January 30, 2015

12 cricket greats who never won ICC World Cup

There are countless talented cricketers who had worked tirelessly throughout their careers to have their hands on the coveted ICC Cricket World Cup trophy, but the title of world champion eluded them. I was one of those lucky ones to be part of the winning ICC Cricket World Cup squad when hardly anybody knew who Inzamamul Haq was. While the sweet memory of that Crystal Ball at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 1992 is still fresh in my mind, I really feel sorry for greats like Sir Richard Hadlee, Zaheer Abbas, Abdul Qadir and Dennis Lillee who quit the game without winning the World Cup. While sitting back and recalling the names of those unluckiest greats, here’s my team of 12 players, who deserved to be part of the winning World Cup sides, at least, once in their careers, but unfortunately couldn’t do so.


Saeed Anwar: Before openers like Matthew Hayden and Virender Sehwag took the world by storm, if one had to pick an opener in one-day cricket, he was the man for the slot. There weren’t many players during his playing days who had batted at a strike-rate of 80 plus with so much elegance and power. He came agonisingly close to the title in 1999, but we lost to Australia in the final at Lord’s despite the fact that Saeed was in ominous form and had smashed a century against New Zealand in the semifinals. His 194 in Chennai in 1997 (the then world record) and century against India at Centurion in 2003 remains one of the finest ODI centuries by an opener.


Sourav Ganguly: Lady luck didn’t smile on Sourav when in 2003 India lost to Australia in the final. I feel India progressed in one-day cricket during the captaincy of this gifted cricketer from Bengal. He was one of those cricketers, who played beautifully on the off-side of the wicket. Most of the time he scored, India won. However, maybe World Cup was not in his fate.


Brian Lara: The man who has the fan following throughout the world. A cricketer who will be pencilled first whenever a World XI is made – be it limited overs or Test cricket. I haven’t seen a better left-hander than Brian, who without any doubt was a match-winner. I think 1996 was his best chance to win the event but the West Indies lost to Australia from a winning position in the semifinal.


Jacques Kallis: His record speaks for itself. Perhaps the only all-rounder who could walk into any playing XI either as a specialist batsman or a specialist bowler. To me, in one-day cricket, only Sachin Tendulkar comes ahead of Jacques. His best chances to win the World Cup were in 1999 and 2007.


Martin Crowe: One of my all-time favourite cricketers whom I followed a lot. I haven’t come across many cricketers who were good against both spin and fast bowlers like Martin. I have seen lots of great batsman, but the batting technique of Martin was far better than most of them. His magnificent form saw New Zealand qualify for the semifinal in 1992. He deserved to win the World Cup but we clicked in time and ended New Zealand’s brilliant run.


Rahul Dravid: The cornerstone of India batting and appropriately known as the ‘Wall’, Rahul carried the India team with his wide range of stroke-selection and finished with nearly 11,000 ODI runs. Rahul’s best chance to win the World Cup was in 2003 but Ricky Ponting spoilt the party for them.


Ian Botham: An aggressive all-rounder who played during an era when one-day cricket was not that much aggressive and most of the nations were concentrating on Test cricket. We were lucky to dismiss him early in the 1992 final because he could have easily taken the game away from us with his brutal batting, but his best chance was potentially in 1983 when England had some of the best cricketers during that period.


Anil Kumble: A miser leg-spinner, who didn’t like to be hit for runs. Anil was not a big spinner of the cricket ball, but kept batsmen thinking with his superb line and length. Whenever he got favourable turfs, he was there to turn the tables on the opponents. He was probably the only spinner who was not shy of showing aggression like the fast bowlers. Again, his World Cup hopes were probably dashed at Centurion in 2003.


Waqar Younis: Great bowler with a bad luck as he had to fly back home from Australia in 1992 due to back injury. We let him and the country down in the final at Lord’s in 1999 while Sachin undone Pakistan in Mohali in 2011 when Waqar was the coach.


Allan Donald: He was quite pacey when I first batted against him in 1992. At that time he didn’t know how to reverse swing, but learnt the art quickly. South Africa owes a lot of its early successes to Allan who regularly destroyed the top order. The rain-rule in 1992 and Steve Waugh’s drop catch and the tied match in 1999, denied him the chance to hold the silverware, at least, once in his career.


