T20 match to assist victims of attacks on Sri Lankan team

In order to assist victims of the attacks on the Sri Lanka cricket team, ICC is decided to have a T20 match between India and Pakistan. The match will be played on June 3 before the ICC T20 World Cup begins. The venue for the match will be Oval. ICC president David Morgan said in a statement that the board intended to do something for the families of the victims of the terror attacks on the Sri Lanka team and match officials in March in Lahore.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt said. “The PCB provided support to the families of the victims immediately after the attack and it is encouraging to see the rest of the cricket world coming together in this way.'' India defeated Pakistan in the inaugural edition of the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. The defending champion opens its defence of the title in Group A along with Bangladesh and Ireland. Pakistan's opponents in Group B are host England and the Netherlands.

WBC is the preparation for CWG 2010: Padukone

NEW DELHI: The World Badminton Championship's (WBC) results for Indian teams will be the base for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010. Prakash Padukone, who is involved in training and selection of the Indian contingent for the World Championships, said that performance of the team in this championship would give a fair idea of the future work required to be done before the CWG 2010.

He said that India is allowed to field players in every formtat of World Badminton Championship to be held at Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad from August 10-16. This wild card entries would give a chance to more players to take part in the prestigious championship. Now, the team will consist of Arun Vishnu, Aparna Balan, K Tarun and Shruti Kurian, who will get an opportunity to represent India for the singles and the doubles team respectively.

Shuttlers P Kashayap and Sayali Gokhale will comprise extra team for the event. According to the format, 64 highest ranked players qualify to participate in the World Championship and the Indian singles team comprises Chetan Anand, Arvind Bhatt, Saina Nehwal and Aditi Mutatkar. The doubles team has Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas, Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal while the mixed doubles team would present the seasoned pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta. The other team to make it through the ranking criteria is Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan.

Defending champ India to return without medal

MALAYSIA: Defending champion India will have to return home without any medal in the Asia Cup hockey. This time the team has finished fifth position after defeating Japan 5-1. India were out of medal contention after losing to Pak and drawing with China in the first two matches.

It may be recalled that India won Azlan Shah Cup recently. But it could not keep the track on. In the last match which was played against Japan, Tushar Khandekar scored two goals (64th, 69th minutes) while Rajpal Singh (2nd minute), skipper Sandeep Singh (21st) and Prabhjot Singh (66th) sounded the board once each. For Japan, Sakamoto Hiroki (31st minute) was the lone scorer.
India loosened their grip in the second half as they went defensive, but Japan failed to take advantage. Latching on to S.V Sunil's pass, Tushar hit a reverse to make it 3-1.

China spoils India’s medal hope

MALAYSIA: India's hope to win another tournament after Azlan Shah Hockey cup was spoiled by China. The winner of Azlan Shah Cup, India, settle for a 2-2 draw against China here on Tuesday. Indian hockey team's poor performance continued in the match against China. As a result of it, the Indian team is out of the medal race.

India was defeated 2-3 by arch rival Pakistan in its first league match of the tournament. Experienced Indian captain Sandeep Singh (31st and 34th) converted two of India’s four penalty corners to put the team in the drivers seat. At this time the team was enjoying a lead of 2-0. But the Indian defence was not up to the mark and the team had to contented with a draw. China bounced back in the game with Lu Feng Hui (45th) and Yu Yang (59th) sounded the boards. After it Indian players tried hard to tickle the score board, but all in vain. Whereas, Chinese were successfully stop their rival's attack.

The Chinese, who spoilt India’s medal hopes in the 2006 Asian Games with a 3-2 victory, reduced the lead in the 45th minute when Hui found the net with an indirect variation off the team’s first penalty corner. Chinese forward Yang drove the final nail in India’s coffin in the 59th minute with a delicate touch from a free hit following a costly defensive lapse.

Crucial match between MI and Kings XI tomorrow

CENTURION: The match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab is going to be held tomorrow. This is a crucial match for both the teams as each one wanted to win it to ease ones's path to semi-finals. In the points table both are looking similar. Mumbai Indians has managed 09 points while Kings XI has got 10 out of 10 matches each. However, as far as run rate is concerned, it is not very much different.

Sachin Tendulkar's men endured a three-match losing streak before finally managing a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday night. Punjab's team looking more balanced now after Australian pacer Brett Lee, who impressed with both bat and ball in the nail-biting win over Deccan Chargers in his first IPL match this season, joined the side. Among the batsmen, Mahela Jayawardene scored a fifty against Deccan and will have to play a key role in the middle order. Kumar Sangakkara and skipper Yuvraj Singh have been in good touch and it would be quite a task for the Mumbai bowlers to contain them if they get going.

Sreesanth becomes easy target for the opposition: Hayden

CENTURION: Australian crickets never leave a chance to comment on Indian cricketers. They say that it is a part of play. It was applied in Indian Premier League II too. Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden told reporters in a post match press conference that Sreesanth becomes an easy target for the opposition as he loses his cool in pressure match situations.

