India's new soccer league with its cast of celebrity owners, experienced foreign managers and a sprinkling of high-profile players will kick off on Sunday, igniting hopes of waking the country from its football slumber.
Their frailties against quality spin attack badly exposed in Sri Lanka recently, pace bowling great Glenn McGrath said that the Australians will have to quickly sort out their issues against slow bowlers if they don't want a disaster in their tour of India to play four Tests in February-March next year. "Especially with the way things went in Sri Lanka on turning wickets, they have got a lot of work to do between now and then. The Aussies will find it tough in India unless they turn things around pretty quickly," McGrath told reporters during a promotional event.
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IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings moved the Madras High Court challenging the order of Justice Lodha Committee suspending it from Indian Premier League over the 2013 betting scam involving its top official Gurunath Meiyappan.
"I don't think Morne is fit enough to play tomorrow. He bowled a bit in the nets and probably we will take the final call tomorrow, but I don't think he will be fit," Amla told reporters at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
Stung by a batting debacle, Royal Challengers Bangalore have the onerous task of picking up pieces when they face defending champion Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday, with a singular aim of keeping their hopes alive in the Indian Premier League.
Skipper Rohit Sharma rose to the occasion when it mattered most as his record breaking third double hundred guided India to a series-levelling 141-run win against Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Mohali on Wednesday.
If familiarity between the two sides has not quite bred contempt, the frequent heated exchanges in their clashes indicates at the very least a fierce competitiveness.
'Team India's strategy -- rather the lack of it -- boomeranged in the game against New Zealand. It's because of the T20 generation's lack of patience to counter spin,' feels Bikash Mohapatra/Rediff.com
'When cricketers, coaches, captains, managers, franchise owners focus on the prize, they forget the process.' 'You can't win every game. Getting better is all about making mistakes.'
New Zealand will not be shelving the aggressive game that has taken them through the pool stage.
Insisting that India are currently playing the "best cricket of the World Cup", West Indies batting legend Brian Lara feels that the defending champions must test their bench strength against minnows UAE in a Pool B match in Perth.
Virat Kohli may get close to breaking Sachin Tendulkar's 49 ODI centuries record but the batting maestro's 100 International centuries milestone would stay safe forever, feels former India captain Sourav Ganguly.
Greg Chappell said the defending champions cannot be written off as one of the strong contenders for the World Cup.
Zaheer Khan feels that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's form will be key to India' title defence as they get ready to face arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup in less than a week's time.
Despite all the controversies, the IPL's brand value hasn't diminished. Instead, says Harish Kotian/Rediff.com, the IPL made the BCCI richer by over Rs 3 billion!
The legend of Virat Kohli grew exponentially with his clinical decimation of rivals in a year during which the Indian women's team finally found love and acceptance in the cricket-crazy nation after an emotionally charged World Cup While 'King Kohli' geared up for a watershed next 18 months after nine straight Test series wins, mostly at home, the last six months witnessed Mithali Raj turn from women's cricket team captain into a brand.
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Former India seamer and bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad says the struggling pace trio of Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami must not try anything extraordinary in upcoming Cricket World Cup, starting February 14.
One mega success and the industry would be knocking on his door, camps be damned.
Some stellar performances by seasoned veterans and promising youngsters continued to raise the bar in Olympic sports but there was heartbreak in equal measure when corruption scandals blighted India's favourite obsession, cricket, in a see-saw year for the country's sportspersons.
Written off after four losses on the trot to start with in the Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has said their revival and the subsequent title triumph was triggered by the belief that every game was his team's final.
From Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, Imran Khan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, these cricketers, among others, etched their names in the annuls of cricketing history with heroic efforts that helped their teams clinch the big prize of One-day cricket. With the 2015 edition of the cricket World Cup starting on February 14, we bring you a brief history of finals from 1975-2011...
Parliamentary panel seeks 5-yr jail term and penalty of up to Rs 50 lakh if a celebrity-endorsed product misfires
Has the IPL, its players and fans become secondary as big companies cynically use India's most followed and visible sport to push their phone or toothpaste brands?
Even as the dust settles down on IPL 9, Bikash Mohapatra/Rediff.com presents his Dream XI.
Not Out! is a brilliant analysis of the IPL that explains why it alternates between thrill and scandal, says Dhruv Munjal.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum acclaimed opener Martin Guptill's World Cup record 237 not out against West Indies on Saturday as one of the best ever.
India go into the quarter-final against their neighbours as favourites, but will certainly not take them too lightly, not wanting to suffer the same fate as they did in the 2007 edition.
Check out the images from the second semi-final between Australia and India at the ICC World Cup at the Sydney Cricket, on Thursday.
The visitors won the first two matches of the series in Durban and Centurion by six and nine wickets, respectively, dismantling the home side with consummate ease.
India registered just three victories in 11 Tests, worse than even Zimbabwe and the West Indies...
Steve Smith scored a brilliant century to help Australia knock out defending champions India and set up a mouth-watering final against neighbours New Zealand, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, on Thursday.
Virat Kohli will face the toughest battle of his fledgling captaincy career when India take on a resurgent Australia in the second cricket Test.
'Ramchandra Guha has sent down an express delivery at Sunil Gavaskar, the great batsman who seldom wore a helmet while facing the fastest of fast bowlers.' 'Gavaskar may have easily ducked the delivery and Guha would have receded in solitude.' 'But by hitting back at Guha, Gavaskar may have started a barrage of unplayable deliveries,' says Sudhir Bisht about his cricketing hero.
Stiven Mendoza was the star of the night as Chennaiyin FC beat FC Goa 3-2 in a dramatic final to clinch the 2nd edition of the Indian Super League at the Fatorda Stadium in Margao on Sunday.
Yes, they're both movie directors. But there's something else!
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Under fire after a below-par show on a good batting strip, the Indian spinners will aim for an improved show on a comparatively more helpful track as they take on a gritty England in the second Test, starting in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.
The Supreme Court on Friday left it to a panel headed by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha to consider the feasibility of opening and looking into the sealed envelope, containing names of some players allegedly involved in the IPL spot-fixing case, submitted by Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee.
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