Geoffrey Boycott criticizes Indian Cricket Team

In a recent interview Geoffrey boycott the former England opening batsman criticizes Indian bowling. He said that, “In a recent Test series England defeated India by 2-1. Australia also has a possibility to overtake India in the upcoming test. Indian bowling is very poor, even my mother too faces Indian bowling easily and my grandma also waiting in queue. If Australia would just play a bit well then they can easily win over the match against India.

He also added that, “In the last test match against England team, sometimes it was very pity to see Indian bating. Now Gautam Gambhir gets out of the team and sehwag return back to the team. We are eager to see Sachin’s century. It was interesting to hear that Sachin score century in Ranji trophy. But test match is totally different from Ranji so we have to wait and see how Sachin is going to face this match. Indian bowling is in a very weak condition. Harbajan Singh got a chance to play against Australia. His bowling is good but none of them doesn’t assure about it. Indian spinners are like cats, there is no threat from them. India must win the match otherwise crisis will take hold on India”.

Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq gives bad turn to South Africa

2^nd Test match between South Africa - Pakistan began in Cape Town on 14/2/2013. South Africa won the toss and chose fielding. Pakistan opening players Nasir Jamshed (3), Mohammed Hafeez (17), Azhar Ali (4) takes few runs subsequently and lost the game. Then Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq pair recovered the team from right side. South Africa players were very difficult to bring down the wicket of both players. Both of them played well and score century.

Just before the end of the first day, Younis Khan got out in 111 runs. Then Sarfraz Ahmed enters to the field. At the end of the first day, Pakistan scored 253 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Sarfraz Ahmed (0) and Asad Shafiq (111) were in the field.

Second day match began yesterday. Asad Shafiq (111) and Sarfraz Ahmed (13) lost the game one by one. Then Tanveer Ahmed landed to the field and added 44 runs. Finally Pakistan lost the match by 338 runs. South African bowler Vernon Philander performed well and took 5 wickets.

Squads:

Pakistan Squad: Mohammed Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan/ Mohammad Irfan/Rahat Ali.

South Africa Squad: Graeme Smith (capt), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers (wk), Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Vernon Philander, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel.

Sri Lanka appoints Angelo Mathews as Captain

Angelo Mathews has been appointed as a new captain and Wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal has been appointed as vise-captain for Sri Lankan cricket team. In a recent series with Australia Mahila Jayawardene the previous captain for Sri Lanka announced his resignation from captainship. He said that, “I am going to concentrate on batting so that I am withdrawing from captain”.

So the chance is going to all-rounder Angelo Mathews. With this new change Sri Lankan cricket team going to play a home series against Bangladesh which includes 2 Tests, 3-day, and a T-20 match. Angelo Mathews has been appointed as a captain for Test and ODI matches. Vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal is going to act as a captain for T20 match.

First Test match will start on March 8 in Galle International Stadium. The squad features four uncapped players.

Test squad: Angelo Mathews (capt), Dinesh Chandimal (vice-capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dimuth Karunaratne, Ashen Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanne, Mahela Jayawardene, Kushal Janith Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Kithuruwan Vithanage, Ajantha Mendis, Suraj Randiv, Nuwan Kulasekara, Shaminda Eranga, Chanaka Welegedera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dushmantha Chameera, Rangana Herath, Tharindu Kaushal.

India Test series will be a challenge - Michael Clarke

Australian cricket team came to India to play four-match Test series. First match will be conducted in Chennai. Australian captain Michael Clarke said that test series against India is the biggest challenge for his career. Last time Michael Clarke was able to score only 35 runs from 4 innings against India. It was his poor performance.

“Playing cricket in India is always a heavy challenge in my life. Each and every time we feel difficult to play in test series against India. Because of this our team has not been able to dominate India. It is a big challenge for us and other players also know that. To manage this situation we had sent some players in advance to India to observe the environment. Indian Cricket Team is one of the best team, still we are ready to face the challenge” Clarke said.

He also added that, “I know my performance was very poor in the last series. This time I had more practice and I have a confidence to manage the series. I had got some suggestions from experts so that I’m going to implement it in the upcoming series”.

Wrestling drop from 2020 Olympics?

International Olympic Committee decided to drop wrestling from 2020 core games list. The International Olympic Committee executive meeting was held in Switzerland yesterday. In this meeting, they have been review 26 core games from the current Olympic Games table.

Then they decided to remove wrestling from Olympic Games from 2020. Instead of wrestling, they are planning to add modern pentathlon in the list. But this decision has not been announced officially. If any one of the game could be deleted from Olympics then only they can add a new game. If Wrestling will be remove from main games, it will be combined with other games like baseball - softball, karate, squash, skating games, trekking.

The decision of the International Olympic Committee will be finalized in the Executive Committee meeting to be held in May 2013 in Russia. After that the General Assembly of International Olympic Committee will be conducting a final voting in Argentina in September.

In May 2005, the Olympic Committee removed baseball - Soft ball from core games. In 2016 Olympic, golf and rugby games are included. India has won four Olympic wrestling medals, including two at London 2012. Experts said if wrestling will remove from Olympics, it is the loss for India. 

Rafael Nadal Loses Both Finals in VTR Open

Tennis King Rafael Nadal lost both the singles and doubles finals on Sunday at the VTR Open in Chile. By the end of last year he was struggling with left knee injury. So that he didn’t participate in any matches. After 7 months gap, he returned to the ground for VTR Open.

His fans expect that Nadal will surely win this match. So they came to the ground and voiced for Nadal. But unfortunately Nadal lost the championship in both singles and doubles finals. It was the fifth loss for Nadal in a singles final on clay. Nadal face Argentina's Horacio Zeballos and finally Zeballos won the match by 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-4. In doubles finals Rafael Nadal and his partner Juan Monaco lost in 6-2, 6-4 against the Italian pair of Paolo Lorenzi and Potito Starace.

