Future of American rebel League in doubt

The inaugural season of the American Premier League, which was set to take place in Staten Island, New York, in October this year, has had to be postponed, and it is now very doubtful if the project will see the light of day. According to the league chairman, Jay Mir, a full and detailed proposal for the competition was sent to the USA Cricket Association six weeks ago as part of an application to gain official sanctioning, but no reply has been forthcoming.

Sir Richard Hadlee, the APL executive consultant, said: "We have done what we were asked to do by preparing and sending a proposal to have our event supported and sanctioned and as we have not had any official responses, time has run out for the October tournament. We are hopeful of continuing dialogue in the future."

However it has been learned there were major concerns with the size of the proposed venue, a baseball field in Staten Island. The recent announcement that USACA is exploring plans to launch its own Twenty20 tournament also makes the future of the APL highly dubious.

Historic test win for BANGLADESH

Four years and six months after their first Test win, Bangladesh sealed a historic second victory when they beat West Indies by 95 runs in St Vincent. All the players found to be new in West Indies team as the experienced guys were not ready to play due to a problem with WICB. West Indies were in the commanding position as they were leading by 69 runs in the 1^st innings. But by splendid performance of Bangladesh batsmen, they managed to reach 345 runs and set a target of 277 to the opposition. Tamim scored a fantastic 128 for Bangladesh and Sammy took 5 wickets for West Indies. West Indies made a good start, yet the spinners seal historic Bangladesh win. Bernard is the only batsman scored an unbeaten half century. The splendid performance of Mahmudullah (5-51) and Shakib (3-39) made sure of their victory. Now Bangladesh leads the series in the level 1-0.

ASHES: 1st Test made a thrilling end

James Anderson and Monty Panesar produced the most important innings of their lives as England's final pair survived 11.3 overs to pull off a thrilling escape at Cardiff. When Paul Collingwood fell for a monumental 245-ball 74 England still trailed by six. The Australians threw everything into the final hour in an electric atmosphere with the crowd cheering the two unlikely batting heroes as though the Ashes had been won. Panesar, the most unlikely of batting saviours, watched the ball like a hawk. Having left expertly against the quicks he played with soft hands against the spinners, and one of the biggest cheers of the day came when he square cut North for a boundary.

However, while Anderson and Panesar were there at the end to soak up the acclaim the escape wouldn't have been possible without one of Collingwood's most determined innings for his country. He came in early after Kevin Pietersen lost his off stump, shouldering arms to Ben Hilfenhaus, and soon faced an England card that read 70 for 5. He found vital support from Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad and particularly Graeme Swann, who overcame a peppering from Siddle, to share a 20-over stand.

Collingwood's fifty came off 167 balls, the slowest by an England batsman since Nasser Hussain against West Indies in Port of Spain during the 2004 tour, but the pace of his innings mattered not a jot. His only mistake proved his downfall as he chased some width from Siddle and Mike Hussey took a juggling catch in the gully. Collingwood isn't a superstar; he doesn't fit into the hero mould, but here he was both. Ponting admitted it was a tough result to take and Australia were ahead of the game virtually throughout the final day. However the Ashes thrill started at the end.

Tennis Queen turns into Queen Sohrab

India’s tennis queen, Sania Mirza broke many hearts as she got engaged to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in a private ceremony here at hotel Taj. It was attended by a few special and close invitees, close to 300, including Indian tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi, south movie star Chiranjeevi and some political personalities. Sohrab will pursue MBA in Britain and his father owns a chain of bakeries in the city.

The engagement of the Indian tennis' poster girl also put to rest all the speculation about her romantic links with sport stars and bollywood actors.The 22-year-old Hyderbadi has been linked with Pakistani tennis player Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and bollywood actor Shahid Kapur and also Telugu superstar Navdeep in the recent past.

Sania's father Imran Mirza had earlier made it clear that Sania would continue playing the game after her engagement and the wedding would take place a couple of years later. Sania, India's first female player to win a Grand Slam title, is likely to leave for America later this month to participate in the US open and other competitions.

Germany are the champions

Germany have won the Standard Charted Bank FIH Men's Junior World Cup after a 3-1 win over the Netherlands. The Germans had to come back from 1-0 down to beat their neighbours at the Johor Bahru Hockey Stadium in Taman Daya to become the 2009 champions. It was their record fifth triumph in this tournament following wins in 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1993. Netherlands took the lead in the 20th minute after Mink van der Weerden's penalty corner. It was his 13th goal in this tournament. Germany came back strongly and they equalised in the 24th minute after Marco Miltkau's shot was deflected into the Dutch net. Before Netherlands' goal, both side had started the game cautiously and it was just like a chess match.After going in level at half-time, it was Germany who looked the hungrier of the two sides. And it was no surprise when they went ahead in the 56th minute through Florian Fuchs who took advantage of a mix-up in the Netherlands defence. The Dutch were soon 3-1 behind when Jan Fleckhaus again took advantage of uncertainty in the Netherlands defence to slot the ball home.There was still time for Netherlands to pull a goal back but the German defence stood firm and held on to a famous victory.

