Lalit Modi turns attentions to United States!

Indian Premier League chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi has confirmed plans to stage tournaments outside India, with the League taking a particular interest in the United States.

The 2009 IPL was eventually forced to move from India to South Africa because of security concerns surrounding the country’s elections taking place at the same time, but the success of the tournament has persuaded League chiefs to further explore global opportunities.

“There are plans in the works to hold IPL matches overseas and we hope to be able to provide fans all around the world with the live IPL cricketing carnival experience,” said Modi. “We are looking at a shorter version of the league post the IPL seasons, which will help us take the game to the fans across the globe. Initially we are looking at markets which have large Indian and cricket loving populations such as USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bangkok, Middle East, Canada and others.”

He added: “We will also host a few matches in the US in the next 18 months or so. My team have started examining venues and dates which may be available for this in the summer months. The duration for all these tournaments will be short and compact.

“Along with these markets, South Africa will undoubtedly be high on our priority list after seeing the astounding response we received during IPL season 2009. The remarkable success achieved there will obviously see us want to go back there soon.”

Meanwhile, Modi maintains “there is no reason to worry” amid security concerns surrounding this year’s event.

India’s cricket chiefs on Sunday met with the leader of a far right political party in an effort to seek guarantees on the issue of safety of Australia’s players during the IPL.

Modi explained: “As for the security threats being sighted by various players associations – please let me remind you that India is a safe and sovereign nation very capable of looking after its own security.

“We have after all played host to major events in the recent past – like the successfully concluded inaugural Champions League Twenty20, where a lot of the players who are likely to play in the IPL had already participated.”

Ugliest missed free throw you have ever seen!

New Formula 1 teams ‘can miss first three races’!

Formula One’s new entrants will be allowed to miss the first three races of the season and avoid punishment, International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Jean Todt said on Tuesday.

F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone has consistently said he does not expect US F1 and Campos to be ready for the season-opening race in Bahrain on March 14.

“In the last draft of the Concorde agreement it’s written that a team can skip three races,” Todt, who has replaced Max Mosley as world motorsport head, told a media briefing in Paris.

US F1 and Campos, two of four completely new teams this season, have so far both named only one of their two drivers.

They have yet to launch their cars, missed the first test in Valencia last week and will skip this week’s session in Jerez.

Former Spanish driver Adrian Campos has said he hopes to settle the future of his new team this week, having already signed Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton.

Tony Teixeira, the boss of the A1 GP series, told Reuters last month he was in talks to buy into Campos while Serbia’s Stefan GP say they are all but ready to replace a failed new team and have Ecclestone as a backer.

Todt remains cautious, however.

“If one of them doesn’t make it, it doesn’t mean another team comes in. It’s up to the FIA to decide if they have the credentials,” the former Ferrari chief said.

Virgin have already launched their car and fellow new team Lotus are set to unveil theirs on Friday, after Red Bull’s presentation at the Jerez test on Wednesday.

Todt also said he was against Mosley’s budget cap which caused much anger among teams last year but wanted to continue to reduce costs, although he supported the expensive KERS energy recovery system which has been dropped this year.

He said he would serve only one term as FIA president, joking that he was not paid enough, and expressed surprise that a Paris court had overturned the FIA’s life ban on former Renault boss Flavio Briatore for fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Dale Steyn the destroyer as South Africa crush India!

India dragged things out until the end of the fourth day, but South Africa still inflicted a crushing innings-and-six run defeat on the hosts in the first test at Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur on Tuesday.

India, 325 runs behind on first innings, resumed after tea on 223 for six and the momentum shifted the home side’s way with two successive fifty partnerships as Wriddhiman Saha lifted himself from his duck in the first innings to score a gritty 36 in two and a half hours.

With Harbhajan Singh (39) and Zaheer Khan (33) hitting out powerfully, South African captain Graeme Smith was starting to wonder how he could break through and ensure a day off.

Wayne Parnell swung a delivery through Harbhajan’s defences to trap him leg-before and Jacques Kallis eventually had Zaheer caught slicing a pull from outside off stump.

