Sania Mirza hopes to play in Commonwealth Games

Indian tennis player Sania Mirza has said that she hopes for a speedy recovery so that she can return to the game and also participate in the commonwealth games this year to be held in Delhi.

Mirza has suffered a wrist injury as she complained of a pain in an earlier wrist problem during the Dubai Tennis Championships last month.

"I will surely play Commonwealth Games and I am preparing for it. But for the next six weeks I would not be able to play and practice due to my injury. Let me recover from my injury, then I will start playing," said Sania.

She was speaking during the inauguration of the Pailan World School Residential Tennis Academy in Kolkata. She also appreciated the opening of the academy as it would give confidence to future players.

India has qualified in the Asia/Oceania Zone Group-I in the Fed Cup, where she is an important player. She said that she would be interested in the "special" training programme forthe Commonwealth Games after she recovers.

She said that she has enough time until the games to prepare for the matches.

Schedule for IPL Finally Released

In a country where cricket is almost a religion, the fact that the IPL 2010 schedule has been released is obviously a huge deal and a joyous development for the lovers ofcricket. Fans are now eagerly waiting for Friday, 12 March,
2010, which is the opening day for the 2010 season matches.

The 3rd IPL season will commence of March 12 and close on April 25. The 2010 season has already managed to create much interest since its biding window was opened, with none of the teams involved opting to pick up the available Pakistani players.

Also, this season holds a special importance as the game has come back to its home country after it was shifted to South Africa last year because it coincided with the General Election in India.

The same 8 popular teams would be playing each other, with the starting match featuring defending champions Deccan Chargers pitted against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Also, as most of the matches have been scheduled for the evening slot, majority of the fans will be able to enjoy the season.

For once, it seems we have managed to please the hard-to-please Australia as well, with the country expressing its complete satisfaction with the security arrangements which have been made for players.

The atmosphere is all charged up and we are all now waiting for March 25!

Netherland dumps Canada 6-0 in HWC

The Netherlands have continued their dominance in the Hockey World Cup (HWC) as the Dutch team has thrashed Canada by 6-0 in the Pool A match at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium on Friday.

Both teams failed to open their accounts in the first half but Dutch smashed six goals in the second half to outplay their opponents. Drag-flick specialist Taeke Taekma and Rogier Hofman smashed two goals each for Netherlands.

Taeke has now become the leading goal scorer in the World Cup with six goals. Roland Brouwer and Rob Reckers scored one goal each.

Meanwhile, New Zealand has upset the Asian Games champion's South Korea 2-1 in the first match of the day. The Kiwis took 2-0 lead in the first half while Koreans scored their first goal with just 23 seconds left in the match.

In another Pool A match, Germany has defeated Argentina 4-3. Martin Zwicker scored first goal for Germany in the fifth minute to give his team lead in the match.

KKR to Improve Performance in IPL Season 3 by Public Suggestions

For improving the performance and coaching his team Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL season 3, Shah Rukh Khan, the Bollywood celebrity, invited suggestions via messages on Saturday.

These suggestions were invited under "Main Bhi Coach" program launched by Nokia in collaboration with KKR in Mumbai.

The suggestions are invited to be sent to 9664555555 and as Shah Rukh Khan says all the suggestions will be discussed with the team.

Coach John Buchanan was replaced with Dav Whatmore following the age factor and communication gap with the players that was being held responsible for poor performance of the tem in last two IPL seasons.

Launching the "Main Bhi Coach" program, "When we used to lose, I used to get inundated with messages, mostly suggestions.

I don't mean that the team losing is lazy or it doesn't want to win or it is a bad team. When one team competes, it competes to win.

I won't say that we didn't work hard. Maybe our decision of multiple captains was not right, we can find excuses but the bottom line is that we worked hard, we played very hard but not hard enough".

IPL mops up cash by selling mobile rights

On Thursday, the Indian Premier League (IPL) allotted license for the distribution of exclusive rights of transmission of their matches to various mobile platforms all across the world. The IPL lovers would now get the updates and watch the match on the move, no need for them to sit in front of the TV.

This strategy would help to bring in some additional money and generate a revenue stream for the telecom companies who were providing these updates for a fee.

A Gurgaon based company vRock Mobile Communications has got the contract. Under this contract, the company will be responsible to take the IPL news and updates to the mobile consumers. IPL Chairman Lalit Modi explained the absence of this technology in the past as the unavailability of providers during the previous 2 versions. One of the world’s largest online video sharing sites Youtube also has the rights to telecast these matches.

