Ahmed Shahzad not ready to accept ‘attitude problem, disciplinary issues’ allegations

Lahore, August 28 : Out-of-favour Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shahzad, often criticised for his attitude, is not ready to accept the allegations about his lack of discipline, insisting that he has done nothing wrong.

Shahzad has a history of disciplinary issues since his club-cricket days, and his attitude problem was first highlighted in 2008, when the then team manager Abdul Raqeeb had reported his disruptive behaviour during the ICC Youth World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

He has since been dropped several times from the national squad, and his recent conduct on Pakistan’s West Indies tour forced the team management to recommend special counselling for him, noting that he had come from a ‘disturbed’ background.

“I am here to take all criticism but there is no need to bring my family into it. We belong to a Pathan family and we do not tarnish our family’s reputation,” The Express Tribune quoted Shahzad, as telling reporters.

“I don’t know what I did, but if the management thinks that I have done something wrong, they should talk to me about it. I haven’t done anything wrong, so I don’t really know what I should be looking out for,” he maintained.

Shahzad, who was not only snubbed from Pakistan’s squad for the Zimbabwe tour, but also the list of centrally contracted players, expressed his disappointment over the same.

“I’m not sure why I’ve been omitted from the squad despite scoring runs,” he said.

“The disappointment is obviously there after being dropped from the squad and the central contract list. But I’m young and have a lot of cricket ahead of me. I will continue to play at domestic level and keep myself up there with the performance. The rest is up to the selectors,” he added. (ANI)

Senior Cricketers Assisting Delhi Daredevils Stay Grounded, Says Irfan Pathan

Delhi Daredevils all-rounder Irfan Pathan senses his group has sufficient wise-heads to embark upon the complacency matter for the rest of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Irfan stated that Delhi Daredevils, who have consolidated their place on the top, were concentrated on winning their first title.

Daredevils have presented an extraordinary turn this season after ending up last during the last year (2011), and are almost ascertained of being the first group to meet the criteria for play-offs.
Pathan added that it was simple for players to drop their strength level from here on but senior players comprising Virender Sehwag, Mahela Jayawardene, Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor were assisting them stay grounded.

While Sehwag and Englishman Pietersen are former captains of their national teams, Jayawardene and Taylor are current captains of Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
"It can easily happen but luckily we have a good group of guys who know how to approach each match. They have been very smart with their play," Pathan added.
Pathan also valuated the work done by head coach Eric Simmons, who was previously the fast bowling coach of the Indian group.
 
Referring to their comprehensive win against CSK April 10, Pathan stated, "Eric Simmons is keeping a check on us all the time. After the Chennai game, I remember he wanted us to learn from our mistakes even though we won comfortably. The support staff also has a huge role to play and they are making sure we think about the process of winning every match and not looking at winning the competition. We are very aware of how quickly things change in

Kings XI Punjab To Take On Rajasthan Royals At PCA Stadium

When Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals met before the latter pocketed the competition by 21 scores.
So when the two groups will again confront one another, KXIP will make attempts to gain.
Kings XI Punjab won their earlier two games and will make entry in the stadium with self-confidence whilst Rajasthan Royals have lost their last 3 games.

Punjab will aspire to carry on their gaining streak and will expect that the form of Praveen Kumar, Hussey, Azhar Mahmood and Piyush Chawla.
Rajasthan will wish that their cricketers including Owais Shah, Rahane, Dravid and Watson emerge to the event and achieve.

