Sports Trends India

The Indians just missed out on the semi-finals in the inaugural competition last year as Tendulkar saw his tournament blighted by injury.

However, the 35-year-old is excited by his team's chances this time around with the action due to start in South Africa this weekend.

"We are strong contenders," he declared. "We have some great players and that gives us a good combination.

Kings IX Punjab has what the IPL teams do not have - a beautiful and vibrant owner called Preity Zinta. And so for the Punjab team, there is no shortage of sponsors. Till date, the team has tied p with eight other corporate sponsors and global airlines - Emirates is the latest to join the bandwagon. The Dubai based airlines has just announced that it is going to be the title sponsor of the Mohali based franchise that has vivacious Preity as one of its owners and hard-hitting Yuvraj as its captain.

“We welcome Emirates to our family as the title sponsor,” said Preity Zinta in an official release for the Mohali based franchise, “I would like to thank Emirates for its long-term partnership with the Kings XI Punjab. Emirates is a front runner in sports sponsorships around the world. Emirates is a great airline, with great cabins and a great place to have a shower onboard,” she added.

If Shane Warne is to be believed, then Rajasthan Royals have just discovered another pocket dynamite ahead of this year's Indian Premier League (IPL). He's a bowler, all of 5'7", just 18 years of age and Warne can't stop gushing about the way he bowls left-arm fast.

If Warne discovered the likes of Swapnil Asnodkar last season, who with his belligerent strokeplay set for Royals the perfect strike rate, this year it is Kamran Khan, who has impressed the former Australian leg-spinner.

Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals made a losing start to their South African campaign when they lost by 27 runs against the Cape Cobras in an Indian Premier League warm-up match at Newlands Saturday.

Both teams were well below strength, with the Royals fielding only four of the players who won the IPL last year and the Cobras missing most of the men who won the South African Twenty20 final earlier in the season.

Skipper Sandeep Singh continued his goal-scoring spree as India pipped Pakistan 2-1 to reach the final of the five-nation Azlan Shah hockey tournament here today.

The in-form Sandeep, leading goal scorer for his side in the tournament, struck twice in the 28th and 60th minutes to seal the win in the do-or-die tie at the Azlan Shah Stadium.

For Pakistan, Mohamed Saqlain reduced the margin in the 50th minute.

Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid cemented India's dominant position in the third test against New Zealand, leading them to 170 for one in their second innings at lunch on the third day at the Basin Reserve.

Gambhir, who began play on 28, accelerated in the second hour of Sunday's first session to be within sight of his second century in successive tests, while Dravid had scored his 57th test half century to extend India's lead to 352 runs.

India had resumed on 252-2, still 62 runs behind after following on, and soon lost Sachin Tendulkar for 64.

But although Gautam Gambhir fell for 137 after nearly 11 hours at the crease, Laxman and Yuvraj Singh (54 not out) ensured they finished on 476-4.

India lead the series 1-0, with the final Test in Wellington on 3 April.

Gautam Gambhir isn't your prototype Test saver. Someone who is impulsive and aggressive enough to elbow a bowler and miss the next match as punishment wouldn't usually be associated with a task that requires intense levels of patience and discipline over long periods. Especially when the job starts on the third evening, and certainly not when there is a spell where a batsman scores one run in an hour.

The Napier Test has not yet been saved, but Gambhir has been instrumental in India taking that big step towards doing it, and he has made sure he is there to try and take the final steps as well. That, after having batted more than seven hours for only 102 runs, scoring 88 runs in 242 balls today, and only 19 in the final session.

The IPL schedule allows very little breathing space to the teams with 59 matches in five weeks across eight venues in South Africa, starting from April 18. But now that the scheduling is out of the way and preparations are on in full swing, the excitement is sure to build up.

Durban was the place where Yuvraj Singh slammed Stuart Broad for six sixes in one over in the Twenty20 World Championship in 2007. According to the IPL schedule, Durban will host 16 of the 59 matches, it's sizeable Indian population and coastal weather possibly being the clinching factors.

How ironic, then, that at a time when those rumours have dissipated, South Africa is now very much the Plan B for international cricket.

Just a week after the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that the country would replace Pakistan as hosts of the Champions Trophy in September, the Indian Premier League (IPL) have now turned to South Africa to host the second season of their lucrative tournament.

Faced with the choice of cancelling the tournament due to security concerns in India or moving it to a different country, the IPL bosses opted for South Africa over England.