He went on saying and remarked that he was an overrated bowler and so he (Hayden) thought the bowler was a great target for them to go at. Sreesanth always loses his cool under pressure and he think that night was a good example of that. It may be recalled that Matthew Hayden smashed, on Thursday, Sreesanth all over the ground taking 32 runs in 19 deliveries off Sreesanth before getting out to him just short of the three figure mark. TV cameras showed Sreesanth lashing out at Hayden as the latter headed towards the dugout.

Daredevils' fifth win gives top position

DURBAN: Gautam Gambhir's first captaincy experience in Indian Premier League is proving fruitful to the team and him. In his captaincy, Delhi Daredevils not only posted a win against Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday. but also tops the tally in the chart. Now the points tally is changed completely except bottom placed Kolkata Knight Riders.

The number one position is captured by Daredevils, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in the second and third spot respectively. In the match between Daredevils and KKR, runs were flowing and most of the mistakes were done by KKR. Batting first, KKR scored a fighting total of 153 for three. Morne van Wayk batted well and manage to make 74 off 48 balls. In reply, Daredevils chased the target easily in the 19th over.

Thanks to the mistakes by fielders and poor bowling performance. Gautam Gambhir punished the bowlers and scored an unbeaten 71 runs. With David Warner (36), Gambhir gave Daredevils an explosive start that set up the win. The win was Daredevils fifth from seven matches and they are now sitting at the top.

A good total is needed to win: Sachin

JOHANNESBURG: 'Take catches, win matches' is not the right theory for T20 cricket. Mumbai Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar thinks something different. He said that batsmen need to put up a good total if they are to win matches in the Indian Premier League. He suggested it to team-mates after lost a match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In the match played on Sunday, Mumbai Indians managed to score 149 runs with half-centuries from Sanath Jayasuriya and Dwayne Bravo. Chasing a target of 149, Royal Challengers achieved the target with 11 balls to spare. Jacques Kallis (69) and Robin Uthappa (60) were only batsmen who bat in the side. In a post match ceremony, Tendulkar they would have scored more than 150. He stressed that a good total was needed badly by good batting performances.

Tendulkar also urged the team to lift themselves so that wins come regularly. He pointed out that one win and one lose, has become a trend for them. In this match Tendulkar himself could not perform well. He got out only 11 runs. The defeat pushed them to sixth in the table with seven points from seven matches.

Last WC hero's couldn't book ticket for T20 WC

NEW DELHI: Among major contributors in 2007 World Cup could not book their seat for T20 World Cup to be held in England in June. These include likes of Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, hard-hitter Robin Uthappa, S Sreesanth, fighting fitness problems and Joginder Sharma. These changes were based on the performance in the time afterwards 2007 World Cup, current form and fitness. However, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was again named as the captain and Virender Sehawag as vice-captain. The 15-man squad was announced in the meeting of the BCCI's selection committee headed by chairman of selectors K Srikkanth in Mumbai on Monday.

The new team for T20 World Cup is as follows: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan.

According to a report of a news agency, the selectors last month had announced 30 probables and pruned the list on Monday. But some of the probables couldn't book their bearth bus to England. These include wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, Tamil Nadu opener M Vijay, Mumbai trio of Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni and Abhishek Nayar, Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath, Delhi batsman Virat Kohli, Bengal duo of Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha, Haryana leggie Amit Mishra, Tamil Nadu pacer L Balaji and Madhya Pradesh stumper Naman Ojha. Tamil Nadu off-spinner R Ashwin, who was named back-up for Harbhajan Singh, also failed to survive the pruning exercise.

Ten Malaysian athletes to take part in Grand Prix

KOCHI: Ten Malaysian athletes is expected to take part in the NIFE Indian Grand Prix Athletics Championship 2009. Totally 150 athletes will show their talent in the championship. Athletic Federation of India Joint Secretary and Co-ordinator of the championship told reporters that the first leg of the championship will be held in Kochi on May 3. Whereas the next two leg would be held in Coimbatore on May 8 and in Chennai on May 14, respectively.

The first leg would be held at the Maharaja's College Synthetic Track. There would be ten events in the men's and 8 in the women's section. He added that those athletes who are in the ongoing coaching camp for the 2010 Commonwealth Games would participate in the Grand Prix. Samirmon, B G Nagarajan, Abdul Najeeb, Bilas Neelgund, Ajaykumar, P K Anoop, A Aravind, Rithesh Anand, Amiya Mallik, Arunjith, Vishal Saxsena, Chatholi Hamza, Ravinder K Singh, Sandeep K Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajeev R, Sajeesh Joseph, Prakash Varma and Pankan Dhimti will be participating in the 100 m, 400 m, and 800 m events.