Curtly Ambrose: To play international cricket for such a long period of time with such a height is something which is a big achievement. He bowled at such a good line and length and moved the ball both ways that it made life difficult for the batsmen anywhere around the world. He filled the void left by Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall and Andy Roberts while pairing with Courtney Walsh. Like Lara and Courtney, he could have potentially collected the winner’s medal in 1996.


Jonty Rhodes: The only cricketer in the history who could make it to any team purely as a fielder. Whenever we played against him, I used to note down 30-40 against his name because of his fielding. I still smile when I recall his ‘flying’ run out of mine in 1992 World Cup. He was such a brilliant athlete that he used to change the attitude of entire team through his electrifying fielding.

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U of L's 2015 football schedule set

The University of Louisville's football team ran through a bevy of new experiences in its first Atlantic Coast Conference season.
In Year 2, U of L gets to experience a few more.
U of L will travel to powerhouse Florida State on Oct. 17 after hosting Clemson on Sept. 17 this upcoming season, the ACC announced on Thursday. Those two games highlight Louisville's league schedule, which also includes trips to NC State (Oct. 3), Wake Forest (Oct. 30) and Pittsburgh (Nov. 21).
In addition to Clemson, which is expected to make a serious run at FSU for the league title, the Cardinals also have three other home conference games at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium against Boston College (Oct. 24), Syracuse (Nov. 7) and Virginia (Nov. 14).
THE COURIER-JOURNAL
View and print 2015 ACC, Louisville football schedules
The Clemson game is the featured ACC game of the week and will be on national television.
Seven of the eight ACC games are sandwiched between Louisville's four nonconference games.
The Cards open the season with a Sept. 5 meeting in Atlanta against Auburn. That matchup, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, will be nationally televised. Auburn, fresh off an 8-5 season, is considered a College Football Playoff contender by early-season prognosticators.
A week later, U of L hosts Houston at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in the first of a two-year home-and-home series with the Cougars, who still play in the American Athletic Conference, Louisville's rent-a-league in 2013. Houston has a new head coach in ex-Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman.
THE COURIER-JOURNAL
Louisville football to host fan party, stream web show on national signing day
FCS opponent Samford comes to Louisville on Sept. 26. The Cards have played an FCS team each season since 2007.
The annual rivalry game between Louisville and Kentucky will close out the regular season again in 2015, this time with UK hosting at Commonwealth Stadium on Nov. 28.
The ACC schedule fills in everything else, with the road games at NC State and Pitt and the home meetings with BC and Virginia all having potential to be entertaining games beyond the Clemson and FSU matchups.
Louisville gets a bye week on Oct. 10.
THE COURIER-JOURNAL
University of Louisville finalizes adidas apparel contract extension
2015 Louisville Football Schedule
Date / Opponent / Site / Series
Sept. 5 / vs. Auburn / Atlanta Georgia / Auburn leads 1-0
Sept. 12 / Houston / Louisville, Ky. / Louisville leads 8-7
Sept. 17 (Thur.) / Clemson* / Louisville, Ky. / Clemson leads 1-0
Sept. 26 / Samford / Louisville, Ky / First Meeting
Oct. 3 / at NC State* / Raleigh, N.C. / Louisville leads 4-1
Oct. 17 / at Florida State* / Tallahassee, Fla. / Florida State leads 13-2
Oct. 24 / Boston College / Louisville, Ky. / Louisville leads 4-3
Oct. 30 (Fri.) / at Wake Forest* / Winston-Salem, N.C. / Louisville leads 2-0
Nov. 7 / Syracuse* / Louisville, Ky. / Louisville leads 7-6
Nov. 14 / Virginia* / Louisville, Ky. / Virginia leads 2-1
Nov. 21 / at Pittsburgh* / Pittsburgh, Pa. / Series tied 8-8
Nov. 28 / at Kentucky* / Lexington, Ky. / Kentucky leads 14-13
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WWE's Terrible Content Has Done Little To Slow The Company Down

