Held in South Africa last year, the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament will return to India this season with the BCCI scheduling it from September 17 to October 6.
     "The Champions League Twenty20 will return to India for the third time in five years in 2013 after the dates and format for this year's tournament were confirmed by the CLT20 Governing Council," the BCCI said in a statement.
     "The world's premier domestic T20 competition will be played from 17 September to 6 October. The tournament will follow a similar format to the two previous editions with a Group Stage preceded by a Qualifier.
     "A total of 29 matches will be played in the tournament by the best domestic T20 teams from around the world," it added.
     The CLT20 Governing Council also confirmed that the teams will compete for a total prize money of USD six million.
     Trinidad & Tobago, who were the runners-up in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2009, have earned direct entry into ...

CLT20 returns to India this season

PTI Automatic

Pakistan's flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi has lambasted former Cricket Board Chairman Ijaz Butt for suggesting that Muhammad Hafeez and head coach Dav Whatmore had formed a nexus against Test and one-day captain Misbah-ul-Haq in the national team.
     "I think everyone knows the scandals that came about when Butt was heading the board. It is better he stop giving such damaging statements about the team and rest at home at his age," Afridi told reporters at the national stadium.
     Although Butt didn't mention or make any reference to Afridi in his statement in which he claimed that national Twenty20 captain Hafeez and Whatmore had put Misbah under pressure and were trying to oust him from the team but Afridi lashed out at the former Chairman.
     "Everyone knows that it was during his time that the spot fixing scandal hit Pakistan cricket and hurt our image badly. Even at that time Butt mishandled the issue," Afridi said.
     "There were other controversies in his tenure ...

Afridi hits out at Butt for suggesting rift in team

Shell-shocked by Chris Gayle's brutal 50-ball unbeaten 85, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir today said the West Indian took the game away from his side's reach as none of their plans worked against him in their IPL match here.
     "We will have plans and we need to stick to those. If plan A doesn't work then Plan B will work. But sometimes none of your plans works because Gayle is a quality player. I think all the bowlers did a good job at the start," he told reporters at the post-match press conference.
     "The plan was to bowl in the good areas but later I think Gayle took the game away from us," he added.
     Gambhir said he was not worried about the batting collapse because there were still plenty of matches left and KKR were in the same position last year.
     "Lots of games are at home, the next game is at home and hopefully we can turn it around as we did last time around," he added.
     He, however, said that his side will have to do well in all departments ..

Gayle took game away from us: Gambhir

Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid today attributed his side's seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Pune Warriors in their IPL match here to the batting collapse in the second part of their innings but bowed to bounce back in the tournament.
     "We just kept losing wicket and that cost us dear. Just when we thought we could accelerate, we lost Ajinkya Rahane, we lost (Stuart) Binny and then I got out myself. We lost wickets at crucial times and we could not kicked off for a bigger total," Dravid said after the match.
     The Royals were going strong at 81 for one in the 12th over before being reduced to 106 for five in the 16th over to end their innings at 145 for five.
     "Maybe we were 15 runs short but the way they batted, even that might not have been enough. We have seen (Aaron) Finch before, we discussed him," he said about Warriors opener Finch who hit 64 off 53 balls to guide his side to victory.
     Dravid conceded that the Warriors have some big hitters in their ...

Dravid rues batting collapse, bows to bounce back

Aaron Finch (64) struck a half century as Pune Warriors notched up their first win of the season with an easy seven-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in their Pepsi IPL match here today.
     Chasing a modest 146 for a win, the Warriors overhauled the target with eight balls to spare with Finch playing sheet anchor with a 53-ball 64 at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium to give the home side their first win in three matches.
     The Warriors romped home easily on the foundation laid by the openers -- Finch and Robin Uthappa (32 off 16 balls) -- who raised 58 runs in just 4.5 overs.
     Ross Taylor and Yuvraj Singh, who returned to the side after missing the second match due to a sore back, chipped in with 17 and 28 not out respectively.
     Yuvraj took some time to open his account but he ended the contest in style with a six off Sreesanth as the Warriors reached 148 for three in 18.4 overs. Yuvraj's 23-ball knock was studded with two fours and as many sixes.
     Finch, who hit six 

