With all eyes on the ongoing I-League, two of the competitive teams seem to have a weary look. Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, the two former champions in football, presented a gloomy picture with their key players bearing sustained injuries.

Mohan Bagan, who faces its second round match with Air India on Friday at Yuba Bharati Krirangan (YBK) seems to be out of luck as Baichung Bhutia, one of its major players got a calf-muscle injury during practice session and thus cannot contribute in the team for at least three weeks. 

Confidence comes naturally when one is competent, seems to be the catchline for India bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad who is ready for upcoming four-day test series against Aussies beginning October 9.

The coach, busy in the practice sessions at Chinnaswamy Stadium said that his bowlers are prepared to face the Australians and have a player-specific strategy to face the opponents. He affirmed,"We have got some plans for each and every Australian batsmen and are working on that."

In the first of two four-day matches at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, on Wednesday, Ashok Dinda put in his best efforts to secure a 129-run win for India ‘A’ over New Zealand ‘A’. Dinda gave an exceptional performance by first having Trent Boult edging to wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and then over showed Brent Arnel’s half-advanced front pad with movement to complete five wickets in the innings.  

The coveted chess player Viswanathan Anand had managed to stay in the top three in World Ranking for over a decade. But a recent setback has sent his rank crashing to 5th place. 

This has come to light in the latest world rankings declared by the world governing body FIDE. Anand had lost the Chess Masters Final Tournament in Bilbao, Spain to arch rival Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria who is now world Number one. 

The ace cricketer who was behind the scene due to an elbow injury is back with a bang.

Talking to the media at the M Chinnaswany Stadium, where he was practicing for the on-coming matches, Tendulkar said, “It’s about performing and that is what the whole team must concentrate on doing”. 

He made no comment on the exit of Sourav Ganguly, but emphasized on the fact that the Australian team should not be underestimated. Even though they are a few new players in the team, they have played a lot of cricket in their homeland. 

Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced former India captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth as the new chairman of the National Senior Cricket Selection Committee.

Srikkanth was appointed as the chief selector at the BCCI's 79th Annual General Meeting. He had replaced Dilip Vengsarkar at the helm of affairs. The other four selectors appointed in the meeting were Raja Venkat (East Zone), Surendra Bhave (West Zone), Narendra Hirwani (Central Zone) and Yashpal Sharma (North Zone).