Pakistan win by 155 runs against Hong Kong

KARACHI: Pakistan made Hong Kong realise the gruels of top-level international cricket, handing them a crushing 155-run defeat in a Group B match of the Asia Cup at National stadium here on Tuesday night.

Electing to bat, Pakistan overcame early hiccups to post an imposing 288 for nine and then stopped Hong Kong at 133 for nine in 37.2 overs to make an easy winning start.

Hong Kong innings folded without losing all ten wickets as Zain Abbas did not complete his innings after retiring at individual score of 26, which was also highest for them.

Hong Kong, led by Tabarak Dar, did well in the first part stopping Pakistan from reaching 300 but scoring against experienced attack was the real test of their batting line up.

Sohail Tanvir put up a brilliant all round show in Pakistan's victory as he first played a crucial 59-run knock and then picked up two wickets to pile up agony for Hong Kong.

The pace trio of Tanvir (2/20), Umar Gul and Iftikhar Anjum (2/18) intimidated, bruised and then devastated the opponent batting.

Tanvir, Anjum and spinning all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who once again failed with the bat, shared six wickets among them.

It was a brave start by Hong Kong as skipper Tabarak Dar and Skhawat Ali put on 27 without loss but Dar had to leave the crease after receiving a nasty blow by Umar Gul.

A bouncer hit the grill of the helmet, leaving Dar stunned and forced to put a break on his innings though fortunately he was not injured seriously.

The side never recovered from the blow dealt to their captain and kept losing wickets. From none for 27 they were reduced to 3 for 32 as Tanvir and Iftikhar rocked the top-order.

It was a lost battle for Hong Kong as they found the going tough against formidable Pakistan attack. Batsmen walked back to Pavilion one after another and it was easy for Pakistan.

After pacers did their job well, Pakistan spinners in Afridi and Fawad Alam and even skipper Shoaib Malik carried forward the good work. They kept a tight line, giving no chance to opponents free their arms.

Earlier, Fawad Alam (63 not out) and Tanvir (59) shared a crucial eight-wicket 100-run stand to propel Pakistan to 288 for nine.

Pakistan, electing to bat, were struggling at 161 for seven against minnows before the spin-pace combo of Alam and Tanvir joined hands to lift the hosts from what appeared to be an embarrassing situation.

Their top-order failed to build on to good starts and surprisingly struggled to negotiate a nascent attack, which did exceptionally well to put their fancied opponents under pressure.

Nadeem Ahmed ripped apart the Pakistan middle order to return brilliant figures of four for 51 after Afzal Ahmed and Irfan Ahmed removed openers.

Paceman Irfan (2/59) chipped in with two wickets.

Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik (35) opened the batting with Salman Butt (0).

Malik sizzled for a while, hitting seven boundaries in his short stay, before becoming the victim of Irfan.

The hosts batsmen did not build up partnerships and only Younis Khan, who struck a superb 67 showed will to stay at the crease.

Younis played crucial knock, adorned with eight fours and one six, up the order to save his team from blushes.

After big hitter Shahid Afridi (4) and Misbah-ul Haq (2) failed to wield the magic of their batting prowess, Alam and Tanvir ensured they put enough runs on the board for themselves.

While Alam played patiently, building his innings ball after ball, Tanvir's knock was mixture of aggression and calm.

Alam consumed 77 balls for his unbeaten 63 and helped himself with three boundaries.

Tanvir contributed a useful 59, aided by six boundaries, to give his team relief.

We have learnt from our mistakes: Dhoni

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday sounded a warning to his rivals saying his team has learnt from past mistakes and are ready to conquer the Asia Cup tournament, starting in Pakistan later this week.

"If we play to our potential and our capabilities on an average day we will win more matches than we will lose. I agree with Murali's comments," Dhoni said in Mumbai on Sunday before the team's departure to Karachi.

Muttiah Muralitharan had recently tipped India as the favourites at the Asia Cup.

India coach Gary Kirsten echoed Dhoni's views and said the Asia Cup was one of their immediate goals.

"We have set ourselves some goals for the next few months. We have set some very high standards and the Asia Cup is very much a part of that. Our goal is to win the tournament," Kirsten said.

Dhoni revealed that he would battting a higher in the order to pep lend experience to the middle order, which crumbed during the final of the tri-series against Pakistan in Bangladesh.

"I will stick it to an over mark, but definitely you will see me batting up in the Asia Cup," he said.

The dashing wicketkeeper also refused to dwell too much on India's recent record in Pakistan, saying "past doesn't matter."

"We have played well in Pakistan if you see the past 3-4 tours but that is the past and what you have done in the past does not matter. You have start fresh from the scratch because conditions are different, scenarios are different, so you have to start fresh."

He said that the team is looking to boost the confidence of new comers like Yusuf Pathan by giving them proper exposure. Dhoni rebuffed criticism that Yusuf's was under bowled during the tri-series in Bangladesh, saying that the bowlers were used according to the conditions.

"You use bowlers, whom you think will be more appropriate for the conditions.

"Virender Sehwag was purchasing more turn compared to any other bowler in that sort of wicket.

"It all depends on the strength of different bowlers and the same time you want to give them exposure in a proper way and give them confidence.

"Even if Yusuf bowled just four overs in the tournament we all know he has bowled well in domestic cricket and done well. Definitely we will give him more opportunities and we have confidence not only in his bowling, but his batting as well. So we will back him."

Dhoni said the loss in the final of the tri-series against Pakistan will not affect the team when they face the arch-rivals during the Asia Cup.

"Well it has nothing do to with one game. If you look at the final we had a brilliant game against Pakistan in the league stage. So a win or a loss goes on in cricket and as I said if we play to our potential we will win. It is not about which side you are playing [against] and what has happened in the past.

"If you playing to your potential and performing to your best, then you have more chances to win the game and that is what we will look to do," said the India captain.

Dhoni added that the team is working on utilising the middle overs to the maximum.

"The middle overs are important especially in the 50-overs game. There comes a span in the middle overs when you not only have to ensure that you do not lose wickets but also score at around 5 or 5.50 per over.

"If you have wickets in hand, then after the 38th or 40th over you can around around 70 to 80 runs or nowadays if you have seen you can see 100 runs being scores in the last 10 overs. The middle overs periods are extremely important."

Irfan to miss Asia Cup opener

India launch their campaign in the Asia Cup cricket tournament against minnows Hong Kong in Karachi on Wednesday, hoping to get into top form ahead of their crucial match against arch-rivals Pakistan on Thursday.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men should not face much resistance from Hong Kong, but the Indians are in no mood to take their opponents lightly in what is likely to be a one-sided floodlit contest at the National Stadium.

The Indians will go into the game without the services of paceman Irfan Pathan, who will be rested because of a side strain. But they have enough bowling resources at their disposal to counter Hong Kong.

India's coach Gary Kirsten warned his players against getting complacent.

"I am looking for some big contributions from my players in the match. We will take every opposition seriously as this is the Asia Cup and we will play proper cricket and will do the things we need to do," Kirsten said.

The Indians, seeking to make amends after their defeat to Pakistan in the tri-series final in Bangladesh, have a track record in Pakistan in recent times. But captain Dhoni is not banking on statistics and willing to start from a scratch.

"We will start our script from scratch in this tournament. We are not going to take any team lightly," Dhoni said.

"I am happy with the team combination. I feel it is a good opportunity for the aspiring youngsters in such a big tournament. It is also a challenge for seasoned players to perform in it," he said.

In the batting department, India has a strong line-up, with the two left-handers, Yuvraj Singh [Images] and Gautam Gambhir, in fine nick, having played some brilliant innings during the tri-series in Bangladesh.

Dhoni, however, indicated that he would come up in the batting order to keep the momentum during the middle overs of the innings.

"I will definitely try to bat up the order depending on what kind of start we get. We float our batsmen depending on the number of overs left in the game," he said.

Hong Kong coach Aftab Habib, however, insisted his team, which has a combination of seniors and juniors, will not go down without a fight.

"We have this advantage that most of the guys are from Pakistan and have cricket in their blood. We know the Indians are a very strong outfit but we will go out there and just do our best," Habib, a former England cricketer, said.

"India has some world class batsmen but we have some good senior players and spinners in the side and if the pitch does do a little bit it would be interesting," he added.

Batsmen like Ashish Gadhia and James Atkinson can well change the calculation of the Indians if taken lightly.

In the absence of Pathan, Ishant Sharma will have to take the bulk of the pace bowling responsibility, along with R P Singh. Spinner Piyush Chawla will also have an important role considering the fact that pitches in the sub-continent generally assist the slow bowlers.

Teams (from):

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Manpreet Gony, Ishant Sharma, R P Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar.

Hong Kong: Tabarak Dar (capt), Afzaal Haider, Ashish Gadhia, James Atkinson, Toby Brown, Hussain Butt, Irfan Ahmed, Courtney Kruger, Roy Lamsam, Munir Dar, Nadeem Ahmed, Najeeb Amar, Skhawat Ali, Waqas Barkat (wk), Zain Abbas.

RBI hikes key rates, loans to be dearer

Challenged by unrelenting inflationary pressures, Reserve Bank on Tuesday announced stringent measures of hiking mandatory cash reserve of the banks and its short-term lending rate to them to suck up an estimated Rs 20,000 crore -- a move that could make loans dearer for housing, car and personal expenses as also to the industry.

The announcement of hiking cash reserve ratio by 50 basis points and the short-term lending (repo) rate by a similar margin comes close on the heels of RBI Governor Y V Reddy discussing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram the prevailing inflation scenario.

Reflecting the Finance Ministry's view that monetary policy would be the first line of defence against inflation that has surged to a 13-year high of 11.05 per cent, the RBI after intense consultation today pronounced the new measures, part of which would be effected in installments.

In a precursor to raising the CRR from 8.25 per cent to 8.75 per cent in two installments beginning July 5 and the repo rate from 8.0 per cent to 8.5 per cent with immediate effect, Reddy had said on Monday that the apex bank would do every thing to ease the inflationary pressures.

Expressing concern over rising inflation, RBI said, "Besides oil prices there are some underlying inflationary pressures impacting inflation in India."

The Reserve Bank said the move is "somewhat painful" but timely contraction of money supply has to be viewed in the context of new reality of high and volatile energy prices, which is not a temporary phenomenon any longer.

Justifying the move, the central bank said, "It is important to ensure that generalised instability does not develop and erodes the hard earned gains in terms of both outcomes and positive sentiments on India's growth momentum."

RBI's decision will have an impact on interest rates on various loans as is evident from bankers' reactions. Commenting on the impact of RBI's step, PNB Chairman K C Chakrabarty said prime lending rate could go up by 50 basis points. "All the loans linked to PLR like consumer loans, home loans, personal loans are bound to go up. At the same time, deposit rates would also be increased."

