Just when we were thinking that Team India might romp up the series with a 4-1 victory margin, especially after its historic triumph in the Emerald Island, the team displayed a shoddy performance to lose its final match by registering one of its low score defeats. With no “finals” or “series decider” match threats, in which the Indian team had always struggled, it should have been an easy outing, but, hard working effort by two hard working players had India in trouble.

Winning the toss, the Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene decided to bat first, thoughts of the R.Premadasa pitch helping slow ball bowlers in the second half of the match was obvious in the Sri Lankan skippers mind.

Batting first, the Sri Lankan’s lost their first wicket in the form of Sanath Jayasuriya, but Malinda Warnapura and Mahela Udawatte thwarted the opening onslaught by the Indian new ball bowlers with some sensible batting. At 77/1 things looked stable, but both Warnapura and Udwatte perished in one brilliant over by Irfan Pathan and Kumar Sangakkara followed suite in the next over. Skipper Jayawardene and Chamara Kapugedera batted slowly but wickets kept falling at regular intervals and by the 37th over, Sri Lanka had lost six wickets with the score card reading 133 runs.

First timer in the series, Jehan Mubarak and an unsung hero Thilan Thushara, who played his best batting in this match by scoring his first half century, ensured that the Lankans post a respectable target on the score board. A word about Thushara is that in all the matches that he played, he was impressive in scoring runs and taking wickets, displaying his ability as a quality allrounder. The two left-handed batsmen toiled to take the Sri Lankan total to 227 runs.

For India, Pathan and spinner Pragyan Ojha took two and Zaheer Khan and R.P.Singh took a wicket each.

With 228 to win, the Indian openers Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir batted with controlled aggression. Gambhir scored his first runs with back-to-back boundaries and Kohli again batted brilliantly for his 31, incidently becoming the highest scorer of this match. But they could not carry for long and were back in the dressing room by the 11th over. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina batted in the drizzle and after Raina got out, it started to rain and the match was stopped for a brief period of time.

The Duckworth-Lewis method was quickly referred and a new target of 216 runs in 44 overs was set for the Indian team. Soon, Rohit Sharma got out to Nuwan Kulasekara, who by then had scalped all the first four wickets that fell in the second session. Ajantha Mendis was introduced at this point and the spinner responded by taking Yuvraj’s wicket in his first over and his first ball of the match. The Indian score card read 79 for five. Soon skipper M.S. Dhoni was also out, perhaps, this was not his day to be a savior. Mendis and Dilhara Fernando ripped through the lower middle order and lower order batsmen and in no time India were all out for 103 runs, the last six wickets falling for 24 runs. The result, Sri Lanka won the final match by 112 runs as per the Duckworth Lewis revised score.

For Sri Lanka, Mendis took four wickets in his short spell, Fernando took two and Kulasekara with his four initial wickets that started the Indian collapse, was rightfully adjudged the Player of the match. Indian skipper Dhoni was adjudged the Player of the series. India wins the five-match series 3-2.

BCCI plans to upgrade its working system by proposing a new set of selection rules and also by bringing changes in the salary system of the National selection committee. The agenda is supposed to be put forth in the upcoming annual general meeting to be held in Mumbai on 27 and 28 September, promises a much improvised system. If the agenda is agreed by the board, then it will have to make some hurried changes as the existing panel of selectors retires soon after the meeting on September 30.

The new selection policy will define new rules that will be referred for the selection process. The new rules suggests, for a candidate to be considered for the selectors post, he must be a former India player or a domestic cricketer who had played a minimum of 25 first class matches and retired atleast a decade ago and importantly not associated to any of the BCCI’s job roles or of its affiliated offices at the time of his appointment. Rajiv Shukla, one of the BCCI’s top official, says that the board was no more willing to rope in a player to be a selector soon after his retirement, as the board feels that the chances of having some biased options might be on a high. The appointed senior selectors will be receiving a salary of rupees 25 lakhs per annum.

