All Set For ICC Champions Trophy 2009

Champions Trophy 2009 held to begin from the 22 September to 5 October at Wanderers Stadium and Centurion Park in Johannesberg in South Africa. Two teams from two group of four will form the semi finals with the final played on 5 October.

Last year tournament was supposed to be happen in Pakistan but was postponed until October 2009 due to security concerns after the attack on Sri Lankan teams. Group A consists of Australia, India, Pakistan and West Indies Group B consists of England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand. Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen stars of England team will not play for ICC Champions. Australia defeated England in the recent 50 over series and England became the first team to lose a series by 7-0. After the beginning of Twenty20, the popularity of 50 over game has declin

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Davide Grassi Injury Knocks Aberdeen

Davide Grassi has been discarded for three months from Aberdeen after experiencing a triple cheekbone fracture. This accident happened when Co-Operative Insurance Cup defeated Dundee, his head clashed with defender David Cowan.

As a substitute to Sone Aluko on the left of midfield, Grassi was signed for this match. Sone Aluko will not play match for another month as he is in Nigeria squad for the Under-20 World Cup held in Egypt. This tournament will last for until the 16 October. Davide Grassi had signed a one-year contract with Aberdeen in the month of August. This injury happened just five minutes into the loss of 3-2 to the first division side.

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Salomon Kalau Signs A New Deal With Chelsea

Salomon Kalau Chelsea striker signed a new three-year contract with the Stamford Bridge club, which should keep him in west London until 2012. Carlo Ancelotti Blues Manager told at an official website that Salomon an important player for the club and he is pleased that Salomon has signed a new contract.

Ivory Coast star £8m signing from Feyenoord in 2006 was set to become a free agent next summer. Chelsea was currently appealing against a transfer ban imposed by Fifa, which prevents them from registering new players until January 2011. Later punishment was cancelled after the club was found guilty of suggesting Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with Lens in 2007. Kalou follows Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and John Terry in vowing his future with the Premier League outfit and banned from signing any new players for the next two transfers window. Kalau was often used as a substitute since his move to west London with five of his 10 appearances this season coming off the bench. In total, he has made 93 starts, 66 substitute appearances for Chelsea and scored 31 goals. Ancelotti added saying Salomon is very well motivated and work hard for his game and he is sure of Salomon becoming an important player in future. Kalou is likely to play at next summer’s World Cup finals after Ivory Coast sealed their qualification with a 1-1 draw against Malawi.

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Confident Pakistan leaves to face New Zealand

LAHORE: Pakistan's 16-man cricket squad left for Dubai early Friday with coach Intikhab Alam confident his team can beat New Zealand in the limited-over series.

Pakistan will play three one-day internationals on November 3, 6, 9 in Abu Dhabi and two Twenty20 internationals on November 12 and 13 in Dubai, in a series relocated to the United Arab Emirates over security fears.

'Confidence is high and if we play to our potential we can win the series,' Alam told reporters at Lahore airport.

'We have been doing well in one-day cricket and I hope the good work will continue.'

Younus Khan leads the one-day squad, while all-rounder Shahid Afridi will take over for the Twenty20 internationals.

Also leaving the squad after the one-day matches will be opener Salman Butt, Mohammad Yousuf and Wahab Riaz. Imran Nazir, Fawad Alam and Sohail Tanveer will join the 15-man Twenty20 squad.

After the UAE series, Pakistan will fly to New Zealand for three Tests. The series was also originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan but relocated after their rivals refused to tour owing to the security fears.

Younus will return to lead the Test squad.

One-day squad: Younus Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Umer Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Rao Iftikhar, Wahab Riaz.

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NEW YORK: Andre Agassi used crystal meth periodically for ‘a year or so,’ the eight-time Grand Slam champion revealed in an interview with People maga

In his upcoming autobiography, Agassi admits he used crystal meth in 1997 and failed a drug test _ a result he says was thrown out after he lied by saying he ‘unwittingly’ took the substance.

‘If you're going to tell your story, you owe it to yourself to tell it honestly,’ Agassi told the magazine in its latest issue.

‘Especially if you're going to call it 'Open.’'

New excerpts published on Friday reveal Agassi wore a hairpiece that nearly fell off at the 1990 French Open, became jealous during ex-wife Brooke Shields' appearance on ‘Friends,’ and how Shields put a photo of Steffi Graf _ now married to Agassi _ on the fridge for motivation to get in better shape before their wedding.

‘It's a photo of the perfect woman, she says,’ Agassi wrote. ‘The perfect woman with the perfect legs _ the legs Brooke wants.’