HDFC Managing Director Keki Mistry said," if the cost of funding goes up, we will pass on costs to our borrowers."
However, IBA Chairman MBN Rao said banks would wait for sometime before increasing home loans. According to United Bank CMD P K Gupta, banks may have to go in for a hike in interest rates even before the monetary policy, scheduled for next month. However, the quantum of increase will be decided after assessing the situation and the need of the individual bank.

UCO Bank CMD S K Goel said it does not mean increase in rates across the board. "We can adjust our short-term loans by half a per cent."

According to Indian Bank Chairman M S Sundara Rajan, "We have to look at the PLR next. The bank is likely to take a decision on first week of July. Accordingly, deposit rates would also be hiked."

Industry chambers fear RBI's step may also harm India's economic growth, particularly manufacturing sector. Ficci said the move would affect the manufacturing sector, which is already facing slackening due to high interest rates. This would also affect overall rate of growth of the economy.

Men and women think differently

They might not agree but men and women do think differently, for a study has found that there are subtle genetic variations in their brains.

Researchers have identified hundreds of genes that are switched on and off differently in the male and female brains, a finding which suggests that many behaviour patterns regarded as typical of each sex could be founded on nature and nurture.

According to the researchers, dozens of mental traits and skills differ between men and women. They include empathy, aggression, risk-taking, navigation and the qualities that are valued most in a sexual partner.

Moreover, men and women also differ in their approach to finding sexual partners. Men generally place a higher value on youth and good looks, while women are often more attracted by status, the study found.

In fact, while the two sexes have the same basic genes, many of these are more active in the brains of only one sex. These gender-specific patterns of gene expression could affect many aspects of behaviour.

"The obvious question to follow is whether or not the signatures of sex in the brain have physiological significance for brain physiology and/or behaviour.

"Our results suggest that variation in expression of genes in brain may be an important component of behavioural variation within as well as between species," leading British newspaper 'The Times' quoted lead researcher Dr Elena Jazin of Uppsala University as saying.

In fact, the differences could also explain sex variations in mental health and neurological diseases: Women, for instance, are more at risk of depression and Alzheimer's.

"Knowledge about gender differences is important for many reasons. For example, this information may be used in the future to calculate medical dosages as well as for treatments of diseases or damage to the brain," Dr Jazin said.

The results of the study have been published in the 'Public Library of Science Genetics' journal.

Why people adore Ayesha

Ayesha Takia, the bubbly and bindaas babe has been going through a tough phase. In an era where size zero has become the norm, she finds place in the bulky category.

Her not too wise selection of films has also been fatal for the good actress. We hear that she declined Nagesh Kukunoor's Aashayein only because she didn't want to smooch John Abraham.

As if this wasn't enough, the young actress is now being criticized for her bad dressing sense! However, Ayesha has always taken criticism with a pinch of salt and has also given it back to the critics whenever needed.

Ayesha Takia is one actress who does not hesitate to speak her mind. But has her candid attitude gone down well with her Bollywood peers? We know how our Bolly stars are all airs about themselves so it's quite obvious that not many will appreciate Ayesha for what she is. Where her attitude has rubbed a few directors on the wrong side, we also have some admirers. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has a different take on the issue!

Ironically after the release of No Smoking , all was not well between Anurag and Ayesha. Reason being - after the failure of No Smoking , Ayesha openly made statements about how she regretted doing the film as it had no scope for her! "I knew it was a wrong decision to do No Smoking but since Anurag Kashyap is a dear friend I couldn't say no", Ayesha has said in an interview which apparently had later created differences between the dame and her director.

We bumped into Anurag recently and brought up the issue. He not only brushed off the tiff rumours but also complimented Ayesha for her straight-forwardness!

"She was right when she said that she did the film only for me. No Smoking indeed had nothing for her but she did it for me as a friend. I have seen her grow and she has always been very straightforward. What she says in public about me is what she will say on my face when she sees me. She doesn't lead a dual life and is not two-faced unlike lots of other people in the industry. She is somebody I love unconditionally and her sister Natasha is someone who I love more than Ayesha! I wanted Natasha to be a writer. She has always been a great musician and a writer. Both the sisters are such nice people", said Anurag.

Now we know what makes Ayesha Takia a cut above the rest in the industry.

Boys, please don't cry!

You are dressed to kill but your man doesn’t shower you with compliments. Instead he just says, “Nice dress.”

You are feeling all under weather and all he says, “don’t behave like a cry baby.” Yet, there are times, when men are over-emotional, over-expressive. But are women ready to deal with expressive men?

Till now, they moaned how men can’t express their need to be pampered. VJ Anusha Dandekar says, “I can never be with guys who are over-sensitive. Instead, they should be head strong. Such men are so desirable. After all, it’s women who tend to express themselves with tears.”

Meet Charu Kalra, HR consultant who says, “On regular intervals my boyfriend would give me letters describing about our best times together. It was quite sweet but then everytime I was with my friends; he would come up with cards and letters. Eventually all this started embarassing me. Why couldn’t he keep it subtle? Now that we’re no longer together is proof enough how much it irritated me.”

There are some women, who want to be with expressive men. Mansi Sharma, PR executive says, “It’s not that I like all that emotional stuff but I am happy that he pours his heart out to me.” Televison’s love guru and actor Pooja Mishra explains, “Men should never resort to over-expression. Women appreciate emotions but what guys need to understand is that there is a very thin line between being mushy and being pushy. If a man expresses his sensitivity with élan and panache, a woman can take it but if he over does, it’s an overkill.” Psychiatrist Sandeep Vohra agrees, “Over expression in any form is not healthy. So guys, don’t put your emotions on display.”

Sreesanth in row with Bangalore hotel staff

Team India cricketer S Sreesanth finds himself hitting headlines yet again. This time it is reports of the fiery pacer reportedly involved in an altercation with the staff of the Grand Ashoka hotel in Bangalore on Sunday.

TIMES NOW learnt that Sreesanth who was staying at the hotel with a friend, got into a heated argument with the hotel management in the middle of the night reportedly over a noisy air-conditioner.

It is believed that a major row broke out between the hotel staff, Sreesanth and his friend as they insisted on shifting to another room. However, Sreesanth's manager insisted that the issue has now been resolved and there was no such 'heated argument' between both the parties.

Sree's manager, Kunal Trehan, claims it was a minor problem.

"There was no heated argument. It was just a case of miscommunication between people. Sree was a bit disturbed by a persistent noise in his room and he asked me to resolve it. For which, I got him shifted in another room. There was no argument by Sree in any format," said Trehan adding that initially Sreesanth had left the hotel in a huff but returned when he was moved to another room.

Underplaying the incident, Trehan went on to add that Sreesanth took everything in good humour.

"Sree was laughing at the situation and was not at all miffed in any form. He has been at the Grand Ashoka several times over the past five years and this is like home to him," Trehan asserted.

"During his training at the National Academy as a teenager he lived here, so he is very well acquainted with the hotel staff and considers them as his family."

Yuvraj Singh stars at Euro 2008

India's Yuvraj Singh hands over the man of the match trophy to Swiss forward Hakan Yakin after the eliminated co-hosts finished their Euro 2008 campaign on a high, beating a second string Portugal side 2-0 in Basel on Sunday.

Yuvraj was chosen to represent India's sportsmen by Euro sponsors Carlsberg.

"I've been a big fan of football for years and I still am, although I don't get a chance to watch as many games now," the ODI vice-captain was quoted for saying before his visit to Switzerland.

"Obviously it's a huge honour to be invited to give away the Man-of-the-Match award in a tournament like the Euro.

"I've always supported Manchester United and try and watch their games even if I can't watch other matches in the Premiership. Even recently, the day my IPL team beat the Mumbai team, I stayed up and watched the Champions League final where Man U beat Chelsea."

Meet the sexiest woman in the world !!!

1. She's sultry. She's alluring. She's the winner of FHM magazine's Sexiest Woman in the World 2008.
With soft, pouted lips, mesmerising eyes, high cheek-bones and a bodacious bod, Megan Fox has drawn numerous comparisons to Angelina Jolie. But Mrs Brad Pitt came in at number nine this year, and it's been three years since she brought home the crown (Angelina won FHM's Sexiest Woman 2005).

So, the message is clear: Move over Angelina, Hollywood has anointed a new big-screen bad girl.


2. But Fox, star of 2007's hit movie Transformers, wasn't always the glamorous, beautiful belle she is today.
In fact, in an industry dominated by the uber-swanky Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, Fox comes from a humble background. Born and raised in Tennessee, a state known more for Jack Daniels Whiskey and country music than cocktail dresses and red carpets, she was self-admittedly 'very poor.'

After moving to Los Angeles to pursue a modelling career, she was forced to wear 'pants all the time' because she 'didn't have enough money to buy disposable razors.'

Talk about a real-life act of transformation.




3. In just a few years, Megan's ascended to the top of the pedestal, chosen by FHM's readers ahead of perennial hotties Jessica Alba, Keira Knightly and Scarlett Johansson.
But not long ago, she was just another an aspiring model-cum-actress, making her film debut in the 2001 film Holiday In The Sun, where she played the villain to Ashley Olsen's heroine.

The talented young hottie continued in supporting roles and guest appearances, earning rave reviews for her trade-mark bitchiness. She can count bit parts in Ocean Ave, What I Like About You, Two And A Half Men and The Help, roles that established her as a true up and comer.

4. In 2004, Fox starred in Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen alongside Lindsay Lohan. And though, at the time, Lohan was the talk of tinsel-town, many couldn't help but ask: Who is this Megan Fox? And why isn't she a big star?
Then, in a typically American success story sort of way, she achieved her meteoric rise to fame. She auditioned and snagged the lead female role of Mikaela Banes in the much-hyped 2007 live-action film Transformers, a movie based on the toy and cartoon that had captivated America a generation earlier.

Her performance as the love interest of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) earned rave reviews, and suddenly the girl with the Tennessee twang was on the tip of everyone's tongue.

5. Now, we await Fox's effort in the late-2008 release How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, where she'll star alongside Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst. She's also lined up for two Transformers sequels.
Apart from her increasing celebrity as an actress, Fox has become a Men's Magazine superstar. In 2007, she ran the gauntlet, posing for the March 2007 issue of FHM, the June 2007 issue of GQ, the July 2007 issue of Maxim, and the September 2007 issue of Arena. The provocative photo-shoots helped propel Ms Fox to the much-coveted World's Sexiest Woman award.