After losing the match Rafael Nadal said that, “Everything was fine. I wanted to win the match. But I didn’t exactly give my best. This is the beginning for many tournaments. I hope that I can able to get lot of success in upcoming matches”. Zeballos said that, “It's a great game in my life. I will never forget this moment in my life”.

Australia enters World Cup finals

Australia defeated Sri Lanka and entered into the final round for Women's World Cup. Women's World Cup cricket match is taking place in Mumbai. Sri Lanka faced Australian team in super-6 round yesterday.

Australia won the toss and chose fielding. According to that, Sri Lankan team starts bating. At the beginning itself, Sri Lankan players had trouble in facing Australian bowlers. Ranasinghe from Sri Lanka scores 43 runs and it is highest score. Finally, Sri Lanka lost all wickets in 45.2 over and scored 131 runs. Osborne took 3 wickets in Australia.

With the easiest target of 132 runs Australia landing to the field. They lose only one wicket and hit the target in 22.2 over. So Australia was qualified for the final competition. Meg Lanning took 37 runs and got out. Rachael Haynes scores 71 runs and Jessica Cameron scores 22 runs without getting out.

In another match, South Africa faced England. South Africa starts bating and lost all the wickets and scores 77 runs. England player Anya Shrubsole took 5 wickets. After that England team starts bating and score 81 runs in 9.3 overs with 3 wickets loss.

Sachin Tendulkar equals Sunil Gavaskars record

Indian Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar completed 25,000 runs in First-Class cricket. He make this record while playing for Mumbai against Rest of India in the Irani Trophy match on Friday. He has taken 303 matches to achieve this record. 

Earlier, he equaled with Sunil Gavaskars record on the number of first class centuries by complete his century against Rest of India. This is Sachins 81st first-class century and he struck 12 fours and 2 sixes to reach this milestone.

After retiring from One-Day International (ODI) cricket, Sachin Tendulkar has done well for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and has carried his form into the Irani Cup.

Chennai Super Kings strengthen bowling attack

Chennai Super Kings selects 5 unfamiliar bowlers for sixth edition of IPL. They are planning to strengthen their bowling attack. It is the only team which won the IPL championship for 2 times. UP fast bowlers Imtiaz Ahmed and Ankit Rajpoot, Haryana quick Mohit Sharma, Karnataka pacer Ronit More and Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner R Karthikeyan are the five to have been picked up by CSK. Even though the above players are not popular still they are very talented.

At the end of the Ranji trophy Imtiaz Ahmed was the top wicket-taker from UP. He collected 37 wickets from 9 matches. During 2011 IPL, he was playing for Pune Warriors. But he was not even got a single chance to play. His UP team mate Ankit Rajpoot made his first-class debut against Karnataka collected 31 wickets from seven matches.

Mohit Sharma played 8 Ranji matches and taking 37 wickets. He has also played six List A matches, the last one was a warm-up match against England in January before the five-match ODI series. Ronit More made his debut in this season and playing two matches. He also played seven List A matches and one domestic Twenty20. Karthikeyan from Tamil Nadu plays for TI Cycles in the first division league of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

I don't see myself playing in 2015 World Cup- Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar who has amassed over 34,000 runs including 100 international centuries during his international career spanning 23 years, announced his ODI retirement before the start of the Indo-Pak series.

During an interaction with NDTV Sachin explained the reason behind calling it a day in the ODI format. "I felt in 2015 when we go to Australia and New Zealand we should be fully prepared to lift the trophy again. I don't see myself playing in the 2015 World Cup and that's why I felt I should back off and the team should move ahead and form a balance, formidable combination for the 2015 World Cup” said by Tendulkar. He wanted youngsters to take over as the team should be able to defend the World Cup title when they play in Australia and New Zealand in 2015.

South Africa defeats Pakistan

Pakistan cricket team went to South Africa to participate in three test matches. The first test match between Pakistan and South Africa took place in Johannesburg. In the first innings, South Africa gets 253 runs and Pakistan gets 49 runs. In second innings, South African team gets 275 runs and declares the match.

With the hard target of 480 runs, Pakistan team starts bating. In the third day, match Pakistan team gets 183 runs in 4 wickets.Final match (Fourth day) held on yesterday. In this match Pakistan Captain Misbah-ul-Haq crossed century. His partner Asad Shafiq (56 runs) get bowled by Steyn(fast bowler). Then Misbah also lost their wicket in 64 runs. The other players score very few runs only. Finally they lost all the wickets and score 268 runs. So Pakistan team loses the match.

Man of the match goes to Dale Steyn(South African Player). Second test will start on February 14 in Cape Town.

Tendulkar's tryst with Golf

Indian cricket team Master Batsman Sachin Tendulkar is known to be keen on racquet sports, but if one watches him swing a golf club, one will be convinced that he could be good at any sport.

Sachin Tendulkar takes Kensville by storm; enjoys putting and driving. Tendulkar was at the Kensville Golf and Country Club in Ahmadabad on Friday and tried his hand at golf as he hit nearly 25 balls.

 "I like to hit the ball, whether it's cricket or golf" joked Sachin at a media interaction. "I have played golf only a few times, once with teammates when we were on a tour to South Africa. But I want to play golf more in times to come" said the maestro.

Tendulkar tried his hand at driving and then putting, too, alongside many of the internationals, like Shiv Kapur, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Rich Beem, Rahil Gangjee and Rhys Davies, who are participating here this week.

"I have been to many golf courses and even had an occasional attempt at driving range, but visiting a golf course while a tournament is in progress was a new experience. I really enjoyed, the golf course is a lovely one. I have seen other courses but I really liked this one" says Sachin.