Agassi also explains how he and Shields begin dating shortly after Christmas 1993 and connected by sharing their experiences with pushy parents. He also reveals that he stormed off the set of ‘Friends,’ becoming jealous when Shields had to lick actor Matt LeBlanc's hand.

‘Have some more hand. I'm out of here,’ wrote Agassi, who said he consulted Shields on the book.

‘A lot of our recollections were the same, but not the interpretations,’ Agassi told the magazine. ‘I tried to turn a harder lens on myself than on anyone else.’

And it was the camera lens that haunted Agassi.

The tennis star's brother was sent running around Paris to find bobby pins to keep Agassi's disintegrating spiked-mullet weave from coming off his head before a match in the 1990 French Open.

‘Of course I could play without my hairpiece. But after months of derision, criticism, mockery, I'm too self-conscious,’ he wrote.

‘Image Is Everything? What would they say if they knew? Win or lose, they wouldn't talk about my game. They'd only talk about my hair. I can close my eyes and almost hear it. And I know I can't take it.

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Brady starting to look comfortable again

Forget who the Patriots’ opponents were – Tom Brady has looked great the past two weeks.

For the first five weeks of the 2009 season, Brady looked an awfully lot like a player that had major reconstructive surgery a year ago. He looked uncomfortable in the pocket, wasn’t accurate and was getting flustered by how he was playing.

But in New England’s 59-0 win over Tennessee and its 35-7 rout of Tampa Bay in London, England today, Brady looks like the old Tom Brady again. He has thrown nine touchdowns in his last two games but more importantly than the numbers, he finally looks comfortable again.

Earlier this season, Brady got into a bad habit of throwing off his back foot. But against the Bucs, he showed the ability to step into his throws and while he did throw two interceptions, he played with a ton of confidence and his receivers did an excellent job picking up yardage after the catch.

The Pats head into their bye in great shape at 5-2. They have an important stretch of games after their off week, including two against the Dolphins and one against the Colts, Jets and Saints. If Brady continues to play with confidence, the Pats will be dangerous in the second half.

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Bill Simmons lists the 33 most intriguing people of the 2009-10 NBA season

On the Blazers' acquisition of Andre Miller...

21. Andre Miller
We knew Miller was a bad fit when the Blazers signed him. It just didn't feel right. He's a moody loner; they had great chemistry last season. He needs the ball in his hands; so does Brandon Roy. He likes freelancing; Nate McMillan is hands on. But Portland felt obligated to spend its extra cap money, and nobody else was pursuing Miller, so what transpired was the equivalent of two single wedding guests going through the motions on the dance floor.

I could use someone, and you could use someone. Unfortunately, I hate bald guys and I have a tiny butt; you're bald and you love bubble butts. We have no spark and are destined to fail. But crap, there's nobody better. Screw it, would you like to come back to my room?

I get Portland's thinking: It wanted to turn that cap space into an asset. And I get Miller's thinking: He wanted to get paid and hoped things would work out. But now we're here. Incredibly, Portland plans on bringing Miller off the bench. He's already miserable. (And available, by the way. Make Kevin Pritchard an offer. Seriously, call him right now.) So what did we learn? Just because you have cap space doesn't mean you HAVE to use it.

On Shaq joining the Cavs...

8. Shaquille O'Neal
Red flag No. 1: He's 835 pounds. Red flag No. 2: He has never successfully pulled off the whole "sidekick" thing; even to the bitter end, he was playing the big brother/little brother routine with Dwyane Wade. Red flag No. 3: He's splitting time with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who might be a better fit for this particular team because of his outside shooting. Red flag No. 4: He has never, ever, ever, not in his entire life, played for a coach as offensively challenged as Mike Brown. Red flag No. 5: He doesn't have the luxury of Phoenix's training staff anymore. Red flag No. 6: He's so fat that it's like looking at one of those TVs where the HD is screwed up so it makes everyone seem wider. Red flag No. 7: The Suns traded him for two guys who they immediately bought out for a combined $14 million. Red flag No. 8: The Cavs are better off if he's playing 15-20 minutes a game and that's it. Red flag No. 9: He's so fat that it's possible Delonte West was packing three guns because he got confused and thought Shaq wanted to eat him. Red flag No. 10: He's awfully close to some records, which will make it awkward if Cleveland tries to reduce his playing time.

That's 10 red flags. Ten. (To be fair, Shaq doesn't look THAT fat. He just looks a little, um, heavy. Maybe it's the uniform that makes him look doughy for some reason. I just know that, when I saw the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, I couldn't figure out why Aretha Franklin shaved her head. Then I realized it was Shaq.) And that's before we get into the whole, "Shaq seems like a great guy, but if he's a great guy, then why did he leave four teams on really bad terms" thing. Be prepared for him to do more harm than good in Cleveland. One difference: If he crosses LeBron like he crossed Nash, he'll be getting the Braylon Edwards 48-hour ticket out of town.

