Muralitharan to retire after World Cup

Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan on Friday said that he would retire from international cricket after the 2011 World Cup to be held in the sub-continent.


“This World Cup will be my last outing,” the 38-year-old veteran told reporters. “I am retiring totally from international cricket thereafter,” the off-spinner, who will though continue to role his arm in the IPL, said.


Muralitharan was hired by Kochi franchisee during a recent auction in Bangalore for a sum of USD 1.1 million. “My time is up. I have signed up to play for two years in the IPL (Indian Premier League). I am also looking at similar work in New Zealand and perhaps England,” Muralitharan said.


Muralitharan, however, insisted that right now he is just focusing on the cricketing extravaganza, which is scheduled to commence on February 19.


“This is my fourth World Cup. We won in 1996 and came close in 2007 by reaching the final. This would be a memorable one for me and for Sri Lankan fans,” he said.


Muralitharan also negated the reports that he was looking ahead to team up with retired Indian spinner Anil Kumble to start a spin academy for youngsters and reiterated that he had no immediate plans to switch to coaching.


“There are plenty of coaches and lots of talented people out there. I will take things as they come. For the moment, no coaching stints,” he added.

Sharapova starts off in style

Maria Sharapova had her first win at Melbourne Park since claiming the 2008 Australian Open title, beating Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-3 on Monday in the opening match on centre court.


The former No. 1—ranked Sharapova, who missed the 2009 Australian Open with a shoulder injury and was ousted in the first-round last year by fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko, struggled with her serve and was inconsistent in the second set.


After losing the opening service game at love, Sharapova won seven straight games to take a 1—0 lead in the second set.


The 33—year—old Tamarine, clearly not in peak physical condition, rallied and had a game point on serve for a 4—1 lead but Sharapova broke back and regained momentum, winning the last five games.


Even when she was winning, though, Sharapova had trouble finding range with her serve. She had 10 double—faults and five aces.


Nerves had a role in that.


“I definitely felt that in the beginning. I knew I had an early exit last year and didn’t want that to happen this year,” said Sharapova, who has the goal in Australia of “staying aggressive and little by little trying to get my game better, maybe to where it was a few years ago and maybe better than that.”


In the other women’s first—round matches, Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina beat Australian wild card entry Olive Rogowska 6—3, 6—1.


Julien Benneteau of France withdrew from the Open before his first—round match because of an infected finger on his right hand.


The 29—year—old Benneteau, a right—hander, was scheduled to play 26th—seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina. His spot in the draw was given to lucky loser Simon Greul of Germany.


Defending champion Roger Federer was to play Lukas Lacko of Slovakia in the third match on Rod Laver Arena, where he has won four previous Australian titles.


He and top—ranked Rafael Nadal were behaving like best mates on Rod Laver Arena {hbox}” high—fiving, hugging, shaking hands and laughing at each other’s jokes on Sunday night in the exhibition “Rally for Relief” fundraiser for victims of the fatal floods in Australia’s northeastern Queensland state. It’ll be a completely different story if they’re back on the same court in two weeks.


Nadal has won the three Grand Slam titles since Federer won here in Australia and is aiming to become the first man since Laver in 1969 to win four straight majors. It’s being dubbed the “Rafa Slam.”


The pair played on opposite sides of the net, and then played together against Kim Clijsters and Sam Stosur in front of a capacity crowd of 15,000 that paid to watch a host of tennis stars in the fundraiser. Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick wore microphones and joked with the crowd, playing alongside and against the likes of Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka in the celebrity hit—and—giggle exhibition.


Neither Federer nor Nadal wore microphones when they played a little later. It was mostly smiles, but there were glimpses of competitive intensity when they faced each other in mixed doubles.


At their exhibition Sunday, Federer said Nadal has “been playing incredible.”


“An incredible run through the French, Wimbledon, U.S. Open {hbox}” it was incredible to see. Then obviously it’s hard to maintain. But he’s going to be for sure ready for this,” Federer said. “I’ll follow it very closely. If I get a chance, I hope I can stop him.”


Also on the first day, No. 1—ranked Wozniacki takes on Gisela Dulko of Argentina.


Third—seeded Djokovic, the 2008 champion, plays Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the main night match Monday.


Andy Roddick plays Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic on the second showcourt. Following Roddick on Hisense Arena will be fourth—seeded Venus Williams against Italy’s Sara Errani, and seven—time Grand Slam winner Justine Henin against Indian qualifier Sania Mirza.


With Serena Williams unable to defend her title because of her injured foot, Clijsters is considered a favorite for the women’s title at Melbourne Park.

Australian Open: Sania in second round of qualifiers

India’s Sania Mirza moved into the second round of the Australia Open tennis women’s singles qualifiers here Friday.