The rights that have been distributed are solely for vRock Mobile. The only company to provide information to consumers through SMS, MMS and IVR over the various fields like CDMA, GSM, GPRS, MMS, WAP, EDGE, 2G and 3G will be vRock mobile.

Dhoni set for another challenge

While the Indian captain M. S. Dhoni may have proved to be the true captain of the ship when it was against the South Africans but his road to the IPL trophy is full of heavy waves. His team Chennai Super Kings will be entering the third season of this much-hyped cricket tournament without the two key all-rounders as Andrew Flintoff and Jacob Oram will be missing from the action.

Though, Oram is expected to join back later in the tournament. The problems don't end here, in fact, they start. Muttiah Muralitharan and Makhaya Ntini, considered to be the backbone of CSK are also not in the best phase of their careers which will put additional pressure on the Captain. Its affair with the auction for third season hasn't been so well either.

After its unsuccessful bets for players like Kieron Pollard, Shane Bond and Kemar Roach, the franchisee settled for ICL-returned Justin Kemp and Sri Lankan all-rounder Thissaara Perera. Clearly, Chennai Super Kings will be banking on their batting line-up and more importantly on their captain to sail through the aimed top slot of the IPL rankings.

Spain crushes England 2-0

Already on a roll, the Spanish team has settled its old score with England as the Spanish beat England by 2-0 in an interesting encounter. Although, the British have already secured a place for themselves in the Semi-final but the fact that the England team was beaten 4-2 in January by Spain and they haven't been able to file a victory against them in the past 35 years remains intact.

Pau Quemada converted a penalty corner into a goal in the first half for Spain while Eduard Tubau added on to the leading the second half for Olympics silver medallist Spain's third victory in the tournament.

While on the one end, England's pole position was at stake, Spanish were fighting for the third spot in their Group to stay at the sixth spot in the world ranking. However, it hasn't been so bad for the England team keeping in mind their green signal to the semi-finals. It will be veryinteresting to see what effect this lost match will have on the players when they enter the playfield for an intense encounter.

Razzaq expresses excitement to be part of Hampshire team

A deal has been signed by veteran Pakistani all-rounder Abdul Razzaq with the Hampshire Hawks, England's current T20 champions, as they prepare to defend their title in the Friends Provident Trophy in June.

Shahid Afridi is the other Pakistani player in the team.

Razzaq expressed excitement to be a part of the Hampshire team and play along Afridi.

PakPassion. net quoted Razzaq, as saying," I can't wait to put the Hampshire shirt on and do well for them. I'm really excited at being given this opportunity by such a high profile team and hopefully Shahid and I can helpHampshire to the title."

Razzaq, who has a strike rate of just under 150 in T20 cricket, said their stints with Hampshire would offer a good opportunity to warm-up before the hectic series against England and Australia later in the year.

Razzaq further added," Shahid and I are good friends and it will be great to have him around this summer with me. I'm sure it will be ideal preparation for us both before we join the Pakistan squad for the series against England and Australia." (

Ramiz Raja backs Afridi to lead Pakistan in all forms of cricket

All rounder Shahid Afridi has been described the 'best man to lead' the team in the forthcoming T20 World Championship in the Caribbean by former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja. He further said that the flamboyant cricketer should be appointed skipper for all the three forms of the game.

Raja said," I'll go with Afridi as captain. In fact, I'll recommend Afridi for all three formats."

It has been told by the sources inside the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that the board is hesitant to continue with Afridi as captain of the T20 team after he was punished for ball-tampering during the fifth and last one-day international against Australia at Perth.

However saying he has already been punished for his act, Raja backed Afridi.

The News quoted Raja, as saying," If that's the reason to overlook him as captain then I don't agree with it. He has been punished already. In any case, I think ball-tampering is no big deal. It's only that Afridi did it in a silly manner, probably in the pressure of the moment."

Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq are being considered by the PCB for the captaincy but Raja said it won't be a wise move.

He further said," I personally believe that Its Afridi's chance. It's his time. He can handle the pressure. He was the best player of the World Twenty20 final last year. The only thing that he needs is to relax as captain. Once he does that, I'm sure he can get the best out of our team."

India retains no. 1 spot in ICC test rankings

Indian team has defeated South Africa in the second test match to retain their no. 1 spot in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings for test matches issued on Thursday.