If these rules come in to place, then from the current bunch of five, only Bhupinder Singh can be considered and for a second term as a BCCI selector. Other selectors who are associated with different managements of the board cannot be considered, which only means that we might see a new crop of selectors who will be deciding the Team India squad for the October test matches against Australia.

Rules for the junior selection panel were also prepared on similar lines. The candidate must be an ex-India player or a cricketer who has played a minimum of 25 first class matches and retired five years ago. Also, the candidate must not be associated to any jobs from BCCI or its affiliated offices at the time of his appointment. The appointed candidate will be offered a salary of rupees 15 lakhs per annum.

A similar rule is also being considered to be implemented for the women selection panel. The candidate to be eligible must have played for the Indian team or have played a minimum of 25 first class matches and retired five years ago. Again, the candidate should not be an employee of BCCI or its affiliated offices at the time of her appointment. The appointed candidate will receive a salary of rupees 5 lakhs per annum. Also, BCCI has planned a scheme for presenting a monthly gratis of 15,000 rupees per month, for women cricketers who had played atleast 10 or more test matches and 10,000 rupees per month for players with five to nine test matches. Also, an increase in the monthly gratis for widows of Test cricket umpires are also to be considered in the meeting.

As a mark of good will to other sports, BCCI plans to make a contribution of rupees 50 crores to the National Sports Development Fund, to help promote and develop other sporting bodies in the country. Apart from this, the Board plans to present cash awards to Olympic medalists. Gold winning shooter Abhinav Bindra will be awarded a cash prize of rupees 25 lakhs, whereas bronze medalists, wrestler Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Kumar will be presented rupees 10 lakhs each.

In an attempt to develop women’s cricket in neighboring China, BCCI plans to send a coach and also to present cricketing equipments worth 50,000 dollars. Next month, the Indian High Commissioner to China, on behalf of BCCI, will present the proposed package to the Cricket Committee of China.

Hence much to do for BCCI in its annual general meeting and then the selection of the new five national selectors based on its outcome.

Riding on skipper M.S. Dhoni’s 76 and Suresh Raina’s 53, India managed to score 237 runs losing 9 wickets. For Sri Lanka, Ajantha Mendis was again in the picture for taking 3 for 56 runs. When Sri Lanka came to bat, it was already presumed that the run chase might not look that easy considering the support the pitch offers to the slow bowlers later during the day.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara opened the Sri Lankan innings and much was expected from Jayasuriya to blaze away and to provide a solid start, so that there was nothing much to do when the spinners come into play. That never happened, surprisingly, it was the Indian new ball bowlers who did the damage. Four Sri Lankan wickets were felled with some accurate piece of bowling by Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar and by the end of the tenth over, the Sri Lankan score card read 41 for four, all the drama happening within the first power play.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardena was joined by Tillakaratne Dilshan, with the latter going hard at the bowlers, but, with the introduction of Munaf Patel the tide turned over the Lankans again and Munaf joined the party by scalping Dilshan. With Dilshan, Sri Lanka lost half their side with the score card reading 58 for five. Dhoni introduced his only recognized spinner Harbhajan Singh, who responded by taking the wicket of Chaminda Vaas in his first over.

Jayawardena on the other hand had scored a mere 5 runs of 29 deliveries, facing all the onslaught and most importantly holding one end tight for his side. He was joined by Nuwan Kulasekara, who had proven in the previous match that he could be handy with the bat in need. Both the players tried a resurrection and they batted well for the next nine and half overs warding off the spin attack of Harbhajan and Yuvraj Singh and building up a partnership of 35 runs, when Kulasekara got out. Thilan Thushara walked in to play and he too like Kulasekara had scored well in the second ODI. Jayawardena and Thushara made another attempt to save the game. Both started cautiously and when the asking rate started to climb high, the run scoring became brisk. With Jayawardena still at the crease, it was difficult for India to predict a victory and the Sri Lankan skipper was doing exactly the same. In the process, Jayawardena notched up a well made half century.