Last year, Fox became engaged to actor Brian Austin Green. And Fox's frankness regarding the intimate details of the couple's sex life has stirred up a storm of controversy. 'I really enjoy having sex, and that's offensive to some people. Women are the quickest to call other women sluts, which I think is sad,' she said in a recent interview with FHM.
'I'm young and have a lot of hormones -- I'm always in the mood! I have the libido of a 15-year-old boy. My sex drive is so high. I'd rather have sex with Brian all the time than leave the house. He doesn't mind.'
That unbridled honesty, coupled with her penchant for body art -- Fox has nine tattoos, including a poem on her ribcage -- has made her Hollywood's Foxy lady!

Shoaib's five-year ban reduced to 18 months

Shoaib Akhtar's five-year ban has been reduced to 18 months by the PCB-appointed appellate tribunal, but he will have to pay a fine of Rs 7 million (approx US$105,000). The Pakistan board had, on April 1, banned him on various disciplinary grounds.

"The tribunal has taken the decision [to reduce Shoaib's ban] with a clear conscience and under no pressure from either the board or anyone else," Justice (retd) Aftab Farrukh, the head of the three-man tribunal, said in Karachi, adding that it was an unanimous decision.

Explaining the tribunal's verdict, Farrukh said: "We also took into consideration the past record of Shoaib and that he had publicly apologised for his behaviour and past deeds. He has promised to reform himself and we have also recommended to the board that he should be given proper counselling."

Another member of the tribunal, Naveed Chaudhry, was pushing for the complete removal of the ban, with the provision of higher fine, but was overruled. "I wanted him [Shoaib] to play but pay a hefty fine of 20 million, but the other two members thought otherwise." The third member, former Test cricketer Haseeb Ashan, did not attend the meeting, but gave his consent over telephone.

Meanwhile, Shoaib's lawyer, Abid Hasan Minto, said that he may pursue a further appeal against the reduced ban. "We will take a decision after going through the long and detailed order of the tribunal."

The Pakistan board issued the ban after Shoaib, who was not being offered a contract by the PCB, lashed out at domestic tournaments, pitches and the administration in general. He made the comments while on a two-year probation after hitting team-mate Mohammad Asif with a bat before the World Twenty20 last year.

Complacency, not Pakistan, India's main threat

Rampaging form and beleaguered opponents tilt the scale pretty much in India's favour but complacency, and not Pakistan, pose the most serious threat to Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team in the final of the tri-series in Dhaka on Saturday.

With runs flowing from the blades of India's top order batsmen and the bowling attack mowing down rival line-ups with regularity, Dhoni hardly had a reason to worry as his team bulldozed Bangladesh and pounded Pakistan with characteristic ruthlessness in two lop-sided league contests to storm into the final.

In contrast, a depleted Pakistan reached the summit showdown not before India had inflicted on them their worst defeat against the arch-rivals.

The 140-run thumping in fact had a ripple effect with a livid Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Nasim Ashraf shooting off a stinging e-mail to team manager Talat Ali seeking immediate explanation and questioning the team's ability, along with that of coach Geoff Lawson and the captain Shoaib Malik.

And with Ashraf set to attend tomorrow's final, Malik and his teammates would surely feel the heat.

In contrast, Dhoni's team has hardly put a foot wrong since their arrival here and the India captain said he was expecting the openers and new ball bowlers to deliver the goods.

"I am really happy about the team performance. We have played two matches and in both ties, we had good starts both in batting and bowling. I wish the same kind of performance continues in the final against Pakistan also," Dhoni said.

Openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have been firing on all cylinders, continuing exactly from where they had left it in the Indian Premier League.

They put on 155 runs for the opening stand against Pakistan and added 85 last night against the hosts to provide the perfect start and the brisk rate.

New ball bowlers, especially Praveen Kumar, have shown a penchant to draw the first blood and peg the opponents to the back foot.

Dhoni, meanwhile, is taking nothing for granted and is insisting on focussing on the process, rather than guessing the outcome.

"Let's not think about the result but we should win the game as we have been doing so often. Every game is a fresh game and we need to carry on the momentum to some, even though you always start afresh. We have to repeat all the good work that we have done in the last two matches," he said.

"Of course we will be carrying our confidence but you have to start from the scratch again in the final. It is all about playing the game to your potential and to your strength. That is what is important rather thinking about beating the rivals."

He also seemed oblivious of the hype that generally surrounds an Indo-Pak tie.

"The final against Pakistan is just another game. We are going to play them for the second time. The team wants to play a good game of cricket and we would like to give our best tomorrow."

Squads (From):

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R P Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha and MS Gony.

Pakistan: Shoaib Malik (C), Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Yonus Khan, Muhammad Yousaf, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Umer Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz, Nasir Jamshed, Sohail Khan, Rao Iftikar, Bazid Khan and Naumanullah.

Gambhir century takes India to easy win

A fifth ODI century for Gautam Gambhir and another quickfire fifty from Virender Sehwag extended India's domination in the Kitply Cup as they thumped Bangladesh in Mirpur by seven wickets, with 14.5 overs to spare, and set up a final with Pakistan. Bangladesh needed to win by a bonus point to book their place in the final but, despite Raqibul Hasan's 89, they always going to fall short of a fighting total after a miserly opening burst from Praveen Kumar.

Chasing 223, India were off to a flier with Sehwag in imperious touch. He offered a few chances early in his innings but soon took the attack to Reza in the sixth over, smacking one over midwicket for a boundary and then another through point. Fortunately for him, an outside edge eluded a diving Mushfiqur Rahim. Gambhir repeated the dose in Reza's next over, taking three fours as the bowler erred in his line.

Ashraful brought on Dolar Mahmud, playing his second game, but Sehwag showed him no mercy and disdainfully dispatched twice him over the extra-cover boundary for six. To Bangladesh's relief, he then smashed a short ball straight into the hands of Tamim Iqbal at square leg at the end of an over in which he plundered 24 to rush to 59 off just 32 balls.

The platform had been set for the other batsmen to consolidate, and Gambhir took the cue from his Delhi team-mate. Rohit Sharma was lucky to survive an outside edge off Dolar and then pulled one superbly for six, but it was Gambhir who stole the show once the spinners come into play.

Gambhir, reputedly the best player of spin in this Indian XI, justified that tag; he didn't hesitate to come down the track - giving himself a bit of room as well - and launched boundaries with ease in the arc between wide long-off and extra cover. Forty-four of his runs came in the region and, when the Bangladesh bowlers pitched it short on middle and leg, pulled or slog-swept them to the leg side. Abdur Razzak's entry into the attack was greeted with a inside-out shot over extra cover for four, and he was then launched over long-off for six.

Gambhir was much slower than Sehwag to his fifty - it took 57 balls - but he stayed till the end to get a well-deserved hundred. Some innocuous spin from Mahmudullah and Alok Kapali was hardly a problem for a man who'd handled Muttiah Muralitharan with aplomb in the CB Series. Rohit and Yuvraj Singh fell at the other end, but that didn't matter as Gambhir's unbeaten 107 saw India home.

Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladesh captain, was left hapless as Sehwag and Gambhir plundered runs, but it was his batsmen who'd let the team down with an inadequate 222, which owed much to Raqibul's 89.

Along with Ashraful, Raqibul rebuilt a tottering innings - Bangladesh's openers had fallen for just 17 - with a 76-run stand in 19.4 overs. Ashraful's 67-ball 36 ended in a tame manner, one driven back to Yusuf Pathan handing him his first ODI wicket. Although the more experienced Ashraful failed to capitalise, Raqibul didn't disappoint. In his eighth innings, he came up with his highest score - his 89 also being the best for a Bangladesh batsman against India - surely one of the few positives for coach Jamie Siddons from this tournament.

Bangladesh crawled in the early half of their innings. Praveen's opening spell of 7-2-8-1, backed by a disciplined effort from the other Indian bowlers, ensured runs came at a premium. It was Alok Kapali's entry - with Bangladesh at 106 for 4 in the 30th over - that gave the innings a much-needed momentum. Both he and Raqibul found the gaps and ran hard for the singles. There were only four boundaries, shared equally by the two, and just when Bangladesh looked set for a late-over surge, Kapali was cleaned up by Irfan as he walked across the stumps. The fifth-wicket partnership added 46 in just 8.4 overs.

Raqibul brought up his fifty off 78 balls, and he upped the pace in the latter half of his innings as India's bowlers failed to make inroads in the middle overs. Praveen's returns in his last three overs fetched three times the runs off his first seven, but with Raqibul cramping up, Bangladesh failed to make full use of the final few overs. Mahmudullah chipped in with 24, but Bangladesh lost their last four wickets for 26 as they were bowled out in 49.5 overs.

Symonds fined for missing team bus

Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds has been fined after sleeping in and missing the team bus to a training session in Barbados.

Symonds was 10 minutes late for the bus but did not miss any part of practice after finding his own way to Kensington Oval, the Australian Associated Press reported.

He was fined an undisclosed amount by the team’s leadership group consisting of skipper Ricky Ponting, vice-captain Michael Clarke, coach Tim Nielsen and manager Steve Bernard.

Symonds is the second Australian player to be fined on their tour of West Indies after sleeping in. Spinner Stuart MacGill was also fined for turning up late on day two of the second Test in Antigua.

Symonds was also fined and suspended for two one-day games after arriving drunk on the morning of a one-day match against Bangladesh on the 2005 Ashes tour.

IPL salary cap to stay, says Modi

Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi on Tuesday ruled out lifting the salary cap on the franchisees from the second edition of the Twenty20 extravaganza.

Modi said in a statement that the players are legally bound by their three-year contract with their respective franchisees and they have to abide by that.

"The three-year contractual clause was made public to both the franchisees and players prior to the auction and the player's participation.

"All the parties will abide by the terms and conditions laid down by the governing council and it is only up to the franchisee to trade a player/players as and when the trading window opens next year," Modi said.

Presently, each of the eight franchisees can spend a maximum of USD five million for its squad, and players like Ricky Ponting has already opposed such moved, fearing it would lead to uneven contests.

The release said the players are bound by the contractual agreements signed with franchisees for a period of three years and new guidelines would be out soon before the transfer window opens early next year.

"...the DLF Indian Premier League will issue a fresh set of guidelines on the player transfer protocols for the next season keeping in mind the transfer window," the release said.

"It would however, be the prerogative of the franchisee alone to take a decision to trade a player/players, when the trading window opens in the early part of 2009 just prior to the second season of the DLF Indian Premier League," it added.

India rout Pakistan by 140 runs

India showed how the hectic pace of Twenty20 cricket could be replicated in the one-day game, pounding 330 on a sluggish pitch and rounding off a thumping win in their opening match of the Kitply Cup. Pakistan, coming off 12 successive wins against weak opposition, crashed to their worst defeat against India and their coach Geoff Lawson, who had hoped for a 150-run win, would have been embarrassed to see the shoe on the other foot.

