Man of the Match award in the third ODI against Australia in Delhi. Yuvraj Singh, an all-rounder, scored a well knocked 78 runs and lead India to register a superb win over Australians. He was also awarded with Hero Honda Karizma ZMR PGM FI. The Karizma ZMR was launched a few months back in India. This new premium bike became a hot favourite in Indian youth.

Hero Honda tied-up with the seven match series between India and Australia and promoting the bike that results in positive for the company. The company, Hero Honda, also launched refreshed version of its best selling Hero Honda Hunk and Hero Honda Splendor Plus. Earlier, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was awarded the same bike, Honda Karizma ZMR, in the second ODI that was played in Nagpur. Now India is leading the series by 2-1.

India starts well, Sachin departs

Australia won the toss and elected to field first in the second ODI of Hero Honda Cup between Australia and India. Indian openers, Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, gave India the needed start. But Tendulkar got out in the fourth over at the score of 21. Australian bowler Peter Siddle got Mr Tendulkar.

Tendulkar was not up to expectation once again. On the other hand, Sehwag showed his colours and hit five boundaries till 8 th over in progress. After the dismissal of Sachin, Gautam Gambhir joined Sehwag and played his natural cricket. Till the 8th over, Gambhir was at 11 with two boundaries. India kept the per over run rate of 6.12 at the end of 8 the over. Australia conceded 6 extra runs with one bye and 5 wides. Yuvraj Singh has been included in the playing eleven in place of Virat Kohli.