Auction doesn’t please Dravid

Former captain Rahul Dravid expressed reservations over the auctioning of cricketers for the Indian Premier League and said he hoped it did not happen again. “I hope it does not happen again,” Dravid said in response to a question from a student while interacting with children of five schools, run by the Vellammal Education Trust in Chennai on Saturday.

Sridhar highest ranked Indian

Anup Sridhar continues to be the top ranked Indian player with a career-high ranking of 24 in the latest men’s singles rankings released by the Badminton World Federation, reports UNI from New Delhi.

The other Indian men in the top 100 are Arvind Bhat (43), Chetan Anand (69), Anand Pawar (84) and P Kashyap (99). Among women, Saina Nehwal is ranked 27, followed by Trupti Murgunde at 57.

Tigers bring Rockets down

Kolkata Tigers prevailed over Ahmedabad Rockets by eight wickets in a rain-interrupted match in the Indian Cricket League’s 20s Challenge in Hyderabad on Friday, reports DHNS.

Making first use of the wicket Rockets put on a fighting 156 for six in 20 overs, riding on Sridharan Sriram’s unbeaten 52. Due to rain, Tigers’ chase was set at 85 from 10 overs and the Kolkata side achieved the target in 8.4 overs losing two wickets.

Brief scores:

Ahmedabad Rockets: 156/6 in 20overs (Sriram 52, Aziz 27) (Revised target 85 runs in 10 overs) lt to Kolkata Tigers: 86/2 in 8.4 overs (Lance Klusener 30).

Thompson wins Futures title

Fourth seed Nathan Tho-mpson of the United States clinched the title in the India F3 men’s ITF Futures tennis tournament on Saturday, overcoming compatriot Ryan Young 6-1, 6-2, reports PTI from Mumbai.

Qualifier Young was out of steam from the first game of the match as the hot and humid conditions took their toll on him. Thompson was aggressive and spotted his opponent’s weaknesses early in the match as Young’s on-court movements had reduced drastically.

Thompson broke Young in the fourth and sixth games of the first set and dominated the proceedings from thereon. In the second set, Thompson broke Young in the first and third games to surge to victory. Young opted for a break as he was dehydrated.

Trescothick calls it a day

Somerset batsman Marcus Trescothick announced his retirement from internatio-nal cricket due to health problems on Saturday, rep-orts Reuters from London.

"My desire to play cricket is as strong as it ever was. But due to the problems that I have experienced, travelling abroad has become extremely stressful for me," the England opener told Somerset's Web site.

Trescothick has long suffered from a stress-related illness and pulled out of England's 2006 tours to India and Australia, where the tourists were thrashed in the Ashes series.

In his 76 Tests, Trescothick scored a total of 5,825 runs at an average of 43.79. He played in 122 one-day international innings, getting 4,335 runs with an average of 37.37.

Kiwi Wallace passes away

Former New Zealand cricket captain Merv Wallace has died aged 91, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) said on Saturday, reports Reuters from Napier.

Wallace, who scored more than 7,000 runs in a 24-year career with Auckland and played 13 Tests between 1937 and 1953, died on Friday, NZC said in a statement. Wallace scored 17 first-class centuries during his career in which he averaged 44.32.