Wellington (New Zealand), Feb. 28 : The New Zealand cricket squad for the first three one day internationals (ODI) against India announced today features the return of Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Kyle Mills, all of who were out of the squad with different injuries.

Ewen Thompson and Nathan McCullum from the Twenty20 squad have been omitted.

Stuff. co. nz quoted selection panel chairman Glenn Turner as saying that the squad was a strong one, which reflected the sizeable pool of players in consistent good form at international and domestic levels.

The selectors had decided not to include a second spinner in the initial ODI squad, Turner said.

PepsiCo has won the sponsorship for Mukesh Ambani’s IPL team, Mumbai Indians (MI) for the upcoming second season of the much awaited tournament.

As part of the deal, PepsiCo will get branding, promotion and pouring rights for the MI team, and the brand will be featured on the players' apparel and helmets.

The company has also acquired exclusive pouring rights at home matches, besides being the official beverage for the same team.

Lahore, Feb. 28 : The itinerary of the Australia-Pakistan one-day international series has been revised again.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced that the series, which is to be played at a neutral venue, United Arab Emirates (UAE), will be played from April 22 to May
7.

"Now the series will be played from April 22 to May 7 as we have pushed backed the date of the first match by two days," PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said.

Sanjay Dixit, Modi detractor, can also contest in election

Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) president Lalit Modi got a breather on Friday when election observer justice (retd) NM Kasliwal gave him the green signal to contest for the president’s post in the forthcoming RCA elections. Modi’s candidature was challenged by his rivals alleging that he was convicted by a US court.

Modi’s detractor, IAS officer Sanjay Dixit also got the nod from Kasliwal to contest for the same post. Dixit was facing an objection as he is a government employee.

“They have been filing objections. But every time, these are turned down,” Modi said.

It's been a disappointing first week in New Zealand for the Indian team what with both both T-20 matches being lost. But if skipper Dhoni and his team are honest with themselves, this result was in many ways self-inflicted.

This is not to deny New Zealand credit for their unexpected success. By God they played superbly: with hope, heart and head, the last mentioned of these three attributes perhaps being the differentiator between the two teams: India, world champions at this form of the game, surprisingly appeared to miss the plot.

Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar will be a part of the same team as Indian Cricket League (ICL) player and former New Zealand cricketer Hamish Marshall in a Twenty20 exhibition match to be played in Wellington on Friday. Tendulkar and Marshall will take the field as a part of New Zealand Masters in their match against Australia Masters.