The domestic season-ending five-day Irani Cup game between newly crowned Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the Rest of India, commencing in Mumbai from Sunday, will provide fringe players a good opportunity to stake claims for the national team. The first class match is the last occasion for hopefuls from both ranks to impress the five-member national selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil before attention shifts totally to the T20 format, commencing with the ICC World T20 Championships. With the country expected to play over 15 Test matches post Indian Premier League till the end of next season, this match is the ideal platform for these players to strengthen their claims for the long Test haul. Mumbai, who clinched the Ranji crown for the 41st time last week by defeating Saurashtra by an innings, have a settled combination led by wicket keeper batsman Aditya Tare. They appear to be better prepared than the motley bunch of Rest of India, being led by Madhya Pradesh stumper Naman Ojha. However, they would take the Rest of India lightly at their own peril as the latter have a good bowling attack at their command even without originally named Barinder Sran and Nathu Singh who have been injured and replaced by Ankit Rajpoot and Anureet Singh, according to their coach Ashish Kapoor.
The Planning Commission was better than the Niti Aayog as it used to take up the issues of the states with the ministries concerned.
Project Vivaan won big at the Solar Decathlon, placing second overall (and missing the first position by a whisker). Members of the award-winning Team Shunya tell Mrigank Warrier how they built a carbon-neutral, water-neutral, energy-positive home for a family of four.
Indian team's jersey sponsor Byju's wants to terminate its agreement with the BCCI which has asked the company to continue at least until March 2023.
PCB Chairman, Najam Sethi is in the UK meeting with the British legal firm for advise. PCB's chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmad has also flown to London for the same purpose.
The only major point, where the amicus suggested a change was reverting to the five-man selection panel from the current three-member committee. It also suggested a change in 'Test Players Only' clause to minimum 20 first-class matches.
The Brij Bhushan camp, who claim to have the support of 22 of the 25 state units, expressed 'confidence' of winning all 15 posts during the WFI elections on August 12.
Australia have cut opening batsman Ed Cowan and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade from their list of 18 centrally-contracted players, but handed opener Phillip Hughes another chance to establish himself in the national set-up.
Pakistan's Sohail to return home after injury ends England tour
The issue came to light after Boucher and former spinner Paul Adams testified that the latter was given a nickname which has racial overtones by his national team-mates, including the current head coach.
Shaken by Justice RM Lodha committee's recommended reforms of its governance structure, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to call a Special General Meeting (SGM) within the next two weeks to discuss the implications of the report.
Observing that the final NRC list, which validates bona fide Indian citizens of Assam, has excluded 19 lakh residents, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on Friday said that a number of domestic and international organisations have expressed concern that the NRC is a "targeted mechanism to disenfranchise Assam's Bengali Muslim community, implicitly establishing a religious requirement for citizenship and potentially rendering large numbers of Muslims stateless."
'The idea is to have a separate and independent consultation on non-personal data, and decide the contours of how it should be regulated, whether as guidelines, rules, or a separate policy,' said a senior official at MeitY.
Congress observers for Rajasthan on Tuesday recommended disciplinary action against three party leaders, including two ministers, for the crisis in the state, but did not seek any action against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Devendra Jhajharia, on Tuesday became the first para athlete to receive India's highest sporting honour -- Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna -- along with hockey star Sardar Singh, who has endured trying times off the field in the last one year.
AAI has one month to get house in order or face suspension
Recalling the planned move, former national selector Raja Venkat told PTI that the idea to elevate Kohli was prompted by a string of poor results during the tour of Australia at that time.
The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill was tabled in the assembly on Monday.
A united Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Thursday pitched for referring the triple talaq bill to a 'joint select committee' of Parliament, claiming its provisions were unconstitutional.
The much-delayed insurance bill and the goods and services tax bill are among the 39 bills that are expected to come up during the month-long Winter Session of Parliament beginning next week.
When Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Gujarat to cast his vote in the urban body polls, learnt of the poor voter, instead of heading home he went to the Motera stadium, organised a control room, and was on the phone with practically everybody assigned duty on the ground: MPs, MLAs and BJP office-bearers. His single commandment was to check the voter list and phone or personally get people to the booths, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The NRAI has sent the names of champion pistol shooters Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma for the prestigious Arjuna Award, according to federation sources.
Gunning for yet another Grand Slam title, India's old war horse Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek have been seeded fifth at the Australian Open and they will open their campaign against Czech pair of Lukas Dlouhy and Lukas Rosol.
CoA finally asks BCCI Ombudsman to review Raman's appointment
Rohan Bopanna returned to the country's Davis Cup squad after a two-year gap as AITA named a six-member team on Saturday, for the Asia/Oceania Group I contest against Chinese Taipei, starting January 31 in Indore.
Ganguly also said that he would like to speak to Dhoni and know what he wants.
Selecting a talent like Virat Kohli early in his career would be considered a masterstroke by most but according to former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, it ended his career as a national selector.
Vijender Singh (75kg) made a return to the Indian boxing team along with Thokchom Nanao Singh (49kg) as the selectors picked the team for the World Championships after a two-day trial in Patiala, on Wednesday.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday invoked the constitutional 'Lakshman Rekha' guiding different institutions, including the executive and the judiciary, and wondered that if judges become part of administrative appointments, who would carry out judicial work.
Seema had been given a four-year suspension by NADA's Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) following the hearing on her positive test for banned performance enhancing drugs.
Clearly he didn't get the length of contract extension offer that he was after so it hasn't been ideal, but I don't subscribe to the fact that it was individuals that were key to making the decision, said selection chief, George Bailey.
When India coach Ravi Shastri was asked about the much-speculated future of MS Dhoni, he said that none can 'mess around with' Dhoni if he decides to be in contention for next year's T20 World Cup
'If people want to blackmail others to get information or harm things, so why will someone give them information?'
He takes over the CBI in challenging times. The perception is that the agency is reduced to being an instrument of blackmail and intimidation by successive governments.
Pakistan's Shahid Afridi, on Monday, criticised the national selectors for resting six senior players, including skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, for the upcoming ODI series against Australia, saying a good outing would have boosted their confidence ahead of the World Cup.
The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill.
Former England captain David Gower has joined the list of critics who believe that controversial batsman Kevin Pietersen had allowed his ego to come before the needs of the team in England's 5-0 Ashes hammering by Australia.
"We have decided to identify 100 eminent citizens to report independently further on the progress of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The process is underway," Union minister for rural development C P Joshi told PTI.
The defence ministry said Maharashtra was voted as the best tableau among the states/union territories in the popular choice category.
Star paddler Manika Batra was left out of the India squad for the Asian Championships, beginning September 28 in Doha, after failing to attend the mandatory national camp in Sonepat.
