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Mumbai: Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was on Wednesday dropped from the Governing Council of the Indian Premier League as the BCCI met here for its 81st AGM, at which it was also decided to revoke the expulsion of its former chief Jagmohan Dalmiya.

The IPL governing council has been reconstituted and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is not part of the new team, and as a consequence of an amendment to the constitution, the term of the  council has also been reduced from five years to one year.

The major overhaul of the IPL was on the cards for a long time and the Board also took the decision to withdraw their suit filed against Jagmohan Dalmiya in the Bombay High Court. Dalmiya had been expelled by the BCCI in 2006. (more…)

Melbourne:  After a lull in racial attacks against Indians in Australia, a 21-year-old man from the Indian community was brutally assaulted by a group of teenagers with baseball bats after they asked him “Buddy, are you Indian?”

The man, whose name has not yet been revealed,  was walking to Sandown Park rail station here when four teenage boys on bikes approached him, three with baseball bats, police were quoted as saying by local newspaper ‘Dandenong Leader’.

One of them asked him “Buddy, are you Indian?”

Police official Jo Hayden said the man was hit from behind, fell and was kicked while lying on the ground. Two passers-by took him home. (more…)

Johannesburg:  The Warriors were confident of posting a big score after having won the toss at the Wanderers and had posted 45 runs in the sixth over when R Ashwin got Jacobs out lbw while he attempted a reverse sweep and that wicket at that stage cost Warriors the match. Davy Jacobs was going great guns till then and his team was sighting a total of 170 – 180 runs. But the collapse was soon to follow and they could manage only 128 for 7 wickets in the 20 overs.

Murli Vijai

Jacobs took the attack straight away to the opposition, hitting two boundaries off Doug Bollinger in the very first over. The Warriors’ skipper followed it up with a cover drive in the next over of Albie Morkel.

After Jacobs fell, Muttiah Muralitharan throttled the Warriors with his skill, and L Balaji maintained the pressure with a disciplined spell in the middle, keeping the Warriors to 128, which was never going to be enough. And it wasn’t. This is the last time this group of players will turn out for Chennai, and they gave themselves a nice farewell present.

The frequent fall of wickets, after the prized scalp of skipper Davy Jacobs, at regular intervals, derailed the once steady-looking Warriors’ innings as the home side struggled to put up a challenging total in the final. (more…)

News media in other countries are sceaming ‘Call the games off’ and players from a few countries have refused to participate citing filthy conditions and lack of infrastructure facilities. Athletes are due to arrive at the Games Village, New Delhi today. More than fifty athletes have withdrawn their names in recent months and it is a national embarrassment as they have refused to participate.

JLN Stadium Over-bridge

And to add salt to the wounds, the over-bridge outside the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium collapsed where in about thirty workers were injured, four of them critically. And now begins the blame game – one calls it bad assessment at the planning stage, others say bad execution.

Yesterday, when the news of the over-bridge at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium falling down was released on the TV channels, twitter was in full flow in condemning the organizing committee; tweeples from all over the country cried ‘shame’ on twitter and these tweets went on for more than three hours.09

The last minute preparations in completing the jobs at hand have lead to various problems for the CWG committee and add to their woes the rains have played havoc all over North India. (more…)

News travels fastest on twitter and in the first-of-it’s-kind  news  we have a four day old @babyinayat whose mother Gursimran Kaur from Jallandhar (India) tweeted that she has delivered a baby girl, thus breaking the news of the first ‘live’ baby being tweeted in the world. Twitter is now the fastest media for news in the world. Four days old Inayaat is the new sensation on twitter. She had to be famous on twitter as both her parents are active on twitter and went on tweeting before, until and after her birth.

Gursimaran and her husband Sumit Aneja aka @SumtheBum , both of whom are active on the twitter networking site, had  been tweeting about the expected baby’s arrival earllier also and four days ago she was a bit upset as the doctors had given her 20th Sept as the due date and that she wanted to have the baby earlier. (more…)

Too much is happening on this auspicious day. The month long festival of Ramzan ends and Eid-ul-Fitr is being celebrated by Muslim brethren all over the globe. In the Maharashtra State in India, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated with great pomp and vigour. Fortunately, wiser sense has also prevailed on Pastor Terry Jones of the church of Florida who has agreed not to burn copies of Quran as earlier decided by him.

Eid is celebrated with pomp and gaiety and breakfast is had with dates, which are considered a ritual, and sweets. Elders and children, wear new clothes and the smiles are visible everywhere. They greet one and all, irrespective of caste, colour and creed chanting ‘Eid mubarak’.

During the festival Muslims exchange gifts, and greet everyone as a mark of solidarity and brotherhood. It is believed that the Prophet of Islam saw the moon on this day and said, “O God make this moon a symbol of peace for us’, thereby the Prophet expressed the true spirit of Eid to promote spiritual harmony and a peaceful environment in the world. (more…)

A commemorative stamp was issued by USPS  in honour of Mother Teressa on her  13th death anniversary.  Mother Teresa, the Macedonia-born ethnic Albanian nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950 and was also honored with the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979.

Mother Teressa

Teresa  was born on 26 August 1910 as Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu and  worked extensively for the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying. She had a special place for leprosy patients. After her death, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Agnes left her home in 1928 to join the Sisters of Loretto in Ireland. Six weeks later, she was sent to India as a teacher for the Sisters’ school in Calcutta. While teaching in Calcutta, Mother Teresa began her work with the poor and sick, a work that would become her life’s calling.

She worked tirelessly for 50 years in the service of the poor and the down-trodden.

She was loved by all, but her critics accused her of accepting dirty money.

Some raised concerns about the way she ran the Missionaries of Charity. Still others accused her of working to convert people or of limiting herself to keeping people alive rather than tackling poverty itself. (more…)

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has been awarded the honorary rank of group Captain in the Indian Air Force in a glittering ceremony held in New Delhi on Friday. Air Chief Marshal PN Naik pipped his uniformed shoulders with the rank and said that Sachin would soon be flying sorties in Su-30MKI, and added that it depends on the master blaster to make him available for this purpose. 

Sachin Tendulkar

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, who sets the cricket field on fire with his bat, now wishes to light up the skies by flying a Sukhoi-30MKI, the most lethal fighter jet in the Indian Air Force. 

Sachin Tendulkar has 48 Test Cricket centuries under his belt and has stated that he has no plans to retire from International Cricket in the near future. 

Replying to a question about the fighter plane he wishes to fly, the batting legend said: “I want to fly a Sukhoi-30MKI.”  (more…)

Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir had been summoned to London by Scotland Yard in connection with the no-ball controversy that has erupted during the current England – Pakistan series. They have been interrogated at length and the Pakistan Cricket Board says it will not take any action upon the reports of the media. nor upon the sting operation,  but is awaiting the investigation report from the Scotland Yard. 

The news is absolutely shocking for the fans of Cricket. Why, such a thing happened, was the question in everyone’s mind. Is it endless greed for money at this age? These things were unheard of, a predetermined no-ball in between a devastating spell during the 4^th Test, which the Lords has ever witnessed. Shocking, is the word and rape of Cricket would be no exaggeration either.  (more…)