Congress in Kerala floated a new organisation, national sports forum, 'Desiya Kayika Vedi', to encourage budding sports talent in the state. This was purely for sports and had nothing to do with politics, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Oomen Chandy said inaugurating the forum.

Sports and arts clubs would be started in each grama panchayat under this forum, he said.

Cheerleaders will not be banned during IPL cricket matches in Mumbai but they may have to shed their skimpy outfits with police today warning of action against the organisers if their shows are found to be vulgar.

The Olympic torch today arrived in Japan on the latest leg of a worldwide relay hit by protests. The chartered Beijing Olympic plane, emblazoned with the slogan "Journey of Harmony," flew into Tokyo's Haneda airport at 0230 IST (2100 GMT Thursday) welcomed by some 30 people holding Chinese and Japanese flags.

A quiet but warm celebration marked Sachin Tendulkar's 35th birthday as the master batsman cut the cake surrounded by his cheerful Mumbai Indians team-mates at a city hotel here today.

leader George Fernandes and author Arundhati Roy will join hundreds of Tibetans in a torch relay parallel to the Olympic flame run here on Thursday. The five-kilometre parallel relay will begin from Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, and end at Jantar Mantar with the organisers expecting participation of about 5,000 people.

You help us in cricket and we will help you in soccer! This was the message as President Pratibha Patil visited this soccer-obsessed, Latin American country as part of her 13-day, three nation tour to Brazil, Mexico and Chile. Under an understanding arrived between Brazil and India, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will soon send a coach to train the cricketers here.

The Olympic torch relay in New Delhi on Thursday suffered yet another casualty with Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan today announcing she was pulling out of the event citing "very strong personal reasons." Soha's decision came signficantly on a day when the new Sports Minister M S Gill said he was not in favour of stars or politicians to be associated with the relay due to take place on Thursday an

China's anxiety over the fate of the Olympic torch during its relay here next week, India yesterday made it clear that it will not ban the protests by Tibetan refugees but assured that proper security would be ensured for the event.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today joined British Prime Minister and possibly French President to skip the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics as the Games' torch, which underwent a tortuous route in the wake of massive anti-China protests, reached Buenos Aires without a hitch.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has said he would ask the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to review its decision not to allow Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) until the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) lifts its five-year ban on him.