Sania, playing with a strapped left thigh, beat Iryna Kuryanovich of Belarus 6—4, 6—2.


The 24—year—old Indian, who has slipped to 145th rank, attacked Kuryanovich’s weak second serve to go up 5—3, and the Belarusian flung her racquet in frustration.


Sania dropped her next serve only to break back to go a set up.


Sania, then, raised her game to comfortably take the second set. She next plays Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko.


The Indian, once ranked 27, slipped out of top 100 for the first time in five years owing to a recurring wrist injury.

Andre Agassi uses 'nude' image of wife Steffi Graf for charity

 

LONDON: Tennis legend Andre Agassi has reportedly shown a 'nude' picture of his wife Steffi Graf on his mobile phone to the winning bidder at a charity auction in Taiwan.

The Grand Slam winner said that he would show the picture to whoever was willing to shell out $4000, reports the Sun.

"You pay more than $4,000 and I will show you a picture of my wife on my phone, naked," he told the guests at the fund-raiser.

The offer drew laughter and applause. The bidder let out an audible 'Wow!' when Agassi showed him the photo on his phone.

It was not clear whether the picture actually was of fellow tennis great Graf or whether she knew of her husband's action.

Agassi, 40, and Steffi, 41, have been married nine years and live in Las Vegas with their two children.

Ruthless South Africa win by 135 runs over India

South Africa 289 for 9 (de Villiers 76, Duminy 73, Amla 50) beat India 154 (Kohli 54, Tsotsobe 4-31) by 135 runs

India had to survive the new ball if they were going to make a fist of chasing 290 but they were gasping for breath within 11 overs, after slipping to 43 for 4, and never quite recovered. South Africa had threatened twice to run away to a mammoth total in their innings. India pulled them back on both occasions to keep the target below 300, but the chase went nowhere. South Africa were 82 for 2 in the 14th over before Munaf Patel removed Hashim Amla to slow the innings down, but the hosts bounced back to reach 213 for 3 in the 36th over, when AB de Villiers fell and India clawed their way back once again.

The ball was expected to do a bit under lights and the top order, barring Virat Kohli, collapsed without much fight. The dismissal of Yuvraj Singh perfectly captured South Africa's dominance on a bouncy track. Morne Morkel got one to kick up and jag away from Yuvraj, who got his feet into an awful tangle, and ended up stabbing the ball to second slip.

It was that kind of a night: the India batsmen struggled to adapt to the conditions and they went down in a heap. M Vijay was trapped in front in the first over of the innings by a full delivery from Dale Steyn and Sachin Tendulkar perished to a pre-determined move to shuffle across his stumps. There was a short fine-leg in place for Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Tendulkar moved across to drag a short-of-length delivery past that fielder but only succeeded in top-edging a dolly to Steyn.

India recovered from 13 for 2 to reach 41 without further damage but a double strike by Morne Morkel pushed them further back. Morne had hustled and hurried Rohit Sharma into having a few injudicious wafts outside off but Rohit was eventually unlucky to be given out, caught behind by AB de Villiers. It was a gem of a delivery that kicked up and straightened just outside off and Rohit hit his pad with the bat as he pushed inside the line but the umpire mistook the sound for an edge.

Yuvraj proved a walking wicket in these seaming conditions and India were left staring down the barrel after MS Dhoni's run out just before the half-way mark. Kohli hit a straight drive but the bowler Wayne Parnell got a hand on it to accidentally run out Dhoni and leave India with a mountain to climb. Kohli hung around for a while but once he fell to Steyn, the lower order just crumbled.

South Africa's bowlers blew away India but it was their batsmen who set up the win. It was a fascinating late afternoon at Durban after Amla's exit. There was an imminent threat of a collapse in the air: South Africa had a long tail, JP Duminy can be an iffy starter against spin and the ball was starting to stop on the batsman a touch. de Villiers and Duminy initially batted like men who were aware of these threats. They added 47 runs in a little over 12 overs and the hosts had reached 132 for 3 in 25.4 overs when a single shot turned things around for them. de Villiers charged down the track to Harbhajan Singh and didn't quite seem to connect well, but his sliced golf shot sent the ball into the screaming fans beyond long-off. When Duminy slog swept Yuvraj Singh for a six in the next over, it was official: they had broken free of the shackles.

They followed it up with a smart move: they took the Batting Powerplay in the 28th over and looted 45 runs off the five overs. de Villiers made 28 of them, with a hat-trick of fours - a pull, a skillful inside-out hit over cover, and a slice over point - against Ashish Nehra in the final Powerplay over to leave South Africa sitting pretty at 192 for 3.

