BCCI announces 15 member Indian team for T20 world cup

Karnataka pacer R Vinay Kumar was, on Friday, rewarded for his consistent domestic performance as he was named in India's 15-member squad for Twenty20 World Cup starting in the West Indies next month.The 26-year-old Vinay Kumar, who has been impressive in the ongoing IPL, was the only new face in the squad to be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Barring Vinay's inclusion and the recall of Uttar Pradesh leg-spinner Chawla, there were no major surprises in the squad announced by the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan after a selection panel meeting.Pacers Ishant Sharma, S Sreesanth and RP Singh, who were in the provisional 30-member list, failed to figure in the squad while spinners Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra also missed the bus.Delhi batsman Virat Kohli, who was in the ODI squad against South Africa last month, was also left out of the squad for the event to be held in the Caribbean from April 30 to May 16."We have selected the best team for the Twenty20 World Cup. We are happy with the performance of every member of the team. They have shown consistency," chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth said after picking the squad.

"The Twenty20 World Cup is still one month away and we hope that this team will do well in the event," he said.

Srikkanth also said as of now there is no worry. "Everyone is hundred per cent fit and all the fitness certificates have been submitted to the Board. All the members are fit and fine," he said.

Ashish Nehra, who has not played a single match in the ongoing IPL because of a rib cage injury, has been included in the squad with the selectors expecting the gangling paceman to be fully fit for the mega event.Vinay has forced his way into the team on the back of his consistent performance in domestic cricket, claiming 46 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. He has so far captured 202 wickets in 54 first class matches with eight for 32 his best figures.

Osama's new threat

World's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden has warned that al-Qaida will kill American soldiers if the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is executed. "The day America will take such decision [to execute Khalid Mohamed and any others] it would have taken a decision to execute whoever we capture," Bin Laden said in the latest audio record, broadcast on Al-Jazeera.

He also said that US president Barack Obama was "following the footsteps of his predecessor", a reference to George Bush, the former US president. "The politicians in the White House were practicing injustice against us and still they are. Especially by supporting Israel in its continuous occupation of Palestine. "They used to think that America across the oceans is protected from the rage of the oppressed until our reaction was loudly heard at your home on the 9/11 with God's help," he said in the recording.

Osama's threat comes as Obama administration has announced it would try Khalid Mohammed and four other accused at a New York courthouse just steps from where the World Trade Centre once stood. Sheikh Mohammed and the other accused are detained at Guantanamo as they await trial over the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed close to 3,000 people, most in New York.
Osama bin Laden's last audio recording was released on January 24, earlier this year in which he claimed responsibility for alleged attempted attack on an airliner on Christmas Day and vowed there would be further attacks on the US unless Obama took steps to resolves the Palestinian situation.

American Revolution

Before there was the American Revolution that lead to the creation of the United States of America, there was Leisler's Rebellion in New York, which lasted from 1689 to 1691, during the brief republican period in England, which deposed the king's representative, instituted democratic government and attempted to put in place redistributive economic policies. Like the first French Revolution (1789), that followed a century later along the same lines, it failed. When the English Civil War was won by a new British monarch, he dispatched a new Governor-General to New York who was returned to power under force of arms and the leaders of Leiser's Rebellion were gruesomely executed for treason.

Similarly, in 1754 in Albany, New York, at the Albany Congress, Benjamin Franklin proposed to delegates from nine American colonies the formation of a union of the American colonies under a constitution similar to that of the Articles of Confederation (1781) adopted after the Declaration of Independence (1776) and before the current United States Constitution (1789) and Bill of Rights (1791) were adopted. This proposed Albany Congress union would have retained the British monarch as a nominal supreme leader (along the lines of Australia today). It was approved unanimously by the delegates at the conference but failed to receive approval from the colonial legislatures, so the idea was dormant for a while. Franklin mused that it might have prevented the revolutionary war and the British acts that led up to it, if it had been adopted.

All of which is to say that there are dress rehearsals in history, but they don't get as much press.

Bangalore will take on Chennai

On a roll with three successive wins, a Jacques Kallis-propelled Royal Challengers Bangalore juggernaut runs into a staggered but robust Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.RCB have been on a wild run, notching up three consecutive wins since their defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders in their tournament opener.

Their batting have come alive with Kallis leading the batting brigade with a bevy of unbeaten and match-winning knocks like 65, 89, 44 and 66 in the last four ties.The supremely talented Manish Pandey has also been in rollicking form, producing cameos that have left even seasoned cricketers bewildered on the field.The 21-year-old, who has been shortlisted for the ICC T20 World Cup in the Caribbean islands, has not only destroyed bowling attacks with impunity but has also caught the eye with his outstanding fielding.RCB have another big hitter in Robin Uthappa, who virtually butchered Sreesanth, plundering 25 runs in one eventful over off the emotive Kings XI Punjab paceman.

