Brajeshwar

The second season of the Indian Premier League will kick off with a grand opening ceremony in Jaipur. Defending champions, Rajasthan Royals will play the inaugural game against Delhi Daredevils. The tournament would run from April 10 to May 24, and will feature 59 matches in these 45 days. While the day games will be held from 4 to 7pm, the night matches will be from 8 to 11pm India time.

Ultra-aggressive tactics by India cost them the first T20 game at Christchurch as New Zealand coasted to a win with seven balls to spare - a big margin in this short version of cricket. After winning the toss, Daniel Vettori put India into bat and looking at the tiny size of the ground (Sanjay Manjrekar termed it similar in dimensions to the ones used for the Hong Kong Super Sixes tournament!) the visitors felt they needed to get a record T20 score on board. As a result every one from the start went hammer and tongs and India lost half their side well before the halfway stage of their innings.

Richie Benaud, the former Australia test captain and an icon of sports broadcasting, would retire as a television commentator at the end of next year, the 47th year of broadcasting.

The calm style, crisp language interspersed with dry humor, and impeccable dressing sense made Benaud a legend in his second career for almost fifty years. He became the voice of cricket in Australia and England, and also won a poll conducted by the Wisden Cricketer and Cricinfo for Australia's most popular commentator.