IndiaKhelo has tied up with Red Events and Promos to launch India's first Fitness championship for children in the age group of 8-17 years in the city of oranges - Nagpur. The IndiaKhelo team believes healthy competition between children will be channelized through this tournament to not only increase awareness about fitness related issues but also improve the overall fitness levels of children.

The Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA), one of the oldest cricket body in India, has approved a proposal to introduce a pension scheme for former Ranji Trophy players in the region.

"The modalities of the pension scheme will be worked out shortly by an empowered executive committee and the cut off date has been fixed as March 31, 2004," VCA president Sudhir Dabir said here.

The proposal to introduce the scheme was approved at the annual general body meeting of the VCA held recently.

NAGPUR: Get ready to applaud Nagpur's very own super-human. Hemant Burbure, a resident of Indora Chowk, is going to try and set a new Guinness record for singing continuously. He will sing for 80 hours at a stretch. Don't believe it? Drop in at Inox Jaswant Tuli mall anytime during the next three days to view this amazing feat.

The third Test of New Zealand's tour of India will be played in Nagpur in November after the original hosts, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), backed out citing the renovation work going at the Wankhede Stadium. The BCCI has also announced the venues for the five-ODI bilateral series that follows the Tests.

The Wankhede Stadium is undergoing a facelift ahead of the World Cup next year, and the MCA had said it didn't want to rush things and host a Test without a proper trial run.

At North Delhi’s Pinnacle Table Tennis Academy, below a poster that says “Winning is not everything — the effort for winning is”, there’s a fierce match going on. Former Haryana champion Ganesh Ahuja is trying to negotiate a volley of forehands, unleashed by a woman on a wheelchair — Commonwealth Games probable Suvarna Raj.

For Suvarna, three-hour practice every afternoon while trying to ensure her wheelchair doesn’t topple over is the smallest of the worries. Her bigger challenges lie outside --- trying to reach Pitampura for practice across an inaccessible city.

NAGPUR: The Football World Cup — kicks off in South Africa on Friday but, surprisingly, the socalled football fever is missing in the city. At sports shops, football T-shirt sales are anything but encouraging and those who follow the beautiful game in the city are still to get into the mood.

As the IPL controversy has shown, he shuns the limelight but still makes his presence felt.

Shashank ManoharIn a cricketing establishment that attracts publicity and glamour like a magnet, Shashank Manohar, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is a novelty. He shuns the limelight like the plague. On Monday, the 40-minute speech this 54-year-old lawyer made defending BCCI’s actions against Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Lalit Modi is probably the longest he has been the centre of media attention since his appointment as BCCI chief in 2008.

Leading the fire fighting against the worst crisis in Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) history is a reticent lawyer from Nagpur, who operates in a style that is in stark contrast to the high-flying BCCI set.

Shashank Venkatesh Manohar, the 53-year-old incumbent president of the cricket body, doesn’t carry a cell phone, doesn’t wear a watch, did not have a passport until very recently and made his first foreign trip when he had to attend an ICC meeting in Dubai two years ago as head of the richest and most influential member board in world cricket.

Kieron Pollard produced a splendid all—round display as Mumbai Indians thumped Royal Challengers Bangalore by 35 runs to storm into their maiden Indian Premier League final here tonight.

Pollard struck a 13—ball 33 to help his side make a splendid recovery from early jolt in company of Saurabh Tiwary (52 not out) to post 184 for five after batting first and then snared three wickets for 17 runs as the home side restricted Bangalore to 149 for nine in the first semifinal at DY Patil Stadium.

It has been a roller-coaster ride for Deccan Chargers thus far in IPL 3. The defending champions, who rose from the ashes to claim honors in the second edition of the tournament in South Africa last year, had to struggle against many odds to get to the semifinal this year too. But the heartening thing is that they did it in style.

At the half-way stage of the tournament, it looked as if the 'charge' was well and truly extinguished but Adam Gilchrist's men turned it around with panache.