England call-up for Wright

England have drafted Sussex all-rounder Luke Wright into their squad for the remainder of the one-day series against India, reports Reuters from London.

Wright was called up for Wednesday's sixth match at The Oval and Saturday's finale at Lord's because of injuries to Ravi Bopara, Andrew Flintoff and Chris Tremlett, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement on Monday.

The 22-year-old Wright was recently selected for this month's Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. Seamer Ryan Sidebottom has also been cleared to rejoin the squad after recovering from his side strain.

Rally of the South from Sept 21

Motorsports Inc will conduct the Rally of the South 2007 at Chennai from September 21 to 23 around the East Coast Road on the outskirts of Chennai, reports DHNS. The event would see the return of rallying to Chennai after eight years.

Top drivers like Gaurav Singh Gill, Lohith Urs, Arjun Balu, Vikram Mathias, Girijashankar Joshy, Amitrajit Ghosh are among the 30 drivers expected to participate in the event.

The rally will be run for a total of 500km, while the special stages will total about 100km. The super special stage will be held on the first day, while the second and third days will see the special stages being run on a surface which is predominantly smooth dirt.

Two Indians in quarterfinals

Indian pugilists had another impressive day at the World Cadet Boxing Championships with Vipin Kumar and Pramod Kumar sailing into the quarterfinals of the event being held at Baku, Azerbaijan, reports PTI from New Delhi.

Vipin, who got a bye in the first round of the 50kg category event, defeated Russian Farson Chilubayev 21-9 in the second round.

Pramod (52kg), who also got a bye in the opening round, outpunched Australian Williams Timacoy 15-7 to advance to the quarterfinals.

India crash out of Asian volleyball

India failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 14th Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship despite blanking Kuwait 3-0 in a their last group encounter, reports UNI from Jakarta. 

In an one-sided Group ‘D’ match on Sunday, Indian spikers outclassed Kuwait 25-19, 25-22, 25-17.
But the win was not enough for India to clinch a last eight berth as Australia made it to the next stage from their group with an unbeaten record in the championship.

Sarwan happy with status

West Indian captain Ramnaresh Sarwan has said he has no problem with his team being considered underdogs in the Twenty20 World Cup. “We are always listed as underdogs but that is no problem for us,” Sarwan said in Bridgetown. “We know our ability and what we have to do. We have a very good team and I am pleased with the players assembled.”