Things were looking dire for India and Dhoni decided to bring in part-time spinners Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina. de Villiers pulled Rohit straight to deep midwicket in the 36th over, David Miller played inside the line to lose his off stump against Raina in the 39th, and then in the 42nd Duminy missed a reverse sweep and was trapped in front by Rohit. The tail didn't have the skill to add too many and South Africa meandered along to their final score.

It was quite a contrast to the frenetic start to the innings, with Amla going after Nehra in some style. The bat-speed was rapid, and time and again he played on the up and through the line. There were some trademark cover drives on a stretched front foot and the highlight was the hat-trick of fours he unleashed against Nehra in the seventh over. Amla whacked a short ball to the midwicket boundary, then walked down the pitch to lace a length delivery to the left of mid-off before he pinged that region with an off drive. There was a caressed straight drive for three runs in the same over and he put away a couple of slower ones from Munaf for boundaries. His dismissal put pressure on the middle order but de Villiers and Duminy ensured that their bowlers had a score to defend.

Indian cricketers go topless for new World Cup 2011 ad

January 12, 2010: Art and cricket have merged in a novel campaign to take the game and its cult heroes to the masses in the run-up to the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup for Pepsico India, the main sponsor of the Cup.

The campaign, to run across all media domains from Jan 15, will feature popular cricketers sporting their favourite colours on their bodies in intricately painted body art.

Every art work has been themed and captioned to suit the personality of the wearer and his style of play according to ancient Chinese and Indian astrology, where each colour of the seven 
 rainbow shades bears an astro-significance.

The glamour boy from Jharkhand and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will flaunt the "fire in the belly look" to symbolise his high-spirited game and body language on the field.

Fire is a symbol of power, passion, aggression and destruction. Dhoni's colour palette will be a peppy mosaic of blue, green, yellow and orange. The pattern does not incorporate his contribution to the pitch but conveys a graphic image of a blazing fire in his belly and his desire 
to win.

Spin bowler Harbhajan Singh will wear the "fiery ball" to gel with his vigour and attitude. The graphic image of the ball on his body is symbolic of his strength on the field and an explosion of red light at the tail of the ball reflects the aggression with which he commands situations on the pitch.

Flamboyant opener Virender Sehwag will flaunt a "moving star" on his body. The star is Sehwag personified on the wicket telling the way he tackles the ball on the ground. It defines the brute force, nifty footwork and the sure-fire batting style of the ace batsman.

"Directed arrows" will capture the persona of Suresh Raina, the young southpaw, when on the field. The shooting set of arrows will show his magical power to hit the ball the way he pleases. The different sizes of the arrows project his growth in the game of cricket over the years.

Middle-order batsman Virat Kohli will sport the "fast forward" look made of two solid triangles that replicate to represent his high-speed, energetic and exuberant movements on the pitch.

The creator of the look, Santosh Padhi, the chief creative officer and co-founder of Taproot India said the body paint campaign was an attempt to bring alive the "passion that the cricketers have for the game".

The executive vice-president of marketing, PepsiCo India, Sandeep Singh Arora, said: "Cricket is more than just a game in India, it is like a faith and its followers include millions of passionate young Indians. With our campaign, we wanted to reflect the same fervour and energy that the fans and the players have and what can be more passionate than wearing it on your body."

Body art over the last decade has become a rage in India and the sub-continent with the tattoo culture catching among the GenNext. The most common forms of body art in India are tattoos and body piercing.

India, however, owes its body art lineage to the ancient Kathakali and Kudiyattam traditions of performing arts in Kerala that make use of elaborate facial make-up in different colours to symbolise the personalities of the mythical characters in which the plays were based on.

Historically, green, blue, red, black and yellow are the most prevalent colours used in Indian body art.

Messi wins 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or

 

Argentina and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi won FIFA’s Ballon d’Or award on Monday as the world’s best player of 2010.

Messi won the trophy for a second straight year, finishing ahead of Barcelona teammates Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.

“It’s a very special day for me,” Messi said through a translator on receiving the award at a gala ceremony in FIFA’s home city.

The 23-year-old Messi helped an exciting Barcelona team retain its Spanish league title and lead the standings again this season.

Messi’s trademark tricky play was often mesmerizing and he scored 58 goals for the Catalan club in 2010. However, he had a disappointing World Cup in South Africa, failing to score. Iniesta and Xavi, by comparison, starred for eventual winner Spain.

“I didn’t expect to win it today,” Messi said. “Already it’s a source of happiness to be here with my friends and even more to win it.”

Messi obtained 22.65 percent of the votes cast by coaches and captains of national teams plus invited journalists. The original shortlist featured 23 players.

