India national cricket team

The Indian cricket team is an international cricket team representing India. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the cricket governing body in India. The Indian Cricket Team is currently the highest paid national sports team in the world (in terms of sponsorship).

Though the first match in India was recorded in 1721, when a group of sailors gathered to play in Western India, India's national cricket team didn't play their first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's. They became the sixth team to play Test cricket. Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, India proved weaker than Australia and England, winning only 35 of the 196 matches they played in their first fifty years. The team gained strength near the end of the 50-year period with the emergence of players such as Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev and the Indian spin quartet. The Indian team has continued to be highly ranked since then in Test cricket and One-Day Internationals. The team won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and was runners-up in 2003. The current team contains many of the world's leading players, including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, who hold numerous cricketing world records. As of August 2007, the team is ranked third in the ICC Test Championship and in fifth place in the ICC ODI Championship[5] In December 2006, it played and won its first ever Twenty20 international in South Africa, becoming the most recent Test team to play Twenty20 cricket. The team was ousted from the 2007 Cricket World Cup tournament in the group stages following an abysmal performance.

Indian Cricket League

On 3 April 2007, Zee Telefilms (part of Subhash Chandra promoted Essel Group) announced that it would be partner with infrastructure major IL&FS to create a new ambitious cricket league, Indian Cricket League (ICL). This league will have a prize money of $ 1 million for the winner. ICL was set up with a Rs. 100 crore (Rs. 1 billion) corpus, and would initially comprise six teams to be expanded to 16 in three years. This will make ICL the richest professional league in the country with
an annual prize of $1 million (Rs. 4.4 crore). ICL has already signed a number of major players but is yet to reveal their names. On July 24th, some great international names have been cropped up; viz. Brian Lara. The ICL has confirmed that Brian Lara has signed up and will be joining the league. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath are also likely to join the league by the end of July 2007. It is also expected that Stephen Fleming would also join ICL. Former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq also
expressed his desire to join the league. However, the Pakistan Cricket Board warned its players to stay away from the league. Imran Farhat though chose to opt out of his Pakistan Central contract to sign with the Indian Cricket League. Former captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team Javed Miandad said he is not able to understand why PCB is not allowing its players to play in the league and even threatened players with a lifetime ban.

John Cena

John Felix Anthony Cena (born April 23, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, hip hop musician and actor. He is signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), wrestling on its RAW brand, where he is the reigning WWE Champion. In WWE, he is also a three-time United States Champion and a one-time World Tag Team Champion.

Before being called up to the main WWE roster, Cena trained in and wrestled for Ultimate Pro Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling, winning the top titles of both promotions.

Aside from professional wrestling, Cena has released the rap album You Can't See Me, which debuted at #15 on the US Billboard 200, and starred in the movie The Marine. He has also made appearances in television shows including Manhunt, Deal or No Deal, MADtv, and Punk'd. Most recently, he was a contestant on Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, where he made it to the final round before being eliminated, placing third in the overall
competition.

Biography

Pre-wrestling

Cena was born on April 23, 1977, in West Newbury, Massachusetts the second eldest of five brothers – Dan, Matt, Steve and Sean. He graduated from Cushing Academy before attending Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. In college he was a Division III All-American center on the football team, wearing the number 54, which is still used on some of his WWE merchandise. He graduated from Springfield in 1998 with a degree in exercise physiology pursuing a career as a bodybuilder, as well as working as a chauffeur for a limousine company before becoming involved in professional wrestling.

Wrestling training

Cena first started training to become a wrestler in 2000 at the California-based "Ultimate University" operated by Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW). Once he was placed into an in-ring role, he began using a semi-robotic character known as the The Prototype. Some of this period of his career was documented in the Discovery Channel program Wrestling School. While in UPW, Cena held the Heavyweight Championship for just shy of a month in April 2000. In 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) signed him away from UPW, placing him under a developmental contract and assigning him to their "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he continued his training. During his time there, he wrestled as both The Prototype and Mr. P, and he held the Heavyweight Championship for three months and the Tag Team Championships (with Rico Constantino) for two.

Jimmy Wang Yang, WWE

James Eas Yun (born May 13, 1981) is a Korean-American professional wrestler/actor. Yun is best known for his work in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as one-third of the Jung Dragons, Yang, and the independent circuit as Jimmy Yang. After a brief stint as Akio, a henchman for Tajiri in late 2003-early 2004, he returned to the WWE in 2006 on the SmackDown! brand as Jimmy Wang Yang.

Career


In June 1999, Yun signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), making his WCW television debut in January 2000. He was originally a part of the Jung Dragons stable along with Jamie-San and Kaz Hayashi. In late 2000, when Jamie-San unmasked and left the group, forming a tag team with former 3 Count member Evan Karagias. The team of Hayashi and Yang feuded with Karagias and Jamie until the WWF purchased WCW.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2003-2005)

In September 2003, following a stellar match with Tommy Dreamer on Sunday Night Heat, Yun was signed to a three year developmental deal with the renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He, along with the Japanese American Ryan Sakoda, made their WWE debuts on October 19, 2003 at No Mercy. Yun was renamed Akio (a reference to legendary Japanese wrestler Mr. Saito) and aligned himself with Sakoda, forming the heel tag team Kyo Dai (Japanese for "brothers"), the henchmen of the actual Japanese wrestler Tajiri.

