PAES CRITICISES SANIA'S DECISION

Sania Mirza's decision not to play in India came in for sharp criticism from stalwart Leander Paes , who said nobody is greater than the game and playing in front of own fans is the greatest joy for any player.

Paes, an eight time Grand Slam winner and India's current Davis Cup captain, said controversies are part and parcel of a sports -person's life and one has to learn to tackle it.

"Look at every celebrity; who does not have controversies? We all have adversities. Every celebrity has adversities in their lives. It's how dignified and honest you are. It's about how you project yourself and how you handle them," Paes said, reacting to Sania's decision to pull out of the Bangalore Open to avoid being dragged into fresh controversies.

Paes, who has an estranged relationship with Mahesh Bhupathi , whose Globosport company manages Sania, said no individual is greater than the game.

Bhupathi, who is part of the Davis Cup team for the tie against Uzbekistan, from Friday, showed up for the practice session in the morning but did not comment on the matter.

BAN ON BAJJI IS LIFTED TO 50 % MATCH FEE

A victory for Team India and millions of Indian cricket fans across the globe! Justice John Hansen lifted the three-test ban on Harbhajan Singh. The racism charges against Harbhajan were dropped. Since the charges were downgraded to Level 2, he was fined 50 percent of his match fee for using minor offensive language.

Andrew Symonds could not even recall the words uttered by Harbhajan Singh when he was cross-examined by BCCI lawyer VR Manohar. In the absence of any concluding evidence, Justice Hansen dismissed all charges against Harbhajan, but fined him 50 per cent of his match fee for confronting Symonds on the field. Celebrations erupted across India, as the TV channels flashed the news of Harbhajan's remarkable victory against Andrew Symonds and Australians.

IPL BID RESULTS

The high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday received an overwhelming response with some of India's top industrialists like Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya and film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta winning bids to own teams in the Twenty20 venture.

After prolonged suspense, BCCI vice president and Chairman of the IPL Governing Council Lalit Modi disclosed the names of the winning bidders, who shelled out staggering amounts to be owner of the city-based teams.

Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani pipped Vijay Mallya to win the bid for the Mumbai team for $111.9 million.

The liquor baron, however, won the bid for the Bangalore team for $111.6 million.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan, joining hands with Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta, won the bid for the Kolkata team for $75.09 million.

Fellow actor Preity Zinta and her boy friend Ness Wadia won the bid for the Mohali team for USD 76 million.

Among others, GMR Holdings won the bid for the Delhi team ($84 million), India Cements bagged the Chennai team ($91 million), Deccan Chronicle bid successfully for the Hyderabad ($107.01 million) outfit and Emerging Media won the bid for the Jaipur team for $67 million.

The bids of the ICICI, Sahara and Futures Group were disqualified, Modi said.

IRFAN PATHAN REWARDED

India’s Irfan Pathan has re-established himself as one of the most promising all-rounders in the game and in the process has made a big impact on the latest LG ICC Player Rankings following a match-winning performance against Australia in the third Test at Perth.

Returning to action after missing the Melbourne and Sydney Tests, the 23-year-old from Baroda scored 28 and 46 with the bat, claimed 5-117 in the match and in the process leapfrogged Australia’s Brett Lee and West Indies duo of Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo to sixth spot in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders.

Pathan has now set his sights on fifth-placed Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka as only eight points separate the two left-handers.

Andrew Symonds, Stuart Clark and Virender Sehwag also improve their all-rounders’ rankings. Symonds climbed two places to 12th position, Clark is up three spots to 15th position and Sehwag has rocketed eight places to 22nd.

India captain Anil Kumble, however, dropped out of the top 10 list after sliding two places to 11th position in the list that is still headed by South Africa’s Jacques Kallis.

Pathan also made the right movement in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers when he climbed six places to join Kumble and injured Zaheer Khan in the top 20.

Pathan is now ranked in 19th spot and will be hoping for another good show at Adelaide that will help him to overtake Pakistan pair of Mohammad Asif and Danish Kaneria as well as New Zealand’s James Franklin. Only 24 ratings points separate 16th-placed Asif from Pathan who is now just three short of 100 Test wickets.

Pathan’s contributions with the bat in different batting positions and in difficult situations have also allowed him to improve his batting standing. He is now in 57th position in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after rising seven places.

And Pathan is not the only player from Team India to make the upward movement.

In the batting charts, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have all made improvements. Tendulkar and Dravid rose one position each and now sit on 13th and 15th positions respectively, Laxman climbed one place to 17th spot, Sehwag jumped three places to share 32nd place with Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal and England’s Marcus Trescothick while Dhoni lifted one place to share 41st spot with team-mate Wasim Jaffer.

Jaffer is one of the two Indian batsmen to lose ground with the other being former captain Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly dropped five places to fall out of the top 20 list and is now ranked 22nd while Jaffer slides one place to 42nd spot.

In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Pathan’s new-ball partner RP Singh climbed three places to 29th position while Ishant Sharma jumped 18 places to 69th place.

Despite its first defeat in 17 Tests, there was some good news for Australia as well.

Fast bowler Clark was back in second place in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. The 32-year-old from New South Wales, who took 6-106 in the match, swapped places with South Africa’s Dale Steyn.