India has defeated South Africa by an inning and 57 runs in a thriller on the fifth and final day of the second test match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Hasim Alma played a brilliant unbeaten inning of 123 runs but could not help his team to save the match.

South resumed from the overnight score of 115 runs for loss of three wickets. South Africa lost their four wickets early in the day as India was looking to wrap up the match before tea. But last three wickets of South Africa played together 53.3 overs.

Harbhajan Singh took a five wickets haul to lead India to memorable win against the South Africa. Harbhajan took last wicket of the M Morkel in the 131st over as india won the match with just nine more deliveries to be bowled on the last day.

A Mishra also bowled well and chipped in with three wickets. Amla was declared man of the match as well as man of the series for his brilliant batting throughout the series.

Woods Makes Public Apology For "Irresponsible And Selfish Behavior"

Tiger Woods has made a public apology for reckless and egotistic behavior.

At last, Woods broke his muteness on the sex scandal, which engulfed him during the last year.

Also, the no.1 affirmed that he had been in rehab centre for 45 days, but didn't disclose details of his cure.

He admitted that he cheated and had affairs, but called on the media persons to value the confidentiality of his family.

"Elin and I have started the process of discussing my behaviour but I know my apology to her will not come in the form of words but in my behaviour over time. We have a lot to discuss and what we do say will remain between the two of us," he said.

While talking about press, he stated, "Please leave my wife and kids alone. They did not do these things, I did."

He also utilized the meeting to fire reports that his wifey had hit him on the night of his car crash in November 2009, saying: "It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night."

Indian Premier League (IPL) under siege following the Al-Qaida threat

As the international players’ association has sent a warning that some members will not participate in the tournament as they are concerned about the Al-Qaida threat, the third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is under siege.

Tim May, chief of the Federation of International Cricketers Association warned that players were agitated by Ilyas Kashmiri’s threat against players participating in sporting events in India, including the IPL.

The Australian quoted May, as saying,“ There is an extremely high level of concern from a number of players from a number of countries about the IPL and security.”

He further added,“ I think you''ll find that some players are more risk averse than others and will probably stay at home.”

Paul Marsh, chief executive of Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) said the mention of Al-Qaida had shaken his members.

Marsh said,“ We still haven''t received the report yet and once we get that we will obviously know what the next steps are.”

Adding further he said,“ There is definitely a concern, not just with our players either. We are all working off the same consultants and the same reports but the fact that it is an Al-Qaidathreat is certainly concerning many.”

A detailed report is expected to be submit to the ACA by Reg Dickason, a security consultant who specializes in cricket, on Sunday.

As IPL falls outside the jurisdiction of Cricket Australia, it will be left to the individual players to decide whether or not they make the journey to India though Dickason’s report will conclude with an assessment as to whether player safety can be guaranteed during the tournament.

Competition within the squad a great pointer ahead of next summer''s challenge, says Ponting

Australian cricket is in great shape ahead of their next two major assignments, winning back the Ashes and chasing a fourth-straight World Cup triumph, said Captain Ricky Ponting.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying," We''re heading in the right direction in all forms of the game and with the exposure that we''ve been able to give a lot of the younger guys as well, a lot of them aren''t so young any more in terms of having games of cricket under their belts."

He further added "So we''re in great shape as far as the next 12 months is concerned with the Ashes series back here and the World Cup (looming)."

Australia has developed new depth in their fast-bowling ranks and is unbeaten in all formats at home this summer.

While fringe batsmen James Hopes and Adam Voges also starred, the likes of Doug Bollinger, Ryan Harris and Clint McKay again performed well in Friday''s 125-run thumping of the West Indies in the fifth one-dayer, at the MCG.

With less than a year left before the next World Cup begins on the subcontinent, Ponting said the competition within the squad was a great pointer ahead of next summer''s challenge to regain the Ashes from England.

Ponting was disappointed over the 15,538 fan turnout for Friday''s match at the MCG, which was about half as much as the size of the crowd that watched St Kilda and Collingwood play an AFL pre-season game across the city at Etihad Stadium.

He said," I''m not sure if the lack of contest had anything to do with it at all. One thing Australian crowds have always done, they''ve always come and supported their team and watched their team win, so I don''t think we can be blaming that (a one-sided series) for (low crowds).

