NEW DELHI: The mood was decidedly somber at a team meeting during India's 2007 tour of England. Yet another pedestrian day in the field left the squad led by Rahul Dravid staring at defeat as upbeat rivals scented victory.

JAIPUR: The 50-over World Cup might be more than 450 days from now but MS Dhoni is already thinking about it. The promotion of Suresh Raina in Pune, Dhoni revealed, is about preparing for that event in 2015. Every 50-over game from here on will have context.

HYDERABAD: Top shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu are gearing up for their maiden international showdown at Paris. Though the two met twice during the Indian Badminton League, at which the senior pro dictated terms, they have never faced each other on the big stage.

PUNE: India have a contest on their hands. MS Dhoni's men started the seven-match limited-overs series as favourites but Australia gave them a rude wake-up call by clinching the first encounter by the huge margin of 72 runs here on Sunday.

SYDNEY: Australia will protect information about player injuries so as not to cede any competitive advantage to England in the coming Ashes series, a report said on Monday.

JAIPUR: It's been two decades but Craig McDermott still remembers that January morning when a young Sachin Tendulkar slammed an unbeaten 148 against a star-studded Australian attack in Sydney. For someone touring Down Under for the first time, it would not have been easy to tackle the likes of McDermott or Merv Hughes

 NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted BCCI president-elect N Srinivasan to take charge, but only after setting up an independent panel headed by justice Mukul Mudgal to probe the alleged role of Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and IPL franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in the spot-fixing and betting scandal.

Sebastian Vettel has endured boos and his dominance has been called boring but he stands on the verge of true Formula One greatness by sealing his fourth straight world title this week in Japan.

NEW DELHI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is likely to do away with its experimental rule of having two new balls in ODIs at its year-end meeting.

KOCHI: The focus during the Champions League T20 final was on two great servants of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who were playing their last game in the shortest version of the game.