The 2008 Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy is the 30th edition of Hockey Champions Trophy for men. It will be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands from June 21 to June 29, 2008.

Participating nations are Australia, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Germany (defending champions)
and Argentina.

Zee Sports India will be covering this event Live. However, if you want to check it out online, visit WorldHockey.tv and you can get free access to Live matches as well as replays. Here’s the the complete schedule for the tournament: read all »

With Kubica’s win and confidence portrayed at the Canadian Grand Prix, one doesn’t know what to expect at France. Although, luck might have been on his side with Hamilton and Kimi taking a slight detour on route. 

Look at the Driver’s standings though, the top four contenders - Kubica, Hamilton, Kimi and Masa - are sure to have a tough fight at this race. 

Take your guesses now, cause the French Grand Prix is just round the corner. The Qualifying round will begin at 5:27 p.m. on the 21st of June.

The Race day itself starts at 4:30 p.m. on the 22nd. The actual race will start at 5:15 p.m. though if you don’t want to waste time with the pre-race events. And due to the Euro games, Star Sports will be broadcasting this event, thankfully, Live.

The worst kept secret in football is now official. Luiz Felipe Scholari has succeeded Avram Grant as the manager of Chelsea. The Brazilian was the favourite to succeed Grant, though this is surprising news considering that no formal announcement was to be made until after Portugal’s Euro 2008 campaign came to an end.

Chelsea said in a statement: “Chelsea Football Club is delighted to confirm that Luiz Felipe Scolari will be the club’s new manager from July 1, 2008.”

“Felipe has great qualities. He is one of the world’s top coaches with a record of success at country and club level, he gets the best out of a talented squad of players and his ambitions and expectations match ours.”

However, what is the fate of Portugal amidst all these announcements? “Portugal will stay focussed”, says the coach. Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has warned Switzerland his team do not intend to take their foot off the gas in their final Group A match on Sunday despite having already guaranteed a last-eight berth at Euro 2008.

Chelsea’s Ricardo Carvalho has backed new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari to improve the team when he takes over after Euro 2008.

Will Scholari make all the difference for Chelsea? Or is Manchester United still going to be the league champions? Let us know what you think of this change. 

India’s performance at the Trination ODI match against Pakistan was nothing short of stellar. Top scorers Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh and the rest put up a formidable score of 330 runs for Pakistan to catch up to. And Pakistan’s hopes of getting close to that target were ruined by Praveen Kumar’s opening spell claiming 4 four wickets of the innings within just 81 runs of the innings.

Teenage leg-spinner Piyush Chawla then took over claiming four wickets of his own to wrap up the Pakistan innings for 190 in just 35.4 overs.

India’s victory prevented Pakistan from confirming their place in Saturday’s final after they defeated tournament hosts Bangladesh on Sunday.

Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi set about retrieving the situation with a 44-run stand, but Chawla brought their resistance to an end when he had Afridi (23) stumped by Dhoni. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals as the Pakistan batsman continued to look for quick runs, which fell into the hands of Chawla who claimed figures of four for 40. Kumar finished with four for 53 while Malik was Pakistan’s top scorer contributing 53.

Earlier, an impressive opening partnership of 155 runs between Gambhir and Sehwag laid the foundations for an impressive total. Both players were dropped early in their innings, and Pakistan were made to pay for their mistakes as first Sehwag and then Gambhir notched up quick fifties.

Dhoni then arrived in the middle and set about his innings in his usual belligerent fashion hitting a quick fire 24 off 23 balls, including four boundaries before being trapped lbw by Sohail Tanvir.

All in all a very eventful match, one which should not have been missed by any cricket fan. If you did miss it, catch the rerun of the entire game today (11th May) at 11:00 p.m. on Neo Sports. If you just want the highlights, watch them today at 9:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.

Dani Pedrosa rode his Honda to victory in the Catalunya leg of the MotoGP World Championship in Barcelona today. Pedrosa took an early lead and finished two seconds ahead of Italy’s Valentino Rossi, who was engaged in a tight battle for second with Australia’s reigning world champion Casey Stoner who finished third.

Rossi retained the championship lead with 142 points to Pedrosa’s 135. Rossi’s injured Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is third on 94, two points clear of Ducati’s Stoner.

Pedrosa began the race second on the grid and had the best start by far, forging an early lead and taking his advantage over the pack to over eight seconds at one point. The Spaniard picked up his second victory of the season having won the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

But as he savoured triumph at the track just 20 kilometres from his home, Rossi showed that his recent resurgence is no fluke, his hard-fought second place - after starting ninth on the grid - cementing his top spot in the championship standings.

The next Moto GP is at England’s Donington Park on June 22. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on that.

ESPN: Pakistan eased to a 70-run victory over Bangladesh in a rain-affected opening match of the tri-series on Sunday.

Mohammad Ashraful won a good toss for Bangladesh, but his bowlers failed to exploit damp conditions, with Salman Butt and Mohammad Yousuf both cracking half-centuries as Pakistan were bowled out for 233 in 39.3 overs.

With play reduced to 40 overs a side, Bangladesh needed to score at nearly six an over but never came close, only Ashraful (56 not out) making a meaningful contribution in his side’s 163 for eight.

Next up is a big one, India vs Pakistan on 10th June, 2:30 p.m. onwards on Neo Cricket. Don’t miss it. (Trination Series complete schedule)

Formula 1: Robert Kubica has scored his and BMW Sauber’s first Formula One victory after an eventful afternoon at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Kubica led home team mate Nick Heidfeld to take the drivers’ championship lead, with David Coulthard third for Red Bull.

