IPL uncovers its prospectus

IPL, the venture of BCCI has taken its first step towards the launching of the programme. It has unveiled the prospectus for franchisees to bid upon. All the structures and guidelines on how to bid and the selection of players has been listed clearly. BCCI selects 8 franchisees to manage 8 teams contesting in the IPL. Each franchisee can choose upto 4 international playes, 4 under-21 players and players from their region depending on their pay scale. Also mentioned in it is that each and every franchisee must have their own coach, physiotherapist, analyst and all other members to form a complete team.

Paes and Bhupathi for Beijing????

Leander Paes, captain of the Indian Davis Cup Team is once again willing to team up with his cherished team mate Mahesh Bhupathi. But this is not going to happen in all the tournaments. Paes said that if Mahesh is fit, he could join him so that they can vie for the Olympic medal in the doubles section at the Beijing games. This will be their last chance after they lost the bronze medal match at the Athens Olympics. Less-Hesh were once a prolific pair on the circuit reaching the No:1 position in the doubles and winning 3 grand slams apart from reaching the finals of many other tournaments.

Arsenal to kick off deal in India

Arsenal have begun their quest for finding football talent in Asia. After their successful tie ups with a Vietnam and Thailand club, Arsenal has now planned to enter a deal with the Indian football to start a tournament in partnership with Tata Tea. Arsenal is trying to increase their market growth with Asia being the hot destination for all types of sponsorships and deals. If everything goes right, Arsenal will set up and academy in India. This will be a major boost to the lack lustre condition of Indian football. The coaching staff will select 30 players who will be given additional coaching by Arsenal staff from which 15 will attend the International soccer school festival to be held in UK. Even if a part of it goes right without any hindrance from the local government, this will be a major boost to the Indian football.

Kaka wins World Player Award

AC Milan and Brazil mid fielder Kaka was named the FIFA's World player of the year at a function held in Zurich. It is a known fact that he has already won the European Footballer of the year award too. He is also the leading goal scorer in the current Serie A season with 7 goals in 13 matches played. He deserved to get the award beating two other greats Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. The award is voted by all team managers and the captains.

Kaka 1,047 votes

Lionel Messi 504

Cristiano Ronaldo 426

Arsenal reach semi finals of Carling Cup

Gunners and Tottenham are the first teams to reach the semi finals of the prestigious Carling Cup. Arsenal beat Rovers 3-2 with the winner coming during the extra time from Eduardo. At Eastlands, Spurs ended Manchester City's home record by beating them 2-0. Jeramain Defoe and Malbranque netted the 2 goals to secure their semi final berth. The last quarterfinal is sure to be a humdinger as 2 big teams Chelsea and Liverpool clash.

Arsenal beat Chelsea

A shocking result to say the least. Chelsea, who has won its last 17 league matches tasted its first defeat against one of the tougher teams Arsenal. William Gallas found the net during the injury time at the end of the first half which was incidentally the only goal of the match. Chelsea tried their best to equalise but could not find the net at all. It was a thorough display by the Gunners at their home ground. This makes Arsenal to lead the Championship table beating Man U.

Chennai Superstars win ICL

Chennai Superstars won the inaugural edition of the rebel ICL championship beating Chandigarh Lions by 12 runs in a tough final match. As usual, Chennai Superstars played as a team with contributions from all the members. This time, its the bowling of Shabbir Ahmed which did the trick. His hat trick was the turning point of the match. The Chandigarh Lions fell at regular intervals which hampered their run chase. Chennai Superstars was the best team in the tournament and its good that the same team has won the championship and also the prize money of $1 million.

Man of the Match was given to Shabbir Ahmed for his brilliant bowling performance while the Man of the Series went to Ian Harvey. He is the tournament's highest run getter and also the leading wicket taker.

ICL finalists confirmed

Indian Cricket League, the rebel league, inspite of its absence of recognition by the ICC, has been started and there were sell out crowd for all the matches. All the foreign and local players played their part to keep the tournament exciting. The 6 teams played each other in a round robin format from which 4 teams for the semi finals were decided. Mumbai Champs and Hyderabad Tigers missed the semi final berth. The semi finals were evenly contested from both the teams but everyone knows the best team would go through to the next round.