Dale Steyn then returned to tear through the tail and not only complete a 10-wicket match haul for himself but one of South Africa’s most famous victories.

Wriddhiman had dug in for 101 deliveries and batted courageously considering the whole hoohaa over his selection. But he was no match for Steyn, who trapped him plumb in front with an in-swinger with the first ball of his fifth spell of the day.

Steyn added the wicket of Amit Mishra, comprehensively bowled for a duck by another reverse-swinging off-cutter to give the world’s number one bowler three for 57 and match figures of 10 for 108.

Spinner Paul Harris was also an obvious key roleplayer on Tuesday, bowling 38 overs and taking three for 76 in a fine display of accuracy and stamina.

Earlier Sachin Tendulkar’s 46th test century would have sparked off countrywide celebrations in India, but Harris was the supplier of more doom and gloom for them as he went into tea with figures of three for 45 in 29 overs.

Bowling a steady line into the rough just outside leg stump, Harris delivered the wicket of Tendulkar an over after he had completed his delightful century. He needed help from the batsman, however, as Tendulkar missed a sweep, the ball bobbled up his leg and then got caught between his swinging arms, deflecting on to the stumps.

It sparked wild celebrations, during which AB de Villiers knocked Harris over, causing the 31 year old to leave the field at the end of the over for some strapping on his ankle.

Nevertheless, it had been a classy 100 from Tendulkar, full of elegant strokeplay, and worthy of his reputation as batting royalty.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni looked out of sorts in compiling 25 off 112 balls before he offered De Villiers a bat/pad catch at silly point off Harris.

Monday of nice surprises for Sharks!

It was a Monday of pleasant surprises for the Sharks as they began preparations for their opening Vodacom Super 14 match against the Chiefs at Absa Stadium.

Last week there were several players on the doubtful list ahead of the first fixture. They included some key players such as scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, who underwent surgery during the off-season, as well other players with international experience such as Adrian Jacobs and Deon Carstens.

Jacobs injured a hamstring in the warm-up before the match against the Stormers in Cape Town, but was back in training on Monday. Loosehead prop Carstens was also back in the fray quicker than expected, as were Rory Kockott (injured shoulder against Stormers) and flanker Jacques Botes.

But the most pleasing comeback was that made by Pienaar. Although he completed his rehabilitation last week, he was expected to take a bit longer to get himself match ready, but he took part in training and now it seems almost certain that he will be part of the Sharks 22 for the clash with last year’s beaten finalists.

It is unlikely he will start, for the Sharks management are taking a conservative line on players who have only recently come back from injury for the two matches that will be played in South Africa before they embark on a tough five-match tour of New Zealand and Australia.

The Sharks know that they need as many fit players as possible for the tour, and are reluctant to take any risks before departure.

The smart money is on Pienaar specialising mainly as a scrumhalf for the Sharks this season, but he could well find himself coming on as a flyhalf from the bench against the Chiefs. Monty Dumond’s quiet games in the Neo-Africa series in Cape Town have made the little known newcomer Steve Meyer the front-runner to wear the No 10 against the Chiefs.

The Sharks need to find a solution to the off-season loss of the injured Argentinian Juan Hernandez as a matter of urgency and their lack of experience in some key areas in the backline could prove their Achilles heel in the coming season.

With some experienced players having been lost to them over the past few years, the Sharks will be holding thumbs that they successfully face down the legal challenge to the move of former Lions players Willem Alberts and Louis Ludick to the Cape. The case will be heard on Tuesday.

Dale Steyn’s put South Africa in commanding position!

Dale Steyn’s incredible burst of highly-skilled reverse-swing bowling left India with a mountain to climb as they finished the third day of the first test on 66 for two, still 259 runs behind, in Nagpur on Monday.

Quite how India will scale that virtually insurmountable peak is difficult to imagine without the help of inclement weather.

