India news I insisted on playing

Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir has said he insisted that his team play their home Ranji Trophy fixtures on green pitches at the Roshanara Club, though playing on flatter tracks might have made it easier for him to score runs in a bid for an India comeback.

"I have never played cricket for selfish reasons like scoring 800-900 runs on flat tracks to make a comeback," Gambhir told PTI. "Delhi team needed outright wins and I insisted on playing on green tops at the Roshanara rather than on a flat track. Had I played on a flat track, I could have got close to 900 runs."

Delhi's strategy of playing at the Roshanara brought them their only two outright wins of the season, and helped them move up to second on the table. They lost their next match at the venue to Punjab, though, despite bowling them out for 74 on the first morning. Delhi eventually failed to qualify for the knockouts, finishing fifth in Group A.

Gambhir made 578 runs in seven matches at 48.16, with one hundred and three half-centuries. He didn't find a place in India's squad to South Africa or in the squad that will travel to New Zealand later this month for five ODIs and two Tests.

"It's a reality that I am not in the team to New Zealand," Gambhir said. "I wish all the 16-17 guys best of luck for the tour. As I have maintained, I don't play for comebacks, I play the game because I still have that hunger to perform. I want to be part of the team that wins a Test series in England and Australia. This is what drives me on, as in my 54 Tests we only won a series in New Zealand and drew in South Africa.

"Frankly, I don't know whether I am 1, 2, 3 or last," Gambhir said, when asked about where he thought he stood in the pecking order among present Indian openers. "I know that my job is to score runs and I will continue to do that."

Table Tennis

Table Tennis is surely being among the top games in the list of an indoor player. Being a mini version of the Lawn Tennis, this game has a lot of similarity with its parent game. It needs a lot of fitness, athleticism and good reflection of the body with good eyesight on behalf of the players.

The `Table Tennis` is a game that is played by two or four contestants with a small celluloid ball and small rackets on a rectangular table. The rackets are often called bats or paddles. The table is usually 9 ft in length and 5 ft in width. Its upper surface normally remains 30 inches above the floor. It is divided into two opposing courts by a net that is 6 inches in height.

History of Table Tennis
The history of Table Tennis is quite an interesting one. The game is a nice combination of the two great games of Lawn Tennis and Badminton. The game started its journey in the 1880s in England. Later it came to South Africa and India. At that time, the Lawn Tennis players decided to play their game indoors as the time was the winter. At the beginning, the game was taken as a "parlour game" where anyone could access to a table, paddle and ball. When it was included in the Olympics, the history of table tennis got a rapid change and become popular for all ages.

Equipments of Table Tennis
The ball used in `Table Tennis` is white coloured and celluloid. It is vacant inside and about 1.5 inches in diameter. The weight of the ball is about 0.088 ounces (2.5 g). The rackets used by the players can be made into any shape, as there are no limitations in size or shape specified. However, they are usually oval in shape. Modern paddles usually have a thin layer of rubber that covers the paddle’s striking surface. The rubber may also have pimples pointing outwards or inwards and a thin layer of sponge between the plywood centre and the rubber surface. In general, they are made of wood and are also covered with sandpaper, rubber or sponge. Their surface may be dimpled or smooth as well.

Procedure of Playing Table Tennis
The players normally play the game of `Table Tennis` by hitting the ball back and forth over the net until any of the two players misses the ball or hit it into the net. In case of any violation, the opponent player scores a point.

While playing the game, the player must allow his opponent to play a ball towards him only one bounce on his side of the table and also he must return it quickly so that it bounces on the opponent’s side. If the ball does not land on the opponent’s side then it will be considered as a dead ball till the opponent hits the ball with his bat. This is a very fast play and it demands quick reactions.

Table Tennis as an Olympic Sport
The `Table Tennis` is an Olympic sport now. In a singles match of the game, there is no requirement of the ball to cross from the server’s right-hand court to the receiver’s right-hand court or left to left as it is in tennis. However, serving across is mandatory in doubles matches. The features like ball spin; speed, placement, strategy and tactics play an important part in competitive table tennis matches.

Rules of Table Tennis
The great game of Table Tennis is very much similar to its parent game of Lawn Tennis. There are similarities in the terms and conditions and also in the general rules between both the games. There are quite a few basic or general rules in the game of Table Tennis.
The rule of Table Tennis consists of:
1. Starting a game with the toss.
2. Service and return with the ball
3. "Let" in the Table Tennis
4. "Scoring" system
5. Alternation of services and ends between the players.