With spinners doing no considerable damage, Dhoni decided use his fast bowlers, but the Sri Lankan pair, now well settled were running for everything. By the 40th over, Sri Lanka had managed to score 152 runs, still 86 runs required for victory. Zaheer Khan came back to bowl again and he scalped the wicket of Thushara who made a valuable contribution of 30 runs. Jayawardena was left to play the rest of the innings with only Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan to accompany him with an asking rate of 10 per over.
Jayawardena by then exhausted, needed a runner in Chamara Kapugedera and then decided to go for the big hits for everything that was hurled at him. But it was proving difficult and he was finally out to Munaf Patel, much to the relief of the Indian team. Jayawardena played a brilliant knock of 94. Munaf eventually takes Murali’s wicket, bringing an end to the Sri Lankan innings at 204.

For India, Zaheer Khan was impressive taking 3 wickets for 23 runs. Munaf Patel also grabbed three and Praveen Kumar took two wickets. The spinners Harbhajan and Yuvraj took one wicket each. India wins the match by 33 runs and takes a 2-1 lead in the series.

India confronts Sri Lanka for the third time in the ongoing five-match one day series at the R.Premadasa stadium, Colombo, home for the remaining three matches. With an unconvincing victory in its previous match, India hopes for a better performance and to go for a 2-1 lead in the series.

India made a change with Gautam Gambhir, who had missed the second match because of a stiff neck, finding a place in the squad. Irfan Pathan who had not been in good nick with the ball in his first two matches makes way for the specialist batsmen. The change could be vital for the team as the ground built on a swamp, favors the batsmen more in most parts off the day, before switching sides to slow ball bowlers under lights.Sri Lanka brings in the experienced Chaminda Vaas in place of Dilhara Fernando, who is in verge of picking his 400th ODI wicket.

India won the toss and Dhoni without any hesitance decided to bat first. Gambhir and Virat Kohli opened the innings for the second time together (Irfan opening the innings in the second match), started briskly, with Kohli racing to 25 in no time, before he was run out going for a quick single, by a pick-and-throw act by Chamara Silva. It was a bad start and the team never recuperated and by the end of the 13th over India had lost two more wickets. Subramaniam Badrinath who handled Ajantha Mendis and Muthaiah Muralitharan in the previous match was promoted up the order. He seemed to be playing cautiously, but, became Mendis’s first victim going for a slog. In the meantime, Vaas finished his spell off ten overs without a break and without a wicket, although bowling tidily. The new ball bowler will now have to wait until tuesday for his 400th scalp.

Skipper Dhoni walked in facing a familiar situation of his side. He and Suresh Raina, played more cautiously than ever to built a partenership. This they managed to do with Raina bringing a hard worked half century before he too being run out, the second in the Indian innings so far.

Rohit Sharma, not a hit with the bat in the first two matches, came to support his skipper who was batting brilliantly on the other end. Perhaps his captains’ presence helped him and Sharma soon began to show his class. He looked too good for his 32, before he got out. The tail did not wag much as expected and the Indian innings closed at 237 runs for 9 wickets, with Dhoni playing a skipper’s knock of 76.

For a change it looked as if Team India might have figured out to play Mendis and the bowler was in his unusual form for nine overs, but in the end he came back to take two wickets of Harbhajan Singh and Dhoni, ending his spell at 3 for 56.

For Sri Lanka, Nuwan Kulashekara took two wickets and Thilan Thushara scalped two. It is to be seen how the Lankans will do the run chase. Although, the target does not look too big, but, the fact that the pitch will come good for slow ball bowlers might give India an upper hand. Already, Mendis’s last over had given us a glimpse and it is left to be seen if that was the sheer class of the dynamic spinner or the pitch that was trying to help the slow bowlers.

Cricket, a sport that is a religion for some and entertainment for others has been entertaining its followers over the years. Test matches, ODI’s, they all seem to thrill a cricket fan and with the advent of Twenty20(T20), the sport has generated a lot of interest amongst its followers. In T20, ICC surely has found an interesting event for its fans and with the member boards going ahead to host their own events like the Indian Premier League and the Stanford 20/20 games, people do find cricket a lot more interesting.