Finch fifty gives first win for Warriors

Royal Challenger Bangalore's opener Chris Gayle, who powered his side to an easy eight wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders today, attributed the victory to the team work.
     "The team effort was wonderful, both bowlers and batsmen contributed to our victory. Bowlers did their job well at the death, not giving any chance for the rivals to post 170-odd runs, which appeared achievable at one point of time," he told reporters at the post-match press conference.
     Gayle said his team had a very good start against Mumbai Indians but could not get enough total on the board in next two games.
     Gayle hammered nine sixes in his unbeaten 85-run knock to take his to past KKR's 154 with 15 balls to spare.
     Up against his fellow countryman Sunil Narine, Gayle said he wanted to see off the mystery spinner and not lose his wicket.
     "In this kind of a situation. It is not a good idea to lose your wicket. We did not want to give any chance to KKR's key bowler," he said.
     Asked if 

Team effort paid for us: Gayle

Himmat Rai and Rahil Gangjee were tied at 59th place as Indian golfers made a very modest start to their campaign on day one of the Solaire Open today.
     Rai and Gangjee were the best with rounds of 75, nine shots behind Dodge Kemmer, the Asian Tour Qualifying School graduate from the United States.
     Kemmer who lost his card last year only to get it back through the Qualifying School, shot six birdies and had no bogeys.
     Three other Indians Ajeetesh Sandhu, Chiragh Kumar and Abhinav Lohan shot 76 each to be tied 77th, while Sujjan Singh playing on medical exmeption carded 79.
     Kemmer returned with a clean scorecard highlighted by six birdies to hold a two-shot advantage over Thailand's Pawin Ingkhapradit at the inaugural USD 300,000 Asian Tour event.
     Lin Wen-tang of Chinese Taipei, a multiple Asian Tour winner and local hope Mars Pucay, who is searching for a first Asian Tour win, posted identical 69s to be among 12 players to shoot under-par at the challenging ...

Modest start for Indians in Solaire Open golf

Choosing to bat, Rajasthan Royals scored 145 for five against Pune Warriors in their Indian Premier League match played at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, here today.
     Brief scores:
     Rajasthan Royals: 145 for 5 in 20 overs (Rahul Dravid 54, Ajinkya Rahane 30; Rahul Sharma 2/16).

Royals post 145/5 against Warriors

Skippers Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, who were involved in an ugly spat during Royal Challengers' match against the Knight Riders, were warned and reprimanded for breaching the IPL code of conduct.
     Kohli and Gambhir were involved in an on-field altercation after the latter was dismissed in the 10th over of the innings.
     As Gambhir and other players walked towards cover region to celebrate the dismissal, Kohli instead of trudging back to the pavilion walked towards short extra cover and apparently made a remark.
     Suddenly, Gambhir was seen walking angrily towards his junior India teammate. However it was another Delhi lad Rajat Bhatia, who got in between them and tried to calm Gambhir down.
     Both skippers admitted to the Level One offence (Article 2.1.4) of using language or a gesture that is obscene, offensive or insulting during the match.
     For Level 1 breaches of the IPL Code of Conduct, the Match Referee's decision is final and binding.

Kohli, Gambhir warned for ugly spat

Indian Railways women beat Delhi to win the inaugural 3x3 national basketball championship while their male counterparts were beaten by Tamil Nadu in a close final, here today.
     Railways women recorded a convincing 21-12 win over Delhi in the finals played at the Thyagaraj stadium.
     Maharashtra women defeated Punjab 19-10 to finish third in the competition.
     In the men's final, Tamil Nadu registered an extra-time win over Railways (22-20) after both two teams were tied at 20 each at the end of 10 minutes.
     Uttrakhand finished third by beating Kerala 21-13.
     Results:
     Men (Final): Tamil Nadu (Pratham Singh 11, Rikin Pethani 8, CV Dinesh 2, P Axilan 1) bt Railways (Prakash Mishra 9, Arjun Singh 6, Gagandeep Singh 4, Vikram parmar 1) 22-20 in Extra Time (regulation time 20-20)
     Third place: Uttrakhand (Vishesh Briguvanshi 10) bt Kerala (Manoj R 6) 21-13
     Women (Final): Railways (Manisha Dange 8, Geethu Anna Jose 7, P Anitha 6) bt Delhi (Raspreet Sidhu 7, ..