Having been part of the triumphant T20 World Cup team in South Africa, Uthappa would be itching to win back his place in the Indian team with more blazing performances in the IPL.Besides their batting, RCB have also jelled well as a bowling unit, restricting Rajasthan Royals (92) and Mumbai Indians (151) to modest scores in the their last two outings.Speedster Dale Steyn, hat-trick man Praveen Kumar and last match's hero R Vinay Kumar have done their job pretty well, giving skipper Anil Kumble the liberty to tease and lure batsmen to their doom with flight and guile.

All-rounder Kallis have also contributed with the ball and have chipped in whenever the team needed him most.Considering their match-winning performance over the last week, RCB should start favourites. But they would make a mistake if they take Chennai Super Kings for granted.

For Chennai, Matthew Hayden, who destroyed Delhi Dare Devils with a blistering 43-ball 92, could be dangerous anywhere, anytime. So could Suresh Raina, captaining the side in place of the injured Mahendra Singh Dhoni.Raina's men, who have lost two of their first four games, should be an incensed lot and last night's nail-biting Super Over defeat to Kings XI Punjab is bound to play on their mind.

Chasing a modest 136, CSK could only manage to tie the game. And when it mattered most, they fell excruciatingly short in the one-over eliminator, throwing a life-line to Punjab who had lost three games on a trot.Defeats like these could be demoralising but, on the converse, could also trigger performances which are much above their potential. But for that to happen, they would have to consign the dramatic loss to history before the game starts.The wheels of fortunes can change quickly in a T20 game. A different venue and a bouncy and lively wicket could produce different results. With two teams of equal professional ilk and skill challenging each other, Tuesday's night game should be an enthralling fare

IPL franchises will recover their money: Modi

Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi did not expect today's bidding to generate an amount so staggering but he assured the franchise owners that there is no reason why they cannot make profit.

Sahara (USD 370 million) and Rendezvous (USD 333.33 million) paid a total of USD 703 million - nearly Rs 3,235 crore - to bag the Pune and Kochi franchises respectively and the amount is bigger than the collective worth of Rs 2,840 of the original eight franchises.

"I was indeed a little bit surprised by the amount. Honestly speaking, I thought the winning bid would be USD 300-320 million. So it was USD 40-50 million higher than my expectation. The bidders must have done their numbers well," Modi said.

He, however, assured that the franchisees can make enough money out of the league.

"We are just two-year-old and every team that has been run well must be making profit. If not, they are probably marginally short of making profit," he told CNN-IBN channel.

Buttressing his case, Modi said, "Sports is one of the leading businesses of the world today. English Premier League, NFL, NBA, Spanish League, Bundesliga - these capture the imagination of the youth and the people. Build a strong base and your future is defined

Yahoo CEO indicates turnaround could take years

Yahoo Inc. CEO Carol Bartz says she hopes investors growing impatient for her to turn around the slumping Internet company remember how long it took for Steve Jobs to revive Apple Inc.In a Tuesday meeting to celebrate Yahoo's 15th anniversary, Bartz reminded reporters that Apple still struggled after Jobs became CEO in 1997. That marked his return to a company he had co-founded two decades earlier.

It wasn't until Jobs unveiled the iPod in late 2001 that Apple's profits and stock price began to soar again. Apple has become even more prosperous in the last few years as the company developed ever-sleeker computers and trendy gadgets, such as the iPhone and the iPad, a computer tablet scheduled to hit the market later this month.Jobs "knew the DNA (at Apple) better than anyone and it took him four years," Bartz said. "I know people want to see magic things happen (at Yahoo). The magic things happening are deep inside our little system here."

Yahoo's stock price has gained nearly 30 percent since Bartz became CEO nearly 14 months ago, even though revenue and earnings have sagged. The shares closed at $15.73 Tuesday, down 6 cents.Apple's stock price had climbed by about 50 percent 14 months after Jobs' returned as CEO. The shares dipped 14 cents Tuesday to close at $208.85. That's a 37-fold increase from where they stood whenApple named Jobs CEO in September 1997.

Yahoo shareholders will probably be happy if Bartz can push Yahoo's stock price above $33. That's what Microsoft Corp. said it would pay to buy Yahoo in its entirety in May 2008 only to withdraw the bid after Yahoo balked at the offer.
Bartz, 61, is working under a four-year contract that expires in early 2013.
The challenges facing Bartz have been compounded by the worst U.S. recession in 70 years. The economic uncertainty depressed online advertising, the main source ofYahoo's income.

