Sehwag threatens DDCA

A serious issue that sets into fire at present is sehwag's comment to the media blaming DDCA (Delhi and District Cricket Association) sports committee members regarding their task in selection process. Indian opener Virender Sehwag has threatened to quit the Delhi Ranji team, alleging interference in selection matters by the DDCA Sports Committee members.Sehwag, who is currently in Bangalore undergoing rehabilitation for his injured shoulder, has been told to put his decision on hold till he meets the DDCA president Arun Jaitley. The meeting is likely to take place on August 27 or 28 to discuss the matter. The explosive right-hander has threatened to leave the team for Haryana, saying that he is frustrated with the interference in selection matters. Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra supported Sehwag's comments who are also ready to leave from Delhi to Haryana team. The DDCA's Sports Secretary Sunil Dev said "He wants to bring Mayank Tehlan and Pradeep Sangwan into the team. But since the Delhi team is well set, it is not possible. That is the reason why he is making such threats,"

COVENTRY shares with ANWAR

Finally after 12 years, a new man Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe who equals Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar record (194 out against India) and scored marvelous 194* runs against Bangladesh during the fourth ODI of the series in Bulawayo. He started of the innings at no.3 and reached his century ony in the 38th over of the match with 110 balls. After reaching 42nd over of the match, Coventry made all the balls to cross the fence where he reached 180 runs in 47th over of the match as the Zimbabwe’s crowd was excited and awaiting to see their country men scoring double hundred in ODI cricket. But Unfortunately, Coventry couldn’t score his double hundred as he remained unbeaten on 194 runs of 156 balls with 16 fours and 7 sixes which puts their team total as 312 runs for 8 wickets. Chasing a huge total of 313, Opener Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh provided a good start with 154 runs (138 balls) guided their team to victory Bangladesh lead the five match series 3-1 against Zimbabwe. Man Of Match award - Charles Coventry and Tamim Iqbal (shared) .

Yusuf questions Irfan's exclusion

Yusuf Pathan, the India allrounder, has said his brother Irfan has been left out of the 30-man Champions Trophy pool for non-cricketing reasons. He said "Irfan's performance was always up to the mark. He has not been left out because of his performance. Everybody has seen what is happening. What will I comment. It is for the media to react and comment on what is happening."

Irfan's last one-day appearances for India were in the series in Sri Lanka, where he took four wickets but leaked 7.06 runs an over in two matches. What has also hurt his chances of making the national side is that his batting has fallen away in ODIs - he hasn't scored a half-century ifor the past 3 years. He was also part of three games during India's dismal World Twenty20 campaign, but picked up only one wicket and didn't contribute much with the bat either. He hasn't been a part of the Test side since the home series against South Africa in April 2008.

Both the BCCI and chief selector Kris Srikkanth declined to comment on Yusuf's statements.I feel its an useless comment. Its not good to say these comments when his brother has not performed in any forms of cricket.

LARA set for T20 debut

There isn’t much that Brian Lara hasn’t done on a cricket field but taking part in a Twenty20 match is one of them. He played 131 Tests and 299 ODIs but no Twenty20s – international or domestic. That will change next month when Lara leads a Trinidad & Tobago side against a West Indies XI in a charity Twenty20 match. really its going to be a big entertainment and lot of fans eagerly waiting to look at his batting.The West Indies XI will be led by Chris Gayle, who had opted out of the series against Bangladesh because of a dispute over player contracts with the West Indies board. The proceeds from the event will go to the Pearl and Bunty Lara Foundation, West Indies Players Association's Development Fund and other players' charities.

Sourav's Second Innings

Sourav Ganguly has been named captain of his franchise Kolkata knight Riders (KKR) once again for the upcoming IPL season. Meanwhile Former Indian coach John Wright has been named as the coach for the KKR. Good Luck Ganguly for his 2nd innings as a captain. This decision has been taken after a long discussion between ganguly and sharukh. Lets look at the result at the end of IPL-3

Gautam Gambhir # 1 spot in Test Rankings

Gautam Gambhir has become the first Indian batsman in over four years to head the batting rankings in test matches.Yousuf, who had returned to the batting table last week in number-one position after his century in the first Test at Galle, scored only 10 and six in the second Test and, as such, he has dropped four places to fifth position. Pakistan captain Younus Khan was able retain his second position in the rankings but by conceding 12 points following scores of 0 and 82, he has fallen nine points behind Gambhir who has gone ahead of both the Pakistan batsmen without hitting a ball for the first time in his 25-Test in which he has scored 2,271 runs at an average of over 54.

Gambhir’s 847 points is relatively low for a number-one position in modern times as usually a batsman nearer to the 900-point mark goes to the top. The 27-year-old left-handed opener is the first India batsman after former captain Rahul Dravid to top the batting chart. Dravid had briefly become the number-one batsman after hitting centuries in each innings (110 and 135) of the Kolkata Test against Pakistan in March 2005. Dravid had first achieved the top batting ranking in January 1999 and has been number-one for 36 Tests between 1999 and 2005.

