EDITORIAL BOARD Editor Manish Verma Managing Editor Rakesh Pandey Email : [email protected] Sub Editor Mohd. Asim Contributing Editors S. Pervez Qaiser, Sreelata S Yellamrazu, Haresh Pandya Graphic Designer Lalita Adhikari, Anoop Ranjan Das Media Relations Officer Monica Bhardwaj Production Co-ordinator Sunil Chaudhary Photos A.P., Fotocorp, Narender Kumar, Raj Kumar, Rahul Gulati [email protected] Money, Glamour & Slam-Bang Action ndian Premier League, the most spec- Chargers and . There are BUSINESS OFFICE tacular extravaganza of T20 is back. The some renowned players in these franchises, DIAMOND MAGAZINES PVT. LTD. Ififth season of this cash rich league will however, they lack on the overall front and X-30, Okhla Ind. Area, feature nine teams with Kochi Tuskers would be fighting hard for a place in the Ph-2, New Delhi-20, Tel 011-40712100 Kerala being shown the door by the BCCI on bottom half of the league. All in all, we can Fax (011) 41611866 account of financial wrongdoings. After auc- expect a grueling fifth season of the IPL. Director (Mktg.) Manish Verma, tion, trading and the much talked about Much like IPL, Sachin is the most talked E-mail : [email protected] Sahara-BCCI showdown, teams are gearing about cricketer at the moment. The mile- up to take on each other. IPL is a classic stone – which for some was awaited with case of 'friends turning into foes' as team- bated breath, for others seen as merely a ADVERTISING OFFICES mates and close friends are lined-up against number, for some a zenith – has finally Delhi Vivek Parashar, M. P. Singh, Tarun, each other. , the yellow arrived. He searched it the world over, for Mohd. Faisal (011) 40712100 brigade, captained by MS Dhoni, are the over a year, not knowing that the landmark Mumbai Praveen Chandra, C. Garima defending champions and the only team to would come near to home. And on March 9820129206 win consecutive IPL titles. They once again 16, 2012, he finally found it, in Bangladesh. Biswajit Dasgupta 9830092763 go in as the favorites for the fifth season and He is now a 100-century man. A hundred Bangalore Pratap Kumar 09845234036 if everything falls in place, one shouldn’t be international centuries sounds insane, Kanpur Sundhaya Tewari 09415291020 surprised seeing them picking up the trophy almost nonsensical, but it is no longer a Indore Ramesh C. Nagar, Kanta Nagar 9302113401 at their home ground for the third consecu- myth or illusion. It is an uncomplicated Mrs. Khisti 9822202082 tive year. Chennai has abundance of talent truth, one that makes the record book feel a Chennai Sathish C. Anand 9841023010 in every department of the game and with lot heavier. It would be foolish to think that Hyderabad Vijay K Viswanadha the addition of Ravindra Jadeja; things are the landmark weighed Tendulkar down so 9246501841 Ahmedabad Madan Menon looking rosy for the Chennai brigade. as to affect his game. When 99 centuries 9898002522 Bhopal S.B. Sharma However, this doesn’t close the gate on the weren't easy, how could the 100th be any 9425024386 Raipur V. Sridhar remaining eight teams. RCB, KKR, Mumbai less difficult? However, this little man didn’t 9893309558 Indians and Delhi Daredevils have strong bow down in front of the expectations and Punjab Puneet Arya 9316969911 squads, who are capable of winning the some unwanted criticism. He worked his Pune Prasad Datar 9822112674 matches on any given day and from any sit- way quietly and finally nailed the target. So Mangalore Sanjay Mudbidri 09880483130 uation. Several players from these teams are let the 'superhuman' grab an armchair, put Total Pages 108 with Cover proven match winners who can change the his feet up, close his eyes and soak in this flow of the game in a short span of time. moment. Apart from this, there is much Copyright Nonetheless, same couldn’t be said about more to read about. Have fun reading the 2005 " Today" is a registered trademark of The Diamond Group. All rights reserved. No Part of this Pune Warriors, Kings XI Punjab, Deccan issue. publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, For day-to-day updates on cricket and cricketers join us on Facebook and Twitter. Or visit our website: www.cricketoday.in electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or oth- erwise, without prior permission. Printed & Published by Manish Verma and Edited by Manish Verma on behalf of Diamond Magazines Pvt. Ltd. Printed at Best Photo Offset Printers, A-81, D.D.A. Shed, Okhla Industrial area, Phase-II, New Delhi-20

4 Cricket Today April 2012 From the biggest cricket extravaganza on earth, the APRIL 2012 to Sachin’s 100th International ton, Cricket Today's April issue unfolds all the latest CONTENTS happenings in the world of sports.