The finalists are Chennai Superstars and Chandigarh Lions. They are the best teams in the tournament so far and hence it will be a fitting finale with both the best teams vying for the trophy. Lets wait and watch who will win the tournament. There were many positives from the tournament, said Kapil Dev

Day night test matches

Cricket Australia has been recently thinking of implementing the concept of Day Night Test Matches to increase the number of people watching the match at the ground. Everyone knows the fact that many local matches held in Australia were tested in a day night format. But doing so in International matches requires the approval from all the Test playing countries. It is difficult to spot the red ball in the lights. If we change it to a white ball, the swing is lost and the ball does not do much. When this was told to the press persons, the first reaction immediately came from Ricky Ponting itself who told that the traditional form of cricket should be played only during day time. It is to be waited and then see whether such a decision would be taken up the ICC to increase the ticket sales.

England wins the World team title in Squash

England overcame Aussie jinx by winning the World Men's team squash championship at Chennai. They won 2-1 over their rivals Australia. As expected, David Palmer, who beat Amr Shabana in the semis won his match comfortably. But his other team mates were not upto the mark and handed over an easy victory to the English team. It was a clinical display from England because they had higher ranked players compared to Australia and was the favourite to win the title. In the play off for 3 and 4 positions, France overcame Egypt to secure for the bronze.

Standings

1. England
2. Australia
3. France
4. Egypt
5. Malaysia
6. Canada
7. Netherlands
8. India

Indian team to tour Australia

The selectors have announced the 16 member squad which will be touring Australia this 17th.

Squad:

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Wasim Jaffer
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Sourav Ganguly
6. VVS Laxman
7. Yuvraj Singh
8. Dinesh Karthik(wk)
9. MS Dhoni(vc + wk)
10. Anil Kumble(c)
11. Harbhajan Singh
12. Irfan Pathan
13. Zaheer Khan
14. RP Singh
15. Ishant Sharma
16. Pankaj Singh

Lets all wish a great success for the team

England to clash with Australia in the finals of the World men's team Squash championship

England and Australia face after 16 years in a final. This comes after stellar display from Australia's David Palmer who played beautifully to outclass World No:1 Amr Shabana. This was a major setback for the Egyptians from which they could never recover and lost 2-1. Amr Shabana was erroneous right from the word go and this made Palmer to cut off all the escape routes. In the other semifinal, England's Peter Barker won the first match. Although James Willstrop lost his match, France was no match to England's play.

On the other side, in the play-offs, Indians show continued for a brief before losing to Canada. They now face a stiff opposition in the form of Netherlands with whom they battle it out for the 7 and 8 places. Malaysia and Canada fight for 5-6 places. The final is assumed to be a cracker of a contest with all the players in peak form.

Alonso signs record deal with Renault

Alonso, who had a tough time with McLaren after a serious of problems with the cars and his not so good understanding with his team mate Lewis Hamilton made him to think whether to continue with McLaren. He has taken the right decision by joining Renault with a record pay tipped to be the highest in the F1 history. The payment would be around $30 million, which the sources say. He will be teamed up with Nelson Piquet Jr, who has been promoted from the test driver's position. Alonso's place will be filled by Kovalienan. Hamilton will continue to be the lead driver for McLaren. Lets hope that Alonso would win yet another title with the same constructor.

Mourinho rules himself out

Jose Mourinho decided to turn his back on the job of England Manager after talks with the Football Association. This leaves Italy's Fabio Capello as the new favourite to take over the high profile job. He will replace Steve McClaren. Everyone know that Mourinho was deeply influential in Chelsae winning two Premier League Titles. But Mourinho was not at all interested in taking up the job. It was only the media which hyped this issue. Mourinho said that after serious thinking, he decided to exclude from the race. Mourinho's name was repeatedly mentioned after England's failure under its present manager.

Australia crush New Zealand

A fast bowling blitz saw Australia crush New Zealand by 54 runs at the WACA yesterday. The home side made 186 for 6 from its 20 overs, led by an authoritative unbeaten 85 from Symonds. In reply, Black Caps could only manage 132. Kiwi all rounder Jacob Oram restored some pride and gave another reminder of his hitting ability with an unbeaten 66.

Australian innings revolved around Symonds knonck with partnerships from Clarke(33) and Adam Voges(26). The most surprise element was that of the inclusion of Luke Pomersbach, who was called in at the very last moment to replace Brad Hodge. It was really a shock for him when he got the call. He made 15 runs from 7 balls hitting a huge six of Gillespie. There was not any notable performances from the Black Caps with wickets falling at regular intervals. with only McCullum and Styris crossing the double figure mark. Australia had 4 debuts in this match with Ashley Noffke performing well with the ball in his very first match. Even Shaun Tait, returning from an injury bowled well to restrict the Kiwis. The Chappel Hadlee one day series begins this week.

Welcome to my Sports Column

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Welcome to my sports column. Here, you can get all the latest news from the world of Sports with exact reviews of various matches. Many stats and other results and trivia will also be posted here. So get to know all of them at this place.