Sports TheSouthAsianTimes.info
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December 17-23, 2011
India series to be highly competitive: Warner New Delhi: Australian opener David Warner, who made his maiden Test century and was named man-of-the-match against New Zealand in the second cricket Test at Hobart, is looking forward to being selected for the Test series against India and expects it to be highly competitive series. India are scheduled to play four Test matches, beginning from December 26, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, besides two Twenty20 Internationals and a triangular ODI series involving Sri Lanka. "It was nice to get to the milestone of a Test hundred but it was disappointing not to be able to help Australia over the line," Warner said from Hobart, hoping that the century and the show of character would secure him a
David Warner. India are scheduled to play four Test matches with Australia, beginning from December 26. place in the side against India. much intensity during India's last "The Boxing Day Test match is tour of Australia and does not always special and, more so, expect the coming series to be against India. Hopefully we can very different. play well." "That some of us have played Warner recalled that there was in the Indian Premier League
Nimbus loses telecast rights, puts off hockey league New Delhi: It was a double whammy for Nimbus Sports. The Indian cricket board terminated its telecast rights contract for defaulting on payments and it was also forced to put off its much-touted World Series Hockey (WSH) till after the Olympic qualifiers in February. There was speculation for quite some time that Nimbus would not only lose the TV rights but also may not be able to fund the WSH. It may be a setback for Nimbus as far as telecast rights are concerned, but the postponement of the league must have come as a big relief at this juncture when it has to sink in a huge amount to run it. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), contrary to expectations that it would give Nimbus a little more time to make the payments, chose to scrap the deal and look for a new contract. Nimbus' contract, which was renewed in 2009, was to run till 2014. Nimbus, which has first signed a four-year deal in 2005-06 and renewed it after being offered first right of refusal, said it would react only after hearing officially from the BCCI.
The organizers have postponed the highly hyped Rs 10 crore professional hockey league to February 29-April 1. "They have defaulted, they have not made the 50 percent advance payment for both the England and the West Indies series and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had no choice but to terminate the deal," said Rajiv Shukla, chairman of the Indian Premier League. Another member stated that Nimbus paid Rs.24 crore Monday morning, but still owed Rs.85 crore to Rs.88 crore and the BCCI did not want to continue with a defaulter. The immediate offshoot of the decision is that there will be no telecast of domestic tournaments. A big casualty is the next round of Ranji Trophy matches which will not be telecast. With no international cricket matches scheduled
in India for the next eight months, the board has apparently felt it was the right time to terminate the contract and enter into a fresh deal. Unlike the cricket imbroglio, Nimbus will get breathing space to reschedule the WSH league. The league, a joint venture of Nimbus and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), was to kick off on December 17 here, but with almost all the India players deciding to join the Dec 11-Jan 15 national camp in Bangalore for the Olympic qualifiers, the organizers had no choice but to postpone the highly hyped Rs 10 crore professional league to February 29-April 1. The Olympic qualifiers will be held February 16-25.
(IPL) over the last four years will surely help the players understand one another better but I don't think that this familiarity will take the edge away when we are on the field," he said. "Lots of things were going on when India toured Australia the last time in 2007-08 but that is what makes cricket. Everyone likes to play very seriously and that alone should ensure that none changes the attitude on the field. There are always a couple of players who like to chat up a bit and get under people's skins," he said. The 25-year-old from Paddington fondly remembered the encouragement he has received from Delhi Daredevils captain and India star Virender Sehwag and other team-mates over the last three years.
"Playing for Delhi Daredevils has obviously helped me as I worked with a set of world class players like Sehwag, Daniel Vettori, Glenn McGrath and others like GG (Gautam Gambhir), Morne Morkel, Ashish Nehra and Dinesh Karthik. They have all egged me on with their comments and feedback and that has allowed me to mature as a player," he said. "I will not forget how when I joined Delhi Daredevils, Sehwag told me that I would be a better Test cricketer than a Twenty20 player when I had not yet played first class cricket. When I asked him how he could predict that, Sehwag shared his theory of how everyone would be in the slips and I could play my shots freely," Warner said.
Oz top order attends batting camp Melbourne: Concerned with the poor performance of the top order, Cricket Australia (CA) has asked skipper Michael Clarke, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey to attend a batting group camp here Dec 20-22. The effort is to fine-tune their preparations ahead of the Test series against India starting here with the Boxing Day Test Dec 26. CA general manager Pat Howard said that besides the trio, Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh (fitness permitting), Brad Haddin and Dan Christian will also attend the camp.
"The camp is designed to complement rather than duplicate the preparation of those batsmen playing in the Chairman's XI in Canberra, which includes David Warner, Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja and Ed Cowan," said Howard in a statement. "This camp has been scheduled prior to the Australian Test squad being announced and then coming together on December 22. We continue to monitor Shaun Marsh and are hopeful he will be available for this camp," he added.
Will Di Resta continue with Force India? London: Force India driver Paul di Resta has been kept in the dark by team principal Vijay Mallya about his future with the team. Di Resta, however, said he would be "proud" if he is kept on with the team for the 2012 Formula One season. Mallya is likely to make an announcement on the driver line-up for 2012 by Thursday. Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg, a reserve and test driver, could be given the two race seats with Adrian Sutil making way. Sutil could join Williams or Hispania Racing Team. "I can't say anything. The only thing that I can say is that I am still working closely with the team and helping with the new car,"
Force India driver Paul di Resta. he told F1's official website. "I will do some simulator work over the next week and hopefully by then Mallya and his board will have made up their minds about their 2012 driver line-up," said Di Resta.
"Certainly I would be very proud to stay with them for another year. They have shown a lot of respect for me and a lot of faith in me. They've given me the opportunity of a lifetime and I am very thankful for that."