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It is the lot of the cricket reporter's life, especially when there is a big tournament on, to go through days, weeks even, celebrating the mediocre. Someone gets runs against ordinary bowling, and you overdose on the superlatives - it is the World Cup, after all. And then - very rarely, but just often enough to wake us all up - a champion comes along and shows you what this game is really all about. And what it is not.

Kerala speedster S Sreesanth today replaced injured spaceman Praveen Kumar in the Indian squad for the upcoming cricket World Cup starting later this month.  Praveen who sustained an elbow injury during the South Africa ODI series failed to recuperate in time and was ruled out after it became clear that he won't be fit by the time India play their first match against Bangladesh on February 19. 

The long wait finally came to an end on Thursday with the Organising Committee launching the official merchandise for the Commonwealth Games with 29 types of products up for sale across Delhi. The official Games merchandise will be available at the store being set up at the OC headquarters in New Delhi and includes branded sportswear like T-shirts, jackets, casual wear, kids apparels, generic items like umbrellas, key-chains, mugs, accessories like caps, bags, wristbands and cultural and handicraft items.  The product prices will range from Rs 25-300 and no product has been priced more than Rs 300 in the first phase of the merchandise launch. "In the beginning, we will start with the single store in the OC headquarters, as well as four mobile vans that will take the merchandise to the doorsteps," said Suresh Kumar, chairman of Premier Brands Limited (PBL). "From 6th September, the products will also be available for online sales at premierbrands.inc. 15th Septe...

Arjuna Awardee wrestler Rajiv Tomar and Commonwealth Games medal prospect shot putter Saurav Vij were among six athletes caught for doping on Thursday and they were handed provisional suspension by National Anti-doping Agency. Wrestlers Sumit (74kg), Mausam Khatri (96kg) and Rajiv Tomar (120kg), who were named in the Commonwealth Games squad in men's freestyle, and Gursharanpreet Kaur (women's 72kg) tested positive for Methyl Hexaneamine, a non specified substance. "The wrestlers from Commonwealth Games team have tested positive for Methyl Hexa Neamine (non specified substance) as per the report received from NADA," a statement from Wrestling Federation of India President G S Mander said. Rajiv Tomar was recently conferred the Arjuna Award. Saurav and young discus thrower Akash Antil tested positive for the same substance Methyl Hexaneamine in the dope tests conducted during the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships at Patiala from 5th-8th August. ...

After much delay, legendary music composer A R Rahman will unveil the theme song for the upcoming Commonwealth Games on Saturday. The Delhi Games Organising Committee on Thursday said that the Oscar award winner music director will be performing the song "Oh yaaro, India bula liya" on Saturday. However, the venue for the event has not yet been finalised. The song has been composed and sung by Rahman. The launch of the song got delayed after the Group of Ministers (GoM) overseeing the 3rd-14th October megaevent asked Rahman to change it a little bit. Subscribe to SCHOLARS CLUB ==> If you liked this post, then why not buy me a beer so I can cool off?

The 2010 Commonwealth Games tickets will be finally available in retail outlets across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) from Wednesday.   The Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games have attracted the maximum interest, so far contributing 25 per cent of the sales. Among the sporting events, hockey is the front-runner, accounting for 14 per cent of the tickets sold so far, followed by athletics at 11 per cent and gymnastics at 10 per cent.  Swimming is at the fourth spot with 8 per cent share. Apart from the Indian market, Australia leads the tally with maximum number of buyers for tickets followed by New Zealand and Britain. Tickets can be bought from 20 selected Central Bank of India branches as well as seven nominated Hero Honda showrooms as well as the IRCTC outlet in Central Delhi. All the ticket related information regarding list of the outlets and booking is available on www.tickets.cwgdelhi2010.org . Apart from Delhi, t...

Telltale Games is going back in time for a new series of video games. The developer is creating episodic titles based on the "Back to the Future" and "Jurassic Park" franchises. The popular Universal Studios film trilogies spawned several games in their heyday in the '80s and '90s but have been absent from the interactive realm.  The as-yet-untitled Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC and Mac games are set to be released this winter. "I think it's a prime time to reintroduce these properties in the digital world," said Dan Connors, CEO at Telltale Games. "Telltale Games has always set out to be a great storytelling company.  We've been honing our chops over the past six years, and we're ready to take on these two iconic properties and continue to advance storytelling in games. " Telltale Games previously created episodic games based on Aardman Animations' Oscar-winning animated film series "Wallace and Grom...

In two days, Games tickets worth Rs 80 lakh sold New Delhi,  In just two days since the sale began, tickets worth more than Rs 80 lakh were sold for 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games to be held from October 3 to 14 in the Capital.  On day one, 1700 tickets worth Rs 20 lakh were sold. "The response is overwhelming. We hope to reach our target very fast," a Commonwealth Games (CWG) organising committee spokesperson said. He, however, could not specify the number of tickets sold so far. The organising committee expect to sell 17 lakh tickets generating Rs 60-70crore.  Tickets can be bought from seven branches of Central Bank of India, five Hero Honda showrooms and from the Commonwealth Games (CWG) website.  Ticket are priced from Rs 50 to Rs 1,000, but prices for the opening ceremony have been kept between Rs 1,000 and Rs 50,000 and for the closing, from Rs 750 to Rs 50,000.  An added advantage for those queueing up to purchase tickets is that ea...

Price ranging from a modest Rs 50 to a whopping Rs 50,000, tickets for this year's Commonwealth Games went on sale today with sports enthusiasts having the option of booking them online or through call centres.  The ticketing website -- www.tickets.cwgdelhi2010.org and a call center facility 1800-200-1294 to book the tickets -- were launched at a function here by Delhi Lt Governor Tejender Khanna, Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and city Mayor Prithiviraj Sahni. Ticket prices for the sporting events range from Rs 50 to Rs 1,000 while prices for the Opening and Closing Ceremony range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000 and Rs 750 to Rs 50,000 respectively. Four events will have free entry for fans -- the Marathon, the Walk, Cycling Road Race and Cycling Time Trial. Almost 40 per cent of the competition venue tickets have been put at Rs 200 or below, the Organising Committee said. "Tickets is one of the four revenue streams for the Organising Committee, the ot...

Whoever the World Cup trophy ends up with, it will be travelling in style. Luxury handbag and luggage maker, Louis Vuitton, has designed and crafted the trophy case for the cup.  The leather case was unveiled on Tuesday along with the replica World Cup which is given to winners. The original cup itself remains the permanent property of FIFA, world soccer's governing body. British supermodel Naomi Campbell installed the trophy in the luxury case, handing it with gloves as tradition requires only winners of the cup may touch it. "I think what this cup symbolises to all children all over the world is hopes and dreams of their passion that can come true and the blood, sweat and tears is going to go into this, to kick in balls to get this cup is going to be amazing, " Campbell told reporters at the unveiling. The World Cup trophy was previously transported in an aluminium trunk but FIFA went to Louis Vuitton, owned by LVMH, and asked for packaging for the World C...