SPECIAL AWARDS

Man of the match: Floran Fuchs (GER)

Top-scorer: Mink van der Weerden (NED)

Best GK: Niklas Sakowsky (GER)

Player of the tournament: Simon Child (NZL)

Fairplay Award: Germany

Federer makes a History

Roger Federer became tennis's greatest men's champion, watched by a legion of champions, as he beat Andy Roddick 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 in four hours and 16 minutes to claim his sixth Wimbledon crown. It was also a record 15th Grand Slam title for the Swiss master, overhauling the total of Pete Sampras who was in the Royal Box along with fellow legends Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver. It was a truly momentous climax to the 2009 Championships as the 27-year-old Swiss became the most successful man in the sport. Sampras, previous holder of that title, had been an unannounced surprise visitor to Wimbledon – where he has not been seen since 2002.

There were some aggressive actions by both the players in the game and no one ready to give up their game. So to the deciding set, with Federer threatening to strike early as he reached break point for the sixth time in the match, only to be frustrated again as the American pumped down his 20th ace at 138mph. With no tiebreak in the fifth set, this one had to be played out.This reached a climax as Federer faced two break points at 8-8, only to serve his way out of trouble and as the games ascended into double figures for each man the set became the longest fifth set in Wimbledon's history. Federer's ace count finally, it was Roddick who cracked in the 30th game of the set. Three mishap off the frame indicated he was fatigued and when Federer was offered the first Championship point he grabbed it eagerly, leaping into the air with joy as another Roddick mishap sailed long.

What a great match! Both players deserve to win the title. Federer needs to be more aggressive, especially in a grand slam finals. I think he was mostly pave in the match, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. He was lucky he got out of this one. For Roddick, he played the greatest tennis of his life. He did almost everything right up, working up the points patiently and methodically up until the last few games. He should learn from this experience.Incredible Talent and Poise. Breathless tennis and unbelievable determination... Congratulations to Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Dhoni stays no.1 in ODI rankings

Indian skipper M.S Dhoni is continuing at the top spot in ICC One Day International (ODI) rankings. Yuvraj singh is at the 5th spot with Sachin in Top 20. Next to M.S.Dhoni are Michael Hussey from Australia and Graeme Smith from South Africa in the 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is at the 7th spot and Andrew Symonds is in the 10th spot. Unfortunately Hayden missed out a spot in the top 10.

Its great to see an Indian quickie, Zaheer Khan in the top 10. In bowling Daniel Vettori tops the list, Nathan Bracken drops to 2nd place and Muralitharan is ranked 3rd. Australia is at the top in ODI with South Africa in TEST whereas India stays at the 3rd place in both forms of cricket.

Akthar again in controversy

Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akthar appears to be heading for another confrontation with the cricket authorities after threatening to take legal action against the national team management. Shoaib, a centrally contracted player with the Pakistan Cricket Board, who turns 34 next month, has taken 178 wickets in 46 Tests and 223 wickets in 144 ODIs and eight wickets in seven T20 internationals has appeared on a television talk show in which he has apparently made statements that are likely to upset authorities once again.

The publicity ads of the show claim Shoaib as saying he reserves the right to take legal action against the team management (apparently for dropping him from the T20 World Cup team and raising question about his fitness).He goes on to claim that there is a conspiracy to malign him and that he can still play for a few years for Pakistan.No stranger to controversies, Shoaib was withdrawn from the T20 World Cup squad in late May after a PCB medical panel found him to be suffering from a skin infection that needed treatment for 12 days. His ouster from the team also led to chief selector Abdul Qadir's resignation who alleged team coach Intikhab Alam and manager Yawar Saeed were behind the move to drop Shoaib and they didn't consult the selectors on this.

Under the terms of the central contract, players are not supposed to make controversial statements in the media but by the look of it, Shoaib seems to have done it once again on the television show. Waqar Younis said “Shoaib can still play for a couple of years for Pakistan and if that is possible then it is good for Pakistan cricket,.There is no doubt he is fast and is a very intelligent bowler.”

Dravid among Champions Trophy probables

Its happy to hear that Rahul Dravid is included among India's probables for the ICC Champions Trophy in September this year. The selectors picked a longlist of 30 players for the tournament, to be held in South Africa, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan. Dravid played his last ODI in October 2007 against Australia in Nagpur. He averages 39.49 with 10,585 runs from 333 games with a strike-rate of 71.22 and is the third Indian to accumulate more than 10,000 runs in ODIs. Dravid played a key role in the success of Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL's second season, scoring 271 runs at a strike-rate of 115.81 as the team finished runners-up in the tournament held in South Africa.

Probables: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, S Badrinath, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh, Wriddhiman Saha, Pankaj Singh.

Michael Phelps broke 100m butterfly world record

Michael Phelps broke 100m butterfly world record in US National Championships. Phelps trimmed .18 seconds off the old mark of 50.40 ending American compatriot Ian Crocker's six-year hold on the record. Now he holds 5 records -- 400 and 200 individual medley, 200 and 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals at a single Olympics, his eight at the 2008. Phelps's international titles and record breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the year award in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 and American Swimmer of the year award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008. He has won a total of 48 career medals thus far in major international competition, forty gold, six silver, and two bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the man award.