52k pound bid on eBay for World Cup final Jabulani ball

Published>Fri, Jul 16 10 12:22 PM

London, July 16(ANI): The Adidas Jabulani ball used in the FIFA World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands has sparked a bidding frenzy on eBay.

The bidding price has soared from 99 pounds to 52,100 pounds, with the auction ending at 5pm on Friday.

All proceeds from the auction will go to former South African President Nelson Mandela's 46664 charity promoting education, training and research in Africa to relieve child poverty and Aids.

The Jabulani was developed at UK's Loughborough University, and was the official match ball for the tournament in South Africa.

The ball is made from eight spherically molded panels and has a textured surface intended to improve aerodynamics.

However, the ball received extensive criticism from players and coaches before and during the World Cup, who said that the path of the ball through the air is unpredictable.

"Interest seems heightened by the controversy - and also because it is for a great cause," The Sun quoted an eBay spokesman, as saying. (ANI)

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Tendulkar deserve World Cup win: Morrison

Fri, Jul 16 10 12:08 PM

Auckland, July 16 (PTI) Sachin Tendulkar deserves a World Cup victory under his belt but to realise this dream the batting icon needs players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni to fire in 2011 home event, says former Kiwi fast bowler Danny Morrison. "Sachin Tendulkar, the master, deserves to have some sort of winners'' medal hanging round his neck but it''s not all about him. Cricket is a tough game and it''s also about whether Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni can deliver for India. Can they do it for Sachin?," Morrison said at an ICC audio-cricket show. The cricketer-turned-commentator also feels that India will be strong contenders to lift the World Cup. "I think India has the best opportunity to lift the World Cup this time round. It has to be good for them playing on home turf. It adds pressure but that''s part of hosting. "You feel that India want something special to happen and this year I think you''ve got to go with the India team to emulate the 1983 side led by Kapil Dev," said Morrison, who claimed 126 ODI wickets and 160 in Tests. India will co-host the 2011 edition along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in February-March.

Source: Published>

No relief from court, Modi to face BCCI panel

Fri, Jul 16 10 11:52 AM

Mumbai, July 16 -- The stand-off between Lalit Modi, the suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took a major turn on Thursday when the Bombay High Court refused to grant Modi the relief he sought. The court, after hearing arguments from both sides, dismissed Modi's petition asking it to quash the BCCI's proceedings against him and appoint an independent panel to hear his case. This means Modi will have to appear before the BCCI's three-member disciplinary committee on Friday. However, there was no confirmation that Modi would appear. A source close to him said that he was currently holidaying in Sardinia, off the coast of Italy, and might be represented by his lawyer. A division bench of Justices B.H. Marlapalle and Roshan Dalvi considered the fact that the disciplinary committee had offered Modi a chance to raise his preliminary objections. The judges relied on a July 7 mail from the committee to Modi in which he was assured a proper hearing. They therefore dismissed the petition as premature. Mahmood Abdi, member of Modi's legal team indicated that Modi would continue to press for changes in the composition of the disciplinary committee. "The BCCI will consider the demand for recusal at the disciplinary committee meeting," said Abdi. The BCCI sought to downplay the court's decision. "We don't look at this verdict in terms of victory or defeat," BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said. "We followed a procedure and it was challenged by Modi in the court. The court has given its directive." Modi has been accused of financial irregularities relating to the bidding process for IPL teams, the mid-over ad sales and the sale of theatrical rights, among other things.

Modi has contended that Amin should not be part of the committee as he was part of a failed bid to buy an IPL team. He also wants Jaitley to recuse himself as he was one of the BCCI members who voted to ratify the charges against Modi.

Source: Published>

Fight to finish in lower weight bouts

Fri, Jul 16 10 11:26 AM

New Delhi, July 15 -- The 57th Senior Men's National Boxing Championship is witnessing a keen contest in the lower-weight categories. The semifinals of the light fly and flyweight categories on Thursday turned out to be a closely contested affair, with all bouts going down to the wire. In the first semifinal of the light flyweight category, Vipin Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) sneaked into the final with a thrilling 7-6 win over M.Murgan (Tamil Nadu). The second semi-final in this category between Amandeep Singh (RSPB) and Sunil (Haryana) turned out to be even more exciting. Both the boxers were neck and neck right through the bout, with Sunil managing one point more than his opponent in the last round to eke out a thrilling win. Both of them were tied at one point each in the first round, and the deadlock continued even in the second round with both of them again managing a point each. In the final round, Sunil managed to pick four points as against three by Amandeep to enter the final. Sunil also works with the Railways but entered the competition from Haryana as he was not selected to represent his department. "I knew it would be a good bout as Amandeep is a fine boxer but I knew I could beat him," said Sunil. Sunil has earlier won a gold medal in 2006 Asian and World Cadet Championship. The following year he won gold in the Junior Asian Championship and the Senior Commonwealth Games championship.

"I am confident of winning the gold," said Sanjay.