Railways, Tamil Nadu win 3x3 national basketball championship

Senior Delhi Daredevils opener Virender Sehwag batted for around 25 minutes during the team's customary net session as pacer Morne Morkel hinted that the batsman might just be ready to play his first match of the sixth edition of Indian Premier League.
     "Viru (Sehwag) is improving, he is getting better with every passing day. But we will take a decision on him only tomorrow. There is still 24 hours for the match, so there is plenty of time for him to be fully fit," Morkel said at the pre-match press conference here today.
     Sehwag's presence tomorrow will definitely bolster Daredevils' hopes after the Delhi outfit witnessed a disastrous start to their IPL 6 campaign having lost their opening three games in the event.
     "We did not have the best of starts this year, but we have identified the areas we got wrong. We have worked on them and hopefully we will get the momentum from tomorrow," Morkel said.
     "We do have certain plans which we need to execute tomorrow. Kotla is .

Sehwag bats for 25 minutes at the Daredevils nets

Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat against Pune Warriors in their IPL match, here today.
     For Royals, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait and Rahul Shukla are out. They have been replaced by James Faulkner, Kushal Perera and Harmeet Singh.
     Yuvraj Singh will be playing his first match of this season for Pune while Marlon Samuels and Manish Pandey are out of the side. Aaron Finch is the other replacement.
     Teams:
     Rajasthan Royals: Rahul Dravid (capt), James Faulkner, Ajinkya Rahane, Stuart Binny, Brad Hodge, Dishant Yagnik (wk), Kevon Cooper, Siddharth Trivedi, Kushal Perera, S Sreesanth and Harmeet Singh.
     Pune Warriors: Angelo Mathews (capt), Robin Uthappa (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Ross Taylor, Yuvraj Singh, Aaron Finch, Mitchell Marsh, Abhishek Nayar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Rohit Sharma.

Dravid wins toss, elects to bat

Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match here tonight.
     Put into bat, Kolkata scored 154 for eight which RCB chased down with 15 balls to spare.
     Brief scores:
     Kolkata Knight Riders: 154 for eight 20 overs (Gautam Gambhir 59, Yusuf Pathan 27; RP Singh 3/27).
     Royal Challengers Bangalore: 158 for two in 17.3 overs ( Chris Gayle 85 not out, Virat Kohli 35; L Balaji 1/33).

RCB beat KKR by 10 wickets

Despite his side's 10-wicket defeat at the hands of Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, Kings XI Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist defended his team, saying it was just an off-day for them.
     He said that batting failure let the team down but there was no need to press the panic button.
     "We were outplayed by CSK but it was just an off-day for us. We did not bat well. There were bad balls but we could not put them across the rope ... It's a bad day," he told reporters at the post-match conference.
     "The tournament has just started and it was just one day which went wrong. We have a lot of youngsters and they will take time to settle down in the tournament," he added.
     On his bowlers listless performance, he said that they were the same boys who were impressive in his side's victory against Pune Warriors the other day.
     "The bowlers have played well in previous match," he said.
     Meanwhile, Michael Hussey, who remained not out on 86 in CSK's big win, said his side have ...

Gilchrist defends his team after heavy defeat

There was no love lost between the rival captains as Kolkata Knight Riders' Gautam Gambhir and Royal Challengers Bangalore's Virat Kohli were involved in an ugly on-field spat after the latter was dismissed in the 10th over of the innings.
     It was an incident that took everyone by surprise as Gambhir and Kohli have been not only played together for the country but also for their state side Delhi, North Zone and same office side ONGC.
     The incident happened off the first delivery of the 10th over bowled by Lakshmipathy Balaji. Kohli, who had hit Pradeep Sangwan for two sixes, went for a wild slash but was caught in the sweeper cover region.
     As Gambhir and other players walked towards cover region to celebrate the dismissal, Kohli instead of trudging back to the pavilion walked towards short extra cover and apparently made a remark.
     Suddenly, Gambhir was seen walking angrily towards his junior India teammate. However it was another Delhi lad Rajat Bhatia, who got in ...

Gambhir-Kohli involved in ugly on-field spat

Himachal Pradesh got the better of Jammu & Kashmir 4-1 in their Pool B match of the 3rd Hockey India Sub-Junior Men National Championship (North Zone) at Sonepat, Haryana today.
     Himachal scored through Gurmit Singh (30th minute), Amrit Pal Singh (32, 37) and Harmanjeet Singh (43).
     For Jammu & Kashmir, Ramandeep Singh scored the lone goal in 58th minute.
     In another match, Delhi held Uttarakhand to a 2-2 draw.

