Master blaster, Sachin Tendulkar termed Australia as a bigger rival of India than traditional Pakistan. He was clearly commenting on the forthcoming series with Australia and India. He stressed the need of competition and high standards of play in cricket matches. 

He also recalled the days when Indian team achieved a glorious victory over Australia in its home turf and Australian people liked the sports spirit and competitiveness of Indian team. He said that the Indian players need to be well prepared for coming series. 

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has included the name of controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, in a list of 15- member team for the National Twenty20 Championship starting from October 4. 

However, the dispute over the payment of Rs 7 million fine imposed on the fast bowler has still not being cleared by the board.

In order to give his elbow some more rest, Sachin Tendulkar has decided to opt out of the Irani Trophy match to be played in Baroda from September 24. The master blaster batsman had earlier declared himself fit for the match. 

While speaking on this on Saturday, BCCI CAO, Ratnakar Shetty said, “Tendulkar is not playing the Irani Trophy because he has been advised a week of rehabilitation.”

Tendulkar injured his elbow in the third test match at Colombo against Lankans, due to which he was not able to play the ODI series in Sri Lanka.

The opening day of the World Group play-off against Romania, witnessed a dismal show by the Indian players. In the singles, both the Indian players, Prakash Amritraj and Somdev Devvarman lost their matches without giving any fight to their counterparts.

In the first match of the day, India's top ranked singles player, Prakash Amritraj lost to Victor Crivoi in four sets by a margin of 5-7, 7-5, 2-6, 2-6. 

In another match, an inexperienced teen Somdev lost to world number 67, Victor Hanescu in three straight sets by 6-3, 6-1, 6-0.

In a significant move on Friday, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has decided to lift the ban on players contracted with the ‘rebel’ India Cricket League (ICL) to play domestic cricket. Among those who will be benefited by this decision are Marvan Atapattu, Russel Arnold, Upul Chandana, Avishka Gunawardene and Saman Jayantha.

New Delhi: The endless wait is finally over. The selection committee of IHF, yesterday named M K Kaushik, as the chief coach of the national hockey team. The former Olympian has been appointed until the 2010 Asian Games. 

The committee, presided over by Ajitpal Singh and attended by all members -- Aslam Sher Khan, Ashok Kumar, Zafar Iqbal and Dhanraj Pillay -- also finalised a list of 48 probables for upcoming international events. Along with this the committee also decided to retain the services of AK Bansal for coaching the junior national team till the next year's World Cup to be held in Singapore and Malaysia.