India's domination was complete. Their mammoth total was made possible not by one but three batsmen: Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir made the most of some sloppy catching, getting within four runs of India's highest opening stand against Pakistan, before Yuvraj Singh raised visions of a 375-plus total. They settled for 330 but it didn't really matter in the final analysis. Once Pakistan crumbled to 26 for 3, it was only a case of picking up the pieces.

A run-rate of 6.6 is impressive in all conditions but the fact that India kept it up on a sluggish pitch that offered some assistance to the medium-pacers added more gloss to the effort. Their fifty came up as early as the seventh over but Pakistan's four-pronged pace didn't start as badly as what the run-rate suggested. They troubled the batsmen with swing and cut and even managed the edge on a few occasions but they were let down by poor fielding. Younis Khan allowed Gambhir two lives - on 4 and 29 - with identical edges flying past his at second slip and Kamran Akmal let off Sehwag on 43 when he lost control of the ball after appearing to have snared an edge to his right.

Sehwag, who walked all the way back towards the ropes before returning, made the most of his good fortune, racing to his first fifty in a year. He was dropped for the final stages of India's CB Series but an injury to Sachin Tendulkar allowed him another chance. He wasn't his customary buccaneering self, and that was probably because of the nature of the surface, but he continuously peppered the region behind square. Preferring to use the pace of the bowlers, he walked across and whipped a few off his pads while settling for the judicious glide on other occasions.

The area behind square was productive for Gambhir as well but it was the occasional skip down the ground that unsettled the bowlers. He didn't hesitate charging the quicker men and actually cut one over the infield, off left-armer Wahab Riaz, with both his feet in mid-air.

Riaz dismissed both openers in a space of a couple of overs but went on to have a forgettable day. It was the first time he was up against top-class opposition and the wheels began to come off once Yuvraj went after him. He even let slip two beamers - the second was probably because of the slippery ball - and wasn't allowed to complete his final over. It meant he earned the dubious distinction of bowling the most expensive spell against India, conceding one more than what Ata-ur-Rahman did in Sharjah back in 1996.

Incidentally it was in that game where India passed 300 for the first time in an ODI. Here, more than 12 years later, even 375 appeared a possibility when Yuvraj was striking them clean. He gauged the slow nature of the track and ensured he played late. A couple of half-trackers were swatted away over midwicket and his neat clips towards square leg suggested a batsman preparing to explode.

It was always going to be an uphill task for Pakistan and the contest was all but over once Praveen Kumar struck four big blows, including two in two. Swinging the new ball either way, he showed how dangerous he could be in congenial conditions. Kumar had Rohit Sharma to thank for the opening breakthrough: a sensational reflex catch at short cover got rid of Salman Butt.

A slightly wide ball was lashed hard but Rohit, throwing himself to the left and ensuring his hands got around a low chance, hung on superbly. There was no need of any such acrobatics for the next one: Younis Khan snicked to the wicketkeeper and walked back for his second successive duck. It capped off a miserable day where he had also dropped a couple of catches.

Akmal and Misbah ensured Kumar didn't have a perfect day - taking 17 off his fifth over, including four cracking fours - but Akmal was livid after falling to a full toss, lobbing a leading edge to mid-on. Misbah too couldn't carry on, falling to an injudicious waft, and it was left to Shoaib Malik to pick up the pieces. He soldiered on to a fifty but his meaty blows were largely inconsequential in the face of a step mountain. Chawla finished with four wickets, tormenting the tail and rounding off a near-perfect day.

Seniors still have a role in ODIs: Kirsten

India coach Gary Kirsten said his young team was geared up for another battle with Pakistan, who go into the match on Tuesday with an emphatic 70-run victory against Bangladesh.

But the archrivals are aware of what the Indians are capable of. "They are in form, aren't they?" Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson said. "It will be a big clash and I am sure it will be a high quality game. I hope everything goes right."

"Our guys will play with high intensity and the motivation to represent the country against Pakistan," were Kirsten's words.

The South African did not accept this was the start of a new phase in Indian cricket where the juniors would hold away. "Not necessarily," he said.

"You know that there are some senior players available to play one-day cricket for India. It is not that they will not be considered anymore. They are very much part of it. It is an exciting phase to try some young players. They are keen to show that they are capable of playing in big situations like what we saw in the IPL. Every team in the world will go through a transition period.

If we can mix it up with a bit of experience and make sure that in certain tournaments like this we play with our younger players, we will certainly go for that," Kirsten said. He advised the youngsters "to create an environment where they express themselves. They have the talent and potential. We, as support staff, will have to ensure that they are comfortable in this environment. They are representing their country and there are big stakes that go with that".

Threat of global AIDS epidemic over, says WHO

A quarter of a century after AIDS first appeared, the World Health Organisation has for the first time said the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic outside Africa might have passed.

According to Dr Kevin de Cock, one of the world's leading epidemiologists and head of the organisation's HIV/ AIDS department, there has been a shift in the understanding of the risks posed by the virus.

HIV was earlier regarded as a risk to populations everywhere, irrespective of the percentages that practised unsafe sexual behaviour. But experts now believe that outside of sub-Saharan Africa, the disease is largely confined to high-risk groups like men having sex with men, sex workers and their clients.

Speaking to TOI from New York, Dr de Cock said, "If the virus had to cause an epidemic among the general population in India and China, as originally feared, why hasn't it happened till now? It doesn't look likely anymore."

Dr de Cock, who expressed doubts about predictions of an Africa-type situation developing in India, said prevention strategies need to be focused where HIV transmission is occurring. "India needs to look at who are getting infected more often and then target that section of society," he said. He called for massive investments in educating those most at risk rather than focus on a school AIDS programme. "Countries need to go where transmission is occurring, which they have not always been good at," he said.

The WHO expert said that unlike Africa, specially in its southern and eastern parts, where the virus has been found to be "self-sustaining" in the general population, a similar trend has not emerged in Asian countries. In these nations, the prevalence is mostly concentrated in groups at risk and their partners. "It is very unlikely that there will be a heterosexual epidemic in other countries outside Africa," Dr de Cock said, while emphasising that this should not breed complacency.

UNAIDS chief Dr Dennis Broun, too, agreed with Dr de Cock. He told TOI, "We made a mistake with our predictions.

However, the gloomy predictions were made seeing evidence that was available to us 10 years ago, which was minimal. Today, with all the accumulated information, it is unlikely that Asian countries will see a generalised epidemic."
Nearly 2.45 million Indians live with HIV with prevalence rate in the general population of 0.36%.

Sehwag doubtful for ODI against Pakistan

With the euphoria of Indian Premier League all but settled, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team will have to quickly get back into the One-day mode to snap Pakistan's 12-match winning streak when the traditional rivals face off in the tri-series here on Tuesday.

Pakistan routed Bangladesh by 70 runs in the tri-series opener on Sunday night to extend their unbeaten streak to 12 matches and it would be a tough task for Dhoni's young Indian side to halt the archrivals.

Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson has already sounded the war bugle when he said that his wards would look to thump India by a bigger margin to make it 13 wins in a row.

India, severely under-strength because of pre-tournament injury woes, would be in for further trouble as opener Virender Sehwag is a doubtful starter due to high fever.

Besides, the team is still awaiting the arrival of pacer S Sreesanth's replacement Manpreet Singh Gony.

With seniors like Sachin Tendulkar, recovering from a groin injury, and Harbhajan Singh, serving a ban for slapping Sreesanth during the IPL, not in the ranks, it would be anything but easy for Dhoni's young brigade against Pakistan.

The team had a feel of the ground and the conditions on Sunday and put in three hours at the indoor nets after rain prevented any outdoor practice session.

The short tri-series, being seen as a warm-up for the Asia Cup later this month in Pakistan, is crucial for the Indians as it provides an opportunity for players like all-rounder Yusuf Pathan, spinner Piyush Chawla and Gony to show their worth in absence of the seniors.

With the pitch at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium likely to assist the batsmen, India's new-look bowling attack, to be spearheaded by Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma, will be severely tested.

No doubt, the Indian team has the batting strength to score heavily on a strip like this but it remains to be seen how their bowlers contain hard hitters like Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Muhammad Yousuf.

The much-anticipated contest meanwhile faces a major threat from the weather gods. The opener itself was truncated because of intermittent drizzle and this match too could see rain interruptions.

As for the Pakistani attack, medium pacers, particularly young talent Wahab Riaz, were impressive in last night's win over Bangladesh. But with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif missing from the attack, it remains to be seen how Sohail Tanvir and his bowling colleagues fare against India's star-studded line-up.

In the batting department, though Butt, Yousuf and Misbah looked in good nick, Pakistan's line-up still sports a vulnerable look and even Bangladesh, with their limited options in the bowling department, shot them out in 39.3 overs.

Squads:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R P Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha and MS Gony.

Pakistan: Shoaib Malik (C), Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Yonus Khan, Muhammad Yousaf, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Umer Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz, Nasir Jamshed, Sohail Khan, Rao Iftikar, Bazid Khan and Naumanullah.

Hours of Play: 1500 hrs to 1830hrs and 1915 hours to 2245 hours.

India face tough task against Pakistan

With the euphoria of the Indian Premier League all but settled, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team will have to quickly get back into the one-day mode to snap Pakistan's 12-match winning streak when the traditional rivals face off in the second match of the tri-series in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Pakistan routed Bangladesh by 70 runs in the tri-series opener on Sunday to extend their unbeaten streak to 12 matches and Dhoni's young Indian side have a tough task on their hands to halt the arch-rivals.

Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson has already sounded the war bugle when he said that his wards would look to thump India by a bigger margin to make it 13 wins in a row.

India, severely under-strength because of pre-tournament injury woes, would be in for further trouble as opener Virender Sehwag is a doubtful starter due to high fever.

Besides, the team is still awaiting the arrival of pacer S Sreesanth's replacement Manpreet Singh Gony.

With seniors like Sachin Tendulkar, recovering from a groin injury, and Harbhajan Singh, serving a ban for slapping Sreesanth during the IPL, not in the ranks, it would be anything but easy for Dhoni's young brigade against Pakistan.

The team had a feel of the ground and the conditions on Sunday and put in three hours at the indoor nets after rain prevented any outdoor practice session.

The short tri-series, being seen as a warm-up for the Asia Cup late this month in Pakistan, is crucial for the Indians as it provides an opportunity for players like all-rounder Yusuf Pathan, spinner Piyush Chawla and Gony to show their worth in absence of the seniors.

With the pitch at the Sher-E-Bangla Stadium likely to assist the batsmen, India's new-look bowling attack, to be spearheaded by Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma, will be severely tested.

No doubt, the Indian team has the batting strength to score heavily on a strip like this but it remains to be seen how their bowlers contain hard hitters like Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf.