Terms of Table Tennis
Like all the other sports of the world, the sport of Table Tennis also posses its own terms and definitions. These terms of table tennis are very much popular to the people who love to play and watch the game. There are quite a few terms that are used in the game of Table Tennis.

Dhanraj Pillay

Dhanraj Pillay is one of the world`s best hockey players and one of India`s highest contemporary goal scorers. He is currently the manager of the Indian Hockey team and a member of the Indian Hockey Federation.

Early life of Dhanraj Pillay
The early life of Dhanraj Pillay can easily be described as an example of how talented people always make their way out in spite of the strife they are born into. Dhanraj was born on 15th July, 1968 in Khadki in a family that was suffering from financial crisis. In spite of that financial instability, the youngest member of the family, Dhanraj successfully went forward towards fulfilling his dream of becoming a legendary Hockey player.

Career of Dhanraj Pillay
After making his international Hockey debut in the year 1989, Dhanraj Pillay got the first major break in the World Cup, Sydney, 1994.

Dhanraj Pillay`s Career: 1994 - 1996
Dhanraj Pillay during World Cup, Sydney, 1994, was a newcomer in the Indian national team and he made some waves in the international circuit with his wonderful speed. The Indian Hockey enthusiasts then saw Dhanraj Pillay in the SAF Games, Chennai, 1995. The tournament saw Pillay becoming a hero in India, as he played extraordinary Hockey throughout the tournament, especially in the Final against Pakistan. Then India saw Dhanraj Pillay in the Olympic Qualifier, Barcelona, 1995, where his brilliant play helped India to secure a berth in the Olympics.

Dhanraj Pillay`s Career: 1996 - 2000
Dhanraj Pillay in Atlanta Olympics, 1996 was not at his best and India also had a disastrous campaign in the tournament. The Indians then saw Dhanraj Pillay in World Cup, Utrecht, 1998 and the tournament is considered as one of the worst tournament in Dhanraj Pillay`s career. He came out of his miserable form very soon and Dhanraj Pillay during Commonwealth Games, Kuala Lumpur, 1998, was a completely different player. Playing after recovering from a heel injury, he showed some brilliant performances in the tournament. Watching Dhanraj Pillay during Asian Games, Bangkok, 1998 was another treat to the Indian Hockey enthusiasts. It was the supreme and utterly brilliant form of the Indian captain, Dhanraj Pillay that helped India to clinch the gold medal in the tournament. Then, Indians saw Dhanraj Pillay in Asia Cup, Kuala Lumpur, 1999, where he helped India winning the bronze medal. The Indian Hockey enthusiasts were happy to see Dhanraj Pillay in Azlan Shah Cup, Kuala Lumpur, 2000. Dhanraj Pillay`s wonderful contributions made it easy for India to win the bronze medal in the tournament.

Dhanraj Pillay`s Career: 2000-2004
Almost all the powerful teams in the world did pay special attention to Dhanraj Pillay in Olympic Games, Sydney, 2000, as he had the ability to turn a match in India`s favour on his own. Dhanraj Pillay once again played brilliantly in the tournament, though India failed to get a good result. The Indian people became happy once again after watching

Dhanraj Pillay during Champions Trophy, 2002
Dhanraj Pillay won the "Player of the Champions Trophy" award in the tournament. Then, the Indians saw Dhanraj Pillay in Asian Games, Busan, 2002, where India became the runner-up, thanks to some magical performances by Dhanraj Pillay. The teams once again paid extra attention to Dhanraj Pillay in World Cup, Kuala Lumpur, 2002, because of his special talent. Watching Dhanraj Pillay in Champions Trophy, Amsterdam, 2003 was another treat for the Indians, as Dhanraj Pillay played superbly in this tournament, also.

Dhanraj Pillay in 2003 Kuala Lumpur Asia Cup
Indians universally lauded Dhanraj Pillay`s performance in Asia Cup, Kuala Lumpur, 2003. The Indian team won the tournament under the captaincy of Dhanraj Pillay.

Dhanraj Pillay in 2004 Athen Olympics
The Indian Hockey enthusiasts watched Dhanraj Pillay in Athens Olympics, 2004 for the last time in any international tournament. India once again failed to yield a good result from the tournament, in spite of Dhanraj Pillay`s wonderful performance. The track records of Dhanraj Pillay undoubtedly ensure one thing that, he is the fittest player in the history of Indian Hockey. It has been seen that there are always at least two defense players in the field marking him. But he runs 100 m in a very adequate record time of 11.6 seconds before defenders can even think of a move.

Awards and Honours of Dhanraj Pillay
Dhanraj Pillay was the recipient of India`s highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year 1999-2000, and the India`s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2000. In the 2002 Champions trophy, held at Cologne, Germany, Dhanraj Pillay was conferred the "Player of the Tournament" award.