India had resumed their first innings on 221 for four after tea and it was left-arm spinner Paul Harris who landed the first blow, four balls into the final session, having Mahendra Singh Dhoni caught for six as he tried to pad away a ball that exploded out of the leg-side rough, hit his glove and then his bat before looping to slip.

Steyn struck twice in the next over and it was clear India were on the slide. When the ball starts reversing at the pace at which Steyn bowls and with his skill in putting it in the right areas, lower-order batsmen have little hope and India lost their last six wickets for just 12 runs.

Subramaniam Badrinath, in his first test, failed to add to the gritty 56 he had scored before tea as he drove his first ball of the session to short midwicket, where Ashwell Prince took a sharp catch.

Wriddhiman Saha, also on debut, didn’t know whether any of the three balls he faced were ducking in or going away and he fatally left a delivery that swung in to hit off stump.

Zaheer Khan’s decision on how to play such top-quality bowling was also fatally flawed as he swiped across the line of another big in-swinger and dragged it on to be bowled for two.

Reverse swing also played a large role in the wickets of Amish Mishra, bowled for a duck, and Harbhajan Singh, trapped leg-before, as Steyn finished with awesome, career-best figures of seven for 51 in 16.4 overs.

He took five for three in 22 deliveries after tea and it will surely be a match-winning spell as India crashed to 233 all out.

South Africa, feeling their bowlers were on a high and India bedraggled, enforced the follow-on and it did not take Morne Morkel long to strike or for Steyn to claim his eighth wicket of the day, and the crucial one of Virender Sehwag at that.

Morkel grows in stature in practically every test this summer and he struck a major blow when he went around the wicket to left-hander Gautam Gambhir (one) and bowled him with a delivery that came back a long way as the batsman played no shot.

Sehwag, having scored 109 earlier in the day, once again looked on-song as he struck four fours in his 16 but he then slashed at a fullish delivery from Steyn that just nipped away a touch, edging a catch to Graeme Smith at first slip.

India were 24 for two but the pressure then eased as Wayne Parnell once again battled to get into gear and both Murali Vijay and Sachin Tendulkar played Harris’s leg-side theory well.

Vijay, strong on the leg-side, is on 27 and Tendulkar on 15 at stumps, but India left the Jamtha Stadium on Monday looking a haggard lot.

Much will depend on Tendulkar as their hold on the number one ranking looks increasingly precarious.

Stefano Domenicali cautious after first test!

Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali has warned that the team still has lots of problems to solve after Fernando Alonso posted the quickest lap times in last week’s Formula One test.

Former world champion Alonso headed the time sheet of 15 drivers from seven teams, while teammate Felipe Massa was second.

“We know very well that the test’s lap times, especially this year, have to be handled with care. Using an Italian expression from football, we’re still in ‘August football’,” Domenicali said on the team’s website.

“We can’t forget where we were in terms of performance at the last GP last year. There is still a lot of work to do to close the gap and there are still many problems we have to solve. And then we don’t know the petrol loads the other cars had on board, so it’s impossible to get a clear idea of the relative strengths on the track. Maybe someone also wants to play hide and seek and some still have to present their cars.”

“If there is one thing we’re really satisfied with then it’s the reliability the car has shown. The more than 1 400 kilometres driven are a very good start and we need to ensure that the intense work at the test stand and in terms of simulations over the weeks before the debut on the track, will bear fruit.

“In Valencia we also started to get to know the new Bridgestone tyres’ behaviour also related to the petrol load. But the data is still absolutely relative: this track is not particularly demanding on the tyres and the temperatures weren’t the ones we’ll have for example during the season’s first three races.”

“There are no miracles in Formula 1,” concluded Domenicali. “If you want to be fast you have to work hard for months and months and then you’ll meet your competitors, who have as much capacities and are as motivated as you. We can’t take anything for granted and we shouldn’t delude ourselves by indications, which could be completely misleading. We can’t work like in football where two good or bad results are enough to pass from riches to rags or vice versa.”

Big guns await their Euro 2012 fate!

