Delhi Daredevils have entered the semi-finals of both the editions of IPL i.e., 2008 and 2009, but have failed to go further. This has prompted the Indian and English bookies to pin Gautam Gambhir’s men as favourites to win Season III, which begins on Friday in Mumbai.

Bookies are impressed with a batting line-up that includes Virender Sehwag, Tillakaratne Dilshan, captain Gambhir, David Warner, AB de Villiers and Paul Collingwood as well.

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For the first time ever, India will witness a music competition right in the IPL cricket stadiums. With host Hard Kaur and judges Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher on the house, the show definitely promises to be a great entertaining affair.

Twelve talented singers will be competing in the city of Mohali and will be performing in the stadium live, in front of the audiences. Watch the IPL Rockstars perform in Mohali in the opening episode on March 13, 2010 at 7 pm only on COLORS.

Chennai Super Kings [ Images ] opener Matthew Hayden [ Images ] on Thursday launched the Mongoose bat, designed specifically to meet the new distilled demands of Twenty20  cricket.

The Mongoose bat is a shorter, more rigid blade is teamed with a longer, more flexible handle to offer increased power, faster bat speed and better manoeuvrability.

The splice is incorporated into the handle to remove any dead spot from the hitting area and the shoulders have been reconfigured to add weight to the back of the blade.

Former Australia  opener Hayden is confident that the new bats, with a bigger sweet spot, will help the batsmen hit harder, faster and further.

"The Mongoose has the potential to revolutionise cricket. Without changing your technique, the bat allows you to hit the ball harder and further.

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Although the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has clarified that the ban on captain Mohammed Yousuf is 'discretionary' and not for life, the dejected skipper is contemplating retirement. Yousuf's close friends said he was 'distraught' and almost speechless when he came to know about the PCB's decision.

"Yousuf is contemplating retirement with immediate effect, but we are trying to talk him out of it. At the moment, he is very confused with this situation and hopefully things may improve and become clearer soon," PakPassion.net quoted one of Yousuf's close friends, as saying.

According to him, Yousuf was particularly upset over the treatment meted out to him by the PCB, as he came to know about the ban imposed on him only through media. "All he wants to know is what he has done wrong. He has had no official correspondence from the Board or even a telephone call to explain where he has erred and has just heard about the punishment in the media. This is not the way to treat a Pakistani cricketing legend and someone who has served his country with dignity over the years," he said.

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His partner has lost control of her current predicament partly by taking dismal advice in his absence. She needs him desperately.

It might have reached such a point that the relationship is on the brink of collapse. In something akin to these circumstances Michael Clarke left the tour of New Zealand to be with fiancee Lara Bingle.

This apparently makes him unfit to captain the Australian cricket team. Should dash his hopes immediately. His priorities are askew. He is in the spell of a notorious temptress.

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Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has described all rounder Shahid Afridi as the 'best man to lead' the team in the forthcoming T20 World Championship in the Caribbean, and said the flamboyant cricketer should be appointed skipper for all the three forms of the game. "I'll go with Afridi as captain. In fact, I'll recommend Afridi for all three formats,"Raja said.

Sources inside the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) suggested that the board is hesitant to continue with Afridi as captain of the T20 team after he was punished for ball-tampering during the fifth and last one-day international against Australia at Perth . However, Raja backed Afridi, saying he has already been punished for his act.

"If that's the reason to overlook him as captain then I don't agree with it.He has been punished already. In any case, I think ball-tampering is no big deal. It's only that Afridi did it in a silly manner, probably in the pressure of the moment," The News quoted Raja, as saying. The PCB is considering giving the captaincy to Shoaib Malik or Abdul Razzaq but Raja said it won't be a wise move.

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Brett Lee says that he is disappointed that he will miss the excitement and the challenge of test cricket. The 33-year-old has been hampered by injuries throughout his career and this has prompted him to retire from Test cricket in order to prolong his ODI and Twenty20 career.

"I am satisfied with my Test career and longevity. All those years were really exciting and challenging for me and I will miss those things. It was a tough decision to retire from tests," Lee, who plays for Kings XI Punjab, said.

Lee felt that his body could not take any more Test cricket as it is more demanding and he retired because of his lifestyle. "I just want to prolong my career in ODIs and Twenty20. I want to play some more matches for Australia and that's the reason why I took the decision to continue playing in shorter formats," said Lee.

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Mitchell Johnson has avoided a suspension for his head-butt to the helmet of New Zealand batsman Scott Styris and now he needs to focus purely on cricket, Australia's "Mr Cricket" says.

Mike Hussey says while Johnson is a "passionate guy", the fiery pace bowler should be wary of the danger of getting too fired up to the detriment of the side as Australia face a mighty battle to retain the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.

The Kiwis claimed a two-wicket win in Wednesday's opening one-day international at McLean Park in Napier with Styris hitting a six from the second ball of the 50th over to finish on 49 not out, guiding the home side to 8-281 chasing Australia's 8-275.

Johnson, who appeared to thrust his head into the helmet of Styris when the pair had a mid-pitch confrontation at the end of the 46th over of the Kiwi innings, pleaded guilty late on Wednesday to a level-two breach of the ICC Code of Conduct.

The Australian was fined 60 per cent of his match fee by Sri Lankan match referee Ranjan Madugalle, although he could have been banned for up to two ODI games.

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Waqar Younis replaces Intikhab Alam as the new coach of the Pakistan cricket team. He now becomes the 4th coach of Pakistan in the last three years and is expected to be in charge until December 2011.

Waqar, who lives in Sydney these days, is expected to arrive in Pakistan in a week. His first assignment will be to defend the T20 crown in the ICC T20 World Cup at the Carribean.

"I've signed on and agreed to the contract," Waqar told Cricinfo. "I'll be arriving in Lahore next week to begin my work." PCB was considering a number of options for the top job but Waqar Younis emerged as the favorite among them.

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India is still celebrating the country's most loved batsman Sachin Tendulkar's date with history. The master blaster scored a mighty 200* at Gwalior on Feb 24 to become the only man in history to scale the height of 200 runs in a International ODI.Lurking underneath this great historical event for India, is a dingy underbelly of the plight of other sports in the country.

The pitch on which Sachin won himself a page in the history was actually a Hockey stadium, set up to honour Captain Roop Singh, an Olympic hockey gold medalist.

However, due to the increasing and rather overpowering popularity of cricket and fueled by the cricket love-lobby nurtured by the scions of Gwalior, the stadium was turned into a Cricket stadium in 1980s.It was on this turf that the lady luck smiled on Sachin Tendulkar and he rode into record books.

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