If offered I would love to take fulltime job of coaching Pak cricket team, says Waqar

Pakistan team's bowling and fielding coach during the disastrous trip of Australia and bowling legend Waqar Younis, is ready to don the mantle full time, if approached by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

He was appointed Pakistan's fielding and bowling coach only for the series against Australia.

Pakistan board has acknowledged that they are looking for a new coach to replace Intikhab Alam though they have not said it openly. Waqar said he would love to coach the senior side on a longer-term basis.

The Daily Times quoted Waqar, as saying," If offered I would love to take on the role of coach. Pakistan cricket remains my absolute passion and number one priority. I don't want to do it on an appointment or short-term basis though. I'd like to have time to work with the boys, to really be able to plan ahead," said Waqar whose first stint as bowlingcoach was between March 2006 and January 2007."

He further said," I enjoyed that stint when I was with (Bob) Woolmer, though I worked with limited resources then and in a limited role," he said. "It would make more sense to have a broader role and greater authority if I do work with the side again."

Waqar quietly gave his own report of the tour to the inquiry committee, even as the inevitable blame game swiftly followed the whitewash in Australia.

Waqar said," I said what I wanted to say in the report and gave it in. I just want to help make things better and not point fingers at anyone in particular. We lost the series and my report says why I think we lost. I have given some suggestions as well."

Seventh quickest time clocked by Sutil in Formula One testing

On the penultimate day of the Formula One team test programme, Adrian Sutil of Force India put in 69 laps and posted the seventh quickest time of 1 minute, 21.939 seconds.

In hugely improved weather conditions on Friday, Sutil took over the VJM03 and worked through a programme of long and short runs, weight distribution and race preparation.

The Force India driver said," Today was our first proper shot at dry running this test and it went pretty well. In the morning we did a few short runs and some set-up work and then in the afternoon moved on to longer runs and getting more information on the new tyres."

He further added," At the end of the day we wanted to do a further run but unfortunately a red flag came out so we didn't do as many laps as we would have liked over the whole day. The tyres at the moment are quite difficult to handle as the soft compound grains up very quickly in the low temperatures. The mediums last a bit longer but still grain after 10 or 12 laps. There's no way to avoid it at the moment but I'm not too concerned as I am sure they will handle better in the higher temperatures we'll see in the races."

With a 1:19.299 over 115 laps, Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing topped the time charts, ahead of Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) who clocked 1:20.115 (132 laps) while world champion Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes was third in 1:20.394 (101 laps).

Sehwag the No. 1 test batsman

Displacing fellow opener, good friend and his Delhi daredevil team mate Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag has climbed up the ladder to make it to the no. 1 spot on the ICC test cricket rankings. He scored a brisk 165 in the Kolkata Test sending the South African bowlers in disarray.India also won that test later on to stay on the top test team and get a reward of $1, 75,000 on April 1. Before the Kolkata test he scored a 109 in Nagpur but was in vain asIndia eventually lost the match.

Sehwag currently has the lead with 863 points, while Gambhir owing to his poor performance has dropped to fifth place with 824 points. With a tremendous average of 108.98 Sehwag has fared really well in all the 6 tests that he has played this season and has 2 centuries in 4 matches this year

In ESPN cricinfo awards he won an award for the best innings innings in Test Cricket which was hi audacious 293 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Hashim Amla for his terrific performance in India has moved up to the 2nd spot with
842 points.

Reg Dickason’s report doubts the ability of local authorities to deliver security in IPL

After their players'' association recommended a pull out from the tournament, New Zealand cricketers' involvement in the Indian Premier League which starts on March 12, is in serious doubt.

After a report by independent security adviser Reg Dickason warned that security could not be guaranteed for the tournament the players have been left to contemplate their participation in IPL.

Doubt has been cast on the ability of local authorities to deliver security management plans by the highly anticipated report commissioned by the New Zealand, Australian, English and South African players'' unions.

With a reported advice against travel to India, a dossier compiled by Dickason has been passed on to individual players who have IPL deals, as told by reports.

The threats made by Al-Qaeda militant Ilyas Kashmiri against the IPL are claimed to be credible by Dickason's.

"I have talked to Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori and Ross Taylor about the report," said Heath Mills, New Zealand Cricket Players' Association manager.

A statement is likely within the next 24 hours on the positions of the players'' associations, reported The New Zealand Herald.

The players stand to lose millions if they refuse to travel as contracts range about 400,000 dollars and 750,000 dollars.

Cricket World Cup not be shifted: BCCI

There have been news from various sources that the 2011 cricket World Cup scheduled to be held in the sub-continent could be shifted in the wake of the terror threats received recently.