His long career span of more than 17 years has made him one of the greatest Hockey players of India. Dhanraj Pillay is considered as one of the most talented forwards of his era. Pillay was the captain of the triumphant 2002 Asian Games hockey team. Presently Pillay is involved in trying to start a hockey academy at Bombay. A biography on Dhanraj Pillay titled "Forgive me Amma (Mother)" has also been released.

Indian Badminton Players

 Indian badminton players have gained much acclaim in the international circuit. In India, badminton is quite a popular sport. On the domestic level the badminton scenario has always been prosperous with fresh young talented badminton players. These talented youngsters forming the badminton squad of India draw inspiration from the achievements of the legendary Indian badminton players. The list of such great players includes popular names like Prakash Padukone, Pullela Gopichand, Aparna Popat, Chetan Anand, Saina Nehwal and more. Brief information about some of the famous Indian badminton players is given below -

Prakash Padukone
Prakash Padukone is one of India`s greatest badminton players. The sport was synonymous with his name for quite a period of time. He was popularly known as the "Gentle Tiger" on the badminton courts. Prakash Padukone was the first player to win the esteemed All England Badminton Championship. Apart from this prestigious title, he also won several other titles both national as well as international. Prakash Padukone was born on10th June, 1955.

Pullela Gopichand
Another popular name of the Indian badminton arena is that of Pullela Gopichand. Like Prakash Padukone, he also excelled on the international badminton sphere. Pullela Gopichand was born on 16th November, 1973. In the year 1989, he made his mark at the domestic level by winning the national championship in the state of Goa. Prakash Padukone was his mentor and under his guidance, Pullela Gopichand emerged as a strong and one of the highly successful Indian badminton players. Pullela Gopichand also won the title of prestigious All England Championship.

Aparna Popat
Aparna Popat is considered as one of the finest women badminton players the country has produced. This `All Time Greatest female Badminton players of India` has made her mark in the national and international badminton tournaments with her giant-killing acts and by winning the women singles in French Open. Aparna Popat was born on 18th January, 1978 in Mumbai. Moreover, Aparna Popat has the record for holding the highly prestigious National Senior Women`s Badminton title for greatest number of times successively (nine times).

Chetan Anand
Chetan Anand is another most popular and finest badminton player India has ever produced. He is actually one of the highest ranking badminton players of the world. He was born on 7th August, 1980. Chetan Anand has also received the esteemed Arjuna Award.

Saina Nehwal
One of the best known Indian badminton players is Saina Nehwal. She is considered as one of the most promising female badminton players of India at the moment. Saina Nehwal has to her credit the accomplishment of being the first Indian woman badminton players to have reached the Quart Final round of badminton tournament at the Olympic Games, and also winning the gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Anup Sridhar
Anup Sridhar is a popular Indian badminton player, who is considered as one of the finest players of the badminton arena in India in the recent times. Anup Sridhar is well known as the Captain of the badminton team of India at the Thomas Cup tournament, and for hitting the hardest smash in the history of badminton, besides performing with distinction in several international badminton titles.

Jwala Gutta
Another popular female badminton player of India is Jwala Gutta who is considered to be one of the finest Women`s Doubles Badminton Players, the country has ever witnessed.

The popular badminton players of India have made the country proud by winning several prestigious titles at the international badminton arena.

Indian Long Jumpers

 Indian long jumpers, almost in all cases, come from a very humble and modest background. The sport in itself is less popular in India, hence not lot of attention is received from the masses, media or government sports authorities. However, with utmost sense of belief and determination athletes have climbed the ladder of success and made their country proud. Even with minimal opportunities and infrastructural facilities they have won several awards of national importance. Here is a list of some of the big names in the Indian long jumping circuit.

Vijay Singh Chauhan
Vijay Singh Chauhan is a former Indian athlete who won gold medal in decathlon in 1974 Asian Games. He participated in 1972 Olympics. He was born in 1949 in Uttar Pradesh state. He was honoured with Arjuna award.

Reeth Abraham
Reeth Abraham is an athlete from India and was once the national champion in long jump and heptathlon. She won the Arjuna Award in 1997.

Mayookha Johny
Mayookha Johny, born 9 April 1988, is an Indian track and field athlete from Kerala who specialises in long jump and triple jump. She holds the current Indian National record for triple jump with a mark of 14.11m. She is the first Indian woman to cross the 14m mark.

