Suresh Raina has finally arrived. Even as critics take some convincing if he is an accomplished one-day bat or if he could be promoted to Test level, there is little doubt the UP lad has worked out the Twenty20 code.

Statistics show Raina took 60 balls for his 101 runs. But his final 82 runs came from 38 balls. It implies that he took time to take roots at the crease. If Raina bats this long he is sure to smash a few deliveries beyond the ropes. Against South Africa, he helped himself to five sixes.

While his trademark blow remains the heave over midwicket and widish long-on, he has many more strokes in his repertoire. He chips the ball well over the infield and is wristy enough to find the gaps at will. He is determined to make the number three position all his own. The biggest improvement has been his shot selection.

Yuvraj Singh too is beginning to roar to life. Once Gautam Gambhir hits his straps, India's top order would have a settled look. Mahendra Singh Dhoni looks intent on playing with five bowlers. He has also shortened his batting order and, twice in two games, played both all-rounders, Ravinder Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan.

A good team needs to have six or seven players who can bowl. Similarly, a few all-rounders and bowlers who can use the long handle should take care of the final 15-20 balls of the innings.

The opening day of the Twenty20 World Cup showed the virtues of spinners. Murali, Vettori, Nathan McCullum and even Jayasuriya choked the batsmen to death. The profligacy of Shane Bond suggested the problems quickies could have on the sluggish Caribbean pitches.

So you could have spinners operating at all times in the innings. They could be at the start of the innings or at the death. Middle overs alone are not their playground. In any case, one spinner alone wouldn’t do for successful teams in this Twenty20 World Cup.

To be successful, a spinner essentially needs to be accurate. He also needs to have variety. He ought to be able to second-guess the batsmen. Above all, he needs to have a huge heart to experiment with his variations. Quite a few spinners are getting batsmen out with occasional darts wide outside the off-leg stump, as batsmen, time and again, give a charge.

There is no set theory to counter this threat.

Somebody like Mahela Jayawardene could work the ball around in the gaps. Big hitters can take the occasional aerial route on the strength of their shoulders. Above all, a batting side needs to put a cap on their scoring ambitions. While a 180 might not be defendable on good pitches, a 150 might as well work in the Caribbean.

The skill in fielding would thus become paramount. Sri Lanka could have squeezed home in the opener had they not missed those infuriating run-out chances. When the margins of victory aren’t likely to be big, little mistakes can tip the balance.

It suggests Indians wouldn’t have an easy time in the competition. They might be excellent with the ball and bat, but questions abound on their ability in the field. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is brilliant but a few seniors could be tested.

A new book about 20th-century reporting has revealed that future Nazi regime dictator Adolf Hitler raised his own cricket team to play some British prisoners of war during the First World War.

According to the book's author, John Simpson, Hitler declared the sport "unmanly" and tried to rewrite the laws of the game.

Simpson's cites the piece as appearing in the Daily Mirror in 1930.

He says that Oliver Locker-Lampson, an MP, decorated wartime veteran, right-wing zealot and fervent admirer of Hitler wrote the article.

It was published under the headline "Adolf Hitler As I Know Him" on September 30, 1930, as the Nazis' brutal rise to power gathered pace.

According to The Times, Locker-Lampson describes how in 1923, shortly after the Munich putsch, he met some British officers who had been prisoners of war in southern Germany during the First World War.

By coincidence Hitler, then a lance corporal in the German Army, was recovering from his wounds in a nearby hospital.

"He had come to them one day and asked whether he might watch an eleven of cricket at play so as to become initiated into the mysteries of our national game," writes Locker- Lampson.

"They welcomed him, of course, and wrote out the rules for him in the best British sport-loving spirit."

According to Locker-Lampson, Hitler returned a few days later, having assembled his own team, and challenged the British to a "friendly match".

As Simpson points out, Locker-Lampson infuriatingly failed to inform his readers who won, but we can assume that the British POWs thrashed Hitler's XI, because he immediately declared the game insufficiently violent for German Fascists.

According to Locker-Lampson, Hitler had an ulterior motive for wanting to play the game:

"He desired to study it as a possible medium for the training of troops off duty and in times of peace." He also wanted the game to be Nazified.

"He had conned over [sic] the laws of cricket, which he considered good enough no doubt for pleasure-loving English people. But he proposed entirely altering them for the serious-minded Teuton."

Specifically, he "advocated the withdrawal of the use of pads. These artificial 'bolsters' he dismissed as unmanly and un-German ...in the end he also recommended a bigger and harder ball."

Locker-Lampson was not mocking Hitler. Far from it, he regarded Hitler's "essential improvements" to the English game as a mark of his greatness.

The British MP was the founder of the Sentinels of Empire, a blue-shirted group of right-wingers dedicated to fighting Bolshevism.

Like many upper-class Englishmen, he was besotted by Nazism, and the rest of the article is a dribbling paean of praise to Hitler.

Hitler's angry contempt for cricket, his attempt to invade the rules and alter them in his own image, and his inability to comprehend the complexities of the sport all point to one, inescapable conclusion: he was out for a golden duck. He only faced one ball.

Security concerns in India prompted Brett Lee's return to Australia for treatment on his injured elbow, his agent has claimed.

The fast bowler, who plays for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, is in Sydney to get treatment on his elbow, which was operated a couple of months ago.

 

Lee's agent Neil Maxwell said the bowler would rather be at home for treatment than in India owing to security fears.

Cricket is Australia's national sport, and a passion for many around the world. "Test cricket" - the highest level international matches - are played between (in alphabetical order!) Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, Zimbabwe (currently suspended), and perhaps in the near future, Kenya. Notice a pattern there? How come Canada got away? Climate maybe? Still, Canada has a national team, as does the Netherlands. There are various cricket competitions in the US, notably in California, where ex-pats form the backbone.