Andres Iniesta finished second with 17.36 percent and Xavi received 16.48 percent to finish third for the second straight year.

All three candidates learned their craft at Barcelona’s La Masia youth academy.

Barcelona has now provided eight winners in the 20-year history of the FIFA honour. Messi follows former Brazilian internationals Romario (1994), Ronaldo (1996 and ‘97), Rivaldo (1999) and Ronaldinho (2004 and ‘05).

The award was renamed this year after FIFA merged its world player award with the Ballon d’Or trophy, which had been presented to the best player in Europe by France Football magazine since 1956.

Earlier, Jose Mourinho won the men’s coach award for leading Inter Milan to a treble including the Champions League.

Mourinho beat World Cup-winning Spain coach Vicente del Bosque and Pep Guardiola of Barcelona to the inaugural honour. The Portuguese coach guided Inter to the Italian league and cup double before leaving to join Real Madrid.

Brazil forward Marta won the best women’s player award for a fifth straight year, defeating Germany internationals Birgit Prinz and Kosovo-born Lira Bajramaj.

Marta was rewarded for her MVP season with United States women’s professional league champion Gold Pride.

Silvia Neid won the inaugural women’s coaching award for her work with the Germany national team, which defends its World Cup title at home in July. Also shortlisted were Maren Meinert, whose Germany Under-20 team was world champion in July, and Pia Sundhage, the Swedish coach of the United States’ Olympic champions.

India survives van Wyk blitz to win

With flares like dragon's breath greeting every big moment, throbbing music accompanying the bowler to his delivery stride, the black, segmented stage, for the show after, acting as a sightscreen, the one-off Twenty20 International between India and South Africa struggled to remain a cricket match.


But it did, only just, as India survived a sparkling blitz from opener Morne van Wyk (67, 39b, 5x4, 5x6) to win the game by 21 runs. Having made 168 for six after electing to bat, India kept South Africa to 147 for nine.


Van Wyk's start, one run off his first seven balls, gave little indication of the mayhem to follow. He drop-kicked Munaf Patel for six, a pick-up shot of uncluttered ease. Two fours followed, off the same bowler, and off consecutive deliveries: a creamed stroke through cover and a lofted one straight.


The pick-up shot was used to gain three other sixes, two off R. Ashwin and one more off Munaf. The short square boundaries helped, but van Wyk would have cleared a full-size ground just as effortlessly.


Despite the loss of Hashim Amla (bowled by Ashish Nehra) and Colin Ingram (caught at short third-man off a Munaf slower ball), van Wyk motored. A moment of fielding brilliance, Suresh Raina collecting a throw from Nehra and throwing down the wicket with one stump to aim at, sparked a collapse.


A.B. de Villiers, the victim of that bit of fielding, was followed by J.P. Duminy (‘lbw' to Yuvraj) one run later. India then dismissed van Wyk — the batsman finding the man at deep square-leg off Praveen Kumar — to irreversibly shift the contest's momentum.


The new batsman struggled with India's slower bowlers on a pitch that wasn't letting the ball come on. The match still had a few lusty blows, but none that inconvenienced India greatly.


The slide of wickets and the climb of the asking rate were too much for South Africa to overcome. Nehra finished with figures of two for 22 off four overs.


The Indian innings was supplied its motive force by Rohit Sharma (53) and Suresh Raina (41). Sharma, who walked in after M. Vijay was caught brilliantly by van Wyk off Wayne Parnell, flicked Makhaya Ntini nonchalantly for six before straight-driving Rusty Theron.


The strokes stood out, orthodox shots that quickened the pulse nevertheless. Rohit put on 49 in 4.5 overs with Virat Kohli, who used a whipping bottom hand to power his strokes on the turgid wicket. Rohit hit a flurry of boundaries, speeding to his half-century after Kohli had been bowled off a missed pull.


India fell from 109 for two 110 for four, Rohit caught athletically by Ntini on the boundary line and Yuvraj run out after a misunderstanding with Yusuf Pathan.


With Yusuf struggling with his timing, Raina took over. The left-hander stood deep in his crease for better leverage The space he created allowed Raina to transfer his momentum forward: three smashed sixes were the result.


Left-armer Parnell was the pick of South Africa's bowlers. But it was his new-ball partner, Ntini, whose moment it was. During India's innings, Ntini bowled his last ball in international cricket, finishing with unflattering figures of none for 46 from four.


It mattered little to the big picture: the crowd stood as one to salute Ntini, who has done so much for South African cricket. Each of his mates rushed to hug him; Ntini, on his way to his fielding spot, raised his arms, causing the Moses Mabhida Stadium to quiver. He received a similar ovation when, after the match, he was driven around the ground in a golf cart.