Sakoda was eventually released from WWE and Tajiri was traded to RAW. This left Yun on his own to become a lower card wrestler and Velocity mainstay, competing primarily in the cruiserweight division until he was released on July 5, 2005.

Finishing and signature moves

• Carolina Swing (Moonsault onto a standing opponent into a pin)
• Corkscrew 450° splash
• Yang Time / Akio Time (Corkscrew moonsault, occasionally onto a standing opponent)
• Fists of Fury (Double fist strike) - As Akio
• Back to belly piledriver - in WCW
• Missile dropkick
• Corner backflip kick
• Top Rope Flipping Slam - WCW / ROH
• Jumping spinning leg lariat
• Flying crossbody, occasionally from the turnbuckle to the outside
• Hanging figure four necklock
• Michinoku driver II - WCW
• Spinning wheel kick to the opponent in the corner
• Springboard moonsault
• Superkick

Managers

• Amy Zidian
• Bruce Leroy
• Tajiri
• Torrie Wilson

Zaheer Khan, Cricketer's Profile

Zaheer Khan pronunciation (born October 7, 1978, Srirampur town in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra), is an Indian cricketer who has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000. A left arm pace bowler, Zaheer is known for his ability to swing the ball both ways, and as batsman also holds the record for the highest Test score by a No. 11. After leading the Indian pace attack for much of the early 2000s, recurring hamstring injuries in 2003 and 2004 forced him out of the team, and after returning for a year, he was dropped again in late 2005. Strong performances on the domestic circuit have seen him recalled to the team as its leading pace bowler.

Zaheer was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, He made his Test debut against Bangladesh at Dhaka and ODI debut against Kenya at Nairobi during the ICC KnockOut Trophy in the same year.

He has taken over 100 ODI wickets at an average of 26 runs per wicket taking 4 wickets in a match 6 times (4 times against Zimbabwe) including 32 wickets against Zimbabwe at an average of 17.46 runs per dismissal. He, along with other seamers like Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra helped India to make it to the finals of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Zaheer finished the
2003 World cup as 4th highest wicket taker - 18 wickets from 11 matches at an average of 20 runs per wicket.

Zaheer has taken 121 wickets at an average of 37 runs per wicket. Zaheer was at the peak of his Test career in the 2002-2003 season. In 16 matches from the beginning of the tour of West Indies in April 2002 to the end of the 1st match against Australia in December 2003, Brisbane, Zaheer took 54 wickets from 16 matches at an average of 30 runs. It all turned downhill after the First Test against Australia in Brisbane in December 2003. Having taken 5 of the top 7 Australian batsmen in the first innings (5 for 95), he injured himself in the second during the opening spell. After missing the Second Test in Adelaide, he returned for the Third Test in Melbourne, but was injured midway through the match and was forced to return home. The injury kept him from the early 2004 tour of Pakistan, India's first Test series victory there.

Zaheer holds the world record for the highest Test score by a number 11 when he scored 75 for India v Bangladesh in Dhaka, 2004. His partnership with Sachin Tendulkar which produced 133 runs is an Indian-record for the tenth-wicket. His batting average of 19.46 at number 10 is also the highest for a batsman in ODIs.

In late 2005 pacemen Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh made their international debuts and became regular members of the Indian team making it difficult for Zaheer to retain his position in the playing eleven. The Board of Control for Cricket in India demoted Zaheer from a B-grade to a C-grade contract at the end of the year.

He returned for the 2006 tour of Pakistan, where India fielded three left arm pacemen and had difficulty dismissing Pakistan with a lack of variety in the bowling attack. Zaheer, with inferior results to those of Irfan Pathan and Singh, was dropped.

In Indian domestic cricket, Zaheer made his name playing for Baroda, but transferred to Mumbai at the start of the 2006-07 season. However, due to international committments, he did not make his debut for Mumbai until the final of the Ranji Trophy in which he took 9 wickets as Mumbai defeated Bengal.

In 2006 Zaheer signed for Worcestershire County Cricket Club as their second overseas player as a replacement for Australian Nathan Bracken. He became the first Worcestershire player to take 10 wickets in a match on debut for over 100 years against Somerset, even though Worcestershire eventually lost the game. In June 2006 he took the first nine wickets to fall
in the first innings against Essex, ending with 9-138; had wicket-keeper Steven Davies not dropped a catch offered by last man Darren Gough he would have become the first bowler ever to take all ten for the county.

In late 2006, Zaheer was recalled to the Test and ODI team for the tour of South Africa, following a form slump to Baroda team-mate Irfan Pathan and injuries to Munaf Patel. After consistent performances on tour, his performance in early 2007 in home ODIs against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, including a career best 5/42, saw him named in the squad for the 2007
Cricket World Cup. He is molded on the likes of Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas, though not as successful as they are.He is currently dating Isha Sharvani, a Bollywood actress.