HP beat J&K 4-1 in sub-jr men's hockey national C'ship

After last month's surprise big jump, Indian football team lost six places to occupy 149th at the latest FIFA rankings released today.
     The drop in rankings was expected as India had not played any international match in the period under calculation. They had jumped 24 places last month to occupy 143rd.
     India also lost three places in the rankings among Asian countries and they are now at the 25th spot.
     Japan are the highest-ranked Asian country at 29th spot followed by South Korea at 42nd and Australia at 46th.
     In overall rankings, world champions Spain were leading the chart followed by Germany, Argentina, Croatia, Portugal, Colombia, England, Italy, the Netherlands and Ecuador in the top 10 in that order.

India slip six spots to 149th in FIFA rankings

Captain Gautam Gambhir led from the front with a 46-ball 59 as Kolkata Knight Riders scored 154 for eight against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Pepsi Indian Premier League match here today.
     Gambhir shared 51 runs with Yusuf Pathan (27 off 17 balls) to take KKR total past 150 as RCB bowlers struck regularly after the home side chose to field at M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
     Other KKR batsmen -- Jacques Kallis (16) and Manoj Tiwary (23) -- batted well but could not convert the starts into big knocks.
     Gambhir survived a run-out after a mix-up with Kallis when he was on one. He cut the ball to the point and set off for a single but his partner was not interested in the run. Gambhir was lucky, a better throw from RCB captain Virat Kohli would have seen his back early on. He then cracked two magnificent boundaries off R P Singh.
     The KKR captain looked like he had a plan to unsettle legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. He hit two consecutive boundaries in the very .

Gambhir 59 takes KKR to 154 for 8

Chandigarh lad Feroz Singh Garewal shot a superb round of five-under par 67 to take a six-shot lead at the end of the third round of the IGU Haryana Junior Golf Championship at the Golden Greens Golf Club here today.
     Feroz's three-day total stands at an impressive four-under par 212.
     Overnight leader Piyush Sangwan shot a 74 to share the second spot with a fast improving Kartikey Vashist, who submitted a card of one-under 71 for a 54-hole total of 218.
     Manu Gandas was fourth at 220, while Viraj Madappa and Pukhraj Singh Gill were tied for the fifth spot at 226.
     Anant Singh Ahlawat and Jairaj Singh Sandhu shared the seventh spot at 230.
     A close battle is on the card for top honours in Category B as Karandeep Kochhar and Karan Sharma were tied for lead with a total of 233.
     Kartik Sharma was lying third at 234, while Arjun Puri was fourth at 236. Jaiveer Singh was fifth at 237 and Arjun Prasad and Vignesh Thakur were tied for the sixth place at 238.
     ...

Feroz grabs lead at IGU Haryana Juniors Golf Championship

Senior Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar today inaugurated a state-of-the-art sports medicine clinic at Parel in central Mumbai.
     Former BCCI consultant Dr Anant Joshi is among the panel of doctors who will be treating sports related injuries at 'Sportsmed', as per the brochure released on the occasion.
     Dr Joshi had helped Tendulkar recover from his tennis elbow injury a decade ago.
     Chairman of BCCI selection committee Sandeep Patil, Mumbai Cricket Association president Ravi Savant and former India hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay were also present at the event.
     The clinic would provide arthroscopic surgery, musculoskeletal imaging, sports rehabilitation and sports medicine.

Tendulkar inaugurates sports medicine clinic

Indian women's cricket team, currently leading the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh 2-0 here, may not get a Cup for their efforts as the BCCI has not sent any trophy to felicitate the winning team.
     The last match of the One-day International series, which Indian eves have already won, is scheduled tomorrow. The hosts had earlier whitewashed Twenty20 series 3-0 against the same opponents but didn't receive any trophy.
     "We have so far received no official communication from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding any trophy for the winning team. In fact, there was no winner's trophy for the three-match T20 series which India won last week in Vadodara," Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) secretary Rajesh Patel told PTI.
     Not only the winner's trophy, there is no prize money for player of the match or the player of the series from India's apex cricket governing body, he added.
     The BCCI has cited delay in organising this series as the reason ...

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