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On Thursday evening, CNN’s Piers Morgan appeared before 2,000 Australian cricket fans who watched as he took bowls (they look like pitches to us Americans) from a peeved Aussie bowler. Morgan had apparently long been taunting the Aussies as he was fed up with watching his native English cricket players getting dominated by their Australian counterparts. This led to a public challenge of sorts, where Morgan faced bowler Brett Lee and received several welts from 80 mph throws that struck his body in various spots. Throughout the ordeal, Morgan remained defiant, telling the bowler to “bring it on” after each...

A plant-hopping insect found in gardens across Europe - has hind-leg joints with curved cog-like strips of opposing 'teeth' that intermesh, rotating like mechanical gears to synchronise the animal's legs when it launches into a jump. This image shows cog wheels connecting the hind legs of the plant hopper, Issus. Credit: Burrows/Sutton Photograph of an Issus nymph. Credit: Malcolm Burrows The finding demonstrates that gear mechanisms previously thought to be solely man-made have an evolutionary precedent. Scientists say this is the "first observation of mechanical gearing in a biological structure". Through a combination of anatomical analysis and high-speed video capture...

SNIPPET: "The prosecution also told the court that most wanted Dawood has also been declared "international terrorist" and is facing stringent United Nations Security Council sanctions. In the running of organised criminal activities against strategic and economic security of India and its citizens, he plays a pivotal role."

The Cricketers.....

India has won the 2011 Cricket World Cup by 6 wickets over Sri Lanka. MS Dhoni crushed a six on the final ball to complete the chase for the Indians, who overcame a 274-run inning by their opponent, despite losing their first two batsmen (including "the master" Sachin Tendulkar) in the opening overs ...... It's India's first World Cup championship in 28 years.

The new title for world's biggest testicles (relative to body weight) goes to the tuberous bushcricket, a type of katydid, according to a new study. The sperm-producing organs account for 14 percent of the body mass of males of this bushcricket species. The previous record holder's testicles—belonging to the fruit fly Drosophila bifurca—tipped the scales at about 11 percent of its body mass. "I was amazed by the size of the testes—they seemed to take up the entire abdomen," said study leader Karim Vahed, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Derby in the U.K.

Shortly into my first job a little over three decades ago, i was given a letter to edit. It was sent by Gogumal Kishenchand asking to be acknowledged for his 'contribution' in Sir Donald Bradman's exploits. It was a strange demand made more intriguing by Kishenchand's persistence, for a similar letter would arrive almost every week. After a few months of mounting suspense, the mystery was explained. Kishenchand wrote that he was the bowler when Bradman scored the single to reach his hundredth hundred on November 15, 1947 in Sydney where India were playing an Australian Xl in a warm-up...

TAMPA, Fla. (June 3) - Capt. Sam Gibbons knew his mission was in trouble when he hit the ground in the early hours of the D-Day invasion 63 years ago. The future congressman's 101st Airborne troops were scattered far from their intended drop zone. And the only nearby soldiers he could see where German. "People are always talking about behind enemy lines. Hell, there ain't no lines in combat," said Gibbons, who was 24 when he parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944. "We jumped right on top of the Germans." On the ground, in the dark, the scattered American...

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Cricket has proven a better investment than the stock market for India’s billionaires, prompting tycoons to line up this weekend to buy new franchises. The Indian Premier League, playing a three-hour version of the traditional five-day game, has set a March 21 deadline for prospective owners to bid for its ninth and 10th teams. The $225 million minimum is more than double the highest bid submitted for an original team. The eight teams’ owners include Mukesh Ambani, the world’s fourth-richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd.; billionaire Vijay Mallya, chairman of UB Group; Rupert Murdoch’s...

NEW DELHI: The Federation of International Cricketer's Association (FICA) once again raised the issue of security during the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL). FICA president Tim May, a former Aussie cricketer, told TOI on Saturday that foreign players urgently needed information on security arrangements during IPL because independent Australian security experts have told FICA that the T20 event faces threat from terror outfits, including Taliban. "We have generic inputs from an independent security agency in Australia that Taliban, a couple of other right wing and terrorist groups could be a threat to the IPL and we are really concerned about...

