Tendulkar, Durani honoured at BCCI awards

Sachin Tendulkar has been named India's cricketer of the year at the BCCI awards in Mumbai, while former allrounder Salim Durani, who helped shape India's maiden Test win in the West Indies in 1971, received the lifetime achievement award.

Tendulkar scored 1064 runs in ten Tests between October 2009 and September 2010 - the period for which the awards were presented - at an average of 82.00, besides scoring one-day cricket's first double-hundred.

Durani, a left-hand batsman and left-arm spinner who played 29 Tests between 1960 and 1973, was renowned for his six-hitting prowess. He bowled India to victory over England in 1961-62, picking up eight and ten wickets in wins in Calcutta and Madras. Almost a decade later he was instrumental in India's victory over West Indies in Port of Spain, claiming the big wickets of Clive Lloyd and Gary Sobers.

India's World Cup-winning team and support staff were also honoured at the awards. Talking about the achievement, India captain MS Dhoni said his team did well to capitalise on the home advantage during the World Cup. "When you play for the country, the one thing you want to win is the World Cup," he said. "It is a proud moment for all of us. We exploited the conditions really well."

Karnataka's Manish Pandey picked up the award for best batsman in domestic cricket, having scored 882 runs in nine Ranji Trophy matches. Fast bowlerAbhimanyu Mithun, who claimed 47 wickets in the competition, was named best bowler.

List of award winners

CK Nayudu Award for lifetime achievement: Salim Durani

Best Cricket Association of the Year for overall performance: Maharashtra

Best domestic umpire: K Hariharan

Polly Umrigar Award for cricketer of the year: Sachin Tendulkar

Madhavrao Scindia Award for most runs in domestic cricket: Manish Pandey

Madhavrao Scindia Award for most wickets in domestic cricket: Abhimanyu Mithun

M A Chidambaram Trophy for best Under-16 cricketer: Tamil Nadu's B Aparajith

M A Chidambaram Trophy for best Under-19 cricketer:Gujarat's Bhargav Merai

M A Chidambaram Trophy for best Under-22 cricketer: Orissa's Natraj Behera

M A Chidambaram Trophy for best woman cricketer: MD Thirushkamini

M A Chidambaram Trophy for best junior woman cricketer: Reva Arora

Kalmadi dirty face of Indian sports: Pargat

New Delhi:  Barely 48 hours before the Hockey India elections, Pargat Singh on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi, calling him the "dirty face of Indian sports" who is desperate to maintain control over the game's administration by interfering in the much-awaited polls.

The former India captain, in fray for the President's post in the elections on Wednesday, said Kalmadi is backing an 83-year-old Vidya Stokes for the job as he is only concerned about keeping his control and least bothered about the sport.

"The reason they violated the government's guidelines (on age limitation) is to field an 83-year-old lady (Stokes). Kalmadi just wants a rubber stamp. If they (the present ad-hoc HI office bearers) are elected, it won't be called Hockey India, it will be called Hockey Kalmadi," he said.

"Kalmadi is the dirty face of Indian sports. He is a destroyer. He talks of the Olympic movement but he has destroyed the Olympic institution. Such dirty people should be thrown out of sports," said Pargat.

"The Kalmadi group has a habit of poking its nose in every sports federation. Their modus operandi is to set up a parallel body in every federation and then take the matter to the court. They have a battery of lawyers to fight their case," the former India full-back added.

Pargat also accused Kalmadi of fielding his own personal office staffs in the HI polls.

"A member of Kalmadi's personal staff, Manoj Bhore is a voter from Hockey Maharashtra. So, you can imagine what is going on. He has made a mockery of the system. He just wants to capture hockey," he said.

He also said that the present office-bearers of HI have no right to reject government's assistance as it is the prerogative of the elected house.

"Who are they to tell they don't want government's assistance, it is the house to decide. What is their authenticity? If the government's recognition is not there, how can the Indian team participate in international tournaments?" Pargat asked.

