Pepsi drops Ganguly, Dravid; Ishant, Rohit in

The change of guard in Indian cricket team is reflecting in the endorsement market, with soft drinks major Pepsi deciding to drop Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid as ambassadors while roping in youngsters Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma, in line with its brand ideology.

As far as master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, who has been Pepsi's brand ambassador for a long time now, is concerned, the company is observing a silence.

"From time to time we review the list of stars and depending on situation and who we think is right, we pick and choose. In case of cricketers, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma are surely in as they have the attitude and aggression reflecting Pepsi's brand image PepsiCo India Executive Vice President, Marketing (Cola), Sandeep Singh Arora told media. Read More>>

Kapil takes legal action against India cricket board

Retired cricket great Kapil Dev has taken the powerful Indian board to court for alleged victimisation after he headed the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), reports said on Wednesday.

Dev applied to the Delhi High Court on Tuesday after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stopped his pension as a former international player and also sacked him as head of the National Cricket Academy.

"The only way of earning a livelihood for us retired cricketers is through the game and the board cannot, by illegally changing its rules and regulations, deprive us of the benefits," media reports quoted Dev's court affidavit as saying.

Dev, India's only World Cup winning captain and one of the game's great all-rounders, heads the ICL, which is bankrolled by the media firm Zee Telefilms.

The ICL's inaugural Twenty20 tournament, featuring retired stars like West Indian Brian Lara and Pakistan's Inzamam-ul Haq alongside domestic players, was held in November-December.

The BCCI not only refused to recognise the ICL but also banned Indian players involved in it from playing official first-class cricket.

The BCCI's own Twenty20 Indian Premier League involving top stars from around the world is slated to take place from April 18 to June 1.

Among former Indian players whose pensions were stopped by the BCCI for joining the ICL are Kiran More, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Sandeep Patil, Erapalli Prasanna, Madan Lal and Rajesh Chauhan.

Ishant is a dangerous bowler: Ponting

Australian captain Ricky Ponting conceded on Sunday that his tormentor Ishant Sharma is a "dangerous bowler" but stopped short of rating the Indian attack as the best he has seen in home conditions in the recent past.

"Ishant has done well in the latter half of this tour so far. He is a dangerous bowler," conceded a sombre Ponting.

"Sreesanth has also looked good but it's too early to say this is the best attack seen in Australian conditions for sometime now as England was here last year," he said.

The young Indian attack, led by Sharma, booked Australia out for 159 in 43.1 overs after Ponting had chosen to bat first at the Melbourne Cricket Ground today. The Aussie skipper was suitably impressed.

"He is different in the sense that he hits the deck hard and gets some inconsistent bounce. I don't know whether it's because he changes his action.

"He looks dangerous and would be even more to the left-handers. Even to the right-handers, the kind of in-swing he manages is a bit unusual," Ponting said.

Ishant sends Australia crashing

Ishant Sharma ripped through the heart of Australia's vaunted batting line-up to help India dismiss Australia for 159 off 43.1 overs in the fourth one-day international of the triangular series in Melbourne on Sunday.

Sharma had Matthew Hayden , Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds all caught behind during an inspired spell of bowling from India's three pacemen, who reduced Australia to 75 for five in the 18th over. Score Card

Shaun Pollock farewelled

South Africa all-rounder Shaun Pollock was 'emotionally drained' after bringing the curtain down on his international career by hitting the winning runs against West Indies.

In a rain-affected game in Johannesburg, the Proteas won by eight wickets to seal a 5-0 series success, but all eyes were on Pollock in his final international game.

"I would like to thank South Africa Cricket for giving me the chance to represent such a passionate nation," he said. "It's been a wonderful journey.

"I feel emotionally drained. At all of the five venues I've played my last five games, the supporters at every ground have carried me through."

Pollock, who was named South Africa's joint man of the series alongside JP Duminy, paid tribute to his Proteas team-mates, saying: "It's been fantastic.

"We've made some wonderful friendships and we've played some awesome cricket over the years.

"Things are looking very good and I'm sure we'll go from strength to strength."

Man-of-the-match Herschelle Gibbs, who struck a dashing 102 off 84 balls to help his side reach a revised target of 211 from 31 overs, said Pollock had been an ambassador for South African cricket.