The much-anticipated contest meanwhile faces a major threat from the weather. The opener itself was truncated because of intermittent drizzle and this match too could see rain interruptions.

As for the Pakistani attack, medium pacers, particularly young talent Wahab Riaz, were impressive in the win over Bangladesh. But with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif missing from the attack, it remains to be seen how Sohail Tanvir and his bowling colleagues fare against India's star-studded line-up.

Memorable moments from the IPL
In the batting department, though Butt, Yousuf and Misbah looked in good nick, Pakistan's line-up still sports a vulnerable look and even Bangladesh, with their limited options in the bowling department, shot them out in 39.3 overs.

Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R P Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha and MS Gony.

Pakistan: Shoaib Malik (captain), Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz, Nasir Jamshed, Sohail Khan, Rao Iftikar, Bazid Khan and Naumanullah.

IPL teams to get first pick on players - Modi

Franchises from the Indian Premier League will get first priority over players for the proposed Champions League, and any team that fields a cricketer from the unofficial Indian Cricket League will be automatically disqualified from the international Twenty20 competition, Lalit Modi, the chairman of IPL, has said.

However, Modi told Cricinfo that the Champions League was "still a long way away" and what has been agreed upon by various boards so far is "only an in-principle agreement" to host such an event. "The venues have not been decided, the dates are still open and we are trying to host the event this year," Modi said.

The England and Wales Cricket Board had on Saturday issued a press release which said that the ECB, Cricket Australia, the BCCI and Cricket South Africa had "reached an agreement for the staging of the inaugural Champions League this autumn" for a top prize of US$ 5 million. However, Modi said he would be able to provide a clear picture only after the BCCI's working committee discusses the issue during a meeting scheduled on June 22.

Asked about the Champions League's regulations, Modi, who is also a vice-president of the BCCI, said that "it had been clearly resolved earlier" that the IPL franchises would get priority over cricketers in their team. But the franchises will have to pay a "relieving fees" to the player's state team if both have qualified for the event, he said.

Elaborating on the case of Michael Hussey, who is caught between Western Australia and Chennai Super Kings for the Champions League, Modi said, "In the case of Michael Hussey, Chennai Super Kings has the option to keep him and pay a relieving fees to Western Australia. The option is with Super Kings."

However, players like David Hussey, whose IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders, failed to qualify for the Champions League, will have to play for Victoria, he said. "In case of David Hussey, he has to play for his home team if his IPL team has not qualified. If his home team has qualified, which it has, then he plays for them. The county option is his third fall back," Modi said.

Modi also clarified that "any ICL player playing for any team automatically disqualifies that team from participating" in the Champions League. "No exceptions will be made under any circumstances," Modi said.

Currently, about 24 ICL players have been signed up to play for various English counties - the top two Twenty20 teams from England will join Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings from India, the Titans from Pretoria and KwaZulu Natal Dolphins representing South Africa and Western Australia and Victoria from Australia in the Champions League.

Million-dollar Twenty20 Champions League announced

The inaugural Champions League tournament, involving the domestic Twenty20 finalists from England, Australia, South Africa and the IPL, will take place over a 10-day period in late September and early October with US$5 million on offer for the winners.

The fine detail is yet to be confirmed, but Cricket Australia are currently drawing up the regulations which will deal with the issues of Indian Cricket League players and potential conflicts for players involved with more than one team.

It is possible that the Indian board will be generous towards ICL players after the success of IPL. It was also agreed, verbally, between the boards that foreign players will turn out for their local teams in the tournament. That undertaking was sought by the England and Australia boards at a meeting in Singapore.

However, it has been confirmed the event will feature 15 matches over 10 days, and will take place in either the Middle East or India. Alongside the huge sum for the winners, there will be significant prize money for the teams finishing second, third and fourth.

Stuart Broad, the England quick bowler, is excited by the move. "It's certainly an incentive for domestic sides to take Twenty20 seriously which can only help the international team," he said after the third day's play against New Zealand. "I've always thought Championship cricket is the priority because it develops players for Test cricket and that's the ultimate. But this could change the emphasis."

Western Australia and Victoria from Australia, Rajasthan and Chennai from the IPL along with the Dolphins and Titans from the Pro20 in South Africa have already qualified. They will be joined by the two finalists from the English Twenty20 Cup, which starts next week.

Following meetings late last week between the ECB, represented by chairman Giles Clarke and chief executive David Collier, Cricket Australia's chairman Creagh O'Connor and chief executive James Sutherland, an agreement was reached yesterday between Clarke, IPL commissioner and BCCI representative Lalit Modi, and Cricket South Africa president Norman Arendse.

"We are extremely grateful to our great friends from Australia, India and South Africa for their hard work and determination to get this tournament off the ground," Clarke said. "The Twenty20 Cup will be even more fiercely contested this season in the knowledge that the two teams who reach the final will qualify for the Champions League and the chance to win US$5 million."

This event throws up a number of potential conflicts, not least involving an players linked to the unofficial ICL. Chris Read, Vikram Solanki, Stuart Law, Niall O'Brien and Paul Nixon all appeared in the ICL, and if their counties qualify their inclusion will be a major conflict with the Indian board.

The other issue that will occur is involving players who are contracted to more than one of the teams involved, for example Mike Hussey who played for Chennai in the IPL and is also from Western Australia. The clash could also happen with overseas players in county cricket, for example David Hussey, who plays for Nottinghamshire and Victoria.

Somerset chief executive Richard Gould admitted to Sky Sports News: "We've already had some discussions and we're basically looking to mirror what the IPL contracts are. It was first mooted at the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and it's taken a while but now it's there, I think it's brilliant for club cricket. It gives it much more juice."

Davinia Taylor: Secrets of the Primrose Hill set

Davinia Taylor is at the heart of the group, which includes Sadie Frost and Kate Moss. She has never spoken, until now

Davinia Taylor is in her downstairs loo. “That’s Kate and me just after we left Disneyland,” she says, pointing out photos. “And there she is in the country, washing the car with Lila. Oh, look, the Duch!” - the Duchess of York, on a night out with Princess Eugenie. Here is Davinia with her new baby, the now 11-month-old Grey, and her husband, David Gardner, the footballer turned agent and David Beckham’s best friend. Next up is Mick Jones in a dinghy - “He could not believe,” she roars in her deep Wigan accent, “that he was in this stupid little boat!” - then a snap of Jake Chapman’s daughter in a highchair, the word ‘F***’ artistically picked out in raisins in front of her. “She didn’t do that herself, obviously.”

Ah, the inner sanctum. Along with Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, Sienna Miller and a host of other party animals, the former Hollyoaks actress has been a core component, if not the driving force, of “the gang” for more than a decade. She met Kate “years ago. It’s the same party scene, isn’t it? You kind of click and that’s it. Like goes to like”. Together “they’re like sisters”, says the hairdresser James Brown, himself a long-time member. “It’s always giggly, like little girls. It’s not a bitchy crew: we’ve all been friends for a long time. It’s like the Waltons, the psychedelic Waltons. Everyone really gets on.”

Well, they’ve had to. A colourful collection of pleasure-seekers - “young, rich and beautiful”, says Brown - the group has weathered some of the most thrilling scandals of the tabloid era. The break-up and subsequent affairs of Sadie and Jude Law; the Cocaine Kate allegations; the Pearl Lowe wife-swapping saga. Davinia herself has been in the hot seat several times, once for an alleged lesbian threesome with Kate and Sadie, and a kiss-and-tell by Barry Smith, one of Sadie’s toy-boy lovers, who claimed that Davinia had cheated on her husband with him. “There’ve been a lot of nasty lies written about me,” she says.

Davinia herself hasn’t given an interview in years, so it’s rather astonishing to be here, crammed into her loo, hearing tales of boisterous parties, compulsive house-hopping and the time Kate lived downstairs, after she broke up with Pete Doherty. “He’s way out of our lives now,” she says tensely. Living with Kate must have been great for her wardrobe. “But I can’t borrow anything,” she sighs. “The only thing I fit into is maybe . . . a bag. Not even a shoe - she’s got size-three feet. She’d lend me anything but it just won’t go on.”

These days, they spend most of their time in each other’s kitchens. “A good night out is a night in for me,” says Davinia. “You go out to socialise and once you’ve found your clique, you stick with them. They know all the stories, the tribulations, dramas . . . you don’t have to go over old ground. It’s just about having fun, a good old chinwag and a heated debate.”

This on-private-premises lifestyle means that, to the outside world, the Primrose Hill set has always seemed impossibly inaccessible. Did it nearly break up when Davinia sold Supernova Heights to David Walliams three years ago? “Are you insane?” says Davinia, swishing into the newly appointed kitchen of her seven-bedroom house in St John’s Wood, a place she calls “Club Kitchen”. “This is the new Primrose Hill. We’ve all moved, en masse. Kate’s 35 seconds down the road; I jog there. I jog a lot. To the pub. To James Brown’s. To Sadie’s. [When I lived] in Supernova Heights, she was right opposite. I used to go to Sadie’s in my pyjamas with a bottle of – actually, who am I kidding? - a box of wine!” She only left Supernova because “I couldn’t cope with the stairs. I kind of miss the larger garden now that I’ve got the baby. But I just wanted to move out”. Then she bought the current place. “I saw that pub, saw this house,” she says, “and then I had a mass exodus follow me.”

At 30, Davinia is good-looking, glossy and blonde, with a rich-girl’s tan from the weekends at her mum’s place outside Marbella - “not the tacky part, though”. She has a new asymmetric haircut, chopped by Brown (in whose hair-care range she is an investor) during one of her Club Kitchen dinners using the kitchen scissors, no less - “like Ginger from Casino. I’m doing a film in August set in a casino, but in Wigan, where I’m from. It’s perfect”. With her husky voice and petrol-driven cackle, she’s a Wag version of Oliver Twist’s Nancy - strident, up for a laugh, the person most likely to scream, “All back to miiine!” She would make the most perfect pub landlady.

“I’m giddy, really,” she says. “Quite young in the head. Very easily led.” As an actress, she says, she “does a great bitch”. Indeed, witness her as the conniving Jude in Hollyoaks: “She started off as a really conscientious student,” she laughs in disbelief, “but when they got to know me, they were like, ‘Let’s turn her into an alcoholic bitch turned prostitute.’ ” The house is beautiful: pin-neat, with dark walls, antique rugs, dramatic wallpaper, and taxidermy everywhere, including a parakeet that lost its bell jar in a drunken accident. There are Banksys on the walls (one from Sadie). A typical northerner, she’s “very house proud”. She cooks for the gang “five times a week. Ring round, see who’s in. We’ll chat about fashion, food, friends, what they’ve been up to, what everyone’s up to next week. Planning adventures. Kids. Normal chitchat, like you’d see on Coronation Street”. She’ll crack open a bottle or seven from the walk-in fridge (“ Never enough booze”) and rustle up a “Sunday roast with loads of kids. A chicken and a lamb - I’ve got two ovens”. She is particularly proud of the dinner she once gave for Rhys Ifans, “possibly the funniest man on the planet. I did a crab tower and everything. He was like, ‘Babe, this is so lovely’ ”. Eventually, she’ll boot everyone out. “Sometimes, because I’ve got a couple of spare bedrooms, it’s the day after. ‘We’ll stop here tonight.’ I like the company.”