INTERNET search giant Google has signalled it will compete against broadcasters and other media companies for the rights to sports and entertainment events after confirming it will show live cricket matches on its YouTube video website. The company has signed a two-year global deal to offer live and on-demand access on YouTube to all 60 matches in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League competition, which begins on March 12. It will also show on-demand content on mobile phones. The move signals Google's intention to transform YouTube from a video search engine and repository for home-made videos to a global internet and...

As Bug Fighting Goes Year Round, Fans Bemoan Role of Performance-Enhancing Drugs, Money Like the baseball calendar in the U.S., China's cricket-fighting season is getting longer and longer. Purists fret that the pastime is being threatened by a money culture. Helping lead the effort to upend thousands of years of Chinese tradition is Xu Moxiao, a man determined to lengthen the customary autumn fighting season. He thinks year-round bug fights are better for fans and for the people who make money off the sport. "What I'm doing is trying to expand the good things," says Mr. Xu. Cricket fighting has...

An umpire has died after being struck on the head by a ball in a freak accident during a local cricket match. Alcwyn Jenkins was officiating a game at the St Helen’s ground in Swansea yesterday afternoon when he collapsed after the blow. The 72-year-old from the Sketty area of the city was airlifted to hospital but died shortly afterwards. The game between Swansea and Llangennech in Division One of the Antur Insurance South Wales Association was later abandoned. Witnesses said a batsmen hit the ball to a boundary where a fielder threw it back to the wicket. But Mr...

Mumbai Indians vs New York Yankees, anyone? The oft-projected dream of big time cricket returning to the United States is being cranked up again with plans for an American Premier League (APL) on the lines of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). If that happens, the game could even have a new celebrity fan - US President Barack Obama. On a visit to Trinidad this past weekend, Obama wielded the bat under the tutelage of the great Brian Lara, essaying a left-handed cover drive after dropping in at the stadium named after the country's national hero. The US President, who...

Pakistan came under new criticism about its security forces Thursday as dramatic footage emerged of the cricket attackers making a leisurely getaway from the scene of their deadly assault. The images of the gunmen calmly walking off, without police or security forces chasing them, will add to speculation swirling around Tuesday's brazen daytime attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team that left eight people dead. Pakistan is steeped in political violence, and suspicion has fallen mainly on Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Police have brought in around two dozen people for questioning but so far have no...

Five-minute gap fuels conspiracy theory over Lahore terror attack Jeremy Page in Lahore and Anne Barrowclough in Sydney An unexplained five-minute delay in the Pakistani cricket team schedule has fuelled speculation that the gunmen who launched a terror attack against the Sri Lankan Test team this week were acting on inside information. After a furious tirade by the English match referee, Chris Broad, yesterday, both an Australian umpire and Sri Lanka's star spin bowler fed the conspiracy theory today, questioning the level of security and the timing of events. "You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our...

Former England cricketer Chris Broad has been hailed a hero of the terrorist ambush in Lahore after throwing himself on top of a critically injured umpire Ahsan Raza during the attack. The 51-year-old former batsman was travelling in a motorcade carrying players and officials which came under fire outside the Gaddafi Stadium. Eight people were killed and seven members of the Sri Lankan squad, including its English assistant coach Paul Farbrace were wounded. The attack cast the future of the game in Pakistan, one of the co-hosts for the 2011 World Cup, into serious doubt. Mr Broad, who was to...

In a commando-style operation, a dozen gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the heart of Lahore, Pakistan's cultural and political hub, at 8:45 Tuesday morning. The attackers fired rockets, grenades and multiple rounds of ammunition at the team's bus and the police escorting it, killing eight people and injuring six. To some eyewitnesses, it was last November's Mumbai attacks replayed on Pakistani soil. Amid thick morning traffic in Lahore's Liberty Square, the gunmen ambushed the bus as it approached the Gaddaffi cricket stadium. "I heard the attack and spun around," recalls Abdul Ghani Butt, 30, a foreign-currency dealer...

Sorry for the vanity- I am just monitoring the news Channels here in India and this is on all of them - The Sri Lankan Cricket team, playing a test series against Pakistan has just been attacked by terrorists with assault weapons and grenades. At least 6 of their players have been injured in the chest and leg, 5 guards killed in the attack near the Qaddafi stadium. The Sri lamkan team replaced India who refused to tour after the Mumbai carnage.