Indian Squad for African series....Kuch to hoga

The All-India Senior Selection Committee met earlier today in Bengaluru to announce the India teams for three (3) T20 Internationals and the first three One-day Internationals against South Africa.

T20Is: MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Amit Mishra, S Aravind.

First three ODIs: MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav.

Huge congratulations to JP Duminy and his wife Sue on the birth of their daughter Isabella!

Old Indian Cricket Team

Its a Auto Driving time for Team India...

Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli & Stuart Binny Official have a fun time on a Tuk-Tuk.

Usain Bolt 9.79 wins Gold 100m Final IAAF World Champs 2015

Bolt is just the best!! What an incredible race (The wind HAD to be stronger than that reading!). 
A truly superhero like performance from Bolt. Gatlin looked like a man who has run sub-9.8 one too many times in one season, started to see a combination of nerves and tightness affecting him. He also wasn't has fortuitous with element of wind as he customarily is.
I just hope the theatrics continue into Rio. Gatlin should take a Bolt-like rest during that year and save his best stuff for the trials and Games. Because at that time Bromell, Bracy, and DeGrasse will be the young guard ready to give these guys some challenge.

Wish Worlds Fastest Man on the planet on his birthday

• WORLDS FASTEST MAN
• 6 TIME OLYMPIC CHAMPION
• 8 TIME WORLD CHAMPION
• TRIPLE WORLD RECORD HOLDER
• 3 TIMES LAUREUS WORLD SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR

What else we can say about the man himself its none other than "USAIN ST. LEO BOLT" The most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen.  Celebrates his birthday in Beijing-China.

WORLDS RECORD

100m – 9.58 seconds

Berlin, 2009

200m – 19.19 seconds

Berlin, 2009

4x100m – 36.84 seconds

London, 2012 

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS

100m – 9.69 seconds

Beijing, 2008

100m – 9.63 seconds

London, 2012

 200m – 19.30 seconds

Beijing, 2008

 200m – 19.32 seconds

London, 2012

 4x100m – 37.10 seconds

Beijing, 2008

 4x100m – 36.84 seconds

London, 2012

 

 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD MEDAL

100m – 9.58 seconds

Berlin, 2009

 200m – 19.19 seconds

Berlin, 2009

 200m – 19.40 seconds

Daegu, 2011

 4x100m – 37.31 seconds

Berlin, 2009

 4x100m – 37.04 seconds

Daegu, 2011

      

Arguably the most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen, Usain St Leo Bolt, confirmed his tremendous talents when he realized his dreams by winning a phenomenal three gold medals and breaking three world records at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.  Bolt became the first man in Olympic history to win both the 100m and 200m races in world record times and then as part of the 4x100m team that also smashed the world record later in the meet. He created history again and became a legend at the 2012 Olympic Games in London by defending all three Olympic titles with 100m, 200m and 4x100m victories, the latter in a new world record time of 36.84 secs.

Dinesh Kartik Tied the Knot with Deepika Pallikal

Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik tied the knot with squash player Dipika Pallikal on Tuesday in a Christian ceremony in Chennai

The couple will be getting married again in a Telugu-Naidu style wedding on August 20. Pallikal, who became the first Indian squash player to break into the top 10 of the World Squash rankings, has been engaged to Karthik since November 15, 2013.

The wedding was a private affair with close friends and family of the bride and groom taking part.

Dipika had met Dinesh after he divorced his first wife and childhood friend Nikita. Incidentally, Nikita is now the wife of Indian Test opener Murali Vijay.

Dinesh has been known to support Dipika in all her decisions and stood by her when she threatened to pull out of the Asian Games last year as she was not happy with the draw. He was also there to celebrate her winning the gold medal in the doubles event at the Commonwealth Games.

Pakistan's Mohd. Asif & Salman Butt ready to bounce back

Pakistani cricketers Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt will be free to return to competitive action on Sept. 2 after serving bans for involvement in match-fixing, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Wednesday.

The pair, suspended in 2011 for their part in attempting to fix the 2010 Lord's test against England, have fulfilled the conditions laid down by the ICC's independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal.

Fast bowler Mohammad Amir will also be eligible to return to international cricket at the same time. He started playing domestic cricket again in Pakistan earlier this year.

The three players were found guilty in 2011 of various offences of corrupt behaviour and their punishments were backdated to start in September 2010.

Amir, 23, was banned for five years, 32-year-old Asif for seven with the final two years suspended on specified conditions and 30-year-old Butt, who was Pakistan captain, for 10 years with the last five suspended.

They all served jail sentences in Britain.

Murray Wins Rogers Cup, Beating Djokovic

Andy Murray of Great Britain holds up the Rogers Cup after defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the men's singles final.

 Great Britain's Andy Murray beat World No 1 Novak Djokovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Sunday to record his first win over the Serb since winning the Wimbledon 2013 final, over two years ago.

Murray snapped an eight-match losing streak to Djokovic, and a ten-match streak on hard-courts, with the win, then dedicated the victory to his coach Amelie Mauresmo, who gave birth to a baby boy early on Sunday morning. "I'm not sure she will have stayed up to watch this one but, Amelie, this one's for you," Murray said.

"I thought what made the difference was his serve and my serve. I didn't serve well the first set and a half.

"But not taking anything away from him, from his victory. He deserved it. He stepped in, played some great shots. Most of all the moments when he needed to, he served very, very well."