Upstairs, Grey’s bedroom is a haven of cream. “I’ve got the most unbelievably placid child,” she says. She “nicked the name Grey off Mario Sorrenti”; David Beckham and Kate are rumoured godparents. “People cannot believe that two such mental, het-up, argumentative nutters have this angel of a child,” she says. She can’t really bear football, so her husband’s footie regalia (including a kit signed by “Uncle David”) is firmly relegated to his office in the basement, “the dungeon” where Kate and Lila stayed. “We took the cooking in turns,” she says.

Worra life, eh? All her friends say she’s very happy, and with a thoroughly pleasant husband (“Saint David”), a tight group of “high-profile and old schoolfriends” and a beautiful baby, why not? Clearly the family money helps a bit, but she appears largely unspoilt by her wealth, perfectly happy to plod off to Primark with Grey in the buggy. A tireless raconteur – accents, anecdotes, physical theatre, the lot – she is brilliant to spend time with. Much like her father, one imagines, whom she describes as “a genius businessman” and “hilarious Scouser”. Dubbed the “Loo Roll King”, Alan Murphy (Taylor is Davinia’s mother’s maiden name) amassed his £200m fortune from supplying paper to factories. (One of his yachts was called La Naturelle Dee, after his top-selling roll.) This weekend, it’s his 60th birthday, which he’s celebrating at home in Monaco. “I’m taking my friends for backup,” she chortles. “Load up the jet, take the yacht out. There goes Monaco.” An only child, she was largely unaffected by her parents’ divorce when she was 20, and her father now has a girlfriend, Wendy. “They’ve got a baby, so basically my dad’s son is Grey’s uncle at the age of two.” She doesn’t mind her heirhead tag. “They call me the loo-roll heiress,” she says. “I think it’s funny. Loo roll’s recession-proof, for God’s sake. Think about it - when the market fell in the 1990s, everyone was shitting it.”

We decamp to the pub. Davinia is even more at home here than up the road, putting away a double vodka and tonic (it’s midday) and two large glasses of sauvignon blanc in under 90 minutes. Also a Cajun chicken sandwich - “with chips!” she roars. “Oh, I’m such a picker. I was over in Paris with John [Galliano, who was designing her wedding dress] and he said, ‘Little pickers wear bigger knickers’ while he was trying to get me into this corset. But I’m ruddy staaarving!” She breaks into a peal of laughter, before going to the back of the pub. “We usually sit in there,” she says, “as they won’t let the paparazzi round, so Kate can relax. Upstairs there are bedrooms . . .”

“Not for you,” says the landlady. “She knows me,” says Davinia. The press always does its best to crash the parties. “I’m afraid so,” she says, referring to the “25,000” paparazzi outside Kate’s home, all day, every day. As for those nasty things they’ve written, such as the lesbian business: “Absolute bullshit!” she explodes. “I think it came from everyone staying at everyone’s house. It was quite slanderous . . .” she tails off. “But you can’t take on the press. They’re a machine. What do you do? Ring them up from your bedroom crying? They’re selling papers. Tabloids are dark. I don’t know how people who do that sort of press sleep with themselves. It’s not right.” She pauses. “It’s money. Money, money, money.”

Inevitably, personal relations suffer. Not everyone has survived “the gang”. Pearl Lowe famously crumbled under the pressure of their drug-taking, eventually moving to the country to escape it all. “There was a general belief in our world that you couldn’t have fun unless you were slightly out of it,” she said. But, “put down the drugs and you don’t have much in common. What I did miss initially was the quantity of friends, the constant phone ringing, the ‘what are you doing tonight?’, that sense of being in a gang”. When Barry Smith sold his kiss-and-tell, Davinia’s marriage was rocked. But she maintains that is behind her now. “The only people it hurts are your parents,” she says. “They don’t want you to look bad. It’s tomorrow’s chip paper and everything, but when it’s in their head that something’s going wrong, they worry. They’re like, ‘Are you sure you’re boiling that egg right? Are you depressed?’ ”

She spends a lot of time with her mother, who now runs Mya, a cosmetic-surgery clinic, and who brought her up like a princess. “I think I was three or four when I ordered my first escargot and lobster. The waiter just went, ‘What?’ ” she chuckles. “I’m a big foodie. It’s my thing.” Her mother used to cry every time Davinia went off to boarding school. A curious mixture of naive (she was the last girl in her year to kiss a boy) and party animal — at 15, her favourite occupation was “to climb out of my bedroom window and go to the Haçienda” — she landed a part in Hollyoaks straight out of school. She left after a couple of years, amid rumours that she had been sacked for poor timekeeping.

“Not true,” she says. “I left! I’d filmed the final scenes. The producer simply wanted the last bit of publicity. She was a bitch, so I threw a glass of water over her head and stormed out.” She pauses. “It’s damaging for my career, which isn’t fair. I bumped into her once. She had some stupid ensemble on. I said” — she wiggles her finger through the air — “ ‘And what are we wearing here?’ She went bright red. That’s how you get to a woman. You go, ‘What’s this, then?’ ”

Davinia married David five years ago after a string of boyfriends — Ryan Giggs, Nellee Hooper and James Gooding, to name a few. “We’re madly in love,” she says. “He’s so nice, isn’t he? He proposed on a swing. I was like, ‘Waaah!’ Textbook stupid woman. Six months later, we were married.” On her finger — scratched from trying to open one bottle of beer with another — is a huge sparkler. “I’ve thrown it at him a few times.” Initially, he wanted to live in Cheshire but after six months “it was like, tap, tap, tap” — she drums her fingers. They moved to London. “I think his eyes got opened rather wide. He was like, ‘Bloody hell.’ ”

She’s now back to work, with a play on in the autumn (“Urgh. I’m the sort of person to walk off the end of a stage”) and a film in the summer. She wants to try for another baby, but in September, so she doesn’t have to “sit around in the summer like a big, bloated whale, watching everyone having fun and not even being allowed a shandy”. She wants to take James Brown’s range “international!” and see more of her younger friends, who include Princess Beatrice and Kelly Osbourne, who bought her a platinum whistle for her Haçienda-themed 30th last November. “Kelly’s an absolute dreamboat. So stylish. She refuses to go brown, whereas I’m a northerner and like, ‘Sunbed!’ ”

Will she always be a party girl? “It’s better than being boring,” she says. As for memoirs: “Oh no, I can’t remember them,” she laughs. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

James Brown London haircare available at larger Boots stores. Visit www.jamesbrownlondon.com for further information

Sarkar Raj: Ramu's back with a bang

Sarkar Raj (drama) 31/2*
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai
Direction: Ram Gopal Varma

THIS film carries the sequel forward without losing out on the gritty feel and retains the charisma of the central characters, mafioso leader Subhash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan) and his son, Shankar Nagre (Abhishek Bachchan).

The Nagre duo that first emerged as the indigenous Corleone family on the Indian screen in Sarkar is still living with social sanction and unprecedented popular support despite being on the wrong side of the law.

The father has taken a back seat and left the business of governance to his son, who seems to have become more ruthless after killing his own brother (Kay Kay Menon) in Sarkar . But like his father, he has the welfare of Maharashtra at his heart and is hell bent on giving his state the multi-national power project which the NRI business executive (Aishwarya Bachchan) would like to set up in India. The power project turns out to be just a ruse for a change in governance and unleashes a whole nexus of wheelers and dealers who are determined to cut short the power reign of the Nagres. Time for the aging tiger to roar again and let loose his vengeance on those who dared to harm his family, his people....

Ram Gopal Varma gets back into the saddle after a spate of flops which affected his brand equity. He falls back on the subject -- gang warfare -- and the style of cinema he knows best. His camera follows the angles it excels in, plastering the screen with extreme close-ups of his protagonists. Of course, it does help when the faces in full view are extremely emotive and reflect the myriad emotions of anger, pain, passion and revenge with a mere muscle flick. The Bachchan trio -- Amitabh, Abhishek, Aishwarya -- emerge as consummate actors, imbuing their characters with nuances and shades not easily seen in mainstream cinema. But eventually, it is the structure of the film that succeeds above all else.

Ramu's characteristic dark brooding palette of shadow and light and his forte at laying bare the undercurrents of violence in urban society take you on a reassuring trip through familiar terrain.

Nothing experimental, nothing new; just a return to the tried and tested form which first raised its head in films like Shiva , Satya , Company , Sarkar ....Yes, you may have your quarrels with the ideology of the film and the validity it seeks to give to outlaws like Subhash and Shankar Nagre, but you will applaud the style and the performances.

Mallika slaps Ranvir 99 times

This is no rab ne banayee jodi and nobody would agree to this more than Mallika Sherawat and Ranvir Shorey. Mallika who plays the pagli in Ugli aur Pagli apparently had to use her hands more than Ranvir would have preferred.

A unit-hand from the film revealed that Mallika's character in the film is hyper and so every time she gets excited, she slaps the guy. So Ranvir would get slapped almost everyday on the sets.

Ranvir is more fortright. He says, "The title of the film is incorrect. Instead of Ugli aur Pagli it should be called Kahani of 99 slaps. I must have got slapped at least 100 times including all the retakes."

We must say, life is certainly not a party for Ranvir. While most heroes opposite Mallika get to woo her and some lucky ones like Himanshu Malik and Emraan Hashme even get to smooch her, Ranvir gets only slaps from the sulty heroine!!!

Who said life played fair? Certainly not Ranvir

Tatas, world's 6th most reputed group

Diversified Indian conglomerate Tata group has emerged as the world's sixth most reputed company, but the country's most valued firm Reliance Industries failed to make the grade.

Tata group leapfrogged over 100 positions from last year's 124th rank in the annual 'Global 200: The World's Best Corporate Reputations' list, compiled by US-based Reputation Institute.

The global list, which includes 10 other Indian companies, has been topped by Japanese auto maker Toyota, followed by US-based internet search giant Google, Sweden's Ikea, Italy's Ferrero and another American firm Johnson & Johnson.

The Ratan Tata-led group is joined by India's second largest software exporter Infosys Technologies in the Top-50 league at 14th position.

