Tamim Iqbal out of Bangladesh squad and Mortaza returns

Bangladesh selectors have made some changes in the squad. Opening Batsman Tamim Iqbal is out and Mashrafe Mortaza is in. Alok Kapali and Shahriar Nafees, allrounder Naeem Islam and medium-pacer Rubel Hossain were also dropped from the squad that played Pakistan.

As Bangladesh selectors didn't name a captain or a vice-captain either, but said their names would be "declared shortly".

Here are the Bangladesh squad for Asia Cup:

Imrul Kayes, Nazimuddin, Jahurul Islam, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Elias Sunny, Nazmul Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Anamul Haque

Gambhir don't need to feel left out from the team says Dravid

Rahul Dravid a former indian captain said on monday that Gautam Gambhir don't need to feel left our of the team after Virat Kohli was appointed as Vice Captain for Asia Cup.

As Dravid feels that kohli had been rewarded for his excellent performance in Australi Tour. He had has performed well and ODI's and Tests. For that selectors have given him a reward and promoted him as vice captain for Asia Cup.

Dravid, who will lead the Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming edition of the IPL, added that having shared the dressing room recently with Sachin Tendulkar (in the Test rubber in Australia), he can vouch that the champion batsman is not solely focused on getting his 100th international ton.

"Having shared the dressing room with Sachin, I don't think Sachin himself is thinking about it (scoring the 100th century]. Every time a batsman wants to go out and score a century to help the team to win. It (the 100th ton) will happen," said Dravid after the Royals announced Ultratech Cement as the team's main sponsor for IPL 5.

Railways Wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat joins Pune Warriors for IPL5

Railways wicketkeeper and batsman Mahesh Rawat have signed for the Sahara Pune Warriors for the upcoming fifth edition of the Indian Premier League on monday.

Rawat, who has not found any takers from the past three seasons. But this year, he has consistently performed well in the Ranji Trophy with useful contributions in the middle-order.

Rawat said that I am very excited to be back in the IPL fold. I would definitely give my 100 percent and play my natural game in order to get a chance in the playing eleven.a

Ameobi salvages draw and pride for Newcastle against Sunderland

Shola Ameobi who came to Newcastle's rescue in stoppage time on Sunday, salvaging a 1-1 draw against Sunderland in the northeast derby.

Team India comes home to a quiet welcome

Well Indian cricket team has just returned home on Sunday after a demoralising tour of Australia. It was very bad tour for India where india were were whitewashed in the Test series and also could not do well in ODI series.

All the Indian Players like MS Dhoni, Kohli, Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina, Praveen Kumar and Rahul Sharma arrived here at the Indira Gandhi International airport from Brisbane via Singapore early in the morning. While other players who are mumbai based like Tendulkar, Zaheer, Rohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav had arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and spinner R. Ashwin landed in Chennai on Saturday.

Smoke bomb set off at Chelsea's training ground

Recently Chelsea have launched an investigation after smoke bomb was detonated at the club's training ground in the latest offbeat incident at the complex, it was reported on Saturday.

A Chelsea spokesman said that I can confirm an investigation is under way. It is an internal matter.

Last year Blues defender Ashley Cole made headlines after accidentally shooting a work experience student with an air rifle at the ground while later in the year a hunting knife was found in a dressing room.

Sri Lanka beat Australia to dump India out of CB Series

Sri Lanka beat Australia by runs and enters in Final of the CB series.

Not even a hat-trick from Daniel Christian, a four-wicket comeback from James Pattinson, a captain's half-century from Shane Watson or a remarkable late fighting fifty from David Hussey could prevent Sri Lanka from winning the last qualifying match at the MCG. Lasith Malinga led a strong bowling performance to complete Sri Lanka's nine-run victory, which propelled them into the tri-series finals.

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Dhoni defies history when it comes to captaincy

No captain could hope to survive as debilitating successive losses as Mahendra Singh Dhoni has done in England and Australia in a span of nine months and yet, if anything, emerge stronger.

Dhoni lost eight successive overseas Tests in which four losses have been by an innings, one by over 300 runs, and the remaining two by 196 and 122 runs.