"He's not only a role-model for everyone, he's a legend of the game and a true gentleman.

"I'm just happy he could bow out the way he should."

Captain Graeme Smith revealed the series had been emotional for the whole squad.
"It's been heavy but it's been great," he said. "It was something special to be a part of."

He also paid tribute to the crowds, who turned out in their numbers to say goodbye to Pollock.

"The emotions they've shown Shaun have been unbelievable and we'd like to thank them."

West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo added: "Congratulations to Shaun Pollock on a successful career and I wish him all the best."

He admitted injuries had hamstrung his side's efforts in the series.

"Injuries were big setbacks for us and we were always on the back foot," he said.
"I must give credit to the guys who stepped up to the plate. I'm so proud of the guys."

Dravid The Wall with Statistics

Having celeberated his 35th birthday[11/1/2008) away from his motherland, Dravid can certainly look forward-back on his many milestones that have quietly slipped into the record books, just like himself. Simple and unassuming. Not for him the brouha that others evoke from a lopsided media.

His accomplishments to list a few are awesome. He is one among the only three batsmen to hit Test centuries in four consecutive innings. The other two are Jack Fingleton and Alan Melville. Dravid achieved this by getting scores of 115, 148, 217 and 100* in three successive matches against England and one against the West Indies in 2002. In 2006, he scored at least a fifty in seven consecutive Tests, which bettered the previous Indian record of 50+ scores in six consecutive Tests for a single batsman. This record was shared by Vijay Hazare, Chandu Borde, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sadagoppan Ramesh. He is currently second among batsmen who have scored most away runs in Tests (5843). Only Sachin Tendulkar has scored more away Test runs. Dravid’s average is also the highest among all batsmen who have scored 5000 runs in away matches.

He has scored nearly 23% of the total runs put up by India (with a batting average of 102.84) in the 21 Test matches won under Ganguly's captaincy. This is the highest percentage contribution by any batsman in Test cricket history in matches won under a single captain. He holds the distinction of being the first Indian to score five double-hundreds, each bigger than the previous (200* vs Zimbabwe, 217 vs England, 222 vs New Zealand,233 vs Australia, 270 vs Pakistan). He is also the first Indian to score a century against every Test playing nation. He has been involved in the highest partnership away from home for any wicket for India with vice-captain Virender Sehwag of 410 runs vs Pakistan at Lahore in 2006 (the highest partnership between a captain and the vice-captain).He was the fastest to reach 9,000 runs in Test cricket. In all, he took 176 innings to do this, bettering the previous record set by Brian Lara, by one innings.

He holds the world record of not being dismissed on duck for 120 consecutive ODI innings. He is the only batsman to have been involved in two ODI partnerships exceeding 300 runs and was involved in all three highest fourth wicket partnerships for India against South Africa, two with Yuvraj Singh. He has been involved in the highest partnership in the history of ODI cricket with a 331-run partnership along with Sachin Tendulkar againsts New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999-00. The third highest number of fifties, after Sachin Tendulkar (87) and Inzamam-ul Haq (83). And finally, to sum it up, he was the second batsman after Mark Waugh to score back-to-back hundreds in the World Cup. He was involved in the first 300-run partnership in a World Cup match along with Sourav Ganguly in the 1999 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at Taunton. He was the leading run scorer in the 1999 World Cup with 461 runs.

Cash-strapped Sri Lankan Team need India's help

Arjuna Ranatunga, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) chairman, has revealed his board has no money left and is banking on financial support from India to stay afloat.

Ranatunga, who was appointed head of SLC by the country's President Mahinda Rajapakse earlier this month, said the board was surviving on bank borrowings.

"We are now surviving on a six-million dollar bank overdraft," Ranatunga told AFP in an interview this week. "We also plan to ask for a short-term loan from the Indian cricket board to be set off against some of our future tour revenues."

Allegations of kickbacks have dogged Sri Lanka's cricket administration for years and Ranatunga has asked a team of auditors to investigate the board's finances. SLC wasn't short of sponsors after they won the World Cup under Ranatunga's captaincy in 1996, but the kitty has been running dry in recent times. read full story