However, at least nine other Indian firms, which were among 600 companies considered in a survey to prepare the list, could not make it to the final 200.

These firms include Mukesh Ambani-led RIL, the country's biggest by revenue among private sector firms and overall largest in terms of market value.

Other Indian companies that were considered for the list, but failed to make the cut include the biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank, top private and public sector telecom firms Bharti Airtel and BSNL, IT giant Wipro, Birla group's Grasim Industries, tobacco-to-consumer goods conglomerate ITC as well as two state-run firms -- oil refining and marketing major BPCL and national carrier Air India Ltd.

Petrol up by Rs 5, diesel by Rs 3

The government on Wednesday hiked petrol and diesel prices by Rs 5 and 3 a litre and that of LPG by Rs 50 a cylinder, while sparing poor man's cooking medium kerosene from any increase.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took a slew of measures to offset the surging global oil prices that had put the national oil companies under acute pressure. The increase in prices would be effective from Wednesday midnight, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said.

The price hike would help oil companies to earn Rs 21,123 crore more.

As part of measures, the government decided to take a burden of Rs 94,601 crore for which it will issue oil bonds to state-run BPCL, HPCL and IOC which were reporting a daily loss of over Rs 720 crore.

In addition, the oil producing PSUs like ONGC would shell out Rs 60,000 crore through discounts to state-owned oil refiners and marketing companies.

Customs duty on petrol and diesel has been cut from 7.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Customs duty on crude, however, has been cut from 5 per cent to nil.

Despite all the measures, there would still be a gap of Rs 29,000 crore, Revenue Secretary P V Bhide said while briefing about the decisions taken by the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, the Left has said it will hold week-long nationwide protests against the hike from Thursday.

Mallika Sherawat's Mughal Ada!

One actress who loves to sink deep into her character is Mallika Sherawat. It is heard that on the sets of Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam Mallika came up with a very unique style of greeting her costars and unit members.

The "Hi"s and "Hello"s became passe and traditional adakari became the custom to greet one another. And it was thanks to the hottie who greeted everyone with an adab by gently lifting her hand, a la Anarkali style.
She even performed a few kathak steps to showcase her adaas and nakhras further.

Mallika always has a blast on her sets. On the last day of shooting for the film, the Murder actress threw a party for the entire shooting unit. And to help her set the mood for the film, she found this innovative style to greet unit hands.

Cabinet's nod to fuel price hike

NEW DELHI: Your motor fuel bill is poised to rise as the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) approved fuel price hike on Wednesday.

The amount by which the fuel price will be hiked is yet to be announced. However, according to sources, petrol will get dearer by Rs 3 and diesel by Rs 2.

The crucial meeting of Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs discussed the need of raising fuel prices in view of spurt in global oil prices.

The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and attended by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Road Transport Minister T R Baalu.

Petrol and diesel prices were last raised in February when the Indian basket of crude oil was at 67 dollars per barrel. On Wednesday, it is at 124 dollars per barrel.

The decision on measures to tackle the high international oil prices taken at this meeting could then be sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs before being announced. Though CCPA can take a decision on increasing pump prices, any proposal that includes duty rejig will have to be cleared by CCEA.

On Monday, the PM had signalled that the government was running out of options on avoiding a rise in prices.

A day later, latest data culled for the consideration of the Cabinet panels raised the projected losses of the state-run oil marketing firms to Rs 246,000 crore in 2008-09 if they continued to sell at the artificially low prices set by the government.

Kareena Kapoor going crazy with chock-a-block schedule

With five films, nine endorsements and three stage shows, Kareena Kapoor says she is overworked and exhausted.

"I've five films in various stages of production. Then I've nine endorsements for which I've to shoot ads round the year. Plus I've all these stage shows that require rehearsals. I can't seem to find the time to do anything properly," Kareena told IANS on phone from Melbourne."I'm so happy for them (Deepika and Ranbir). I hope they'll be happy together. It feels so nice to have another Kapoor from my generation doing so well."

She's shooting for Salman Khan's Main Aur Mrs Khanna in Melbourne.

She has, in fact, agreed to perform at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards on June 8 in Bangkok and is rehearsing for it.

"I'm performing a medley of my songs from Jab We Met and Tashan. Gone are the days when I'd go on stage with just a little practice. Now I want to be my best in every stage performance.

"Here in Melbourne I'm rehearsing for IIFA at nights and shooting during the day. Am I overworked? I'm exhausted. But what choice do I have? I've decided to take my live performances as seriously as my movies and endorsements," she said.

After Melbourne and the IIFA performance, Kareena will spend some time with her beau Saif Ali Khan in London and then move to Los Angeles for a 40-day shooting for Sajid Nadiadwala's Kambakht Ishq.

"I'll be away from home for more than three months at a stretch. I miss home. I miss my family. I've never been so much out of Mumbai. I'll finish shooting here, then head to perform at the IIFA. In fact, I'm working so hard that I hardly get proper sleep. I feel like I haven't slept for ages."

She'll join Saif in London from June 20. Saif will be shooting in the city for his first home production to be directed by Imtiaz Ali and Deepika Padukone is playing the female lead in it.

And Deepika is seeing Kareena's cousin Ranbir.

"I'm so happy for them. I hope they'll be happy together. It feels so nice to have another Kapoor from my generation doing so well. He was fantastic in Saawariya. He's here to stay. I feel a sense of pride and belonging for him. The Kapoors and Khans are rocking the industry."

No hard feelings about not being in Saif's first home production?

"None at all," Bebo laughs. "I joked at the Stardust awards about not being in Saif's first production and everyone took it seriously. Honestly, I enjoy meeting him outside Mumbai. At least we can have some privacy. At home me and Saif can't even go out for dinner without people staring at us, constantly judging our behaviour."

Bank welcomes India's poor

The tangled streets of Sunder Nagri, a slum in east Delhi, bustle with morning activity. Motorcycles buzz through the narrow lanes and vendors sell their wares from carts. Sunder Nagri lies across the Yamuna River, far from the manicured streets of south Delhi where prosperity is obvious. But a transformation is quietly taking place in this slum of more than 75,000 people.

Chamal Lal, a tailor in his 40s, stands in his cramped storefront and measures cloth on a white countertop.

Behind him, an employee runs fabric through a humming sewing machine. Mr Lal bought the machine and more fabric with a Rs10,000 ($237, pound 121) loan through Basix, one of India 's largest microfinance institutions. The weekly instalment of Rs 250 for a year is easy to pay, says Mr Lal, and offers a big improvement over extortionate rates charged by local moneylenders.

"I didn't have money for raw material before," says Mr Lal. With his new machine, he hopes to move into more lucrative ready-made garments.

Cities are new territory for Basix and other microfinance institutions, which first flourished in India 's rural villages, usually distributing loans to small groups of women. If one defaulted, it meant the group had defaulted. This created a sense of communal obligation that helped foster the industry's reported re-payment rates of 98 per cent.

India is the largest emerging market for microfinance, with 300m poor households, of which only 15-20 per cent have access to the formal financial sector, according to a new report from Celent, a consultancy.

But cities are a riskier market. Urban microfinance is "very different from rural because there are all different kinds of people", says Preeti Sahai, programme manager for Basix in Delhi. "There's no community bond." However, urban poverty is swelling as more migrants pour into India 's cities. Financial services - whether credit, savings, insurance or remittances - are in great demand.

"There is a lot of money changing hands in urban areas," says Ms Sahai, pointing out that a rickshaw driver or vendor could clear hundreds or thousands of rupees a week. But very few of them have access to a bank account - there are just two bank branches in Sunder Nagri with restrictive policies that bar small savers.

In some ways, saving is more critical than lending in cities because of the lack of social cohesion. "Savings are a valuable starting point especially for the urban poor," says Ms Sahai.

In east Delhi, Basix lends only after a customer has opened a bank account. It has brought savings accounts to Sunder Nagri through a joint venture with Axis, an Indian bank. Indian microfinance institutions are not allowed to accept deposits because that requires a banking licence.

Basix, based in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, began piloting urban microfinance several years ago. It is also taking the bold step of diversifying beyond its core markets in south India to the north, which is reputed to be less progressive and slower to change.

In cities, Basix loan officers meet potential customers several times to gain their trust. Locals are familiar with extortionate loan sharks and Basix must do its share to convince people it is different. "It's an uphill task to get people to understand we're genuine," says Ms Sahai.

"At first, people would withdraw their deposits the next day to check if we're actually doing this." But a combination of the Basix brand, education about its services and written contracts have helped win people over. In east Delhi, Basix has opened about 6,000 bank accounts as of mid-March after launching its pilot programme in September. It has disbursed $38,000 of loans in the area.

To help make savings accessible, Basix is piloting a "mobile ATM" comprised of a mobile phone, a fingerprint reader and a scanner. Biometrics make it easier for illiterate or semi-literate customers to access their accounts. Basix hopes to reach 40,000 customers in the area within two years.

In a narrow lane, a stone's throw from a gigantic garbage heap, more bank accounts are being opened. Men, women and children crowd around a Basix field officer who takes a client's photo, scans her fingerprint and types in information gleaned from her identity papers. Basix opens about 30 accounts a day in Sunder Nagri.

Brijsh Kaur, a 35-year-old housewife with a seventh grade education, sits on a low stool to have her fingerprint scanned.

"I had no idea a bank account should be opened," she says. "I want to save money for my children and want to save for their education."

K'taka: Cong MLAs worth Rs 256 crore; BJP 203 crore

The special Legislative session in Karnataka gets underway on Wednesday. The Congress, which will sit in opposition, leads the table with candidates with very high assets while the ruling BJP comes second, indicates statistics available with Karnataka Election Watch.

The Congress has 35 MLAs with very high assets (Rs 20 crore and above) and their total worth is Rs 256.6 crore. In 2004, the party after the election was worth just Rs 54.2 crore which would mean that the party has seen a 373 per cent jump in the last four years.

The Congress, incidentally, has the richest two MLAs in the 224-member House.

M Krishnappa, who was elected from the Vijay Nagar constituency in Bengaluru, is worth Rs 147.88 crore. His liabilities are estimated at Rs 69.85 crore.

Second on the list is Feroz Nurrudin Sait (Congress) from the Belgaum Uttar constituency with assets and liabilities estimated at Rs 58.55 crore and Rs 0 respectively.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has 40 MLAs with very high assets and their total worth is Rs 203.8 crore as against the Rs 51.4 crore in the 2004 elections. The party has seen a jump of 296 per cent in the past four years.

Anand Singh from the Vijayanagara constituency is the richest BJP MLA with assets worth Rs 57. 34 crore. The liabilities of Singh who is also the third richest MLA are estimated at Rs 7.37 crore.