With a busy calendar year and too many matches being played around, it gives a thought to ponder if other sporting events such as the Olympics, would keep a cricket enthusiast entertained during his time-off from cricket, whether such events are a time to spend on?

Maybe it does, a multi sport event like the Olympics brings a feeling of one sporting world. A medal prospect and the medal winner are two different situations that generate interest and a sport enthusiast gets the chance to cherish both. Winning a medal in an event as this, is an unexplained happiness the country experiences, a moment of pride, both for the winner and the country. Olympics is a world where not everyone knows cricket, but, it entertains many. Cricketing events like the ICC world cup and innovations such as the T20 world cup, IPL does provide a similar sort of entertainment to its spectators, but, it will be hard to say if cricket betters a multi sporting event in terms of entertainment.

As an individual sport, cricket is a major success and the sport can benefit if it is included in other sporting events too, doing a world of good to its fans if cricket were to be in a multi sporting event and also the dream of winning a medal.
In 1998, cricket was once introduced in The Common Wealth games held in Malaysia, but, the matches were given List A status because of many associated teams participating. South Africa had then won the gold in that event. Unfortunately, it was not included thereafter much to the disappointment of its followers.

Sources indicate that cricket might eventually make a comeback, as specified in the bid offered by Glasgow for the games to be held in 2014. Also, a major effort is in process to globalize the game by introducing the T20 format in 2020 Olympics and opportunities such as these will certainly help to popularize the game.

The i8150 camera phone with its capability to take high quality pictures identical to the ones taken on a digital camera, might as well lead to the end of digital cameras. Sources indicate that the pictures taken on the i8150 were the best ever to have been taken via a camera phone. Says Paul Nuttall, writer of What Digital Camera, that the open space between a digital camera and a camera phone has narrowed over the years and with the introduction of an 8 MP on mobiles, customers will find it difficult to distinguish an image taken with a 8 MP camera phone and a digital camera.

Despite its possible success, the major concern will be the size of the picture as a phones’ size limits the option to include a zoom lens, common to the conventional digital camera.

None-the-less, the Symbian powered phone incorporates all the advanced features, has a storage capacity of 8GB and will also provide high speed wireless connection to the internet. The design is stylish and the slider phone comes with a simple menu option. Sources indicate that people who had tested the i8150, finds capturing pictures much easier and faster and the camera adjusts to varying surrounding conditions with ease. The image colors were well defined and rich and the presence of a LED flash allows one to take pictures at dusk

Samsung will create history by launching its new product in Great Britain, with sources indicating that Sony Ericsson is planning to launch their own editions shortly. The Samsung mobile with its much hyped feature and the introduction of such headsets by other manufacturers will provide customers an option to go for a handset rather than a camera, which might mark the near end of a digital camera.

Via: mailonline, gsmarena

The ICC Champions trophy, next only to the ICC World Cup and which is to be held in Pakistan from September 12 to 28, might recieve a jolt if major teams decides not to send its team to play in the tournament. With the tournament to be held in a few weeks time, teams from New Zealand, Australia, England and South Africa have shown concerns about their players security and hence their participation remains a doubt.

The Pakistan cricket Board (PCB) had done their best to ensure a safe series and a review by the ICC task force, now fully satisfied with the security arrangements for the players, are in the process of hearing the concerns of the four test playing nations, who are reluctant to tour the country. Sources indicate that although the officials and players of the Boards which ICC had met, seemed to be convinced about the security measurement details, the bother is the actual implementation of the security standards set, which remains as something that is not proven and hence their reluctancy.

As a prerequisite, a three day security check was earlier conducted by the ICC’s task force, who recently travelled to Islamabad, meeting officials and then visiting the venues for a demonstration of the security arrangements that are planned to be implemented. Lahore and Karachi are the decided venues for the tournament. After witnessing the arrangements, Haroon Lorgat, the ICC Chief Executive indicated that the ICC is thoroughly convinced with the security arrangements, but, felt that the hard task will be to persuade players to participate in the tournament.

