After launching the rebel Indian Cricket League, the Essel Group on Thursday unveiled the Mumbai Football Club. The community-based Mumbai FC, has been set up with an initial investment of $1 million (around Rs four crore), it was announced by Essel's Managing Director Amit Goenka at a media conference.  Amit Goenka, Managing Director of Essel Group said, "As a responsible corporate house, we always wondered about the depth to which the standard of football has fallen during the past many years. We believe the standards of any sporting event can improve only when the corporate houses take active interest in developing the game at the grass root level. We therefore propose to launch a community-based Football Club in Mumbai ...

To mark the 75 years of Indian Cricket since India played its first cricket match against England in 1932, eight former Indian captains - G R Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, S Venkataraghavan, K Srikkanth, Ajit Wadekar, Nari Contractor, Syed Kirmani and Abbas Ali Baig - were requested to pick their all-time India best Test XI. From the selections made by the eight ex-captains, a panel consisting of Prasanna, well-known sports journalist Rajan Bala and PTI Editors came up with the all-time great XI. The All Time Great Indian XI Test Cricket Team Sunil Gavaskar (captain) Vinoo Mankad Vijay Hazare (vice-captain) Sachin Tendulkar Mohammed Azharuddin G R Vishwanath Kapil Dev Syed Kirmani (wk) Javagal Srinath EAS ...

Cricket's bias towards batsmen increased with ICC approval to "Free Hit for No Ball" which empowers a batsman to go for a free-hit without fearing a dismissal in the delivery following a front-foot no-ball. The rule has already been implemented in Twenty20 cricket. The International Cricket Council has approved a number of changes to the playing condition in today's annual meeting. The highlights of the changes are : Free Hit for No Ball Additional fielder outside the circle during Power Play in ODI Mandatory ball change after 35 overs in ODI Increase in minimum boundary size Number of overs will be reduced proportionately in interrupted ODI match The only objection to the "Free Hit for No Ball" rule being implemented ...

The Cricket Legend Sachin Tendulkar passed his 15000 runs as India chasing a score of 227 to beat South Africa in the second ODI in Belfast. He took 5 runs( 1 + 4 overthrow) on Andre Nel's last ball of the over, but before that he hit 160th six of his ODI career in the 4th ball of the same over. I was expecting Sachin to complete his 15000 runs with a bang, but it was completely opposite, Anti Climax of 5 runs through overthrow. ODI Record of Sachin Tendulkar ( including India Vs South Africa in Belfast on 29th June 2007)  Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s 1989-2007 387 377 ...

The 19 year old blonde, French teenager Tatiana Golovin risked breaking the strict Wimbledon dress code when she appeared on an outside court for her rain-delayed first-round match against Su-Wei Hsieh, of Taiwan, wearing red knicker. But after a probe during a rain break, the blonde-haired beauty was cleared when the offending undergarment were officially designated ‘knicker’ rather than ‘cycling short’. Had her red undies reached down beneath the level of her skirt, Golovin would have been ordered to leave the ground by Wimbledon officials. The Wimbledon rules state: Each individual item of clothing must be almost entirely white. Any competitor who appears on court dressed in a manner deemed unsuitable by the Committee will be liable to be defaulted. After being cleared, 17th seed Golovin said,  “They said that ...

It's 75 years to the day since India made their entry into the Test fold. It was a glorious summer day in 1932 when CK Nayudu walked out to lead a bunch of novices against England at Lord's. India's Test debut, at Lord's on June 25, 1932, started in dramatic fashion when they reduced a strong England side to 19 for 3 inside the first hour. But there was to be no fairytale ending and India lost the match by 158 runs. In 1929 India were admitted to the ICC and the India's Test debut should have happened in 1930-31 but a tour by MCC was cancelled because of a civil disobedience campaign, and another attempt the following season was scrapped when threats to ...

BCCI has instructed to all of its players and affiliated units to not participate in any tournament or match which doesn't have its approval. In the same meeting BCCI has denied the approval to the ICL league announced by Subhash Chandra, who heads the Essel Group, owners of the Zee brand. It also debarred member associations, present or former players deriving monetary or other benefits from the board including the welfare schemes from associating themselves in any manner with the organisation and conduct of such unapproved tournaments/matches, which means the monthly pension that stands approximately Rs 35,000 is now no longer serve to Kapil Dev and Kiran More and so would be in the case of Sandeep Patil. The BCCI circular said, No ...

The high profile transfer of this season, Thierry Henry says he is quitting Arsenal to join Spanish giants Barcelona on a four-year deal. "I still must pass a medical on Monday but yes, I have chosen Barcelona," the 29-year-old striker told French sports daily L'Equipe.  Barcelona claim he will sign for £16million in a four-year deal worth £128,000 a week. Barcelona had already revealed that they were close to bringing Henry to the Nou Camp in a £16m deal. In his letter to The Sun, Henry said, “Arsene Wenger has said that at this moment he will not commit to the club past the expiration of his current deal, which finishes at the end of this ...

In the latest review of the gradation system of BCCI, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh have been promoted to the Grade 'A' while Virender Sehwag(Viru), Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Irfan Pathan have been demoted to Grade 'B' in the graded system of BCCI Despite the impressive performance of Zaheer Khan in recent months, he was retained in Grade 'C' whereas Irfan Pathan who didn't play any game is in Grade 'B'. Mohammad Kaif, who was in grade 'B' earlier, and Murali Kartik in grade 'C', had their contracts not renewed. The annual retainership fee of Grade 'A' is Rs 50 Lakhs(123,183 USD), Grade 'B' is Rs 35 Lakhs(86,228 USD) and Grade 'C' is Rs 20 Lakhs(49,273 USD). Besides the retainership, the players also get a ...

Four English footballers are to marry their girlfriends this weekend, with many of the football's top players,WAGs(wives & girlfriends of footballers) and celebrities in the invitation list. The celebrities are in dilemma where to go and which invitation to decline. One star who is not scheduled to attend the Neville's marriage, according to reports, is Real Madrid and England midfielder David Beckham. He is on club duty but The Sun said he will deliver a live video message to Neville from Spain   Groom: John Terry, 26, Chelsea captain Bride: Toni Poole, 24, Terry's childhood sweetheart who shuns nightclubs in favor of looking after their one-year old twins Georgie ...