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Is it time for the Chiefs to dump Johnson?

Following the Chiefs’ embarrassing loss to the Chargers on Sunday, running back Larry Johnson took a couple verbal swipes at head coach Todd Haley via his Twitter page, then proceeded to use a homophobic slur to degrade another Twitter user.

Here are LJ’s tweets

• “my father got more creditentials than most of these pro coaches. … google my father!!!!!!!”

• “My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”

Following those messages, an exchange appeared between Johnson’s account and another Twitter user, in which the other user made a reference to an incident in which Johnson pled guilty to disturbing the peace after allegedly spitting into the face of a female patron at a nightclub. A message on Johnson’s account referred to the other Twitter user’s profile picture with a homophobic slur, calling it a “[expletive] pic” and called the user a “Christopher street boy.” Christopher Street is a well-known New York City street which became famous as a symbol for the city’s gay-pride movement.

The message posted in Johnson’s account containing the homophobic slur read:

• “think bout a clever diss then that wit ur [expletive] pic. Christopher street boy. Is what us east coast cats call u.”

The final message of the night on Johnson’s account read:

• “Make me regret it. Lmao. U don’t stop my checks. Lmao. So “tweet” away.”

Johnson’s agent tried to put out the fire claiming that Johnson was just trying to pump his father up and didn’t mean to degrade Haley. But it’s pretty clear by Johnson’s tweets that he was taking a shot at his head coach.

This isn’t the first time that Johnson has gotten into a controversial situation off the field. He has had four arrests for various degrees of battery since the Chiefs drafted him in 2003, including an incident in which he spat in the face of a female at a nightclub. That incident cost him a one-game suspension.

Outside of a potential cap hit (which would be in excess of over $8 million), what’s stopping GM Scott Pioli from dumping Johnson now? LJ turns 30 in November, is averaging a career-worst 2.7 yards per carry and he continues to be a distraction. I realize he has been on his best behavior under the new regime up until this point, but this Twitter situation seems like another one of his attempts to get traded. The Chiefs are trying to move in a new direction under Haley and Pioli and they can’t do it if everyone isn’t on the same page.

If Johnson doesn’t fit into their long-term plans, then KC should cut bait and move on. Every year teams find running back gems in the draft and Pioli is one of the best player evaluators in the NFL. They could easily find a more productive running back and one that has less baggage.

Again, the cap hit would be tough for the Chiefs to swallow, but Johnson hasn’t done squat since he signed his new contract a couple years ago. The positives of cutting LJ seem to outweigh the negatives.

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PCB denies match-fixing allegations

Dasti told that Pakistan deliberately lost the game to Australia which ensured India were knocked out of the tournament.

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Younis wants captaincy guarantee from PCB: report

emand of captaining the side until World Cup 2011 if the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) wants him to take back the resignation

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Earpieces and trivia are spoiling the Champions League's great cricket

Please let me watch the cricket and let Harper concentrate on his job in the middle. Remember again this is supposed to be a life and death struggle.

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Flintoff speaks out about injuries

AP Andrew Flintoff says the injuries that hastened his retirement from Test cricket were so painful, he often needed his wife to put on his socks and shoes.

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Comment: Cricket Copies Football; Why Can't It Be Vice Versa As Well?

At a time where you see the who's who of cricket find their inspiration from the people's game, it's time that those in the Indian FA learn a thing or two.

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Franklin puts hand up as Oram's replacement

6 role in New Zealand's lineup after Jacob Oram's retirement from test cricket. Franklin has returned to the capital after a long season with English county.

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Times Online Resignation submitted by Pakistan cricket captain

Times Online

Resignation submitted by Pakistan cricket captain over query into ...‎ - 1 hour ago Pakistan cricket captain Younis Khan has tendered his resignation in protest against a meeting called to investigate the team's defeats by Australia and Newzealand.

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Wayamba won by 15 runs

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Windies knock England out of T20

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Second chance

Ex-champ Jermain Taylor could be on track to punch his ticket back to the top.

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Major flop

Michael Vick's stint with the Eagles has been a gigantic dud.

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For Danica, NASCAR doesn't make sense

Danica Patrick continues to flirt with NASCAR, but she'd be better served staying in the IRL.

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shahid afridi has a strong contender for captain

shahid afridi will become the captain of paki team after younis has gave resign to captaincy.

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younis declare his retirement from captaincy

pak captain younis khan gave his resignation letter to p.c.b

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