The 48th game of IPL Kings XI Punjab will confront Rajasthan Royals in Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium of Mohali from 8 pm.
Kings XI Punjab Group:

RR Powar, P Awana, KJ Abbott, BCJ Cutting, DJ Hussey, Harmeet Singh, VS Malik, L Ablish, Amit Yadav, BA Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, PP Chawla, SD Chitnis, AM Nayar, NJ Rimmington, P Dogra, Sunny Singh, JP Faulkner, Gurkeerat Singh, RJ Harris, PC Valthaty, AC Gilchrist, P Kumar, Mandeep Singh, SE Marsh, Azhar Mahmood, AD Mascarenhas, DA Miller, N Saini, SJ Srivastava
Rajasthan Royals Group:

Pankaj Singh J Botha, DL Chahar, STR Binny, A Chandila, LD Chandimal, AS Raut, AA Chavan, A Chopra, SK Trivedi, A Singh, SW Tait, K Cooper, AP Dole, PD Collingwood, SM Fallah, SP Goswami, BJ Hodge, GB Hogg, R Dravid, AL Menaria, S Narwal, , AG Paunikar, AM Rahane, OA Shah, PR Shah, S Sreesanth, SR Watson, FY Fazal, DH Yagnik

Deepika Kumari Pockets First World Cup Title

Country's Olympic candidate Deepika Kumari pocketed her initial World Cup individual recurve gold medal on May 05 at Antalya, Turkey.
Deepika Kumari defeated Korea's Lee Sung Jin by 6 set points to four in the closing of the Phase 2 of the contest.

As per information obtained in Kolkata, teenager Deepika gained the second set (29-27), third (27-26) and the fifth (28-27) whilst missing the first (27-30) and the fourth (27-29).
Ms. Deepika, who has already qualified for London Olympics, is the current junior world champ and a gold medalist at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Kumari had also bagged the Cadet World Title in the year 2009.
Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Archery Association of India chief and Indian Olympic Association acting president, felicitated Deepika Kumari on her success today.
Mr. Malhotra stated, "Beating a Korea in the final is a great achievement. It's another feather in her cap. I hope she does well in the Olympics."

Switzerland expels Olympian due to racist remarks on Twitter

Swiss authorities have expelled a member of its football team taking part in the London Olympics 2012, on Monday due to his threatening and racist remarks against the South Koreans on micro blogging site, twitter.
The comments were posted by Michel Morganella just hours after Switzerland's foot ball team lost to South Korea in the mega sporting event.

Swiss Olympic team chief Gian Gilli said that Morganella "discriminated against, insulted and violated the dignity of the South Korea football team as well as the South Korean people." He was speaking through a translator at a news conference. He added that Morganella is stripped of his Olympic accreditation.
Morganella was part of the team that lost to the South Korean team 2-1. He wrote in the tweet that South Koreans "can go burn" and referred to them as a "bunch of mongoloids." He later released an apology statement through the Swiss Olympic team.

"I apologize sincerely to the people of South Korea, to the players, but equally to the Swiss delegation and Swiss football in general. It's clear that I'm accepting the consequences. After the disappointing result and the reaction from Korea that followed, I made a huge error," he said.
This is the second such incidence for this year's Olympics in which an athlete has been expelled due to racist remarks online. Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou was expelled earlier from the national team because she posted objectionable remarks on the internet.

Karthikeyan launches Formula 2000 car in Chennai

Narain Karthikeyan has launched the new Formula 2000 car at an event in Chennai to a cheep of hundreds of motor enthusiasts. The Hispania Racing Team (HRT) driver drove the 2000cc MRF Formula car
within the Express Avenue mall in the southern city showcasing the
vehicle to fans. The car will take part in the first MRF Challenge 2012
at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in Greater Noida.
The MRF Formula 2000 is developed by Jayem Automobiles in Coimbatore in
association with Italys Automobili Dallara. The car is powered by
210BHP racing engines with six-speed sequential gearbox, which are
supplied by the Renault-Sports of France.

The powerful two litre engine is as per the specifications for Formula
3 cars. Karthikeyan expressed his satisfaction with the finished
vehicle and said that the engine used is at par with European
championships.

The MRF Formula 2000, which is a support race to the Indian Grand Prix,
will be the fastest singleseater series in Asia and will provide
opportunities to Indian drivers. The championship is set to begin on
October 27 and 28. The second round is scheduled for December 1 and 2
as a support race for the FIA GT1 championship while the final two
rounds will be held in Chennai with a round on February 1 and 3 and
another one on the 8th and 10th of February.