Source: Published>

Can't judge by rankings alone, it's the titles that really count

Fri, Jul 16 10 11:22 AM

India, July 15 -- When Saina Nehwal breached the top-five barrier in the rankings back in March 2010, the 20-year-old elatedly messaged a few well-wishers and journalists informing them about the achievement. Now, she climbs on and it's journalists who are trying hard to get through to her. There is a sense of jubilation at the record breaking Hyderabadi girl reaching a high that no other Indian woman shuttler had come anywhere near. On Thursday, Saina climbed one more peak by reaching the second spot in the world rankings but this time the euphoria has given way to an understanding that these are just numbers and that the standing does not really count unless you show big results. The fickle nature of the ranking system is evident from the fact that Saina hasn't played a tournament in the last three weeks and still managed to leapfrog Xin Wang to the second spot. That's because the Chinese dropped points by opting not to play last week. The ranking system is based on the best 10 performances of the players in the last 52 weeks and if some other player registers good results in the next few weeks there could be considerable change in the standings. However, the race for the top may stay in suspended animation till the World Championship in August since Saina, world number one Yihan Wang and Xin are not scheduled to play any tournament before the flagship event. Even if Saina creates history by becoming the first Indian to lift the world crown, it is no guarantee that she will become the world number one then. Yihan is still about 10,000 points ahead of the Indian and will not be defending considerable points in the championship since she was knocked out at the pre-quarterfinal stage last year.

A lot of credit for Saina's rise in the world ranking this year should go to national coach and her mentor Pullela Gopi Chand for making the 20-year-old realise that its the number of titles that stay with a player for life, rankings are just a whimsical spread of points based also on what other players are doing in a particular week.

Source: Published>

Now, I'm obsessed to beat World No.1: Saina

Published>Fri, Jul 16 10 11:18 AM

Headlines may begin to grow weary of her mention, such has been Saina Nehwal's grip over bold proclamations of success on sports pages in the last one month. On a day when she found herself hiking to World No 2 in badminton's latest rankings, she also declared her intentions of eyeing the No 1 spot, albeit on her own inimitably strict terms.

"World No. 1 is important, but I'll truly deserve to be number one only when I've beaten all the top players, or when I'm a World Champion," the 20-year-old shuttler said, reiterating her priorities: title conquests come first, rankings will reflect later.

"No. 2 is great, but I can't keep thinking of rankings. I'll focus on winning tournaments, because when I win, I'm everywhere - in the limelight, in the top rankings, in people's minds," she said of her simplified goal-setting, while happy at the latest achievement. Nehwal's promotion to No. 2 came at the expense of Chinese Xin Wang who dropped almost 3000 ranking-points in this last tournament week to slip down to No 3 pushing the triple-crown winner of last month to her highest ranking, and puts the Indian just below reigning No 1 Yihan Wang.

Nehwal greeted the No. 2 news with a mix of caution, elation and some laidback banter. "Something or the other keeps happening everyday and there's some good news always these days! The last one month, I've woken up to success on many days and it feels nice. It's been dream-like. I'd just get up, play a match and then win day after day for 3 weeks. After that it's been lots of interviews and felicitation - talking lots day after day," she said.

Nehwal's idolising of Roger Federer is well-known, but she similarly looks up to India's champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar, whose unsatiable hunger for runs makes him a global icon. "He's an inspiration - to keep aiming higher," she says.

The two people most privy to her ambitions then, were her parents. "Mom and Dad - they always stood behind me, but stayed in the backdrop all these years. It's only now that they've come into the limelight. They joke that they're more famous than me on TV! But I owe to them the confidence even in tough times," Nehwal says.

But there's no two ways about who's the one player she's gunning to conquer. "I like winning all my matches, but there's just one player I'm obsessed with beating. The World No 1. Right now it's Yihan Wang and I still feel bad that I lost to her at the Uber Cup in Malaysia...lost 21-18 in the third set. That was very close and it hurts," she says. She's World No 2, but when the glee's set aside, Nehwal's strongest emotion on this day is her restless resolve to beat the World No 1.

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Manchester United make low-key arrival for America tour

Published>Fri, Jul 16 10 10:58 AM

Manchester United's first North American Tour in six years got off to a subdued start on Thursday when the world's richest club was left grounded in Chicago by bad weather and forced to delay its arrival in Toronto.

An already short stay in Canada was trimmed to a little more than 24 hours for the Red Devils, who will open their four city tour against Scottish Premier League runners-up Celtic on Friday before leaving for the second leg of the trip the next morning.

The stormy conditions denied organisers an opportunity to promote the match and make one final push to boost ticket sales for an event that is going head-to-head with the Toronto Indy being raced on city streets this weekend.

While the Indy is offering free action, promoters of the Manchester/Celtic friendly are asking fans to fork out between $90-165 for a contest that will be missing the players who represented their countries at the World Cup in South Africa.

Certainly the Red Devils did not receive the type of fanfare normally reserved for the world's most famous soccer club when they arrive for a match.

Only a handful of reporters, two photographers and two television cameras attended the delayed media briefing that featured just one player, Darren Fletcher.

The Scotland captain appeared to draw the short straw but was not forced to give up much of his time, fielding just five questions before a team media officer abruptly ended the news conference.

"It's great to be here in Toronto and all the players are looking forward to it," Fletcher said. "We're excited to get our first game of the pre-season after 10 days of training all the lads are itching for their first game."

Arriving in Toronto just four days after the World Cup final, Manchester will wrap up their visit in Houston on July 28 by providing the opposition for the Major League Soccer All-Star Game.

In-between, United will take on the Philadelphia Union (July 21) and Kansas City Wizards (July 25) before a trip to Mexico, where they will help Guadalajara open their new stadium (July 30) as part of a deal to sign Mexican striker Javier Hernandez.

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