Brett Lee cemented his fourth position by achieving a career-best rating along with Clark while Mitchell Johnson improved his ranking by three places to 51st position, one ahead of Symonds who climbed four places and now sits on a career-high 52nd spot.

The bowling list is still headed by Sri Lanka’s Muthiah Muralidaran who is the only bowler currently beyond the magic 900-mark.

In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting’s slide continues and he has now dropped to fourth position after entering the series as the leading batsman.

Ponting’s failure to score heavily in this series has allowed Michael Hussey to rise to third for the first time in his career. Hussey is still qualifying for a full rating and because his provisional rating is exceptionally high, for a couple more innings he will be able to score relatively modestly and still move up. Batsmen qualify for full ratings when they have played 40 Test innings.

Symonds is the other Australia batsman to make the upward movement when he broke into the top 20 for the first time in his career. He climbs three places to sit on 18th position.

Besides that trio, Matthew Hayden, who is likely to bolster Australia after missing the Perth Test, is in sixth position, Michael Clarke stays in 12th spot and just 10 points adrift of South Africa’s Ashwell Prince in 11th place and Adam Gilchrist is on 23rd position.

The only other Australia batsman to lose ground along with Ponting is opener Phil Jacques who drops four places to 28th spot.

By virtue of its 72-run victory at Perth, India has assured itself a second place in the LG ICC Test Championship table behind Australia regardless of how the Adelaide Test pans out.

If the final Test is a draw, India will move two ratings points ahead of third-placed Sri Lanka and if Kumble’s side manages to square the series, it will finish on 113 ratings points, four ahead of Mahela Jayawardena’s side. Even if Australia wins the match in Adelaide, India will sit above Sri Lanka when ratings points are calculated beyond the decimal point.

SHANE WARNE TO BE THE HIGHEST PAID IN 'IPL'

Australian spinner shane warne will be the highest paid cricketer in IPL with a staggering $400,000 . He is termed as the highest paid in IPL . The board announced the names of 35cricketeres on friday with warne at the top of the list followed by Australian pacer Glenn Mc grath and Stephen Fleming . However ,the names of the indian cricketers have not yet been released . I hope Sachin would beat Shane warne .Hmmm,... Let's see

MURALI WILL GET 1000 - KUMBLE

India captain Anil Kumble showered rich tributes on Muttiah Muralitharan saying the ace off-spinner can scale the 1000-wicket mark in Tests.

Muralitharan became the world's highest wicket-taker in Tests on Monday when he took his tally to 709 wickets surpassing former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne, who had 708 wickets to his credit.

"I spoke to him yesterday and told him he'll get to 1000," Kumble said.

The leggie said that Muralitharan had told him that even he could get 1000 wickets in Tests. However, Kumble, who currently has 578 wickets, said: "I'm not sure I can cross 1000."

The Indian captain pointed out to his unbelievable figures in Tests and said his strike rate is fantastic.

"It's a fantastic effort to get to 710 in the number of matches he has played. He's just picked up his 61st five-wicket haul and I told him I thought he'd get to a 100 (five-wicket hauls)," said Kumble.

KUMBLE OPENS MOUTH

Gaurav Kalra: It’s the morning after the famous win. Did you wake up this morning and think if it was a dream?

Anil Kumble: No. I think it was something which we all wanted to achieve and I am really glad that you know the morning before was a bit nervous and uneasy going through. But then having achieved what we set up to I am really proud of the fact that we were able to do that.

Gaurav Kalra: Yes, I will talk of pride Anil, but there has been several moments now. Do you know there was always this talk of overseas win and it’s built of big time in India. There has been a few now. Adelaide, Headingley, Jamaica in 2006. Moments like that recently. All these victories and suddenly Perth comes along. Now as someone who thinks a lot about the game, where do you place this one?

Anil Kumble: Right on top. You know, all those victories that you mentioned were very special. You know not many teams have come to Perth other than the West Indies and have won against the Aussies and this is the first team from the subcontinent to win here. In terms of the condition and in terms of the pitch, it suits the Aussies much better than anywhere in the world. So coming here to Perth and achieving the victory after what the team had been through, is something very special.

Gaurav Kalra: Now you spoke about the pitch, Anil. There was a lot of talk about it. Of course, all of us in the media tend to think we are experts on wickets and we understand all of the business on wickets. But here it seems it become even more exaggerated to the talk about the Perth pitch. How did you manage to psyche a young bowling attack about the spot and also to keep the batsmen focused?

Anil Kumble: I think, you know, the most important thing is like you mention, the media certainly psyche the visiting team regarding Perth, regarding the pitch and every thing that comes along. So in that sense it was important to keep focus on. And the focus was on to get us a victory in Perth. Because that would certainly ensure that we stay in series. And so, yes, that was the focus.

Gaurav Kalra: And now, was there a focus on not to read newspapers?

Anil Kumble: No, not really. I am someone who doesn’t really bother about you know, what comes in the newspapers and it doesn’t affect me. I mean, having played this long, you love to go though newspapers and see what kind of comments are there. But you know, that does not really, I can switch on or switch off something which I can do. Yes, that was the message across to all the players not to get too involved in what comments come along. But, you know, personally I don’t get of it.