del piero wants to explore ind
New Delhi: Juventus remains a "part of his life" but Italian World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero, like a child, now wants to understand everything about India during his stint with Delhi Dynamos in the ISl, a tournament he hoped would help the 158-ranked national football team improve. "I have never seen an Indian team playing but I will get to know more when I talk to my teammates. I hope ISl helps the national team," Del Piero said here on Friday. Del Piero recalled his days at Turin and spoke about his thoughts on leaving the Serie A club, which he didn't leave even when it was demoted. "It was extremely hard... Those 19 years are a great part of my life. In fact it is still a part of my life. It is my home and I will go back to Torino," the superstar striker and playmaker said. Then he got talking about his latest challenge in a faraway land he wants to explore. "My target for ISl is that we have to bring a lot of energy and passion and I hope we find that in India as well. I am like a child who wants to understand everything about India. At the end of this experience I want to know more about India," he said.
Sania, Cara in semi-finals
Tokyo: Putting up yet another dominating performance, defending champions Sania Mirza and Cara Black outclassed Jelena Jankovic and Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-3 6-2 to reach the summit clash of the WTA Toray Pan Pacific Open, here on Friday. The top seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair took only 63 minutes to overcome the unseeded Serbian-Spanish combo in the semifinals of the USD 1,000,000 hard court event. Sania and Cara played tremendous service games, winning 24 of the 30 first service points. They surrendered serve only one time while saved four break chances. Jelena and Arantxa could capitalise on only one of the five chances they got in the contest.
Materrazi arrives today
New Delhi: Italian World Cup winner Marco Materrazi will be arriving in India tomorrow to join ISl franchise Chennaiyian FC as its player-cum-manager for the inaugural edition of the football tournament beginning October 12. "Materrazi is arriving in Bangalore tomorrow at 6 pm. There will be fanfare and welcome. And then on Sunday he will join his teammates at the Bangalore Football Club where they have been training for the past one week. On Monday he will address a press conference," a source close to the franchise said. "He will be training with the international as well as Indian players, including Gouramangi Singh." The former Italy defender Materrazi had earlier this month joined the Chennai team, following in the footsteps of his former national team-mate Alessandro Del Piero. The 41-year-old, who was infamously head-butted by Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 summit match, will be the player-manager of the team co-owned by the Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan.