Indian Football Association is overwhelmed by inquiries from all across the world. Both IFA and CMG are expecting for a phenomenal response. Utpal Ganguli told that he is sure that IPL television right holders would be concerned about Premier League Soccer. He further stated that he is not challenging anyone, but looking at the extraordinary response, he is sure that Indian Premier League will be no match for this new football league.

The next stage of auction for the Indian footballers will take place on 12th February and their base price of Rs. 2 – 3 lakh. This IPL style tournament will have 35 matches with 5 knockout ties. PLS winners will get Rs. 50 lakh as prize money. The tournament will see the likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo and Robert Pires as icon players and there will also be several well known coaches for the teams. According to reports, the pre-season camp will begin from 3rd March.

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.

In a quite unexpected announcement, HRT have declared Karthikeyan’s name as Pedro de la Rosa’s partner, for the upcoming season, over Vitaly Petrov and Tonio Liuzzi. It means that this Spanish formula 1 team, this season, will be racing with the oldest drivers with de la Rosa (40) and Karthikeyan (35).

India’s first Formula 1 driver Karthikeyan made his debut in this game with Jordan in 2005 and last season he drove with Hispania Racing in nine races including  the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

Narain Karthikeyan told that it has taken a lot of hard work to make this happen but he is utterly elated to feature on the 2012 grid with HRT F1 Team. He was pleased with their strong performance at the Indian Grand Prix, in front of the passionate home fans and he is looking forward to build on this result in 2012 season. He has been training hard since the end of last season, ensuring he was ready for the rigours of F1 if an opportunity comes out. He is delighted to have signed with HRT.

“With the new management, Pedro, and the team, there is definite potential for progress.” said Narain.

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.

FIFA has asked India to bid for the U-17 World Cup. The executive committee will be selecting the host nation in March. Kushal Das, the secretary of All India Football Federation stated that the federation is gearing up to put forward the bid by 15th March.

AIFF Secretary said that they are making a professionally worked out document and if the FIFA Executive members grant the world cup to India, then it will be the biggest tournament in the sub-continent. He also added that the government has to pass a declaration to FIFA that it would back the tournament.

Union sports minister Ajay Maken stated that the government has always been supportive in these kinds of efforts.

If India gets to secure the rights to host the cup, then it will be India’s first ever U-17 World Cup as they will automatically qualify as the host nation.

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.

He was in charge of Real Madrid from 1974 to 1977. During his tenure, he won two league titles and one King’s Cup.

He also coached other famous football clubs like Red Star and Valencia. During 1982-83, he was dismissed from Valencia for poor results. He coached the Yugoslavian national team in two spells between 1973 to 1974 and 1979 to 1982.

Miljani? was born in Bitolj. He played for Red Star Belgrade in his career as a player. As a coach, he was known for new defensive tactics.

European football giant Real Madrid said on their website: “Real Madrid wishes to express its deepest condolences to his family,”

“Miljanic left a great impression at the club both professionally and personally.”