 "The Ashes" is the name given to any test series played between England and Australia. This occurs every 2 years, alternating between the countries. To find out more about why it's called "The Ashes''.

 Australia lost the last ''Cricket Ashes Tour'' in England, and is out to avenge their defeat! Australia won the first match in Brisbane. The second starts in Adelaide on Friday. The series finishes in Sydney the first week in January, with matches in Perth and Melbourne in between.

So if you are going to watch The Ashes 2009 and looking for some cheap accomodation than check out the Melbourne Cricket Ground MCG Hotels. These hotel are really cheap and provide the best facilities.

This is an odd time of year to be thinking about NFL Football, but for football fanatics such as me, pro football is a year-round sport.

Direct  TV NFL Sunday Ticket allows football fans like me to follow their favorite teams and watch up to 14 games every Sunday. Basically, Sunday Ticket allows NFL football fans to watch football games that are outside their local market. For example, if you’re a fan of the New England Patriots, but live in California, you’re usually out of luck when it comes to seeing the Pats play on a regular basis, but with NFL Sunday Ticket and a DirecTV subscription, you can watch all the Sunday Patriots’ games to your heart’s content, as well as every other Sunday NFL game.

You get lots of football! With NFL Sunday Ticket, you get up to 14 games per week and every Sunday game. There’s also the pre-game coaches show every week, real time player stats for your favorite players, highlights on demand and enhanced games that let you get stats from other games without interrupting the game you are watching. In addition, there’s also the regular NFL Network with its 52 pre-season games.

As a full-blown fantasy football addict, I can think of no better way to spend a Sunday than surfing Sunday Ticket to catch highlights of, say, a Vince Young TD scramble or Carson Palmer shredding some hapless secondary for 400 yards and 4 TD tosses.

So, if you’re ready for more NFL action, be sure to check out NFL Sunday Ticket.

Shoaib Akhtar could be left out of Pakistan's preliminary squad for the Champions Trophy despite being cleared to play by the Lahore High Court as the maverick pacer has not yet paid the fine imposed on him for disciplinary violations.

Shoaib has been told by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to pay by tomorrow the fine of Rs seven million imposed on him by the appellate tribunal that reduced his original ban of five years to 18 months last month.

The 18-month ban has been suspended by the Lahore High Court but the fine remains which Shoaib has not paid as yet.

Shoaib himself has been untraceable and his legal counsel Abid Hasan Minto said the fast bowler has not contacted him for consultations on whether to pay the fine or not.

The names of Shoaib and Mohammad Asif were included in the preliminary list by the national selectors last week but the board put its foot down and asked the selectors to come down to Lahore for further discussions.

Pakistan will host the Champions Trophy in September provided there are no safety and security fears.

ICC acting chief executive Dave Richardson was speaking ahead of the launching ceremony of the biennial event which Pakistan hosts from September 11-28.

"At this point in time we are comfortable with the decision that Pakistan has the ability to host the Champions Trophy but we will continue to monitor security as it is fluid like anywhere in the world," Richardson said.

The top eight Test playing countries - Australia, South Africa, England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and the West Indies - will compete in the Trophy, regarded as the second biggest event after the World Cup.

The ICC last month assessed security measures at the three cities - Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi - which will host the matches and a report will be put before its board meeting starting in Dubai on June 29.

"It is impossible to say that any country would be the final to host an event. Things can change and I think it is wrong to say that there is any question of a deadline but our board will take a decision on that," said Richardson.

Touring Pakistan has been a security concern for several foreign teams, especially Australia which postponed its March-April tour this year after a series of suicide bomb blasts.

However February's national elections and formation of a new government have improved the security situation which prompted Australia to reschedule the tour into two visits, with the five-match One-day series in 2009 and Tests in 2010.

Richardson, a former South African wicket-keeper batsman, agreed there may still be security concerns in Pakistan.
 
Richardson said Pakistan had the responsibility to host the event in a safe environment.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and ICC have put together a process that is able to deal with the security situation and would enable us to monitor the situation on daily basis from now and until to the conclusion of the event.

PCB chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi said Pakistan would ensure a successful Trophy.

"The Pakistan government has promised foolproof security arrangements, so we are up to it and since people are passionate about cricket, the event will be well attended and successful," said Naghmi.

Sri Lanka is the alternate venue in case the event has to be shifted from Pakistan. The 2006 tournament was held in India.

That's the reason  why  Punjab able to reach in semiifinal after loosing three     consecutive defeats.

" Jadu Ki Jhappi" 

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp; 

Maria Sharapova hopes to battle through a wearying summer and still be in peak condition when she makes her Olympics debut in Beijing.

The world number one faces a gruelling run-up to the Games with the French Open, which starts on Sunday, followed by Wimbledon as well as American hardcourt events in July.

The Games tennis event starts on August 10 with the US Open scheduled to begin on August 25 in New York, the week after the Olympics close.

"It's a big challenge, especially if you do well at Wimbledon. You need to be smart about the events you play before the Olympics because you want to go into the Games having a few matches under your belt, but I'll be coming off the seven to eight week stretch of being on the road," said Sharapova.

The top seed here has already suffered wear and tear this year pulling out of her scheduled Italian Open semi-final against Jelena Jankovic last week because of a calf strain.

"When the schedule was made, it was known that that's the way it's going to be. You're not going to change the Olympics. It's an honour to play there and it's been a dream of mine.

"So whatever it will take I'll make sure I'll be there and do the best that I can."

Sharapova, who was promoted to the world number one spot when reigning French Open champion Justine Henin retired last week, begins her bid to win a first Roland Garros title against compatriot Evgeniya Rodina.

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