Europe’s footballing aristocracy will gather in Warsaw on Sunday with the fates of Russian coach Guus Hiddink and scandal-hit England captain John Terry overshadowing the Euro 2012 qualification draw.

While England’s Italian coach Fabio Capello is expected to lead the ‘Three Lions’ into September’s opening qualification games for Euro 2012, it remains to be seen whether Chelsea’s Terry will remain as England captain.

The centre-back’s extra-marital affair with a French model hit the British tabloids last week and he could lose his captaincy over the scandal, while Russia’s coach Hiddink has yet to confirm whether he will stay on.

Dutchman Hiddink flew to Moscow on Wednesday night ahead of talks with the Russian Football Federation to discuss his contract, which expires this summer, and he has already been linked with a return to the Premier League.

Both Capello and ex-Chelsea coach Hiddink will be in Warsaw for Sunday’s draw at 12pm (CET) with both of their teams in the first pot for Euro 2012, which is being co-hosted by Poland and the Ukraine.

“I like my job and I hope to be still here in 2012,” said Capello, who is expected to decide Terry’s fate before England’s friendly with Egypt on March 3 at Wembley.

“Of course that depends on the FA and results at the World Cup, but I like being England’s manager and I hope to carry on.”

Although Russia failed to qualify for the World Cup, they are amongst the top seeds and join holders Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Portugal, France and Croatia in the first pot.

The second pot of seeds contains five World Cup finalists in Slovakia, Serbia, Euro 2004 winners Greece, 1992 winners Denmark and Switzerland, plus the Czech Republic, Turkey, Romania and Sweden.

The Euro 2012 finals will take place from June 8 to July 1, 2012 in eight host cities — four in each of the two countries — with the final set to be held in Kiev.

The draw will take place in Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science where 51 of the 53 Uefa member associations will take part as hosts Poland and Ukraine qualify automatically for the tournament.

The 51 teams will be divided into six groups of six teams and three groups of five teams.

The teams in each group will play one another on a home and away basis, with qualifying matches scheduled between September 2010 and November 2011.

The winners of the nine groups and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament.

The eight remaining runners-up will have to battle it out in play-off matches to decide which teams grab the remaining four tickets for Euro 2012.

Timo Glock hopes to get into top 10!

Timo Glock expressed his delight with the Virgin Formula One car and said after some early laps that the team will do its best to get close to the points in its debut season.

The German spoke of “a fantastic moment” when the VR-01 car had its first laps on the Silverstone track on Thursday, with the shake-down due to continue on Friday.

“We will probably suffer a few setbacks during the season which we don’t expect right now, but it is important that we develop further. We want to use our chances in the first season to get close to the points,” said Glock.

Under a new system introduced for the 2010 season, which starts on 14 March in Bahrain, points are awarded to the top 10 finishers and not the best eight as in the past years.

Glock, 27, joined Virgin after his then Toyota team withdraw from F1 following the 2009 season. His team-mate is Lucas di Grassi of Brazil.

“It is great to be back in a racing car,” said Glock after the inaugural laps.

Virgin will continue testing at official tests scheduled for next week in Jerez, Spain.

Justin Henin receives wildcard for Indian Wells!

Australian Open runner-up Justine Henin has received a wild card entry to the BNP Paribas Open ATP and WTA hardcourt tournament in in March.

The former world number one from Belgium, a seven-time major champion, won the tournament in 2004.

She’ll be making her first appearance in Indian Wells since 2006.

Henin retired in May 2008, but has played in two tournaments since returning to the WTA Tour in January.

She reached the finals in Brisbane, and lost in the final of the Australian Open to American Serena Williams.

Other former champions in the Indian Wells field include Switzerland’s Roger Federer, defending champion Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The women’s field includes Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and defending champion Vera Zvonareva.

The tournament is from March 8-21.

Nadal, who was forced out of the Australian Open with a knee injury, was to miss the tournament this month in Rotterdam, but could be fit for Spain’s Davis Cup tie against Switzerland on March 5-7 and for Indian Wells.