The JD(S), which came third in the election with just 28 seats, has 16 MLAs with very high assets and are worth Rs 112.9 crore. This party has seen a phenomenal rise in terms of assets of candidates since the 2004 elections and the jump is estimated at 606 per cent. In 2004, the party was worth just Rs 16 crore.

The richest MLA from the JD(S) is H D Kumaraswamy, the former chief minister of the state. Kumaraswamy who won from the Ramanagar constituency, 50 km from Bangalore is worth Rs 30.20 crore, thus making him the ninth richest MLA in the House. His liabilities are estimated at Rs 23.12 crore.


Tainted MLAs:

In the tainted MLAs' section, it is the Bharatiya Janata Party which leads the pack with 25 MLAs with a criminal record. The Congress comes second with 8 MLAs while the JD(S) has 7.

Out of the 25 MLAs in the BJP with a criminal record, seven are in the Cabinet. They are Krishnaiah Shetty, Sriramulu, Shobha Karandlage, Aravind Limbavali, S A Ravindranath, D Sudhakar (Independent) and Goolihatti Shekhar (Independent).

Among the 25 MLAs with a criminal record, three have murder or attempt to murder charges pending against them.

In the Congress, there are 8 MLAs with a criminal record, of which three have murder or attempt to murder charges pending against them.

Of the 7 MLAs in the JD(S) with a criminal record, two have murder or attempt to murder charges pending against them.

10 great investing rules to become RICH

An old saying goes, "You can't build wealth by buying things you don't need, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't like." So how do you build wealth? Read on...

There are basically only four roads to wealth:

You can marry it (don't laugh, some do);
You can inherit it (others do that);
You can get a windfall (from a lawsuit settlement, lottery, or some other unexpected good fortune); or
You can accumulate it.
Most of us are stuck with option #4 - accumulate it. To do so, you need to understand how to manage cash flow. First, look at your annual earnings and multiply that figure by your working years. Not counting inflation (that is, pay raises along the way), the result may total several million dollars.

Whether you will have that several million dollars by retirement, though, depends on how you manage your cash flow - and how you answer the following questions: What do you need now, what do you want now, and what can you save and invest for the future?

Here are ten time-tested rules that can weather the stormiest market cycles.

Rules #1: Live within your means

This includes managing debt and learning to budget. Such boring topics may not be the most exciting things about becoming wealthy, but they may be the most critical.

Consumer-driven economies relentlessly hammer away at why we must buy this item or that gadget so we can have the appearance of being successful, happy, and altogether "with it." So it takes financial discipline and sensible behavior to successfully accumulate money and grow wealthy.

Possibly the biggest trap out there is easy credit, which lets us buy numerous things we might not need. Comedians have pointed out the foolishness: "You buy something that's 10 per cent off and charge it on a 20 per cent interest credit card!" And US newspaper columnist Earl Wilson opined, "Nowadays there are three classes of people - the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-Not-Paid-For-What-They-Haves."

Learning to live within your means leads to a freer life - debt can be a mean master instead of a worthy servant. Save first, spend second. If you do so, building wealth will be a lot easier for you.

Rule #2: Save aggressively

This does not mean "invest aggressively." Rather, it means making it an absolute priority to set aside 10 per cent of your income right off the top, and even more if your goals tell you to do that. The longer you wait to start saving, the larger the percentage of your current pay you will have to save to reach your goal.

If you can save aggressively, you will be surprised how that "nest egg" will start to compound. Look at any chart of compounding. It has been said that it's the last compounding that makes you wealthy.

In other words, $20,000 becoming $40,000 doesn't seem like a lot of headway, but when the $40,000 compounds to $80,000, and the $80,000 to $160,000, and finally the $160,000 to $320,000, we're now talking about some serious money. Two more "doublings" and this account will be worth over $1.2 million. Those who spend first and save later inevitably end up working for those who have learned to save first, spend second.

Rule #3: Dollar-cost average

When buying shares, remove emotions from your investing by automatically buying more shares or equity mutual fund units when they are cheap. Emotional investing gets too many people in trouble. Statistics continue to show that we tend to buy when things are going up and sell when they are going down - in other words, we tend to buy high and sell low. Dollar-cost averaging not only removes emotions from investing, but it helps you buy low. Here's how:

By putting a constant amount into the market, as the price slips, you buy more and more number of cheaper shares or fund units and thereby reduce your average cost.

For example, let's say you are investing $100 a month into a fund. In the first month, the price of the fund is $10 per share and you buy 10 shares. The next month, the price has dropped to $8 per share, so your $100 buys you 12.5 shares. The next month, the price has fallen again, to $5 a share, and you buy 20 shares. In the fourth month, the price ticks back up to $7 per share. Your total investment so far is $400.

If you're like most people, though, when you look at your statement and see that by the end of the third month the price has fallen to half, you would probably think you were losing money hand over fist. Especially after a fund continues to decline month after month, investors lose patience and start to bail. They're looking for "better returns," but they don't understand what's going on with the math.

At $5 a share, it feels as though you're down 50 per cent (because the price started at $10 per share). However, you own 42.5 shares, which, when multiplied by $5 a share, equals $212.50 - and you've invested $300. In the fourth month, the price gets back up to $7 per share. Although it might feel as though you're still down because the price started at $10 per share, you're actually within a couple of dollars of your break-even point. You own 56.79 shares, which when multiplied by $7 equals $397.53, on an investment of $400.

Of course, if the fund or market continues to go down and never comes back up, you can't be guaranteed a profit. But this would happen rarely, if ever. Dollar-cost averaging - by investing a fixed amount in regular intervals - is the best way to make money in a variable market over time.

The most difficult part is having the discipline to keep doing it. Investors should be willing to consider their ability to invest over an extended period of time. Remember, you need a longer time horizon when investing in the stock market.

Rule #4: Diversify

No investment is risk free; only a diversified portfolio can mitigate the risks of market cycles. We've all been warned against putting all our eggs in one basket; even Warren Buffett said, "It's better to be approximately right than definitely wrong." By "approximately right," he was referring to diversification.

If one piece of your portfolio is doing substantially better than other parts, the natural inclination is to load up on the part doing the best and forsake those not doing well. But the result will be an under-diversified portfolio that will probably be much more volatile - and the risks may be on the downward side.

Also, proper diversification does not mean any old bunch of mutual funds or stocks, but a proper allocation among stocks, bonds, real estate, fixed assets, and other investments. It also means diversifying within those investment categories.

For example, your stocks should include a mix of midcap, large-, and small-cap stocks as well as growth, blend, and value stocks. You should have bonds that are long, medium, and short term, as well as high grade, mid grade, and low grade.

A mutual fund may offer more diversification than you could afford by owning the same stocks individually. But owning a handful of mutual funds may not offer the diversification you seek unless you research the funds' holdings carefully. That's because many funds have substantial "overlap." In other words, fund A from mutual fund family X may have many of the same stocks as fund B from fund family Y.

Rule #5: Be patient

Warren Buffet says, "The market has a very efficient way of transferring wealth from the impatient to the patient."

But waiting is very hard to do. How long are you willing to hold an asset that is not performing well? One year? Two, three, or four? If you look at the history of asset classes over time, you will see that an asset can be "out of favor" for several years in a row.

You have to be prepared to wait. Don't think you can time when bonds will perform and stocks will get hot. If someone really could do that, he would own the world by now. So remember: Time in the market is more important than timing the market.

Rule #6: Understand volatility

Very few people truly understand the risk and volatility inevitably baked into every investment portfolio. Without getting into its complexity, every variable investment has produced a range of returns over its lifetime, and this range, or deviation, can be plotted on a chart.

So, it's important to understand what the investment category's "average" annual return means in order to prepare yourself for its volatility. For example, does a 10 per cent average mean the investment was up 73 per cent and down 30 per cent and happened to average 10 per cent? Or was it up 15 per cent, and then down 5 per cent to average 10 per cent?

Many investors are fooled by averages - they chase the 70 per cent return after it has happened, when the likelihood of a repeat performance is slim (which we'll discuss more in Rule #7). Yogi Berra is rumored to have said, "Averages don't mean nuthin". If they did, you could have one foot in the oven and the other in a bucket of ice and feel perfectly comfortable."

Over time, returns from investments regress to a mean. "Regression to the mean" simply means that highs and lows will average out so that your return regresses to a certain number or range. Understand an investment's range of returns so you know what to expect annually, and over time.

Markets move from fear to greed, and back to fear. So there are times when the market is "overvalued" and other times when it is "undervalued." Warren Buffett said of the stock buying and selling decisions made at his company, Berkshire Hathaway, "We strive to be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy only when others are fearful."

Rule #7: Don't chase returns

If we know from Rule #6 that a 10 per cent average annual return does not really mean a 10 per cent return each year, why do we still fall for an ad touting a fund that produces 20 per cent annually or some other phenomenal return?

Human nature. And maybe we even convince ourselves that for the chance to experience a year or two of 70 per cent gains, we're willing to stomach the years of 30 per cent losses that also fall within the fund's range of returns.

So, before chasing that incredible return, find out how the investment did during the last bad market for that asset class. Find out its risk, and ask yourself whether you can stomach a bumpy ride over the long term.

Another Buffettism: "The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it is going up." So before chasing a return, always consider how likely it is that the investment will continue to produce that return - and whether it's really worth the cost of cashing out of another, perhaps only temporarily depressed, investment to do so.

Rule #8: Periodically rebalance your portfolio

You may decide that your investment mix should be, for example, 50 per cent growth stocks, 20 per cent value stocks, and 30 per cent bonds. But asset classes vary in performance over time, so after a year or so, the portfolio balance will start to shift as one asset "overperforms" and another one "underperforms."

Emotions would tell you to sell the underperformers and buy the overachievers. If you want to remain adequately diversified, however, you would rebalance by selling some of the overperformers and buying some of the underachievers - probably just the opposite of what your emotions will tell you.

So, if you strive to put your portfolio back to its original allocations from time to time (annually, semi-annually, or possibly even quarterly), you will be taking gains from the best-performing assets (selling high) and buying those temporarily out of favor (buying low). But it takes discipline to keep your emotions in check.

Rule #9: Manage your taxes

Have you ever considered how taxes are your biggest expense in life - more than mortgage expense, education expense, or any other expense? So, you must take advantage of all tax breaks available - each and every single one of them.

Rule #10: Get advice

Never underestimate the value of good advice. Someone who manages investments full time certainly will find things you have overlooked or done wrong. A good financial adviser is like a personal trainer for your finances and can get you on track and keep you there until your goals are met.

And even more critical than getting the advice is being sure you consistently follow your game plan. The greatest problem for most people is procrastination and erratic investment behavior. So get started, get advice, and get going down the road to wealth - and steadfastly follow through.