Pakistan's Baseball Team @ Asian Games

Pakistan's baseball team is very serious in its preparation for the forthcoming 16th Asian Games starting on November 12 in Guangzhou, China. This event lasts for 6 days till November 17 and Pakistan is very keen to win in this event. There are on their way with a training camp at the Pakistan Sports Complex (PSC) with all prospective players from the national tournaments attending. The final team will be selected on the performance basis in the training camp. As of now, the Squad includes Mohammad Imtaiz, Sarfraz Ahmed, Ehsan Ullah, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Farooq, Zafar Iqbal, Mohammad Aseef, Zaheer Ahmed, Usman Azam, Salim Hyder, Dura Hussain, Musadaq Hanif, Hafiz Usman, Umair Bhatti, Mohammad Zubair, Irshad Ali, Tusif ahmed and Sumair Zawal.

 

Bangladesh's Victorious ODI series ever

This is the first time for Bangladesh to win the ODI series by 4-0 of five match series. Really it’s a bad time for New Zealand as they experienced a white wash lost against Bangladesh, which is considered to be under performing cricket nation. Of the 5 matches, Bangladesh won the first match by nine runs at Dhaka whereas the second match at Dhaka was abandoned due to rain. After then Bangladesh tasted the three consecutive victories. It won the third match by seven wickets, fourth match by nine runs and the fifth match by three runs. Rubel Hussain who captured four for 25 bagged the Man of the Match award and Shakib Al Hasan bagged Man of the Series award for his all round performance. As of now, Bangladesh won 61 ODIs in its history. There are some interesting facts at the end of the series like BB McCullum has an aggregate of 196 dismissals {189 catches and 07 stumpings} and against Bangladesh he has an aggregate of 30 dismissals {29 catches and 01 stumping} just one spot behind KC Sangakkara of Sri Lanka with 39 dismissals. DL Vettori became the 15th bowler to capture 275 plus wickets in one day games.

IPL scraps Punjab and Rajasthan

It’s been shocking news to hear two IPL teams have been ruled out of the world famous IPL Twenty20 tournament for breaching ownership rules. BCCI terminated franchises of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab who were active participants in first three editions of the Twenty20 tournament, and of course Rajasthan Royals were the first to hold the IPL title. Also it has warned Kochi franchise to resolve their ownership issues soon to get out of trouble. BCCI gave no specific statements so far regarding the breaches and it is known that former IPL chairman Lalit Modi was earlier accused of having financial connections with these two teams. BCCI honorary secretary N Srinivasan told reporters that the decision to terminate the contract of Punjab and Rajasthan franchises were taken purely based on legal opinion we received and the breaches committed by these franchises. Rajasthan Royals was acquired by Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch and co for $67 million. Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra paid approximately US $15.4 million for an 11.7% stake later. The big faces were Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan in Royals. Kings XI Punjab was bought by Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and actor Preity Zinta for $ 76 million. Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh were the big faces in it. Let’s wait and watch the future actions and auctions of IPL-4.

Common Wealth Games - Opening Ceremony

After a lot of allegations and criticism by media, India has come up with one of the grandest ever opening ceremonies at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi showcasing to the world the spirit of the games, Indian culture and tradition, music, rhythms, dance, colors, diversity of its culture and lifestyles. The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, the representative of the Queen, inaugurated the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (#19 CWG). More than 60,000 spectators with the participants and officials from 71 countries enjoyed the whole celebration.

The huge helium filled aerostat balloon of diameter 40 meters x 80 meters x 12 meters made at a cost of Rs.70 crore was a major attraction at the opening ceremony. While the whole stadium was sparked with colorful dances and music with huge puppets, the balloon was suspended above the main stage at a height of 25 meters. The lights were programmed to bounce off mirrors on the aerostat while sound effects of the magnitude of 500,000 watts made the whole crowd dancing. This shows the technological advancements in India apart than tradition and culture.