A team led by David Richardson, ICC’s General Manager of Cricket along with Tim May, Chief Executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) and Geoff Lawson, the Pakistan team coach, met the New Zealand team management and players on thursday at Christchurch. The meeting seemed to go nowhere and Heath Mills, Executive Manager of the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association, indicated that although the board was satisifed with the provided security details, but, felt that a demonstration of it would certainly be convincing enough to ensure the safety.

Also, a recent news on one of the TV channels in Pakistan indicated a possible unleash of terror in the form of suicide bombs might happen in Karachi and Lahore, venues where the tournament is supposed to be held.

On Friday, the ICC group met the Australian band comprising James Sutherland, Chief Executive of Cricket Australia, Paul Marsh, Chief Executive of the Australian Cricketers’ Association, Ricky Ponting,Captain and Michael Clarke, vice captain of the Australian team. The meeting resulted with the obvious response as the Australian management and players also indicated the same concerns highlighted by the New Zealanders.

Participation is crucial for the Autralians too if they were to defend the title. Interestingly, if Australia make it to Pakistan, then it would create history as Australia last toured Pakistan with Mark taylor’s men in 1998. Ricky ponting indicated that the players are still confused about their participation in the tournament which is just a few weeks ahead of them. He also indicated that the team preferred to wait until the Board makes a final call on their travel.

This week, a group led by Haroon Longart will meet the English and the South African Boards and their players. The discussion reports will be sent to David Morgan, the ICC President on 20th August. With only a few weeks to go for the tournament, the ICC might as well think about moving the tournament to Sri Lanka and in the case of any major teams failing to send their squads, lower ranked teams like Bangladesh and Ireland might be considered for playing in the tournament.

What might happen in the coming weeks is still a mystery and the cricketing world awaits on the ICC’s decision.

A special program that would highlight the event would be the handover program, which features representatives from the city which would host this mega sporting event in 2012.

The closing ceremony would be gratified by the presence of English soccer star David Beckham, pop artist Leona Lewis and guitar icon Jimmy Page, who would be present at the National (also known as the Bird’s Nest) Stadium for the special occasion.

The three celebrities and a list of officials would team up in Beijing to play a part as to represent England, who would play host for the London Olympics in 2012.

Sources indicated that Beckham and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will arrive at the venue in the famous English double decker bus and the latter will officially receive the host flag for the next Olympics from Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee.

Later in the ceremony Beckham will play football with kids, who would represent different nations of the world. Also, the event will see Lewis and Page singing together and a bunch of hip hop artists performing live for the audience as a part of the musical extravaganza.

It would be indeed a special moment for Beckham, to represent his country and also as a sporting ambassador for the next Olympics.

Via:People, the spoiler, ibtimes.

Picture via Google

With the return of the Big Three plus Laxman, it seemed alright to think that the team could put up a better show, but, shoddy performance with the bat, ball and fielding and to make things worse, the injury woes, allowed Sri Lanka to maintain its supremacy over India at home.

The batting certainly looked formidable with the Big Three, Laxman, Rohit Sharma, openers Virender Sehwag and a much improved Gautam Gambhir. Also with the team went two wicket keepers, Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel.

The bowling department included new ball bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ishanth Sharma, with RP Singh and Munaf Patel less likely to serve as third seamer and the spin club consisted of Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha.

The series also saw the introduction of a new decision making review system, that was used on trial and which allowed the batsmen or the captain of the playing teams to challenge an on-field umpire’s decision.

1st Test Match:
Venue: Sinhalese Sports Club ground, Colombo.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat.

Sri Lanka 1st Innings total: 600-6 declared
India 1st Innings total: 223
India 2nd Innings total: 138

Sri Lanka won the match by an innings and 239 runs.
Series result 1-0 favoring Sri Lanka

Summary:
A test match which most Indians would like to forget at the earliest. India crashed to an innings and 239 runs defeat, setting a record of being the third worst defeat since its inception to test cricket in1932. The test match also saw Ajantha Mendis making his debut.