Talk about your all-time backfires. On Sunday, WWE superstar Roman Reigns was booed out of the house after overcoming the odds to win the annual Royal Rumble. The man had just survived one of the biggest matches of the year and was embraced by legend and fan favorite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and yet the duo was still showered with boos and jeers. It wasn’t just the in-house reaction of Philadelphia’s wrestling-savvy crowd, either, as the #CancelWWENetwork hashtag was one of Twitter's TWTR +2.32% top trends.
UPDATE – A WWE spokesperson denies that the WWE Network’s cancellation page crashed at any point over the weekend, as previously reported in this story and elsewhere. Any service failure experienced by users, including the present author, were not caused by server overload on WWE’s end, according to the company. The WWE spokesperson also clarified that there was no spike in WWE Network cancellations following Royal Rumble.
The response was pretty clearly not a reaction to just the Royal Rumble’s booking, but also to the months of stale, repetitive and even outright boring programming that WWE has been putting out recently. Yet what might be even more surprising than Philly’s hostile reaction is that the company has been thriving throughout 2014 and appears to still be trending upwards despite the deluge of disappointing content.
The problems with WWE’s in-ring action are myriad. Many pay-per-view events feel like glorified episodes of Monday Night RAW, which itself has become a chore to watch. What’s more, it often appears that talented and hard working talent has been overlooked in favor of less skilled but more muscle-bound wrestlers. That would help explain why a jam-packed Wells Fargo WFC -1.59%Center spent the second half of the Royal Rumble match sitting on their hands after Daniel Bryan was eliminated, and why that silence turned to outright revolt when it became clear that Reigns would earn a title shot at March’s WrestleMania.
It’s also hard to imagine that WWE programming could be more tiresome. Since the end of October 2014 there have been 12 episodes of Monday Night RAW and three PPVs. Across those 15 events, the Miz has been involved in 12 matches with the Uso brothers. At Sunday’s Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar, John Cena and Seth Rollins put on the sort of incredible match that reminds fans just how exciting wrestling can be at its best. And it probably would have been even better had Cena and Rollins not already fought each other at least eight times over the previous three months. Other recent rivalries have been similarly redundant.
Those repetitive matches haven’t been rewarding, either. Of the 52 weekly RAW telecasts in 2014, just 18 of them, or 35%, had a main event with a decisive finish. Just as many episodes featured a main event that ended in a no contest or disqualification. A quick look at the eight RAW cards since the end of November reveals 62 total matches. Just 32 of them, or 52%, were won by a clean, non-roll-up pinfall or submission, with the rest ending in some combination of distraction, disqualification or otherwise dirty finish. Those sorts of non-finishes aren’t always bad, but it’s absurd that just about half of WWE’s matches rely on them.
These trends have been ongoing for much of 2014 and yet, by most accounts, the company is as strong as ever.
On television, WWE’s weekly Monday Night RAW telecast is a juggernaut, regularly topping four million viewers throughout its lengthy three-hour run time, making it one of the most-viewed weekly shows on cable TV. Despite being a pay-per-view event, Sunday’s Royal Rumble was the week’s fifth-most viewed TV event, and Monday’s non-episode of RAW – the live event was cancelled by inclement weather – ranked seventh despite not carrying a single live match.


WWE’s stock price took a huge dive in the spring, falling from an all-time high of $31 to under $12 in just two months, a reaction to the WWE Network’s slow start and an underwhelming renewal of the promotion’s cable broadcast contract. But news broke earlier this week that the WWE Network has reached one million subscribers, the projected break-even point for making up revenue lost by cannibalizing its PPV buyers. On Tuesday the company’s stock price jumped almost 20% to $12.50 per share.
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Yennai Arindhaal New Theme Music Leaked Online


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January 21, 2015

Grant Gustin Teases ‘Big Twist’ at End of The Flash’s First Season


BY  ON
 
JANUARY 20, 2015
Grant Gustin Teases ‘Big Twist’ at End of The Flash’s First Season
Warning: Spoilers for “The Flash” mid-season finale.
The mid-season finale of “The Flash” had Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen go up against his most dangerous foe yet, the Reverse Flash, and though the character was seemingly unmasked at the end of that episode, Gustin says there’s another twist in the story coming.
“There’s a big twist that even surprised me,” Gustin tells EW. “I’ve seen all the predictions online. No one has predicted the big twist that’s coming at the end of this season.”
In other Reverse-Flash news, Filmsketchr managed to find two pieces of concept art for the character created by artist John Gallagher which you can check out below! “The Flash” returns tonight at 8 P.M. EST.
Click on the images to see bigger versions!
reverse flash1-640
reverse flash2-640
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Former WWE And WCW Star Bill Goldberg Interested In Fighting — Talks Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, And Jon Jones