Yahoo's quarterly revenue has declined in five consecutive quarters. Bartz expects the downturn to end with a modest revenue gain during the current quarter ending March 31.To help sell more advertising, Bartz has been trying to persuade Web surfers to spend more time on Yahoo's services instead of dwelling at increasingly popular hangouts such as Facebook.

Toward that end, Yahoo has renovated its front page and committed to spending more than $100 million on a marketing campaign that started last fall. Bartz said Tuesday that she has been disappointed with the marketing campaign's performance so far in the United States, but likes what she has seen in other markets, particularly in the United Kingdom and France. She saidYahoo is tweaking its commercial messages in the United States.Yahoo is feeling confident enough to expand its payroll and buy more startups.

Bartz eliminated 800 jobs shortly after she became CEO, but Yahoo added 700 employees during the final three months of this year. The work force will expand again this year, Bartz said Tuesday, although she declined to specify by how much.
Yahoo has been a seller so far this year. In the first two months of the year, it sold e-mail provider Zimbra and the online help-wanted site HotJobs in a deal that still requires regulatory approval.Bartz said Yahoo is mostly interested in small companies that have a "good idea with good little teams." That mirrors the philosophy of rival Google Inc., which has bought eight companies in the past seven months, including a photo editing software service Picnik that works with Yahoo's Flickr site.

IIM site hangs, lakhs of students clueless about results

After the computer servers crashed on the first online common admission test (CAT) for B-schools, the results fared no better with a glitch-ridden system causing untold agony to lakhs of students. For more than three hours on Sunday, students couldn't see their results on www.cat.iim.in, which couldn't take the excess load. The problem was fixed only after 6pm.The candidates were informed about the blocking of scorecards at 3.45pm through a terse web message: "We are experiencing unusually heavy load on scorecard access server. We'll reopen the server after three hours." Not surprisingly, perhaps, the convener of the CAT committee, Satish Deodhar, could not be contacted all through Sunday.

Meanwhile, only IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Shillong declared the list of shortlisted candidates on Sunday. The other six IIMs are expected to release their list of selected candidates over the next two days. The CAT scores of candidates are used for admission to eight IIMs and around 120 B-schools in the country.After the first-ever online CAT -- in November 2009 -- turned into a fiasco due to a virus attack, the wait for its results seemed almost endless for the candidates. The results were earlier scheduled to be declared on January 22.
But then the second phase of CAT exam had to be conducted on January 30 and 31 for students who faced problems appearing in the first phase.

The results, which were postponed to February 15, were further deferred till Sunday. Nearly 2.4 lakh students had appeared for CAT 2009 of which almost 7,000 of them were left in the lurch due to failure of the system at various centres across the country. The unavailability of the scorecards on Sunday only added to the anxiety of the candidates.Arindam Lahiri, academic director, Career Launcher, said, "The system seems jinxed. It happens every year: the server becomes slow when the results are declared as every one tries to access it at the same time." He added,"But it had to be shut this time probably because it was a Sunday and the rush was too heavy."

Delhi boy Vivek Gupta was one of the students who scored a 100 percentile in CAT 2009. Gupta, an electronics engineer from IIT Roorkee, worked in an MNC after graduating in 2008 but left the job to prepare for CAT. "I started studying for CAT only three or four months before the exam. I think my background at IIT helped me crack CAT," said Gupta (24) from Pitampura. He further said, "I've got a call for an interview from IIM Ahmedabad. I would love to study there."

In Bangalore, Sunday's glitch upped tension levels among students. Sumana S, a private firm employee, couldn't stop weeping after trying for hours to access her result. "I worked hard for CAT. This is my third attempt and I really want to make it. I've been trying to access my CAT score for three hours now. My register number doesn't feature in either IIM-Ahmedabad or Shillong. I am getting worried," she said.

Ahmed (name changed), a final year engineering student, said he learnt about the results in the morning but got to see them only in the evening. "When I logged on, the website was flashing that the results were declared. When I clicked on it, I got a dead page. I kept trying. However, in between, some people could access the results but for a short time. There was an announcement from IIMs that the results will be declared at 3pm, then it got postponed to 6.45pm. But we got the results before that," he explained.Arjun Mohan, an engineer who is into sales and consulting, is one of the shortlisted candidates for IIM-A. "I couldn't access my score but I have been shortlisted for IIM-A. I learnt about the results around 11am and tried for a good two hours. This is my second attempt and I was keen on IIM-A and IIM-B," he said.
By the end of a wracking Sunday, all the candidates managed to get their results, much to their relief.