"They should keep in mind that it is not their personal team, it is a national team," Pargat stated.

"In the last two years, the government has given Rs 13 crore to hockey but nobody knows where this money has been spent," he added.

Pargat said he decided to foray into hockey's administration only to revive the national game, which is in a mess for the past two years.

"Enough is enough. For the last two years hockey has suffered. There were only divisions within the game but I will do whatever is possible to unite hockey," Pargat said.

"If you don't bring positive faces, how will you promote hockey? If good faces come, money will automatically come into the game.

"I don't have financial power like them, neither do I have the muscle power but what I have is a noble intention. The government is open to sit and discuss. If I get elected I will do whatever is best for the sport," he said.

"I have a plan for hockey's development. I want to bring in a coaching system, umpiring system, short and long-term planning will be there, a proper domestic structure will be set up. A calender will be there and every aspect of the game will be looked after," Pargat added.

Vinayakudu remade in Tamil as Vinayaga

Vinayakudu, one of the biggest hits in 2008 , is being remade in Tamil as Vinayaga. The movie also saw a sequel as Village Lo Vinayakudu. Now ace director Balasekaran is wielding the megaphone in Tamil version. The director has given a number of hits, which include Love Today, Kadhal Sugamanathu.


The storyline of Vinayakuda is a different one with a fat man falling in love with a beautiful girl. Having met only online, the girl is shocked by the guy’s appearance when they meet in person. Though she lets him know that she finds him unattractive and unacceptable the plot further unfolds with different circumstances bringing them together and gaining different perspectives. The proceedings of the story form rest of the plot.


Newcomer Krishnan and Sonia are playing the lead roles, which was played by Krishnudu and Sonia of Happy Days fame. The movie also has comedian Santhanam and Poonam Kaur in important roles.


The movie is in its final stages of making and will be released soon.

Nagarjuna next film titled as Gaganam

The team of Nagarjuna’s latest Telugu movie has announced the final title of the film in a media briefing in Hyderabad. They have settled onGaganam as the title of the movie. Radha Mohan is directing the movie, which is being produced by Dil Raju under the banner of Sri Venkateswara Creations. The movie also has a Tamil version, which has been produced by Prakash Raj.

The title Gaganam has been chosen based on the audience reaction. Payanam and Wanted are the two other names, which were also considered as a title of the movie. Payanamhas been chosen as the title of the Tamil version of the movie.

The lead actor Nagarjuna, Prakash Raj, director Dil Raju, Brahmanandam, Bharath Reddy, Poonam Kaur, Sana Khan, and Rishi were present at the media briefing.


Actor Nagarjuna informed that the movie is a complete entertainer although the still and the title looks like a thriller. He said, “The title is liked by his younger son Akhil and he posted about it on his Twitter account. The audience also gave most response to this title”.



The movie has reportedly used the latest technological addition in the filmmaking, the RED cameras. The camera is handled by cinematographer Guhan.

The post-production work of the movie is going on and dubbing is almost complete. The director is planning to have a Vijaya Dasami release of the movie in October.

India tour may hamper Ashes preparation: Ponting

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting fears that the forthcoming tour of India in October may hamper their preparation for the Ashes series commencing in November 25 at Brisbane. 

Ponting said ideally Australia should not have played on dry and flat Indian pitches in the run-up to the five-match series against arch-rivals England at home. 

"If you were trying to sit down and map out your perfect preparation for an Ashes series or a home series it probably wouldn't be playing two Test matches in India," Ponting said. 

"But you don't live in an ideal world. That's the way international cricket is these days," Ponting was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'. 

Australia play two Tests - in Chandigarh (October 1-5) and Bangalore (October 9-13) - followed by three one-dayers during their India tour. 

Talking about Australia's three-wicket defeat against Pakistan in the second Test at Leeds, Ponting admitted that he had misjudged the batting conditions after winning the toss. 