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Kings XI sign have signed Awana, Gurkreet for IPL 5

Recently Kings XI Punjab on Friday, signed two new players. Gurkeerat Singh Mann a middle-order batsman and Parvinder Awana a medium pacer for the upcoming fifth edition of the Indian Premier League.

"Kings XI Punjab is pleased to announce the addition of two exemplary players namely Punjab based Gurkeerat Singh Mann, hard hitting middle order batsmen and Delhi based Parvinder Awana, right-arm medium pacer to its registered squad today," Arvinder Singh, COO of Kings XI Punjab, said.

For Awana, who has been the Delhi pace spearhead in the last three seasons in the absence of the likes of Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra, this will be the first time to be in an IPL team.

He took part in the trials for Kolkata Knight Riders last season and was part of the development squad of KKR that toured Sri Lanka. He, however, failed to make it to the KKR IPL squad for the last season.

25-year-old Awana is the third highest domestic wicket-taker last season. He scalped 47 wickets in seven first class and four List A matches.

Bhupathi-Bopanna reach quarterfinal round of Dubai Open

India's Tennis stars Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna beat Lukas Dlouhy and Alexandr Dolgopolov to enter the men's doubles quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships here.

Bhupathi-Bopanna, seeded fourth, defeated the Czech-Russian pair 6-4, 7-5 in the opening round Wednesday. The Indians converted four of their 14 break points and wrapped up the match in 70 minutes.

They next face Australian-English combine of Paul Hanley and Jamie Murray in a late night match Thursday.

Earlier Wednesday, another Indian Leander Paes alongside Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic lost 4-6, 5-7 to second seeds Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania.

Pato suffers another injury

AC Milan striker Alexandre Pato has suffered another setback after tearing a thigh muscle, the Serie A leaders announced on Thursday.

The injury, his 13th in the past two years, is expected to sideline the Brazilian for a couple of weeks, ruling him out of the second leg of Milan's Champions League round of 16 tie against Arsenal in London on March 6.

he has made 17 appearances for the rossonieri this season, scoring four goals.

FIFA to investigate Bahrain's 10-0 World Cup win

FIFA says it will be open investigation into Bahrain's 10-0 victory over Indonesia in a World Cup qualifying match.

Bahrain's win raised suspicions because it needed to make up a nine-goal deficit on rival Qatar in the group standings to have a chance of advancing to the next round. It also needed Qatar to lose its last match, but the Qataris scored an 83rd-minute equalizer to get a 2-2 draw in Iran on Wednesday and advanced to the next stage of the Asian qualifying tournament ahead of Bahrain.

FIFA says its security department "will conduct a routine examination of this game and its result."

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina in racism row

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina has been caught in a racism row after he featured in commercial for a Spanish insurance firm. The commercial was pulled out by broadcasters due to its apparent racial and sexual stereotyping.

Liverpool has already been criticised for their handling of the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra racism affair. They maintain that they were unaware of the Spaniard's involvement in the commercial.

The 26-second advertisement showed Reina in a jungle scene, greeted by a spear-carrying tribe and their leader. With Reina's name translated as 'Queen' in Spanish, the tribe leader suggested a sexual relationship with Reina by saying: "Me King, you Queen."

Reina responded with raised eyebrows, before sarcastically commenting: "I feel safe, la la la."

The advertisement was severely condemned by Operation Black Vote, a non-political campaign group and was subsequently removed from Spanish television.

Barcelona will host Sporting without Messi

Barcelona will have to overcome against Sporting Gijon in absence of Lionel Messi's on Saturday as it tries to keep its dwindling chances for a fourth straight Spanish league title alive.

With Real Madrid already 10 points clear at the top of the table, Messi's one-game suspension for having collected five yellow cards leaves coach Pep Guardiola without his top scorer in a front line already depleted by David Villa's broken leg.

The loss of the three-time world player of the year should open the door for Pedro Rodriguez to accompany Alexis Sanchez in attack.

Madrid hosts Espanyol on Saturday looking for its ninth straight league win and 12th win in 13 home games this season at Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

FIFA processes $3bn in player transfers in 2011

FIFA says it processed international transfer deals worth $3 billion (€2.25 billion) in 2011, and will share payment details with UEFA to help monitor European financial fair play rules.

FIFA says 11,500 players made cross-border moves in the first calendar year operating its Transfer Matching System, which aims to curb money laundering and corrupt deals.

