Dhoni can thank his lucky stars

While in New Delhi today Wasim Akram said Mahendra Singh Dhoni has changed the face of Indian cricket, here, Pakistani batsman Younis Khan feels something different.

The success of Dhoni as Indian cricket captain is a combination of some skill and loads of good fortune, felt Khan, who said it would be interesting to see how he fared once his luck ran out.

Younis, who returned with the Pakistan team from Abu Dhabi last night, said Dhoni has been very lucky as captain so far. “But I would like to see how he fares and handles the pressure when the luck runs out. That will be his real test,” he said. He stated that Dhoni had been very lucky so far in that everything he has done has turned out right. “But in cricket one also has to be prepared to face hard situations when luck does not seem to smile on a player at all,” he added.

Dhoni's Midas touch to work for income tax dept too. He is all set to become the top individual income tax payer in Jharkhand, leaving behind bigwigs of the corporate world.
He will file his tax returns later but the IT department expects over Rs six crore taxable returns from him to become the state's top individual tax payer for the second consecutive year.

‘T20 specialist’
Blissfully unaware of the series bashing that awaited him in India, Australian captain Ricky Ponting considered Dhoni and his men better-suited for Twenty20 cricket rather than Tests after their World Cup triumph in South Africa.

Third in ODIs
Resounding success against England in the first two one-dayers has propelled India to the third spot, while run-machine Yuvraj Singh's (in photo) consecutive centuries, has catapulted him among the top-10 in the latest ICC ODI rankings issued today in Dubai.
India routed England in first match by 158 runs and won the second match by 54 runs to move two places up the rung in the team rankings. Yuvraj, who scored unbeaten 138 in the first match and 118 in the second, gained 11 places to attain his career-best ranking of sixth place among batsmen.

With two defeats, England have slumped to the sixth spot. Having lost three ratings points, they now sit just behind New Zealand by a fraction of a point.
Bolstered by their 3-0 series win against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi, Pakistan has moved up two places to fourth, while Australia is still the table toppers, some 12 ratings points clear of South Africa, who are just four points ahead of India.

Modi's assurance
Lalit Modi has assured England that their first Test against India will not be moved to accommodate the Champions League final. The first Test starts in Ahmedabad on the morning of 11 December, just hours after the day-night final in Chennai. India had proposed starting the first Test a day later than planned, but this has now been ruled out by Modi.
"No such thing will happen," he told BBC Sport. "We looked at rationalising the schedule but it's not possible." Dhoni is the only player from either side involved in the inaugural Champions League. His team, Chennai Super Kings, are so desperate for him to be allowed to play should they reach the final that they asked Modi to push for the first Test to be played a day later than scheduled.