SACHIN FITS TO PLAY AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar ruled out the concerns that he will not play in the forthcoming Cricket Test series against South Africa. It was said that Sachin has been advised to take rest for two weeks by John Glostor, the outgoing physiotherapist at the end of Australian tour. Talking to the press reporters in Mumbai, he said that he has played well in the last match. "I am fit as far as I am concerned and I will certainly play in the forthcoming test series against Proteas in India and there is no doubt on that" he added. The first Test against South Africa will commence in his favourite M.A. Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk Stadium) in Chennai on March 26.

SACHIN TO LEAD 'MUMBAI INDIANS' IN IPL

The Mukesh Ambani owned Mumbai IPL team has been christened as "Mumbai Indians Team" and Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar was named as the captain of the team. The Mumbai Indian's logo was unveiled by Sachin, having Sudharshan Chakra with the name of the team engraved in the Chakra. Sachin also said that the colour of the team will be blue and it was honour to be a part of this team. The DLF-IPL tournament is going to start on April 18.

ROBIN AND VENKATESH PRASAD MAY NOT CONTINUE AS COACHES

The BCCI is now in a confusion over whether to continue with Robin Singh as the fielding coach of Indian Cricket team or not. The reason is nothing about his performance with Indian team but for the contract he made with the Hyderabad IPL team. BCCI thinks that there may be some conflict in the interest for Indian support staff to join the IPL teams. It is expected that an effective decision would be taken in 10 days on this issue. Indian team's bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad has also been linked in this issue as he was bought by the Bangalore Royale Challengers. However both of them have been good in their job as the Indian Cricket team had done pretty well in this season. But their full time contracts with IPL would have an adverse effect on the Indian Cricket team.

BRAD HOGG ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Australian Cricketer and all-rounder Brad Hogg said that he will retire from the international cricket after the tri-series finals against India but willing to play in the Australia's domestic first-class competition for one more year. He told that his career get started against India and playing test matches against India would be more fantastic. Hogg added that he fought very well to get a position and achieved that what he wanted to achieve. The Australian Cricket team have been hit by a consecutive announcements of retirements by Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Gilchrist, Tait and now Hogg in the past 15 months.

THREE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS SIGNED UP FOR ICL

Three former Australian Cricket players Michael Kasprowicz, Matthew Elliott and Damien Martyn have been signed up for the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL). They were joined the league a few days ago after former New Zealand wicketkeeper Adam Parore announced his interest to play in ICL. Kasprowicz, 36, had played 38 tests and 43 one-dayers for Australia. Opening batsmen Elliott, had played in 21 tests and only a single ODI for Australia. Martyn, 36, who played 67 tests and 208 one-dayers, walked out from the international Cricket in the middle of Ashes series, 2006, had joined the ICL last year but did not attend the inaugural event. Kapil Dev, Chairman of ICL said "These Australian players will strengthen the teams, boost the quality of cricket, making the ICL showcase a competitive one".

CHENNAI AND HYDERABAD - IPL'S BEST TEAMS

In a recent poll conducted by the cricketnext.com among its users regarding the best team to win the Indian Premier League, most of the votes went to the Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings IPL teams. While Mohali, Kolkata, and Mumbai teams got the next respective places with good percentage of votes, teams of Bangalore, Delhi and Jaipur got poor percentage.

The Percentage of votes gained by the teams are:

• Chennai Super Kings - 26%
• Hyderabad - 26%
• Mohali - 17%
• Kolkata - 13%
• Mumbai - 9%
• Bangalore - 4%
• Delhi Dare Devils - 2%
• Jaipur - 1%
  

Source : cricketnext.com

INDIA STROMS INTO SEM-FINALS OF THE WORLD CUP

The Under-19 Indian Cricket team has enter into the semi-finals of the World Cup, after beating England by 7 wickets in Kuala Lumpur. Earlier India won the toss and asked England to bat first. England scored 146 runs in 46 overs by losing all wickets. Iqbal Abdullah of India picked up 3 wickets while Siddharth Kaul and Ravindra Jadeja got couple of wickets. Later the Indian team chased the target in the 40-th over. Opener Turuwar Kohli scored an unbeaten 63 with 8 boundaries. Indian team is going to play with the winner of the quarter-final match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

BCCI REJECTS PAKISTAN'S OFFER

The BCCI has rejected the Pakistan Cricket Board's offer to play 3 ODI matches in mid March at Lahore. Sharad Pawar, President of BCCI has called up Nasim Ashraf, Chairman of PCB and conveyed that the tour was not possible as the schedule of Indian Cricket team is tight. "BCCI said that the Indian players have been on tour for the past three months and have to play a home series against South Africa from 26th March. Indian players want to take rest for one or two weeks before playing with South Africa. However BCCI promised to play the 3 matches during September-October in Pakistan before the ICC Champions Trophy" said a PCB official. PCB now wants to invite Sri Lankan Cricket team during March to play 5 match ODI series.