"We were definitely playing catch-up from stumps day one. That's my responsibility, to get those sorts of things right and make those decisions," Ponting said. 

Australia were bowled out by Pakistan for just 88 - their lowest total in 26 years - on the first day of the second Test at Headingley, which also ended Pakistan's 15-year wait for a Test win over Australia.

Four Ways IPv6 Will Save the Internet

To address issues with the current IP protocol in use (IPv4), and to add features to improve the protocol for the future, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) hasintroduced IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6). Let's look at a few ways that IPv6 will come to the rescue and save the Internet.

1. More Addresses. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses rather than the current 32-bit addresses allowing for an exponential increase in the number of available IP addresses. Network routing experts have been aware of the limitations of IPv4 addressing since the 1980's--before most of the world even knew the Internet existed, and before the Web became ubiquitous.

With 32-bits, IPv4 only allows for approximately 4.3 billion IP addresses. Since every Web-connected device--server, desktop, notebook, smartphone, tablet PC, and more--must have an IP address, and since the Web has exploded in countries like China and India, the world is rapidly approaching the end of the available IPv4 addresses.

With 128-bits to use for creating unique addresses, IPv6 is capable of an insane number of IP addresses far exceeding the demands of today's Internet and Web connected devices. Rather than 4.3 billion address limitation of IPv4, IPv6 has enough addresses that every single person on the planet could have billions upon billions assigned to them personally.

2. Backwards Compatible. IPv6 is backwards compatible with IPv4 so that different networks or hardware manufacturers can choose to upgrade at different times without disrupting the current flow of data on the Internet. Given the world's dependence on the Internet and Web for news, commerce, public safety, national security, and more this is an important feature of IPv6.

Eventually, all IPv4 equipment will be replaced by attrition and IPv6 will be the only address protocol in use. But, that could take decades, so backwards compatibility will be crucial for the foreseeable future.

3. Better Security. IPv6 was designed with encryption and authentication in mind. IPsec is an optional security component of IPv4, but in IPv6 it is mandatory. With IPsec each individual data packet is encrypted and authenticated, making many of the malicious attacks plaguing the Internet today impossible--or at least substantially more difficult.

4. Better Performance. Changes have been made to the way IP packets and headers are formed, and to the way IPv6 routers process the packets to improve performance--resulting in fewer missed or dropped packets, and more reliable and efficient connections. With more people and devices sharing the Internet, and higher demands for VoIP (voice over IP) and video streaming, performance will be more critical than ever.

It has been coming for more than two decades, but the IPv4 address crunch is beginning to get very real. Expect to see a spike in IPv6 adoption in the near future.

Motorola Milestone XT720 in India Now

Folks over at FoneArena have reported that Motorola is silently launching its Milestone XT720 in India. The device, which is apparently available at least in Bangalore as of now, is priced at Rs. 30,000. Motorola, however, is yet to officially announce the launch of this one.

Note that Motorola already has a "Milestone" on sale in India which is known as the Motorola "Droid" elsewhere. We are talking about another Milestone here - the XT720. This phone does have similar hardware to the existing Milestone including a 3.7-inch screen, 8 megapixel camera, (up from 5 megapixel on the Milestone), 720p HD video recording. This one, however, comes sans the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The XT720 comes with Xenon flash - probably the first Android handset to sport one. The XT720 also comes with an HDMI port supports HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It currently comes loaded with Android 2.1 - a stock version at that. So, those of you who were waiting for the Nexus One and were disappointed that it never came to India now have another chance at getting a stock Android phone.

While the specs do sound quite contemporary, you might be somewhat let down by the 600 Mhz processor ARM Cortex A8 processor. Here's an advertisement of the XT720


We tried contacting Motorola to check the veracity of the reports regarding the XT720's purported arrival to India. Our efforts were, however, met with statements like "Stay Tuned" and "We cannot say anything about it right now" as Motorola's corporate communication Arati Mukherjee put it. Another of our sources has hinted at an official launch of the phone by the first week of August.