Allan Stanford charged of fraud in US

T20 Cricket Tycoon and Texan Billionaire Allen Stanford is in the midst of another controversy. Barely had the murmur over his "lap sitting with Matt Prior's wife and other English Cricketers' WAGs" subsided, here's the big one.

Reports coming in say that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States are investigating a fraud case against Allen Stanford which could be of massive proportions. It is being alleged by the SEC that Stanford and his crony of close friends may have lied making false promises and manipulating historical data to cheat potential investors.

The English Cricket Board which has already taken a lot of flak for its dealing with Allen Stanford has been quick to distance itself from the billionaire, saying it is suspending any further negotiations with Stanford pending the results of the investigation.

It's almost crazy now the amount of off-field controversy that the game of cricket seems to keep getting shrouded in.

Click here for our previous story and image on the controversy over Allen Stanford and the Lap of Matt Prior's Wife.

Shilpa Shetty buys stake in Rajasthan Royal (IPL)

Get ready for some exciting off-field juice from Jaipur this IPL summer. When a certain Shane Warne is the captain, and a sizzling hot Shilpa Shetty the owner you can sure expect some news, can't you?

The Bollywood actress has picked up a 12% stake in the Indian Premier League team Rajasthan Royals which won the inaugural IPL championship in 2008. Details of the deal are not yet known - it may be a cash + brand ambassadorship deal .

India vs Sri Lanka | Live Cricket Streaming Schedule | 5 ODIs & 1 T20 match

We will soon update this post to include the Live Cricket Streaming Schedule of the India - Sri Lanka Series 2009.

Here's the full schedule of India's hurriedly arranged brief cricket tour of Sri Lanka in January - February 2009. The India vs Sri Lanka series consists of 5 one day matches and 1 T20 game. Of course, the BCCI has not asked for any tests.

1st ODI: India vs Sri Lanka

Wednesday, 28th January - Dambulla

2nd ODI:

Friday, 30th January - Dambulla

3rd ODI:

Monday, 2nd February - Colombo

4th ODI:

Thursday, 5th February - Colombo

5th ODI:

Sunday, 8th February - Colombo

Only T20 Match: India vs Sri Lanka

Tuesday, 10th February - Colombo

You are welcome to share your Live Cricket Streaming Links for the India vs Sri Lanka Series. While leaving the links in the comments area please add more details about the quality of the stream, whether it's free or paid and the package rates.

Pakistan vs Sri Lanka | Schedule | One Days

1st ODI : 20th January, Karachi (Day Night Game)
2nd ODI: 21st January, Karachi (Day Night Game)
3rd ODI: 24th January, Lahore (Day Night Game)

Live Telecast of the Cricket Matches will start at 0700 hrs GMT for the Karachi matches and 0630 hrs for the Lahore Match. You can watch the cricket live on Ten Sports.

Gaming goes big in NCR

Academy of Animation and Gaming (AAG) which currently has a student base of 400+ students is situated at Noida and Gurgaon. AAG is a pioneer in the field of education related to animation and gaming, running courses like BSc.in Animation in collaboration with Toonskool, Karnataka thereby awarding a UGC recognized degree from Karnataka State Open University.Another Degree offered is BA (Hons.) in animation with the final year being conducted at University of Teesside, UK, our partner university; one of the ten best universities in the world in animation & gaming. Apart from these various courses like diploma in animation, course in game art and game programming and design is also being conducted by then .Details about the institute can be found on the website www.aag.edu.in.

With the objective of popularizing the activity animation and gaming amongst the Indian youth AAG is organizing a gaming competition, SPLITFIRE in their own premisesAcademy of Animation & Gaming (AAG), B-10, Sector 2, NOIDA, from 9th-11th Jan, 2009. The event would be inaugurated on 9th January, 2009 at 10.30 am by Mr.Sandeep Aurora, Director Sales & Marketing, North & East, INTEL. Guest of honour would be Mr. Manvendra Shukul, CEO, Lakshya Digital, the Institutes placement partner and India's biggest game art company.

Over 1400 students are expected to take part apart in the event. If you are interested in participating, you can refer to the company website or contact Mr Arindam Bhattacharyya at 9312600283

Sydney, Christchurch, Chittagong

The first international cricket matches of 2009 go live tomorrow morning. Six of the Test playing nations will be in action tomorrow, and the next five days promise a lot of excitement and change.

Traditionally the New Year Test in Sydney starts on the 2nd Jan. Traditionally Australia begin as favourites. Not so tomorrow - the test is starting a day late, and underdogs Australia will go into the match trying to avoid an embarrasing first-ever whitewash at home. South Africa will be raring to make it 3-0 and climb to the top of the ICC Test Ratings.

Normally Bangladesh fans would expect only so much from their test team. Normally Bangladesh fans wouldn't expect their team to fold for under 200 while chasing the mammoth targets set by the opposite team. Not so tomorrow - Ashraful's men may have lost the last test, but they have inspired hope. Forget the result - few teams score over 400 runs in the 4th innings; Bangladesh scored 413 in the fourth innings of the last test! The bar has been raised like never before - Sri Lanka can be expected to come at the home team harder than before, but Bangladesh look like they can do the impossible now. Actually, it doesn't look impossible any more - and that's what makes the Chittagong test important.

The 3rd game is a less interesting one-day affair between two teams which have been stuck in the middle of the international cricket peckings for over a decade now. But it's a match of cricket - can that ever be too dull?!

Australia vs South Africa | 2nd Test | Melbourne

Who could have ever predicted that at the end of the 3rd day's play at the MCG, it would be Australia that would be trailing! Fascinating Test Cricket again - even after the 1st Test of the series turned on its head in the final quarter of the match only last week, no one expected this. Yesterday evening, Rickey Ponting must have been a satisfied captain - a lead of over 200 runs, and 7 South African wickets back in the pavillion already. The match looked well and truly in the bag.

Day 2 in the Boxing Day Test began with the overnight batsmen Duminy and Harris beginning cautiously - the runs never came at a brisk pace, but the important thing was that the final three wickets didn't fall in hurry. Duminy was brilliant, playing with the last three - Harris gave him good company to settle the mood for the day, and then Steyn hung on - not without ample support from the Aussie fielders. When the final South African wicket fell, the scorecard read 459 - a healthy lead of 65 runs. Duminy was the last batsman to fall, not before compiling a brilliant 166.

While the match is still alive and evenly poised, South Africa have already dented the Aussie spirit like no other visiting team has in the past so many years. The visitors are already 1-0 up in the series, and the onus is completely on Australia to try and set up a win from here, and it is in that Aussie hurry to win that South Africa will see their chances of going up 2-0. Now when was the last time you saw that kind of a scenario against Australia, in Australia? So don't miss live action tomorrow and the day after.