SOURAV GANGULY HAPPY WITH KOLKATA IPL TEAM

Sourav Ganguly, the icon player of the Kolkata IPL team said that he was happy with the players won by the Kolkata franchise. After returning from the landmark auction for the bidding of players in Mumbai, he said, "Our team was not short on batting. We dont need too many batsmen in Twenty20 matches and i get satisfied with the team we have got". The Kolkata team won the following players in the auction:

• Ricky Ponting ($ 400,000)
• David Hussey ($ 625,000)
• Shoaib Akthar ($ 425,000)
• Chris Gayle ($ 800,000)
• Brendon McCullum ($ 700,000)
• Ishant Sharma ($ 900,000)
• Murali Karthik ($ 425,000)
• Ajit Agarkar ($ 350,000)
• Umar Gul ($ 150,000)

In the very first match of IPL tournament, Kolkata team will play against Bangalore team on April 18 at Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore.

PAKISTAN CRICKET BOARD INVITES INDIA FOR ODI SERIES

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said, they have sent a formal proposal to BCCI for an ODI series of 3 matches against India in mid March. An official of PCB said, the board was keen to host the series to fill the free time, since Cricket Australia(CA) decided to shorten their tour of Pakistan by 18 days. If everything goes well, the week long ODI series against India will start from March 12 and all the matches will be played in Lahore to reduce the stress and burden on the Indian Cricket team, he added. But a senior official from BCCI said, the proposed tour was not confirmed and the team will now focus on the ongoing tri-series in Australia to reach the finals.

LEANDER PAES WANTS GANGULY BACK INTO TEAM

Indian tennis player Leander Paes hoped that Sourav Ganguly will be able to make a comeback into the Indian One Day International team. On the decision of eliminating Ganguly from the ODI squad, Paes said, "Although Sourav accepted his ommision from the team, he has still some more distance to go. I definitely want DADA to make a comeback in the ODI squad".

Paes also said he was confident of winning a medal in the upcoming Beijing Olympics by partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi. "There's lot of differences between us but we are having a bright chance to win medal in Olympics, if we played together".He added,"I wont comment on Sania's decision to quit the Bangalore Open. Its her decision, you better ask her".

DHONI'S DOUBLE ACHIEVEMENTS

The Indian Cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 26, had attained two achievements after playing in the one day match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, 12th February. The first one is, that match was his 1ooth ODI match and the second one as the first Indian wicketkeeper to score 3,000 runs. Also Dhoni had totally been dismissed 100 times in both ODI and test matches. He averages 44.94 in 90 ODI innings by scoring 3,011 runs.

DADA TO LEAD KOLKATA IN IPL

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, being called as DADA is going to lead the Kolkata team in the forthcoming BCCI's multi billion dollar Indian Premier League (IPL). The official announcement of Ganguly as Kolkata team's captain will be made out after February 20. Sources said that Ganguly had discussions with the Kolkata team's franchise, actor Shah Rukh Khan on telephone and King Khan requested DADA to select the players of his own choice. According to the IPL rules, a team should have a maximum of four foreign players and minimum four local ones. Ganguly said that he likes to have Jaques Kallis, Adam Gilchrist, Hayden, Shaun Pollock, Lee, Shahid Afridi and Yousuf Youhana in his team. Among the Indian players, MS Dhoni tops the list of Kolkata team. The IPL tournament starts on April 18 with music and dance shows and Kolkata team's theme is to be sung by singer Usha Uthup.

KAPIL DEV MOVED TO COURT AGAINST BCCI

Former Indian Cricket legend and the Director of Indian Cricket League (ICL), Kapil Dev moved to the Delhi High Court against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He filed an affidavit and alleged that the BCCI had intenionally changed the rules in order to stop his pension benefits, after he joined the ICL. He had been receiving the pension as well as other benefits from the year 2000, when the board announced pension scheme for its retired players. However after Kapil Dev and certain Indian cricketers joined the ICL, the BCCI announced that players joining ICL would not be considered for any benefits like pension etc...

IPL WITHOUT AUSTRALIAN PLAYERS

The Australian cricketers are in a trouble of losing their contracts with BCCI's Indian Premier League. The Cricket Australia (CA), the Australian Cricket board likes to promote its sponsors in the IPL matches. According to CA's rules, its players have to wear a sanctioned gear and wants coverage, if they took part in international matches. Reacting to these demands, BCCI vice president Lalit Modi said, "We are not interested in CA's stand of protecting its sponsors. If CA sticks on its demands, they are only going to be affected. We will conduct the IPL tournament without them". He added, "Personal contracts will not be affected and players can keep their sponsors and gain more personal sponsors throughout the IPL tournament".

While Cricket Australia said that BCCI has misunderstood its stand. We are ready to talk with BCCI to solve this as well as many issues and we wants to see the IPL as a success one.

IPL needs NOC from Players

BCCI's Indian Premier League (IPL) said it will not contract the retired international cricketers. Players who want to sign up with IPL will have agree to a 2 year waiting period between retiring from international cricket and joining the IPL's Twenty20 tournament. Lalit Modi, IPL chairman said players would have to get a No-Objection Certificate from their home cricket boards before signing with the league.This NOC will prevent the players from retiring from the international cricket before their home boards allow them to retire.