The mandatory online project requires buying and selling clubs to input matching information, including payment schedules, before a transfer is approved.

FIFA says more than 1,500 Brazilian players were transferred internationally last year.

The average transfer fee across all deals was $1.5 million.

Restless Guzan offered new contract by Aston Villa

American goalkeeper Brad Guzan could leave Aston Villa despite being offered a new contract by the English Premier League side.

Manager Alex McLeish says that the United States international could move when his current contract expires at the end of the season because he is unhappy at being backup to Shay Given.

Guzan has been with Villa for four years but has started only eight Premier League matches, seven of them this season when Ireland international Given was injured.

McLeish says "we respect that Brad needs time to mull it over. I understand the dilemma he is facing."

Kolkata Knight Riders signed four new faces

Recently Kolkata knight riders have signed four new faces from domestic circuit for upcoming IPL season which is starting from 4th April. Four new faces are Debabrata Das, Iresh Saxena, Chirag Jani and Sanju Samson.

Debabrata Das is from bengal and also was part of the KKR squad in 2008 season. He is batsman and part time wicketkeeper. He has played just nine T20 matches with scoring 126 runs at 15.75 average.

Iresh Saxena who is a left arm spinner and also plays for Bengal. Chirag Jani, 22, has had an excellent debut season with Saurashtra in List A cricket in the Vijay Hazare Trophy , averaging 119 from four games with a highest of an unbeaten 98. Samson, only 17, is a wicketkeeper-batsman from Kerala.

The curious case of Virender Sehwag's 'rest'

The non-inclusion of Virender Sehwag in the team for Asia Cup took a curious turn today with a media report claiming that the opener had asked the BCCI for rest because of back spasms.

"I have back spasms. I need some rest. I have never kept my team management in the dark as far as fitness is concerned. My injury is open for everyone to see," Sehwag was quoted as having said in a newspaper.

However, this flies in the face of what the chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth said yesterday while announcing the team. Srikkanth said that Sehwag had been rested on fitness grounds and when a reporter followed up with some questions, the former India captain lost his cool, asking the scribe to "shut up".

If Sehwag had asked BCCI for rest, Srikkanth could easily have disclosed that to the media.

Moreover, Srikkanth told NDTV on Wednesday night that Sehwag had a shoulder injury, while as the newspaper quotes the opening batsman as saying that he had "back spasms".

"I have never hidden my injury before, or fitness problems. Even my shoulder operation was planned after consulting the then coach Gary Kirsten and skipper MS Dhoni," Sehwag said.

The newspaper claimed that captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher told the selectors that Sehwag was seeking rest after a streneous tour of Australia

Later, Srikkanth called up Sehwag, who told him that he wanted rest but would be willing to tour Bangladesh if the selectors insisted.

Brett Lee wants to bowl despite broken foot

Australian fast bowler Brett Lee wants to continue playing ODIs despite a sore right foot which scans have revealed is still broken.

The 35-year-old admitted that the foot still hurts. He also admitted making a quick comeback after picking up the injury Feb 3.

"It is still broken. I had an x-ray. The show must go on. You've got to do these things when you're playing for your country. It has been very painful. I've come back a lot earlier than I probably should have, but you have to do that when you're playing for your country," Lee told reporters at the MCG here Thursday.

India prays for Australian for their win

Well millions of cricket fans and Indian cricketers would be unified in praying for an Australian victory when the hosts take on Sri Lanka in the last but the most crucial league match of the ODI tri-series in Melbourne on Friday.

But for the miraculous 321-run chase in under 40 overs against Sri Lanka, India were out of the fray but the win has given them a glimmer of hope.

A major worry for Australia, already in the finals, is the stiff back of skipper Michael Clarke. Clarke, who has already sat out of a few matches in the series because of the problem, may not be available even tomorrow.

Pace sensation James Pattinson is also expected to be back after recovering from a foot injury that he picked up during the Sydney Test against India in January.

A concern would be the broken toe of pace spearhead Brett Lee even though he has vowed to play through the pain barrier.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have quite a few issues to deal with after the stunning debacle against India. The side was more or less through to the finals before the abject surrender in Hobart, despite putting more than 300 runs on the board, jeopardised their chances.