This news came just before the start of the IPL auction for the 2012 season, taking place in Bangalore, where 146 players would go under the hammer.

Sahara India Pariwar has shown many reasons for the pull out, starting from the change in IPL’s fixture plans to the sponsorship of the national team in 2003 World Cup.

Sahara has told BCCI that they will continue to sponsor the national team for the next two to four months, till a new sponsor is selected by them and they have also asked to handover the Pune IPL franchisee as soon as possible.

In a statement, Sahara said, “Now after a 11-year journey as sponsors, we can say with surety that cricket has become very rich. Many rich people are there to support cricket with a strong will to do so. So, with absolute peace of mind we can exit from cricket under BCCI and are now exiting with a heavy heart. It was an emotional decision for us to start this sponsorship but our emotions were never appreciated and many genuine situations, were not given due consideration at all.”

“We however, pray to the Almighty and sincerely hope & wish that Indian cricket attains greater heights of achievement & glory in the years ahead.” added Sahara.

Bowling first, India restricted the home side in just 131 runs in 19.4 overs, thanks to some brilliant bowling and fielding. Aaron Finch scored 36 runs, which is also the highest for Australia. Praveen Kumar and Rahul Sharma took two wickets each.

Openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag started well. Sehwag got out when he was on 23. Kohli and Ghambir put on 54 runs for the second wicket partnership.  Virat Kohli made 31 runs and got out when India was on 97. After that skipper M. S. Dhoni and Gambhir played till the end and secured a victory for the visitors. Gambhir made 56 not out and Dhoni made 21 not out. India reached the target with two balls to spare.

Australia scored a massive 171 with the loss of four wickets. Mathew Wade, Australia’s wicket-keeper batsman scored a brilliant 72 in 43 balls. He hit 5 boundaries and 3 over-boundaries in his way to 72. Another T-20 specialist David Hussey made 42 in 30 balls.

India scored only 140 runs in 20 overs. India did not start very well as Brett Lee claimed Virender Sehwag’s wicket when he was on 4. Brad Hogg created a huge roar when he took Virat Kohli when he was on 22. This was Hogg’s first T20 game since 2007. For the visitors, skipper M. S. Dhoni made 48 (43), which is the highest individual score for India.

Mathew Wade told that he did not think about the fight for wicket-keeper’s spot with Brad Haddin during his massive innings. He is really happy that he has contributed for the team and also expecting to continue this form in the next match also.

The second as well as the final match of the T20 series will be played on Friday in Melbourne.

After team India’s poor performance in Australia, this tour is aimed to improve team’s overseas performance. While speaking to English daily, Anurag Thakur, the BCCI Joint-secretary told that Indian batsmen found it hard to deal with the bounce overseas, BCCI now wants more U – 19 as well as India A tours. This U – 19 tour would be an ideal preparation as this team is scheduled to play the U – 19 World Cup in Australia in August.

He also added that in India there are hardly any bouncy tracks and this kind of tours will at least try to start solving problems. These matters will not change overnight but the board will try to make sure that the Indian batsmen will not face similar problems in future.

On Tuesday, the junior selection committee, led by former cricketer Abey Kuruvila, selected a 30 – member team for the Australia tour. Next month, the U – 19 team will also be playing at the Asia Cup in Malaysia.

Harsha Abeykoon, a sports ministry spokesperson told that the sports minister has ordered Sri Lanka cricket’s governing body to hold an investigation and urge to take curative action to stop the national team’s poor performances in recent years.

on Tuesday, South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 4 runs and took a 3 – 0 lead in their 5 match one day international series.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage asked the Sri Lanka Cricket chairman to “Carefully investigate the current crisis situation in the national cricket team and report back to me within a week,”

This order came at after a week when another minister criticized the national team’s performance and blamed the lack of spirit in the team. The government of the island nation has often been accused of interfering in sport and this not new to them.

Though Sri Lanka has reached the final of the Cricket World Cup in 2011, yet their recent performance has not been up to the mark. The team has won only one test match after bowling legend Muttiah Muralitharan retired in July 2010.

Captain Tillakaratne Dilshan blamed Sri Lanka’s inconsistent outcomes on the nation’s poor domestic scene.

After the match, skipper Dhoni said, “Certainly as far as the amount of cricket I’ve seen this is definitely one of the worst phases we are in,”

“We have not done consistently well. You saw that in England with the four Test matches out there and again I am repeating myself.”

“We have not put runs on the board. We have to look at things because the batsmen are flopping at times.”

“I need to blame myself because I am the leader of the side. Of course, I am the main culprit,” added Dhoni.

Making things worse skipper M. S. Dhoni has been suspended for one match for slow over rate. Sehwag will be captaining the side at the fourth and last test in Adelaide.

On the other hand, Aussie skipper Michael Clarke told, “We haven’t achieved much yet at this stage. We should be very proud to have beaten the number two ranked team in this series and we’ve done a lot of hard work.”

“But we’ve got a lot more hard work to do before we’ll be satisfied.”

“In Adelaide you’ll see that.”

“It’s nice to win this series but as I’ve said before our goal is to be the number one Test team in the world and we’re a long way from that.” added the Aussie captain.

Aussie opener David Warner made his career best 180 to put the Australian team in a commanding position. India took 7 wickets for 79 runs to restrict Australia with 369 runs in their first innings. Umesh Yadav took five wickets for 93 runs. Zaheer Khan supported him well by picking up 2 wickets for 91 runs. Another Aussie opener Ed Cowan scored 74. Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Virender Sehwag got one wicket each.

Starting their second innings, India showed little resistance. Mitchell Starc claimed Ghambhir’s wicket when he was on 14. Sehwag made 10 runs before becoming the victim of Siddle. India was largely depending on Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, but both of them failed to live up to the reputation. Starc took Sachin (8) and Hilfenhaus claimed Laxman (0). India trailing by 120 runs with Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli at the crease.

After losing both MCG and SCG tests, India were bowled out for only 161 in the first day of the third test. Australia, in their first innings, scored 149 without losing a wicket. Warner made his century in just 69 balls.

Warner told, “In my mind I think they’re bowled over already,”

“Hopefully we can get this Test out of the way, capitalize on the start we’ve got and win this Test first.” added the Aussie batsman.

He further added that they are 2 – 0 ahead in the 4 match test series and hopefully if they can make 400 – 500 runs and bowl them out again. It will be fantastic, if Australia can take the series.

“I have never seen an Indian side fight. May be this happens after a few beers, sitting with the opposition and just dreaming about it. This is one thing we are really proud of,” the Indian skipper told the reporters ahead of the third test starting on Friday.

“The dressing room atmosphere is great and how we love each others’ success. This is Indian team’s strength and this is something we are looking to improve further,” added Dhoni.

Previously, both Sehwag and Dravid dismissed the reports of rift in the team. Aussie media reported that some players, in the Indian team, want Shewag to lead the team instead of Dhoni.

Dhoni said that he takes advice from all including vice-captain, senior players and youngsters and everyone moves in same direction.

Dravid said, “When you lose 2-0, that’s part and parcel of what happens, suddenly everything is wrong,”

“So there’s absolutely no truth to those matters.”

While replying about the team’s decision to go for the go-karting session, Dravid replied, “One of the good things about travelling abroad is you are in a bit of a cocoon. You don’t gauge what’s happening back home. There’s a sense of disappointment with the results so far, we would certainly like to do better but the spirit of the team is very good.”

The former captain told that the team is not bothered about negative comments. What the team is thinking about is five days of good cricket. As far as motivation is concerned, Dravid said when you are playing for India; you do not need any one’s comment to motivate you.