But, there is good news for the millions of cricket lovers around the country as BCCI on Monday announced the World Cup, the mega event for cricket won't be shifted and would at any cost be held in the sub-continent.

A report in New Zealand media had earlier said that, in case the world Cup is shifted from the subcontinent, their country and their neighbor Australia would be the ideal alternative hosts.

The report was rubbished by BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan and refused to make any further comment on that. The report stated that, the timing of the event could not be changed and hence there were just Australia-New Zealand and South Africa as the alternative hosts.

The issue of security is of great concern for the foreign players who are visiting the country. India and the other nations though are leaving no stone unturned for tight and the best security to be provided for the visiting officials and players.

Paes-Dlouhy duo storms into Dubai Open quarters

India's Leander Paes and his partner Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic have entered into the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles events of the US $1,619,500 Dubai Open tennis tournament on Tuesday.

The Indo-Czech duo got past Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in straight sets by 7-6 (7) 6-3 in the first round. The second seeded pair of Paes-Dlouhy won the first set after it went to tie-breaker while second set was just a cakewalk for them.

Paes-Dlouhy will now clash with the winner of the match between India's Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Arnaud Clement of France and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden.

Meanwhile, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and his Belarusian partner Max Mirnyi have also made into the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles after defeating M Al Baloushi of UAE and Abdullah Magdas of Kuwait 7-5, 6-0 in the first round.

The third seeded duo of Bhupathi-Mirnyi will now play against the winner of first round match between Serbian duo Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic and Paul Hanley of Australia and Hanley Simon Aspelin of Sweden.

Japan dumps India 4-1 in Uber Cup

Indian women have failed to continue their brilliant show at the Uber Cup as Japan has thrashed India by 4-1 in the second round of the Uber Cup (Asia Zone) badminton tournament at the Nakornratchasima in Thailand on Tuesday.

Saina Nehwal was the only Indian woman to win her match while all others lost their matches. Saina, the World no. 7, was declared winner in the match against Goto when Goto decided to withdraw from the match due to injury. Saina was leading the match 1-0 at that moment.

Indian women failed to take benefit of early advantage provided by Saina as they lost all next four matches. Indian pair of Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurian went down to Mami Naito and Shizuka Matsuo of Japan 18-21 21-17 14-21 in the second match.

Indian national champion Trupti Murgunde also lost her match against Sayaka Sato 16-21 19-21. Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna of Japan defeated Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-13, 13-21, 21-12 in the doubles. Eriko Hirose thrashed India's Gayatri Vartak 21-12, 21-7 in the fifth match as Japan won the match easily by 4-1.

Jung wins gold medal in CWST

India's Samaresh Jung has won gold medal in the 10m air pistol event with a score of 685.3 to break the previous meet record of England's Michael Gault (681.5) in the Commonwealth Shooting Championship (CWST) at the Dr Karni Singh shooting range on Monday.

Jung shot 583 and 102.3 to finish at top spot while his compatriot Zakir Khan won the silver medal with overall score of 676.6 (576+100.6). Gault won the bronze medal.

It could have been all Indian affairs in the 10 m air pistol event as Omkar Singh was once leading from Gault but he lost his lead in the last two shots. Gault finished at the third place with a difference of just 0.8 points over Omkar.

India is leading the medal tally with 26 medals including 12 gold, 8 silver and five bronze medals. England is placed at the second place with 15 medals including three gold, seven silver and five bronze medals while Australia occupies the third place with 10 medals.

Warner leads Australia to emphatic win

Australian left handed opener David Warner has smashed 67 runs in just 29 balls to lead his team to victory over West Indies by eight wickets in the second T20 international match at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday.

West Indies skipper Chris Gayle won the toss and elected to bat first. West Indies scored 138 runs for loss of seven wickets in their allotted 20 overs. N Deonarine was top scorer for West Indies who scored 36 runs while T Dowlin contributed 31 runs with the bat.

R Harris and D Christian took two wickets each for Australia while S Tait and Shane Watson chipped in with one wicket each.

Australia chased the target of 139 runs in just 11.4 overs. Warner smashed West Indies bowlers all over the park as he hit seven sixes in his inning. Watson also batted brilliantly and he scored unbeaten 62 runs in 33 balls.Warner was declared man of the match for his brilliant batting performance. With this win, Australia has won the two T20 international matches series by 2-0.