92 Sports Safari Reunion 24 Stalled 84 Top Story Feature Sachin : Journey of the Punter : The Australian Milestone Man Fighter

100 Scoop of the Month Is Divorce Over?

80 Profile The Wall : Commitment, IPL-5 Consistency & Class Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL-5 Kolkata Knight Riders Hotel IPL-5 Manpreet Singh Gony’s favorite Mumbai Indians destination is London 104 IPL-5 View Point Sports Round Up Delhi Daredevils Team India : The World’s Greatest? No plan to marry IPL-5 Talking Point Pune Warriors Spirit Remains Only In Cans & IPL-5 Bottles View Point Kings XI Punjab Greats of the Is Virat World’s Best Batsman? IPL-5 Game King Richards I IPL-5 When Cricket Can Be A Party IPL-5 Willowy Words Peter Smith - A Friend of Cricket IPL-5 Rajasthan Royals IPL’s Scintillating Skirmishes Cricket’s Lighter Face Off Side IPL-5 Ravindra Jadeja’s Favourite Chennai Super Kings Vizzy’s Effective Method To Hunt Sportsperson is Ronaldo Tigers death overs new ball middle muddle

6 Cricket Today April 2012 Cricket is a passion and like any other sports, NEWS this gentleman’s game too produces some unex- pected happenings on and off the field. From ROUND UP records to milestones..... By Girish Singh Amir blasts Butt

Clarke wins award In his first year as Australian , Michael Clarke has also proven to be the country’s best performer by winning his third Allan Border Medal. Clarke was a runaway winner, snaring his first Test player of the year award, finishing with 231 total votes, 57 ahead of veteran Mike Hussey. , winner of both the one-day and T20 player of the year Mohammad Amir, in his first comments on the spot-fixing awards was third with Ricky Ponting, courtesy of resurgence in the Test affair that disgraced Pakistan cricket, has presented himself series against India, back in fourth. The award came seven years after as a victim of a plot organized by his captain at the time, Clarke’s first Border Medal win in 2005, after which he was dropped and Salman Butt, and the agent, Mazhar Majeed, and pleaded needed to fight his way back in to the side. for forgiveness. “I am so angry with Salman,” Amir said. “He took advantage of my friendship. And I used to respect him like an elder brother.” However, the father of Salman Butt has accused disgraced bowler Mohammed Amir of Cricket falsely pinning all the blame on his son in order to revive his career. WAGs hog limelight Warne misses Hurley The Australian cricketers’ ladies It was a proud moment for when he was paraded into Crown for the Allan inducted into Australia’s 2012 Hall of Fame, but the spin Border Medal in Melbourne, flaunt- legend couldn’t share it with fiancée Elizabeth Hurley. ing fashionable outfits with plunging “Elizabeth is shooting otherwise she was going to come backlines and bling on the fingers, and fly back,” said Warne. “She’s very disappointed as ears and wrists. Ricky Ponting’s wife, she couldn’t be here with us but we’ve spoken on the Rianna, sported a blue gown by Steven phone and she’s very proud,” he stated. Khalil, the same designer who made her wedding dress. Michael Clarke made a bold statement stepping out with partner, Kyly Boldy. She went for serious red-carpet glamour in a black Louis Vuitton gown that she was stitched into. Apparently symbolizing an expensive baggy green, all-rounder Shane Watson’s wife, Lee Furlong, wore a divine green velvet gown by Johanna Johnson. Mitchell Johnson’s wife, Jessica, wore a red and black gown by Perth label Zhivago and had an exclusive access to accessories from her own label Jessica Bratich.

8 Cricket Today April 2012 Court slaps Azharuddin Azharuddin was recently slapped a cost of Afridi’s Rs. 15 lakh by a Delhi court for showing “utter disdain” to it by not appearing before the court in a cheque bounce case and Secrets “wasting its time.” Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Vikrant Vaid imposed the cost after 1 being informed that Azharuddin had amica- Shahid Afridi, the fiery bly arrived at an out-of-court settlement. “If Pakistani all-rounder, has settlement had to be done, it could have six brothers and five sis- been done on the first date itself,” the court ters in the family. said while taking strict view on the conduct 2 of the Lok Sabha MP from Moradabad in His nick name is shah and Uttar Pradesh. is also called boom-boom by his fans all over the world. 3 Afridi is fond of light music England retains and folk songs and his favorite singers are numero uno status Backstreet boys, Spice Girls and Ricky Martin. England has secured top spot in the 4 Reliance ICC Test Championship table He was fond of scoring at the 1st April cut-off date, after the runs on the bowling of first Test between New Zealand and Shane Warne and Muttiah South Africa ended in a draw. This is the Muralitharan. first time, since the current rankings 5 system was introduced in 2003, that He often goes for shooting England has topped the table at the cut- near the Afghanistan bor- off date. As such, they will retain the der and uses M16s at the Championship mace and will also shooting range. receive a cheque of US$175,000 which is 6 presented annually to the side that tops He would have been in the table at the cut-off date. For the next army if he was not a crick- three years, a total of $3.8m will be dis- eter. tributed in prize money with the side 7 topping the table at the 1st April cut-off He is a religious guy and date in 2013 to receive a minimum of wishes to go into the way $450,000 rising to $500,000 in 2015. of Allah and be a good From 2016, there will be further increas- Muslim once he es in Test prize money. finishes his cricketing Rana denies career. fixing role

Pakistani fast bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has denied his involvement in match-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Rana’s name figured in the investigations after police in Bangladesh arrested a Pakistani, Sajid Khan, on suspicion of spot-fixing during a BPL match. Rana and Khan have been photographed together in the past. Khan allegedly was making several phone calls from the stands during a crucial BPL match. A court in Dhaka has remanded him to custody.