Pro wrestling legend Bill Goldberg sat down for an interview with Submission Radio. In the one-hour interview, Goldberg hit on a variety of subjects including a potential Brock Lesnar UFC return, how he thinks Brock would do, Jon Jones’ failed drug test and how the UFC handled it, if he would ever consider having at least one pro MMA fight, if he thinks CM Punk will be successful in the UFC, and nearly accepting a fight in the now extinct PRIDE FC.
Goldberg on whether or not he thinks Brock Lesnar will have success if he returns to the UFC:
“I think so. You know I haven’t trained with Brock. I don’t know exactly what he does, but if I were him I’d spend 75 percent of my time on stand up. I believe that if he does it properly he can go back and dominate, but if he doesn’t do it properly he’ll go back and the same thing will happen, you know towards the end of his tenure. It’s all about growing. It’s all about being able to look at yourself in the mirror and look at your deficiencies, and be man enough, and be egoless to go out and put yourself in negative situations in training so that you could learn.”
Goldberg talks about the Jon Jones situation, and how the UFC handled it:
“When I saw Dana White’s comment about ‘this is the best thing that could have happened’ you know I was appalled. But once you sit back and think about it, for Jon Jones the person this is the best thing that could have happened. Do I like Jon Jones as a fighter? Was I cheering for Jon Jones against Cormier? No. Do I appreciate his ability? Do I think he is pound for pound the narliest MMA fighter on the planet? Absolutely. Can I appreciate the fact that he’s made it to that level by training his ass off, and being unique, and being innovative? Absolutely. Do I like him as a person on a post-fight interview? Absolutely not. Do I like the eye pokes and do I like the knee kicks? Absolutely not. I think that’s cheap. I think he can be a much better fighter, and be a much better champion, and be a much better example for people to follow, if he sat back and just understood that some of things that he says and some of the things that he does need to be tweaked a little bit.
“And hey, I don’t know Jon, but I love him to death because he’s a guy that worked his ass off to make it to the top of his field. As a human being I want the best for Jon Jones. UFC on the other hand, what they did with this situation; until I get 100 percent of the information straight in front of me so I could look at it, I think passing judgement not really knowing everything, I think they dropped the ball. Because they’ve been fighting for what, 20 years to try and get a positive impression from everyone? From trying to get into New York state, from trying to get into these states that John McCain kept them out of years and years ago. I think it would be in their interest to do the right thing. And you know the definition from the committee about in-season testing and what ‘in-season’ means is absolutely appalling. It’s ridiculous and it’s a technicality, and it’s something that if they would have pulled Jones from the fight, god knows how many millions of dollars they would have lost, and they would have had to refund. I can’t tell you how long it’s been that I have been wanting for a fight to happen such as Cormier and Jones. You know [Robbie] Lawler and [Johny] Hendricks I definitely wanted to see that one, but there’s other fights that you want to see. But if they would have taken that one off the plate then that was a huge loss for them in a lot of ways.
“So I understand from a business stand point why nothing was done, but it doesn’t look real good from the outside looking in. So I think something has to be done. I know Jon Jones is going to come back bigger and better, and look at it from a wrestling stand point; a lot of people thought he was a dick beforehand, though he was a great fighter. I made the analogy yesterday; it’s like I’m a car guy, I love muscle cars. And if I see a low-rider going down the street, and it’s perfect, immaculate, I’m gonna appreciate it, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. So I have a lot of respect for him, but I don’t like some of the things that he says and some of it, he’s like a little baby sometimes, you know? That’s not the way a champion is. And 90 percent of the time he’s a great champion, but there’s just some things that I’m not in favor of. But hey, it makes him look like a heel, and you need a heel. And does it show a character turn, and is this the thing that puts everyone back in his corner, and even the people that didn’t like him before put in his corner? Hey, absolutely. But at the end of the day none of that matters. We’re talking about one human being and their struggle with drugs, and I hope nothing but the best for Jon Jones.”
Goldberg on whether or not he’d ever consider having at least one MMA fight:
