Tuesday, August 27, 2013

England Announced ODI squad Against Australia

England has rested Alastair Cook, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann for the 5-match ODI series against Australia next month.

Eoin Morgan will captain the side in Cook Rest, while pace bowlers Chris Jordan and Jamie Overton are included in an England squad for the first time.

Michael Carberry, Gary Ballance and Boyd Rankin, who are yet to make their ODI debuts for England, have also been selected.

Following a good intense period of cricket this summer we have decided to rest a number of senior players which will allow them to recover from a heavy workload over the last 3 months and to prepare for the tour of Australia which begins in 8 weeks, national selector Geoff Miller said in a statement.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Virat Kohli and other sports players got Arjuna Award

Indian cricketer Virat Kohli has been given the Arjuna Award, by the Government of India in respect of his contribution to sport. 

Along with Kohli, badminton player PV Sindhu who created history by winning a bronze medal in the recently world badminton championships has also bagged the award. 

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honor in the country, has been given to ace shooter Ronjan Sodhi, according to a report by NDTV.

The national sports awards will be held in New Delhi on August 29. The winners receive a statue, a mention and a cash prize of Rs.5 lakh. 

The Arjuna Award selection committee was headed by 3-time billiards world champion Michael Ferreira and comprised former India hockey captain Zafar Iqbal, archer Limba Ram, cricketer Ravi Shastri and table tennis player Indu Puri amongst others.

Full Award list:

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna: Ronjan Sodhi

Arjuna Awards:

1.Chekrovolu Swuro (Archery)
2.Renjith Maheshwary (Athletics)
3.PV Sindhu (Badminton)
4.Kavita Chahal (Boxing)
5.Rupesh Shah (Snooker and Billiards)
6.Virat Kohli (Cricket)
7.Abhijeet Gupta (Chess)
8.Gaganjeet Bhullar (Golf)
9.Saba Anjum (Hockey)
10.Rajkumari Rathore (Shooting)
11.Joshna Chinappa (Squash)
12.Neha Rathi (Wrestling)
13.Dharmender Dalal (Wrestling)
14.Amit Kumar Saroha (Athletics)

Friday, August 9, 2013

Banned Amir backs calls to match-fixing a crime

Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Amir has backed former India captain Rahul Dravid call to make match fixing a criminal offence. 

Amir, who was jailed in England for corruption and is also serving a 5-year ban for spot fixing during a test at Lord in 2010, urged the International Cricket Council to review and change its present system of anti-corruption enforcement and laws. 

"Fixing of cricket matches must be made an criminal offence where the punishment should be hard jail," Amir, who was released after 3 months of his 6-month prison sentence in England, told the Geo Super sports channel on Thursday.

Make fixing a criminal offence: Dravid

Only then will players be willing to report any come up to or offer or unusual movement to the ICC anti-corruption and security unit officers or their managing without fear.

Earlier this week Dravid, who has been named as a witness in a major spot-fixing scandal that tainted this year IPL Twenty20 competition, said merely calming players of the perils of match-fixing was not enough.
I have been through a lot at a young age and I have learnt a lot. I made expensive mistakes. But in order to prevent others from being lured into corruption tougher laws are compulsory by the ICC," said the 21-year-old, who was banned in 2011 by an ICC anti-corruption court with team mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif.

Main thing is that the ICC needs to keep track of all phone calls made by players and official during a tour or match even if they need help of local police to make this legally possible.

Monday, August 5, 2013

South Africa beaten Sri Lanka by 22 runs 2ndT20

South Africa beaten Sri Lanka by 22 runs in the 2nd Twenty20 international in wind-swept Hambantota on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the Three match T20 series.

JP Duminy scored 30 off 23 balls and David Miller hit a violent 21-ball 36 as the Proteas reached 145-6 after elect to take first strike in the day-night match. Fast bowlers Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Morne Morkel then claimed 2 wickets each as Sri Lanka, the world top-ranked Twenty20 side, were restricted to 123-7 by an inspiring South African fielding display.

Kumar Sangakkara played a lone hand for the hosts with an attractive 39 off 35 balls, but he was only one of 3 batsmen who crossed 30 in difficult conditions for both teams due to the stiff breeze.

The series win helped South Africa salvage pride after an awkward 4-1 defeat in the preceding ODI.
South Africa's Twenty20 skipper FAF du Plessis said the win was sweet revenge for that loss.

Sri Lanka showed no mercy in the ODI and we surely don't want to be showing them any in the T20s, du Plessis said. The team has shown great character after what happened earlier. I thought we played a big game of cricket to get to 145 despite the wind. We were strategically very good in the bowling also.

The tourists, who won the first Twenty20 game by 12 runs in Colombo on Friday, will be looking to secure a series whitewash when the last match is played in Hambantota on Tuesday.Sri Lanka, who will lose their number 1ranking to 2nd-placed Pakistan if they are defeated again on Tuesday, paid the price for poor batting. I think it was a gettable score, but we just did not bat well," said Captain Dinesh Chandimal.