The face of the race changed early on, in the pit lane, when polesitter Lewis Hamilton crashed into the back of Kimi Raikkonen, whose Ferrari was stationary at the pit exit awaiting a green light during a safety-car period. Williams’ Nico Rosberg then ran into the rear of Hamilton. Rosberg was able to rejoin the race, pitting for a new nose a lap later, but Raikkonen’s and Hamilton’s cars were too badly damaged to continue. Too bad for Kimi, he certainly looked like he had a chance to win. But its just as well, the last time he crashed into Force India’s Adrian Sutil. 

Full results

Next up is the Grand Prix de France at Magny-Cours from 20th-22nd June. We’ll keep you posted on that. 

The first match of the Euro 2008 tournament went Live at 9:30 today, and Czech Republic managed to scoop one in to win the first match against Switzerland. 

It didn’t look this way in the beginning however as just five minutes into the game, Alexander Frei picked up the ball in midfield off a Czech mistake and hammered a low shot just inches off the post. picks up the ball in midfield off a Czech mistake. He hammers a shot low which is just inches off the post. 

Then, 32 minutes later, Alexander Frei then unleashed a missile from 30 yards which Petr Cech can only parry. The ball goes straight to Marco Streller but he is offside. Then unfortunately, Alexander Frei had to be moved out of the field on a stretcher having jarred his knee in a challenge with Zdenek Grygera. He was in tears.

The beginning of the second period brought some cheer. Hakan Yakin, on for Frei, announced his arrival by turning his markers and earning a free-kick which Barnetta placed centimetres too high. Then followed the countless number of substitutions. 

Vaclav Svěrkoš then crashed the party (that is, substitute) with 19 minutes remaining. Following a period of Czech pressure prompted by Sionko and Plašil, the striker latched on to Zdeněk Grygera’s forward header to direct a cool, low finish to Benaglio’s left — the 24-year-old’s first international goal. And so the co-host Switzerland’s big day was ruined.

So did you watch this match? Would Switzerland have won if Alexander Frei wasn’t injured? Sound off in the comments. 

To get timings for Indian television of the Euro 2008 tournament, visit our Euro 2008 Schedule post. If you missed this match, you can watch the highlights the next day or download from a torrent. 

Indian football icon Baichung Bhutia will rub shoulders with international stars like Kaka, Didier Drogba, Fabio Cannavaro and Steven Gerrard in an exhibition match in July to raise funds for African children. Bhutia will play in the ‘Goal 4 Africa’ match, to be kicked off by football legends Pele and Michael Platini on July 12, at Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. ‘Goal 4 Africa’ ambassador and Dutch star Clearance Seedorf has invited Bhutia for the unique event inspired by Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela’s dream of “Education for all — all for education”.

The match, which aims to raise 90 million Euros as a tribute to Nelson Mandela, will be held around the anti-apartheid hero’s 90th birthday, which falls on July 18.

Celebrities from other walks of life, world leaders and corporate CEOs will play along with a galaxy of football stars like Kaka, Gerrard, Buffon, van Nistelroy, Michael Essien, Gattusso, Sergio Ramos and Emanuel Adebayor.

The “Goal 4 Africa” global foundation works on the motto: donate an amount every time a goal is scored, be it in an amateur competition in your neighbourhood or at the international level.

Two-year programme will kick-start with the friendly on July 12 and conclude with the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

While all that may be, I particularly wonder what Bhutia must be feeling like playing alongside such awesome players. Do you think Bhutia will make our country proud?

So the IPL is over and Indian men have been left stranded with no cricket to watch. Even the Australia vs West Indies 2nd Test match has almost ended with the third one more than 10 days away. Euro 2008 is nearing, with just a few more days to go, but that’s not cricket now is it! So I’ve tried to find some cricket to watch, but to ease out the IPL void little by little.

While this is not a Live event, Neo Cricket will be putting up a presentation of the greatest Indian run chases. Looks to be pretty interesting, with Sachin and others doing their thing with the bat. The programme will air on Neo Cricket at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday with a rerun at 11:00 p.m. on the same day. 

Star Cricket on the other hand will be broadcasting a Live match of The Friends Provident Trophy, a quarter final between England’s Kent Vs Somerset. The first session will begin at 4:28 p.m. while the second session begins at 8:30 p.m. 

Third, there is the England vs New Zealand N-Power Test series. The New Zealand international series consists of three npower Test matches, one NatWest International Twenty20 and five NatWest one-day internationals. This one is the final test match. Now up to the 3rd test, the Day 1 first session will begin on 5th June at 3:28 p.m. on Star Cricket. Days 2-5 will follow on the consecutive days at the same time.  

 Of course, the India-Bangladesh-Pakistan Trination ODI series is set to begin on the 8th. That should definitely be something to look forward to. 

So is there any cricketing event that you think would be interesting on TV? Or have you also taken up to something like weaving during these dry days? 

Hi, I’m Arun. Just joined the guys at My Sports India in writing for this blog. I’m a Cricket fan and will try and cover everything there is to cricket. It is a little weird that my first post is on Golf, but moving on…

Golf addicts will have been waiting for this one. And for good reason. The Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis will be tee’d off within the first week of June. With a $6 million purse and the winning share set at $1.08 Million, the tournament is sure to bring out the best in the players. 

Last year’s winner Woody Austin leads the pack followed by Brian Davis and David Toms coming in at number 3. 

The event will be spanned over 4 days, all of which will be aired Live on Ten Sports India so you don’t miss out on anything.

Day 1 will be aired from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. IST on 6th June, 2008. If the early timings are not your thing, there will be a rerun from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Day 2: Same time on 7th June
Day 3: Same time on 8th June
Day 4: Same time on 9th June