Amritpal Singh
Amritpal Singh, born 6 October 1983, is an Indian track and field athlete from Punjab who specializes in long jump. He holds the current national record of 8.08 metres in long jump. On 16 March 2004, Amritpal broke one of the oldest national records in Indian athletics - T. C. Yohannan`s 3-decade-old record in the long jump - by leaping to a distance of 8.08 metres in the 10th Federation Cup Athletics Championships at the Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

Suresh Babu
Suresh Babu, born on 10th February 1953, was an Indian long jumper from Indian state of Kerala who had held the national titles in the long, triple, and high jump events, in addition to the decathlon. He was one of the athletes to win medals in two events in successive Asian Games, the bronze in the decathlon in the Tehran Asian Games in 1974 and gold in the long jump in the Bangkok Asian Games, 1978.

Mercy Kuttan
Mercy Kuttan, born 1 January 1960, is a former Indian track and field athlete. She was the first Indian woman long jumper to cross six meters. In 1989, Mercy received Arjuna Award for her contribution to the Indian athletics.

T. C. Yohannan
Thadathuvila Chandapillai Yohannan, born 19 May 1947, better known as T. C. Yohannan, is a former Indian long jumper who held the national record in long jump for nearly 3 decades and represented India in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal at Canada

MS Dhoni has a bowl

Virat Kohli keeps wickets

Murali Vijay

India beat Pakistan to retain Kabaddi World Cup title

       India has beaten Pakistan in the final of the 4th men''s Kabaddi World Cup in Ludhiana, according to reports.

     According to The Express Tribune, Pakistan, who had stormed into the final after decimating the American team, were beaten by India 48-39 at the Guru Nanak stadium in Ludhiana, India. The win means India retain their world title, the report said.

Prior to the match, Pakistan Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had said that if India wins, it means Pakistan''s neighbour has won and they would congratulate India.

Delhi dominate, Sehwag strikes form

    Virender Sehwag showed glimpses of his shot-making prowess for an hour and 49 minutes as Delhi's batsmen took apart a below-par Vidarbha attack. On the same Roshanara track where Vidarbha were shot out for 88 on the first day, Sehwag hit his first half-century of the season.

While Sehwag will take most of the headlines, the biggest contributor for Delhi was the experienced Mithun Manhas, who scored his 25th first-class century to stretch the lead to 360 by stumps on the second day.

     It is unlikely that captain Gautam Gambhir will extend Delhi's innings further as he would want his bowlers to use the freshness of the Roshanara track on Monday morning to take seven points, which will be crucial to his team's progress.

     If Manhas and Sehwag consolidated Delhi's position in the match, wicketkeeper batsman Rahul Yadav (81) and Ashish Nehra (57) - fresh from his six-wicket haul on Saturday - clobbered the Vidarbha bowlers into submission, adding 122 for the eighth wicket. This was Nehra's first 50-plus score in any senior level cricket, and the towering sixes that he hit to cow corner were cheered boisterously by his team-mates.

    The pitch had good bounce today as well but it was a mix of better batting and some ordinary bowling that led to Delhi taking a firm grip on the match.

The BCCI had hurriedly sent the head of their Pitches and Grounds committee, Daljeet Singh, today to Roshanara, probably to gauge what went wrong with the surface yesterday, but Delhi's batsmen certainly made the track seem less tricky with some solid batting.

      Sehwag got going with a punch straight down the ground off Amol Jungade, after left-arm seamers Shrikant Wagh and Ravi Thakur initially tested him with a few short deliveries.

Sehwag went in to lunch on 20 and it was in the first 30 minutes of the second session that he was in his element. The best shot was a late cut off seamer Sandeep Sharma which was applauded by everyone at the ground. Sehwag started walking down the pitch as Sharma charged in and bowled a fuller delivery. Any other batsman would have left it alone but Sehwag just opened the face at the last moment to guide it wide of third slip for a boundary.

      There were signature cover drives but the other boundary that stood out was the manner in which he dug out a Wagh yorker and sent the ball racing to the midwicket boundary. He didn't even complete the full follow-through of a forward defensive push off Jungade as the ball raced past mid-on for four to bring up the half-century off 62 deliveries.

Sehwag then lofted Jungade for a straight boundary, but was caught by Vidarbha captain Shalabh Srivastava running back from mid-off when trying the same shot again off the part-time seamer Faiz Fazal.

      During Sehwag's rampage, the calming presence of Manhas also guided Delhi as it has so often over the past decade-and-a-half. Manhas played the square cut with authority. He clipped anything on the legs through midwicket, and he drove the half-volleys through cover to bring up his third century of the season. It leaves Delhi in a overwhelmingly dominant position at Roshnara, as they push towards a crowded top third of the Group A table.