Yuvraj Return to India Squad

Left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh has made a return to India’s ODI squad for the lone T20 and the 1st three ODIs against Australia.

The 31-year old scored 123, 40 and 61 for India A in a 3-match series against West Indies A and also scored 52 in the lone T20. Yuvraj also led India Blue to victory over Delhi in the final of the N.K.P Salve Challenger Trophy.

India will play 1 Twenty20 and 7 one day international s against Australia. But the selectors decided to pick the squad only for the Twenty20 and first 3 ODIs. Umesh Yadav, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, Mohit Sharma and Parvez Rasool are outside.

Senior players gives more option to selectors

The Indian cricket season has commenced with a bang. The ‘A’ teams from New Zealand and the West Indies along with the early Champions League T20 games have brought quite a few of the young and aspiring older Indian cricketers into the fray. 

He seems to have come back with even more vigour, receiving a scintillating century and 2 wonderful knocks against the West Indies ‘A’. Along with him the success of Parthiv Patel and Robin Uthappa has bring to the table more choices for the selectors.

The toughest task is going to be for the selectors. They had made a good concrete path to get young faces and it proved to be a success with the team winning the Champions Trophy in England. 

Giving the seniors another chance to stake claim to their lost position is a generous move but could cost the selectors embarrassing options when they chose the team.

The Indian batting for cricket’s shorter version seems to be rosy with lots of options, but one will have to also look at the correct combination for the Test side. Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay will need to constrict their technique a fair bit to be successful overseas and a few sessions under the watchful eyes of Gavaskar would be the best option for them. 

Former players can help the young aspirant and somehow this approach is missed out on because of being reticent. Gautam Gambhir, I remember, took help from late Parthasarthy Sharma and came back to form after that. Also, it was nice to read that Robin Uthappa has recently done the same with Pravin Amre.

The sad tale is to see empty stands during all the recent ODI and Twenty20 games. We have built such wonderful new stadiums, but they seem to lack comfort and a hospitable experience. Each hosting relationship should only be given a match once the basics are in place or else we will see the finish of the on-ground watchers and be dependent on eye ball figures.

Aus announced ODI squad against Eng Warner dropped

David Warner has been dropped from Australian squad for the ODIs against Scotland and England, while Mitchell Starc will return to Australia after complaining of lower back soreness. Steven Smith, who was part of the original 18-member limited-overs squad, has already flown back after a thigh injury.

David Warner has been left out of the Australia’s ODI squad for this tour purely due to his recent lack of form in this format, Darren Lehmann, the Australia coach, said. By his own admission, David would acknowledge that unfortunately he hasn't scored the weight of runs that he would like just in one-day cricket for his country.

Australia start the ODI leg of the tour with a one-off match against Scotland in Edinburgh on September 3 before taking on England for a 5 ODI-match series that starts on September 6 in Leeds.

Australia in England Tour Australia Five ODI squad
No	Name	No	Name	No	Name
1	Michael Clarke(C)	6	Aaron Finch	11	Glenn Maxwell
2	George Bailey	7	Josh Hazlewood	12	Clint McKay
3	Fawad Ahmed	8	Phillip Hughes	13	Adam Voges
4	Nathan Coulter-Nile	9	Mitchell Johnson	14	Matthew Wade(wk)
5	James Faulkner	10	Shaun Marsh	15	Shane Watson

INDIA VS ENGLAND FIVE TEST MATCH SCHEDULE

The tour schedule also sees 50-over world champions India, who beat England by 5 runs in the Champions Trophy final at Edgbaston in June, involved in 5 one-day internationals and a one-T20 international Match.

INDIA vs ENGLAND FIVE TEST MATCH SCHEDULE
No	Date	Match	Team	Place
1	Jul 09 to14-2014	1 st Test	England vs India	Trent Bridge
2	Jul 17 to21-2014	2 nd Test	England vs India	Lord's
3	Jul 27 to31-2014	3 rd Test	England vs India	Rose Bowl
4	Aug 07 to11-2014	4 th Test	England vs India	Old Trafford
5	Aug 15 to19-2014	5 th Test	England vs India	The Oval

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.

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)

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.