Sachin Tendulkar is the other India batsman in the last 15 years who has topped the batting chart. He first led the table in November 1994 while last time he occupied the number-one position was in August 2002 after the Leeds Test against England. Overall, Tendulkar has been the number-one batsman for 125 Tests between 1994 and 2002. The other India batsmen to have achieved number-one positions in their careers are: Gundappa Viswanath (seven matches in 1975), Sunil Gavaskar (46 matches between 1978-80) and Dilip Vengsarkar (17matches)

$4 million prize money for Champions Trophy

The prize money for the Champions Trophy has increased nearly four times, with US$4 million on offer for the tournament to be played from September 22 to October 5 in South Africa. The format has also been revamped, with only eight instead of ten teams participating. Centurion and Wanderers will host all 15 games between them.

The teams have been divided into two groups of four each and the top two from each will qualify for the semi-finals. India and Pakistan find themselves in the same group, along with Australia and West Indies. Group B includes South Africa, England, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. The hosts will play Sri Lanka in the opening game in Centurion.

Haroon Lorgat, the chief executive of the ICC, said the significant increase in prize money was just the first in a series of innovations that the ICC would announce in the run-up to the Champions Trophy. He added, "We are extremely grateful to South Africa for stepping in to host the event after it was postponed last year because of security concerns in the original host country, Pakistan, and we are also grateful to our members for finding a slot for it in what is a busy year for the global game."

Flintoff ends England's 75-year wait

Andrew Flintoff broke England's 75-year Lord's curse with his first five-wicket haul since the Ashes-clinching Oval Test of 2005. It was, unquestionably, a performance that delivered England to a 1-0 series lead heading into Edgbaston. England’s Victory was sealed 17 minutes before lunch when Graeme Swann pegged back Johnson middle stump with the Australian total at 406. Though Austalia lost 5 wickets for 128, haddin and Clarke took the team towards a safer position. They stick on to the game with their terrible batting performance remains unbeaten throughout the day with a ton in clarke’s account and haddin with solid 80 runs at the end of the day 4.

But only a famous exit from Lord's would do for "Super Fred", and England's allrounder duly obliged with the wicket of Brad Haddin from his fourth ball of the day. Things have changed in the day 5, where Australian batsmen started losing their wickets soon after the match starts. Johnson's early exchanges inspired little confidence that he would be the man to steer Australia to an improbable victory. Johnson half-ducked, half-stabbed at his first delivery from Flintoff and edges off the bowling of Flintoff and Stuart Broad fell inches in front of the slips, and Johnson may well have found pavilion-bound had Flintoff not overstepped before wrapping him on the pads with a straight full-toss that struck in line. Thus the victory fell over England and now leading the series 1-0.

Chaminda Vaas to retire from Tests

Chaminda Vaas, the Sri Lanka fast bowler, has announced he will retire from Tests after the third match against Pakistan in Colombo starting Monday. He said he will continue to play one-dayers and Twenty20s till the 2011 World Cup. "I am officially retiring from Test cricket after the third Test against Pakistan, but will continue playing one-day and Twenty20 matches till the 2011 World Cup," he told.

In 110 Tests he has taken 354 wickets at 29.40 after making his debut against Pakistan in 1994 - the second-highest Sri Lankan wicket-taker - along with 400 one-day wickets. Vaas also has 3085 Test runs at 24.48, including a century. Though Chaminda Vaas is a great bowler and one of sri lanka's greatest fast bowlers but he cannot be called a legend. He does not have the quality to be called a legend in any form of the game. People like Richard Hadlee, Dennis Lillee, Anil Kumble and Muttaiah Muralitharan can be called legends but certainly not Chaminda Vaas. Anyway hats off to him. Well done Chaminda…

German MotoGP 250cc result

1. Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Gilera 27:11.034

2. Alex Debon (Spain) Aprilia 27:11.513

3. Alvaro Bautista (Spain) Aprilia 27:11.562

4. Hiroshi Aoyama (Japan) Honda 27:11.900

5. Hector Barbera (Spain) Aprilia 27:12.294

6. Hector Faubel (Spain) Honda 27:17.006

7. Aleix Espargaro (Spain) Aprilia 27:19.755

8. Thomas Luethi (Switzerland) Aprilia 27:19.796

9. Raffaele De Rosa (Italy) Honda 27:30.210

10. Roberto Locatelli (Italy) Gilera 27:38.984

11. Alex Baldolini (Italy) Aprilia 27:40.635

12. Lukas Pesek (Czech Republic) Aprilia 27:49.333

13. Shoya Tomizawa (Japan) Honda 28:02.974

14. Jules Cluzel (France) Aprilia 28:03.953

15. Bastien Chesaux (Switzerland) Honda 28:17.820