“Abso-damn-lutely. That is in the back of my mind and it has been for the past couple of months, and you know, hey I’m 48-years-old. The reality is that it’s not like I didn’t retire from the NFL because of injuries. So my body is torn to shreds, but I continue to have the desire to compete. I talked to Royce Gracie this morning, same thing with him. You know warriors never die, they just get older. And you know things change a bit, but you know the spirit never dies. Therefore every day I look for some type of physical test, and you know whether it’s putting myself against myself, which is my own worst critic and no question my biggest advisory. You know if I can please myself, then I can guarantee you that I could go out there and have some fun with people. You know Rampage [Jackson] and I were supposed to train earlier in the week. He unfortunately has the flu. We’ve got a number of guys at the gym that like to trade punches. That’s a lot of fun.
“We got a big autograph session at Magic City Comicon in Miami coming up this weekend, and I did an interview yesterday the Miami State and put it out there that I want to train some Muay Thai. American Top Team threw an invitation out, you know a number of other people did. Hey man, I don’t have an ego. I’ve done more in my life than 90 percent of the people could ever imagine doing. And so I don’t have an issue. Go on YouTube right now and have a look at the video that I posted of Jimmy Pedro the U.S. Olympic Judo coach tossing me around like a doll. Well, Jimmy weighs about 180 pounds, and if I had an ego and if I was worried about what people think, I wouldn’t put that online. But I thought it would be great, and I thought it would be killer to be able to feel that from a professional. From one of the best in the world. I have no problem training with anybody and getting beaten by anybody, because anytime you’re getting beaten in a brawl — you know the good ones are the ones who prosper from that, and they learn, and they get bigger, and they get better, and they grow in the knowledge department.”
Goldberg on if CM Punk can be successful in the UFC:
“Oh yeah. I mean I think anybody can be successful if they take the proper route prior to stepping in that cage. I wanted to talk to Royce [Gracie] a lot about CM [Punk] because I’m not going to pass judgement on anyone until I know 100 percent of their background, until I watch what they’re doing. I want to see what his stand up’s like. You know I think it was a great PR move for the UFC. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Pride fighting over the UFC hands down, because of the entertainment factor. At the end, I think the biggest difference between Pride and the UFC is the pageantry of Pride, the over the top pageantry of it; the ability to watch kind of like the ‘Street Fighter’ mentality of a very unique individual versus someone who’s completely the polar opposite of them. They still have match ups like the original UFC — Gracie and Akibono, you know Hong Man Choi and Jose Conseco.
“You know as ridiculous as those fights are, and as unprepared and unqualified as some of these people are, it’s huge entertainment. And if they’re willing to go in and do it, then I’m willing to pay for it. And I’ve been in the audience and I was in the commentating booth at two of those events and they’re unbelievable. I had a great time there, and you know the fans are wonderful. It’s just the pageantry. I guess it all boils down to, at the end of the day it’s the fact that you’re not watching two guys that are almost very similar to each other. If you’re in MMA these days you’d be an absolute moron not to train equally in all disciplines, but for me that makes everybody look the same. So I honestly don’t enjoy it nearly as much as I used to, and it doesn’t even hold a candle to it. But at the same time — and I expressed this yesterday on the air somewhere — that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect or admire the ability of these new age fighters.”
Goldberg on PRIDE offering him a contract:
“Hustle One, which was where I wrestled, was owned by PRIDE. And did they want to entice me to fight? Absolutely. Was it something at the time where the money was there? Not comparatively for me. So there’s no question that I would have taken the Mixed Martial Arts route if the money was there back in the day, but at the time that I got over to Japan, and I’d already sustained so many injuries, and I wasn’t getting younger. It just wasn’t a smart move for me.”

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1771972/former-wwe-and-wcw-star-bill-goldberg-interested-in-fighting-talks-brock-lesnar-cm-punk-and-jon-jones/#4oB3J8g3A0l5YCBO.99
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one day I will welcome death

Things aren't going badly but you can be sure that one day I will welcome death - Charles De Gaulic
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