Cricket

World Cup 2011 Fixtures (All timings are mentioned in GMT+05:30) Timing Teams Venue Results Sat Feb 19 (D/N) 14:00 PM 1st match Group B - India v Bangladesh Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur Sun Feb 20 09:30 AM 2 nd match Group A- Kenya v New Zealand MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai Sun Feb 20 (D/N) 14:30 PM 3 rd match Group A- Sri Lanka v Canada Hambantota International Cricket Stadium Mon Feb 21 (D/N) 14:30 PM 4th match Group A - Australia v Zimbabwe Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad Tue Feb 22 (D/N) 14:30 PM 5th match Group B- England v Netherlands Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur Wed Feb 23 (D/N) 14:30 PM 6th match Group A - Kenya v Pakistan Hambantota International Cricket Stadium Thu Feb 24 (D/N) 14:30 PM 7th match Group B- South Africa v West Indies Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi ...

In a book titled 'SACH,' by Gautam Bhattacharya, Tendulkar revealed that he played under Imran but as a substitute fielder during a festival match at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai. Imran asked him to field in the deep and Tendulkar couldn't complete a catch and going back home, in the local train, constantly grumbled about the captain's field placements. "Absolutely true. I went in as a substitute. Imran was the Pakistan captain. No words were exchanged with him. But yes, I may've got the catch if I was kept slightly ahead (laughs)," Sachin said. The book also revealed that a year before in 1987, Sachin was selected as a promising fast bowler to train at legendary Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee's MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, but was rejected. "I was okay with it. In any case I was not aspiring to become a fast bowler. I thought of myself as a fast bowling all-rounder. That is precisely the reason I had carried my b...

Australia coach and to a 30-year-old former Shield player recently was to understand the challenges currently faced by those responsible for directing the game in this country. As in other arenas, a battle is on between the classical and the contemporary. Suffice to say the classical is in retreat. Wise nations and activities seek to strike a balance between the eternal and the present, seek to take the best from both. The coach spends his time instructing selected youngsters in the techniques of the game. Except that those skills seem to have changed. Coaches chide any batsman allowing a ball to pass, and teach them to use the bottom hand not as an assistant but as the driving force. Youngsters are taught to open their hips and lift the ball. Ignoring the traditions of local batsmanship, they are told to go forwards, anticipate and punish full deliveries. Is it any wonder that Australians keep hooking off the front foot or that the captain keeps losing his wicket to t...

When Gautam Gambhir was struggling to cement his place in Team India, the appointment of Gary Kirsten as India coach proved to be a godsend. The Delhi batsman gives the former South African opener a lot of credit for understanding him both as a cricketer as well as a person. Gambhir, 29, feels Kirsten's presence in the India dressing room has done a world of good to his game as he has given him a lot of confidence. Kirsten, who joined the India team in March 2008, carried it to the top of Test rankings, and Gambhir says he is one of the players to prosper in the process. "Kirsten worked on my game, he has helped me a lot. Unlike other coaches, he has never asked me to make changes in my game. Importantly, he understood me both as a player and person," Gambhir "Kirsten worked on my basics and tried to improve on them. It was quite encouraging coming from a person who has played 100-odd Tests." The left-hander, who made his debut in 2004, had only one Te...

  Let me spend some time answering your question because it's one of the top queries I get from other bloggers, particularly after listening to one of my BlogSmart! workshops... First off, the core answer is actually pretty easy: the best way to generate traffic for your blog is to reframe the question. Instead of asking "how to I get more visitors to my site?" you need to be asking the question "how do I become part of the blogosphere discussion?" Bloggers that don't get this crucial point end up being tiny islands in a very big ocean. Some of them can gain a readership by being phenomenally good or astonishingly prolific, but that's a very tough path to travel and for most ends up being the blogosphere equivalent of the old Web site complaint of "I've built it, but no-one's come to visit." Instead, you need to get involved! Regardless of your topic, I bet there are already other people blogging about the same issues, thoughts an...

Kirsten's contract with the Indian team ends after the World Cup and he is unlikely to renew it as he wants to spend more time with his family in South Africa. But a coaching job in the month-long IPL is something that he might fancy. "Indian cricket had hoped to persuade Kirsten to change his mind about not renewing his contract, but gave up on it this week. Future options for Kirsten could involve the Indian Premier League," a report in The Times said. "The close relationship that Kirsten has with Sachin Tendulkar may lead to cooperation between the two at the Mumbai Indians, who are expected to appoint a director of coaching before the next IPL season," The report said. "Kirsten could easily take up such a position while still developing his international academy that is in the planning stage at Claremont Cricket Club in Cape Town