Murray got the decisive break in the second game of the final set but had to survive an 18-minute service game to consolidate his lead in the fifth game before claiming his third title on the Canadian hardcourts, and first since 2010.

"We've played many matches like that, especially in grand slams," Murray said. "If this was the US Open, we'd have to play another couple of sets like that, which isn't easy.

"He's obviously one of the best returners in the world and he obviously has a lot of confidence to stand and fight right to the end, so you have to play right to the end of the match and weather the storms when they come, and I managed to do that today."

Born just a week apart, Murray and Djokovic have known each other since they were children, attending the same training camps and competing against each other in junior events. Fierce rivals on the court, the pair embraced at the net after a three-hour battle of attrition that left both men exhausted as courtside temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius.

"Everybody wants me and Novak to dislike each other and people always try to stir things up between us," Murray said.

"It's impossible to be extremely close when we're playing in these sorts of matches because it's so mentally challenging and physically demanding and you need to try to still have that competitive edge as well.

"But it's not easy, not only because we get on but because he's bloody good, he's number one in the world and he hasn't lost in a Masters Series this year. To win against him is extremely tough."

Andy Murray Wins The Title

17 Indian U-14 Footballers ready for Six Year Training Program in Germany.

A total of 15 Under-14 footballers, including six from Mumbai and the rest from Maharashtra, will travel to Germany for a six-year training programme with Bundeliga side TSG 1899 Hoffenheim as part of the U Dream Football Programme.

Two more boys will leave for Germany later this year and during their stay in Germany, they will be accompanied by coaches - former India captain Mahesh Gawli and John Kenneth Raj.

Also accompanying the children will be three CBSE Certified teachers who would monitor and ensure their adherence towards the Indian CBSE Curriculum while in Germany.

On their return from their six-ear tenure, the students will be enrolled at the U Dream Haryana Football Club, which was specifically formed in association with the Haryana Football Association for these students, it was announced.

The 15 boys to be initially sent are: Pranav Kanse (Kolhapur), Akash Mishra (Lucknow), Pradeep Mannewar (Udaipur), Aniket Varekar (Kolhapur), Shivam Maan (New Delhi), Kumar Rathod (Mumbai), Ayush Adhikari (Noida), Ankit Bhuyan (Bhubaneshwar), Ishant Rana (Mumbai), Raul Lewis (Mumbai), Armaan Kalra (Gurgaon), Delton Colaco, Kimran Fernandes, Wellyster Mendes (Goa) and Manish Malyadri Siddha (Pune).

The full-scholarship programme, done under the collaborative guidance of Bundesliga, was a scouting programme based across 1,000 schools in over 45 cities to send 17 boys (aged under 14 years) to Zuzenhausen, Germany and train at the TSG 1899 Hoffenheim academy.

Team India pay tribute to Sangakkara

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara will be playing the final Test of his career when India and Sri Lanka meet at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo for the second Test. Even before the start of the Test series when Sangakkara had announced his retirement, tributes and good wishes had started pouring to hail the Lankan legend. When India’s Test captain Virat Kohli was asked about Sangakkara’s retirement, Kohli said he would remember Sangakkara for the lovely human being that he is and the honour of playing alongside him over the years.

“He has been a wonderful player for Sri Lanka. A lot of left-handers really look up to him for the way he plays. His technique and the way he has scored runs all over the world, his numbers speak for themselves. He is a wonderful human being. He is a lovely person. I have had quite a few chats with him on the field & away from the field as well. I am actually glad that he is going to be playing his last few games against us because it is a special occasion for us to be a part of. Such a legend of the game retiring, as a young side it will be an honour for us to give him that respect in his last few Tests. Hopefully he doesn’t score too many runs against us but I really wish him all the luck with his life after cricket. It has been wonderful to know such a great player and a great man,” Virat said.

India team director Ravi Shastri flipped back the years and hailed Sangakkara as one of the statesmen of the modern game. “I saw him from his first game,” Shastri said. “I was commentating on that game when he played and he is still around. He broke into being one of the top two or three players and he never got out of that. There might have been a one year or a six-month period where his form might have dipped. But otherwise, for sheer consistency, he is unmatched,” he said. 

“There are very few players who fall in that list. You can bring Sachin Tendulkar in that league as the kind of player that once broke into the top two or three never moved out of there. Sangakkara’s record shows you that. He has got runs world over and scored double hundreds like it is a pass time. He is equal with Sir Donald Bradman. We love Sanga for the way he has entertained and he has been a fantastic ambassador for the game of cricket. That is a legacy that he will leave behind. I think every Sri Lankan should be proud of what he has achieved not just personally but the way he has conducted himself in going round the world as an international cricketer. You can call him as one of the statesmen of the modern game,” Shastri added. 

Ravi Shastri was also of the view that two stalwarts of Sri Lanka cricket - Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene deserved a lot more accolades than they got. “I don’t think both Sanga and Mahela have got the accolades they should have got. If both of them were playing for India, they would have been on top of a tree or put up on top of a tree. 

India’s current No. 3, Rohit Sharma too joined in wishing Sangakkara the best post his retirement. “He has been a stalwart of the game and played this game in true spirit. I was fortunate enough to watch him play closely many a times in my career. I would just like to wish him all the very best,” Sharma said.  
Final Test For Sanga