Winning the toss, Sri Lanka batted first to score 600 runs and then the Murali-Mendis spin combination demolished the Indian batting line-up twice to record an innings victory for the Lankan team. The Murali- Mendis pair had a share of 19 wickets in the match, with Murali notching up his 65th five wicket and 21st ten wicket haul. Mendis took 8 wickets in the match.

While the Lankans had four centurions, Indians could manage only a half century by VVS Laxman in their first innings. The trial based review system was officially used in the match and Shewag became the first player to be given out by the new review system.

2nd Test Match:
Venue: Galle International stadium

India won the toss and chose to bat

India 1st Innings: 329 all out
Sri Lanka 1st Innings: 292 all out
India 2nd Innings: 269 all out
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings: 136 all out

India won the match by 170 runs

Summary:
India won a rare victory and managed to increase its bean count of victories in Sri Lanka to three.
The match saw Virender Shewag scoring 201 not out, of the team’s total of 329 runs. The score would have been scary to imagine if Shewag had been out early, but, it was always good to watch Shewag on runs. Unfortunately, he couldn’t carry on as none stood long enough to support him.

Gambhir again proved himself to be an able partner to Shewag sand hsd scored a solid 56 before getting out. The middle order barring Laxman was unable to support Shewag on the other end and the team somehow managed to score 329 runs.
The Mendis menance seem to have just increased for the Indians and the young bowler took six wickets and his first 5 wicket haul, against the best players of spin bowling.

When Sri Lanka came to bat, the Indians did well to keep them at bay by dismissing them at 292 runs and taking a slender lead of 37 runs. Harbahajan came on its own and walked out with six wickets.

The Indians batted well again in its second innings with both the openers doing most of the contribution. Young Mendis scalped 4 wickets to take his tally to ten wickets, which was also his first ten wickets haul, only in his second test match.

With 306 to chase, the Lankans made a feeble attempt and were all out for 146 runs. Superb performance by Harbhajan Singh who took four wickets in the innings and an overall ten from the test.

The victory was important for the Indians to stay alive in the series and they managed to do that leaving the series wide open at 1-1.

3rd Test Match:
Venue: P Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo

India won the toss and chose to bat

India 1st Innings: 249 all out
Sri Lanka 1st Innings: 396 all out
India 2nd Innings: 268 all out
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings: 123 all out

Sri Lanka won the match by 8 wickets.
Sri Lanka wins the test match series.

Summary:
A rejuvenated Indian team went to play, hoping that a similar performance as in the previous test would give them a famous series victory. But Shewag went early and so did the others and the team bundled up with the score board reading 249 runs. Mendis picked his 2nd five wickets haul. Each time Mendis was given the bowl, it looked as if the bowler, the teams and the entire stadium, knew that there was another five wicket haul waiting for him. Suddenly, Muralitharan is a forgotten man and seemed to look like a part time spinner.

Sri Lanka’s batting revolved around Kumar Sangakkara’s magnificent 144 and his contribution helped the Lankans to score 396 and a lead of 147 runs.

India came to bat again with Mendis at the back of their mind. Also, was the bother of injury problems to Laxman and Sachin and the team had to arrange a minor shuffle in the batting order, which never really worked and the team lost half its side even before they crossed the first innings deficit. Cautious work by Dravid and Laxman and a little cameo by Harbhajan Singh took the score to 268 and an overall lead of 121 runs.

Chasing victory, the Lankans lost two quick wickets, but, opener Warnapura and skipper Jayawardene took them to coast and in the process also clinched the series 2-1.

The test series ended with Mendis walking away with the man of the series award for taking 26 wickets, maximum by a debut player in a three match test series.

With the test series lost, India hopes to salvage some pride by trying to win the forth coming one-day series that starts on August 18